Rate the Transfer Window

[trousers]

On 01/09/2025 at 20:33, trousers said:

I gave last year's window a 4/10, which turned out to be a tad too generous, so somewhat wary about going too high this time around. 

As such, and all things considered, I'll give this one a 6.5/10.

Whilst we've arguably now got the best bunch of creative final-third players in the division, I'm not convinced we have 'best of breed' in the following positions: goalkeeper, centre-back, defensive midfield or centre forward. 

I'm fairly confident we'll match Martin's Championship achievement, i.e. reaching the play-offs, but I've a nagging doubt that we could've / should've done more in one or more of the aforementioned positions in order to to maximise our chances of automatic promotion.

In other words, give me a better keeper, a Fonte, and a Lambert and I'd feel much more confident. 

We march on! COYR!

 

Hmm.... Beginning to think I might have been too generous again...  And as for wanting a better keeper... What a daft notion that was...

[Nordic Saint]

2 hours ago, trousers said:

Hmm.... Beginning to think I might have been too generous again...  And as for wanting a better keeper... What a daft notion that was...

You're not the only one. I gave an overly generous 2. There should have been a minus option.

[Toussaint]

3

[Toussaint]

If not heard of any of the players, now I know why.

[Holmes_and_Watson]

On 03/09/2025 at 10:50, Holmes_and_Watson said:

4 out of 10 for me.

That's partially a reflection on the mess that was needed to be cleared up, rather than on all the work Spors and co did to get players in, and others to get players out the door. 

After all that, I think we're weaker than the last time we got promoted. We've replaced the likes of KWP, Bednarek, Stu and Che with players who haven't performed at that level, or up and coming players. 

That's not to say that the incoming players won't be able to step up. Any rating is subject to change and the recruitment team could well have brought in plenty of gems. It can be tougher to convince players to take a step down to join, rather than keep those that have come down with you. 

But as a snap shot, a quick look indicates it's the difference, for me, of finishing fourth and fighting to get into the playoffs. Hopefully Still and the new recruits won't have the same issues Martin had.

The squad depth is still an issue, despite all of the churn. SR have never really replaced Romeu and more recently Adams. We lack an all round center forward and proper defensive midfielder with technical ability. hopefully Jander will be the latter, and Still's system mitigates the need for the former. Time will tell. There's lots of reservations around our 'keeper position too. Technically, SR solved it by bringing in Ramsdale, but it's Baz and McCarthy again for this season. 

Despite all the gloomy bits, there's no doubt we have an engaged ownership group, still working hard to get their model to work. That makes a difference, when you look at other clubs. 

Player trading is a solid 5 out of 10 for me. Excellent in moving on younger players for a profit (Livramento, Lavia, Tella, Alcaraz, Dibling and Fernandes), but let down by the bloated squad and having to gut the squad on more than one occasion. Arguably, we've not made massive losses on any individual (Sule and TP for example), which was part of the goal. 

SR will be pleased the overall wage bill continues to reach where they wanted it to go, even if we have lost out on some PL seasons, and overall it was a bit bloated. We will have more flexibility should we go back up. 

Mine came in at 4.1/10 (very precise).
Then I read Egg's post about the spine being light. I'd mentioned much the same, without giving it a weighting.
With a very broad weighting, it takes my 4.1/10 down to a 2.6/10 rating against our last promotion side, where 5/10 would have been an equivalent side. 

That's losing your best central defender (Bednarek), not having a defensive midfielder,  and losing both your best attacking midfielder and central forward, in Stu and Che. It should be noted that both sides have Baz, so not great there either. 

4.6/10 in our last promotion season, would have got us 7th (72 points)
2.6/10 in our last promotion season is in the relegation places. (46 points)

That 46 points should be the worst case. That's replacing your better players with players who don't step up. There's no reason why some/all of the new signings won't be able to show they are top championship players with us and ready for the PL.

But it does give a broad indication, that when recruiting for championship level and moving on all of your better PL players, there's an increased risk of it not working out. You could end up pretty much anywhere. 

On the plus side, Charles, Edwards, Azaz and Fellowes all were standouts at their clubs last season. So, there's hope of a higher finish. 
Then there's Still's management supposedly getting us back to winning ways under a much less rigid approach.  

But we're 6 games in with 6 points, projected across the season would give us...46 points.
So, that's right on the lowest end, matching that 2.6/10 window, exactly. 

[Challenger]

Seem to keep buying players that are neither skillful enough, pacy enough or strong enough. How does this keep happening ?

[die Mannyschaft]

4

On paper 7 but in practice a lot lower. But let's see after 6 games. 

[LiberalCommunist]

Not giving up on the Ins. There's some talent in that mix, for sure. But they need direction, and that is seriously lacking right now. 

You can't spend £60M in the Championship and not be under severe pressure. Sort it Will. 

Transfer rating 6, and that's being dragged down by the gaffer senior Weasley. 

[Saint Fan CaM]

Mmm, I scored fairly high initially and think it’s too early to judge fairly. Why? Because they’re playing alongside sub-standard players from the last two seasons like Stephens, Manning, Bazunu etc. The exorcism of mediocrity in the first team didn’t go far enough sadly.

[Willo of Whiteley]

How can you rate a transfer window after it’s closed?

Surely you can only grade it at the end of the season or the day before the next window opening? (Dec 31st).

 

[Verbal]

12 minutes ago, Willo of Whiteley said:

How can you rate a transfer window after it’s closed?

Surely you can only grade it at the end of the season or the day before the next window opening? (Dec 31st).

 

I think you've missed the entire point of the thread, which is to post something now that turns out, quite by accident, to be amazingly prescient, so that you can later repost your ineffable wisdom that x really was shit and y was a wonder-buy*

*y=Caspar Jander

Edited September 23 by Verbal

[Nordic Saint]

23 hours ago, Saint Fan CaM said:

Mmm, I scored fairly high initially and think it’s too early to judge fairly. Why? Because they’re playing alongside sub-standard players from the last two seasons like Stephens, Manning, Bazunu etc. The exorcism of mediocrity in the first team didn’t go far enough sadly.

Above all, we needed a new centre forward to score goals and a goalkeeper to replace Ramsdale.  We got Damion Downs and George Long.

Edited September 23 by Nordic Saint

[bugenhagen]

21 minutes ago, Nordic Saint said:

Above all, we needed a new centre forward to score goals and a goalkeeper to replace Ramsdale.  We got Damion Downs and George Long.

On that note:

[Nordic Saint]

On 01/09/2025 at 16:56, Nordic Saint said:

Worse than last summer's. We knew the team had a weak spine and that as our priority we urgently needed to strengthen 3 key positions in this window: goalkeeper, centre half and centre forward. We haven't strengthened any of them. 

And now we're suffering the consequences of Sport Republic's recruitment leaving the team with a weak spine whilst spending a fortune, by Championship standards, on a job lot of midfielders who neither score goals nor stop them. All style and no substance.

Edited October 21 by Nordic Saint

[trousers]

On 01/09/2025 at 20:33, trousers said:

I gave last year's window a 4/10, which turned out to be a tad too generous, so somewhat wary about going too high this time around. 

As such, and all things considered, I'll give this one a 6.5/10.

Whilst we've arguably now got the best bunch of creative final-third players in the division, I'm not convinced we have 'best of breed' in the following positions: goalkeeper, centre-back, defensive midfield or centre forward. 

I'm fairly confident we'll match Martin's Championship achievement, i.e. reaching the play-offs, but I've a nagging doubt that we could've / should've done more in one or more of the aforementioned positions in order to to maximise our chances of automatic promotion.

In other words, give me a better keeper, a Fonte, and a Lambert and I'd feel much more confident. 

We march on! COYR!

 

Wise words Trousers, but 6.5/10 is far too generous from you again...

Edited October 21 by trousers

[S-Clarke]

41 minutes ago, trousers said:

Wise words Trousers, but 6.5/10 is far too generous from you again...

I gave 7/10, again too generous really. I think I assumed we'd still lose Edozie and Aribo which would balance the squad out a bit, but when you look at it you have to say it's a bloated mess right now - and it cannot be good for morale or mood when you've got ''professionals'' like Aribo and Edozie not even making the squads. With Downes on the bench all the time too, I think there are some genuine bad eggs floating around that training ground.

If we weren't going to lose Edozie/Aribo, we could have saved the £15-16m we spent on Azaz and Fellows and spent it on a proper centre forward. But alas, here we are.

Edited October 21 by S-Clarke

[Give it to Ron]

Our tempo is soooo slow I switched over and watched a bit of Millwall v Stoke who played light years ahead of our plodding system. 
Is this Still’s French standard? Is he used to being the underdog in France and can’t up his ability to be a team playing to win? He seems afraid to change which we were sold was his strength -flexible and changes yet Saturday and tonight abysmal tactics- like for like subs no change of formation. 
can’t all be bad luck Scienza scores and their lucky second again goes against us but what did he do to win game? 
I wasn’t against him and was all for giving him time but Christ he isn’t showing anything like we thought he would be from all that club PR gumph.

I wanted Cooper and haven’t changed from that but how will club sack Still proving again got it wrong!!!😑 

[die Mannyschaft]

2/10. 2 players will be off next season as won't develop at Saints, too many Fernandes situations where anyone any good will want to leave or clubs with money will pay what we want and cant turn down £20m plus. 

The window confirms my suspicion that players are brought on stats and data basis. No one goes to grounds anymore and watches how a player plays in a real game situation. 

[die Mannyschaft]

On 21/10/2025 at 22:42, Give it to Ron said:

Our tempo is soooo slow I switched over and watched a bit of Millwall v Stoke who played light years ahead of our plodding system. 
Is this Still’s French standard? Is he used to being the underdog in France and can’t up his ability to be a team playing to win? He seems afraid to change which we were sold was his strength -flexible and changes yet Saturday and tonight abysmal tactics- like for like subs no change of formation. 
can’t all be bad luck Scienza scores and their lucky second again goes against us but what did he do to win game? 
I wasn’t against him and was all for giving him time but Christ he isn’t showing anything like we thought he would be from all that club PR gumph.

I wanted Cooper and haven’t changed from that but how will club sack Still proving again got it wrong!!!😑 

The slow pace and approach is not helping fans to get interested in the game. I watch Eastleigh and Winchester city and the pace of the game is faster and more intense, certainly for longer periods of the game. If I rate entertainment value for Saints its 2/10 Winchester city 8/10. To me Saints are are just so boring to watch. I think if we were in leaque 1 would games be more exciting, would we play better football and score more goals,  spend more time in opponents box? It's really terrible football.  

[Dman]

25 minutes ago, die Mannyschaft said:

2/10. 2 players will be off next season as won't develop at Saints, too many Fernandes situations where anyone any good will want to leave or clubs with money will pay what we want and cant turn down £20m plus. 

The window confirms my suspicion that players are brought on stats and data basis. No one goes to grounds anymore and watches how a player plays in a real game situation. 

I honestly find this such an odd take. The window, for me, wasn't terrible at all - its an easy excuse to back a poor manager. 

Fellows and Azaz have hardly had a sniff in their actual position. 

Scienza looks brilliant. 

Jander looks more than capable. As do Jelert and Mads. 

Quarshie is young and raw, but everyone would have said THB, Edwards, Stephens Quarshie and Wood is more than capable. 

Downs was a risk has been poor, granted - but again, AA, Archer and Stewart have all been goal scorers at this level

It was an oversight not to sign a GK. 

[Nordic Saint]

If you were recruiting for a manufacturing company that had incompetent workers producing a shoddy product and terrible salespeople trying to sell it, but good delivery drivers, and then said, our priority should be to get more delivery drivers, even though we don't have lorries for them all, your company wouldn't do very well, would it?

 

 

Edited Saturday at 16:28 by Nordic Saint