Colo : No European football next season

I would love European football again and if we did qualify this season we'd be able to make enough signings to beef up the squad with quality. Like Why Aye Cabaye said, we're only 3 or 4 signings away from a quality squad and with European football we could attract that whilst keeping our stars.

 

We have a good squad for Europe with players such as Perch, Smith and Ameobi Sr.

 

This. We need more strength in depth in certain areas(strikers, defenders)

 

I disagree, it's down to Ashley. If we were to qualify for Europe this season he could buy enough players for us to have a competitive squad in one summer, we arent too many players short.

 

Would you all agree that a competitive squad has 2 keepers, 4 CBs, 4 full backs, 4 CMs, 4 wingers and 4 strikers, all dependable in their position? I'd say that's fair, so how many signings do we really need?

GK: Krul and Harper
RB: Simpson and Raylor
CB: Colo, Taylor, Williamson, NEW SIGNING REQUIRED
LB: Santon, NEW SIGNING REQUIRED
Wide players: Obertan, Jonas, Marveaux, NEW SIGNING REQUIRED/Ferguson?
CM: Tiote, Cabaye, Guthrie, Gosling, do we need another?
Strikers: Ba, Best, Ben Arfa, NEW SIGNING REQUIRED


So that's a left back, centre back, striker that we definitely need, and possibly a right winger and centre midfielder.

We're looking good to sign a striker in January and possibly someone like Ridgwell (who we tried for in summer) as our CB/LB.

So that means if we did qualify for Europe, we'd only NEED 1 more player IMO (assuming January isnt a nightmare).

 

A little bit off topic but perhaps relevant to Colo's point. In the final game of the calendar year last season, the club published the key balance sheet figures in the match day programme in comparison to several Premiership clubs, in a way to defend the clubs spending policy. The accounts of course reflected the season we had just spent in the Championship so things like match day revenue and sponsorship/tv rights were significantly lower than those clubs compared against.
I wonder whether they will go to the trouble of repeating the exercise at the end of this year to show what our 'real' position is against those same clubs.
Sorry just some Sunday afternoon musings I wanted to share...

 

-------------------Harper------------------
Simpson --- Williamson --- New CB --- Raylor
Obertan --- Guthrie --- Tiote --- Marveaux/Jonas
-------------Best --- New striker--------------

Imo, that team would be good enough to get through the early stages of the Europa League against some of the ****tier teams, and it would only require a few first-teamers. However, just to be sure, I'd include another good quality CB and a decent striker.

 

IMO we just need to buy a striker, a versatile winger(can play both left and right), and a versatile centre back to compete on all fronts especially if we ever qualify for Yewrope. And of course the best way of doing this is to poach relegated clubs in all the major Yewropean leagues

 

Here's our strongest 11 -

------------Krul--------------

Simmo--Taylor--Colo---Santon

---Cabaye--------Tiote------

Marv-----Ben Arfa-----Gutierrez

-----------Ba------------------

Ben Arfa to push further up the pitch and to support Ba more.

After this we have -

Best
Lover
Ameobi

Obertan
Sammy
Guthrie
Gosling
Ferguson
Vuckic

Willo
Kadar
Dummet
Raylor

IMO, aside from our obvious need for another quality striker, this is what i think we should buy -

Another CB. Willo is ok, decent enough cover, but we have nothing after that. Kadar is unproven and we can't rely on him. We need another CB, and i think we should go after Bassong.

Another good CM. Guthrie and Gosling are good cover, but we need, IMO, someone that could fill in for Tiote. Abeid looks promising along with Vuckic, but lets assume they don't improve quick enough. Lets buy a quality CM/holding mid to cover Tiote.

Another quality attacking mid/winger. After our strongest attacking mids/wingers, we have Obertan, who IMO is good but I'd like someone better to cover along side Ober. Ober IMO is an impact player, not a regular starter.

 

I love you tash.. Ha

 

3 players we need are LB, CB, Striker
2 more players we need to compete in Europe are a right winger and central midfield cover.

We can manage 5 players in two transfer windows, especially as none of them have to be starters.

 

this 100%

 

I don't suppose it would be that hard in terms of numbers to get our squad to a size that could cope with four competitions. The Premier League, FA Cup, League Cup & Europa League would all be much easier to advance in if we could swell our numbers - do you all think though that it would be a feasable risk as far as Mike Ashley is concerned? Would he risk another five or six huge salaries every week on the off-chance we can progress in European competition?

I wouldn't really be that confident myself.

It's more likely that the younger players will be developed to play an active part in cup matches - I really don't see us doing much business this coming window. How would Pardew justify it for a start? Look where we are in the table thus far with the meager spend we've invested.

 

I don't think there is any danger of Europe next year so I'm not worried. If we got it, fine, we can always use the group games to blood younger lads. Then if we get through, great, if not who cares. As I say I don't think there is any danger of it happening anyway.

 

I agree with this although I do think the left back needs to be a starter ideally.