Transfer window: The verdict

[Ewok vs Wolf]

If you'd told me we'd keepNeves and get Nunes I would of said you were mad
Great window down to Lage now

 

[George AlooGobi]

Considering I thought we would have to sell Neves in order to buy, I'd say it's turned out to be a very good transfer window

An experienced central defender would have been great, but there's still a bit of time left

It's just a shame pre season training didn't begin tomorrow - I reckon it'll take a while for the new players to bed in

 

[Westbakejazz]

It’s a good window, just worried about the amount of players in. Wolves needed evolution not revolution

 

[SmiffyWolf]

I think the players may need time but this is something we don't get neither any other clubs in Prem . Results based game and lose at weekend and Lage is gone imo .

I am happy with the window if Traore is confirmed but other clubs have signed similar or more players but they are not banging on about time to gel .

So is it they have better players , managers or our players not as good as we think ?

 

[wallace]

lightweight squad lacking in depth. We have signed some decent players assuming they can adapt to our league but basically we are always hoping for no loss of form, suspensions or injury over the season Bruno has a big job to make all these changes in playing style and personal to blend quickly.

 

[The Clock]

Lost count.
But isn’t the squad even smaller than last year?

 

[Rhyl Wolf]

lightweight squad lacking in depth. We have signed some decent players assuming they can adapt to our league but basically we are always hoping for no loss of form, suspensions or injury over the season Bruno has a big job to make all these changes in playing style and personal to blend quickly.

Given many (myself included) thought Fosun were going to leave us high & dry, this window has to be labelled a success. No? How many truly believed Ruben & Neto would still be here? Every PL club is susceptible to loss of form, suspensions or injury. We are miles away from having the financial wallop of the Top 6 and maybe it's time to look for the positives in this window. Granted it's over to Bruno now, but no complaints about Fosun.

 

[RMNottm]

lightweight squad lacking in depth. We have signed some decent players assuming they can adapt to our league but basically we are always hoping for no loss of form, suspensions or injury over the season Bruno has a big job to make all these changes in playing style and personal to blend quickly.

Always prefer quality to quantity. Five subs does change things some what but thats still under twenty potential starters. Yes it is a risk but argue less that buying more but less good players. Ir also gives the kids a chance.

I fully accept the irony of my statement considering our league position.

 

[JonahWolf]

I’m hoping, with the departure of Donk to replaced by Traore, an athletic ball carrier…
That he’s Nunes back-up/rotation, Mouts is Neves’, for a generally preferred middle 2 in 4231.

 

[George AlooGobi]

I’m hoping, with the departure of Donk to replaced by Traore, an athletic ball carrier…
That he’s Nunes back-up/rotation, Mouts is Neves’, for a generally preferred middle 2 in 4231.

We may even find a new role for Raul in a 4231, playing off the big man

 

[JayStringer]

A great window. Now over to the coach to sink or swim.

 

[northnorfolkwolf]

It is a great window. Collins in, then nothing and we're all getting concerned. Who'd have thought we 'd still have Neves and Neto? Thrilled to have got shot of Dendonker. Gone from too many CBs to perhaps now being a bit light there. Please no injuries to Collins or Kilman. We've got options in mf and in attack. It's now down to Lage to get this talented group to play football.

 

[Paddy Wolf]

No window is ever perfect but our first team seems massively improved and more suited to Lage's style.
It's only a matter of time before it clicks together and the goals flood in.

Onwards and upwards.

 

[Cousins78]

Neves stayed
Mouts stayed
Traore stayed
Neto stayed
Got 35 mill for MGW
Boly, donk, saiss, marcel, ruddy, hoever and coady all gone
Cb upgrade in collins
Guedes signed, still think he will be good
Got 2 cms in nunes and traore again think both will be great acquisitions
And signed a 6 ft 7 striker who has a fantastic goals and assists tally

We might be really frustrated and not sure lage is the man but that is a fantastic summer

 

[Adrian_Monk]

Fairly happy. We've addressed the main area of concern - a static midfield - with Nunes, but are still a little light on numbers in there, although Boubacar gives us further variety which we've definitely needed as well.

Up front, Kalajdzic is a welcome addition but I'm still a little concerned we don't have a Jota-style player with pace and the ability to run at defenders, although theoretically Neto and Traore have that in their lockers on their day, and keeping them could be a bigger blessing than we all think right now (or not, let's see!)

At the back I have minor concerns about our strength beyond the first 11 at both full back and centre back. Fingers crossed for no injuries. It will take time for all of the new signings to gel - hopefully we will start to pick up some form in the meantime.

Big well done for clearing so much dead wood and stale bread too - the squad desperately needed freshening up and nobody can deny we've done our best there - even if Bruno can't get a tune out of them, to any potential replacement we look a far more attractive proposition with our squad now than we did in the summer.

 

[Parkfieldswolf]

Now it's being reported that business is done, here's a summary/verdict...​

Wolves transfers in​

Sasa Kalajdzic — Stuttgart, £15.4million
Matheus Nunes — Sporting Lisbon, £42million
Goncalo Guedes — Valencia, £27.5million
Nathan Collins — Burnley, £20.5million
Boubakar Traore - Metz, loan (€11m to buy)

Wolves transfers out​

Morgan Gibbs-White — Nottingham Forest, £25-42.5million
Patrick Cutrone — Como 1907, nominal
Trincao - end-of-loan
Conor Coady — Everton, loan
Fabio Silva — Anderlecht, loan
Ryan Giles — Middlesbrough, loan
John Ruddy — released
Romain Saiss — released
Marcal — released
Ki-Jana Hoever — PSV, loan
Leander Dendoncker — Aston Villa, £13million
Willy Boly - £2m~

Headlines​

1) We've lost a lot of depth for (in theory) 1st team quality upgrades/options.
2) Under Nuno, our centre-backs were generally Coady plus 2 from 3 of Boly, Dendoncker and Saiss. To move all four on in one transfer window is extraordinary.
3) We've finally spent big money on central midfield for the first time since promotion. Neves & Moutinho are still here.

Postives​

If you'd said before the summer that we'd get a quality attacking CM, keep Moutinho and Neves and sign a physical player as cover/alternative, plus get a new striker, plus a top English CB prospect, plus a goal-scoring wide forward, every single Wolves supporter would be ****-a-hoop.

Negatives​

Such massive turnover in one window and so late in the day puts massive pressure on Bruno to galvanise the squad in a very short space of time - if it takes a couple of months to get everyone up to speed a third of the season will have gone - too late!! We've also gone from being overstocked at centre-back to short of cover.

Verdict​

On paper great, in practice concluding business so late has put us miles behind where we should be.

Probably exactly the window we needed to secure the team for a the coming years if we minimise the suffering of the next couple of months / this year - patience needed but hard to give and unlikely to be given!!

Do you agree?​

A good summary. Personally if you had told me back in May we would retain Neves I would have been happy so to have the backing from Fosun has been a pleasant surprise.

 

[Oh Robbie Robie]

Incredible window

Anyone who expects instant gelling is completely oblivious to the reality of football

Give Lage time FFS

This.

 

[wwbug]

Lost a lot of bodies , a lot of strong characters , experience and defenders .
Gained quality , more midfield options and hopefully a goal scorer.
Very different feel to this team .
May do very well , but could bomb.
The managers ability is very important as to which way this goes .
Dawson would have helped immensely.
Southampton match will be very interesting now the window is closed .
“Al aboard now “ the train departs Saturday

 

[Steampunk Rules OK]

Incredible window

Anyone who expects instant gelling is completely oblivious to the reality of football

Give Lage time FFS

The PL doesn’t allow for managers to have time!

 

[MelbourneWolf]

Has to be considered a great window and thanks to Fosun
Now only one bit of business left to attend to

 

[Hoganstolemywife]

I'll be honest - this is as close to a 10/10 window as we have had since the Neves/Jota/Boly signings.

I was fully expecting us to lose Neves and invest some of the money. Things (obviously) changed massively, and we've even got the highest earning subs off the books for actual money.

BUT....we need to either change the manager or for Bruno to prove us all wrong. The lack of quality at the top can completely undercut the strength of this window.

 

[Jawwfc]

Good window certainly exceeded our expectations a month or so ago, the squad was desperate for a refresh and now it's had it.... over to you Mr Lage.

Also to still have Ruben here is up there with any Marquee signing.

 

[Hoganstolemywife]

One more thing - getting Boly (big wage), Dendoncker (big wage), Coady (big wage) and Cutrone (big wage) off the wage bill is huge for the club and gives us genuine spending power in January.

It's hard not to be optimistic about the quality of the window....but equally hard not to be pessimistic about how we've been performing.

 

[Hoganstolemywife]

Finally - kudos to Liam Keen. Been generally on the money this summer. Stuck his neck out on the Traore deal and proven right.

 

[JOSWolf]

Ronan still here. Will surely be a first team squad member until at least January now?

 

[AlexWolvesHD]

It has been an excellent transfer window only negative is us not bringing in a Boly replacement but hopefully Denayer still arrives to rectify that

 

[bod101]

7/10 for me, good names on paper, just cover concerns me. Denayer (cover CB and RB) and Bat ((if we can still do loans) covers our new guy as his injury record concerns me) it becomes 9/10

 

[JOSWolf]

Is Denayer still unattached? We can still sign him for cover if so, can’t we?

Yep. Would be a very useful addition.

 

[wolvesaywe]

7/10 for me, good names on paper, just cover concerns me. Denayer (cover CB and RB) and Bat ((if we can still do loans) covers our new guy as his injury record concerns me) it becomes 9/10

No wonder this forum has gone to hell in a handcart

 

[VancouverWolf]

Great window. Well done Jeff .

 

[BCWolf]

Very very good window, potentially excellent if we get cover for CB as neither Mosquera or Toti is ready.

Getting big wage earners off the books should not be underestimated.

Pressure is really on Bruno to deliver.

 

[JohnB]

To be honest I have no idea. Ask me in a few weeks time when the players have settled in and we can judge them.

What is positive is retaining Neves and signing Nunes - neither of which I expected - and thanks to Guo for pushing Jeff to think higher.

This is as close to Revolution as we’ll see and as other posters have put it could be great or we could bomb (with limited cover for injuries/suspensions).

Whatever happens to break transfer record again shows the support. Now let’s gel as a team, play well and the fans will follow.

 

[Fenrir_]

Think we've had a better window than even the most optimistic of optimists would have hoped for. Transfer record broken, sizeable net spend, key players kept, important areas added to, everyone who's signed is at the stage in their career where they're ready to go

Should be challenging for best of the rest

 

[Jefe]

I'll give this window a very solid 8/10. The best since 2018/19 I'd say, and has restored a lot of my faith in Fosun's ambitions. But it is not without criticisms.

Positives:
-Nunes is a massive coup, and salt mining Liverpool and United fans has been especially satisfying.
-Guedes is another exciting signing who I'm sure will come good once he's settled.
-Collins has been the signing of the window until now. You'd think he'd been Kilman's centre back partner for years.
-Kaladzjic on paper is the strong, aerially dominant striker we've been crying out for to give us that new dimension, and finally provides competition for Raul.
-Boubacar Troare on a loan to buy option seems like canny business.
-Morgan Gibbs-White to Forest for a likely £35m is single-handedly worthy of a raise for Jeff. Superb stuff.
-It's a net spend of around £60m, which is of course a lot more than recent windows, and this includes breaking our transfer record.
-We kept Neves again when it seemed all but certain he was leaving, and talks of him signing a new contract persist.

Negatives:
-We're still seemingly on a one in, one out rota (or one in, two out this summer as per the OP), which raises concerns that we are weakening strength-in-depth in the hope that untried academy graduates can step up in the inevitable case of injury.
-We still cannot boast two players per position, at a time when the complacency of certain players is being criticised. It might also present in-game issues in the era of five subs. The problem areas yet again are central midfield and full back, with the club also missing out on signing an experienced centre back on deadline day.
-Jeff has been guilty of shipping out players without having a replacement lined up, e.g. Fabio.
-The bulk of our business took place too late in the window to allow most of the incomings to settle, and for our manager to impart his ideas; this IMO has indirectly cost us points.
-For the first two games, the bench was the worst it has ever been under Fosun's stewardship. That also cost us points in my opinion and that is on the board.
-While tactically the right call, losing Coady is an emotional blow in the eyes of many, particularly with the apparent lack of leadership on the pitch so far. Everton's option to buy an established England international for a rather paltry £12m seems like another Traore-to-Barcelona type error waiting to happen from Jeff.
-Only breaking even on Dendoncker, selling Boly for £2m and losing Cutrone for a "nominal fee" (i.e: sweet FA) might be considered underwhelming business.

 

[Aimless Balls]

I’m blown away by the spending and I won’t miss the players who left too badly. Another CB tomorrow would be great, but I‘m a fan of Toti and I look forward to seeing some Yerson. An A from me.

 

[RMNottm]

Great window on paper, everyone here gets a clean slate, and it is what they do from now on that matters


Including Hwang.


And Lage (less time for him.

 

[Jamwolf]

We have also signed Alfie Pond for 500k.

Wolves See Off Tottenham Hotspur Competition To Land Teen Talent

Wolves have beaten off competition from Tottenham Hotspur for young defender Alfie Pond.

insidefutbol.com

 

[Monketron]

Providing Neves signs a new contract: 9/10. 1 off for no backup CB.

Far better than I was expecting. Almost a complete rebuild of the spine of the team.

 

[USA Wolf]

Great window on paper and potentially a year too late if we don’t start scoring a lot of goals

 

[VancouverWolf]

Very very good window, potentially excellent if we get cover for CB as neither Mosquera or Toti is ready.

Getting big wage earners off the books should not be underestimated.

Pressure is really on Bruno to deliver.

As to your second sentence…..bang on.
I suspect there’s been a lot of serious planning/analysis / hard choices etc at Wolves over the last year or so.

After promotion and Covid, this was now the time to consolidate Fosun’s position and ambition for Wolves.
I am absolutely convinced that this window is a watershed moment for Wolves. I said it months ago only because the time was right for Wolves to go bigish or go home.


I wonder how Jeff and Bruno judge this window. Did they land any of their primary or secondary targets? Are they content with what they got or somewhat disappointed?