For the 10% of fans on here who reckon we had a poor window I have one question. What the hell were you expecting from the window.
We went into the summer knowing that we needed to improve the squad in 5 positions. Striker, wide forward, centre midfield, central defence and a back up right back as cover for Seamus. The task was made harder when it became apparent that Gueye also wanted to leave. Replacing Gueye with an exact like for like was impossible as he is one of the 2 best in the world at what he does.
We ended up bringing in 3 quality centre midfielders and lost 1. We brought in possibly the best young striker in Europe after Mbappe. We brought in a wide man who gives us options on either wing and also as cover for Siggy. We brought in a right back who was a world cup winner 12 months ago but is recovering from injury. The only position we haven't covered out of all our targets was centre back.
How on earth does fulfilling 4 of our 5 objectives equate to a poor window?
But let's look more closely at the centre back situation, and compare ourselves to the teams I believe we are in competition with for 4th spot. We have Mina & Keane as first choice with Mason Holgate as back up. We also have Gbamin who can play there, and then we have a very good prospect in Lewis Gibson, should we have an injury crisis. For me, Mina and Keane does not weaken our starting XI from last season, but it would have been good to have another of similar quality to cover/rotate.
But what about our competition?. Chelsea are the one team that has decent cover there, ironically at our expenses as we were unable to bring in either Zouma or Tomori. Arsenal have Mustafi, Sokratis and Luiz as their main 3 with the young lad Holding as back up. Anybody want any of them?. United have Maguire and Bailly (who is injured longish term) and Lindelof as their main 3. Their back ups are Smalling, Jones and Rojo, and I think it's safe to assume from the last 2 days that we donlt want any of their back ups. Leicester have first choice of Evans and Morgan with Soyuncu as back up. After that they're into the kids. Wolves have Coady and Boly as starters with a young lad from Madrid on loan as back up. Even when you look at City, get past ther starters and you have Otomendi and Mangala as back up. Takers anyone?
So yeah, I wish we had another quality defender to call on, but when you look at our peers only Chelsea is in a stronger position than us, and I would say we are probably about the same as United. The others we are in a better position than, plus we are also stronger in the full back position.
There's every chance that Chelsea will have their ban reduced to 1 window too, otherwise they will be demanding parity with Real Madrid from a couple of years ago. Plus when Rudiger get's fit Zouma may see his playing time at Chelsea limited, so I wouldn't be surprised to see us go in for him again in January.
Things really aren't as bad as they appear guys.
