We must keep ALL our best players and that includes Bale, we are slowly building a very good team and if we keep selling our best players we may as well give up. Levy is not keen on selling our top players at any price (as proved with Modric and Berbatov), I can only see him selling Bale if he (Bale) does what Modric and Berbatov did and demands to leave. Levy knows that at Bale`s age he is going to be worth more in 1 or 2 years, and he is our best player and fans favourite, time will tell on Bale but I would like to think we will have him for a couple more years. I want to see at least 1 new striker, a quality central midfield playmaker, a replacement for Parker, a new goalkeeper and a couple of full backs. Players that I will not be too bothered about seeing leave would be Bentley, Gomes, Friedel, Gallas, Naughton, Livermore, Parker and Dempsey.
pretty much how I feel Huddlefro. It's a bit of a catch 22 really for me. If we don't make CL, we don't get the £30m (approx) in revenue, which means have no money to invest in players. It also means that me might lose Bale, due to what his advisers might say and whether that offer comes in. If we've missed out on £30m already, Levy is likely to be pretty gutted about that. (let's face it, he's got the profits to think about). Therefore a £50mill+ offer for Bale might be enough to change things. Like you say, how else are we going to get new players in otherwise? where's the money going to come from? £20mill from dead wood sales won't be enough to get what we're crying out for, as well as the cover we need in other positions
Agree we should keep our best players but it's never going to happen. Levy will sell anyone if the price is right , if they play up or not , VDV, Carrick for example. I think your point "we may as well give up" is sadly very appropriate .
I also think we won't do that much. I'd be surprised (though not shocked) to see Bale leave. All the things that feed the rumor mill are also things designed to get him a new contract, which is what I think he actually wants, at least at this point. Our problem this year has not been our first team. Our first team once settled has done extremely well. Our problem has been the settling time, players not here, and players lost to injury. We badly needed backup in at least two spots: RM and striker. We may sell a few including Dempsey, and work on getting young quality players for both on the (relative) cheap. Tin hat on: Ade is a good striker to pair with Bale. He's also due a big year. I'm not sure we'll keep him, but I can see us selling him, and watching him score 20 goals for someone else and winning a humanitarian award, while our new player scores ten and loses his driver's license. We certainly need another decent hold up striker. I'd keep Defoe as well, because he scores a lot of goals. The big question is what we do with what we do have. Gylfi has earned starter status, Holtby expects starter status, and a lot of people think Carroll deserves starter status.
good points RWAEB. However, without taking sides on Ade being good or useless, I actually think there's better striker partner options for Bale who'd cost us far less each week! Therefore I can't agree with you on him being a good partner. Considering how much he's paid each week, he's terrible.
Going by our current system, and a few names being bandied about... FIRST TEAM Lloris Walker Kaboul Vertonghen Benny/NEW LEFT BACK Sandro Holtby Lennon Eriksen Bale NEW STRIKER BENCH NEW KEEPER/Archer Smith Dawson Caulker NEW LEFT BACK Parker Carroll Townsend Dembele Sigurdsson Defoe ...plus we'd have Pritchard, Luongo, Hall and Fryers (among others) in reserve.
If Ade was to be replaced, surely we're not going to be doing another campaign with just his replacement & Defoe? I like the idea of Holtby becoming a deeper player. He made a couple of long distance passes on the ground against Basel which were perfectly weighted. if he works out in that role, it'll give us very good rotation options, especially if we sign someone like Eriksen.
Lloris - Stay Gomes - Sold Friedel - Stay (FFS!) Kaboul - Stay Vertonghen - Stay Walker - Stay Dawson - Sold Caulker - Stay Gallas - Sold Benny - Sold Naughton - Stay Bale - Stay (1 more season only tho, no matter what) Lennon - Sold Sandro - Stay Dembele - Stay Parker - Sold Siggy - Stay Holtby - Stay Carroll - Stay Dempsey - Sold (thank you Jebus!) Livermore - Loaned Huddlestone - Sold Bentley - Gone (don't know how, and don't care now) Defoe - Stay Adebayor - Sold Townsend - Stay Kane - Loaned Smith - Loaned Falque - Sold Rose - Stay Bostock - Sold Khumalo - Sold Dawkins - Sold Ceballos - Loaned Fryers - Loaned Which will free up space for 3 attackers, probably Remy one of them, Benteke/Son if we strike early and are lucky and A N Other (who isn't Damiao) Can see Townsend replacing Lennon for at least the first month of the season, until new additions find their feet Rose has done sterling work at Sunderland, so its bye-bye Benny with Naughts covering LB/RB and Fryers promoted to 1st team squad We may pick up one or two (probably another defensive minded CM next highest on the list after forward options) But I can see us starting the season thusly Lloris Walker, Kaboul, Vertonghen, Rose Dembele, NEW DM, Holtby/Siggy Remy, NEW STRIKER, Bale Bench: Friedel, Naughts, Caulker, Holtby/Siggy, Townsend, Defoe, T. Carroll
Fair enough, Roo, and true about Ade's salary. I'd be a little surprised to see Ade back, to tell you the truth. He's being paid far too much to score so little. But I have trouble imagining us getting a real, live striker, let alone one who can find the back of the net, and compared to nobody, someone who really might just score 20 next year if we can possibly stay patient enough to keep him shines by comparison.
What I meant was that having 2 in total is not enough cover! Ade has scored more than 20 goals, once. We'd have been better off with someone like rickie lambert, who since 2008 has scored well over 20 goals a season. He's now proven he can score goals in the prem too, with 14 so far. I bet he's not earning the best part of £200,000 p/w!
And Rose has done 'ok' for Sunderland, but is not good enough to replace Benny. Whilst Naughton hasn't shown anything like the quality to be considered as a top PL FB either on the right or the left!! One thing about the Ade salary - is he not still partly funded by Citeh? If I remember correctly his transfer to us had some sort of salary clause in it similar to the loan agreement. Not suggesting that should make the decision on whether or not to keep him, but he may not be quite the drain on resources that we imagine.
Agree relayer. My point about Ade was just what he was being paid in general! Forgetting whether he's a drain on resources, he's on a bloody fortune and doing very little!
Well the figures being banded around were that he was on £100k or so but we were only paying 50% or something like that. Still a lot based on this years performances, but not on last....... Mind you, it all pales into insignificance when compared with the alleged £200k pw that Yaya Toure has apparently just signed up for!!!
I thought Ade was on £180k a week at city? we were paying £75k and they were paying the rest? With this in mind, could it not be a massive issue getting rid of him?!
Out goings I'd like or that I think are possible: Hudd - £5m. Gallas - Released. Dempsey - £6m. One of Ade or Defoe (pref Ade for me) - £7m Khumalo - £500k. Bostock - £350k - £500k. Pritchard - Loan to top Championship team/ bottom half Prem team. Dawkins - £250K Ekotto (don't like this one but think it'll happen) - £7m. Rose - £6m (can't see him being 1st choice on return and so would wanna move). Bentley - Released? Think contract expires in summer if not £2m. Parker - £1m - £2m (really can't see his legs lasting for another top flight campaign). Smith (if AVB still thinks he needs more time) - Loan to Prem team. A surprise one could be Holtby, hasn't made desired impact and won't be a starter any time soon IMO - £7m. Like I said though that'd be a surprise one. Incomings: Eriksen - £15m. One of Osvaldo/ Benteke - £12m - £18m. Kolarov/ Shaw/ Coentrao - £7m/ £10m/ £15m. Richards/ Maicon if Walker still looks **** - £8m/ £5m. Team I'd like for next season if we bought (and sold) all players I wanted: Lloris, Richards, Kaboul, Vertonghen, Coentrao Sandro, Dembele Lennon, Eriksen, Bale Benteke Subs: Friedel, Walker, Caulker, Carroll, Sigurdsson, Townsend, Defoe In reserve: Dawson, Livermore, Naughton, Rose, Mason, Kane, Fryers, Archer, Veljkovic, Ceballos, Byrne, Coulthirst, Coulibaly. I kind of rushed this so I may have made a few mistakes, apologies in advance .
