The window closed on Thursday. Here is what I think.
Arsenal. Bought a central midfielder and kept everyone who mattered. Quiet window. That is the right window for a title challenger. When you are buying, you are covering a hole. Arsenal have no holes right now. They spent sensibly and they are the better for it.
Get the Gaffer's picks before kick-off
Every GW, his predictions land in your inbox on Friday morning. No spin. No excuses. Just picks.
Manchester City. Lost two senior players and replaced them with youth. Gambling on development. City have done this before and it has worked and it has not worked. I think they are slightly thinner than they were twelve months ago. Not enough to change the title picture. Enough to worry about the Capital One Cup in November.
“A window that made three clubs stronger and left five clubs with the same problems they had in May.”
Liverpool. The Salah replacement cost them seventy million pounds and I cannot tell you yet whether it was worth it because he has not played a competitive minute. What I can tell you is that the profile is right. Quick, technical, presses from the front. Whether he has the character for Anfield in February is a different question. I will know by October.
Tottenham. Signed four players and none of them are starters. This is what Tottenham does. They buy depth in areas they do not need depth in and leave the areas they do need covering without cover. Same as last summer. Same as the summer before that. They have a gifted squad and no plan for what to do with it. I will be backing against them in the big games again this season.
Newcastle. Bought a centre-back and a winger and spent sensibly. This is a club that knows what it is doing now. Two years ago they were making panic signings. Now they are buying with a plan. They will finish in the top six again. I said that last season and I was right. I am saying it again.
The promoted sides. Coventry and Hull both strengthened sensibly without overspending. Ipswich made one big signing and will probably live to regret it. When promoted clubs make their one big signing, it rarely integrates by October and they spend the first half of the season wondering why the team does not click. I have seen this pattern enough times to trust it.
Chelsea. Signed four players in the last two weeks of the window. They do this every summer. The integration cost is enormous. They will be scrambling to find a first XI in September. Their manager will name a different lineup in the first six gameweeks than he will name in gameweek twenty. They are not worth backing in August.
That is the window. Three clubs stronger. Five with the same problems. The rest somewhere in between. GW1 picks Friday. You know where to find them.
“A window that made three clubs stronger and left five clubs with the same problems they had in May.”
The Gaffer · beatthegaffer.com