January Transfer Window - 2023

[The_Steve]

1 hour ago, DCJonah said:

Come on. Is this now going to be the narrative to justify the complaining? 

 

Where has this frustration myth come from? It’s absolutely bizarre 

[Khizzy]

Let's face it, there's a slim chance we might get sucked into the relegation places. The only thing that has suffered significantly is the quality on our bench. Most of those players were surplus to requirements anyway. Aside from losing Ings it might prove to be a good window but we won't know until the end of the season when it's all done and dusted. 

Can't be arsed with all the panicking! We must have enough faith in the younger players to take the spots on the bench and it will be good to see them play as well. I'd rather have them there than some rubbish Championship level players who don't want to play for us. 

I think we will invest heavily in the summer, and the success of obtaining our targets will inexplicably be linked to our final position in Premier League this season. 

[sidcow]

1 hour ago, nick76 said:

Yep as Emery indicated that Duran was a club signing, not his and he’s only signed one of his targets in Moreno and you could sense Emery’s frustration….

If you believe anything written in the Evening Mail you need your head seeing to.

They're covering their arse from all the daily transfer bullshit links they've been posting daily for weeks when they know absolutely nothing.  

[sidcow]

15 minutes ago, The_Steve said:

Where has this frustration myth come from? It’s absolutely bizarre 

Meaning Evil.  The only frustrating thing is that people are taken in by it and repeat the nonsense.

[bobzy]

1 hour ago, nick76 said:

Yep as Emery indicated that Duran was a club signing, not his and he’s only signed one of his targets in Moreno and you could sense Emery’s frustration….

 

1 minute ago, sidcow said:

Meaning Evil.  The only frustrating thing is that people are taken in by it and repeat the nonsense.

 

Not from the mail, nick has obviously seen an interview (hence the "you could sense").

[PieFacE]

I'm pretty content with the window to be honest. I'm very pleased with the fact that apparently we've been willing to spend money, we've just had issues with convincing players to come here. Which goes to show we're only going to sign players if they come in and improve the first 11 which is what we need to progress. Signing people for the sake of it is how you end up with a huge wage bill and being unable to shift players when we need to.

I'm also pleased with the wages we've managed to get off the books which all points to a big summer window imo. Which is the most ideal time to bring players in anyways. 

Sure if we get a few injuries this season then it may hinder where we end up. But that was the case previously anyway as the players we've offloaded barely kicked a ball anyway with the exception of Ings, who spent most of his time on the bench and coming on as an impact sub. We've now got Duran who can fill that role, whether that turns out to be a good thing or not time will tell. Ultimately, looking at the big picture, I still believe selling Ings was the smart thing to do even if it may cause a bit of short-term pain (potentially). Especially as the player himself wanted to leave. 

Roll on the Summer. 

[OutByEaster?]

Personally, I think the window has been a little disappointing. I'm happy with the two players we got, I think they've both got the potential to be really useful for us and I like the idea of us getting a really good prospect in Duran, but we're undeniably now a little light in some key areas that might cause us a problem.

I think the club will be disappointed about that too, I'm sure they'd have liked another midfielder, winger or striker or some some sort of combination of those - but, there's some skill and some luck in negotiating the transfer market and I suspect we've decided not to play our cards for a variety of reasons. 

One of those will be value - with Chelsea inflating markets and Arsenal offering £70m+ for Caceido, I would imagine that Marseille were putting a pretty big price on the head of their prized midfielder - they seem to have hinted at that in the press. Having money and throwing it around are different things and I guess that whilst Boehly and Chelsea have now got themselves into a position where clubs will demand the moon knowing that he'll pay up, we've maybe lost out on a player or two, but gained the idea that Aston Villa aren't just a fat Premier league cow for milking. That sort of fits into our (visible) practices on transfers; we don't seem to do a lot of long negotiation, we don't publicly negotiate in the press, in fact, from the outside it doesn't look like we negotiate an awful lot at all - it looks like we evaluate and make an offer and that our offer will be pretty near what we'll do. That's great in establishing how the club gets treated in the market, but frustrating when we don't get players in a world where other chairman throw cash around like a banker at a strip club.

Luck and skill means that we ought to have options and that we ought to be pitching some of those bids in the right places to have landed a player, to have grabbed someone off our list, and it's disappointing that we haven't. Maybe our timing was off, maybe our ambitions make our business more difficult; big fish are harder to catch, maybe we just didn't do a good enough job - I dunno, and in truth I'm not sure more than about four or five people do.

Usually in these windows, we'll also add a prospect, some sixteen year old wonderkid from somewhere or other for half a million or whatever and it's interesting that we haven't done that this January, although I'm not sure it tells us anything.

I think our outgoings have been generally positive, with a lot of money off the wage bill for players that weren't contributing, that comes with a little bit of a risk on numbers, but the club was still confident enough to be sending prospects out on loan right up until last night, so you sense they're comfortable.

Anyways, we'll plow on with what we have, we'll look forward to seeing what we've brought in (and the rumours are that Duran is impressing) and I guess we'll find out in the summer whether it's luck, judgement, desire or ability that's left us waiting.

Not the end of the world and perhaps valuable in the long term, but a little flat.

[Woody1000]

I have tbh, I’m left a little underwhelmed by the window and I’m surprised that we haven’t brought in a direct replacement for Danny Ings, but I feel that this has ultimately been given the green light by Unai.

Barring any disasters, I believe UE can get 8th/9th this season with the team as it is.

As long as this is what Unai has decided to do then I’m on board, if for any reason he hasn’t been backed then I’d be unhappy but then I’m pretty sure that UE wouldn’t stand for that.

[Indigo]

I'm not saying he literally stated he was frustrated or anything, but I don't think it's unreasonable to suggest that Emery wouldn't have been too enthused with this window* simply because there were a couple of positions that he stated he wanted to add to and it didn't transpire.

 

* Which does not mean he isn't being backed, has since decided he doesn't believe in the project anymore etc

[Laughable Chimp]

Lol at Nick getting called out here. He finally pushed it too far.

[Lerner's Driver]

13 minutes ago, The_Steve said:

Where has this frustration myth come from? It’s absolutely bizarre 

Nobody knows how Emery feels, they are speculating that he could be feeling frustrated based on: (1) what he himself said, "they are not coming", (2) the reality - we wanted another striker separately from Duran, but didn't get one, (3) he's new in post and the first opportunity to back him only produced one of his target signings.

Again, nobody knows if all of this adds up to him being frustrated, but it's not unreasonable to suggest that he is.

Oh and that's okay btw! I want him to want more. We must deliver at least some of these main targets in the summer. We absolutely must. No question about that.

[sidcow]

I am surprised that we've sold Ings and not got in a replacement.  If Watkins suffers a serious injury we're going to be using makeshift strikers for the rest of the season.......but then our success so far us not based on Watkins and Ings scoring a ton of goals so someone like Bailey or Bertie playing up top who will likely still chip in with a couple of goals is not going to materially effect our outcomes.  Probably the pressing Ollie brings will be missed most.

I guess the loan window is still open or it it only the summer that extra window exists?

Hope we have a recall option on Archer.  He may be needed if Watkins gets crocked.

Failing that maybe we can make an offer to Chris Samba to come out of retirement.

 

 

Edited February 1, 2023 by sidcow

[Teale's 'tache]

I always find it difficult to judge a transfer window, mainly because the proof of the pudding is in the eating. What happens between now and the next window will give us some indication, but even then, transfers have a much longer lifespan than that.

I think the squad needed trimming, we had too many sitting on a wage not really contributing anything. I also think that a slightly smaller squad will suit Emery at the moment, he's spending a lot of time educating the players and it's much easier to teach a smaller class than a large one. By and large the players that have gone were not getting any minutes, and that's during a first half of the season where we've been far from injury free, there's no point having so many players around 'just in case' there's an injury crisis. The Ings sale made a whole lot of financial sense, he was a savvy operator on the pitch and played a role in the squad, but I don't think it's quite as big a loss as some are making out, let's see what Duran gives us between now and the end of the season and pass judgment then. 

I can understand the frustration of some who wanted a statement signing, or to show more ambition to push on for a European place, but it's not really that simple. The January window is for those who are desperate and for the bigger clubs who shop in their own 'Champions League' transfer market that we are not privy to just yet. I'm not saying it's impossible to get the quality we are looking for in January, just that you have to first find a club willing to lose a quality player mid-season, and then you'll likely have to pay a premium for that privilege. If a quality player is readily available at a sensible fee (like Trossard) you have to question why and take that in to consideration.

Also, even if we signed 2 or 3 more players to improve the team, there's no guarantee that they will instantly improve the team enough to make it in to Europe, many players take time to settle and adjust to different systems, and not every transfer works out as expected despite all due diligence being done. There are no guarantees, not everything is black and white.

I imagine Emery probably is a little disappointed we haven't got another player or two in for him to work with, but he's a very intelligent and experienced guy, he knows it's not that simple, he knows that January isn't the ideal time to be shopping for the quality he wants and he will accept it and work with what he's got between now and the end of the season, and he will back himself to get the most out of those players, because that's what good managers do, and make no mistake he is a very good manager. He'll be expecting more in the summer no doubt, and the room we've made on the wage bill in January will certainly help with that.

[Laughable Chimp]

14 minutes ago, Indigo said:

I'm not saying he literally stated he was frustrated or anything, but I don't think it's unreasonable to suggest that Emery wouldn't have been too enthused with this window* simply because there were a couple of positions that he stated he wanted to add to and it didn't transpire.

 

* Which does not mean he isn't being backed, has since decided he doesn't believe in the project anymore etc

Its not unreasonable to assume that, but its still an assumption. There's no actual evidence of that being the case so you can't just throw it out there to strengthen your argument. Not without further justification or clarifying that what you're saying is nothing more than an assumption. 

People do this all the time(not just Nick), where they'll bundle in shaky assumptions into their argument that get by because no one feels like its worth calling them individually out. He pushed it just a bit too far here.

Edited February 1, 2023 by Laughable Chimp

[Zero7]

18 minutes ago, Woody1000 said:

I have tbh, I’m left a little underwhelmed by the window and I’m surprised that we haven’t brought in a direct replacement for Danny Ings, but I feel that this has ultimately been given the green light by Unai.

Barring any disasters, I believe UE can get 8th/9th this season with the team as it is.

As long as this is what Unai has decided to do then I’m on board, if for any reason he hasn’t been backed then I’d be unhappy but then I’m pretty sure that UE wouldn’t stand for that.

Considering the basket case of a season we started with and were heading for that would be a major achievement, even 10th / 11th would do me. The team were utterly shot of confidence when he took over 

[duke313]

16 minutes ago, sidcow said:

I am surprised that we've sold Ings and not got in a replacement.  If Watkins suffers a serious injury we're going to be using makeshift strikers for the rest of the season.......but then our success so far us not based on Watkins and Ings scoring a ton of goals so someone like Bailey or Bertie playing up top who will likely still chip in with a couple of goals is not going to materially effect our outcomes.  Probably the pressing Ollie brings will be missed most.

I guess the loan window is still open or it it only the summer that extra window exists?

Hope we have a recall option on Archer.  He may be needed if Watkins gets crocked.

Failing that maybe we can make an offer to Chris Samba to come out of retirement.

The same applies if Martinez gets injured, we'd have to use Olsen the rest of the season.

[nick76]

1 hour ago, gwi1890 said:

When did Emery indicate this?

In his presser recently, and the Birmingham Mail Q&A link a few pages back talks about that comment

[nick76]

39 minutes ago, sidcow said:

If you believe anything written in the Evening Mail you need your head seeing to.

They're covering their arse from all the daily transfer bullshit links they've been posting daily for weeks when they know absolutely nothing.  

I watched his presser as well. Are people not watching his pressers?

Edited February 1, 2023 by nick76

[Kingman]

5 minutes ago, duke313 said:

The same applies if Martinez gets injured, we'd have to use Olsen the rest of the season.

Yup, Losing Martinez and having to put Crusty back in the sticks makes me want to shut my head in the car door  

[villa89]

It's been a good window for us, no need to spend big now when we are stuck in mid table. Wait until the summer and then try to ship a few out as well.