Rate Summer Mercato 2026-27 (Poll) (41 Viewers)

[Stevie]

The fact so many think that this shit show of a window was worth more than a 5 is crazy.

So much time and money wasted, no main targets were signed and no players were successfully sold.

We might get lucky and still have a good season but this transfer window was a mess.

 

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[AFL_ITALIA]

The fact so many think that this shit show of a window was worth more than a 5 is crazy.

So much time and money wasted, no main targets were signed and no players were successfully sold.

We might get lucky and still have a good season but this transfer window was a mess.

You'll see in time. This world is but Carnival Barker©'s circus. And as for us, we're just a bunch of clowns

 

[Powis]

Kinda excited honestly. I expected us to sign lots of Italian trash. Someone like Cristante, Pellegrini, Fratessi, Raspadori. Those type of players. Didn't happen, so it's an achievement in itself.

 

[Stevie]

You'll see in time. This world is but Carnival Barker©'s circus. And as for us, we're just a bunch of clowns

I hope you are right

 

[Badass J Elkann]

Djaoui Cissé for January pleaseeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!!!!!! You with me on this one @Bjerknes ?

 

[AFL_ITALIA]

I hope you are right

I was fucking around, but for real I do think that this was pretty much the most we could hope for with FFP restrictions and our deadwood having a value of almost 0. In terms of departures I think the best that could've happened was loans to places where these dead players could perform. Openda I'd feel comfortable saying that he'll get some offers from France should be continue like this, but David and Di Gregorio I think will be back unfortunately for example.

I'm skeptical but hopefully, and imo there are so good signs so far. We're all just guessing for now anyway.

 

[campionesidd]

I think 7 is fair given the circumstances.
We are better than last season I think.
Leftback and midfield haven’t been strengthened so that’s the worst part.

 

[Scottish]

Imo the main points to address were:

Fix goalkeeper
Fix attack
Fix fullbacks
Fix CB
Fix CM
Bring in grinta, leadership & winning experience
Stay sensible with finances

Fix Goalkeeper: 6/10
Two games in it looks like this was a decent result. Vicario looks good, I'm happy to let myself get hyped about him. However we spent AGES chasing targets which didn't pan out. This guy was 7th choice? Fuck sake. Amateur hour. I'm optimistic but still not completely convinced he'll be meaningfully better than Perin relative to the time we spent chasing him. Grabara I know even less about, but people seem excited about him. For goalkeeper we've not had potential for anybody being upset over playing time in absolute ages. Hope we've not fucked ourselves in that department.

Fix Attack: 8/10
Hard to quantify if we consider prices, so I'll leave that for later. Completely underwhelmed by Kolo Muani. Well pumped for Alajbegovic. Watermelon sounds promising. It's easy to make jokes about Badass but the man watches a lot of football. If he's this excited I think that means something. He might be the guy we've been missing. Still got Zhegrova which is a minus point. Still got Nico which...we'll see.

Fix Fullbacks: 4/10
I really like the look of Celik, but we only got one and not two. This means that either Cambiaso will play, or Kalulu will play out of position. We're lucky Pierre is so good but Cabal is still here. This is still a failure and can't be over 5.

Fix CB: 7/10
Lucumí looks solid. However when Bremer inevitably gets injured again we're left playing Cambiaso or Gatti. We should have shifted Rugani or Gatti and got somebody else good in. Generous 7.

Fix CM: 7/10
Obviously I rate Locatelli. Backing Douglas is risky but he's looked better than first time around so far. We shifted Miretti but still have Koopmeiners (who will end up getting game time, sadly). Sarr I can get excited for as we've missed some running and dynamism in the middle. Another generous 7

Bring in grinta, leadership & winning experience: 2/10
Lol. Sarr looks like he'll plenty of running, and Celik looks like he'll never give up on a ball. There was a huge long list of free agents this summer and we managed to sign none of them. We could have brought in CL and WC winners. This is the whole thing we're missing - in 2011 we had three WC winners plus Chiellini. Agent fees and signing bonuses blah blah- we spent plenty of money as it panned out and imo should have pushed hard to sign some of the freebies. Huge miss. Instead we once again gamble on players who may or may not regain their best form of 3, 4 or 5 seasons ago.

Stay sensible with finances: 3/10
The numbers say we spent a lot. Some of that was fulfillment of transfers from a year ago but still. The splurge on Kolo Muani was a joke. It feels like we are paying for half of Europe's squads at this point. Failure to sell I think anybody properly. Some of the deals I like. The low fee for Wolfetones is good. Don't mind that we haven't an option worked out either. Failure to sell a huge huge minus.

Optics: 2/10
We looked like utter fannies.

Forward Planning: 2/10
Once again we are short sighted. Vicario is probably not a long-term solution and neither is Grabara. We've made sure that we won't be able to sign Carnesecchi next summer. We've kicked a lot of our shite a year down the road and will have to refill various positions once again. We're hoping that we'll make top 4 and then what? The money coming in will only go so far and we'll end up gambling on question marks again.

Average: 4.5

Optimistic Verdict: 6/10
It really could go either way. We're gambling on so many players finding form. I like Wolfmother and I love Kerim. Lucumí good, Muani shite. I'm deciding to hope for the best. Like an idiot. Six out of ten.

 

[Siamak]

I don't vote because it's still early to write it off. Some are giving generous ratings based on quantity rather than actual performance. I want to see how the new signings perform and how they stay fit/healthy and settle in. I'll drop my vote in about three months.

 

[Hust]

Kept McKennie.

10.

 

[Bjerknes]

Djaoui Cissé for January pleaseeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!!!!!! You with me on this one @Bjerknes ?

He rejected us. What a smart dude. He's definitely going place.

 

[CarloP]

Summary:
I'm going to give a generous 5. It was always going to be difficult to attract top talent with missing out on CL, so no issue with us missing out on the Bernardo Silva types. We also had a lot of holes to fill in the squad and a lot of cleanup to do from past disastrous transfers. Poor planning and value proposition with our transfer dealings, inability to sell dead wood, and conflating dumpster diving with market opportunities are continuations of a concerning pattern we've been repeating for years now. That said, we did well to lock down some key signings and strengthened the squad sufficiently to put us in good position for a CL spot + chance at an EL run.

Analysis:
Blowing 19m on Jeff so early significantly increased the difficulty for the rest of the window, and it seems like he's not even ready for first team football and possibly injury plagued. When you just missed out on CL and are preparing for a make or break season, its strange that this signing was prioritized so heavily. Pretty sure if we had a do-over, we would have preferred to have Dibu and Kessie signed on permanent transfers instead of Jeff + Vicario/Sarr loans.

The Kolo Muani deal was pure desperation mixed with some PSG bullying. I'm not even sure we were even bidding against anyone. Simply put, his performances in recent years didn't warrant what we ended up paying. Is he even going to start now with Woltemade here? Will he score 10 goals this season?

The goalkeeper fiasco was unnecessary and amateurish. Vicario had a terrible season and it's going to be a miracle if he survives the pressure cooker of being Juve's #1 without shitting the bed on multiple occasions. He's 29, a known quantity at this point in his career. It's a clear dumpster dive/gamble. Even worse considering we had first hand experience with a similar underperforming GK in DiGre last year and we gambled anyway. Grabara is NPC-status, just a body. His performances last year were some of the worst in the Bundesliga, from what I can tell.

Losing out on Kessie was a big blow, he's a physical/technical presence that we sorely lack in midfield and looked great at the World Cup. I'm not sure Sarr is up to the task - he's another multi-year poor performer who couldn't cut it at a terrible Tottenham team. The obligation is also a concern IMO.

Lucumi was a great signing, one of the best Serie A center backs last year for a decent fee.

Love the Alajbegovic signing. He might have cost a lot but he's exactly the type of signing we need to be making - young, high potential talents with top flight/int'l experience. You could argue Jeff is also that but Alajbegovic had better productivity/performances in more minutes played at a younger age. Also Alajbegovic is still 18 meaning he'll be homegrown at the club if he stays. He provides some much needed competition/partnership for Yildiz too.

Celik is a solid vet who has some limitations but should be able to perform at a decent enough level to not torpedo the season, hopefully. Good value for money here. Really surprised we didn't sign another FB though.

Woltemade signing is a pleasant surprise but there's some risk of underperforming with him too - his productivity at Newcastle wasn't the greatest and Serie A is a notoriously tough league for forwards to shine in. He has similar characteristics to Vlahovic in that he loses a lot of duels and struggles to get shots off. Hoping he produces here - would be interesting to see him link up with RKM in a 2-forward setup against league minnow types.

Sad to see the following deadwood players still in the squad:
Gatti
Rugani
Cambiaso
Cabal
Koopmeiners
Zhegrova
Milik

They are all below Serie A replacement level. We should be setting a hard line against these shitters and force them out of the club one way or another like we did with Arthur. As crazy as it sounds, I would have gladly preferred to forgo the Jeff signing if it meant paying termination fees for this group and filling the squad with some high-potential next-gen talents.

 

[Il.Zucchini]

Getting outplayed by Atletico and PSG should lower the rating for this mercato. But since we are trying to fix many hole across the lineup, it still counts as an improvement compared to 'data' era. The rating better be decided when we have seen new signing played.

 

[Bjerknes]

Getting outplayed by Atletico and PSG should lower the rating for this mercato. But since we are trying to fix many hole across the lineup, it still counts as an improvement compared to 'data' era. The rating better be decided when we have seen new signing played.

Don't forget Aston Villa who outplayed us times two.

 

[DanielSz]

I like the attacking department. Good depth and that extends to next gen with durmisi, obo, camara, and elimoghale

Midfield is light especially with Thurams injury. A lot riding on Douglas Luiz. Owusu will probably be getting called up at some points and is one injury away from minutes.

Defense is ok. The starters are good but I dont really like any of the backup CBs and I dont really rate any of the next gen CBs either. Cabal is gonna have to produce. Cambiaso is mentally challenged. Pagnucco is a name to watch.

 

[Bjerknes]

OMG, look at all those players!

 

[Juve-Fan-Iraq]

I think the squad has like 14-15 good players with varying qualities. The rest are still part of the old deadwood guard still fucking around. Therefore no mercato will be beyond a 6 if these guys are not out the door...

 

[Alin]

Too many alternatives of other alternatives and too little guarantees, plenty of gambles on out of form players that we desperately hope(need) to pay off, although unlike other times the quality of said alternatives or out of form players are actually in some cases better or with more potential than the priority targets themselves which is maybe the bright side out of all this.

However added little in terms of proper leadership and experience(which was supposedly key when mercatto started) or any real winning mentality or in form world class quality, meanwhile we continue to rely and keep around plenty of the deadwood that should’ve been shipped out since long.

Lots of kicking the can down the road for next summer too which will only mean we’ll be back to square one with most of the incoming and outgoing transfers by that time.

Also, as always. didn’t address other major issues such as LB and adding a more forward thinking CM, nor am i convinced at CB we will be as improved as some here seem to think, but i also understand the restrictions or limitations we have to deal with and that we can’t fix everything at once.

I’ll give it a solid 6.5 overall, and i’m being optimistic, probably without the latest last moment moves for Woltemade, Sarr and deciding to ditch Zeghrova while keeping a more useful Nico Gonzalez around it’d been way lower, though likely much of this was forced by the double injuries to Yildiz and Thuram which sort of came at a right time while the mercatto was still open to be able to make adjustments… nonetheless the rating i’d say is largely influenced by the fact we hadn’t sold or forced out to balance the books any of the select few quality players we already had either.

 

[Wings]

0/10.
Fifthiary!
- The owners don't seem to care about what is happening or are incompetent to the point where they are making everything worse.
- The coach doesn't seem to know what he wants.
- The management doesn't seem to know what they are doing.

Dumb & amateurish management that telegraphed every move in a way that killed the deals before they even began. Everyone seems to be pulling in different directions. Everyone stat padding & leeching off jj before leaving 3 envelopes for the next bunch.

The only hope I have is that sometimes things get so bad that they are good. I sincerely hope this eclectic ensemble somehow wrecks serie ass.

Good luck lads.

 

[Robee]

I'd play Chimenti before him.

But nah, we should have given Perin the starting role and kept Daffara. Especially if we're supposedly broke.

I've noticed this theme of suddenly overrating Perin all summer.