Transfer window marks out of 10

[Deleted]

Bauer and Ndiaye seem to be good business. Don't really know a lot about Staflidiopolis TBH, so for me 6/10.
Still seemingly can't get that elusive striker signed...

[The Toxic Avenger]

It's impossible to know at this stage until we know how good and what sort of player Ndiaye is. It really all hinges around him.

Bauer looks an excellent signing, Stafylidis in theory is a good buy, though you ideally want loan players capable of making an instant impact, so bringing in an injured one who's played 31 minutes all season seems a bit counterintuitive.

It seems to have given Pieters the rocket he needed anyhow.

[Clem Fandango]

I’d say about a 6 as well. Bauer so far looks a steal. I might upgrade the rating when I see the other two play.

At least we’ve addressed a couple of issues.

I think I’d be more concerned if we’d have signed a striker but not a midfielder.

[Pugsley]

3

We've gambled big time on our PL future.

It appears the powers that be just don't get it.

[Cast no shadow]

Feb 1, 2018 8:18:39 GMT Pugsley said:

3

We've gambled big time on our PL future.

It appears the powers that be just don't get it.

Any signing is a gamble, no signing guarantees survival.

We needed 2 full backs, a cm and a striker. Got 3/4.
6.5/10

The Bauer signing alone is a 8/10 minimum

[cheadlepotter]

5. Which could go to a 6 if Ndiaye proves to be a good signing.

We’re still recovering from the £50m wasted on Wimmer, Imbula and Berahino and the lack of investment in the summer.

[sheikhmomo]

The fact that a lad who has gone over two years without a goal looks like being a major part of our plan B and perhaps even our occasional plan A, tells you all you need to know.

[upthefud]

6, should have tried to ship out Berahino. Can't justify another striker whilst he sits on his fat arse making a fortune out of us.

Clubs hands have been tied by him Imbula and Wimmer but that's their fault in the first place.

Got a new manager, full backs and what looks to be a good CM so I think we've done enough to survive

[Alvechurch Assassin]

All Jan in and around the relegation zone and we bring in 2 players who look like making the first team.

3.

[Deleted]

6.

Filled two gaps in full back areas which was much needed.  Left back can't be judged properly here until he's played obviously.  N'Diaye on the face of it has all of the physical tools to really thrive here.  Jury again is out until he has played.

We are woefully short up front.  It simply can't be dressed up any other way.  Everything hinges on Diouf.  Crouch simply doesn't have the tools for the high press and Berahino looks completely shot to bits.  At this stage, I don't think i'll ever see him score for us, which is both sad and ridiculous in equal measure.

[FullerMagic]

Hard to grade at the moment. We haven't seen Stafylidis at all and he won't be sharp with his lack of football. It isn't hard to find someone better than Pieters if left-back is your priority. So let's see if we've managed it (although in fairness Erik has been reasonable in the 2 games)

Bauer looks a solid signing.

Ndiaye needs to be the player we're all hoping he can be. If he is, suppose 6/10 could be a reasonable grade, but as we've seen the midfield is a rotting carcass at the moment, so he can't do it on his own.

And the lack of pushing the boat out for a striker is a mistake I hope we won't have to stew on in the Championship!
If we were as scared of relegation as we should have been, it's hard to really see why we didn't get one. Our options are truly dreadful.

[Deleted]

6

We've seemingly addressed some positions which needed strengthening but there's still no apparent urgency to bring in a striker despite our poor goal scoring capability.

[Fred Ferret]

Being a bit mealy mouthed aren’t we chaps?

We needed 2 fb, 1 mid, 1 fwd : 3 out of 4, for me = 7.5

[benjaminbiscuit]

Team v Arsenal last game needed £30m of additions to stand still .

Sold Arnie best player 20m so £50m investment required sold Walters Amd Bardsley and whelm say £55m

Spend wimmer and frees plus 2o this window so circa £20m underi invested in the last two widows from a falling team

Cheapest possible manager recruitment as job is toxic to those in demand still a team that no one could save .

Answer Diouf and crouch are our forward options
3 years after they aren’t good enough

Answer relegation no question self inflicted by under investment and poor managment of investment we had .

About to get what we deserve and has been coming for 5 Widows of garbage .

Sadly the architects will survive the inevitable catastrophic cost cuts and the decimation of anywualory from the squad

[Staying up for Grandadstokey]

Feb 1, 2018 8:53:47 GMT benjaminbiscuit said:

Team v Arsenal last game needed £30m of additions to stand still .

Sold Arnie best player 20m so £50m investment required sold Walters Amd Bardsley and whelm say £55m

Spend wimmer and frees plus 2o this window so circa £20m underi invested in the last two widows from a falling team

Cheapest possible manager recruitment as job is toxic to those in demand still a team that no one could save .

Answer Diouf and crouch are our forward options
3 years after they aren’t good enough

Answer relegation no question self inflicted by under investment and poor managment of investment we had .

About to get what we deserve and has been coming for 5 Widows of garbage .

Sadly the architects will survive the inevitable catastrophic cost cuts and the decimation of anywualory from the squad

Que ?

[alster]

Signed 3 players 2 of them haven't played a minute how the fuck do you give that marks Bauer must be a 9 who knows about the others and how do you mark what we haven't done?

[wingy11]

Solid 5 for me how it stands may move up to a 6 after i see our new cm. in the last 12 games stoke have scored 10 goals in six games failed to score, weve taken a massive gamble on not bringing a loan striker in massive, i love doiuf but he needs 3/4 chances to score 1, thing is we dont create that many chances!!!! crouch is plan B as he cant play the press game and then we have a striker who will never score,, massive gamble... the board should be sacked to leave us this weak... lambert seems to have sorted out the defensive side, which to me that would of happened any way with injured players coming back and bauer coming in. We didnt play any football last night we gave in to there tactics, just cant see anything other than relegation at this point Bournemouth and Brighton we need a minimum of 4 points, we really need the 6 just cant see it happening.

[Deleted]

Needed surgery got a aspirin.

4.

[thegift]

4. two good signings. were still in massive massive trouble

[davejohnno1]

Feb 1, 2018 8:35:28 GMT FullerMagic said:

Hard to grade at the moment. We haven't seen Stafylidis at all and he won't be sharp with his lack of football. It isn't hard to find someone better than Pieters if left-back is your priority. So let's see if we've managed it (although in fairness Erik has been reasonable in the 2 games)

Bauer looks a solid signing.

Ndiaye needs to be the player we're all hoping he can be. If he is, suppose 6/10 could be a reasonable grade, but as we've seen the midfield is a rotting carcass at the moment, so he can't do it on his own.

And the lack of pushing the boat out for a striker is a mistake I hope we won't have to stew on in the Championship!
If we were as scared as relegation as we should have been, it's hard to really see why we didn't get one. Our options are truly dreadful.

If stafylidis is a better left back than Erik, he'll be a very good player for us.

However, unless Erik picks up an injury, I don't see the new guy playing much.

The success of our window depends almost entirely on how good badou is.

[mickstupp]

Feb 1, 2018 8:53:47 GMT benjaminbiscuit said:

Team v Arsenal last game needed £30m of additions to stand still .

Sold Arnie best player 20m so £50m investment required sold Walters Amd Bardsley and whelm say £55m

Spend wimmer and frees plus 2o this window so circa £20m underi invested in the last two widows from a falling team

Cheapest possible manager recruitment as job is toxic to those in demand still a team that no one could save .

Answer Diouf and crouch are our forward options
3 years after they aren’t good enough

Answer relegation no question self inflicted by under investment and poor managment of investment we had .

About to get what we deserve and has been coming for 5 Widows of garbage .

Sadly the architects will survive the inevitable catastrophic cost cuts and the decimation of anywualory from the squad

Do you have any good news for us?

[maliciousdamage]

6

Addressed fullback Bauer looks a good signing hope to see Stafy soon as Pietiers although putting more effort in is still frustrating as he can’t turn on a ball or cross one

Hopefully Badou will remove Fletcher who’s clearly shot

Should have gone ball out for a striker who’s scoring in a league somewhere and is proven and taken the chance I think that will be the difference on where we finish

We clearly are well short of quality in the attacking third

[Staffsoatcake]

5.
We should have pulled out all the stops to get a striker in.
By not doing so,it could cost us our Premiership place.
We are in the top 30 of richest clubs,yet we go about our business like we are one of the poorest.

[FullerMagic]

On a different note, it's a bit weird when a succession of signings are clearly 'club' signings, rather than manager signings, isn't it? I don't doubt that Lambert nodded them through, but it's still a bit odd.

First time when it's been this striking - and I'm not saying it's a good thing or a bad thing in the circumstances when we've appointed a manager who probably didn't know some player's names a fortnight ago.

[cousindupree]

It could be a 3 or a 6 depending on the impact Badou makes. It's very scary to think our survival possibly hinges on how good he is.
Bauer looks the business congrats to the recruitment team on that one. The greek lad looks like he will be back up to EriK so I am not sure he will improve our first xi. At least we have a back up fullback that isn't the 'out of his depth' Tymon. Who in god's name thought he was ready for the first team squad?!
There is no doubt we needed an extra attacking option. It beggars belief that the owners think we have enough offensively to survive...I would love to hear their rationale. Even a few mill on a loanee would offer us much needed options. It's significant that most of the teams in trouble have strengthened this area. We have one of the weakest attacking options and we do nothing. The board and the recruitment team in this window have continued to offer very poor leadership.

[cousindupree]

Feb 1, 2018 9:42:36 GMT FullerMagic said:

On a different note, it's a bit weird when a succession of signings are clearly 'club' signings, rather than manager signings, isn't it? I don't doubt that Lambert nodded them through, but it's still a bit odd.

First time when it's been this striking - and I'm not saying it's a good thing or a bad thing in the circumstances when we've appointed a manager who probably didn't know some player's names a fortnight ago.

Is it really that odd? I presume all the signings have been tracked for quite a while and presumably known to Hughes who would be OK with the recruitment team progressing the deals. We couldn't stop the recruitment process in such a narrow window otherwise we could have ended up with even less than we have brought in. I am not sure how much Lambert could add to the recruitment process as his recent experience is in the Championship and we need better players than that level. Although his knowledge and contacts could be useful next season if we drop.

[davejohnno1]

Feb 1, 2018 9:51:30 GMT cousindupree said:

It could be a 3 or a 6 depending on the impact Badou makes. It's very scary to think our survival possibly hinges on how good he is.
Bauer looks the business congrats to the recruitment team on that one. The greek lad looks like he will be back up to EriK so I am not sure he will improve our first xi. At least we have a back up fullback that isn't the 'out of his depth' Tymon. Who in god's name thought he was ready for the first team squad?!
There is no doubt we needed an extra attacking option. It beggars belief that the owners think we have enough offensively to survive...I would love to hear their rationale. Even a few mill on a loanee would offer us much needed options. It's significant that most of the teams in trouble have strengthened this area. We have one of the weakest attacking options and we do nothing. The board and the recruitment team in this window have continued to offer very poor leadership.

Plenty on here seemed to think he was off the back of one performance v Rochdale.

[FullerMagic]

Feb 1, 2018 9:58:59 GMT cousindupree said:

Feb 1, 2018 9:42:36 GMT FullerMagic said:

On a different note, it's a bit weird when a succession of signings are clearly 'club' signings, rather than manager signings, isn't it? I don't doubt that Lambert nodded them through, but it's still a bit odd.

First time when it's been this striking - and I'm not saying it's a good thing or a bad thing in the circumstances when we've appointed a manager who probably didn't know some player's names a fortnight ago.

Is it really that odd? I presume all the signings have been tracked for quite a while and presumably known to Hughes who would be OK with the recruitment team progressing the deals. We couldn't stop the recruitment process in such a narrow window otherwise we could have ended up with even less than we have brought in. I am not sure how much Lambert could add to the recruitment process as his recent experience is in the Championship and we need better players than that level. Although his knowledge and contacts could be useful next season if we drop.

Just saying the circumstances threw up an odd situation.

I'm sure it's being going on, on the continent, for years - and increasingly so here (quite possibly under Hughes, although I imagine he had some considerable input and an ultimate veto)

I'm not saying there was any alternative when he was appointed half way through the window and Carto had been identifying targets and had gone a long way down the road with Stafylidis and Ndiaye before he arrived (and the ink was already drying on Bauer's contract)

It's just odd in an English, and specifically Stoke, context for it to be so glaring. 99 times out of 100, it's the buying manager you associate with a signing and judge him on.

[davejohnno1]

Feb 1, 2018 9:42:36 GMT FullerMagic said:

On a different note, it's a bit weird when a succession of signings are clearly 'club' signings, rather than manager signings, isn't it? I don't doubt that Lambert nodded them through, but it's still a bit odd.

First time when it's been this striking - and I'm not saying it's a good thing or a bad thing in the circumstances when we've appointed a manager who probably didn't know some player's names a fortnight ago.

It shouldn't really come as any surprise should it? It is a real worry of mine and has been for more than this transfer window.

[alster]

Feb 1, 2018 10:02:56 GMT davejohnno1 said:

Feb 1, 2018 9:51:30 GMT cousindupree said:

It could be a 3 or a 6 depending on the impact Badou makes. It's very scary to think our survival possibly hinges on how good he is.
Bauer looks the business congrats to the recruitment team on that one. The greek lad looks like he will be back up to EriK so I am not sure he will improve our first xi. At least we have a back up fullback that isn't the 'out of his depth' Tymon. Who in god's name thought he was ready for the first team squad?!
There is no doubt we needed an extra attacking option. It beggars belief that the owners think we have enough offensively to survive...I would love to hear their rationale. Even a few mill on a loanee would offer us much needed options. It's significant that most of the teams in trouble have strengthened this area. We have one of the weakest attacking options and we do nothing. The board and the recruitment team in this window have continued to offer very poor leadership.

Plenty on here seemed to think he was off the back of one performance v Rochdale.

Did they really? Non spring to mind. Saying Erik needed dropping for consistently making costly mistakes is not the same thing as saying Tymon is ready. In the absence of any evidence I don't see how anyone could have come to that conclusion. Even vs Rochdale he looked weak physically and defensively but nevertheless
he was the only alternative so had to play even just for one game to send the correct message that as a defender consistently making costly errors will cost you your place, anything else breeds complacency.