EPL Desperation Meter: How Worried Should Your Team Be After Transfer Window?
It all seems so simple on paper, doesn't it?
Draft up a list of brilliant players, lodge the appropriate bids, complete the signings and let the fans drink in those images of your new acquisitions holding your club's shirt aloft. Seasonal aspirations transformed; summer spirits lifted.
For some Premier League clubs, such as Manchester City and Manchester United, that's how the transfer window transpired. They pretty much got what they wanted, bar perhaps one target for each, and look an entirely different beast compared to last season.
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But for others, things went far less swimmingly. Transfer windows can be a source of great disappointment and worry for some, with targets signing for other clubs or being placed out of your price range. It can mean you start the season under a cloud, and that naturally transfers into performances.
We've run each Premier League team's summer business through the desperation meter to check how they've fared, and measured how worried they should be following the closure of the window. Fair warning: It ranges from "near-perfect window" to "outright panic stations."
Feeling Fine
Huddersfield Town
Huddersfield manager David Wagner brought 12 new players into the club this summer, and while turnover to that extent is usually something to worry about, he's managed the situation perfectly.
The large majority of the new players were signed early, meaning they were able to join the club's now-famous offseason bonding activities and integrate tactically, and only four of the newcomers are in the starting XI.
What was initially (bizarrely) labelled as a "trolley dash" by some now appears to be exactly what it always was: smart, early business. Wagner has two players for every position and looks to have recruited the requisite quality to stay up.
Watford
Watford signed 10 first-team players this summer, three of whom arrived on a busy deadline day, and they have also settled quickly. Like Wagner, Marco Silva is an excellent coach and man manager and won't try too much too soon with his new crop.
In the space of one window, Silva has turned the Hornets' biggest weakness last season (midfield play) into their biggest strength. The core is so solid—what a signing Nathaniel Chalobah was for £5.5 million—and Richarlison and Andre Gray make them snappier and quicker up top.
With depth added at left-back and a good new right-back recruited in Kiko Femenia, the Hornets look so far from the outfit who lost six straight at the end of 2016-17 and finished a lowly 17th.
West Bromwich Albion
No one could begrudge WBA boss Tony Pulis if he'd sparked up a cigar following the culmination of this summer's transfer window because he absolutely nailed it.
Acquiring Grzegorz Krychowiak—a player who could probably have improved Arsenal's current midfield—on loan from Paris Saint-Germain was just one of several remarkable moves.
Nabbing Oliver Burke from RB Leipzig rose some eyebrows for the right reasons, while signing Gareth Barry's nous from Everton and keeping Jonny Evans from Manchester City's clutches also deserves commendation.
Sitting Pretty
Burnley
About a month ago, Burnley fans were starting to become quite alarmed by their club's apparent apathy in the transfer market. Michael Keane and Andre Gray had left the club (for a combined fee in the region of £45 million), and no clear replacements had been signed.
But while fans panicked and flapped, manager Sean Dyche remained cool. He eventually signed Chris Wood to carry the load up top—and the 25-year-old responded with a debut goal at Wembley off the bench—while promoting James Tarkowski to Keane's position.
The Clarets look set for numbers and quality in midfield, have the 2016-17 Championship season's best striker, kept their brilliant goalkeeper and will remain stingy in defence.
Leicester City
That Leicester City managed to extract close to £35 million from Chelsea for Danny Drinkwater is remarkable; an incredible deal from their perspective. The problem is that the player they signed to replace him—Adrien Silva—was not registered in time and now can't play until January (subject to an appeal).
While this places a dark cloud over the Foxes' business, they've still got enough bodies to cover that position in the form of newly acquired Vicente Iborra and existing squad members Matty James, Andy King and Daniel Amartey.
It's arguable Leicester could have done with a new right-back, but the fact current incumbent Danny Simpson works so well in tandem with the somehow-retained Riyad Mahrez means it's no great miss.
Southampton
All of a sudden, Southampton have one of the strongest defensive lines in the Premier League again. The full-back tandem of Ryan Bertrand and Cedric will soon be joined by £15 million acquisition Wesley Hoedt and current club pariah Virgil van Dijk. It's harsh on Maya Yoshida and Jack Stephens, but that's football.
It was pretty quiet for Saints from an incoming perspective, though they didn't need much. Mario Lemina's a good addition who brings a driving quality previously lacking, and manager Mauricio Pellegrino should be able to get the best from him.
With three strikers, a glut of attacking midfielders and a host of central options, no further business was required, and this allied with the retention of Van Dijk means Saints are stronger than last season.
Did Enough
AFC Bournemouth
AFCB's start to the season has not been good, losing each of their first three Premier League games, but that's not indicative of a poor summer.
In actual fact, their transfer business made a lot of sense; they strengthened their spine considerably, purchasing new stars in goal, defence and up top.
Asmir Begovic is a huge upgrade on Artur Boruc, Nathan Ake was stellar during a loan spell at the Vitality Stadium last season, and Jermain Defoe's goalscoring pedigree is undoubted. Just wait for it all to come together.
Missed a Piece
Everton
Whether or not the business Everton did has made them any better is a lively debate, but whichever side of the fence you fall on, it's clear they've done enough to cement themselves as at least the seventh-best team in the league.
They spent a lot on domestic-based players, clearly opting in part for the "Premier League-proven" option where possible, but did some good business on the continent, spending around £15 million combined on Croatian talent Nikola Vlasic and Malaga star Sandro Ramirez.
If you're being critical, it's arguable the Toffees failed to land one last piece: a striker/winger (or a combination of the two). The front line is a bit slow, and Ronald Koeman doesn't have any speed to turn to when counter-attacking (unless Kevin Mirallas completes a personal U-turn).
Manchester City
It's arguable Sky Blues manager Pep Guardiola was a centre-back short of the perfect haul this summer. All other areas of weakness were addressed—particularly full-back—and an extra dose of quality in attack was added in the form of Bernardo Silva.
Given Vincent Kompany's fitness concerns, Nicolas Otamendi's fluctuating form and John Stones' confidence dips, it might well have been prudent to secure a fourth player in this position. But it's no major gripe, and if Stones progresses as hoped, it may not be an issue at all.
Manchester United
Red Devils boss Jose Mourinho got most of what he wanted this summer. The striker, central midfielder and centre-back boxes were ticked, but the left-back one remains dry of ink.
That's no disaster—Daley Blind and Matteo Darmian, not to mention Luke Shaw—are more than enough to carry the club through to January (or next summer), but the reality is he missed one piece.
The fact they've started so well, are yet to concede a goal and have even garnered an assist from Blind's excellent set pieces softens that blow even further. Nemanja Matic and Romelu Lukaku have proved such great additions that they've taken the focus away anyway.
10. Tottenham
It took them a long time, but Tottenham more or less nailed this window. Fans were beginning to panic by the time the opening day of the season rolled around and not a single new face had been signed, but things soon took a turn for the better.
Serge Aurier may have off-field concerns, but if he steers clear of trouble under the watchful eye of Mauricio Pochettino (and Hugo Lloris!), he fully replaces what Kyle Walker brought to the team...for literally half the price.
Davinson Sanchez suits Pochettino's style of football and has established himself as a fine centre-back already, so he's a good acquisition, and it appears as though the club have finally solved their problem of how to back Harry Kane up, with Fernando Llorente accepting a back-up role at the club on deadline day.
Missed A Major Piece
9. Swansea City
Gylfi Sigurdsson and Llorente, two of Swansea's best players last season and the two most pivotal in them beating the drop, have left the club. Generally speaking, that's cause for serious concern.
But the Swans negotiated the market well and charged an extortionate price for Sigurdsson that has essentially financed their entire summer. Wilfried Bony returns to the club to replace Llorente, while Sam Clucas, Roque Mesa and Renato Sanches (!) bolster the midfield.
The only area they failed to address is right-back. They tried hard to sign PSV Eindhoven's Santiago Arias but couldn't agree a price, but that isn't the end of the world.
8. Liverpool
For the third consecutive summer, Liverpool failed to address the glaring weakness they possess at centre-back. It's beginning to border on the ridiculous.
Van Dijk was courted all window but never arrived, and at no point did the club come up with an alternative target. It detracts from what was, otherwise, a pretty good summer: Mohamed Salah already looks cheap, while Naby Keita was at least secured for next season at a pretty reasonable fee.
Whether Andy Robertson is the game-changer they needed at left-back is a question we cannot yet answer, but at £8 million it's hardly a bad deal.
Different Wavelengths?
7. Newcastle United
The clubs in this section appear to have been affected by internal miscommunications; it can't possibly be that everyone—manager, board, owner—was on the same wavelength.
We start with Newcastle, who have made their struggle for power quite public. Rafa Benitez wasn't given much money to use in the transfer window and had to settle for some pretty cheap deals at times. It seems unlikely Javi Manquillo and Matt Targett—one of whom was signed, the other targeted—were at the top of the Spaniard's full-back wish list.
One fact sums up the whole situation rather nicely: Every club in the division has broken their transfer record in the last three seasons except for the Magpies, who last broke it for Michael Owen in 2005.
Benitez doesn't have a bad side, and there's a more than reasonable chance they have enough to stay up, but if it were any other manager in charge of the same squad, you might not feel the same.
6. Chelsea
Chelsea's approach to the transfer window was rather strange. They sold and/or loaned out a legion of players in the early weeks, stockpiling a mountain of cash that, we presumed, would be spent on new acquisitions to make the squad stronger.
Except that second part never happened, and they ended up scratching around on deadline day for players like Danny Drinkwater and Davide Zappacosta for a combined £60 million. No disrespect to those two very capable players, but that's a ridiculous sum of money to spend on them.
Romelu Lukaku never arrived; neither did Llorente, Alex Sandro or Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain; Ross Barkley technically did, but he wasn't signed either.
Fractures between the manager (Antonio Conte) and the recruitment staff (Michael Emenalo and Marina Granovskaia) were clear by the end. It has left the club in a questionable situation numbers-wise for the season ahead.
5. Stoke City
Stoke manager Mark Hughes entered the window badly in need of striking firepower and midfield reinforcement. He's come out of it still badly needing firepower and only partially satiated in midfield. That's not good.
Some Stoke fans will point to that rock-solid-looking defence they've put together and ask how teams are going to find a way through, but the commodity that keeps you in the Premier League is goals. Where are they?
On paper, the Potters have them, but you can't rely on Eric Maxim Choupo-Moting, Xherdan Shaqiri and Jese to find good form consistently or even perform in unison. A Football Manager 2011 wonderkid shortlist does not make a good real-life football 2017 strikeforce.
At least Peter Crouch is still around to save the day every now and then!
In Very Murky Waters
4. West Ham United
West Ham's transfer windows are wild rides. The prevailing theme of them in the last few years has been that there doesn't seem to be much of a plan in place; the acquisitions made are not with a definitive blueprint in mind.
The players they sign are good, generally, but with no real idea of how to fit them all into the same jigsaw, managers are often left stumped. An example: Havard Nordtveit is not a bad player, though his 2016-17 tape would beg to differ due to the difficult situation he was placed in.
So to this summer's haul, and question marks are already beginning to surface. Well, aside from the impending legal battle broiling between the club and Sporting CP over who said what about William Carvalho, they picked up a severely out-of-form Joe Hart on loan, a tired Pablo Zabaleta, a feisty and potentially untrustworthy Marko Arnautovic for a record fee and an expensive Javier Hernandez.
Hernandez is great, but he needs the service; he cannot thrive in a lonely role. Does Arnautovic complement him, and in turn, do either work well with last summer's big signing Andre Ayew? Is it another case of seeing what sticks?
It's only been three games, but this Hammers side looks very disjointed already and have shipped a remarkable 10 goals. Zabaleta's performances have done nothing to suggest he's the solution they were seeking at right-back, and if Hart carries on in this form, West Ham will have actually downgraded in goal.
3. Arsenal
Despite promises to spend big and right the wrongs of the last few years, Arsene Wenger emerged from the summer transfer window—quite remarkably—in profit. Hmm.
B/R's Dean Jones produced a fantastic piece on this subject earlier this week, detailing how and why it went so wrong for the club, from the early flirting with Kylian Mbappe to the panic-bidding for Thomas Lemar on deadline day.
At the very least, the Gunners recruited a top striker in Alexandre Lacazette and improved the defence a touch with Sead Kolasinac. But those were the only two signings they made, with the blatant need for a commanding central midfielder ignored and the Alexis Sanchez/Mesut Ozil contract debacles still unsolved.
In the end, it all got a little bit embarrassing. As Jones reports above, Lemar didn't fancy a move to the Emirates Stadium, and neither did Julian Draxler, who was also approached late on. That meant keeping Alexis, who is now heartbroken, and the squad aren't feeling particularly warm toward him either.
They'll lose Alexis for free next summer—if they're not forced to sell him for half this summer's asking price in January—and the fact Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain turned down a £180,000-per-week contract to hightail to Anfield says it all.
2. Crystal Palace
If Frank de Boer is soon for the chop, as the Telegraph have hinted, then perhaps things aren't so bad. Perhaps they'll lose to Burnley, the Dutchman will go and the board will find a more suitable replacement. The season starts here and all that.
If that reads like a slight on De Boer, that was only partially the aim. Much of the blame for this scenario, in which Palace's squad have—shockingly—failed to emulate Ajax or Barcelona by the third game of this Premier League season, lies with the decision-makers.
What De Boer has done so far is exactly what he did at Inter Milan, and before that at Ajax; he hasn't turned up and completely changed his style. It was never going to work with a squad built by former managers Neil Warnock, Tony Pulis, Alan Pardew and Sam Allardyce.
He was only backed with three signings prior to deadline day (two of them loans from top-four teams), and Mamadou Sakho was added with the clock expiring. How the board expected De Boer to shift styles so aggressively with so few new faces to set the tone is unclear, let alone re-train Christian Benteke, Wilfried Zaha, Andros Townsend and Scott Dann into total football extraordinaires.
You can cut this two ways: If De Boer goes and a manager cut from the same cloth as those before the Dutchman arrives, Palace are probably fine; if not, the club did nowhere near enough this summer to transition to a new style and will suffer the consequences.
It's Christmas Day, and We Forgot The Turkey
1. Brighton and Hove Albion
Surviving the relegation battle in your maiden Premier League season is an incredibly hard task, and at no point are we attempting to infer it's anything else here.
But over the years, a clear and obvious checklist of "things to do" has emerged. Newly promoted managers are aware of it, and they all try to follow it as closely as possible and ensure every box is ticked.
Sadly, and despite their best efforts, Brighton failed to tick off the box that takes up around half of the entire checklist page: Sign a new striker.
When it comes to sizing up relegation candidates, the first thing you do is ask how many goals each side has in them. That is, by and large, the true deciding factor between teams (with the honourable exception of Sunderland last season).
Where Huddersfield signed Steve Mounie (for £12 million) and picked up Laurent Depoitre from FC Porto to back him up, and where Newcastle United plumped for Joselu and still have Aleksandar Mitrovic and Dwight Gayle in reserve, Brighton signed no one. They've got Tomer Hemed and Glenn Murray until January.
Across the pitch, the Seagulls did some nice business, with Davy Propper, Jose Izquierdo and Izzy Brown nice pickups, but they had to sign a striker and didn't quite manage it. That spells undeniable trouble at the Amex Community Stadium.
All statistics via WhoScored.com or Transfermarkt.co.uk
