Francois Modesto

[Strawberry Avenger]

We have continued to make poor loan signings. Muric and Mir have contributed negatively, Bostock almost none, and I assume at least 2 of those will be on their way back in January. Semedo is hit and miss. Mostly miss so far.

I think the summer permanent transfers were mostly good first team additions, whether first choice 11 or able to come in through rotation/injury/loss of form which is valuable given the Champ fixture schedule; Samba, Sow, Ribeiro, Silva, Chema.

So far, for the permanent signings, so good. Decent additions, with not a lot of money spent.

Jenkinson was a disappointing signing for me though I assume a bit of a panic buy given the injury to Darikwa and the end of the transfer window looming.

The real weakness we have left is in the attacking third. The lack of a second striker - the lack of a different option (height, physicality) - lack of a quality winger, general lack of pace up there. Ameobi was a decent free signing, but shouldn’t be relied on for the above qualities as a first choice starter. Adomah’s best days seem to have gone. Mir is simply not good enough. This is the real problem with the summer business. It was an obvious need, and it didn’t get adequately addressed.

It seems we were trying for another forward in the summer that didn’t come off and left us short. I think the problem is not so much the (permanent) signings we made, so much as the (permanent) signings we didn’t make. Targeted quality to fill those gaps is what we need in January.

I’m not sure who is responsible for each of the signings made, but it seems that our newish transfer team have a decent hit vs miss record, whereas the Mendes signings includes Goncalves, Gil Dias, £13.2m for Carvalho, Bonatini, Mir, Semedo. The likes of Mendes and Raiola, I think, can fk off. I’d be more comfortable with our own transfer team picking the right players.

Decent post. 

SA.