It may be a rarely held opinion, but I think the "damage" of the windows with no transfers is significantly exaggerated in general. If you look at our transfer business in the recent era (post-Bale), we're typically looking at 4-5 in and 4-5 out combined over the summer and winter windows. In general, at least 1, if not 2, of the outgoings are quality contributors we'd rather keep but can't. Of the 4-5 incomings, we're basically 50-50 on whether or not they make meaningful contributions. About 1 in 5 transfers we actually hit on something good and get a quality squad fixture from.
Obviously you can't forecast anything perfectly, and maybe we'd have signed the next great thing...its entirely possible, but most likely given our recent track record we'd have traded 1 key contributor, 1 decent squad option, and 3 dead weights for...1 key contributor, 2 decent squad options, and 2 flops.
Likely Out (going on contemporary reports): Toby, Dembele, Rose, Sissoko, GKN
Likely In (rosiest picture I can realistically paint): Martial, Grealish, Lascelles, Sessegnon (eventually signed anyway), Barrios
So we basically have the same squad we have now except Toby = Lascelles, Moura = Grealish, and Barrios = Ndombele. Add Martial to the mix as our 1 big hit. How many points better off are we? Not a meaningful amount in my mind. That summer certainly isn't the difference between us winning trophies or not.
