Thoughts on the window?

[Luka]

Well I'm very excited for the rest of the season now.
If these new boys can click then AA's Fulham is gonna be a great team to watch.

[WolverineFFC]

Right now its a 5/10 for me. What we have in Affengruber is going to be the deciding factor in if it was a success or not. If he comes good then this will have been an outstanding window and becomes an 8 or 9/10. The only blemishes would be GK and RW, which I feel are minor.

[Deuce]

As Ive said before, going down this path with AA, his expressive style, almost quite extreme in a way, him wanting his youngsters, letting his style dictate our signings and reshaping the squad is a massive risk.

Now its too early to tell, but just looking at how he is handling two of our most expensive players in ESR and Kevin is a tell tale sign of his preferences AND the dangers of catering to one managers need. In a worst case scenario, ESR and Kevin doesnt fit our system and is sold at a loss or loaned out. And if AA does get sacked, whos to say what happens to players like Palacios, Garcia and so on.

My second concern is that when faced with this 'revolution', the club and TK has planned this yet again very poorly. Im.not saying that the players we have signed are bad, but looking beyond that its yet another evidens that we dont plan these things. Now in not against bargain bins at D-day, but its obvious to me that we havent gotten our first choice CB. Or second choice. Or maybe even out third choice, looking at rumors from credible sources. Instead of identifying key positions and getting them sorted early, we have been running around late in the window scrambling to fill a key position. We've been linked with god knows how many CBs. Its been obvious that Andersen wouldnt fit the preferred system, and we are crying out for reinforcement in a key area like cb but we still need to Penny pinch and leave things late, While also not sending a player like LdF out on loan. And while we were a couple who never did understand why the club wanted a new RB, the fact that we clearly missed out on one is another failure, especially since we had lined up a suitor in Everton willing to pay a decent fee. For me, this is terrible squad planning.

I know some people feel that the critism towards TK is unfair and I dont want to get into that discussion, but for me its obvious that this line of squad building is not going to serve us well in the long run. Especially since we no longer have Marco is was basically a guarantee for Premier League survival.

I dont think judging signings is a good idea tbh. I think there are some really interesting signings and I hope they gel sooner rather than later.

Im looking forward to the rest of the season and back A A and the lads to the fullest, hope the new boys adapt and we start getting wins.

[perry geyton]

on paper it looks very good indeed, 110 mil.spent on seemingly good young talented players, very generous indeed

AA is my concern, can he handle it ?

only time will tell

[bobbo]

I honestly don't know. Changes were shouted for and now we have them. Lots of them.

It's a lot to integrate into a side so the manager has his work cut out but hopefully he can cope with that.

Could be a nine out of ten, it could be a two. Only time is going to tell.

yep Somerset I really do think you've spoke for most of us there . None of us know how good or poor it's going to turn out 🤞🤞🤞🤞🤞

[Rambler]

Those who think we had a bad window look at Everton. A joke of a deadline day and now left with only 18 outfield senior players.

A few injuries and they are ruined.

[SimonDaviesEnjoyer]

Those who think we had a bad window look at Everton. A joke of a deadline day and now left with only 18 outfield senior players.

A few injuries and they are ruined.

They should be furious with their management. We thought we had it bad with our lack of depth up front, now they have one striker.

[Mullers75]

Bottom 5 for me. 2 years on and we still haven't replaced Mitro. Garcia's a good player but not strong enough to play centre-forward.

[hovewhite]

A positive window on paper will give it 7
And rejigged the Midfield a major criticism under silver of so many players
Which will be step forward . With GG a real talent.the Austrian CB hopefully will be a good partner for bassey.

[btffc]

As usual leaving it really late had its positives and negatives. Larsson and Affengruber would have cost double what we paid in July or early August. Larsson wasn't even really available until Ritsu Doan's transfer collapsed late and Frankfurt needed a sale.

But on the other hand we did not address the backup RW position and did not make a change at RB that Arbeloa really wanted to fit his system.

Love the Garcia and Charles signings at good prices. Palacios and Angel were both cheap and do have a lot of promise.

I'd give it a 7/10

[DadCreature]

Bottom 5 for me. 2 years on and we still haven't replaced Mitro. Garcia's a good player but not strong enough to play centre-forward.

Fulham has a strong history of good #9s (including my fav, McBride).   But the modern game is trending away from  true center forwards - toward false 9s with inverted wingers and more linked up play from the top.  Garcia is that kind of forward.  I think that's where Arbeloa wants us to go.

[Jims Dentist]

My thoughts on the window are as follows:
Much as expected in that it has been spectacularly underwhelming.
Pinning our hopes on so many players that have not played in the Prem. are so young and arrived late as usual is such a gamble. BUT we are used to that with our management.

The squad looks thoroughly unbalanced. If the three newest additions are spectacularly brilliant and remain fully fit things might be OK.

But as it is the squad we have, with a novice manager, looks like a massive gamble and I think it is way more likely that it will all end in tears than spectacular success (whatever that means to a team like ours).

That's my opinion, and I hope I am proved wrong.

We all hope your proven wrong Andrew, but your summing up I feel is very realistic.

[Jims Dentist]

Can't buy into a so-called two year/3 to 4 windows project.  This is the Premier League and expectations are to stay in this league and be competitive from the get-go.  No guarantee if waiting for this 2 year thingy to transpire that FFC will still be in top flight.  I can't wait that long.  Additionally, I've seen forum members post they would like to wait 10 games or even Christmas time before rating AA's performance.  I'm not that patient.  Right now, I'm looking for points this home game v Palace.  If we go first 3 games pointless, 2 of which were home games, and 2 v teams we should have reasonably expected some sort of result, then, this FFC fan will become very nervous and twitchy indeed.......

Yes Windy, and just as crucial the players confidence will drop.

[Jims Dentist]

Bottom 5 for me. 2 years on and we still haven't replaced Mitro. Garcia's a good player but not strong enough to play centre-forward.

Hope your wrong, but feel you are right.

[Mullers75]

I hope I'm wrong too of course, but looking at the other teams - who are we better than?  Coventry and Ipswich probably, Hull, Palace and Everton possibly ... and that's it!

[Lordedmundo]

I hope I'm wrong too of course, but looking at the other teams - who are we better than?  Coventry and Ipswich probably, Hull, Palace and Everton possibly ... and that's it!

So, recently I've been looking at the 5 year transfer spend of all Premier League clubs - comparing with Fulham and also the respective value of squads (mainly using Transfermarkt) and I was slightly surprised.

Focusing on mid table clubs like us - who been in the Premier League for most or all of that time (in other words ignoring recently promoted teams), our net spend over that period is £231m. That is slightly less than Bournemouth, a bit more than Brentford and way more than Palace (mainly due to their big sales).

What I was surprised about is that the value of our squad at £401m is the 5th lowest, with only Everton (18 man squad!), Ipswich, Coventry and Hull below us.

Now, I'm not sure how much I agree with the valuations - in particular Brentford's squad at £584m seems way over to me. That also puts them above Villa, Bournemouth and Forest. I think the valuation of some Fulham players is low, but I appreciate that the ratio of aging players is higher than most other clubs - maybe this is a factor?

Based on us being 5th lowest - perhaps finishing 16th-17th is where we should expect to be. But, I do think we are capable of finishing above Brentford, Bournemouth, Sunderland and Nottingham Forest.

Realistically - this season I would be more than happy with 14-15th place, safe from relegation trouble, but not putting up a challenge for Europe. I would hope AA does get to invest more next summer and we would be in a position to finish much higher.

[C Block]

My thoughts are this, last season we had Wilson, Chukwueze and Jimenez as attacking options, we desperately needed to replace that creativity and those goals, does anybody want to put forward a case to say that we've done that ?
And please don't include Oscar Bobb in your reply to try and suggest that he is the Harry Wilson replacement, he just isn't.

[KJS]

Bottom 5 for me. 2 years on and we still haven't replaced Mitro. Garcia's a good player but not strong enough to play centre-forward.

your basing your opinion on Garcia after 3 games during Whickham he scored twice 🤔