Lucumi has played a decent amount of football at right centre back. In 23/24 he often partnered Calafiori who is also left footed and Lucumi would be on the right of that.
Putting sentiment aside, a back four of Reinildo - Alderete - Lucumi - Mukiele is Champions League quality.
Seelt, Roberts, Jones, and somebody else will have to come off the bench for Lucumi, Mukiele, Masuaku and a RW. Then how tf does Mundle and O9 get back onto the bench? what a problem to have!!
WE ARE ****ING MASSIVE AND AFTER SATURDAY WE ONCE AGAIN BE HAVING A LAUGH TAKING THE PISS TOP OF THE LEAGUE WITH REGIS LE BRIS
Self gets loaned out I think, a season at a decent club playing regularly and I think we will have a top cb back next summer ready to step in when Ballard gets sold for £250 mill
Been pondering our squad players and what we may / they may, choose to do. We certainly will not be able to keep them all, and I doubt we can give some away. Cirkin. Probably stays due to his injury? Unless someone does a deal on loan with option. I hear the idea of staying and fighting for your place. Footballers arent daft though. We have signed a left back from Atleti and one who has over 100 games in the prem. That is fighting two heavyweights as a middlewight imo. Dennis will know that. He is still on a learning curve, an upward one, but players learn best by playing games. I suspect he will want to be away but may have to wait to Jan to get his move. Neil. A bit like Cirkin he is being asked to fight for his place against Xhaka. He could do that I suppose but not sure he wins a round. Could he play as an 8? Possibly, but he is again shifting position. For him I would advise him to stick with his current position. My sense is he will leave in the last week to play. If not a new deal, with a modest release clause, to give the club some assurance, not that I think anyone owes anything here. Seelt. I would loan him. Might yet be a player for the prem. But another who will learn by playing. Seems like Holland is his destination. Huggins. Same as Seelt. Loan him and monitor. Hjelde. Likely stay due to injury? I quite like him around the place anyway. Suspect he will be away on loan / sold in Jan. Not sure he has the ability needed long term. Alese. Sell if we can. Dont see him as a prem centre back personally. A decent champ club might be the place to go. Aleksic. Loan. I still want to see more of him but he isnt playing in this side. Jones. Loan. I like him and think there might be a player im there. Then again a loan in the championship may give us a sale option. And we all know PSR means you are pushed toward selling academy lads Abdullahi. Loan and monitor. Browne. Sell to champ. Shame because he might have done well here in other seasons, but he has fallen too far down the pecking order. Lad needs to play football again. Dont be surprised if he ends up back at Preston. Triantis. Sell if we can. Dont see a prem level player there. He should be chomping at the the bit to be playing now too and we cant give him that. Johnson. Loan and monitor. Ogunseyi. Loan and monitor. Poveda, Blondie, Ba, Pembele, Hemir, Matete, Anderson, Rusyn. Release. For their own benefit. But if the above happens we fly very close to the homegrown rule. We probably need to be really focussed on keeping Neil and Cirkin to be honest.
If we actually sign Lucumi finally we will have the option of fielding a team with 5 players who played champions league football last season 4 of which played knockout football
Absolutely mental this window like. If we get Lucumi then thats insane level of competitions for centre half. I have no idea who would start
I mean for sure Ballard keeps his place until he loses it, if that makes sense. Same with Hume. But the pedigree of those coming in is just actually genuinely certifiably insane. No promoted club should have the back 4 we would be able to put out.