I know its not over yet and maybe there could be a surprise or two but how do ye think we've done over the whole window Henderson Still not really sure about him, was fairly shocked at the fee we paid and he hasn't been overly inspiring so far but he's clearly been bought for the next few years rather than the first few games so I'm gonna cop out and say in Kenny (and DC) i trust Adam Think he was an absolute steal at the price we paid for him, he can clearly knock it around nicely and as that red nosed fcuk said his set pieces are worth money themselves. Think he's still finding his feet a bit but once he beds in properly I can see alot of our play revolving around him. Downing Maybe we over paid, but only for a player of his age, not his ability. He's looked really classy and gives us a totally extra dimension. Nearly started his career with a wonder goal and I think he's gonna be a massive player for us Doni It was obviously thought we needed a sub goalie so we got one but I hope we don't have to see him too much Enrique He's taken to us like a duck to water, have been seriously impressed by pretty much everything he's done so far and it looks like finally the LB spot is sorted Centre Back Coates looks like its nearly a done deal. Don't know too much about him but what I've read has been good. Even if it fell through I don't think we'll let the window close without getting one in. I think its been a priority position for us for a while After those I think a striker should be the priority but I think all the above needed to be filled more urgently. I think we need a top class striker to compete with Luis / Andy / Dirk rather than a backup but I would be surprised to see us shell out for that now. Someone to warm the bench for a season would do for now. After that I think we probably need another Centre Back / Winger / Defensive Mid to take us to the next level to really challenge for titles but that is probably next summers work. I know its probably too early to open this thread but I'm really happy with the business we've done and not even just relative to last year I'll be glad when it closes and we can concentrate on the good stuff. These are much happier days to be a red
This window has shown that the owners are willing to back Kenny and dc's judgement with cold hard cash. The squad looks really strong. it makes me laugh when I think back to some of the hysteria on here when wickham signed for Sunderland and young signed for the Mancs. Some people who were saying it was great to go back to the Liverpool way of doing business didn't really think it was great at all,because there was no information coming out. People were taking rumours on twitter as fact and complaining that we'd be beaten to yet another signing,when chances are we weren't even in for a lot of the players we'd supposedly lost out on. Downing is a fantastic signing and imo will have the biggest impact. Enrique and Adam were great bargains and I reckon their values doubled the minute they put pen to paper. Henderson is young and might take a bit more time to settle. The lad has great stats for creating chances so once he settles I'm sure he'll be able to supply the bullets for Carroll and Suarez. I can't really say much about doni or the new centre half that's supposedly on the way because I haven't really seen much of either but from what I read on here,the young lad is highly rated and it seems a reasonable deal. All in all,I think the club is in better shape than it has been for a long long time.
After the money sucking, despair inspiring disaster that the last few years/transfer windows have been, with so much book "balancing" going on and top class players disappearing at a horrendous rate of knots, along with the replacements coming in mainly for peanuts or on frees, I for one am absolutely over the flippin moon at the backing Kenny has received in this window. Granted we spent big in Jan as well but that was almost completely funded by Mr. Twitter and that spanish geezer heading off out the door. I still had a nagging doubt that our new owners would spend decent money without it coming in first. Happy to say those doubts were completely unfounded. Seems to me that if Kenny wanted someone, he got him. Some of the fees were a bit surprising I suppose, but I'd rather have the players than at the end of the window not having the players and having an extra 20 million in the bank we could have used. Adam, Downing and Enrique have settled immediately and all look great buys already. Henderson has looked good in spots but is just taking a little longer to find his feet, what I've seen so far though makes me think he will be a good buy for us. Probably get a look at Doni tonight, but anything I've read/seen about him in Italy rates him as a very solid stopper and will be a good quality back up if Robbie forbid anything happeded to Pepe over the season. A few of the deadwood already gone and rumours abounding that N'gog, Aquilani,Cole and Poulsen will be gone by next Wed freeing up squad positions and wages. Add to this we seem pretty close to signing the CB in Coates we've all been looking for to come in. He's young but flippin hell he looks impressive. Bellamy rumours seemed to have died off, wonder if Forlan fancies a season or two playing super sub? It'll have been a remarkably sucessful summer in my opinion. If I'd been offered Adam, Downing, Doni, Henderson and Enrique at the start of the window with the possibility of Coates and another backup striker, while nobody we wanted to keep going anywhere to pay for it all, I'd have taken your hand off at the shoulder. I seriously though we would be looking at 3-4 windows to try get the squad strength up to challange for top 4 again, but at this rate one more window could see us as strong squad wise as anyone.
Time will tell.We were never going to be in for the Aguero's and Neymars of the world this window so clearly Kenny's opted to be sensible and bring in solid,reliable players with Premier League experience who won't go missing and get out-fought at places like West Ham as has happened in recent years.He's building a solid,functioning side who play the right way and once that's in place we can start going after the top,top players in future windows. Happy that Enrique and Downing could be the answer to our long-term lack of width and a (fit) top left back. Doni is as good a back-up keeper as we could realistically have hoped for.Gives a real peace of mind having solid back-up that we didn't have with the likes of Itandje and Jones. I'm not as big a fan of Adam as a lot of people are.I think he is a luxury player who can only be effective with 2 midfielders alongside him to do the donkey work.He's the type of player who will try 2 unnecessary Hollywood balls and lose posession,then try a 3rd and hit a worldie making people forget about the first 2!He's got a magic left foot though and as has been said so many times will add a lot to the side with his set pieces alone.Also has the vision and passing range to pick out the runs of Suarez and Downing and is a very tidy player but I think people are going overboard about how good he is. Henderson is by far the strangest of our signings this summer considering the massive fee for a kid and with us already top-heavy in the midfield department.Never really caught my eye at Sunderland(not that that counts for much since I never saw an awful lot of them).Don't know if he's best on the right or the middle.He's not got the lightning pace to be an out and out winger,he's not a good enough tackler to play the holding role and he doesn't appear to have the passing range to run a match yet.All I've really learned about him is that he has a decent cross and loads of energy without being overly quick.By no means writing him off though-he's far too young and it's far too early for that.He's got a first class attitude and clearly Kenny and DC have seen something in him and believe he can be moulded into a top player.What I will say though is that at this moment in time Mereles and Kuyt both offer more than him and I don't feel Henderson should be featuring so much so soon at their expense.The fans need to be patient with Henderson and give the lad a chance. Coates will be a ****ing beast if he comes in.I'm confident of that.We also need a back up striker but in all honesty,that can wait til January where we can hopefully offload more of the deadwood first. All in all,I'd give the window an 8/10.Couldn't realistically have expected much better.
Here are my players that I was hoping (well dreaming) we'd bring in Cahill, Enrique, Hazard, Young, Aguero, Hulk, sanchez, the wild card Taarabt, only got the one not a bad window all the same still think we need a center back and a striker but there's still time
adam was a no brainer - still havent a clue about hendo but have been unimpressed if i'm honest, like is he a winger or a midfielder, a passer or a tackler. just dont see what he has that justifies a 20m pice tag. we needed width and we bought a pacy left winger in downing, overpriced yes but has been pretty good so far. dont know jack about Doni. enrique is the best business we've done since the new owners came in (suarez aside)...i'll wait to see if coates comes in nad plays ha few games before i comment on him. 7.5/10 for me this summer
Out of curiosity,how much did Henderson cost. I know 20 million keeps getting banded about but I thought it was 13 million with 3 million in add ons.
Depends on how much you rate him Commoli is on record as saying we didn't pay anything like what was reported, so I'm of the belief it was £13m and £3m in add ons. If we manage to move on Ngog Aqualani and Cole in next few days, and get Coates and a striker in I'll be very happy with the buisness we did. I'm probably in the minority but I'd sign Bellamy on a 10 month £40k a week deal, it gives Morgan and Ngoo another year to progress or for the club to seek a player our for the longterm. The only pointless signing IMO was Doni, yet another reserve keeper brought in, Jones was happy to bench warm, so unless we had a deal in place to sell him we shouldn't have signed Doni, we do not need 3 senior keepers
It's really early days, and too early to tell exactly how well we may/may not have done. The early signs are really good for Charlie Adam, Downing, Enrique, as all three of them look to have hit the ground running. Adam and Enrique didnt cost very much by today's bonkers standards, so you'd have to be especially pleased with those. But Downing looks an exciting player for us too. Henderson is young. He was always likely to take the most time to settle in. The early signs have NOT been encouraging. He's looked mediocre at best so far. But I wouldn't be panicking just yet. He's bound to get better with time and experience and games. Let's face it, he's going to have to! Doni.... well, sure what can you say? Coates will be an interesting signing. Fingers crossed it goes through. He might need a bit of time to settle in but its a promising signing in the medium/long term imo. The one thing that would be keeping me awake at night if I was Kenny, would be what the fcuk happens if Suarez gets injured. We DO need to bring in a striker of some sort, even if its just a loan. Otherwise we're just asking for trouble....
If Coates and Bellamy are signed in the next few days and we get shot of Aquilani, Cole, N'Gog I think it'd be a very productive window. You can never tell with any signing how it's going to work out, all you can ask for is that the club backs the manager to bring in who he feels we need and they have certainly done that.
Id have Bellamy back in the blink of an eye. If Suarez was to get injured we have zero pace up front. Have always loved bellamy as a player. Whether we're in for him or whether City would let him come to us is anothe story. Happy so far with Downing and Enrique. Had doubts about Adam but hes done well so far. His corners last night were screaming out to be buried. Henderson has be baffled. Don;t see what he brings to the table at this moment in time but hopefully, as said above, hes one for the future
i'm MUCH happier than i was a fortnight ago,enrique in since,young coates on his way,all we ask for now is an upgrade on on-his-way Ngog up front,someone who'll push carroll n suarez a bit harder for a place...
This transfer window has been good on 2 fronts.Firstly we will move on some unwanted players hopefully aqua, Poulsen, ngog and cole will follow those already departed. And then we have our signings. Adam: doesn't look out of place,still adjusting but doing so quite well I think.Will definitely get us extra points from set pieces alone but still needs to up his game for this level. Downing: Another good buy for big money.I think he is a great player personally regardless of what some people think.Gives us quality on the wings which we've lacked. Henderson: kind of a work in progress I feel.Hasn't been great but WILL improve guaranteed.Needs to start doing the simple things well before really bedding into the team. Enrique: Has adapted the best IMO.Hadn't put a foot wrong so no need for judgement.Best signing so far this window I think. Doni: haven't seen much of him before joining and only glimpses since he has.I'm hoping that pepe will never need to be replaced. Coates: If he signs it will be another vital piece in the jigsaw.Looks very assured and I'm sure he will adapt quite well to premiership football.
I just read about this, I never knew. I hope the young lad pulls through, very sad story, and fair play to Brad too.
There was only 3 players 26 or over that were transferred to the Premier League for over 4.5mil Young, Downing & Johnson