Summer Transfer Window 2017/18 - Rumours & Signings

Robbo said:
... Bernardo Silva went for (who was generally considered the best Monaco prospect after Mbappe).
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Was he? I won't pretend to be a regular Ligue 1 viewer but Lemar scored more, assisted more, played less games and is younger.
Robbo said:
Numerous reports Lemar would rather join Liverpool. Is it worth them getting rid of Coutinho and getting Lemar in for £90m?
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Who wouldn't want to join Liverpool?

The more Lemar's fee creeps up the less worthwhile it becomes although if we are still interested and paid that sort of fee you can be sure that Coutinho is off.
 
No more incomings for Liverpool it seems. Michael Edwards needs to go on holiday now to make sure there's no temptation to cash in on Coutinho.
The_One said:
If arsenal get Lemar after Liverpool took bang average ox off our hands then that is nothing but LOLS at Liverpool and klopp :D
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You've pulled out of the Lemar deal because he wanted to join Liverpool :p
 
Why do SSN have Dominic Cork covering Stokes transfers?

Pigeon_Killer said:
Given our priorities before the window opened were a defensive midfielder and a defender I'll not be overly impressed if that's our lot.

Salah will no doubt improve us but we're not getting Keita until next summer and I wasn't a great fan of Ox at Arsenal so we've not really improved the squad a great deal imo.
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I know what you're saying but I don't agree with all of that.

From a first 11 point of view the one glaring weakness was at CB. I don't believe Klopp ever wanted a defensive midfielder - Keita wasn't being signed as that (although would have provided cover there), he will/would have played in one of the other 2 midfield roles had he arrived.

Our season didn't hit the rocks because of our defence (it was rubbish when we were playing well) or because of Henderson in the holding role. Our form fell off the cliff when our threadbare squad got stretched because of injuries to our front 6. Look at our front 6 from last season:

-----------Henderson
----Wijnaldum----Lallana
Mane------Firmino----Coutinho

The only cover for Wijnaldum and Lallana was Can, who was also the main cover/competition for Henderson in the holding role. Henderson missed a few months through injury leaving us with no cover at all for Lallana & Wijnaldum. We had no cover for either Mane or Coutinho so as soon as one of those were out of the side we had to move Firmino out wide (where he's not nearly as effective) and bring Origi/Sturridge in.

The lack of a CB arriving is obviously disappointing and as much as I understand why he hasn't, I wish Klopp was a bit more flexible - surely there was an available CB out there that at the very least would be an improvement on Klavan. Improving the depth of our midfield and attacking options was equally as important though, for me at least. Providing Coutinho stays, our options in our front 5 roles look so much better. Signing Salah doesn't just give us another option in our front 3 but he also indirectly gives us more options in midfield (if Salah plays wide then Coutinho can play deeper) and it's the same with Ox, he'll give us more cover in the Wij/Lallana roles but also can play wide if needed. I know Klopp drove supporters mental when he mentioned it but Milner no longer being our first choice LB* means he's now a midfield option again.

Ideally we'd have more cover in the holding midfield role but at least being well stocked in the other 2 roles means that worst case we've got Can and Henderson there rather than them also being needed in the advanced roles. It was interesting when he came on vs Hoffenheim that Milner played in the holding role and Henderson moved forward - I guess he's our third choice there.

*We were lucky last season that Milner and Clyne stayed fairly injury free because we were as short at fullback as anywhere on the pitch. With the emergence of TAA, Gomez being fit again and the signing of Robertson, we now actually look well stocked there.

It's not been the perfect window but it's not been terrible either. The 4 signings (+ Gomez & TAA) not only have improved the depth of our squad in the areas we were short last season but it's much more balanced now.
 
Mark1989 said:
Plus Gomez can play centre back if we get injuries so that's a positive.
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I didn't mention him there because all he's done is effectively replace Lucas as our 4th choice. CB is the one area we've failed to address - everything else, while not perfect, has improved.
 
Rotty said:
So we've managed

1 excellent player, 2 promising and 1 squad player, I suppose Keita coming next year rescues it but tbh we haven't done well as usual and a net spend of only 50m ish :(
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I try to keep my glass half full. We've kept everybody we want to keep (touch wood), added a quality winger and much needed depth to our squad. CB is the one area where we really should have done something though.

It will be interesting to see how the club spin the Keita transfer. They'll probably include it in this summers business to inflate our summer spend to around the £100m and then they'll include it again next summer to boost our perceived spend then too. On a side note, I wouldn't be surprised if we ended up getting Keita in January - if they're out of the CL and not in a title race, bung them £2-3m and take him in January.
chroniclard said:
Messing up the VVD transfer early doors didnt help.
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Do you believe it made any real difference? If Southampton were going to sell they'd have sold, if not to us then to Chelsea or whoever else.
 
Tinders said:
I think we've dropped a proverbial, we have had 2 weak spots for 2 seasons, and we havent done anything to stregthen the keeping or CB position, i guess Klopp is thinking Ward and Gomez will come good, but we masivvly lack authority through the spine for now, i would have liked a commanding keeper or CB at the very least.
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CB I agree but not the keeper. Mignolet has been very good for a long time now - people still judge him on 2 seasons ago.
Tinders said:
Ive blanked the hodgson era from my memory banks, to be fair we are an overly attacking team so that does expose any defensive frailties, i still feel with a enforcer in the mould of Masch, we would do a lot better in defence.
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There will be no Mascherano under Klopp. He wants a ball player sitting and then high energy, creative players ahead of them - it's the 2 more advanced players that do more defensive work than the sitting midfielder.
Robbo said:
Quite happy with how it's gone today (assuming no more developments), shame we didn't have a saga of our own. :( We did our business efficiently and early, which is generally the best way to go about it, even if it's boring. :p
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You didn't do your business though. Mourinho wanted a wide player and a LB but got neither. You've signed a CB that wouldn't even get into our back 4 and your 2nd choice DM and striker :p
 
Barkley's ****ed Everton over going by what Moshiri's saying on SSN. He changed his mind over the move and will reassess his future in January. Given that he's out injured for the next 3 months(?) and isn't likely to feature much before January, he's going to sit tight, Everton will be forced to accept an even smaller fee and he'll get paid even more himself.

Tinders said:
Am I right in thinking that coutinho could still go? I read that the Spanish window is still open till tomorrow.
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It's possible, yes.
 
So with all the extra TV money floating about and record amounts being spent by seemingly everybody, has any side ended the window completely satisfied with their work?
 
bloodline76 said:
City left seething at Arsenal over Sanchez lol

Poor little rich kids didn't get what they arrogantly demanded, almost worth losing £60m for.
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Tbf, I think Liverpool deserve an assist in this. Arsenal agreed to sell Sanchez believing they could sign Lemar but when Lemar realised Liverpool were in for him, he couldn't face the prospect of playing for Arsenal. The result was Lemar to Arsenal didn't happen and Sanchez to City was therefore off. Great sabotage by Liverpool.

Unconfirmed but I heard that Barkley pulled out of the Chelsea deal hoping Liverpool would come in for him in January. It's all part of FSG's game - use the lure of a hug from Klopp to stop your opposition signing players so that you don't need to either.
 
beachBOYken said:
Above in the transfer picture, Fazio, Walker , Wimmer, no idea how much game time they got but I would say spurs done very well strengthening this area.
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Surely only time will tell whether they've actually strengthened. It's not as if they've added players to this area, they're just replacing Walker and the cover they had at CB before.

The only obvious area of improvement made by Spurs is adding a bit more depth to their striking options. The rest of their signings have just been replacing squad players in positions where they were strong anyway. I can't understand why Spurs didn't try to add another goalscoring midfielder or wide player - that's the one area of their side which they're short and would take a lot of the goal burden of Ali & Kane.
 
Sargatanas2511 said:
Son and Eriksen take some of the burden off them already, hopefully when Lamela gets back he will play like he did before his injury too.
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Yea tbf Son stepped up last season, particularly when Kane was injured - whether he can do that again remains to be seen as he's only ever been a 1 in 3 player throughout his career. Eriksen got a few goals but no more than anybody that plays in his position - he's not somebody you pick out as a genuine goal threat at the start of a game. It wouldn't be so much of a problem if your CM's were scoring 10-15 goals between them. As it is, you're pretty threadbare in attack and still look overly reliant on Kane & Ali to score the goals for you.
 
Robbo said:
Our net spend has been £78m if you factor in players sold in January (none were bought).

Arsenal should have sorted out Lemar sooner, Sanchez might not be helping much this season, he apparently creates dressing room problems and now they've lost out on £60-70m. Difficult situation, admittedly...
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Shamikebab said:
Did Sanchez hand in a transfer request? City only made a bid on Tuesday. Only really has himself to blame for not sorting it out earlier in the window.
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It was known all summer that he wanted to leave but Arsenal, rightly so imo, didn't want to sell him to City and/or were holding out for a huge fee. The problem with all these transfers are they become a game of brinkmanship and City were hoping that the longer it dragged on the more likely it would be that Arsenal would cave and negotiate with them and/or lower their asking price.

It's easy to say it should have been done sooner but it's never that straight forward when you've not got 2 willing parties. With Arsenal not wanting (or desperately needing) to sell him to City and City not being willing to pay an extortionate fee it was always going to drag on. I made a tongue in cheek comment last night but it appears Liverpool's interest in Lemar scuppered any chance of the deal happening* - he reportedly rejected Arsenal, wanting to join us and a result of that was Arsenal then wouldn't sell Sanchez.

*Arsenal's bid for Lemar also scuppered our chances of signing him too. Seemingly we weren't going to go nearly as high as they bid so as soon as they made that offer Monaco were never going to consider our bid.

Sargatanas2511 said:
I understand what you mean and it would be helpful but the Spurs midfield in my opinion is more about increasing attacking chances rather than attacking options. Dembele, Dier and Wanyama do a great job at holding and creating the chance for the wingers, Alli and Kane to go and stay further forward. Hopefully like I say though, Spurs will benefit from Lamela coming back in that way.
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I know what you're saying. Benitez used to get hammered for playing Alonso and Mascherano in midfield but they were as important to our attacking play as they were to our defence. Having that base there allowed us to keep possession and pin teams back - every time the ball was cleared they were there picking it up and starting attacks again but it does leave a huge goal burden on the front 4. Just like Spurs we were always just lacking in terms of goalscorers and how successful we were in any given season was often dependent on how many goals the likes of Kuyt and Benayoun scored rather than anything else.

Ironically the one season we performed at our best (when Benayoun and Kuyt both scored decent amounts), Benitez started that summer with plans of moving Gerrard back into central midfield so that we could bring in another forward (Keane) into the side.
 
Sargatanas2511 said:
It works very very well for Spurs, the problem is when someone up front gets injured (Kane) and his backup is underperforming. Llorente may cover that for the next year or two, let's hope!
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It works as long as Kane & Ali are fit and firing, if and when they aren't then you need goals from elsewhere in the team. Son might score a few but beyond that Spurs don't have much of a goal threat both in the rest of their 11 or to come off the bench. Going into a season relying on 2 players staying fit and scoring 40+ goals isn't really sustainable.

Had Spurs added somebody like a Mane or Pedro to their squad, it suddenly looks a lot stronger.
 
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