i disagree with you both there, i think the manager did pretty well in the transfer window considering the sources available to him. thats 1 of the things i will give him credit for.
remembering that jovanovic was benitez's signing i think he did quite well. fair enough masch wanted out and poulsen seems like a stop gap signing... but individually cole, merieles and konchesky have improved the quality of the squad.
I don't disagree that these latter 3 players have improved the squad. But I'm not sure if you've been watching where Roy has been playing Cole and Meireles. If he was so eager to sign them he surely knew they would all contest for central midfield positions along with Gerrard, which surely explains why they are used as wide players. He didn't know Jovanovic would be merely average, fair enough, but he did know Turan wanted to come here, and could probably have been available for much the same money as Meireles (after all, Turan turned down a move to the Bundesliga because he thought we were coming for him, so he was definitely for sale). Even if Jovanovic was truly world class he can play on both flanks or as a striker (apparently), making the signing of Turan even more important - lack of width is one of our primary tactical failings and that has been apparent for longer than one season (and especially with the sale of Reira, Rafa initiated or otherwise).
Oh, and sorry, but Poulsen was a poor signing, and everyone knew that before the deal was done. This wasn't a stop-gap signing; this was a man using our money to help a friend's ailing career.
On the point of Konchesky, well, Roy had all summer to buy a quality left back, and this was the best he could do? We should not have been looking to make a profit in the transfer window, and Roy should have been far more active in getting rid of Mascherano rather than letting it turn into a fiasco; if you're going to allow Barcelona to get away with murder then they surely will. Oh, and Aurelio has hardly justified his new contract thus far, has he?
insua was totally out his of his depth
Yeah, Insua's a bit too much like Johnson in every respect, expect that the latter is a full international while the former had the most assists in the EPL last season in his position. So given that neither can defend, right now I'd rather have Insua in the squad; he's younger, actually knows how to cross a ball, and plays left back which is where we have more problems than solutions.
So for me Roy didn't utterly fail, but the signs are there that he's simply stuck with his tried-and-trusted 30-odd years of experience buying average players. Remind us all who he signed when he was at Inter? That same experience gave us a decent start on the pitch, but has now been shown to lack substance at this level. I begin to wonder whether the same will be true for his transfer window expertise; flattering merely to deceive.
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