Summer '21 transfer lunacy and overpayment

[I am invisible]

Yeah, I’m not far off that, although I’m not including the manager in this because we can make that change at any time (and the signings look like they’ve been chosen to outlive him).

—

The plan - B+
No issues with the plan - the plan was sound, and I 100% support it. Should have done it 3 years ago, in fact! Question marks over execution, but the idea was right, and I could clearly see what the thinking / logic was.

Had to knock it down a grade because of Edu’s non-committal answer when asked about targets in his interview - if there aren’t targets then how can we set expectations or measure success? How is anyone held to account?

Incomings - B-
I’m actually very happy with all of the signings we did make - might have overpaid for a couple (HG tax) but then got some bargains on others, so value is kind of neutral for me. Can’t give it anything higher though because we weren’t able to refresh CF and CM. A very high bar this window.

Outgoings - E
The only thing that’s saved this from being an F is the Willock sale and Willian walking away for nothing (and that was more luck than judgement). There’s still a chance we could make some sales / loans to the continent, but it’s still a pretty sorry list on the outs. I expect Nketiah, Lacazette and Leno will all leave for nothing next summer now.

Overall - Fail
Tbf, I’m not sure it was even possible for this window to have been anything other than a fail, given the dead market and the squad full of overpaid crap that no one in their right mind was ever going to take off us (even in the best of times), but that is where we find ourselves as a club, and nothing short of a double-A for incomings and outgoings was ever going to make this window a success. Could anyone else have done any better? Maybe not, but it was certainly too big an ask for Edu.