yes, that's why I posted it like this. No point saying we want Schneiderlin, Bony, Kroos () unless we clear out some overseas players. Equally letting Dawson, Rose and Naughton go just means we have less bodies unless we get HG in (Davies will be to be fair).
We've been linked with Micah Richards. Various reports claim that teams have looked at him, but nobody wants to pay the £7m that City want for him. I'd take a risk on him replacing Naughton, despite his injury issues. Swansea, Palace, QPR and others have been linked with our 2nd Kyle.
I remember the 2012 game at Wastelands when he absolutely beasted BAE. Would be nice to get some of that, but players with suspect injuries go full <standard> when they join Spurs.
Bentaleb joined us in January 2012, so won't qualify as a HG player until the end of the season. Vejlkovic will count as a HG player just in time for the start of the season, as he signed on August 1st 2011 so (unless we loan him abroad in the next two weeks) he will have spent 36 uninterrupted months at the club.
I think he would have been sacked if we had got top 4. But that isn't the point: I don't think any of our managers get sacked on league position alone. They get sacked because they don't deliver what they promise.
I think you are being far too fair to Levy. I really cannot believe that he is as sophisticated in his thinking as to be able to see much beyond where we finish and whether or not we get CL. If Poch can get us 5th, and keep unity within the dressing room, I think Levy will give him another season. If he can repeat the same feat the season after, there's probably a better than 50% chance that he'll keep his job. The problem is, however, that we don't have a squad strong enough to finish top 5 two seasons on the bounce.
Expectations have lowered now. So long as there are no mass fall outs or anything or we get relegated, then poch will be staying at least beyond this season imo, and rightly so. We can't keep changing managers every bloody season.
This is how I see the squad now : Midfield 1 : Bentaleb, Dembele Midfield 2 : Capoue, Sandro Left side : Eriksen, Holtby In the hole : Soldado, Kane Right side : Ceballos, Lamella Striker : Ade, New Striker Squad/utility players : Carroll, Falque, Townsend Out if at remotely possible : Paulinho
"Right side : Ceballos, Lamella" Ceballos has played the "roaming" role in the front 3 of a 4-3-3. I expect Lamela to do similar once he gets more established.
I was watching the long video of him the other day and noted that as well as appearing to play down the right at times, a lot of his work was as a central distributor. With his work rate, I would have thought he would have plenty to offer more centrally, but for me there's more of a need for him - in spite of his relative lack of pace - on the right side, which is part of the reason why I put him out there. the other reason being his fairly diminutive stature which I would have thought might have made it difficult for him to break through more centrally. Similarly, I think we're chockablock with options more centrally in the forward 3, which is why I don't see a role there with lamella with our current squad. I note your comments though and will bear them in mind.
MiniBale becomes our fourth player to go out on loan this season, as he joins Peterborough Utd of League One. That adds to Grant Hall at Birmingham, Grant Ward at Saturday's opponents Chicago Fire and Alex Pritchard at Brentford.
