JTW25 Thoughts

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gaffablade

gaffablade

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The dust has settled, the window has shut, what’s your thoughts on our business throughout the latest window?

BBD
Cannon
Holding
Clarke
Choudary
Plus the two development lads.

No senior players left

One of the best transfer windows I can remember.
 

I think the development lads are brilliant signings. We’ve been crying out for more pace in the team and these look quick. So was traore I know 😂 this window as been great and rob holding is a class signing!
 
No complaints with the loan signings. The big question marks are whether the Cannon and Holding gambles pay off. If they don't hit the ground running, we're going to look silly for not getting a Dennis / Iheanacho type on loan and putting the money towards a Tanganga / Darling type instead.
 
I'm really happy with it. Would have liked another central defender in as well but can't be too greedy.

Most striking thing for me is nobody seems to have seriously tried to test the water on Gus, Vini etc this window. Our reputation as a selling club has already gone
 
Overall seems like a great window for us. The new owners showing real intent.
There were probably a few other options that we went for and maybe missed out on.
With all the new options available the backroom staff now have to work these players in to the first team, but that is a nice "problem" to have.
 
An unprecedented level of strengthening, obviously

Brereton was the main one and that was very pleasing. He'll massively improve our chances of scoring up to 2 goals against many teams in the league. It just happened 2 weeks too late

It's clear we had a lot to spend, and I don't think we optimised it at all. I question the choices made, whether from manager or owners

If you were to spend big on one player, it probably shouldn't have been a striker. And if it was, it should be somebody more convincing than Cannon, who has his qualities but will not impact games anywhere near as much as we'd like. He's reliant on chance creation in a team that creates few chances and plays for scrappy 1-0 wins every week

Choudhury is a strong signing but it's a commitment to maintaining our cautious, attritional, often ugly style of play and minimising entertainment. I think we may have been better served signing more of a ball player. We do have Davies, but we are now more reliant on him than I'd have liked

We were never going to replace Souttar like for like. But going for Rob Holding is quite the deviation. Jimmy Dunne made a lot of sense for various reasons, and given all we spent elsewhere, I'm very surprised we were unwilling to pay the fee for him. Holding is a gamble, in a position where we could least afford a gamble. Anything could happen with him. We are likely once again to be heavily reliant on Robinson. We have not done enough to ensure we get our conceded average back to well below 1 a game. We are leaning heavily on Souza and Choudhury to protect an unconvincing back line with no natural CB partnership

So we've strengthened a lot, but we needed to strengthen a lot, even before Souttar's injury. I'm doubtful the right decisions have been made with the vast budget available

My gut feeling is we won't have enough for the top 2. Goalscoring will remain a problem and the defence won't quite be good enough to compensate. I think Souttar's injury will cost us promotion, as I did as soon as he stayed down v Burnley
 
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would have liked another centre back in but with bringing clarke in and keeping seriki suggests that gilchrist joins holding as competition for anel and robbo which they do need think choudray could end up being our most important signing
 
Hamandcheese said:
An unprecedented level of strengthening, obviously

Brereton was the main one and that was very pleasing. He'll massively improve our chances of scoring up to 2 goals against many teams in the league. It just happened 2 weeks too late

It's clear we had a lot to spend, and I don't think we optimised it at all. I question the choices made, whether from manager or owners

If you were to spend big on one player, it probably shouldn't have been a striker. And if it was, it should be somebody more convincing than Cannon, who has his qualities but will not impact games anywhere near as much as we'd like. He's reliant on chance creation in a team that creates few chances and plays for scrappy 1-0 wins every week

Choudhury is a strong signing but it's a commitment to maintaining our cautious, attritional, often ugly style of play and minimising entertainment. I think we may have been better served signing more of a ball player. We do have Davies, but we are now more reliant on him than I'd have liked

We were never going to replace Souttar like for like. But going for Rob Holding is quite the deviation. Jimmy Dunne made a lot of sense for various reasons, and given all we spent elsewhere, I'm very surprised we were unwilling to pay the fee for him. Holding is a gamble, in a position where we could least afford a gamble. Anything could happen with him. We are likely once again to be heavily reliant on Robinson. We have not done enough to ensure we get our conceded average back to well below 1 a game. We are leaning heavily on Souza and Choudhury to protect an unconvincing back line with no natural CB partnership

So we've strengthened a lot, but we needed to strengthen a lot, even before Souttar's injury. I'm doubtful the right decisions have been made with the vast budget available

My gut feeling is we won't have enough for the top 2. Goalscoring will remain a problem and the defence won't quite be good enough to compensate. I think Souttar's injury will cost us promotion, as I did as soon as he stayed down v Burnley
Click to expand...
Dunne isn’t a centre half. Holding is, one who was good enough to play for Arsenal in the Premier League and who Palace thought worth paying £4m for to add to their PL squad not much more than a year ago. Your relentless negativity is wearying.
 
Hamandcheese said:
An unprecedented level of strengthening, obviously

Brereton was the main one and that was very pleasing. He'll massively improve our chances of scoring up to 2 goals against many teams in the league. It just happened 2 weeks too late

It's clear we had a lot to spend, and I don't think we optimised it at all. I question the choices made, whether from manager or owners

If you were to spend big on one player, it probably shouldn't have been a striker. And if it was, it should be somebody more convincing than Cannon, who has his qualities but will not impact games anywhere near as much as we'd like. He's reliant on chance creation in a team that creates few chances and plays for scrappy 1-0 wins every week

Choudhury is a strong signing but it's a commitment to maintaining our cautious, attritional, often ugly style of play and minimising entertainment. I think we may have been better served signing more of a ball player. We do have Davies, but we are now more reliant on him than I'd have liked

We were never going to replace Souttar like for like. But going for Rob Holding is quite the deviation. Jimmy Dunne made a lot of sense for various reasons, and given all we spent elsewhere, I'm very surprised we were unwilling to pay the fee for him. Holding is a gamble, in a position where we could least afford a gamble. Anything could happen with him. We are likely once again to be heavily reliant on Robinson. We have not done enough to ensure we get our conceded average back to well below 1 a game. We are leaning heavily on Souza and Choudhury to protect an unconvincing back line with no natural CB partnership

So we've strengthened a lot, but we needed to strengthen a lot, even before Souttar's injury. I'm doubtful the right decisions have been made with the vast budget available

My gut feeling is we won't have enough for the top 2. Goalscoring will remain a problem and the defence won't quite be good enough to compensate. I think Souttar's injury will cost us promotion, as I did as soon as he stayed down v Burnley
Click to expand...
Let’s hope your pessimism is not realism !
 
I think we have to be pleased with the window .Wilder and co have sorted our squad strength problem which we have had from day one of the season and we look far more equipt facing the run in to secure promotion (not that i like the prem) . I also think bringing in the number of loans is a smart idea rather than permanent signings ,not knowing which league we are going to be in next year loans allow us to be flexible come May rather than commit the players to long contracts . We have not had a window like this for years .
 
Probably as good as we could do.

Would have liked some pace, but beggars can't be choosers.

Plus I am excited by this experiment with data and AI.
 
No complaints.

However.

I do question the wisdom of £10m on Cannon when we have several contracted players up top.

Currently we have AA and JR as our only starting CBs. One or perhaps both will leave in the summer.

It’s been (and I’m sure by Wilders own admission) a short term focussed window. Perhaps correctly given our position.

But it’s possible that the major surgery needed for the squad last summer will need to be repeated once again in time for August and that can’t be good.

UTB
 
We’ve strengthened in key areas to improve the squad a lot imo. If we go up people will talk of ‘best JTW ever’ if we don’t people will pick the bones out of it and call for Wilder’s head.

That’s football. 🤷‍♂️
 
Hamandcheese said:
An unprecedented level of strengthening, obviously

Brereton was the main one and that was very pleasing. He'll massively improve our chances of scoring up to 2 goals against many teams in the league. It just happened 2 weeks too late

It's clear we had a lot to spend, and I don't think we optimised it at all. I question the choices made, whether from manager or owners

If you were to spend big on one player, it probably shouldn't have been a striker. And if it was, it should be somebody more convincing than Cannon, who has his qualities but will not impact games anywhere near as much as we'd like. He's reliant on chance creation in a team that creates few chances and plays for scrappy 1-0 wins every week

Choudhury is a strong signing but it's a commitment to maintaining our cautious, attritional, often ugly style of play and minimising entertainment. I think we may have been better served signing more of a ball player. We do have Davies, but we are now more reliant on him than I'd have liked

We were never going to replace Souttar like for like. But going for Rob Holding is quite the deviation. Jimmy Dunne made a lot of sense for various reasons, and given all we spent elsewhere, I'm very surprised we were unwilling to pay the fee for him. Holding is a gamble, in a position where we could least afford a gamble. Anything could happen with him. We are likely once again to be heavily reliant on Robinson. We have not done enough to ensure we get our conceded average back to well below 1 a game. We are leaning heavily on Souza and Choudhury to protect an unconvincing back line with no natural CB partnership

So we've strengthened a lot, but we needed to strengthen a lot, even before Souttar's injury. I'm doubtful the right decisions have been made with the vast budget available

My gut feeling is we won't have enough for the top 2. Goalscoring will remain a problem and the defence won't quite be good enough to compensate. I think Souttar's injury will cost us promotion, as I did as soon as he stayed down v Burnley
Click to expand...
dont know why you keep banging on about goal scoring being a problem when it clearly isn’t, only 2 of the current top 6 have scored more than us.

Didn’t think it was possible to produce such a negative spin on in my opinion a very successful transfer window, but you have managed it, well done.
 
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Hamandcheese said:
An unprecedented level of strengthening, obviously

Brereton was the main one and that was very pleasing. He'll massively improve our chances of scoring up to 2 goals against many teams in the league. It just happened 2 weeks too late

It's clear we had a lot to spend, and I don't think we optimised it at all. I question the choices made, whether from manager or owners

If you were to spend big on one player, it probably shouldn't have been a striker. And if it was, it should be somebody more convincing than Cannon, who has his qualities but will not impact games anywhere near as much as we'd like. He's reliant on chance creation in a team that creates few chances and plays for scrappy 1-0 wins every week

Choudhury is a strong signing but it's a commitment to maintaining our cautious, attritional, often ugly style of play and minimising entertainment. I think we may have been better served signing more of a ball player. We do have Davies, but we are now more reliant on him than I'd have liked

We were never going to replace Souttar like for like. But going for Rob Holding is quite the deviation. Jimmy Dunne made a lot of sense for various reasons, and given all we spent elsewhere, I'm very surprised we were unwilling to pay the fee for him. Holding is a gamble, in a position where we could least afford a gamble. Anything could happen with him. We are likely once again to be heavily reliant on Robinson. We have not done enough to ensure we get our conceded average back to well below 1 a game. We are leaning heavily on Souza and Choudhury to protect an unconvincing back line with no natural CB partnership

So we've strengthened a lot, but we needed to strengthen a lot, even before Souttar's injury. I'm doubtful the right decisions have been made with the vast budget available

My gut feeling is we won't have enough for the top 2. Goalscoring will remain a problem and the defence won't quite be good enough to compensate. I think Souttar's injury will cost us promotion, as I did as soon as he stayed down v Burnley
Click to expand...
But, but, but but... 😂
 

Cheeky Blade said:
We’ve strengthened in key areas to improve the squad a lot imo. If we go up people will talk of ‘best JTW ever’ if we don’t people will pick the bones out of it and call for Wilder’s head.

That’s football. 🤷‍♂️
Click to expand...

Shoutbox will be a no go zone come 5pm if we don't beat Portsmouth 😂
 
Overall I’d give it 6 or 7 out of 10. A good window so I’m happy.

Some people are surprised we’ve brought in so many but we didn’t finish our a Summer spending so it was obvious we needed at least 4 players.
We also have a large transfer excess this season, so (on paper) there was plenty of money in the pot.
Remember we’ve been lucky to bring in £40 million in player sales, so we can easily afford to hand out big salaries and pay big loan fees.

My rating out of 10
BBD 8 Mainly because it allows us to move Hamer into a central position and BBD is a goal threat.
Cannon 6? Probably the biggest risk because the reviews of him all seem to be “he doesn’t do much apart from score” but we needed a striker.
Holding 7? Impressive pedigree but has he still got it and is he still hungry, could end up being the best signing of the lot or could be poor.
Clarke 7 Gilchrist was too defensive where Sereki was too attack minded, looks like Clarke can do both.
Choudhury 8 Been a concern all season how we seem to lose midfield against the better teams so we needed some muscle in there. He comes with loads of experience and Wilder knows him well. On paper probably our best signing.

Put a question mark against Cannon and Holding because I’m unsure about how good they’ll be.
Both players could be great for us or both could end up duds. However both were needed, so we’ve been improved.
 
It’s hard to be anything other than really happy with our business this window … all key areas covered with the majority first choice targets.

I just feel sorry for Cannon who has been miss advised by his agent on the footballing side…we won’t play to his strengths and I believe he will flop.

However IMO BBD was the standout of the window and will score 10 between now and end of season (already has 1)
 
Hamandcheese said:
An unprecedented level of strengthening, obviously

Brereton was the main one and that was very pleasing. He'll massively improve our chances of scoring up to 2 goals against many teams in the league. It just happened 2 weeks too late

It's clear we had a lot to spend, and I don't think we optimised it at all. I question the choices made, whether from manager or owners

If you were to spend big on one player, it probably shouldn't have been a striker. And if it was, it should be somebody more convincing than Cannon, who has his qualities but will not impact games anywhere near as much as we'd like. He's reliant on chance creation in a team that creates few chances and plays for scrappy 1-0 wins every week

Choudhury is a strong signing but it's a commitment to maintaining our cautious, attritional, often ugly style of play and minimising entertainment. I think we may have been better served signing more of a ball player. We do have Davies, but we are now more reliant on him than I'd have liked

We were never going to replace Souttar like for like. But going for Rob Holding is quite the deviation. Jimmy Dunne made a lot of sense for various reasons, and given all we spent elsewhere, I'm very surprised we were unwilling to pay the fee for him. Holding is a gamble, in a position where we could least afford a gamble. Anything could happen with him. We are likely once again to be heavily reliant on Robinson. We have not done enough to ensure we get our conceded average back to well below 1 a game. We are leaning heavily on Souza and Choudhury to protect an unconvincing back line with no natural CB partnership

So we've strengthened a lot, but we needed to strengthen a lot, even before Souttar's injury. I'm doubtful the right decisions have been made with the vast budget available

My gut feeling is we won't have enough for the top 2. Goalscoring will remain a problem and the defence won't quite be good enough to compensate. I think Souttar's injury will cost us promotion, as I did as soon as he stayed down v Burnley
Click to expand...
I agree with every word
 
Most blades ( those of us who are "experienced " ) are glass half empty and expect the worst to happen and it usually does
I'm quite impressed with the signings, will they take us over the line and promoted? Time will tell
But the despair and wailing from some people is on another level, guys we're heading towards the same levels of delusion our neighbours have !!!
Some of you are thinking we should be signing the top 5 players in the world
Reel it in and just enjoy the ride , how many of us thought back at the end of may we would sit second at this point
UTB

man-theres-a-5063d596cd (1).webp
 
At the opening of the window, we had a huge issue with squad depth, largely due to injuries, but an injury list contributed to by many of our players having played more minutes than is ideal.

In that sense, we've fixed the problem, job done. Through necessity, it had to be about quantity this time around and the largely loan centred strategy made sense in light of that.

The perfect window? Maybe it lacks a marquee signing. Enzo Le Fee at Sunderland and Marcus Edwards at Burnley will arguably have excited their fans to a greater degree.

Who knows? Maybe, at least one of the new recruits can prove to be as influential as Souttar and Cooper have been following the last window and help carry us to promotion.
 
Hamandcheese said:
If you were to spend big on one player, it probably shouldn't have been a striker. And if it was, it should be somebody more convincing than Cannon, who has his qualities but will not impact games anywhere near as much as we'd like. He's reliant on chance creation in a team that creates few chances and plays for scrappy 1-0 wins every week
Click to expand...
Although you could argue; we've not had a 'Cannon' type striker who relies on chances, therefore our midfielders are passing it around more - whereas now we have that player, hanging around the top end of the field calling for the ball and finding space, we might pass it to him - and create more chances, and he will score.
 
HVR said:
now we have that player, hanging around the top end of the field calling for the ball and finding space, we might pass it to him - and create more chances, and he will score.
Click to expand...
🤦‍♂️ What you been snorting?
 
BBD - solid signing
Hamza - solid signing
Cannon - seems like a lot of money for someone we might have to replace depending on if we go up and how he does in the next 4 months. Still unknown about how good he actually is
Holding - happy to be proven wrong, screams of panic signing. Less than 140 league games at the age of 29, some major injuries along the way. Seems happy to have signed, hope it works out well but we needed a replacement for Robbo not backup
Clarke - Gilchrist isn’t a right back, Seriki can’t manage a game a month at the moment. Needed a right back, got a right back now.
Jefferson - no idea. A Peruvian kid told me on instagram he’s got bags of potential but will struggle for the first 6 months due to the step up in competition.
Nwachukwu - bless you. Never heard of him. Nigerian jebbo as his highlight reel is just 1 goal. Albeit being better than Jebbo’s tap in.

The 2 young lads are a free hit really hence the short contracts. They got 2 years to prove themselves. Could be a masterstroke, could be a waste of time. Cost us sod all. Would rather have them 2 than Traore
 
Be interesting to see the team wilder puts out against Portsmouth think cannon needs a good game looming dangerous overall not a bad window 👍
 
Sheffsteel said:
Overall I’d give it 6 or 7 out of 10. A good window so I’m happy.

Some people are surprised we’ve brought in so many but we didn’t finish our a Summer spending so it was obvious we needed at least 4 players.
We also have a large transfer excess this season, so (on paper) there was plenty of money in the pot.
Remember we’ve been lucky to bring in £40 million in player sales, so we can easily afford to hand out big salaries and pay big loan fees.

My rating out of 10
BBD 8 Mainly because it allows us to move Hamer into a central position and BBD is a goal threat.
Cannon 6? Probably the biggest risk because the reviews of him all seem to be “he doesn’t do much apart from score” but we needed a striker.
Holding 7? Impressive pedigree but has he still got it and is he still hungry, could end up being the best signing of the lot or could be poor.
Clarke 7 Gilchrist was too defensive where Sereki was too attack minded, looks like Clarke can do both.
Choudhury 8 Been a concern all season how we seem to lose midfield against the better teams so we needed some muscle in there. He comes with loads of experience and Wilder knows him well. On paper probably our best signing.

Put a question mark against Cannon and Holding because I’m unsure about how good they’ll be.
Both players could be great for us or both could end up duds. However both were needed, so we’ve been improved.
Click to expand...
Agree with all that although I will stick to my position that a striker who "doesn't do much apart from score" is still well worth having so long as he keeps doing that regularly, plus the fact he's already got an assist for us suggests there's a bit more to his game than the View Froms suggested.
 

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