I think it's been a decent window. Could have been better, could have been worse.
We got a lot of business done early, adding depth to the squad without necessarily improving the first XI. As such, we started the season with a few weak links (caused, in part, by injuries too). Certainly not ideal and I can understand the frustration with that, even if some flapped about it far too much.
The two right backs signed yesterday suddenly transform the position from a real weakness to a strength and it will be interesting to see who gets the nod there going forward. Crucially, both are attacking players and have bags of pace; this is key to how we seem to want to set up tactically.
The Dale signing is intriguing. He really kicked on last season and ticks a lot of boxes; will he come in straight away and if so, where does that leave CJ Hamilton going forward? He was a big player for us out of the traps last season but is clearly low on confidence at the moment and seemingly slipping down the pecking order.
Obviously the club made multiple bids for Brannagan and others, with a technical central midfielder who can either play behind the front man or deeper seemingly becoming a priority after Ward's injury (and even after Wintle arrived). I suspect this will be revisited in January, especially with us having one free squad spot. The fact that the club were willing to spend good money on this position at short notice should reassure people that the money is there to spend if the price is right.
We missed out on others too, and whilst I've no doubt NC will be happy with yesterday's business, he'll probably be ruing the ones that got away - particularly in the attacking third. Hopefully the club will reflect on what they've done well in a tough window, but also reflect on where they need to improve going into January.
One area of concern is the inability to shift our 'dead wood'. We're not going to get every deal right (who does?), but we do have a number of players who are, for want of a better word, useless to us: we don't want them and they won't be playing for us, and seemingly no one else wants them either. They are a drain on resource at a time when so many areas of the club require investment. From what I understand there's a lot more due diligence going into signings now, but we can't keep churning through players like Peterborough do.