Haven't done overwhelmingly great in transfers.
Moussa Sissoko
Pau López
Georges-Kevin N'koudou
Vincent Janssen
Victor Wanyama
Heung-Min Son
Clinton N'Jie
Toby Alderweireld
Kieran Trippier
Kevin Wimmer
Dele Alli
Benjamin Stambouli
Federico Fazio
DeAndre Yedlin
Eric Dier
Ben Davies
Michael Vorm
Quite a mixed bag (bearing in mind Dier and Alli were likely the work of Pleat and co, as they were before Paul Mitchell and his team started)
I'd rather get a new DoF and scouting team in before we spunk £40m on an average highlights reel showpony.
I wuold rate that list as follows:
Moussa Sissoko - Poor. At half his price you could argue he made sense to sign as a squad player covering several positions
Pau López - Jury still out but he is a promising young keeper
Georges-Kevin N'koudou - Jury is still out, but he clearly has skill and pace
Vincent Janssen - Jury still out but it looks like he is equipped to be successful in the Premier League
Victor Wanyama - Brilliant. One of the signings of the season in the P
Heung-Min Son - A very good signing who can play across all attacking positions.
Clinton N'Jie - Poor
Toby Alderweireld - Brilliant
Kieran Trippier - Good. Fantastic attacking right back who allows us to play in the same way when our first choice is out
Kevin Wimmer - OK. An OK back-up. Probably not quite good enough for us, but I expect we’ll make a transfer profit on him
Dele Alli - Brilliant
Benjamin Stambouli - Poor (although he wasn’t expensive, hardly got a game and I think we ended up making a transfer profit on him?)
Federico Fazio - OK
DeAndre Yedlin - Poor (although that is perhaps harsh as he was cheap, hardly got a game and I think we ended uwith a transfer profit?
Eric Dier - Brilliant signing.
Ben Davies - Good. Although he is a different type of player to Rose and I would prefer to see another wing back type option in the squad
Michael Vorm - Good signing. An excellent back up keeper to Lloris.
So out of 17 signings Poch has made 4 brilliant signings, 1 very good one, 3 good ones, with the still being out on 2 or 3 signings who could go either way. Of the rest I think only 4 could be truly classed as poor and two of those seemed to be cheap stop-gap squad/opportunity signings that we probably made a transfer profit on.
If we assume that we are likely to sign 4 players for the first team squad every Summer then I think achieving an average of 1 brilliant, 1 good, 1 not yet sure/OK and 1 poor would be about the best that any club could hope for. Especially when shopping on ebay as opposed to at Harrords. I think the fact that Sissoko was expensive and hasn't been worth the money has skewed opinions a little. Although I think I can see why Pochettino might've wanted Sissoko as a direct type of player who could carry the ball to help us relieve pressure in games where we are under the cosh and having to sit deep.... The problem (or perhaps the very opposite of a 'problem'?) is that we haven't really had any of those games this season as we have either been well on top, or been second best but not reverted to a defensive formation that plays on the break (as I think we probably should've done in the Liverpool and Emirates Marketing Project away games when clearly second best).
) and certainly can cause worry to the opposition but it still niggles me that he could be a frustrating player? And (like Townsend) it will probably because his decision making will be poor and will have spells where he is just playing for himself, and the one thing we are is a team.
