SOCCER SPORT !

[Raza]

Looks like zero news of center back signings for Liverpool. Worried by that.

[93EXCivic]

This has been the worst transfer window I can remember being a Newcastle supporter (and that is saying something with Ashley in charge). First January we bought no-one which maybe fair enough. January you don't get good deals and we were leading the league. But this summer was our chance to kick on. We have a world class manager and the fans are excited. We all heard Benitez would receive plenty of funds to upgrade the squad. Instead we only got a net outlay of 11.5 million and the signings were a striker who barely scored at Stoke, a player we already had on loan, Murphy (who seems like a backup) and two players who look decent. However we failed to really upgrade at striker and left back. We are left we Gayle (who is too good for the championship but not good enough for the Premier League), Joselu (who didnt score much at Stoke) and Mitrovic (who is a walking liability). Then with Ashley selling one of our left backs today, we have no fit leftback at the club. So now instead of looking up, all us fans are looking down. I am sure Benitez will leave Newcastle as there was a complete and total failure to land the players Benitez wanted or needed. Basically we largely have the squad that we had when we got relegated last time.

I am betting soon Benitez will be at West Ham

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[93EXCivic]

Newcastle's net spend over the last 10 years is 22 million the same as Fleetwood Town

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[Steppy]

Liverpool sold their best defender and didnt replace him

[Raza]

Liverpool sold their best defender and didnt replace him

Second best. Let's not go crazy. Through his time at Liverpool, he had some great moments, but he often looked very nervous with the ball at his feet and our defense wasn't much more watertight with him in it. Though a pairing of Matip and Sakho would have been much stronger than Matip and Lovren. I really think Lovren is the major problem with the team defensively.

To rank the business done by the top 6 clubs, I would put it in this order:
1. Manchester United (Matic, Ibra, Lukaku...we'll see how they perform against tougher teams, but they unfortunately look the business now)

2. Manchester City (Yes, they overpaid for Kyle Walker, but Mendy, Silva, and Danilo look like decent business, though they sold at the back and didn't replace them)

3. Liverpool (Salah, profligacy notwithstanding, and Robertson have impressed so far. Ox promises to strengthen the team's depth, even if it came at a ransom price. Electrifying attack. But they sold at the back and didn't strengthen there--allowing Lucas to leave was a mistake, and allowing Sakho to go without replacement was a mistake. The team looks stronger going forward, especially if they can keep Coutinho through the night, but weaker at the back)

4. Tottenham (Sold Kyle Walker for a princely sum, replaced him with Aurier. Not a bad deal there, but we'll see if Aurier can keep his nose clean. Davinson Sanchez is a smart piece of business. No one cares about the Spanish Rickie Lambert--£12m for a 32 year old target forward who is so slow he can be beaten in a race against a slow motion video of himself; can't believe he was so sought after when the much more versatile and younger Wilfried Bony, stained though his career may be after his City move, was available for the same price)

5. Chelsea (A summer defined by baffling connections to players that often failed to materialize. Couldn't land a £12m Llorente who has gone to Spurs, had Barkley walk away during the medical, sold Matic to United, effectively making Pogba a more effective player in the process, only to replace him with a £35m Danny Drinkwater, another baffling choice, especially when they already bought Bakayoko. It seemed like the champions weren't going after players of the caliber necessary to be a part of their squad, and then mostly failed to get them. Morata looks very good, yes, but the Costa saga may prove toxic. They told him to leave and then barred the door so he couldn't. Clownish and absurd)

6. Arsenal (Sold players, couldn't replace them. Held on to Alexis, but it looks like at the cost of a toxic locker room. Lemar doesn't want to play for them. Had trouble offloading players that they wanted to sell. Weak at the back. Three great strikers and Danny Welbeck and they have trouble scoring. Miserable window for them. Kept the one element they should have gotten rid of--Wenger)

Thing is, teams 2-6 all didn't do what I'd call well in the summer. Maybe there are transfers I'm forgetting, but City and Liverpool still look weak at the back, Chelsea has this awful Costa situation and a Magic shaped hole Drinkwater can't hope to fill, Spurs don't look any better than they did last year and continue to look for bargains to back up Kane, and Llorente will fail, as all the others have, Arsenal looks weak everywhere because Wenger's outstayed his welcome.

[meijlinder]

Fair assessment. I think I would put Chelsea above Tottenham though. They have basically replaced Costa with Morata and Matic didn't seem to be a Conte-type player. Pairing Drinkwater with Kanté worked for Leicester and I think it will work here as well.

Baffled that Liverpool hasn't bought a CB. Sakho, it was clear would never play again after last years incidents. But a 1,2,3 of Matip, Lovren and Klavan just isn't good enough.... 1 or 2 CBs in and I would've been satisfied. Even without a new DM. Let's hope they can land Lemar and VVD in Jan since they both seem to want to come.

[shameless]

leaving the Bentley at home and Mrs Rooney running him to Everton awhile -couple days after retiring from int duty and Rooney charged with drink driving this morning - i guess not being England captain has its perks

[Raza]

Fair assessment. I think I would put Chelsea above Tottenham though. They have basically replaced Costa with Morata and Matic didn't seem to be a Conte-type player. Pairing Drinkwater with Kanté worked for Leicester and I think it will work here as well.

Baffled that Liverpool hasn't bought a CB. Sakho, it was clear would never play again after last years incidents. But a 1,2,3 of Matip, Lovren and Klavan just isn't good enough.... 1 or 2 CBs in and I would've been satisfied. Even without a new DM. Let's hope they can land Lemar and VVD in Jan since they both seem to want to come.

I originally had Chelsea above Spurs, but I changed it because of Matic and Costa.

The center back situation in the league is a mess. We have three senior CBs for a season of up to 70 games. City has four, I think, unless Mangala left and I missed it, and they play three at the back! Two injuries and both teams are playing junior players in the back line.

[OTGabe]

I originally had Chelsea above Spurs, but I changed it because of Matic and Costa.

The center back situation in the league is a mess. We have three senior CBs for a season of up to 70 games. City has four, I think, unless Mangala left and I missed it, and they play three at the back! Two injuries and both teams are playing junior players in the back line.

Costa was complete crap for long stretches of last year, apart from his disruptive influence in the locker room (and mysterious 'injuries' when he didn't want to play). He only wants to go back to AM, so it's not as if there were going to be tons of selling options available no matter how it went down. Of course Morata is not a sure thing, but he looks great so far and it's not as if Costa was going to be the long-term solution anyway. Diego hated living in England and mentioned it often, and trophies didn't seem to change that. Last reports I have seen from Spain have the negotiations near what Chelsea would have asked before the whole Conte text fiasco, so at worst we have gotten rid of a headache and lost a few million doing it. The sticking point is the fines he owes for not reporting for duty, but I'm sure that will eventually be ironed out. Much better than having him hanging around disrupting the club anyway. As for Lukaku, I have not been high on him since he bailed out rather than fight for his job the first go round with Chelsea. I will be shocked if he keeps up his current form, especially with Ibra sniffing around the place. Either way, I don't see Morata as a huge drop off, though if he gets hurt things become dicey and Hazard may have to move forward.

Matic of the last two years has not been anywhere close to what he was when Jose first brought him back. People forget him being subbed off in something like 27 minutes by Jose after coming in as a second half sub. He was especially awful two years ago, thought but he wasn't the only one on the team of course. But his problems only became worse when Conte and Kante came along. He just isn't a good system fit with his lack of mobility, and I don't mind seeing him go, though to someone other than ManU would have been nice. If he stays healthy, I think Bakayoko is a much better fit, and Drinkwater gives us another option behind the starters besides the offensive minded Cesc. Plus he's a home grown player, which Chelsea sorely needed.

In all, I would have loved for CFC to sign some more big names, but I'm certainly not panicking about how the window went. If our season comes down to an injured Barkley and an old Llorente, we were screwed anyway. Ox would have been decent depth at wing-back, but he wants to play CM and we didn't need another one at that price. I don't know much about Zappacosta, but everybody said Chelsea were fools to bring in Alonso last year, and Conte has made him into an elite player. Zap is young and versatile, and his numbers are not far off from Sandro at a fraction of the price.

Bottom line is that Roman is no longer going to cut big checks for transfers and the team has to manage their funds wisely. They will not be competing with the Manc clubs for pounds spent, and will live in the spending territory of LFC, Tottenham, and Arsenal going forward. Compared to those clubs, I don't see where Chelsea has been left behind during this window. Liverpool has admittedly done well, but basically did nothing to fix the most glaring fault of the team. Tottenham added depth but they don't look much different than the team that didn't win anything last year. Arsenal, well no need to beat that dead horse...

[OTGabe]

Newcastle's net spend over the last 10 years is 22 million the same as Fleetwood Town

Simply disgraceful. Though everyone could see it coming when Assley made his recent public comments about not being about to compete with the fees that City and United pay. As if anyone was expecting NUFC to do that! Spend reasonably like a mid table club and let your very good manager try to do something with it. He's giving them no chance to compete while lining his pockets as he's always done.