So you know that mythical quote from Brian Clough about wanting to ‘win the league better’, that was pretty much our aim this transfer window.
Try to get the players in to try and make a push for the records that we fell short of last season, doing it unbeaten and maybe getting 100 points while we’re at it. Sadly we can’t get the former anymore, but we still managed to have a pretty good first half of the window, with the ‘domestic deadline’ still to come.
But just how well did we do overall? Well let’s take a look shall we?
Best bit of business: This summer was always going to be about adding strength in depth. With seven players playing 45 games or more last season, we needed those extra bodies in there to allow players to rest rather than being cycled out for games they didn’t need to (which is why I agreed with Jürgen Klopp’s stance about team selection in the F.A Cup back in January). With the likes of Diogo Jota and Thiago Alcántara brought in, we did exactly that. If I had to pick one, I’d say I liked the move for Thiago more because I think rotation in midfield is more important going forward, but it’s not by much.
Did we have a good transfer window overall?
Yes
No
Worst bit of business: It’s going to sound weird, but as much as we’ve added strength as listed above, we’re now in a situation where we might have too much. I detailed on deadline day about how Xherdan Shaqiri, Harry Wilson and Marco Grujic were set to stay at the club, and unless they can find an EFL club to take them in the domestic window (possible, but unlikely), then their careers are going to take a back step as they struggle to get playing time, and we’re just wasting money.
And in an age where we need to save as much as we can given the circumstances, that’s not a great place to be in.
Overall grade: B) We didn’t do much, because in reality we didn’t need to do much so overall it was a pretty reasonable window with not too many headlines being made, which possibly takes away some of the ‘wow’ factor.