Zatara
Player Valuation: £90m
Benitez must be a total masochist if he’s signed up to have a transfer warchest of £1.5m. He’s going to cop for shedloads of abuse at a very toxic goodison as we meander to mid-table unless there’s some serious investment on the right hand side at least (I was hoping for a pacey left footed centre half so we could play a higher line but I’m in la-la land with that dream it seems).
Assume the top brass thought they’d have sold kean by now to finance the transfer window but PSG were making noises re another loan months ago.
The recruitment team needs take a long hard look at itself - we’ve spent bucket loads in recent times and some of this dross we can’t even give away despite spending what would be close to other teams transfer records on some of them - very sobering.
At the moment, hes got to beat 59 points with effectively the same squad as Ancelotti had + 3 new signings.
He didnt need to sign those players and add another £150k ish onto the weekly wage bill. That was his decision.
We actually need a player in each of CB, RB, CM and RW to come in as starters.
You mentioned a LCB with pace so we can play a higher line. I agree and am surprised weve not tried flogging Keane -- someone would want him for £15-20mil. Even without a new CB we could have Branthwaite as 4th choice and use the money elsewhere.
If Benitez goes with "what hes got" along with his own signings then thats on him.
There should have been some creativity in transfer dealings this window.