Who would you buy to replace the following players that seem to be leaving B H Riise - Murphy - Etuhu - Halliche - Davies - A.Johnson - Pogrebnyak - My choices B H Riise - Maarten Martens (AZ Alkmaar) D.Murphy - Benayoun (Chelsea) D.Etuhu - Derek Boteng (Dnipro) R.Halliche - Jardel (Benfica) S.Davies - Matt Jarvis (Wolves) A.Johnson - Dries Mertens (PSV) Mladen Petric (Hamburg) * P.Pogrebnyak - Seydou Doumbia (CSKA Moscow) But to be Realistic Rodallega (Wigan)
I don't think we need to replace most of those players, they were just deadwood who couldn't get on the bench, for Etuhu we will have Sidwell back, Riise was never used anyway, Davies will be replaced by both Frei and Kaka, Halliche for Burn, Murphy for hopefully Ramsey or maybe Kasami/Gecov and Petric for AJ and a new striker maybe Defoe or that Turkish lad for Pog.
I think you are correct Bandit in that Jol won't look to replace like for like. He is about building a team in his style. My guess is that part of his 'creation' is * Three at the back. Which he tried, albeit not too successfully with the players he used at the beginning of last season and why we hear about interest in Sovik and others. * No No.9 - not in the BZ or Pog sense anyway. I think he's looking for a pacy front 3 and why we hear about interest in Yilmaz and Rodellaga and others On the plethora names we're being linked with. Firsty, they are all players with a quality tag and it's good to know that we have the wherewithall to be serious contenders. Secondly, Jol seems to be pursuing more than one for the same role - I think that's called 'hedging your bets'.
Yeah considering most of those players leaving were Hodgson signings and Hodgson type players I doubt we'll be signing like for like replacements given that both managers play very different styles. Jol will make the signings he thinks will fit his system. Hopefully that includes Ramsey, Yilmaz and Rodallega though.
If we can sign Ramsey to replace Murphy, Yilmaz to replace Pogrebnyak and a right back to either replace Kelly or challenge him such as Clyne or Simpson then I think our business this summer will have been very successful. Obviously if Dempsey/Dembele leave we will need to replace them also.
I wouldn't mind adding another younger Centre Back to that list Bandit, in case of injuries. Maybe another Centre Mid too as it looks like Gecov will be going out on loan and Etuhu is going to leave, Sidwell has injury problems and Murphy is gone. I still think Jamie O'Hara would be a good signing!
Don't fancy O'Hara, myself. He looked terrible last season - but then, so did the whole Wolves team. Danny Simpson would be a great signing, just the kind of player we need. I would love Ramsey to come but I can't see it, unfortunately. He'll get games at Arsenal, Wenger probably won't want to sell, he probably wouldn't want to come to us and there are doubts about how much in the way of wages he'd want...
Used to rate O'Hara quite highly after his spell at Portsmouth but Bidley is right, he didn't play very well at Wolves last season. I know the quality of players around him must be taken into account but I remain unconvinced he could do a job for us now. There doesn't seem to be a lot of interest in him unlike Fletcher.
