Big, big difference with those two. I wouldn’t take Ings back because he’s on the slide and has a bad injury record. He would also be one of our top earners.
With Forster’s salary now of the wage bill, approx £3.7 million, and possibly Walcott leaving this summer, so another £3.7 million, and Shane Long £3 million, this is a massive annual saving and most of the £70k boys will be gone. Think the club has done well over the last couple of seasons to bring the wage bill down significantly, so with the new owners, the sacking of coaching staff today, we should now also be in a lot better position financially to have a real go in the transfer market this summer. Fingers crossed.
This should probably go in 'Saints Stuff', but seeing as a few people seem to want to GET RID of Redmond, I'll put it here. Chances created of any player from teams outside the big 6; Just behind James Maddison and above Saint-Maximin.
Redmond has had a decent season in terms of performance level. He hasn't had too many bad games, however I wouldn't be against selling him if a club comes in for him. We need a clearout of our 10s in much the same way we cleared out the coaches. They might individually not be the problem, but things have gone stale and we need changes. Theres not enough goal scoring or attacking threat from any of them really (even S.Armstrongs form plummited end of season). Djenepo and Walcott will hopefully both definitely leave. But that still leaves us with S.Armstrong, Alien Lucy, Tella and Redmond. S.Armstrong is the only one I'd definitely want to keep. In an ideal world we bring in two new starter quality 10s and maybe a young talent. So I'd still try and shift probably 2 of Alien Lucy, Tella and Redmond. Might just depend on who we can shift and how many players we are able to bring in though, as we could really do with starter quality all over the pitch and I imagine bringing in one permanent 10 is probably more likely given all the other positions that also need attention.
Redmond is better than Tella or Elyounoussi by some margin, I'd say. I'm happy to keep Tella or send him on loan, because I doubt his wages are very high, and he's young. Elyounoussi though is what, 28 or something, so if anyone goes, hopefully it's him.
Not to mention a gourmet pie or two at the concession stand. I can't wait to fill out my matchday experience questionnaire.
Tella maybe deserves one more season in the same way Djenepo deserved one more season last time out, though I don't ultimately think he's good enough for the PL. Elyounoussi has a better eye for goal than Redmond but I think they're a similar calibre of player, I don't personally think there is a big margin in quality. Wouldn't be upset if all 3 were sold but we probably need to keep hold of one of them for the squad. Whether thats Redmond, Ely or Tella may just depend on who is easier to shift. Ely is 27 (28 in Aug), Redmond 28 and Tella almost 23 just for reference (thanks wikipedia).
Not sure Elyounoussi has a better eye for goal. Certainly he is better at getting into the box for the odd tap in. Something Redmond isn't so good at. But Redders has a better shot from outside the box. On the ball, Elyou is just a bit slow and predictable, and I think he's been worked out by opposition coaches now. He's really struggled lately to have any kind of impact. In fact his drop in form corresponded with the team's. Redmond is faster and less predictable, and can play in any of the attacking positions. He has dips in form too, but when he is good, he is a danger man, of which we have, well, very few.
Depends what you mean by better eye for goal. I meant, he just scores more goals. Whether thats tap ins or whatever is kinda irrelevant given our lack of goals in general from the 10s. The entire team (except for FF and maybe KWP) have dropped in form in the last 3 months. None of our 10s are good enough to create something from nothing when the entire team is playing badly, trying to swim in treacle comes to mind. Even S.Armstrong who is comfortably our best 10 has struggled. I would also argue that when in form Elynoussi is a danger man, though in a different way as as you say, he doesn't have the pace or directness of Redmond. I just don't think there is much difference between them and don't mind who we keep and who we let go. I would probably favour Redmond for his flexibility in attack, but ultimately happy for them both to go and start afresh and it probably just comes down to who is easier to shift.
Re: the type of goal. I feel you could train Redmond or any number 10 to get in the box and get the kind of goal Elyou typically scores. I don't think you can teach a player to shoot well from 25 yards though. Especially not by the age of 28. But anyway, yeah, we all see things differently and let's face it, the important issue isn't who goes, but who comes in.
There are lots of rumours linking us to promising young players from bid teams demonstrating the hoarding going on. We only have so many loan slots and these clubs won’t be selling them - even on a tino style deal with a clear buy back - which in theory should work for players that need more than 1 year of development Man City seem like quite an egregious example of this. What use is them holding onto Delap when they have just signed Haaland? And even if Haaland should eventually leave it will be for such a huge fee that they will go out and sign someone else They also didn’t play McAtee or a Delap in the dead rubber champions league group games or the second leg of one where they were miles ahead. It certainly seem like a player has to be Phil Foden level to get the chance That said - lots of these links are regurgitated and might not be true right now
I guess if Garner isn’t wanted by Ten Hag they might want to try and raise some money for him? If Forest come up surely he’d be more likely to go there having already been there? (Similar with the discussion of Pearce as a coach)