Transfer Window Summary

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It’s not the end of the world leaving the centreback signing until January. Mina Keane Holgate can produce a decent partnership between them until then.
They will do a job till January but the problem is what if Mina gets injured or we get two injuries to our CBs? It's not ideal.
 
They haven't replaced the Lukaku goals which, I'm led to believe, is a hanging offence.
No no no. It's really simple, Lukaku leaving magically makes all your other players better, midfielders are freed from the shackles of having to give the ball to somebody who can score and suddenly develop the ability to score themselves. It's a well known fact, there'll be pages of people telling you so in the archives i'm sure.
 
They will do a job till January but the problem is what if Mina gets injured or we get two injuries to our CBs? It's not ideal.

City literally have the same problem. Chelsea also are banking on Zouma, an injured Rudiger, and Tomori.

It’s not ideal you’re right but I’d rather trust Holgate and Gibson than panic spend on a short term CB solution.
 

City literally have the same problem. Chelsea also are banking on Zouma, an injured Rudiger, and Tomori.

It’s not ideal you’re right but I’d rather trust Holgate and Gibson than panic spend on a short term CB solution.

I think there are two possibilities. Firstly that they think Gibson is much further along than the public utterances (and there is no way they would say so publicly to kill his desire to improve). Secondly that Gbamin was bought, with at least half an eye on his abilities at centre back for if this scenario played out.

To me if we got a CB in, Holgate would have gone out. So we'd have carried the same numbers. There's a gamble there, but I suppose for Keane and Mina they can focus upon building on the performances at Anfield and Stamford Bridge last season with little distractions.

We need to get lucky with injuries to them both but if they can stay fit thats a solid back 2.

What I'd add, is I will be surprised if Brands is not keeping tabs on CB's up until January. I know last year he kind of clocked off until the summer in terms of signings,but depending on Gibson/Holgate I anticipate someone coming in in January.
 
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Zaha would have been the icing on the cake. However, Bernard and Iwobi on the left, Richarlison and Walcott on the right, Kean and DCL up top, with Gomes, Gbamin, Iceland and Delph across the middle, is a well balanced squad. The only concern for me is not bringing in an experienced centre back.
I hope Kean fulfils his potential a lot riding on him as I don't see many goals from those 10 players
 
I think there are two possibilities. Firstly that they think Gibson is much further along than the public utterances (and there is no way they would say so publicly to kill his desire to improve). Secondly that Gbamin was bought, with at least half an eye on his abilities at centre back for if this scenario played out.

To me if we got a CB in, Holgate would have gone out. So we'd have carried the same numbers. There's a gamble there, but I suppose for Keane and Mina they can focus upon building on the performances at Anfield and Stamford Bridge last season with little distractions.

We need to get lucky with injuries to them both but if they can stay fit thats a solid back 2.

What I'd add, is I will be surprised if Brands is not keeping tabs on CB's up until January. I know last year he kind of clocked off until the summer in terms of signings,but depending on Gibson/Holgate I anticipate someone coming in in January.

There’s no point in having a youth academy or buying players like Holgate if you don’t trust them to perform if an opportunity arises. Holgate stood up for us in 17/18 and was arguably our best centreback until Jagielka got back to fitness and rescued us a bit. Buying a stop gap to sit ahead of him on the bench would kill any career he has with us. This could be a big season for him.
 
Newcastle have about 5 CB’s better than Holgate. There were plenty of options, we put all the eggs in one basket and then Luiz smashed them.

I agree, but you have to factor in they play with a lot more protection than our defenders are expected to get.

Maybe Holgate a year older with some experience last season in the championship kicks on?
 

City literally have the same problem. Chelsea also are banking on Zouma, an injured Rudiger, and Tomori.

It’s not ideal you’re right but I’d rather trust Holgate and Gibson than panic spend on a short term CB solution.
Oh I agree with that, Not getting Rojo I'm over the moon with but having 3 CB's and Gibson who is unknown, I can understand why people are a little negative not OTT as some posters are.
 
There’s no point in having a youth academy or buying players like Holgate if you don’t trust them to perform if an opportunity arises. Holgate stood up for us in 17/18 and was arguably our best centreback until Jagielka got back to fitness and rescued us a bit. Buying a stop gap to sit ahead of him on the bench would kill any career he has with us. This could be a big season for him.

Yes I agree with that. There seems to be an overall approach of getting squad numbers down, getting quality up and then relying on young players beyond that.

Holgate is 21 and has just had a good loan to the Championship, looks to have filled out to me, so if he's called upon why shouldn't he be able to do the job? A lot of it with him has not been his ability, or speed but more concentration/experience and the penny may have dropped.

More than Holgate though (who I think may be done here) I would say is Gibson. The lad looks outstanding to me, and like Stones before him I think he he got a chance he would take to it like a duck to water. Yes he's still growing, but the basics of defending look very good to me. He also needs to be given chances and not be farmed out on loan. He may even jump ahead of Holgate in the cue.
 
Pulling Iwobi out of the bag at the last moment probably more than compensates for Lookman leaving. Having Kean in attack is a big plus. Sidibe should offer better cover for Coleman than Kenny did. Delph should offer experience, versatility and give us extra options in midfield.

They're the positives

We've signed Gbamin to replace Gueye. It's impossible to know how this will work out and whether we will be better or worse off for it. Given Gueye was probably one of our most important players, it's probably understandable to be slightly nervous about this.

That's probably a neutral one

The major negative is the centre of defence. We are left with a central partnership of Mina and Keane, neither of whom have any real pace and this could be an issue in itself. On top of that Mina had lots of injury issues last year. Once you get past those two, you have Holgate who has never really convinced, Gibson (who by Silva's own admission isn't ready for this level yet) and possibly the untested Gbamin playing there in an emergency.

That centre of defence worries me a lot and it's the glaring weakness.

There are more positives than there are negatives, but I think we are all going to have to cut Silva some slack if we have defensive issues between now and January because he's been let down pretty badly on this front.
The way the fixtures have come out we need to accumilate as many points as possible pre Christmas to give us any chance of being in the mix for top six we can't afford to many slip ups regarding defensive issues
 

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