The last post was Part 1 of this long review of my transfer evaluation from last summer. Today the point is to end the review and get ready for this summer’s transfer window with a better grasp of my possible errors. ors.

In this post, which will be the one I’ll start reviewing, I wrote about a lot of names, mostly very quickly. I'll do the same again here:

This was my judgment: "First of all, Como continued their wingers-with-take-on-ability haul by snapping up Nicolas Kühn from Celtic for €19 million. Born in 2000, he's the most experienced among the four players I've covered for them so far (Rodriguez, Addai and Baturina), and he's probably the one who will capture the most attention. He should score and assist quite a bit, even after considering a totally fair drop in performance coming from Scotland. Como has practically covered their wingers for 2+ seasons and already has substitutes ready for when one or two of those they bought this summer are sold."

And it's fair to say this has been a huge miss: he barely played, and his radar for the 750 minutes he managed in Serie A is bad.

I wrote this about his transfer: "Hellas Verona bagged Unai Núñez from Athletic Bilbao – to replace Ghilardi, I suppose – on loan plus a €5 million purchase option. I'm not impressed, given he'll be 29 in January and he performed worse at Bilbao than in 2023/24 at Celta Vigo, where he wasn't exactly incredible."

He was okay at Verona — probably one of the best in that defence — but for whatever reason his loan was cut short in January. Call it a wash?

"Baschirotto went to Cremonese – not interesting" – Cremonese got relegated, and deserved it.

"Walukiewicz went to Sassuolo, but in the last couple of seasons he didn't exactly shine at Empoli or Torino" – He did somewhat shine, in a haramball Sassuolo side, as a right back — quite a miss.

"Leo Østigård came back to Italy to play for Genoa. He has talent but doesn't seem to convince anyone, as he's quite inconsistent and allows opponents to rack up way too much value in his zone" – All true, but he scored a couple of goals so no one actually cares.

"Parma brought in the French 2002 Ndiaye, and I'm unconvinced given he was paid €8 million plus a % of the future sale, but he's a project, of course" – Radar = bad, played less than 1,000 minutes; probably needs more time to be properly evaluated given he's a centre-back.

"Also, Zerbin finished his loan from Venezia and was loaned to Cremonese. Seems pretty good for him to keep the playing time up and maybe replicate this type of performance." – He had a campaign that should earn him another year in Serie A.

This is what I wrote: "Bernardeschi was brought in by Bologna on a free. This is their second purchase I'm not convinced by, but he presses and sets up chances 🤷‍♂️"

It was pretty dry because I didn't think it deserved a lot of comment, and it was a similar move to Immobile in my opinion — plus the piece contained a lot of names. Turns out that's not how you should evaluate moves: Bernardeschi had quite a season at Bologna. His age did have him struggling with a couple of injuries that made him miss 9 games entirely, but he still racked up more than 2,000 minutes between Serie A and the Europa League. Does it mean this is a miss? Yes. Does it mean 32 is better than 36? Probably. Does it mean MLS > Turkish Süper Lig? I don't know.

"Fiorentina brought in Sohm from Parma for around €16 million. Born in 2001, he's well-rounded, and I expect him to be very solid again with better teammates, but the price tag could prove a little high." – Fiorentina likely burned, at least for this season, every player they bought in the summer. Sohm was swapped for Bologna's Fabbian in January, and he played around 800 minutes for each side in my dataset — in neither was he "very solid". Another miss.

"In other midfielders news, Sassuolo purchased Ismaël Koné from Marseille for around €12.5 million + %. He didn't play much at Marseille, but at Watford he was very good at defending and resisting the press." – His radar this season is very similar to the one from last year's post. I didn't really judge him the first time around, but Sassuolo are probably going to make money here.

"Lecce decided to pull the trigger for less than €1 million on the peak-age (1999) wingback Corrie Ndaba. He clearly has some qualities, and it will be interesting to see how he'll do in Italy given he improved a lot from his 2023/24." – Another miss from the Scottish Premiership. Will he and Kühn improve in 26/27? Are Scottish Premiership players doomed in Italy? Maybe I'll remember to watch again next year.

"Last, but certainly not least, Cagliari brought in Semih Kılıçsoy from Beşiktaş for €1 million loan, €12 million to complete the purchase. Look, he's done this for two seasons straight, and he's born in 2005. I don't even understand why he was sold or why I never heard of him before. I just hope he crushes it in Serie A." – Okay, here the radar is so bad that you need to go and watch what he was doing in Turkey.

I'm not accepting this miss, to be fair. He was asked to play as a lone striker in many games when he's a 10/7, and Cagliari also played a bit of haramball — please stop buying players who need the ball when you play without it. To paraphrase Kendrick Lamar: they're not your saviours. Go and look at his goals, he's talented.

After that piece came the one for Roma and Torino, which you can find here.

"They got Franco Israel from Sporting Lisbon to replace Milinković-Savić as goalkeeper, paying around €5 million. This seems quite good if he can keep these numbers for them, given he improved from the season before and he's born in 2000." – Spoiler: he didn't keep his shot-stopping numbers up and lost his place to Paleari. Miss?

"Torino also brought in Ardian Ismajli from Empoli to reinforce their defense, but he's injured and his numbers at Empoli were not really good for a peak-age player." – I think we're aligned here: he played 2,062 minutes while suffering 5 different injuries per Transfermarkt, and his radar, while not bad, isn't good either.

"Simeone was a shooting machine in 2023/24 for Napoli, and not much else. […] Simeone is 30 years old, so I wouldn't bet on him for the future given Torino's options in the striker position also include Che Adams and Duván Zapata." – Not a lot to review here — he still had a great season for Torino.

"Ngonge was quite interesting at Verona in 2023/24 before going to Napoli, so I'm quite excited to see him at Torino." – His numbers were not great, but not bad either. His loan was still cut in January — I don’t think this is my mistake.

“Aboukhal seems a very strange profile for an attacking midfielder/winger, as he mostly shoots and does little else. […] but he seems the kind of player Torino could work on so that his weaknesses become less relevant and he could increase in value now that he's at the start of his peak age." – I don't know what happened here: he played less than 600 minutes for Torino in Serie A and ended up at left wingback. Torino had a very strange season. I'll reluctantly accept this miss.

"Ghilardi showed a really promising skill set and numbers at Verona, so he's good given the total between loan and option to make it permanent should be around €10 million and he's young." – Win here: he played almost 1,600 minutes between Serie A and the Europa League to good effect, and both Fotmob and Transfermarkt agree his valuation increased as a Roma player — even though the figure they each value him at is very different.

"Wesley seemed like a really good right wingback at Flamengo, and I expect him to keep these promises, though he was paid €25 million. He needs to keep the numbers up to see his value rise, but he's young and in the current Brasileirão his numbers were already improving from the 2024 tournament." – Oh man, the sweet taste of victory in this land of misses. He's been the best wingback/fullback/winger in Serie A apart from Dimarco. Roma could easily flip him for profit this summer already — maybe even double what they paid, with the right buyer.

"El Aynaoui probably needs to improve his ability with the ball to be considered a worthy acquisition at €25 million. Plus, he's been hit with injuries last season, missing around 100 days total. Last season he increased the amount of defensive actions sensibly but worsened by a similar amount the value conceded to opponents in his area – not good. Indeed, this one makes me dubious at that amount." – Now we enter the nuance zone. His radar is very good, but look at it — everything I said is still true. He's a defensive machine, and on the ball he's missing something. He didn't suffer injuries this season, but his valuation on both Fotmob and Transfermarkt is below what Roma paid — even if only by a little. That's a win, in my opinion.

"Then there are Ferguson and Bailey – another two players with extensive injury problems that are worrying. Ferguson should cost around €40 million if the loan becomes permanent, and Bailey (already injured) will cost €25. If they stay healthy all season, I don't doubt they will give Roma very good output. Ferguson was really impressive in his first two seasons at Brighton, but his second one was cut short by a cruciate ligament injury, and last season was not exactly successful. Bailey would probably have an impact for every team in Serie A if healthy."

Look, that's probably two wins. Bailey's loan was cut short — he played less than 300 minutes for Roma, basically injured from the moment he landed to the moment he left.

Ferguson is a somewhat different story, but still a win for me: he was good when on the pitch. That's just true.

The problem is, he's been injured for around 25 games per Transfermarkt — and not only that, Gasperini basically hated him from day one, which I don't understand, and in the end he got Malen, who crushed Serie A from his first appearance. That's okay too.

Okay, I honestly thought I'd wrap up in Part 2, but we're at 2100 words and I still have around 30 other transfers I wrote about — so there will be a Part 3.

Hopefully you enjoyed it; if not, that's okay too. It's good exercise for me.

See you soon.