So there are hundreds and thousands of reports suggesting Rafa will have either no money or maybe £20m to spend or that potentially the interested PCP group may make funds available if a price has been agreed by then etc so really no clarity on the spending front. What is obvious though is we still have some dead wood to shift and players who aren't to Rafa's taste who can be moved on to free up some squad spaces, wages and maybe some small transfer fee's. So who do you think will go in January? For me: Colback - no future, best for all parties if he moves on. ~ £500k-£1m Saviet - to be honest I forgot we had this lad until someone mentioned him the other day ~ £2-4m Haidara - unlucky in his career with us, think it could have been a different story for him if it wasn't for injury but time is up and should move on - probably back to France ~ £1m? Games - one who's contract is up at the end of the season so will probably stick it out but if we got £3-500K I'd carry him back to the continent. Mitrovic - personally for me he'd be starting or atl east second fiddle to Gayle but Rafa doesn't rate him so I think he'll be off ~ £7-8m Mbemba - I'd be fed up if I was him, if you can't get a game at RB/LB over Manquillo what is the point ~ £5-7m Aarons - linked with a few Championship clubs but again I'd rather keep him ~ £1-3m I'd be pissed if we let the last 3 leave as I think they can offer something to the squad better than some of the dross that Rafa seems to rate. If we could bring in £10-15m through sales it would certainly help regardless of what money is made available to spend.
I'm against selling Mitrovic, Mbemba and Aarons. I can't believe anyone would suggest selling Massimo "Roberto Carlos" Haidara. Its a disgrace.
I said "who do you think will go", not "who every man and his dog pray gets kicked out on his arse without even a thank you"
Ashley will probably sell all our seats to the Mackems to replace those orrible pink things in one last ditch effort to p*ss us off and squeeze some more cash out before Mandy takes over.
Joselu, Colback, Manquillo, Perez and Gamez can go as they are all dogshit. So most likely it will be two of our best players - Mbemba and Mitrovic that will leave because Rafa doesn't rate them.
Of your list, I'd only miss Mbemba. Missrovic is still bang average, though markedly better than Josepoo (still got it). The one I'd most want to see go but least likely to happen is Perez. Diame's also utter gash but there is a chance he'll leave. I wonder if Wolves will stump up the cash for Gayle to secure their promotion? Possible. Realistically we're going to have to make do with our GK, RB and CB options. We're desperate for a LB, but quality will be a huge question mark. I would leave the deep lying CM's as they are, we have bigger issues and with better options at 10 and CF we could see improvements anyway. We've got as many LW's as Pardew had LB's. Aarons highly likely to leave as Rafa bought both Atsu and Murphy (WHY, RAFA, WHY DID YOU SPUNK EVERY PENNY ON LEFT WINGERS FFS.....I digress). RW is probs fine, as Murphy and Atsu both play there as well as Ritchie. No. 10 is a fcking mess. Perez is an awful option as he has no attacking ability. Diame's worse as he just has no ability. We are desperate for someone in this role; Denis Praet again springs to mind, but Ljajic at Torino or someone like that - someone to get the pulse racing a bit. I'd probably flog both of our crappy options and try to bring in someone decent here. CF we're also knackered. Again we'd need to find a miracle here, but if we could scrape some coin together for both Mitro and Gayle, could we possibly go all out and bring in a Batshuayi or similar??
It's definitely more about who realistically would go. Colback, Haidara, Saivet: we'll be talking about selling these until the end of time (or their contract runs out) because no ****ed wants them, let alone pay an actual fee. Diame could also be in that list but if a championship club has a few mill kicking around they will probably take the punt. Steve Bruce anyone? Mitro may as well go. The conversations been done to death on whether he's being deprived of game time unfairly, but Rafa wouldn't trust him to hand out half-time oranges without maiming someone so it's counter-productive keeping him. With those wages off the bill we could look at something like a Batshuayi loan. Aarons shouldn't go, not a ****ing chance, but got that horrible feeling he will. If we offload him for a few mill it will be the kind of stupid business we did with the likes of Danny Simpson. I don't think Mbemba will go and don't really want him to to be honest. I think he could stake claim for that RB spot when Dummet comes back. One more improved performance whilst Tedders looks abit lost and I don't think we'll bother selling him as our valuation will be way higher than what anyone will pay. So for me I think we'll see the back of Diame and Mitro and make about 10-13 mill whilst Aarons will probably leave on a pointless loan that will destroy his career. I hope to **** Mike's putting abit extra in this January because that's not alot to play about with. With say 25m collectively I'd spunk up to 7m on Batshuayi's loan fee (still a steal compared to Renato Sanchez) 5m on Like Shaw's loan fee and the rest I'd use for a cheeky bid on Mccarthy so we can push Merino further up and have him do the Perez job 10x better. Could just see us through to the summer to be taken over.
Diame won't go. Rafa loves the useless sack of ****. I could see us wasting money on McCarthy though. He's been an ok partner for Merino. Have to say I'm against trying to turn Merino into a No.10. He looks a box to box midfielder all day long to me. We need a clever little No.10 to pick defences apart. Just because Merino can do better than Perez, I think that is poor reasoning. By an actual No.10.
Pretty much agree but its realistic constraints. Like Praet, last I read he hadn't contributed a great deal and has a buyout clause of 20m. He may have improved but we won't pay that amount for one player this window. I think good no.10s are pretty hard to find and any cheaper, cuter purchase could work out but could just as easily not. So Merino could do a better job for us there than most options available. Theoretically playing with 25mill here, I'd rather buy consistency in McCarthy to get through this season. Merino's future is clearly at CM but needs must. Hopefully Mike puts his hands in his ****ing pockets like. Diame will go, Brucester's millions will make it happen. He remains in the team because other options are ****ter and when Benitez imagines a future team, he isn't seeing Diane smashing defences
You have incredible blind faith in Rafa. I'm not saying he sees Diame in his team but thee is no getting away from him using him regularly. Even when he has better options sat alongside him. He picked Diame over both Hayden and Shelvey recently. I'm not sure that can ever be justified. Now I don't rate either of those two particularly highly but Diame is properly dog ****. He's **** in the Sunderland stands ****. I'd rather spend 20m on Praet than McCarthy. You won't get McCarthy for less I'd imagine. As a loan deal he might have some merit but again I'm not that impressed with McCarthy. He is better than what we have I suppose. Personally if this deal isn't going through and we haven't got money I'd prefer we spend any resource we have on one rather than spreading it across several only to find they're all a bit ****. Unless that is we are paying very high loan fees for extra quality loans. So like Swansea paid 7m to loan Sanches. Probably a bad example given his form but I still think the lad is high quality. So if we were going to pay 3.5m x 3 to loan a No.10, Striker and Left Back, I think that would be a better way to go.
Diame is another good shout to go. I'd hope for £3-4m for him? Would anyone be opposed to just splashing whatever cash we have on a genuinely good 10 and possibly look at a few loan options to pad out the squad/replace what goes? Yes Patrick! All out for quality over quantity this window for sure!
Disagree. If we have 16 players on the pitch then even with Diame we are going to pick up enough points to avoid relegation. Have to say sufficient numbers will win every time.
How much would you say it would take to replace all those with quality players? Players up to your high standards.
