Maybe the Bruce/Allam meeting went like this... Allam: will you stay and get us promoted again? Bruce: to get back up we need to keep our key players Allam: this is my club and nobody tells me who to sell. We'll keep them all! I'll even sign you Gedo!
I can see Chester, McShane and Davies leaving, and bids coming in for Brady and Elmo - although Elmo seems to have a love'in with Bruce.... Daws and Maguire should make a decent pairing. I cant imagine Diame wanting to stick around when he thought he was too good for the spammers, but will anyone take a punt on him? McG Rosie Maguire Daws Robertson Snodgrass Meyler Diame Quinn Aluko Jelly/Hernandez/Ndoye (Surely we'll keep one of them?)
Aluko will stay. I reckon we need 3 new forwards as the rest will leave IMO. Don't know who would take a punt on Davies after his form this season - he was shocking before he was injured / dropped. Same goes for Huddlestone. Anyone watching him this season can't seriousy be thinking of making a bid...can they???
Brady will go to southampton (scout was watching him vrs liverpool and his notes very positive) All our "strikers" will go Huddlestone will also go. Livermore is screwed Hopefully we can keep the
Only loss for me there would be Brady. Whoever buys Huddlestone is buying a dud on this season's performances. A fit Jelavic would tear up the championship but he's never fit - so will anyone in the PL take a punt on him due to his injury record?
Brady has had a good finish to the season but other than that been his usual Jo average self. The problem is if he does things off the cuff/on instinct he's good, it's when he has time to think about things he ****s up. I'm not sure he's good enough for the saints more like a newly promoted side
So basically then the three that have been the major part of our downfall due to not getting the required amount of goals are the first rats to desert the ship. That fits!
As soon as the whankers who want away are got shot of there should still be a very strong squad which will need very little recruitment except maybe in the forwards to mount a serious challenge. The only worry is that two strikers were needed in January, the money was available and he only managed to come up with one alone and that was a foreign league unknown signed after the deadline so wtf were they doing all month?
Plus we have Lenihan who is most definitely a right back with pace (not seen him, but this was the basis of signing him).
It seems to me the meeting between Bruce and Allam was the Allams telling Bruce they want/need him to stay and they'll have asked him what he needs to get back up - he'll have replied "selling as little as possible in key areas". Maybe? We can hope... Bruce said a younger team so let's hope we keep Brady, Robertson, Chester, etc.. Along with Elmo and Dawson - those are the key ones for me.
When we went down at Newcastle there was a lot of higher-profile players on big wages, who maybe had one eye on an exit strategy," Harper told the Mail. "I've not seen that here. I'm sure there will be one or two who don't fancy the Championship. You get that in every team that goes down. "But there's a real, hard-core of people who really want to do well for this club, regardless of what division they're in. "They're proper professionals who give their all every time they go out there. You need that in the Championship. "It's an excellent dressing room. There's been one or two issues that haven't helped but there's a core there that the club need to embrace. It's not easy to bounce back. Sounds as though players want to stay.
