Transfer window, good or bad.

[The Fat Bloke]

From the fans point of view, I think it’s ok.

Doesn’t make the squad fantastically stronger but the forward line looks top drawer now, also with Big Boly coming back it will be like a new signing.

I hope Nuno is happy with it.

 

[North West Wanderer]

We could see a bench today of:

Boly
Kilman
Jordao
MGW
Jota
Podence

infinitely better.

 

[sc91]

Good.

 

[Michellis]

OK for the January window.
Looking forward to the monster striker signing in the summer though ....

 

[Mugwump]

I'd say OK would describe it.

 

[wolveslegend]

no statement of intent from fosun, our bench is very lean in fact it's worse than it was a month ago, lets hope nuno is genuinely fine with the business done.
My opinion is that fosun are pushing it as far as they can without any real outlay on their behalf, lets hope it doesn't come back to haunt them. Nuno is doing an excellent job with what he has and he has said all month he wants players now suddenly he is fine with it all ??? 3 out 1 in.we have had two poor windows, this summer will be huge for fosun, with nuno being very in demand fosun will have to show real intentions on moving up a level.

 

[bod101]

I think I would have like to see a right full/wing back to push doherty or allow us to move towards four at the back. Or someone to replace Bennett on the right side of defence as I think currently we are fragile there, unless Boly is penned to play there on his return.

 

[MotorWoden]

Good.

 

[theweave]

I don't think you can ever tell until the next one. People thought arsenal had won the transfer window in the summer and look how that has played out

 

[Sergeant Hakeswill]

4/10

 

[Elvis Wolf]

Good.

 

[1972 i began]

Good for me,we have bought in some more top class youngsters which is the way wolves are doing it,and got a very good player in Podence (apparently) dow know mesen as I ay sid him play.If any of yow lot think wim gonna buy a top class striker to sit on the bench yam off ya head.Tay gonna happen.

 

[Daveywolf]

We kept our best players, added Podence and few talented U23's, made some dosh from Cav, no more injuries this season it's 8/10, injury crisis 1/10

 

[Irish_Wolf]

Dont really know, need to see what Podence and Campana bring to the table.

 

[Elvis Wolf]

We could see a bench today of:

Boly
Kilman
Jordao
MGW
Jota
Podence

infinitely better.

The only one on there who has STILL to convince me is MGW.

 

[Phitsanulok (Poole) Wolf]

Very sensible and a little bit exciting.
Podence looks great
Campana with a touch of the Doug about hin
Luke Matheson from Rochdale and Enzo Loiodice look like real captures
Nigel Lonwijk was some time ago so has gone under the radar
No 1 - not lost any key players and got youngsters out for experience.

 

[Deleted member 4436]

Okay.

I’m looking forward to seeing what Podence can do. And we’ve retained key players.

If we sign a real quality CB in the summer, that’ll instantly improve our options in CM, and hopefully Jordao develops in that time too.

2 quality additions in the summer and I’ll be very happy.

Big run now. Could be the most incredible few months in our history! Can’t wait to see what unfolds.

 

[JOSWolf]

I think if Campana and Enzo can make an impact on the first team squad then it is a decent window. Podence is an excellent signing. Disappointed that Bennett went though.

 

[Wolfheart]

The return of players have masked the issue.

If we have substantial injuries and suspensions were back to where we were before but with even less options to beef up the squad.

IF for instance, Dendoncker gets injured or suspended.

You don’t just change 1 position.

We have to change 2. Boly has to go to RCB and Saiss to LCB.

If Jonny gets injured or suspended. What do we do then? Vinagre is still a month away at the earliest.

If 2 players get injured at any same time our bench will still look depleted.

The good news is that we’ve got 14 games left in the league and hopefully 9 games left in the Europa.

23 games which is about half of what we’ve already played.

The other good thing is we’re in a very strong position going into the summer.

The value of players that play increases due to their requirement of the club they play for.

A Max Kilman becomes much more valuable as a saleable asset if he isn’t surplus to requirements to the owning club.

I think we’ve seen that with the Bennett deal.

A problem does arrive this summer though in that certain players might look for a more progressive route to the top.

The club has ambitions but they are slow and patient.

Some players might have a route to the top, to championships earlier in their careers than others.

I fully expect to see bids for Neves this summer and even Jimenez and maybe Traore.

Once that happens, things start to change.

That is the core of the team and big parts of what stage we’re at now.

Trying to replace those will be hugely difficult and this is one area of concern I have is that our patient approach could backfire on us when it comes to trying to replace important players who leave.

We also now have 17 outfield players who are on paper a top 6 team but not yet a top 4 team.

There is considerable room for improvement still and that means at some point, we’ve got to make those statement signings and push the quality forward.

The catch is, that would be easier with CL football but right now, arguably we don’t have the numbers to push in both the league and Europa league to achieve that so I think internally the focus has to be now on maintaining a healthy PL position but absolutely gung ho in the Europa.

Our finances are very well run. One of the lowest wages in the PL yet the 25th biggest club in Europe in terms of revenue. A position we will improve on again this year with all the additional monies on from European competitions.

Our outlay has been minimal (excluding the pre agreed transfers for Dendoncker and Jimenez) over the last two windows and we’ve recouped £52m in the sales of Bennett, Costa, Cutrone and Cavaleiro.

We have a very large scope to push forwards in the summer but it’s all dependent on achieving European football again, preferably CL but at a minimum Europa.

I believe these boys and Nuno can do it.

BUT

We need some luck on our side in terms of injuries and suspensions for the rest of the season.

 

[Surrey Wolf]

thought it was the usual bore but ok

 

[Phitsanulok (Poole) Wolf]

I get the feeling there was a bit of a thank you to Ryan

 

[RMNottm]

no statement of intent from fosun, our bench is very lean in fact it's worse than it was a month ago, lets hope nuno is genuinely fine with the business done.
My opinion is that fosun are pushing it as far as they can without any real outlay on their behalf, lets hope it doesn't come back to haunt them. Nuno is doing an excellent job with what he has and he has said all month he wants players now suddenly he is fine with it all ??? 3 out 1 in.we have had two poor windows, this summer will be huge for fosun, with nuno being very in demand fosun will have to show real intentions on moving up a level.

Worse with jota, Jordao, Boly and Podance or first-teamers they replace.. wow!

 

[WolfInSheep'sClothing]

I've said before that you shouldn't really judge a transfer window until 6, 12 months down the line.
If the couple of U-23 signings we made are ready to play a part in the rest of the season, then it's been a good one. If they aren't then our squad is pretty short on numbers.
I'm also not sure how Podence fits in the grand scheme of things. He looks pretty decent, but I felt it wasn't an area of the team that I felt needed improving on. It will be interesting to see how Nuno uses him, and whether we'll see more rotation in the remainder of the season.

 

[Wednesbury Wolf]

Meh.

 

[Wednesbury Wolf]

I've said before that you shouldn't really judge a transfer window until 6, 12 months down the line.
If the couple of U-23 signings we made are ready to play a part in the rest of the season, then it's been a good one. If they aren't then our squad is pretty short on numbers.
I'm also not sure how Podence fits in the grand scheme of things. He looks pretty decent, but I felt it wasn't an area of the team that I felt needed improving on. It will be interesting to see how Nuno uses him, and whether we'll see more rotation in the remainder of the season.

Podence is a player we've bought in a position we didn't need to improve on yet the glaring lack of centre forward cover was left as it was.
Of course as Mendes seems to be in total control of our transfer activity we paid over the odds for Podence who is rated as a £5m player on transfermarket which is less than Neto and half the value of Costa.

 

[Big Nosed Wolf]

no statement of intent from fosun, our bench is very lean in fact it's worse than it was a month ago, lets hope nuno is genuinely fine with the business done.
My opinion is that fosun are pushing it as far as they can without any real outlay on their behalf, lets hope it doesn't come back to haunt them. Nuno is doing an excellent job with what he has and he has said all month he wants players now suddenly he is fine with it all ??? 3 out 1 in.we have had two poor windows, this summer will be huge for fosun, with nuno being very in demand fosun will have to show real intentions on moving up a level.

Unless you consider walking the Championship, finishing 7th in the PL, one FA Cup SF, (which on that occasion was lost in the last 20 by Nuno's subs arguably as not even the best always get it right nothing to do with Fosun really) currently sitting healthily in the PL and consistently mixing it with the best and through to the last 32 of a European Competition. All inside three seasons.

We need some serious intent from Fosun for sure.

 

[wolveslegend]

Worse with jota, Jordao, Boly and Podance or first-teamers they replace.. wow!

what you saying ? dont understand what you have replied with, it doesn't make sense .

 

[DPE]

Ok.

Matheson is an astute signing. 5 mil for Bennett and buy Luke for 1 mil is very good business.

Podance is a very good signing but how long to adapt.

Too small a squad for what we need but I don’t buy that it’s Fosun not trying. Everyone knows January is hard to recruit.

Exited for the rest of the season. Just hope we don’t get any, many injuries.

 

[wolveslegend]

Unless you consider walking the Championship, finishing 7th in the PL, one FA Cup SF, (which on that occasion was lost in the last 20 by Nuno's subs arguably as not even the best always get it right nothing to do with Fosun really) currently sitting healthily in the PL and consistently mixing it with the best and through to the last 32 of a European Competition. All inside three seasons.

We need some serious intent from Fosun for sure.

you happy with not pushing on when we have the opportunity then ?

 

[jrpb-3]

The return of players have masked the issue.

If we have substantial injuries and suspensions were back to where we were before but with even less options to beef up the squad.

IF for instance, Dendoncker gets injured or suspended.

You don’t just change 1 position.

We have to change 2. Boly has to go to RCB and Saiss to LCB.

If Jonny gets injured or suspended. What do we do then? Vinagre is still a month away at the earliest.

If 2 players get injured at any same time our bench will still look depleted.

The good news is that we’ve got 14 games left in the league and hopefully 9 games left in the Europa.

23 games which is about half of what we’ve already played.

The other good thing is we’re in a very strong position going into the summer.

The value of players that play increases due to their requirement of the club they play for.

A Max Kilman becomes much more valuable as a saleable asset if he isn’t surplus to requirements to the owning club.

I think we’ve seen that with the Bennett deal.

A problem does arrive this summer though in that certain players might look for a more progressive route to the top.

The club has ambitions but they are slow and patient.

Some players might have a route to the top, to championships earlier in their careers than others.

I fully expect to see bids for Neves this summer and even Jimenez and maybe Traore.

Once that happens, things start to change.

That is the core of the team and big parts of what stage we’re at now.

Trying to replace those will be hugely difficult and this is one area of concern I have is that our patient approach could backfire on us when it comes to trying to replace important players who leave.

We also now have 17 outfield players who are on paper a top 6 team but not yet a top 4 team.

There is considerable room for improvement still and that means at some point, we’ve got to make those statement signings and push the quality forward.

The catch is, that would be easier with CL football but right now, arguably we don’t have the numbers to push in both the league and Europa league to achieve that so I think internally the focus has to be now on maintaining a healthy PL position but absolutely gung ho in the Europa.

Our finances are very well run. One of the lowest wages in the PL yet the 25th biggest club in Europe in terms of revenue. A position we will improve on again this year with all the additional monies on from European competitions.

Our outlay has been minimal (excluding the pre agreed transfers for Dendoncker and Jimenez) over the last two windows and we’ve recouped £52m in the sales of Bennett, Costa, Cutrone and Cavaleiro.

We have a very large scope to push forwards in the summer but it’s all dependent on achieving European football again, preferably CL but at a minimum Europa.

I believe these boys and Nuno can do it.

BUT

We need some luck on our side in terms of injuries and suspensions for the rest of the season.

so good or bad ?

 

[jrpb-3]

OK. For the first team I'd have liked to see us get the CB (particularly with Bennett going) and Striker we were supposedly after, but happy with strategy that we only get players we actually want and don't panic buy just for numbers. Podence on the face of it looks like good business. For the U23s some interesting signings, but we will have to see how they progress before making a final judgement. we've shipped out a few on loan so that may help the budget in the summer (FFP) for bringing in more

 

[North West Wanderer]

Dont really know, need to see what Podence and Campana bring to the table.

I think you’ll be happy with Podence.

 

[SanFranWolf]

I think we've been deceptivley clever in this window.

Matheson has been signed to play understudy to Doherty at right wing back. Just as Vinagre is on the left hand side, I think Matheson is going to be knocking on the door to start sooner rather than later...

Loiodice is a new Neves/Moutinho midfield maestro understudy project. He has the talent and a great couple of tutors at his disposal! Friend of mine in France says that he's not played a lot this season, but there been quite a bit of talk about him and he's not surprised to see him moved to La Liga or The Prem.

Not sure about Campana, looks like a different option to Raul. Hope he can get off to a good start and the fans really get behind him from min 1. Given we haven't gotten in an experienced striker, he has a lot of expectation on his shoulders.

They all look like projects in the works...

Podence looks a good fit, adapatable across the front 3, clever and another one who will burn defenders alive with raw speed. I'm interested to see how clubs are going to set up against us with him on the left and Adama on the right - you can't double up on both of them at the same time without either leaving gaps somewhere else or having to constantly collapse your midfield deep to cover. I think opposing managers are going to be reaching for the parecetamol just looking at the team sheet.

Bennet is a bit of a strange one. I actually think that pound for pound he could be one of the best all out defenders at the club. Where he struggles compared with Bolly or Killman though of course is his distribution coming forwards. Nuno obviously thinks that he's got enough cover though and even if the unthinkable happened and Mountinho or Neves picked up a knock resulting in moving Dendonker or Saiss forwards there's still enough defensive cover.

Might not have been a window of car loads of flashy £30m stars showing up but I think it's a clever one.

I think the only concern is us not getting a striker of the Olivera or Giroud ilk in to cover Raul.

 

[cannockwolves]

There is no doubt in my mind that the club will see this as a successful window. As Fosun say "patience and time"

They have shown that with the top quality youngsters they have acquired, to add to some excellent prospects we already have.

I guess my question is what happens when all these better u23's start to return. What happens to the likes of Ennis, Watt, Rowan, Giles etc. Is it at that point they get integrated into the first team, or does Nuno only work with 20 pro's

Let's say the French lad we signed is some sort of world beater after 6months of Nuno coaching what happens to MGW or Jordao if Nuno will never group the size of the group?

As with everything Fosun do they are playing the long game, but there are risks. Nuno and our top players thinking we are not making progress fast enough is a key worry. Yes we may get tens of millions for Jiminez or Adams but replacing then is hard.

So for me it's an OK window, but we need a top quality centre back and striker in the summer. I would also upgrade Ruddy and get cover for Right wingback.

 

[John de Wolf's hairdryer]

Maddison is an astute signing.

I must have missed the news about us recruiting FROM Leicester. Would have been a statement signing though, no doubt.

 

[Deleted member 5635]

Ok

Strengthening the position that we are strongest in though.

let’s see what they do in the summer window in adding new first team ready faces, if they want to genuinely challenge to break into the top 4.

 

[Deleted member 4436]

It’ll be interesting to see whether we invert the Jimenez role in some games to a #10. Podence could have some impact there too.

The ol’ false 9 type role.

I love our forward options. They’re right up there with the best in the league.

 

[FJRWolf]

On the whole very good, a striker would have been the icing on the cake but we know its virtually impossible in January (Chelsea and Spurs couldn't get one and they were desperate). Nuno doesn't bring in overpriced tat to sit on the bench. CB we are fine, Coady, Boly, Donck, Saiss and Kilman for 3 positions. With players now back from injury we now have real options off the bench to change a game.
The one concern I have is letting Giles go back out on loan, Nuno must think Burr is up to covering Jonny/Doc

 

[NottsWolves]

It’s the January window so wasn’t expecting all that much as it’s difficult to recruit.

Don’t think it’s a case of what we think, but what Nuno thinks. If he’s happy with the players at his disposal than fair enough.

 

[NottsWolves]

On the whole very good, a striker would have been the icing on the cake but we know its virtually impossible in January (Chelsea and Spurs couldn't get one and they were desperate). Nuno doesn't bring in overpriced tat to sit on the bench. CB we are fine, Coady, Boly, Donck, Saiss and Kilman for 3 positions. With players now back from injury we now have real options off the bench to change a game.
The one concern I have is letting Giles go back out on loan, Nuno must think Burr is up to covering Jonny/Doc

Think I read that Vinagre was going to back soon than expected as injury wasn’t as bad as first thought.