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January Window 17/18

I thought a while back we should get Charlie Austin, not too expensive and can score a variety of goals.

Now even he is on the treatment table.

 
I don't understand our transfer policy at all. We have a lit bit thin squad (at least number wise) to start with. And yet we let our players (Kenedy, Musonda, Bats?) to go before we have replacements for them. Then we end up in panic moves in the last minutes of the window. This same thing happened in the summer as well.

 
So Barkley, Palmieri and one of Giroud, Llorente or striker X. I think our club is aiming to improve.

 
Whilst we’re signing Arsenal’s cast offs and players returning from long term injuries City sign one of the best defensive prospects in Europe and now are bidding £60m for Mahrez.

 I mean, talk about a contrast in ambitions.

 
I agree Tom. As I've said in other parts Marina appears to be a ruthless negotiator determined to make sure we get value. Which works in some situations and not in others (your boy Sandro an example of that). 

We have in my view (if Giroud and Palmieri sign) upgraded the squad at the very least in terms of senior numbers. That said all three players have recent injury issues so there is risk in our approach as well.

Not saying I wouldn't swap our approach to this window for City's in a heartbeat but I'm happy with our business. It sets us up well for the second half of the season.

Nonetheless we will need to show some quite serious ambition in the summer to ensure we can give Hazard and Courtois a path towards winning the Champions League. We need top class 20-25 replacements for Fabregas, Luiz and Pedro. All of whom I imagine won't have their contracts extended.

 
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TomCFC85 said:
So Palmieri, Barkley and Giroud for £55m
Good bit of business I suppose in and overly inflated market.
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But it’s what, eight new players we’ve signed this season?

Would you with any confidence that any of them have improved the team in their respective positions?

Personally, I don’t think so. 

 
ForeverCarefree said:
But it’s what, eight new players we’ve signed this season?

Would you with any confidence that any of them have improved the team in their respective positions?

Personally, I don’t think so. 
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I agree. I think CB is the only position we have improved in personally. I think Ruidger has been good and Christensen returning has been even better. I don't think we are any better at RWB, Moses has regressed and Zappacosta isn't good enough in my opinion. CM is somehow worse, Bakayoko has improved of late but overall has been very poor and Drinkwater is a nothing player really, i'm not seeing anything from them that was better than Matic and even Chalobah when he got the chance. Pedro has regressed and the majority of us were saying we could do with an upgrade to take the pressure off Hazard before the season even started (we didn't even bother with that though) The strikers haven't improved either. Morata has been hit and miss and Batshuayi is pretty much in the same position as last season.

Pretty much all of the signings we have made have either been players i didn't want us to sign or players i was unsure about.

 
TomCFC85 said:
So Palmieri, Barkley and Giroud for £55m
Good bit of business I suppose in and overly inflated market.
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I agree with that. Palmieri is the one who could potentially be a star and r]the other two give us strength in depth in two key areas. The criticism is that none of them are likely to be regular starters, but for a January window you couldn’t ask for much more. 

I’d like us to sign another attacking world beater, a clear upgrade on Willian or Pedro such as Mahrez but on balance we have strengthened the the squad at low risk and low cost. 

In our team not even sure that Sanchez would be a better choice than Giroud 

 
In addition musonda and bats and Kennedy get good opportunities. Has chalobah been sitting the world on fire? Most of the other names we’ve let go haven’t really emerged as starters at top sides. RLC might and Traore doing ok last time I looked, but only ok. 

 
ForeverCarefree said:
But it’s what, eight new players we’ve signed this season?

Would you with any confidence that any of them have improved the team in their respective positions?

Personally, I don’t think so. 
Click to expand...
It's not easy to sign players that directly improve the team when you're one of the best 8/9 sides in Europe.

With Christensesn returning and Rudiger coming in we have improved in 2 of the 3 defence positions.

We have a better backup keeper than we did last season.

We now have a better backup striker than we've had for at least a couple of seasons.

We've signed two PL proven HG players.

We've added a second option at both RWB and LWB that the squad was lacking.

And if you take out Caballero and Giroud, who were both signed for specific relatively short term purposes, the ages of the other 6 signings are 24, 22, 27, 24, 25, 23, 24 so maybe just maybe they deserve a little patience from fans to adjust, learn and develop both as footballers and humans when most of them are moving to a different culture and lifestyle as young men.

 
startedwithglenn said:
It's not easy to sign players that directly improve the team when you're one of the best 8/9 sides in Europe.

With Christensesn returning and Rudiger coming in we have improved in 2 of the 3 defence positions.

We have a better backup keeper than we did last season.

We now have a better backup striker than we've had for at least a couple of seasons.

We've signed two PL proven HG players.

We've added a second option at both RWB and LWB that the squad was lacking.

And if you take out Caballero and Giroud, who were both signed for specific relatively short term purposes, the ages of the other 6 signings are 24, 22, 27, 24, 25, 23, 24 so maybe just maybe they deserve a little patience from fans to adjust, learn and develop both as footballers and humans when most of them are moving to a different culture and lifestyle as young men.
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there are certain position in the side that can certainly be upgraded on.

Moses and Bakayoko are two while Willian and Pedro are getting on so you would expect to be looking to upgrade on that area. None of those mentioned are world class or would get into the very top sides in Europe so we as a big club should be looking to make our starting 11 the best we possibly can.

I don't think it's outlandish to expect some signings to improve on those position given the money we bring in every season.

 
Can't moan at this window, key positions strengthened and with good players, me personally I couldn't give a toss about good value when it comes to the crunch, I'm not protective over Romans money, I want the best players at the club, nevertheless for what it's worth it's been good value.

If everyone is fit and in form we have a good team, not a great team but a very capable team and a bit quality in our depth, now just to get this 3-5-2 away to f**k and back to full power. 

 
Chelsbear said:
there are certain position in the side that can certainly be upgraded on.

Moses and Bakayoko are two while Willian and Pedro are getting on so you would expect to be looking to upgrade on that area. None of those mentioned are world class or would get into the very top sides in Europe so we as a big club should be looking to make our starting 11 the best we possibly can.

I don't think it's outlandish to expect some signings to improve on those position given the money we bring in every season.
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I agree with you mostly.

I was sceptical of the Bakayoko signing from the off but even I would say he deserves longer than 5 months to bed in especially having arrived with an injury.

Moses I agree with you on. I would say Zappacosta has been the poorest signing of either this window or last from us. But I would say the names don't instantly fly into the head when trying to think of obvious upgrades for Moses.

And while I don't allow myself to get overly caught up in transfer wishes or get in a tizz because "we simply have to buy x, y, or z" I have been vocal about Mahrez for the last few windows as he would be a clear and attainable upgrade to both Pedro and Willian.

 
Let's not forget that Morata played arguably his best football of his career so far at Juventus where he played a lot from the right.

Now with his struggles in front of goal as the main threat so far, we might be able to kill two birds with one stone and go with a 343 with the frontline of

Hazard----Giroud-----Morata

Giroud is excellent at link-up play so having two good footballers either side of him could work beautifully and it will also take some of the pressure off of Morata and allow him to play more freely from the right where the expectation for goals is slightly less.

It looks like a potentially great front 3 to me.

 
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