The 2013 Summer Transfer Window Poll

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Are you pleased with West Ham's transfer business during the summer window?

Yes
199
50%
No
120
30%
Neither
33
8%
Undecided
48
12%
 
Total votes: 400

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Aceface
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Re: The 2013 Summer Transfer Window Poll

Post by Aceface »

You can't judge a transfer window in isolation - it has to be gauged against how the rest of the league did as well. By that measurement I'd say a few of the teams that finished around us had a good time of it, but that we still have enough about us to have a comfortable season. Top half is certainly achievable again, but might be tougher than last season.

Injuries remain a concern though. We're probably another season's buying away from having a squad capable of riding out more than a couple of injuries at a time without significant drop-off in results.
essexguy
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Re: The 2013 Summer Transfer Window Poll

Post by essexguy »

Undecided.

While I am please with Carroll and Downing, with a club with limited resources I do not yet know if signing both these players will be wise.

I think possibly we should not have signed Downing (I have no argument that he is a quality player), instead our resources should have gone into signing another forward and defender.

I have read about suggestions of getting a striker on a free, but from what our directors and Sam is saying is that there is no more money left on the wage budget to bring anyone in.
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Doc H Ball
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Re: The 2013 Summer Transfer Window Poll

Post by Doc H Ball »

I think a poll is premature until we see the full technical plans and have been provided with a promotional video.
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James P
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Re: The 2013 Summer Transfer Window Poll

Post by James P »

Very pleased.

Bought a top striker who was a Liverpool player at the start of the transfer window. Shored up our options in other places so we have true competition for places.

We're in a better position than last year in terms of both squad and financial strength. Well done all involved,
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last.caress
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Re: The 2013 Summer Transfer Window Poll

Post by last.caress »

Taken in the boss's "quickie" spirit I've plumped for a quickie "No". And probably should've gone for a quickie "undecided". That's quickies for you, though. Always end up regretting them.

I'm glad we snaffled a player of Carroll's quality. It's a cut above our regular standard, for sure. But let's be honest; we didn't win out over the advances of fifteen other European cup-chasing sides to do it. Carroll was stuck with an incredibly narrow range of options, as I see it. Us, or rot. Newcastle didn't want to pay big for him (and Liverpool, somewhat understandably I suppose, wanted the Barcodes of all people to cough the f*ck up), nobody else wanted him. Least of all Liverpool.

But whatever. We got him, and I'm glad about that. And I'm sure the prospect of supplying a fully fit and swashbuckling Carroll helped in some small way to make up Stewart Downing's mind, too. Whether we needed him or not.

It's just: the way we seem to go about things (and I understand that my perception of how things are might be removed somewhat from the facts, or at least from the facts about how similarly "daft" things might be elsewhere; maybe everyone is as hamfisted as we appear to be, I just don't notice the other clubs). Grabbing Downing - great bargain, didn't necessarily need him, CERTAINLY when our limited funds were demanding we prioritise elsewhere; All these "long-shots", "30% chance", "15% chance"... what happened to scouting players properly, securing players before mouthing off? The constant bleats of "We tried, we failed for some cosmically unchallengable reason", almost exclusively through the feed of a schoolboy's Twitter account. "GON has refused terms, we'll get better," "Some Genk player was a wrong-un years and years ago, shall we buy him? Fifty of my biggest windowlickers have said NO, so we won't then, in an act of extraordinarily judgmental prejudice. We listen to our fans! Trust the Davester... I mean, the Jackster! We're still selling the Boleyn though, you f*cking gobshites." (Guess I should qualify that by admitting that wasn't a direct quote but, you know). So very two-bob. David Gold, usually the "classy" one, explicitly saying that an incoming striker will be an understudy. D'Oh! The only club in the league wringing its hands over FFP, a subject about which I'm already sick to the back teeth. I don't want to find merit in the speculative and really rather paranoid argument that our owners "only backed FFP so's they could hide behind it whilst scrimping on the necessaries, like a first team." But it's pretty hard NOT to wonder.

It just feels that everything West Ham - or specifically, our hierarchy; I'm still a big fan of what Big Sam is trying to achieve, despite the lack of a backup to AC that would've had everyone satisfied - do, they seem to do a bit more... crap?... than others seem to do it. I dunno. Looking back at my complaints it would appear that maybe I've got issues over a broader issue that's bled into my feelings for this window. But I suppose it would, wouldn't it?

I would like to add though that I accept it's not Sam's or the owners' fault that no bugger wanted our more shiftable players, or that Diarra picked up an ACL injury just as we'd no doubt have been showing him the door. AND I'd like to add that no matter how bad one might think the window was or the Stoke game was, three games in is NOT the time to be panicking. Although I also think that people who moan at other people reacting (and yes, probably overreacting) passionately to a bad result or unsatisfactory window is far more tedious than the actual kneejerking itself, but that's another whinge for another day.
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EvilC
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Re: The 2013 Summer Transfer Window Poll

Post by EvilC »

Doc H Ball wrote:I think a poll is premature until we see the full technical plans and have been provided with a promotional video.
:D
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hammerdivone
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Re: The 2013 Summer Transfer Window Poll

Post by hammerdivone »

Bobby Orangeboom wrote:Voted no.

A complete mismanagement of funds shown with how unbalanced and lightweight our attacking options are with not even a shot on target against a bottom half team at home last week.

We spent 80% of our transfer budget on a player that was injured and has a worrying injury record ad tied up £35k on the LB position on a player that hasn't played a single minute in 270 mins and will not come into a defensive unit that hasn't conceded a goal in open play during that time.

That is complete mismanagement of funds.
So you are concerned that our new left back in his first PL season, an International Captain who has Champions League experience and who will cost us total of £5.4m over three years cannot get into a defensive unit that hasn't conceded a goal from open play in 270 minutes.

i'd say that was a nice problem to have.
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bspur1
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Re: The 2013 Summer Transfer Window Poll

Post by bspur1 »

Two huge singings by our standards- Caroll and Downing

Two Improvements to the squad- Adrian and Rat

None of our best players sold

How can you complain
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Joey O'Irons
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Re: The 2013 Summer Transfer Window Poll

Post by Joey O'Irons »

bspur1 wrote:Two huge singings by our standards- Caroll and Downing

Two Improvements to the squad- Adrian and Rat

None of our best players sold

How can you complain
Thank you.
Last edited by Up the Junction on Tue Sep 03, 2013 12:11 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Reason: Insulting comment removed.
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hammer
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Re: The 2013 Summer Transfer Window Poll

Post by hammer »

undecided
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One Peter Butler
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Re: The 2013 Summer Transfer Window Poll

Post by One Peter Butler »

We have:

A board that cares
A squad that works hard
A manager that knows what he's doing
A board that puts its money where its mouth is
We sit 7th in the prem having finished 10th last year
Quite clearly we had a real stab at getting in a striker last night

The bottom line is we are headed in one direction. For the doubters, that means we are on the up!

I've not felt so confident in my club for years.

Almost forgot- we've also got the best chat forum on the Net. Quick bum lick I know, but KUMB gets my vote.
fmgod
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Re: The 2013 Summer Transfer Window Poll

Post by fmgod »

bspur1 wrote:Two huge singings by our standards- Caroll and Downing

Two Improvements to the squad- Adrian and Rat

None of our best players sold

How can you complain
I would say Rat is a huge signing on paper as well, Romania captain, won silverware after silverware, Champions League experience, Shaktar wanted to keep him and Marseille wanted him as well.
Miles Standish Proud
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Re: The 2013 Summer Transfer Window Poll

Post by Miles Standish Proud »

A no from me.
As someone said, the players we did sign were all very good additions but we failed in our objective - as publicly stated by the Daves after the AC signing - to add pace and goals. This leaves us weak in a critical area. I think that's inarguable.
And assuming AC is used sparingly and the league remains a priority, our lack of quality and proven striking options pretty much rules out a decent cup run which would have been nice.
That said, I would not translate a disappointing end to the lottery of the transfer window into anything like a damning indictment of the club and those who run it.
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arlhe
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Re: The 2013 Summer Transfer Window Poll

Post by arlhe »

Undecided - I like the players we've bought in but.... Why is Rat not 1st choice LB and have we left ourselves short by putting too many eggs in the Carroll/Downing basket? Should we have kept CC, when there was no obviously better candidate that was prepared to play the 'back up to AC' role.

should we have had a crystal ball that predicted the injuries to Diarra, Cole and Downing, with RvT handing in his transfer request?

Having written that, I'm sure that I'm unsure.
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fireman
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Re: The 2013 Summer Transfer Window Poll

Post by fireman »

bspur1 wrote:Two huge singings by our standards- Caroll and Downing

Two Improvements to the squad- Adrian and Rat

None of our best players sold

How can you complain
Easy!!

If Caroll gets injured, which is highly likely, we could well be in a relegation scrap.

Also we were consistently told that another striker was the priority. If that was the case why didn't we get one? More bull**** to sell season tickets and memberships :crest:
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The Gibbins
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Re: The 2013 Summer Transfer Window Poll

Post by The Gibbins »

I voted Yes purely for the Andy Carroll deal, which was a really good move by the club!

Its disappointing we didn't sign another striker, but Downing was a good deal! I think Sam put his all his eggs in one basket, its a bit of a gamble with AC's fitness but hopefully a gamble that pays off! I suppose we will see in the next few months but i think we will be ok.

Our attack may be no different to last year, especially if we re-sign Carlton...but having AC on a permanent basis is very important to building towards a future for this club.
anjado
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Re: The 2013 Summer Transfer Window Poll

Post by anjado »

I am undecided, i can't say we have had a bad window, we have brought in a good left back, our main target for the summer Andy Carroll, improved our goalkeeping options and brought in Stewart Downing.

The only problem is that many of the clubs we are competing with also strengthened considerably also. If we had signed a back up striker of sufficient quality and a replacement for Alou Diarra someone who can be 2nd choice to Noble and 4th choice centre half we would have been fine. It would have been a perfect window and only a complete disaster would have seen us in a relegation battle.

Now if any of these players get a serious injury.

Andy Carroll (Already injured and it will take him at least a month to get back to his best)
Winston Reid
James Collins
James Tomkins
Mark Noble

We will be struggling immensely to cope, we can't bring in any quality reinforcements for 5 months. We are really playing with fire when we really had no need to. We signed Downing 2 days before the start of the season, we had 21 days ample time to bring in the two players required to see us comfortable.

But we didn't judging by what you hear we spent the time going for long shot targets which would have been brilliant if they came off but in the end they didn't. We have also probably alienated Vaz Te and maybe Maiga too by trying so openly to get rid of them that has back fired on us.

Basically we went into the last 3 weeks of the transfer window with potentially the best squad we could possibly hope for, we just needed a striker then Diarra got injured and we needed someone to replace him.

We have gone from a position of we are likely to have a very good season to a couple of injuries and we could be in serious trouble.

Palace aren't good enough to stay in the division, Hull and Cardiff have the potential to stay in the division, everyone else if they have an under par season are a chance of being relegated and because we failed to bring in the players we needed fall into that category.
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woodford
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Re: The 2013 Summer Transfer Window Poll

Post by woodford »

"Now if any of these players get a serious injury.

Andy Carroll (Already injured and it will take him at least a month to get back to his best)
Winston Reid
James Collins
James Tomkins
Mark Noble"

I see where you're coming from but can you not say that about most clubs though??

Injuries to key players tends to knacker your plans
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Ticket 2 Ryde
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Re: The 2013 Summer Transfer Window Poll

Post by Ticket 2 Ryde »

At the moment Im a bit Meh! But when the God CC is back in our arms it will be a big :raver:
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claret parrot
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Re: The 2013 Summer Transfer Window Poll

Post by claret parrot »

I have become progressively less happy after an excellent early window but I would have to say that overall I am relatively pleased with the business done and would have been even more so if we could have acquired someone like Quagliarella on loan or someone like Vydra on a permanent transfer.
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