Is it still possible to have an excellent transfer window?

Looks like FDJ ane Malacia are over the line (fingers crossed). I watched the EL final and thought he was quite good - did not know we were interested at that stage.

FB is one of the most important positions on the pitch in the modern game. I think a RB and another CM would be a good window. We probably need another attacker, but I'd rather go into this season having sorted out the real problem areas.

I don't think we'll have issues scoring goals with Bruno, Ronaldo, Sancho, Rashford if ETH can sort out the rest of the team and get us playing some good stuff. Martial probably stays in case of any injuries and then you have Diallo and Elanga as wildcards maybe in the Europa League.

I don't really like the look of that attack on paper, but I'd like it a lot more with some quality in key creative positions (central midfield and full back), instead of breaking the bank on someone like Antony - I like him, but I think the core of the squad needs much more work.

So in short, I think the window could be a successful one, if we sign a RB and another CM, offload some deadwood in defence and let's see what happens with the attack in case of any departures.

Having only Ronaldo as a striker is much more of a problem than getting in a winger, but I really don't see anyone on the market this summer that wouldn't break the bank. Bruno as false 9, a la Tadic? Eriksen on a free to occupy the no. 10 in those games? Just guessing here, time will tell I suppose.
 
bosnian_red said:
I can see our window being:
  • Frenkie de Jong
  • Eriksen
  • Malacia
  • Dumfries
  • Antony
  • Backup GK
Sell AWB and Telles, loan out some others. Would be a great window IMO.
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That's very much possible now, it seems.
 
Love the overconfidence that De Jong will suddenly transform our team. He needs to adapt to the Premier League pace. He if does end up being the engine for the team he will end up being targeted just like Pogba was. After all partnering him with one of McFred I know which player I would be concerned about.

The OP is correct. We need at least another starting CM or DM. With rotation or injury we will regular see McFred in CM again, and those two are the biggest weakness in the first 11.
 
bosnian_red said:
I can see our window being:
  • Frenkie de Jong
  • Eriksen
  • Malacia
  • Dumfries
  • Antony
  • Backup GK
Sell AWB and Telles, loan out some others. Would be a great window IMO.
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this seems quite plausible to me. It’s clear we want a right back, whether that’s Dumfries or Timber. I think we can sell AWB for £20m so neither of those should cost more than an additional £20m. Malacia looks done and we should be able to get £8-10m for Telles. FDJ looks like being £56m guaranteed and Eriksen is free, so that’s a net outlay of about £80m. That leaves us to be able to have some clout to test Ajax’s resolve for Antony, which I unfortunately see being a bit of a saga with them not wanting to sell but him seemingly willing to push for a move.
 
It depends what you mean. If you mean “solve all our problems in this window” and win the league next season - probably not - we don’t have unlimited funds like a Man City and we physically wouldn’t have the time to do so anyway, we just have too many issues. But, we can have a solid window where we significantly improve the team / squad and give Ten Hag something to work with next season. Then, in January perhaps one or two more tweaks, and then next summer we build again. This is at least a three window project before we even start getting competitive at the top again.
 
Yes, if the team hasn't finished its business by the first week of June, then they are fecked. We needed to sign Haaland, Mbappe (starters in attack), De Jong and KDB (starters in midfield), and De Light and VVD (starters in defence). This would also ensure our rivals are weakened in the process. But alas, even this wouldn't be a good window, we forgot the GK!

I would also say that having a good window ourselves is only one part of it. The second part (and arguably more important) is to sabotage the transfers of our rivals and spread misinformation to weaken team morale. Psychological warfare is key to winning transfer windows.
 
I agree with the general sentiment of the OP, on the face of it. But I think Eriksen would start a lot of games, sometimes with Bruno, sometimes instead of him. And the other two should be able to compete properly for first eleven. IF we got those four players it would be a 7/10 window.
 
Pessimists (including myself) are about to be proven wrong. I think after De Jong and Malacia, we'll secure deals for Eriksen and Antony. If there are any other purchases to strengthen RB and CB, it will be dependent on the sales of Bailly and AWB. A transfer of window of De Jong, Malacia, Eriksen and Antony is a very good start to the rebuild imo.
 
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Once the team has a structure players like DVB, Fred and McTominay will all thrive. They will be like new signings.

They were all covering for the likes of Rashford, Martial, Ronaldo, Sancho and Bruno. Sancho has thrived in a system like ETH's before. It's whether Rashford, Bruno, Martial and Ronaldo can adapt to not playing off the cuff so much. That's the bigger question.

However as someone has already said, the most important signing has been made in ETH.
 
Would feel great about this:

Malacia
De Jong
Lisandro
Gnarbry
Dumphries

Sancho Ronaldo Gnarbry
Bruno
De Jong Lisandro
Malacia Varane Maguire Dumphries

This lineup could operate as 4-3-3 or 4-2-3-1 or 3-4-3

Bench/squad
Fred, Rashford, Shaw, Lindelof, Martial, Dalot, vd Beek, McTominay, Elanga, Garner, Garnacho, Bailly/Jones
 
De Jong, Antony, Eriksen, Malacia and right full back would be fantastic transfer window. And i think that we will get 4 for sure. Only with right back i am in doubt.
 
Your confidence that if we bought those 4 players only one is a starter is gubbins.

De Jong obvious starter. McFred will only be seen for games we think we dont need him in. Ideally we would have another CM, but de Jong/Fred should be ok in an ETH team.

Malacia if brought in will play, I reckon at least 40% of games maybe more. Shaw has hardly been at his best.

Timber could easily shift Lindelof or Maguire, not exactly prime Ferdinand are they.

Sancho, Rashford and Antony will fight for two spots between them, with sancho able to shift between left and right, knowing he is better on the left.

Eriksen in my opinion will make a trio between Ronaldo and Bruno, Eriksen can either play in the AM role for Bruno, or he can play as a false 9 like Berghuis did for Ajax. That gives us the opportunity to rest some players in there.
 
Still plenty of time to get deals done and i'm sure they will all happen. So many of here getting annoyed that no signings were made before returning to pre-season training but they were never going to be. I'm sure ETH would know who he wants but no way he would've rocked up to first day of pre-season with the message 'you lot aren't good enough so I've brought in these new guys to take your place'. He'll be watching all in training and then move quickly on targets to bring in.

The De Jong deal looks like an absolute steal considering Madrid just paid 100m for Tchouameni and with Malacia, Eriksen and maybe 2 more players we'll definitely challenge for top 4 which is the minimum requirement for this season. Expect the likes of Rashford, Bruno, Maguire (maybe even Martial) to improve massively on last season under a proper coach.
 
DickDastardly said:
Seriously?

For one, De Jong will make us so much better it'actually like 3 signings in one.
He will make Fred look better, he will make Bruno calmer and allow him more space.

Second, if we get Timber he could play as a RB or a CB, both places currently occupied by AWB, Dalot, and Maguire - who suck, to say the least.

Third, Eriksen is free. Just pay the man and if he plays, and he will play at least 30 minutes per game - or even more - that's a fecking jackpot.
Antony, fine, take him.

It's called having a team with proper COMPETITION!

Something we haven't seen since what, Ronaldo - Rooney - Tevez?

You realise we used to have 4 strikers competing for 2 spots and all 4 being fecking great players?

If the 4 targets are met, it's gonna be a brilliant transfer window!
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Plenty of sensible points here, but to taper your excitement, if Ronaldo is injured or needs to be subbed or rested we have Martial, Rashford or taking a chance on a youngster. This is a massive risk and concern. Cavani was an elite cover who may have had a bad season just gone, but could turn a game around.

De Jong will provide massive synergy benefits to the team where almost everyone gets better because of him. We will have a proper engine in our car! This may allow Bruno to shine again and rack back up the goals, which should cover any Pogba loss, but it might not.

Whilst I'm certain Pogba overall was a drain rather than a gain, he was capable of match winning assists and goals or even creating key moments. They weren't regular, but those moments will need to be replaced by someone.

If De Jong gives balls to Rashford more often and the output is still shit then we could be worse off overall and I don't think we have lots of strength in depth on the wings even if Antony comes in. Will Pellistri or Amad even be here to get chances or farmed out on loan again?

Then let's not forget Matic who provided us with genuine quality in the DM position at times in the season. We are currently worse off there and could be exposed. Whilst De Jong might help keep the ball in the right areas of the pitch, we will still be challenged against Liverpool and City and need players capable of nullifying their midfield play.

If we played Eriksen, De Jong and a destroyer midfielder I think we could boss any team, but unless that more defensive minded player comes in or a super quick defender, so we can push the whole defensive line, we will struggle.
 
Why does everyone mention Dumfries? As far as i know there hasn't been one credible link to him. I've admittedly not seen much of him, but from what i have seen he doesn't seem like a huge upgrade
 
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Yeah, I'm pretty sure it's possible.
 
cranston88 said:
Why does everyone mention Dumfries? As far as i know there hasn't been one credible link to him. I've admittedly not seen much of him, but from what i have seen he doesn't seem like a huge upgrade
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I'd say he's a pretty big upgrade, but as you said, I don't see it happening.
 
A month or so ago I was hopeful, wishful, of a window consisting of Torres, Timber, De Jong and Nunez. As it turns out, it looks like we may sign only one of those players. We could have a window of Malacia, Martinez, De Jong and Eriksen. At a push, maybe even Antony too. It wouldn't be quite what I hoped for, but it would still be very respectable all the same.
 
Remember the geese said:
A month or so ago I was hopeful, wishful, of a window consisting of Torres, Timber, De Jong and Nunez. As it turns out, it looks like we may sign only one of those players. We could have a window of Malacia, Martinez, De Jong and Eriksen. At a push, maybe even Antony too. It wouldn't be quite what I hoped for, but it would still be very respectable all the same.
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We couldn't afford Nunez and De Jong
 
I will find it excellent if we get CM, RB, RW and I am not greedy.
I consider Malacia only as a bonus.
Those are the weakest areas we absolutely need to strength.
De jong, Malacia and lisandro or/and Antony are simply not near enough - it will be suicide to start the season with AWB and Dalot, who I find to be the poorest rb in the league considering defence.
 
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We're on the cusp of getting our managers main target for this window and also a managers longer term target - for a great price I might add, all before July has even started. This window could have hardly gone any better so far.

I'm so surprised the recent events haven't given even the negative Nancies reasons to be far more optimistic in how we operate.

You can never guarentee a signing will have the desired affect, but if we can operate much more efficiently in transfer windows now, that's just fantastic news for windows in the future and for us as a club.
 
UnitedFire said:
Plenty of sensible points here, but to taper your excitement, if Ronaldo is injured or needs to be subbed or rested we have Martial, Rashford or taking a chance on a youngster. This is a massive risk and concern. Cavani was an elite cover who may have had a bad season just gone, but could turn a game around.

De Jong will provide massive synergy benefits to the team where almost everyone gets better because of him. We will have a proper engine in our car! This may allow Bruno to shine again and rack back up the goals, which should cover any Pogba loss, but it might not.

Whilst I'm certain Pogba overall was a drain rather than a gain, he was capable of match winning assists and goals or even creating key moments. They weren't regular, but those moments will need to be replaced by someone.

If De Jong gives balls to Rashford more often and the output is still shit then we could be worse off overall and I don't think we have lots of strength in depth on the wings even if Antony comes in. Will Pellistri or Amad even be here to get chances or farmed out on loan again?

Then let's not forget Matic who provided us with genuine quality in the DM position at times in the season. We are currently worse off there and could be exposed. Whilst De Jong might help keep the ball in the right areas of the pitch, we will still be challenged against Liverpool and City and need players capable of nullifying their midfield play.

If we played Eriksen, De Jong and a destroyer midfielder I think we could boss any team, but unless that more defensive minded player comes in or a super quick defender, so we can push the whole defensive line, we will struggle.
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Yeah I worry about us not having that destroyer midfield in there, particularly in the games against City/scousers/Chelsea/Spurs etc
 
I accept the transfer window is still open. However, even if we sign FDJ it has been another utter shambles of a summer transfer circus.

We knew last season we were losing a lot of first team squad players. We knew we had a lot of deadwood in the squad. It was accepted that we needed an absolute minimum of 6/7 players.

After our worst season and huge exodus, for us to have our new manager with whom we have long term hopes having a starting lineup with 9 out of 11 players that were in our team last year is a joke. We’ve started the season off with a worse squad than the one that achieved our worst ever season.

The statement “the window is still open” is unacceptable because it should be focused on the season start and not the window. No one can accept it’s a good plan to essentially sabotage your first few games of the season because you are planning on chasing signings in the last 2 weeks of the window.

Rant over.
 
Chief123 said:
I accept the transfer window is still open. However, even if we sign FDJ it has been another utter shambles of a summer transfer circus.

We knew last season we were losing a lot of first team squad players. We knew we had a lot of deadwood in the squad. It was accepted that we needed an absolute minimum of 6/7 players.

After our worst season and huge exodus, for us to have our new manager with whom we have long term hopes having a starting lineup with 9 out of 11 players that were in our team last year is a joke. We’ve started the season off with a worse squad than the one that achieved our worst ever season.

The statement “the window is still open” is unacceptable because it should be focused on the season start and not the window. No one can accept it’s a good plan to essentially sabotage your first few games of the season because you are planning on chasing signings in the last 2 weeks of the window.

Rant over.
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Once we add rabiot, tielemans and arnautovic can sign it off as below average
 
Chief123 said:
I accept the transfer window is still open. However, even if we sign FDJ it has been another utter shambles of a summer transfer circus.

We knew last season we were losing a lot of first team squad players. We knew we had a lot of deadwood in the squad. It was accepted that we needed an absolute minimum of 6/7 players.

After our worst season and huge exodus, for us to have our new manager with whom we have long term hopes having a starting lineup with 9 out of 11 players that were in our team last year is a joke. We’ve started the season off with a worse squad than the one that achieved our worst ever season.

The statement “the window is still open” is unacceptable because it should be focused on the season start and not the window. No one can accept it’s a good plan to essentially sabotage your first few games of the season because you are planning on chasing signings in the last 2 weeks of the window.

Rant over.
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You're right, it's been disgraceful really. We should have ditched the FDJ train at the end of July and moved on, or before that even. The crucial thing was to not start the season with Fred and McTominay in midfield.

It's absolutely mind boggling to
me, honestly. Even FDJ wasn't enough, and here we are in 2022 starting McTominay and Fred for the league opener and getting beat by Brighton at home. It's unacceptable and unforgivable really.

What is the point in hiring ETH if this is what we give him? This transfer window has finally confirmed that we completely lack ambition, direction and authority as a football club. And I fully believe that ETH is a top quality coach that is CL proved with Ajax, so to bring him here and not back him, and allow our recruitment to be so poor we start the season with those two in midfield is so negligent.
 
Buying Arnautovic and Rabiot will definitely make it look like another poor window. One where we have been slow to act, targeted players who were not interested, been burdened with a miserly budget and inevitably, ended up panic buying players we'll be stuck with... Again.
 
No, it can never be excellent. Excellent would have been getting all the players we wanted before preseason started, it can be good though, with FDJ, another midfielder, and a versatile attacker on top of keeping Ronaldo (if he actually trys), if Ronaldo leaves, then we would need another CF to replace him.
 
It could still be good, very good perhaps with the right players, but the game has been well and truly given away now as to how much this club has changed since the departure of Ed. We're seeing how it operates still :(
 
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