Which Premier League team had the best transfer window?

[SadlerMUFC]

The reason our signings will be in our squad week in week out is because of the lack of depth, the reason why man city's will be rotated is because they dont have to worry about being weakened when they rotate, furthermore we lost two players, one which was a first team player in Herrera and the other the only guy that could guarantee us about 15 goals in a season with possibly maybe rashford as well, plus we are stuck with deadwood still.

Herrrara will be replaced by McTominay, who has a much higher ceiling. And City need a centre back. In fact, Maguire would have walked right into their starting 11 along side Laporte, but Pep pulled out because of the price. So yes, City added depth, but they didn't add where they needed to, and that was in replacing Kompany. But never mind all that....you are saying City had a better transfer window even though they just added depth while we added two players (maybe 3) who will be in our starting 11 week in and week out? Yeah, that makes sense...

 

[FootballHQ]

Spurs have really regenerated their midfield, well overdue considering their lack of activity in last 18 months.

Think West Ham have done well also...Fornals and Haller should be good signings.

Gives them a front 4 of....

Haller

Fornals Lanzini Felipe Anderson.

 

[FootballHQ]

Everton have done really well. Kean's going to be really big for them.

Not for me, think Gana will be a big miss in the DM role. Think they signed someone to replace him but he's not known to me. They didn't get Zouma back and released Jagielka so little depth at CB.

 

[FootballHQ]

Arsenal and Spurs have done well. Pepe and Tierney are fantastic signings. Getting Luiz in to replace Koscielny was pretty good business too.

If I was a Spurs fan I would have been worried right up until yesterday but fair play to them in pulling it out of the bag.

We are up there but missing out on a CB and our prime Winger target leaves a few question marks over our window. Getting Gomes back is great, Delph provides solid cover and experience, as does Lossl. Gbamin is a bit of an unknown quantity especially when he's going to be replacing our most consistent/best player in Gueye. Kean is our signing of the window by far and I'm very happy with that. Sidibe and Iwobi are both solid too albeit not top tier. Iwobi especially has so much talent and I'm hopeful that taking a step down will enable him to realise it.

Has everyone at Everton just given up on Walcott now? Remember a few thinking it was a good signing by Everton but seems he's just gone into semi retirement there and no one blinks now when he dosen't get an England call up, still only 30.

I really don't think Zaha was that essential for Everton, you have Richarlison who if he stops taking his mid season break could be a real standout player in this league, Bernard is inconsistant but pretty good on his day. With Kean in you'll also probably play Calvert Lewin wider in the front 3 which makes sense as he's a hardworker but dosen't have poacher instinct.

Remains to be seen how back 4 and midfield shape up. Need Mina to stay fit desperately otherwise not sure who you'd play there.

 

[RedPed]

Not for me, think Gana will be a big miss in the DM role. Think they signed someone to replace him but he's not known to me. They didn't get Zouma back and released Jagielka so little depth at CB.

They've got Iwobi as well now. Everton and Wolves will be the big disruptors in the league for sure.

 

[Che Guevara]

Not sure how anyone can put Arsenal up near the top in terms of this window. Lost Koscielny and replaced with Luiz? At best that's a wash, if not a minus. Now, maybe Emery can make the best use of Luiz, but he can be flakey. Meanwhile, Saliba is back out on loan, so it's not like he affects their current season. He's for the future, so uncertain whether he's a net gain or loss (probably gain, but who's to say). Ceballos is the opposite in that he is in for the season, but there is no option to buy, so that's at best a short term boost. They'll be back in the market next spring, still trying to replace Ramsey. Pepe & Tierney are good purchases, although a bit rich for Arsenal's 'budget'.

Among the Top 10 contenders, I would put Wolves, City, Everton, and Spurs in the top half. Would have put Spurs in bottom half until getting in Lo Celso & Sessegnon. Leicester is in the middle portion, especially after losing Maguire & not replacing him, but they had a very good window. United, Chelsea, & Arsenal are in the bottom half. Those 3 have seemingly lost ground in comparison to the rest. Doesn't mean they will finish lower, just that they don't seem to have made substantial gains on City/Pool and even Spurs.

You seem to prioritise quantity over quality. Across various boards the most popular view is that Arsenal had the best window and I agree with that. You say the signing of Celso and Sessegnon elevated Spurs into the top half. Are you aware that last season Chambers was the best player at Sessegnon's Fulham, and he is back at Arsenal together with Holding who was one of their best defenders until his injury? Koscielny had become an injury burden and error-prone at Arsenal and was a disaster in the Europa final, unable to contain Giroud. Luiz is definitely an improvement. No idea why you discount Ceballos, he is an Arsenal player this season regardless of the nature of his contract. You ironically say Everton had a better window than Arsenal, no doubt you include in that equation Iwobi, a player who had virtually no chance of starting at Arsenal this season. I would rate Arsenal's new strikeforce among the top 3 in the PL, and tactically that helps reduce pressure on their defence.

 

[Rista]

I will gladly take a front 3 of Rashford, James and Martial. Throw in Greenwood, Sanchez and Chong and we have some real quality there. BUt I get it...the grass is always greener elsewhere. But go on...keep trying to convince me how crap we are rather than standing behind and supporter our players...

James, Greenwood and Chong are completely unproven. Sanchez is proven to be way past it. A far cry from "real quality". Standing behind and supporting our players does not mean making them out to be better than they are.

 

[SadlerMUFC]

James, Greenwood and Chong are completely unproven. Sanchez is proven to be way past it. A far cry from "real quality". Standing behind and supporting our players does not mean making them out to be better than they are.

You can't win with kids right?

 

[Red Keane]

Good analytical approach to this. Much better than all the bs off the cuff!

Thanks for that!

Anyway (and apologies for the delays in posting this) here are my thoughts on the recent transfer activity of the other Top 6 Clubs that I have not yet covered (Arsenal + Chelsea):

4: Chelsea: With the Transfer Ban, the sale of Hazard and the fact that the club is being run by Roman Abramovich's mistress (Who is up there with Woodwood as among the worst corporate executives in football, mainly thanks to her repeated failures to build on their recent title wins, her utter incompentence when it comes to transfers and her refusal to force Hazard to sign another 5 year deal*). They where always going to have a terrible transfer window no matter what else they did.

Regardless under those circumstances, they haven't done too badlyotherwise with the club managing to keep Kovacic (Which was a necessity due to the fact they stupidly failed to properly replace Fabregas before the transfer ban took place) while the sale of David Luiz (Who has repeatingly shown that he is simply not suited to a Back 4 defensive system, the sort that Lampard clearly prefers to play) is no bad thing since Christensen/Zouma are currently no worse than he is and have the potential to improve from their current form, likewise it means that Tomori will likely get game time this season as well.

Regardless (and despite the introduction of Abraham, Mount, James & Tomori to the first team, as well as the return from loan of Bakayoko, Zouma, Kenedy & Batshuayi), it is clear that they have little choice but to treat this season as a transition season in which the only realistic targets they should be aiming for are CL Qualification and a Cup Trophy or Two.

Because it is clear to see that this side is nowhere near good enough to be in contention to winning the Premier League/Champions League. Not when (Since Lampard's prefers to play a 4-2-3-1) they need to sign another Goalkeeper (To compete with Kepa), 2 Full Backs (Because Alonso cannot play in a back 4, Zabbacosta is not good enough & Azpilicueta needs to be moved to CB), another Central Midfielder, 2 Wingers (To replace William & Pedro) and (Unless one or both of Batshuayi/Abraham have a breakout season this time round) a Striker to get to that position.

5: Arsenal: While it is clear that Arsenal have had a better than expected transfer window, it has been been yet another case of not doing enough to address the squad issues that they currently have. After all Pepe is clearly an upgrade on Danny Wellbeck (and ensures that Arsenal can successfully play with a Front 3 without resorting to put Aubameyang** out of position on the wing), Tierney*** (provided he can recover from his recent set of injuries) is definately an upgrade on Sead "Can't Defend" Kolašinac (Which also allows for Monreal to become a full-time CB and hopefully forces Kolašinac to fight for his place in reponse to this new competition at LB) and Ceballos certainly has the potential to full the big hole (in the squad) that Ramsey left behind and in turn hopefully force Xhaka to up his game as well.

The trouble is though, it still leaves the squad with far too many issues that both stop them from getting out of the sorry state they are in & create the possiblity of themselves getting kicked out of the Top 6 by the likes of Everton, Wolves & Leicester. I mean the retirement of Cech (despite his mixed career at Arsenal****), Arsenal are seriously lacking in goalkeepers that can properly compete with with Leno his spot on the team. In addition to this they still need another RB to provide proper competition for Bellerin (who performs best when having to fight for his place) since Xhaka's Granddad (AKA Stephan Lichtsteiner) and Carl Jenkinson (A guy whose car crash of a performance against Crystal Palace at home last season showed yet again how he is simply not good enough to play for the Arsenal) are now out of the picture while Maitland-Niles is clearly not a RB either.

Likewise the club stupidly sold Alex Iwobi when (despite his poor end product*****) there are a large number of worse players that needed to be forced out of the club by any legal means necessary, players such as Mustafi, Elneny, Mkhitaryan & Ozil. None of which are good enough to play for the club, are all a waste of wages that are better spent on players that are needed and are likely (unless they are all gone by the 1st of September) to take up valueable game time that the likes of Mavropanos, Nelson, Smith-Rowe, Willock & Saka all need to become (hopefully) better players than those lot.

Finally while they have signed both Saliba & Luiz, the area of CB is clearly the biggest problem for them even with these signings. I mean firstly as I said before while David Luiz can play in a Back 3/5, he simply cannot play in a Back 4 without looking like a terrible CB (because in reality he is more of a DM or even a Sweeper than a CB), although to be fair Arsenal these days need to play with a Back 3 anyway to have anything like a defensive performance. It does mean though that Emery (when playing Luiz at the very least) will have to stick with a Back 3 on a regular basis though and not go back to a Back 4 from time to time

Regardless the club did make a terrible mistake in also agreeing to loan back Saliba back to Saint-Étienne when he would have got plenty of gametime anyway since he would surely play ahead of the likes of Mustafi (Especially if they stuck with a Back 3 Defensive system on a regular basis, which would mean you could play a Monreal-Holding-Sokratis backline with a Saliba-Luiz-Chambers/Mavropanos backline as backup).

However, even if they are getting him next season, they still need to invest in addtional CB's since Monreal, Sokratis & Luiz are not getting any younger...

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*Which meant that Hazard ended up gettting undersold (in an age of £200 Million Neymars) for £100-120 million, not good when Abramovich clearCech ly is unable to provide the investment the team currently needs. Likewise question marks should be made about how much of a "Chelsea Legend" Hazard really is, because his refusal to sign such a deal (which would have bumped up the transfer fee that Real Madrid would need to pay to get their man and thus increasing the amount of money Lampard could spend on rebuilding/upgraded his squad once the ban ended) has undermined the club attempts to rebuild/upgrade the size in the Post-Hazard era.

**Still don't get why he left Dortmund to spend the remain good years of his career at Arsenal.

***Who we should have signed ourselves, likewise I was surprised that Liverpool failed to make a move for him either.

****Cech was stupid in wanting to move to the club in the first place (despite the fact he was no longer first choice at Chelsea) while Abramovich was even stupider in allowing them to leave in the first place. Which in the end, resulted in Cech's otherwise impressive reputation get tainted by having to deal with the end product of Arsenal's band of horrid defending (and the institutionalised lack of ambition at the club as well), Courtois developing a cocky mentality that allowed him to get away with a endless amount of stupid mistakes for both Chelsea & Real Madrid (As well as with the Belgium NT, who are not exactly in a position to drop him for Simon "Embarrassing" Mingolet) that helped contribute to Chelsea's terrible 2015-2016 & 2017-2018 seasons (as well as his ultimate departure from said club) and Kepa being allowed to maintain the biggest ego in world football.

*****The problem I have over Iwobi is not his lack of end product, but rather the fact that no matter how many times both Wenger & Emery forced him to play in that position, he is simply not a winger at all. Rather considering the skillset he does have, its clear to see that he is far more suited to the role of Central Midfield, hence why Emery should have played him in that position considering how much he was lacking in terms of CMs last season. Thus would hope that Marco Silva has more sense than Emery (and thus plays him at CM) since he already has the likes of Richarlison, Calvert-Lewin, Bernard & Walcott on the winger positions already...

 

[MackRobinson]

Spurs. My long shot to win the PL. Midfield depth was their largest weakness and they addressed it.