I still can't believe that Dos Santos turned that down. Sevilla offered £3m and he was upset that we turned it down. Idiot. I don't think that we really need to do a lot of work to our first XI in the summer, if we can keep hold of the players that we've got. Our squad needs work, but I can't see how that's achievable with a manager that doesn't use it. Who's going to sign to sit on the bench?
To sell: Pienaar - £5m Jenas - £4m Gio - £5m Bassong - £4m Charlie - £6m OR Naughton - £3m Gomes - £3m Bentley - £4m Khumalo - £1m Looking at around - £29m-£32m coming in (well that's my guess anyway). Plus the starting transfer kitty. Release: One of Nelsen/ Gallas. Buy: Uvini on a perm - £3m Hoilett - £5m Llorente/ Remy/ Leandro - £30m/ £20m/ £18m-£20m Krul/ Lloris/ Vorm (all for the season after next) - £12m/ £15m/ £8m-10m That'd give us a rough squad of: Friedel, Carlo, Button (With one of the keepers to arrive the season after) Walker, Naughton/ Charlie, Smith King, Kaboul, Dawson, Caulker, Nelsen/ Gallas, Uvini Benny, Rose Parker, Sandro, Modric, Huddlestone, Krancjar Bale, Lennon, Hoilett, Townsend Llorente/ Remy/ Leandro, Defoe, Saha With a starting XI of: Friedel, Walker, Kaboul, King/ Dawson/ Caulker, Benny Parker/ Sandro, Modric Lennon/ Hoilett, Rafa, Bale Llorente/ Remy/ Leandro Pretty good in my opinion. Not many changes are needed from this season, genuinely believe a top drawer striker would have been the difference for us this season from being a top 4 hopeful to a title challenger.
Some areas just don't have enough competition for places, PNP. we just need that little bit of extra quality. perhaps if we're not going to spend big, we need to try and find the shrewd signings, like Chelsea and arsenal have made recently. And we know levy's good at that! perhaps now it's likely redknapp will be staying, he'll just tell Levy that he needs more quality and the reason there's been no rotation is due to the lack of faith in those fringe players. blunt, but it seems true.
Pretty much agree with most of that SOS. 1)do we sell pienaar though? or do we just use him properly? 2)29-32 mill is realistic, but we can't adopt the policy of "selling before buying". - we'll miss out. gotta be prepared to fork out, and hope we sell. 3)Do we actually know what Uvini is actually like? is 3 million the right price, or is 3 million best put towards someone like vertonghen? 4)Agreed on the final "striker" comment, but also think a versatile winger is just as important. Lennon has no competition and bale needs cover. (Not sure if hoilett is the man to be honest, i'd like us to be aiming higher)
Pienaar's desperate to leave, by all accounts, Roo. Unless Redknapp is replaced by Moyes, it'd probably be best all round if he returned to Everton. I'm a fan of Hoilett. I can't see us getting a better player who wouldn't be guaranteed a start, to be honest.
yeah true. shame though really, because we never got to see what he's capable of. Now we'll just get to watch it week in, week out in an everton shirt. yeah your probably right about Hoilett too PNP. I think it's just the fact that i want us to stop buying players who aren't much different to what we've already got. we did it with pienaar, and he couldnt get a game, despite being a good player. There's more VDV signings out there, and those are the ones i feel we should be after now. Players, who just give us that little bit extra.
1) Toughie mate, I've not been a fan of his since he joined. Put in some awful performances yet his time at Everton shows he seriously is a talented player. Question I'd ask is, is he any better than what we have in the first XI? With us I can only see him being a squad player and therefore could be the reason he doesn't perform well for us as his confidence is knocked. 2) Very true. And with Spurs no doubt we'll leave the buying to last minute so it's a tricky situation. 3) Nope! Lol. But I presume being the captain of the young Brazil side means he must have some potential (I hope!). Vertonghen would command a good wage and expect first team football straight away, is he any better than Dawson/ King and then the potential of Caulker? I don't know much about him so can't really comment. 4) I like Hoilett, think he'd be suited to our play. Don't get me wrong I'd love a Hazard-esque player but just doubt we can afford them. Krasic has been touted but he's rejected us once so I don't really like the idea of buying a player that only wants to join because it's now his best option. Don't really know too many other wingers. Adam Johnson perhaps? That's if City were to sell.
1) pienaar could provide a different option though. it's a really tough call, like you say. I'd rather have him at the club than not have him. (considering we paid 2-3 mill for him!) 3) yeah, that certainly indicates some potential there, SOS. maybe my thoughts have been tainted by a Mr David Luiz in recent months! I've seen vetonghen a few times. he's solid and throws himself at anything. also calm and has good positioning. Well, i expect king to retire, and we've seen what injuries have done to us this season. - we might have CL football to add to that too, next year. 4) yeah, adam johnson is a great shout. I do like Hoilett, but i think there's better for the money. - Johnson being one of them. City will sell to us now, I think
David Luiz (AKA Sideshow Bob) is enough to make any team not want to buy a Brazilian centre back! Johnson would add real quality and give Lennon a kick up the arse. Whenever Lennon is under pressure for his position we always see him step it up a level so it's a win-win for us if someone like Johnson arrives.
For young centre backs, I'm leaning more towards Julian Velazquez, as he's been called up to the Argentina squad and plays more first team football. Given he's available at £4m, that's £1m more for a player with more experience at that age...although we'll still end up loaning him to Swansea/Wigan/Southampton. Jenas and Bentley (plus various deadwood in the reserves) need to be gotten rid of more than anything else. Not sure how we could use them in a cash + player deal though - is there anyone at Villa worth signing, as we could feasibly send Bentley the other way as part of the deal? We could get some decent money from selling Gomes, Bassong, Gallas, Corluka, Pienaar and Dos Santos (well, after his displays for Wolves, possibly not Bassong...) but if they go we need to bring in some squad depth. Caulker will move up in place of Bassong and Gallas/Nelsen, but if we sell Pienaar and GDS we should sign a new player as cover for Bale and Lennon. Giroud sounds like a decent shout, although Montpellier have put a ridiculous price tag for £35m+ on him
i'm leaning towards giroud as a strong option now, too. but it's whether we'd get him? top scorer in Ligue 1, playing for the team who are likely to be champions. are we not likely to face tough competition? Remy is more like it. only 11 goals compared to Girouds 20, and his side struggling in 10th. - that's the tottenham signing alright!
Mario Gomez would've been another good call for the Ade role, but he just signed a new contract with Bavaria Munchen...
there is no chance of us getting him unfortunately, new contract or not. he's arguably one of the best strikers in the world. out of our league I'm afraid HBIC, although a lovely thought.
id get Cavani if it was ever possible...he can play the Ade role and the Defoe role...hes crackers...but we will end up with Yakubu
exactly..whilst Harry tries to tell us he tried to sign Tevez,really Harry! i actually like the Yak.....hes got the skill but hes too used to mediocrity tht he might struggle to give us what we expect.
Tevez was a stupid idea. I'd rather we didn't piss around trying to bid for Aguero, Tevez, Mata, etc only to realise that they're already on more than any of our players. I mean how did no one realise that right from the start? We need to be looking in the < £20mill section, anyone who costs more than that would expect a wage that matches it.
How many first XI players do people think that we need to replace, assuming that we keep our best players?
