I give it a 3/5
In what turned out to essentially be a replacement, Kondogbia in for Kovacic is not necessarily the massive shift everyone is up in arms about. Keeping Kovacic at all costs while not buying Kondogbia was equally a big risk. There was no guarantee he was going to develop into a world class player with us, he often looked frustrated in the last two seasons.
What really disappoints me is how we spent so much time and energy on Perisic, that it seems all other market operations were an afterthought. Now, of course, coaches like to bring along players they previously worked with to their new clubs. Just look at how many Empoli players went across to Napoli this window. But still, signing Melo and Telles doesn't particularly inspire confidence, especially in the case of Telles when he was a last minute panic-buy, when we are already brimmed with so-so fullbacks. Having failed to secure Zukanovic near the start of the window, and then later either Coentrao or Criscito, we shit the bed.
Another, albeit more understandable issue, was an inability to shift the deadwood out of the club. We simply had to accept we were taking a big hit when releasing Silvestre, and just put that behind us as a lesson learned and build from it. Now, with Taider, we understandably struggled given he did nothing of note during his time here, and raised question marks by getting sent home from England after only a few weeks. As for Schelotto...well, it depends a lot on who you believe. He says he was desperate to seal a move to Chievo, and that Thohir interfered and derailed the transfer. Either way, we could and should have handled that situation better, rather than ending up with another expensive golden handshake.
In a way, it's hard to put a fixed score on it so early. Much of the end figure will come down to whether bringing in Jovetic pans out for us or not. If he ends up like Giuseppe Rossi, spending far more time on the sidelines than on the pitch, we will look like idiots. If he is fit, bar a week or two out for little knocks, and he continues to be the difference maker in our team, we will look like geniuses, and he alone will drag that final score up.
The important thing to note is that, despite being deficient in certain areas, we have reached a point now where the puzzle can be completed with only a few additions, rather than lots. Many deficiencies have been seen to in this window, and now we wait only for the last pieces to fall into place - quality wingbacks, and midfield reinforcement.
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kay:We did improve however but at what fucking cost?! Selling your talentino who could potentially explode even more...oh well another Cou case...we will be kicking ourselves we let go of Kova just as we are doing so with Cou(not all of us but most of us).and I liked Kova more than Cou tbh.
