[Albion] How HAPPY are you with this transfer window?

[Wellesley]

10...why make yourself unhappy over something you can't control?

Strange question. I'm unhappy BECAUSE I can't control it. If I could control everything I wanted, I'd be very, very happy.

 

[GT49er]

Nice summary and interesting list. And yet there are still plenty on here in a state of perpetual bemusement and entitlement that we haven't landed a guaranteed 15+ goals a season striker.

You missed out the bit about being willing to slum it on a miserly £40 or £50K a week!

 

[Weststander]

Would have been great to get another striker in, but as we all know, decent Premier League-ready strikers are like hen's teeth, unless you have pockets much deeper than ours. If you look around the EPL, how many teams have brought in a striker? I had a look at the list for my own benefit mainly:

Man City - shipped out Aguero, not replaced
Man Utd - Ronaldo (so far out of our league it's not worth thinking about!)
Liverpool - no
Chelsea - Lukaku (just under £100m!!)
Leicester - Daka (very decent signing - but too good a player to come to us)
Spurs - No
West Ham - No
Arsenal - No (spent a fortune on midfield and defence)
Everton - No (not sure if Demarai Gray counts)
Villa - Ings (great signing, but wages way out of our league), plus Bailey
Leeds - no (unless you count Dan James - 6 goals in 50 appearances)
Wolves - Hwang (but only a loan)
Southampton - Armstrong (but lost Ings)
Burnley - No (but seem to have bought half a dozen defenders!)
Newcastle - Munoz (but only a loan - untried in EPL)
Watford - Dennis (looks promising, but no EPL experience)
Palace - No (but may get Edouard...who most on here think is crap!)
Brentford - No
Norwich - Sargent (no EPL experience...11 goals in 70 games in Bundesliga)

Genuinely, I usually look at the overall area of forwards, so including wide-men with pace and goals.

Newcastle - Willock
Everton - Gray, Townsend
Villa - Bailey
Leeds - James

This is relevant as teams often play a fluent front 3 or 4 when they have the ball. Look at Everton on Saturday.

 

[Justice]

As it stands a 4.

Managed to keep hold of Bissouma and got a good price for White who wasn't key.

Cucurella looks like he will add more balance and options.

However we have again failed to strengthen the area that most needed strengthening and now have less cover than before.

The failure to strengthen the area where its been needed for sometime could mean we pay the ultimate price.

Hmmm we sold a £50m very good player, an England international who was ever present last season and you think he wasn’t key I said Saturday Gray wouldn’t of had a sniff of BW was still with us he’s a bang average player. Remember we had White and Lamptey in the same squad and still struggled to win games.

 

[GT49er]

How many needed to?

How many didn't finish in the top 6 or 7?

 

[Barnham Seagull]

Hmmm we sold a £50m very good player, an England international who was ever present last season and you think he wasn’t key I said Saturday Gray wouldn’t of had a sniff of BW was still with us he’s a bang average player. Remember we had White and Lamptey in the same squad and still struggled to win games.

White is a very good player however selling him and signing a centre forward with some of the money would make sense and would more of an affect on where we finish this season. We also have lauded defenders coming through the system so selling White for a maxed out price was a good decision if we used some of the cash to reinforce the strike force with another forward of at least the calibre of Maupay if not better,

I'm still hoping we do.......

 

[GT49er]

Genuinely, I usually look at the overall area of forwards, so including wide-men with pace and goals.

Newcastle - Willock
Everton - Gray, Townsend
Villa - Bailey
Leeds - James

This is relevant as teams often play a fluent front 3 or 4 when they have the ball. Look at Everton on Saturday.

Which is perhaps what we're doing? Playing with 'attackers' and 'forward players' in a flexible front three, with attacking midfielders behind them, to score goals and keep our points tally ticking over.

 

[midnight_rendezvous]

7. I’m pleased with the acquisition of Cucurella as I believe fullback was just as much of a priority as a striker. However, I can’t pretend I’m not disappointed that we haven’t signed a first team ready striker after all the evidence of last season was that we needed a more clinical finisher. Having binned off Tau and letting Zeqiri, Sima Andone go out on loan, whilst not signing someone to come in and do a job right now, seems bizarre.

 

[Guinness Boy]

Genuinely, I usually look at the overall area of forwards, so including wide-men with pace and goals.

Newcastle - Willock
Everton - Gray, Townsend
Villa - Bailey
Leeds - James

This is relevant as teams often play a fluent front 3 or 4 when they have the ball. Look at Everton on Saturday.

Hmmm we sold a £50m very good player, an England international who was ever present last season and you think he wasn’t key I said Saturday Gray wouldn’t of had a sniff of BW was still with us he’s a bang average player. Remember we had White and Lamptey in the same squad and still struggled to win games.

Just shows what a game of opinions it is. I looked at Gray on Saturday and saw exactly what we need. Quick, direct and unafraid. No passing back inside for him, just driving on the break and setting our pace-free CBs back on their heels.

White may well have done a better job on him but would have been beasted by Calvert-Lewin just as he was by Toney. They would not have played the same way if we had White in the squad but it might not have turned out well. The player in our squad who could have stopped him without sacrificing our centre backs is small, young and has hamstrings made of glass.

EDIT - in fact look at their goals on Sat. Quick break and a dribble in the box to win a pen. Whereas last season at theirs we conceded four by them basically bypassing White in the air and scoring with headers.

 

[Albion Dan]

Assuming no ready to play striker is coming can’t be anything other than disappointed. Another season of relegation battling beckons and the prospect of Maupay or Wellbeck being absent for any length of time is very worrying in terms of how it leaves us up top.

I’ll give us a 4 because we got a left back but can’t lie it’s a disappointing window.

 

[Seagull1989]

5

Pros - kept Bissouma
- Cucurella was much needed on the left
- Mwepu will hopefully add quality in midfield
- got rid of a lot of deadwood


Cons - didn’t get a striker (yet)
- when we sold White I thought this money would be reinvested on a striker
- fewer striker options this year than last year with Zeqiri going out on loan

Overall I think our squad is weaker now than at the start of the window.

 

[One Teddy Maybank]

How many didn't finish in the top 6 or 7?

That’s not our goal though is it, top half will do (apparently).
Most of the teams above us have more strength up front to begin with. When we came to the PL we had an ageing forward in Murray who did fantastically well. Baldock who didn’t get much chance. Arguably Brentford have better depth than us and came up in a better state forward wise.

The forward signings we have made have not addressed the need, so most teams already have a start on us. Maupay has helped to a certain extent and hopefully Welbeck will stay fit and contribute.

 

[Solid at the back]

0. Striker hasn't come in, wish we would have taken a punt on that Celtic lad who signed for that lot up the road. Sometimes you've just got to take a gamble.

If I was Potter I would be writing my letter of resignation out and handing it in as soon as the window closes. He must feel really let down by the recruitment team again.

 

[GT49er]

That’s not our goal though is it, top half will do (apparently).
Most of the teams above us have more strength up front to begin with. When we came to the PL we had an ageing forward in Murray who did fantastically well. Baldock who didn’t get much chance. Arguably Brentford have better depth than us and came up in a better state forward wise.

The forward signings we have made have not addressed the need, so most teams already have a start on us. Maupay has helped to a certain extent and hopefully Welbeck will stay fit and contribute.

OK, I'll re-phrase my question. How many of them finished in the top ten?

 

[Guinness Boy]

0. Striker hasn't come in, wish we would have taken a punt on that Celtic lad who signed for that lot up the road. Sometimes you've just got to take a gamble.

If I was Potter I would be writing my letter of resignation out and handing it in as soon as the window closes. He must feel really let down by the recruitment team again.

TBF you don't know that he hasn't agreed with the management team that he's ok with the attacking options we have so long as we kept Biss and added a wingback. Budgets are all about choices and priorities and there is nothing any of us on here know about how ours were arrived at.

 

[Justice]

White is a very good player however selling him and signing a centre forward with some of the money would make sense and would more of an affect on where we finish this season. We also have lauded defenders coming through the system so selling White for a maxed out price was a good decision if we used some of the cash to reinforce the strike force with another forward of at least the calibre of Maupay if not better,

I'm still hoping we do.......

Your right in that respect no team sells a £50m player and fails to miss him if the fee is not reinvested into the squad. Those saying they are happy with the strikers seem to forget Lamptey beating his man pacing into the box making the pass only for this current crop of strikers to miss sitters game after game.

 

[um bongo molongo]

If you’d told me we’d sell White for £50m instead of Bissouma I’d have been ecstatic. But if you said we won’t sign a single forward then I’d have been angry. So somewhere in the middle all in all.

 

[Barnham Seagull]

Your right in that respect no team sells a £50m player and fails to miss him if the fee is not reinvested into the squad. Those saying they are happy with the strikers seem to forget Lamptey beating his man pacing into the box making the pass only for this current crop of strikers to miss sitters game after game.

100%

To go into the season with a weaker forward line than when starting when it was already an area of concern seems like pure folly,

 

[Justice]

Just shows what a game of opinions it is. I looked at Gray on Saturday and saw exactly what we need. Quick, direct and unafraid. No passing back inside for him, just driving on the break and setting our pace-free CBs back on their heels.

White may well have done a better job on him but would have been beasted by Calvert-Lewin just as he was by Toney. They would not have played the same way if we had White in the squad but it might not have turned out well. The player in our squad who could have stopped him without sacrificing our centre backs is small, young and has hamstrings made of glass.

EDIT - in fact look at their goals on Sat. Quick break and a dribble in the box to win a pen. Whereas last season at theirs we conceded four by them basically bypassing White in the air and scoring with headers.

Surely White would of played right back Saturday with no Lamptey available However we argue the defensive positions the strike force still remains not good enough. Last season was almost a free hit this season managers would of worked out how to play against us and we might just not be plucky Brighton created a load of chances and missed them all.

 

[Farehamseagull]

Sold White for mental money. Kept Bissouma. Signed a couple of very exciting looking first team players. Got rid of a load of dead wood and sent some youngsters on good loans.

Very happy.