It’s hard to criticise, but am gonna ;-), as this is massively different to windows past as we are coming into it after a very successful season with Champions League footy guaranteed.

Tonali has been the highlight of the window… he looks like a massive upgrade on Longstaff and gives us a bit of depth in the middle.

Barnes felt like a bit of a compromise, doesn’t feel like a first choice target… don’t get me wrong his stats in a struggling Leicester make me think he could be a very good player, but just think it is him or Gordon up front on the left… so not sure if he is seen by Howe as a starter in his strongest 11 or is bringing very good strength in depth.

Livramento… not seen him play much, and he’s still got to prove it… I guess we see a future with this lad and Ashby as our RB’s after Tripps leaves… but again I get the feeling this might be a signing that isn’t in Howe’s strongest 11

All 3 senior players signed are the right ages, with their very best to come.

What I struggle with…

We are relying on Miggy performing… and it’s only been half a season out of four and half seasons where he has done that… I thought a right winger was a no brainer.

We really need some cover for Schar… who it sounds like is not yet available, and we knew that going into the window… so we’ll likely be starting the season with Lascelles or Dummett starting with Botman.

Left back… while not a massive priority, if Botman were to get injured we’d have to play Burn in that spot and have to pray Targett stays injury free.

If, as Howe has said, we didn’t have to sell to bring in Barnes then it feels like it has taken a very long time to bring in 3 players, only one of which is likely to be in the managers strongest 11.

We need to move on Fraser, Hayden and Hendrick… they are on big wages so we’ll likely only get a nominal fee for them but freeing them up will release wages and overall spend for FFP come the end of the year… they won’t get a game, or even appear on the bench unless we really get his by injuries.

A concern I have with Howe and his selection of players… and it’s not an issue for us now, but could be… his selections are players who will not rock the boat or cause any issues whatsoever… and that’s great… but assuming we progress as a club then we might have to bring in players that HAVE to be managed, as the pool of players will shrink and we can’t rely on the players being perfect, but will need the manager to bring them together. Maybe Howe will have established himself better before then, have won something, and be more secure in his position… but it’s all been very safe, and maybe that has limited our pool of players, left us over paying and slowed us down.

Sorry, a very long post and am sure there’s a bunch people will have very valid arguments against… but that’s just my take and some of the sh!t I’ve been thinking 😁