The January Transfer Window 2020

[Aceface]

I always think the current supporters opinions are by far the best barometer – it's why I wanted Fabianski because the Swansea guys I'd met all thought he was their best ever keeper.

That said, the reason Etheridge seems more appealing than Randolph is because the former has at least shown he can potentially thrive in the PL – in a team that may not have the best defenders – whereas Randolph had two goes at it and never did.

[WestHamIFC]

We should be all over that. We have brought back Moyes....looking at Randolph.......let's go for a full on U-Turn!!!

Actually I think Haller is exactly the type of strike partner Little Pea needed when he was here!

[Crouchend_Hammer]

Personally I wouldn't sign anyone in this window. There's no point.

I would however listen to offers for

Yarmolenko
Diop
Reid
Zabaleta
Fredricks
Cresswell
Arthur
Lanzini
Snodgrass
Sanchez
Ajeti
Dirty Jack
And , if he wants to go, Antonio.

That kind of suggests the degree of a rebuild we will need over the summer.

Next season I would make it a policy of having 2 Academy players / graduates on the bench for every single game, so I would ensure we add Diangana, Coventry, Johnson,Cullen, Holland to the 1st team squad.

Whilst i am not disagreeing with you, I am just trying to work out who you would definitely not sell

Rice
Noble
Haller
Balbuena
Anderson
Ogbonna
Fornals
Fab

Have i missed anyone?

[danski78]

Sell Ajeti and Yarmolenko and put whatever you get from that in the transfer pot. How much would Doucoure cost ? Would he come ?

[Turns to Stone]

Sell Ajeti and Yarmolenko and put whatever you get from that in the transfer pot. How much would Doucoure cost ? Would he come ?

More than we have ever spent on a midfielder.
And no he wouldn't.

[Coops]

Personally I wouldn't sign anyone in this window. There's no point.

I would however listen to offers for

Yarmolenko
Diop
Reid
Zabaleta
Fredricks
Cresswell
Arthur
Lanzini
Snodgrass
Sanchez
Ajeti
Dirty Jack
And , if he wants to go, Antonio.

That kind of suggests the degree of a rebuild we will need over the summer.

Next season I would make it a policy of having 2 Academy players / graduates on the bench for every single game, so I would ensure we add Diangana, Coventry, Johnson,Cullen, Holland to the 1st team squad.

You are David Sullivan and I claim my £5.

[Albie Beck]

That kind of suggests the degree of a rebuild we will need over the summer.

...and sadly, pinky - that kind of rebuild is never ever going to happen. Not whilst Sullivan has breath in his inflatable friend.

[prophet:marginal]

Personally I wouldn't sign anyone in this window. There's no point.

I would however listen to offers for

Yarmolenko
Diop
Reid
Zabaleta
Fredricks
Cresswell
Arthur
Lanzini
Snodgrass
Sanchez
Ajeti
Dirty Jack
And , if he wants to go, Antonio.

That kind of suggests the degree of a rebuild we will need over the summer.

Next season I would make it a policy of having 2 Academy players / graduates on the bench for every single game, so I would ensure we add Diangana, Coventry, Johnson,Cullen, Holland to the 1st team squad.

When you say 'listen to offers', are you meaning to say that you would be happy to change up on these positions, or simply to bank the cash?

That's a hell of a lot of our squad, proportionately, failing to meet your standards. I can however see the sense in changing up on nearly every one you name. I think the sticking point is that there are few if any clubs who would look twice at Reid, Zaba, Sanchez or Tabac Wheelchair. Snodgrass, Ajeti, Cress and Masuaku are unlikely to interest any other team in the top flight and only a few would gamble on the others.

Not looking all that great, really, is it?

[ashbanki]

If we do not sign anyone, we are down 100% - There is no pace or directness, unless a fit Antonio is on the pitch.There is no hope of winning any CM battles with only Rice offering anything consistent and Noble appearing to become more "arthritic" by the the match .We have a welcome flag pitched at RB/RWB in the form of a once great Zabaleta.We have players not up for the fight, for whatever reason -Lanzini and occasionally Anderson.We have a modern CF who is expected to play like an old fashioned one, with no back up, other than a player that looks a long way off aspiring to the heights of the two he replaced!
If we get relegated Pink's list will be totally reversed,imo.

[Turns to Stone]

Just to add to Pinky's post, he's right. The issue is not really the players coming in, more about who goes out.

For me, the essential things have to be Premier League standard improvements for Roberto, Reid, Sanchez, Wilshere, Ajeti. 5 players pretty much stealing a living in our squad (apologies to Reid who's been a great servant and Ajeti who is not to blame), but all 5 of those are incapable or unable of providing cover or a first-team squad selection for our side. We've (yet again, gone into a Premier League season 5 players short.

Replace those with players that can get on the pitch and have Premier League experience and we'd be in business. I actually think there are players out there who would join and who would revitalise us, probably not that we could get done, but just as an example of players that might join us who I think would radically overhaul the squad and allow us a different way of playing:-

Robert - John Ruddy
Reid - Chris Smalling
Sanchez - Yann M'vila
Wilshere - Joe Allen
Ajeti - Olivier Giroud

5 players, all fit and healthy. All Premier League experience. All (sort of) out of favour of their clubs. Most, probably on less wages than the players that they would be replacing (hilariously).

Apologies for the Hammerman11 like list, but we have to get players in our squad available and capable of being on the pitch.

[the pink palermo]

When you say 'listen to offers', are you meaning to say that you would be happy to change up on these positions, or simply to bank the cash?

That's a hell of a lot of our squad, proportionately, failing to meet your standards. I can however see the sense in changing up on nearly every one you name. I think the sticking point is that there are few if any clubs who would look twice at Reid, Zaba, Sanchez or Tabac Wheelchair. Snodgrass, Ajeti, Cress and Masuaku are unlikely to interest any other team in the top flight and only a few would gamble on the others.

Not looking all that great, really, is it?

That's the problem Prophet .We keep signing too many older players or players without a sell on value.In the short term I would bank the cash on the basis we won't sell them all this window, but across the two windows we might.I would however only spend the money in the summer, preferring to limp through to seasons end and keep the money in the bank for now.We're going to need a truck load of it in the summer.

Just about every club survives financially by selling players these days, and the clubs that are worst in that regard are always fighting for scraps off the table.

The players I've listed are either getting too old, too slow, have too many technical or physical shortcomings or simply haven't done enough to merit retention.

Even two or three on my retain list are marginal calls. We are 16th for a reason, and the reason really isn't Roberto and VAR.

Whilst i am not disagreeing with you, I am just trying to work out who you would definitely not sell

Rice
Noble
Haller
Balbuena
Anderson
Ogbonna
Fornals
Fab

Have i missed anyone?

You've missed the 5 Academy products I'd keep.That gives us a core of 13 players, so 10 new signings would be required in the summer.Five of those would need to be certain starters for the first team.

We need about £120m I would guess to build for next season.

[Believer]

I would however listen to offers for

Cresswell
Arthur

Pinky - I have highlighted these 2 above. During the summer, we were linked with 3, 4 or maybe even 5 LBs yet we never signed any of them. We decided to award both the above players new long term lucrative contracts. By my reckoning, we should have known that MP wouldn't see out the season. This was clearly a position that MP thought needed upgrading hence why we were allegedly scouting a number of potential replacements.

If we add in Zaba's new contract and the failure to replace Obiang it is abundantly clear that Sullivan was setting him up to fail.

The thing is though, why wait until he did to get rid ? What benefit was there to hang him out to dry but delay the inevitable. As much as MP had his faults, I am sure he had a vision of who he wanted to play for us and how he wanted us to play and clearly that didn't involve Arthur, Cresswell or Obiang and he wanted them replaced.

If anything, I reckon the signing that has done for us is Haller. £45m if the reports are to be believed and it crippled his budget. If we had bought a £20m striker, we could have bought that elusive midfielder we all crave and maybe had enough for a young LB.

To get back to your original email though, it is on Sullivan just how poor a squad we have. It is sad that we would be including the likes of Diop and Lanzini in the "up for offer" category cos I firmly believe that under the right management and within the right squad, these are 2 of the players we should be holding on to. Those 2 along with Fornals, Rice, Anderson and Antonio (when fit) are some of the most talented individuals in the league and if joined by sensible (not expensive) teammates could form an exciting team.

Depending on who we bring in, I suspect that we may just have enough to stay up however I have no clue how we make as many changes are required in one summer window. Safe to say it will be a test on Moyes and safe to say he won't be given the tools required either. As history with Obiang proves, even if he is promised "X" budget and the proceeds from any sales, the chances are he won't be.

[Puncher12]

Personally I wouldn't sign anyone in this window. There's no point.

I would however listen to offers for

Yarmolenko
Diop
Reid
Zabaleta
Fredricks
Cresswell
Arthur
Lanzini
Snodgrass
Sanchez
Ajeti
Dirty Jack
And , if he wants to go, Antonio.

That kind of suggests the degree of a rebuild we will need over the summer.

Next season I would make it a policy of having 2 Academy players / graduates on the bench for every single game, so I would ensure we add Diangana, Coventry, Johnson,Cullen, Holland to the 1st team squad.

So there's no point in signing anyone but you also want to lose more players in the squad?

Regarding the academy players aswell, if they were good enough they'd be on the bench on merit rather than policy.

I'm glad you're not in charge.

[Albie Beck]

Believer

The thing is though, why wait until he did to get rid ? What benefit was there to hang him out to dry but delay the inevitable. As much as MP had his faults, I am sure he had a vision of who he wanted to play for us and how he wanted us to play and clearly that didn't involve Arthur, Cresswell or Obiang and he wanted them replaced.

Timing, is my view - all about the timing: get rid too early and there's a clamour for new blood when the window opens. Delay instead and you can juggle the three cups around and with luck the window closes (remember it's half-way through already...) and you don't have to spend a bean. That's the Sullivan Strategy.

[the pink palermo]

So there's no point in signing anyone but you also want to lose more players in the squad?

Regarding the academy players aswell, if they were good enough they'd be on the bench on merit rather than policy.

5 of those I listed have barely featured at all. Those are the five places I would, as policy, see taken up by Academy graduates.

As for whether they are good enough, we'll never know unless we try them will we ? Chelsea had boat loads of players on loan all over Europe, with hardly any of them getting nearer their squad. Along cam a transfer ban, and hey, presto, they get games. Some of them look decent.

[szola]

I would however listen to offers for ....

That kind of suggests the degree of a rebuild we will need over the summer.

You say this every year

You don't re-build, you burn to the ground-and build

[Crouchend_Hammer]

5 of those I listed have barely featured at all. Those are the five places I would, as policy, see taken up by Academy graduates.

As for whether they are good enough, we'll never know unless we try them will we ? Chelsea had boat loads of players on loan all over Europe, with hardly any of them getting nearer their squad. Along cam a transfer ban, and hey, presto, they get games. Some of them look decent.

Whilst i do agree with the chelsea principle in theory, it is worth pointing out that all the Academyplayers they have introduced into the team this season are not novices. They all had performed exceptionally week in week out in the championship and, in the case of Abraham, had played for England

With the exception of maybe Diagana, our academy prospects are not anywhere near that standard [unfortunately] or have anywhere near that level of experience

[Turns to Stone]

With the exception of maybe Diagana, our academy prospects are not anywhere near that standard [unfortunately] or have anywhere near that level of experience

What's interesting will be is what we do with Diangana next year. He's had a year not dissimilar to Mason Mount (and both are similar ages) in terms of success. It will be interesting to see if Moyes (or whoever) gets him involved net year as much as Mount has been for Chelsea this year.

I would definitely have given Josh Cullen a go this year given his success at Charlton last year and how few options we have had in the centre of midfield. He can't be any worse than Sanchez or Wilshere.

[Liam]

Replace those with players that can get on the pitch and have Premier League experience and we'd be in business. I actually think there are players out there who would join and who would revitalise us, probably not that we could get done, but just as an example of players that might join us who I think would radically overhaul the squad and allow us a different way of playing:-

Robert - John Ruddy
Reid - Chris Smalling
Sanchez - Yann M'vila
Wilshere - Joe Allen
Ajeti - Olivier Giroud

5 players, all fit and healthy. All Premier League experience. All (sort of) out of favour of their clubs. Most, probably on less wages than the players that they would be replacing (hilariously).

Problem with something like this is we end up with another 5 players on 3 year contracts (unless you are talking loans) that we will be stuck with and we'll spend time next summer discussing how we need to ship them out! (except smalling, I actually rate smalling)

[Puff Daddy]

So Moyes has now said, Fernandez was one for the future. Am I missing something here, when the need is acute for ready made players to jump straight into the first team, why would we be messing about signing another one for the future ? We have lots of previous for this:- Nouble, Gus Poyet's boy, Fabio Deprella, Samuelson, Haksabanovic and I think there are quite a few others too. Isn't the time to do this, when you have a strong first team, with quality in reserve ?