At the start of the summer I thought it would be another over haul but as the summer has gone on I m more hopeful of Mitro, Zambo staying and now I don’t think we need more than 3/4 in.... Out R Sess Seri Christie In RB CB Winger CM I wouldn’t say no to a new right back but 3 very highly rated youngsters in S Sess, Fossey and Drameh I would willingly run with them. A Squad of 2 players per position I think we look strong if we replace the ? With sensible players Betts - Rodak Odoi - S Sess Mawson - MLM Ream - ? Bryan - ? Zambo - K Mac Cairney - O’Reily Stef Jo - ? Ayite - Kamara Kebano - ? Mitro - Fonte
I would love Arter, Calaviero and Hector to be three of the 4 ?, I think they are good realistic targets, Hector on loan, and 15 mill for the other 2.... we should be able to get close to 50 mill in for Sess, Seri and Christie.
Christie tweeted that the reports of him leaving we rubbish. His agent or past agents are not as reported.
A few names I'd throw into the Center back hat Jake Cooper Millwall. Michael Morrison Birmingham City Flint or Ayala from Middlesboro For Left Back Leighton Baines Everton (over age limit) Strikers Danny Welbeck Arsenal (injury?) I'd still like to get a Marquee goalkeeper signing along the lines of VDS.
I would not be opposed to a new RB, but I wouldn't be too uncomfortable with Odoi/S Sess/Fossey as our options. We definitely need a new starting quality CB, as Mawson is still an injury/re-injury concern. Bryan is certainly good enough at this level and MLM is probably good enough to cover LB in the Championship. We need possibly 2 new CMs, to replace Seri and also to provide some competition. I like Cairney & StefJo back in our starting lineup, but don't think we have much behind them. Once R Sess leaves, I'm not convinced we have starting quality wingers. We need at least 1 new winger to replace Kamara and possibly Ayite too. Is Fonte a fit for this level? Mitrovic is obviously a great striker at this level, but we need to have at least one striker to cover. I'm not sure Gayle is the best use of our funds if Mitro stays, those funds could be better directed to our midfield, but we need to find some competition somewhere (possibly a Spurs youngster?)
I to was thinking two new centre Mids but I decided I wanted O’Reily to be one and then hopefully Arter!!
I don't disagree with any of the above, but the thing we need most of all is to make the new signings as permanent transfers, not loans. Part (by no means all) of our problem last season was that we had to replace so many players because of the high proportion of loan signings that we went up with. I don't have a problem with a loan signing per se, particularly if we have an option to make it permanent, but in recent years the board seem to have favoured getting in several loanees at a time, making it harder to actually build a team for anything more than the next season. If we learn anything from the relegation season, I hope it's that. It's worth pointing out that one of the things that led to our previous relegation was the steady decline in quality of the squad due to making multiple loan signings and cheaper past-their-best old heads. That was mostly under Fayed rather than the current regime, but it underlines that it's a lesson we seem to be taking a long time to learn.
