Is this the worst transfer window since 2013?

[Van Piorsing]

Based on what we've seen so far I'd rank them thus:

1. Eriksen - makes our whole team tick
2. Martinez - exactly what we need at the back, he's got fire in his belly but he's not reckless like Rojo and Bailly. He is assured, calm, and brilliant at passing forward. Could end up being number 1 by the end of the season dependent on how consistent he and Eriksen are
3. Malacia - strong start although I'm worried like many of our fullback signings over recent years he's just not quite the level required, he gives 100% and clearly has some strong qualities but has shown himself prone to making silly mistakes. I remember quite clearly us all being excited over the likes of Darmian and Telles after a couple of games.
4. Casemiro - he will come good, but does he fit the system?
5. Antony - not been impressed at all so far, seems a bit of a show pony and bar his goal and a couple of nice passes not really offered much of an attacking threat, but as with Casemiro it's fairly early days.

I think by the end of the season Antony will have climbed to 3, and Malacia will drop - serving as a very strong back up to make Shaw perform better (which clearly he needs).

Eriksen & Martinez transformed us, no doubts about it, but If Antony will keep chipping with goals and provide that alternative from right to lack of vital striker, think he could even challenge these two in hierarchy at some point.

Casemiro tbh for me doesn't matter if he fit entirely the system. Splashing 50m for highest end DM should result in visible impact. No excuses for him. He comes back from internationals and Ten Hag will have full right to expect injection of midfield quality during matches vs City, Spurs or anyone for that matter. If he need more minutes on the pitch, then at some point we're going have to take the risk, with fixtures every 3 days.

Malacia is prone to mistakes just like Dalot, Martinez or even Varane for that matter. Thankfully he's no risk signing, great fee and character is way more dynamic than what Darmian ever shown. No bigger worries about him and tbh I'd expect more from Shaw to see if he finally got what it takes, or we should send him back to Soton.

Think Dubravka despite low key status is already doing his job by applying psychological pressure. If De Gea wants to be still considered real thing, he'll be forced to improve or be forced out of equation.

 

[croadyman]

I think it was a pretty good window and the most pressing issues were addressed. Replacing Telles and giving Shaw a real good competition. So good, he can't smell the pitch.
Bringing a left footed right winger, one of the most promising ones. Add on top of that the manager knows him pretty well.
Adding Martinez - a totally different breed of a CB that compliments Varane. We've gone from Barry and Victor to Varane and Martinez in the space of two summer windows. Our CB partnership looks miles better than it was.
And then adding two midfielders. Eriksen has transitioned into deep lying playmaker and we all can see he's quality. I suspect people could moan about our chase of FDJ and compare it to Moyes' chase of Kroos. The difference here is 3 weeks before the window closed we moved on, went after the alternative and had it wrapped up in a week time.

I'd assume ST, GK and RB are also areas ETH would like to address, but given the players we have currently in those positions (citing Ronaldo and De Gea), that was way down on the priority list. To add, Dalot is a player with a lot of potential, and AWB is also a young kid that could probably transform if coached the right way, although that remains to be seen.

I'm pretty happy with this window. Would've been happier had FDJ joined, but the lad (and his girl/wife) were quite clear they wanted to stay in Barcelona, so I think we got the best we could get.

Would definitely agree with ST & GK but third position for me is another playmaking CM to rotate with Eriksen.

All things considered it's been a decent window, no doubt Lisandro and Christian are the standouts. Yes we do need to see more from the other three but confident they will have their moments to shine too.

 

[colombianmancunian]

This certainly didn’t age well. Even though it went slow, this is the best window in years.

 

[croadyman]

This certainly didn’t age well. Even though it went slow, this is the best window in years.

Needed a number 9 to make it better

 

[Dion]

This certainly didn’t age well. Even though it went slow, this is the best window in years.

We've said that numerous times since SAF left and been disappointed every time. It's way too early to tell and we spent an insane amount on the players we actually managed to bring in, if they don't work out this window might well end up being our worst.

 

[NZT-One]

This certainly didn’t age well. Even though it went slow, this is the best window in years.

While I understand the notion of this, I don't think, it would be a good idea to state such things. The window showed we were unprepared for what has been one of the most important transfer windows in years. On top of that, we wasted time for no reason chasing a player through an absolute media circus only to then get rinsed massively for Antony while overpaying at least a little bit for Casemiro and Martinez. Granted, all aquisitions until today are looking promising. Lets hope the trend continues. But a transfer window isn't only "do the new players play well right now". The club needs to understand that the most.

 

[mu4c_20le]

This certainly didn’t age well. Even though it went slow, this is the best window in years.

Leaving it late in the window, and then desperately paying exactly what Ajax wanted?

 

[Chief123]

This certainly didn’t age well. Even though it went slow, this is the best window in years.

I’d argue it’s the best window we’ve had since Fergie left based on the output we are getting from the incomings. Of course it’s early and even the window we signed AWB, Maguire, James looked promising initially.

 

[Flying high]

I’d argue it’s the best window we’ve had since Fergie left based on the output we are getting from the incomings. Of course it’s early and even the window we signed AWB, Maguire, James looked promising initially.

That's probably fair, up to now. Having them all wrapped up at least 2 weeks earlier would have helped hugely though, while not making the board look like reactionary fools.

Also, we've spent(overpaid) such a huge amount that not only are we unlikely to strengthen in Jan, next summer will probably be quite lean too. Particularly because our sales have been so poor. This is potentially a problem because the holes in the squad are still quite obvious.

Which is exactly what we've been doing for the last 10 years. There's absolutely no point spending huge amounts on Casemiro, for example, if he's going to be 34 by the time we 'complete' the squad. Unless our target is top four forever.

 

[b82REZ]

That's probably fair, up to now. Having them all wrapped up at least 2 weeks earlier would have helped hugely though, while not making the board look like reactionary fools.

Also, we've spent(overpaid) such a huge amount that not only are we unlikely to strengthen in Jan, next summer will probably be quite lean too. Particularly because our sales have been so poor. This is potentially a problem because the holes in the squad are still quite obvious.

Which is exactly what we've been doing for the last 10 years. There's absolutely no point spending huge amounts on Casemiro, for example, if he's going to be 34 by the time we 'complete' the squad. Unless our target is top four forever.

Even if Casemiro ends up being replaced in 3-4 years but he helps us get to the top he's been a success, regardless of whether he is able to reap the benefits for longer.

This isn't going to be a quick fix. It will take us years to compete with City. We absolutely need shorter term signings to make that a reality. If we go the Arsenal route of only having youngster the chances of failure increase and then we have to deal with replacing our stars every few years as they get fed up not winning.

 

[Loon]

This is successful in significantly refreshing the team and hopefully all the buys work out in the long term. Still more to do, and hopefully with players who buy into ten Hag completely.

 

[colombianmancunian]

The negativity here is baffling. For some people everything is doom and gloom apparently.

According to the narrative here this window has been the worse ever, we are going to be relegated, DDG is league 2 quality while the rest of the team barely qualifies for league one, the Glazers are staying forever and we will never win a trophy again.

 

[Greck]

If one simply looks at names every window is a great one. A window we signed Ronaldo and Sancho was amazing on paper. The 2020 window would also be great, especially the way they all hit the ground running. Even Di Maria, Pogba would initially be classed as good if that's the criteria.

There's more to good business than "we signed someone talented". As an example Casemiro is a good signing on paper but the risk of signing veteran players in defensive midfield specifically is there to be questioned. It's not the same as the fine wine midfielder that controls games, they typically rely heavily on legs and mobility. That's typically among the worst positions to overlook age but the panic situation we inflicted on ourselves made it necessary to sign any upgrade in whatever form it was presented. Only time can fully gauge this risk but it could have been avoided altogether with foresight.

The overpayments as well could be felt in future windows but asides that it was just also unnecessary. We basically payed a poor foresight premium on the last couple final transfers, a very heavy one. We're back to throwing money to cover bad, poorly timed misreads by club execs. Club should flesh out the football department already.

 

[lysglimt]

All things considered..the 89/90 window was probably the best. Not just because of who we signed but because we blew everyone else away. Webb and Wallace was list due to injuries and illness...Phelan was solid and Ince and Pallister huge hits

 

[cyril C]

Haha... this thread shows the state of our club.

We cannot pick which window has been our worst out of 5 contenders.

2013: Fellaini
2015: Depay, Schneiderlin, Schweinsteiger, Darmian, Romero, Martial
2018: Fred, Dalot, Grant
2019: Maguire, Wan Bissaka, Dan James.
2022: Eriksen, Malacia, Martinez ( bear in mind this is after losing 8 first team players)

Obviously it is a contest between 2015 and 2019. The other windows are either too little money spent (although 100% failure), or too early to tell (on Malacia & Martinez, Antony)

 

[Escobar]

This certainly didn’t age well. Even though it went slow, this is the best window in years.

Not just in terms of the names we got, but especially in terms of performance. Those who joined early and started games have been fantastic, and there is no doubt that Antony and Casemiro will come excellent too

 

[UNITED ACADEMY]

Our best window post Fergie is still the Pogba/Zlatan one. The worst was the Fred/Dalot one, followed by Maguire/AWB.

Last one was mediocre.

Correct me if I am wrong but I can see that your judgment or view of the transfer window is based on ''reputation name''. Well, I think this last ones are based on signing players that suit the manager's style. Is signing players suit the manager's style is worse than signing players based on reputation but not suitable for the manager's style (like Pogba)? If I am wrong on what I see, can you please elaborate of how you view those transfer windows?

 

[mav_9me]

Not just in terms of the names we got, but especially in terms of performance. Those who joined early and started games have been fantastic, and there is no doubt that Antony and Casemiro will come excellent too

Oh there is plenty of doubt.

Has there ever been a window where all the clubs signings are a success, esp when the number is 5?

 

[Escobar]

Oh there is plenty of doubt.

Has there ever been a window where all the clubs signings are a success, esp when the number is 5?

What doubt exactly? Rather impatiance by certain fans, who already said that Martinez is crap after 2 games

 

[NZT-One]

What doubt exactly? Rather impatiance by certain fans, who already said that Martinez is crap after 2 games

Well the obvious ones I guess. Player not living up to their pricetags. Not adapting to the league. Transfers can get wrong for so many reasons.
You stating that there are no doubts that all of them will be excellent is a sign of either you being optimistic to a delusional degree, of you not being around as a fan or observer of football teams and transfers for a longer time or that you have pretty exclusive understanding of the words "no", "doubts" or "excellent".

Seriously, I am happy that there is positive belief in the fanbase. That is a good thing to have, but lets not call everybody negative who isn't as positive as this. I haven't seen doom and gloom around here for a while, it is people who are aware of a bigger picture, of chances the club missed, of decisions that where not very good ones.