Do the board deserve credit for this transfer window??

Where they've done well:
Shifting the deadwood & managing to get decent fees for a few of them. £10m from MJ, Lawal & Oh who were nowhere near our squad is brilliant

Broke the transfer record twice - the purse-strings are being loosened a little

Where they could improve:
Speeding things up, there's not much reason why any of the players we ended up signing couldn't have been signed & been on the American pre-season tour

 

I'm not going to slap them on the back when they should've been going for players in Engles bracket for over a decade.

The last four or five windows have been average at best.

Time will tell if that's the case for this one.

They've still made a healthy profit, they've hardly pushed the boat out.

 

he would have been more valuable playing for us .what do you really expect they deserve credit for ? replacing one of our best players with a guy with a lot of promise ,or the fact we have two lbs now . maybe its getting rid of the crap players they signed .rodgers said he expected the team to be much better than the one that finished last season and if engels can match oriley contribution we may actually see an improvement at lb .the share holders will heap credit on them for being £23 m odd better off

 

I will reserve judgement of it until I see what they do with our sporting structure and post January window. They get pass marks for now...

 

Spent less than brought in.
Took far too long to get key positions filled, meaning we go in to tomorrow's game with a likely weaker side than last season.
Didn't get all the positions filled that needed filled.

So no, they don't get credit as a whole.

Credit for getting rid of a lot of deadwood, sure..

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Absolutely they do. We've done a lot of things right this window. Improved certain positions, replaced well in key positions, and improved the depth of the squad. Also got rid of a lot of deadwood. On the face of it it's been a very good window. I think we all felt another winger/creative midfielder was needed, so it wasn't perfect, but a lot of good work done.

Can't wait to see us line up with Valle, Trusty and Engels.

 

Little or no credit from me.
Is the squad any stronger than when Ange left, not really.
With all the money we-the fans-pump into the club, they are duty bound to continuously improve the playing staff.

Ya dont pat the postman on the back for delivering the mail.
They dicked around way too long-keeper and Iadh and Bernardo should have been in as soon as window opened. LB and CB were needed a year ago.

Not much they could do about Matt going and have got in an adequate replacement, so well done there.
Where's our 3rd striker? Guaranteed BR wants 3.

 

As I said in another thread, we could have and should have signed a wide player and perhaps another CF however they have got rid of some of the deadwood but, then again, the board were mainly responsible for that too so the jury's still out for me. Can't wait till we have to do it all again in January

 

Brought in nearly £50m in transfers alone after January window closed, AFTER.

Spent just over half that, and even sticking their full wages over the entirety of their careers with us it'll not be anywhere near that 50.

Huge no for me. Still penny pinching *.

 

It doesnae matter what the board do with some, they'll still be * LOL

I honestly think it depends on how many of the targets brendan wanted that they got. Breaking the transfer record twice shows a willingness to back the manager so deserve credit for that

 

Until we have a proper footballing, scouting and development structure the answer should be a definite no. Without doing the basics well anything else is just a game of roulette. Sure this window was reasonable, but it could well have tipped the other way as last years demonstrates.

 

What does finances brought in have to to with what we spent, in a negative context?

We didn't sell Matt ORiley until 5 days ago, so should we have spent that £26m on players BEFORE it came in?

Or do folk actually swallow their pride and complete stubborness for a second and admit we've had our highest spending transfer window ever (I believe) and broke our transfer record twice both on players that the manager wanted?

 

I look at the bigger picture and wouldn't be content with the operation of the Board. This window does not excuse the previous. Few points to consider:

• Multitude of Previous Poor Windows - multiple consecutive poor windows have hampered us and presents an opportunity cost. For example, in the context of the CB and LB positions - real quality additions were needed 7 windows ago. The fact we are making these signings now is creating an opportunity cost that means we have failed to strengthen other important areas like wingers (i.e. replacing Abada and Jota) or RB or CDM
• Football Inflation - even with us eventually purchasing a £10m+ player, we are still well behind where we ought to be in the year 2024. As we all know, Celtic have benefitted significantly from football inflation through player sale quantum, ST receivables, CL and sponsorship money. Yet prior to this summer, we have been shopping in the same £6-7m bucket as the year 2003. Moving to the £10m bracket is well over due and is not deserving of a pat on the back 21 years on from the year 2003.
• Net net to May 2024 - everyone could see we needed an injection of quality at the end of the season. Despite the excitement around Engels, he needs to hit the ground running to meet MO'R outputs as we have lost his productivity metrics. At this stage, we are net net to May 2024 if Engels can match MO'R outputs straight away. Valle and Trusty are the only other signings who can impact the first team performance & I'm not convinced on the latter (but we will review in due course). To me, only Valle brings us above net net relative to May 2024. A heavy reliance on a 20yr old to be the key squad improver. McCowan is a fair player and will be Barry Robson/Paul Hartley/maybe Willo Flood but fundamentally not going to bring us up another level in Europe.
• Structuring & Execution - speed of origination and execution has been poor which has meant a few things: i) we have almost certainly missed out on good quality players ii) we will have almost certainly paid a premium on transfer fee & wages by not executing early iii) our first Hun game is in 2 days & our first CL game in 2 weeks time and the new signings have not bedded in, nor do we know their real quality

 

No club in the world looks at spend that way to be fair. Income is income, not a stick to beat the board with. Reality is we’ve gone out and spent over £30 million, and we’ve spent it on a small number of players (£20 million on Idah and Engels alone). Something we’ve all been crying out for us to do since the MON days.

Rodgers has finally got his way and it bodes incredibly well for the future. Most importantly of all, it makes Rodgers feel like he’s respected and being acknowledged for a job well done. Who knows how long he might stay if he continues to be backed like that?

I said it in another thread and I may end up looking a gullible idiot, but I don’t see Rodgers leaving in the next 10 years unless he’s offered a massive job like Man United or something.

 

O'Riley obviously wanted to go. So, you're saying we should have kept him against his wishes and have a player not wanting to be here and all the negativity it brings around the place .. only to lose him for free, or much less than the fee we got ?

They handled the O'Riley situation absolutely perfect, they couldn't have done any better. Kept him when Atletico came sniffing and got highest fee possible when selling him.

 

Absolutely yes. I get the negativity, as the last 2 January windows were poor and last summer was the worst window I can remember; but the question is about this window and IMO they have done a fantastic job this summer and do deserve a lot of credit.

We still need to update and upgrade our recruitment system, though. 1 good window from 4 is worrying. Having said that, they don't have time machines and have done everything we could reasonably have asked from them this summer.

 

It matters, because the money was clearly there, before and after (even more so) the O'Rielly sale to push on even more than we have done.

As it stands, it's debatable that the squad is on a par with last season, but pushing that bit extra would have taken the squad up the level.

Let's not pretend we didn't know O'Rielly was being sold long before he was, not that it would matter since the money at the bank.

Yes, the positive is that we broke the record twice in one season and the overall outlay is potentially up there with one of the largest we've done, if not the largest.
But again, the money is there and has been there to do this regardless.

But even that positive, is a bit downplayed because we did not get the numbers required in depth.

Rodgers wanted one in before anyone was sold, namely O'Rielly, for central midfield.
Two if O'Rielly was sold.
Sure we got those two, but we also then sold Iwata, who did play a part, so another was needed again.

So yeah, on the whole it's a mixed bag of a window, but not enough positives in it to give the board credit for doing, inevitably less than the minimum in terms of players in to make us stronger for European football, which is what the majority of fans and the manager has been crying out for, for a long time.

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Right so how much money exactly was available prior to the Oriley transfer fee coming in (presuming it's an actual bank transfer of £26m????

 

It was a step in the right direction, the next step is fully backing Rodgers in the January window.

Too early to tell what we'll need for certain, but I think we'll need a Winger and another CB come January, maybe a LB once we know Taylor's situation.

Getting Engels for the price we paid does deserve credit, but they need to continue down that route, and we can start that by actually revamping our scouting system.