Who can we sell and how much would we get for them?

Prepare for the championship again? WTF?

 

I agree. He would give us something different, especially if we do sell Mitro!

 

People seem to be approaching this based on who they WANT to get rid of. But it won't be that simple. We're lower end of Prem quality now and it will be about who else wants our players. Realistically some of our crap will be tough to shift out, while we'll probably be fending off offers for Ritchie, Gayle, Shelvey, Clark etc.
Knowing Ashley he'll probably cash in on some of those to fund new squad players.

I'll be amazed if we keep the few good players we do have AND supplement them with prem quality players based on selling off our crap. Otherwise we're looking at a huge cash injection from Ashley.

 

Worked last season though didn't it? We held on to players that we're decent in the champ, and got paid a bomb for selling crap like Sissoko and Janmaat for extortionate prices.

At the end of the day there will always be teams who think Diame is a "midfield enforcer" and can "do a job" in the championship, and mid table championship teams who will pay us a few million for Hanley on the strength that he's the Scotland captain.

 

Heard a rumour that Rafa turned down a £20M bid for Haidara. Apparently he will be the No1 left back next season.

 

Who for?

 

Exactly this

 

Sell: Krul, Sells, Haidara, Lazaar, Hanley and Diame for starters. Gouffran will more than likely be released. One of Mitro or Murphy will have to go as well I suspect. Aarons and Arma should be loaned to championship clubs to prove their fitness/worth. I think long term Colback will be sold, but next year he can be a decent option as a squad player given his PL experience. Riviere and Saivet will be hard to move on.

 

What will Rafa be able to raise from player sales?

Sissoko - £6m (assume the £6m per year deferred payments is correct)
Thauvin - £9.5m (assume story is true that it's a done deal)
Colback - £4m (plenty of clubs will want him)
Hanley - £3m
Murphy - £2m (age is a factor)
De Jong - £4m
Krul - £3m (last year of contract)
Diame - £4m (two promotions in two years)
Saivet - £2m
Riviere - £2m
Haidara - Free transfer
Gamez - Free transfer
Sels - £2m
Ameobi - Out of contract
Gouffran - Out of contract
Anita - Out of contract

If all that happened, then that's around £40m to spend. It might be that some are sent on loan again though.

The crown jewels though:

Mitrovic - £13m
Gayle - £12m
Shelvey - £10m

I can see one of these being sold so the kitty could be around £50m?

 

Equally, that would be a lot of squad players out. We can't just replace them with 5 or 6 'big' signings.. Admittedly some of them haven't even been here this season, so the numbers might look a bit distorted, but we still need a deep squad, not just a strong 11.

 

Most of them have either not played or barely featured. We don't want senior players here who are out on loan all season for a start.

 

We are planning a bid for Sigurdsson.

 

That will be a tough deal to pull off especially with top 6 clubs linked to him. With Swansea set to stay up now they will want crazy money for him with 3 years left to run on his contract.

 

Massive coup if we were to pull it off. Cairney though if we don't.

 

I'm guessing it would cost us £30m.

 

30-35 million easily.

 

I'd be staggered if he signed for Newcastle tbh.

 

Same. Imagine if he did though. Would be a massive statement of intent.

 

I'm hoping to be staggered once or twice this summer.

 

Yep can't see it happening at all. Having said that he seems to be the type of player that just wants to play. I'm not sure he would fancy a move to somewhere he is not going to be an automatic starter.