Not based on price. But based on long term potential.
Rate our Summer 2022 Transfer Window so far (Out of 10)
- Thread starter MrSingh2002
- Start date
Spot on!!
Look next year in hindsight we will KNOW how this transfer window played out. For now it is best guess. So here are my guesses...
Malacia- 8/10: Young, hungry, and cheap, looks an incredible bargain.
Martinez- 7/10: Has to prove himself at this level and not the cheapest option. Still he is hungry and plays hard.
Eriksen- 9/10: On a free... this is sweet for him and us!
Casemiro- 8/10: Yes FDJ was first option but if I never had heard the name FDJ I would have been stoked to get this quality of player as a DCM. As a replacement for our first option think it was an amazing on the fly adjustment.
Antony- 7/10: Overpaid, but I could care less if he performs on the field.
Dubravka- 8/10: Solid back-up.
Overall, looking at 5 of these 6 being regular starters... 8/10.
Interested to revisit these and see if people have changed their minds somewhat in their assessment of the window.
Yes we were always going to be still short, especially given we’ve been hamstrung by Ronaldo and his wages with not being able to move him, but everyone we’ve signed this summer looks to be fitting in nicely and it’s clear is part of the new vision and philosophy.
Missed this masterpiece from the dear departed Yagamama
I’ve not changed my mind. For me it wasn’t about the players we brought in, it was about the fact that we were totally unprepared for the start of the season and were looking at cheap fixes until Brighton, Brentford, Radcliffe happened.
Had we scraped a win and a draw from the first two games we wouldn’t have signed Casimero or Antony. It was only after the roof fell in they panicked and spent.
Always the same, always reactionary.
on the players themselves I’d go :-
Martinez 9
Casimero 8
Antony 7
Eriksen 7
Malacia 7
I’m not sure how you can give the players signed an average rating of 7.6/10 but the window a rating of 2/10, a rating one away from being the worst it could possibly be. Seems, well, bizarre?
Granted I accept the comments about the Glazers and reaction but still. Doesn’t add up.
Thought it was a very good window at the time and it looks even better now. I had no idea Martinez would be this good. The disappointing aspect of the window for me was not selling AWB, DVB etc.
I was also disappointed we didn't bring in a right back but Dalot has come on leaps and bounds so not that much of a problem. Hopefully we can sign a striker in January, even a Cavani type loan signing would do till summer.
Summer then I'd like to see AWB, Maguire, DVB, Henderson all sold, perhaps even Elanga and use funds to bring in a striker. Ronaldo to go also obviously.
I was also disappointed we didn't bring in a right back but Dalot has come on leaps and bounds so not that much of a problem. Hopefully we can sign a striker in January, even a Cavani type loan signing would do till summer.
Summer then I'd like to see AWB, Maguire, DVB, Henderson all sold, perhaps even Elanga and use funds to bring in a striker. Ronaldo to go also obviously.
Hilarious
In retrospect the signings are all fantastic. Think we just needed to sell a couple more players and bring in a striker to make it a perfect transfer window
Because the window is a period of time and given where we were last season, bringing in a manager who develops specific systems then everybody knew the squad needed overhauling massively. We get to tour with only a young left back and start the season with only Martinez and eriksen added. That was going to be it until the roof fell in.
That is a 2/10 way to run a football club and the reason why we have frittered away over a billion with nothing to show because the glazers only really spend when they have to.
Anotony is not a 7 at 100m euros. Hes about 5/6
I am sticking with my first opinion. Very good summer. Shame that we didn't sold Ronaldo (and bought another striker) because he is huge internal problem and completely not fit for ETH's system.
Regarding signings i am not 100% happy only about Malacia. He was cheap and he is young but something about him is not clicking with me. Technique and pace is there but in attacking phase he doesn't exist
Still doesn’t really add up to be honest.
The OP @MrSingh2002 was specifically rating arrivals and departures whilst your issues seem to be with timing of the deals.
Still unsure how if you rate the signings at an average of 7.7/10 and rate the Glazers at 2/10 you still get an overall figure of 2/10 (ie one of the worst windows in the clubs history?)
Even with hindsight I'd still give it a 6 for Arrivals. All signings were good but we could've done more as I state in the first post. Had we got a starting Striker and De Jong then it would've been a 9 for Arrivals.
10 if we'd have also got a backup right back.
Hopefully the club are forced to spend again in January/Summer to get the players we still need in the squad.
10 if we'd have also got a backup right back.
Hopefully the club are forced to spend again in January/Summer to get the players we still need in the squad.
Not really. Malacia looks worse, Eriksen a little better (but very limited). Casemiro looks good, but then it's not this season that you're worried about the transfer, it's the back end when you've spent £100m already and you're paying a 33 year old £350k a week.
The outrageous overspend costing us investment in future windows (including a striker in the winter) is a massive negative.
I mean you’re totally speculating here and have zero idea if that’s the case given how deals are structured and paid over long periods. The proof will be in the pudding.
I also think you’re massively down playing Eriksen who I think has been quality, and whilst Malacia has dropped he’s given Shaw competition and elevated him back to a high level.
Why, did you have to pay it?
We still havent learnt any lessons in the transfer . Fecked up our preseason by not getting players early, because of the De Jong saga. We chased around weird targets like Rabiot and Arnautovic while all the targets were completely different profiles. We dithered, we let things run to the deadline, then panicked and overpaid. The Ronaldo saga, the inability to sell players, the Tom Keane involvement, it was all just completely amateurish once again.
The signing we got are all great players, and that's undeniable. But its worrying that ETH was driving the player identification, and not the DOF. Really hope we get in a proper DOF soon, idk whether that's VDS or whoever, because Murtough and co are incompetent, that much is clear.
The signing we got are all great players, and that's undeniable. But its worrying that ETH was driving the player identification, and not the DOF. Really hope we get in a proper DOF soon, idk whether that's VDS or whoever, because Murtough and co are incompetent, that much is clear.
Everyone is speculating, the entire point of the thread is speculation. It seems bizarre to quote my post in a thread inviting people to speculate after a time period where nothing could really have changed and then criticise me for speculating. The only thing in my post that isn't speculation is, ironically, Casemiro's wages and transfer fee.
Eriksen has had a few good games and a few terrible ones. He's a limited player who will help us in certain situations who we've given a too-long contract too.
And yes, Malacia's level has dropped , which is why I described him as worse. Potential starter to able backup is a clear drop off.
This would make sense if the club had unlimited money and over-paying on some transfers didn't have knock-on effects on future transfers. But, you know, we live firmly in reality and not fantasy land.
It's irrelevant though, is he a good fit and does he improve the team? Yes to both. That's what matters at this time.
It's not reasonable to give a rating out of 10 and factor the fee in until after the end of the players time at the club because of how subjective the fee is. If he's still an integral part of the team in 5/6 years then it's £85m well spent, or if we've sold him in 3 years for £150m then it's money well spent, whereas if he drops off a cliff and we sell him to Stockport for £25k in 5 years then it probably wasn't money well spent.
This is not true at all. He has only 2 years left next summer ffs. That's not long term.
And yet it's not all that matters. What if two 50m players would have been better? What if we'd spent £250m on him instead? Arguing price doesn't matter is ridiculous as clubs have budgets and how that budget is used is pretty much the defining element.
And yet we're in a thread where the entire purpose is speculating how well a transfer window worked out based on how we think the future will go. I totally understand if you don't want to get involved in that, but it seems weird to pull someone up for participating in a thread where that is the entire point.
That's a lot of effort to not say "3 year contract"
I said "too-long" for what it's worth, not 'long term', maybe misreading it is the reason for this confusion. A 3 year contract to a 30 year old with Eriksen's history is too long in my opinion.
Then we'd have spent considerably more on them than we did on Antony so who knows.
I'm well aware of the purpose of the thread but you seem to be missing the point. Antony was our final signing of the window (save for the Dubravka loan I guess), by that stage it was pretty clear that it was Antony or nobody, so signing him didn't impact on the signings that went before; it wasn't a case of "if we don't sign Antony we could sign two £40m players", that just wasn't part of the agenda. Might it have an impact on next summer's budget, possibly, but then again saving £900k a week from two players contracts ending probably won't hurt next summer either. But the reality is that we don't know at this stage, it's too early to make that judgement, so saying he's a 5 based on his fee is ridiculous at this moment in time - it's better to judge the player and his impact on the team.
The thread was asking to rate the window not to speculate the clubs future spending?
This is a relatively spurious point given Antony's total fee is going to be 100m euros and we'd only be spending "considerably more" if the two 50m euro players weren't also structured deals... which seems unlikely.
You've already identified why not affecting previous signings is meaningless when it's clearly going to impact future budgets. And obviously any player is judged on their ability relative to their fee, because again (and this really is the core point), clubs have finite budgets and how big a fee is determines how much of that budget is used up. Malacia seems like a decent signing for a backup leftback because he only cost £15m or whatever it was, if we'd just paid £85m for him then I doubt many people would consider it a good transfer. So unless you also want to go around criticising everyone calling Malacia a good value transfer, it's probably best to not have a go at people for pointing out Antony is likely not very good value for money.
It is too early to judge, which is why we have fun little threads where we speculate on the future like this without taking things too seriously.
The quality of a window is decreased if it has a detrimental effect on future windows.
You're changing the currency between pounds and euros to make the numbers bigger, how cute.
I'm glad you're having fun by the way, you should have been more clear about that initially because to be honest you just came across like somebody who has spent so much time playing FM that you're bored of it and are applying your concerns around financial management to the real world and trying to predict nearly 12 months into the future. If I'd known you were enjoying this attempt at negativity I'd have just left you to it.
He has a crystal ball.
So far 8/10.
Martinez looks class.
Casemiro looks class.
Antony looks class.
Malacia is an undeniable upgrade on Telles.
Eriksen on a free is unbelievable.
Would have been 10/10 if we’d shifted Ronaldo and brought in a striker.
It is still relatively early days and some of these guys could ‘flop’ still but the players ETH has requested have all added something which is really all we can ask so for. I can see a new GK and ST being the focus now.
Martinez looks class.
Casemiro looks class.
Antony looks class.
Malacia is an undeniable upgrade on Telles.
Eriksen on a free is unbelievable.
Would have been 10/10 if we’d shifted Ronaldo and brought in a striker.
It is still relatively early days and some of these guys could ‘flop’ still but the players ETH has requested have all added something which is really all we can ask so for. I can see a new GK and ST being the focus now.
I would go as below...
Outcome - 8.5/10
Process - 2/10
By that I mean I am happy that we appear to have made six good additions to the squad but I am not happy with the general level of planning. organisation and decision-making that led to us acquiring these players.
I'll give the club a pass this season, since it was a new SMT working together for the first-time. However, from next Summer onwards, I feel we need to be far more measured and strategic in our approach and also have our business done much sooner
Outcome - 8.5/10
Process - 2/10
By that I mean I am happy that we appear to have made six good additions to the squad but I am not happy with the general level of planning. organisation and decision-making that led to us acquiring these players.
I'll give the club a pass this season, since it was a new SMT working together for the first-time. However, from next Summer onwards, I feel we need to be far more measured and strategic in our approach and also have our business done much sooner
No actually, if you look at my post I deliberately didn't use a pound sign on the Antony fee (because I don't know how to do the euro sign on my keyboard), where as I did for the figure immediately after.
This is just a weird little totally unnecessary personal attack. If I was feeling petty I'd highlight how you come across as insecure and incapable of dealing with anyone speaking negatively about the club you support so go to any lengths of mental gymnastics, including denying reality. Wait... I guess I am kinda petty.
You responded to my post that was quite clearly in pounds. For future reference the Euro is ctrl+alt+4.
There's plenty to criticise about United and I'm more than happy to hear it. But you are defining "reality" as what you believe will happen in the future. That isn't "reality", it may become reality and it may not, as I mentioned earlier, but at this stage it is a prediction. If there is one of us doing mental gymnastics it is pretty clearly you, my friend.
Erm but you have no idea on what impact it may have?
I do, there's been multiple statements from our new CEO about how we're in for a quiet window as well as briefings from journalists of where the money for this windows spending came from and our finances are also public domain.
You may disagree with my interpretation of those events, but I'd point out that that is way more information than judging the success of a transfer based off 7-14 games. So if you object to that then the topic of this thread probably isn't for you at all.
Your interpretation of that is that I was, however, having the ability to know what I was thinking at the time of writing I'm going to have to respectfully disagree. Given that the initial comment you were replying to clearly stated his fee was 100m euros and that figure has been the only time in this thread I've not used the pound sign... well I'm confident in my case.
And thanks, although I'll almost certainly never remember that.
The denying reality was in reference to your refusal to accept that the cost of a player has an impact on how that transfer is viewed, my friend.
I understand how it is viewed, my point, consistent with my initial post this morning, is that it is not reasonable to judge the player against the transfer fee at this stage. It's a lot of money, but like I said, he could be an integral part of our team for many years, he could be sold for a massive profit, he could leave on a free or he could still be sat in the back with Phil Jones in 5 years. I prefer to look at fees at the end of a players time with the club, you don't and that is your right. So your main complaint with the fee appears to be that it will affect our spending ability next summer, that may be a valid concern and it may not be, but we won't know that until after next summer. So what is the point judging the player as though it will definitely have an impact of next summers spending? There are too many variables at play. It's not beyond the realms of possibility that it does impact on future spending but it still turns out to be a success if he has an exceptional season (and furthermore, time at the club), just as it's possible that it has no impact on future spending but we return to spending money poorly and don't see the best of him as a result. That is why it is my view that it is to early to make a judgement on anything other than the player at this stage.
I don’t object to anything however I feel you’re just making things up to suit your narrative. There’s absolutely nothing been mentioned about the next summer window or that EtH is going to be hamstrung by the club in the future. You should know better than to take these things as gospel as the majority are smoke and mirrors as evidenced by our spend this summer and the surprise signing of Casemiro.
It's not reasonable to judge a player at all at this stage. This isn't a thread for careful and thoughtful evaluation of judgement though. It's a thread which inherently involves a massive amount of speculation by concept. Either one of those still requires accounting of the financials of a deal, whether through speculation or evaluation.