That's fair. My personal belief is that we should plan for the long-term...if we come back up, perfect, if we don't we won't be in major danger. Going into the season with a core of: Bazunu/Lis (if he gets a work perm?) Livramento/Bree Two of DCC/Lyanco/Bednarek/Stephens Perraud/Larios Smallbone/probably Diallo/hopefully Alcaraz Edozie, Mara, Sulemana, Onuachu, Doyle, Ballard, whichever of Djenepo/Armstrongs/Orsic/Aribo we can't sell in attacking positions. That'd likely be 18-19 players already rostered.
Yep, that squad looks realistic. And I'd be happy with that, with a couple of additions in midfield. With a decent manager that's top 6 quality. We still need some older, experienced types too though. It's really only Lyanco/Stephens/Bednarek who come across as leaders there.
A veteran CDM and a CM with an eye for a forward pass seem like the place to start. Alvarez has made a significant difference in our tempo, but if we want to play at a frenetic pace (and most of our signings suggest that management wants that), we need that link-up play from deeper areas to be more aggressive.
What's to say that Selles wont be given a contract to carry on for the next few years ? With the quote being that they see continuity as the way forward ...? That would likely only end up one way = Freefall
Rasmus says 'hi'. EDIT - sorry, I forgot, he's much cleverer than anyone else in the whole, wide world.
He's a good player but we have an opportunity here to sell him for a lot more than he's worth. We should be asking for £20mill minimum.
Hope Mara not playing for the last four or five games is not an indicator that he wants to leave. He's got 'Tella' written all over him. Think he'll absolutely smash the Champ.
I can see that happening unfortunately. The annoying way Selles keeps reminding us he wants to be here for the next 10 years, has Ankersen's "failed managers get better" philosophy all over it. Plus of course Selles will be very cheap probably the cheapest in the Championship which is typical SR. We have lost 23 PL games and counting having won just 6. Sunderland just about made it to the play off on GD, losing 13 and winning 18. Saints need a Tony Mowbray, Daniel Farke or a Chris Hughton, managers that have won promotion. People like Selles should be nowhere near SFC.
Is it? We spent more money than anyone in the January window apart from Chelsea. They also (foolishly in end) tried to sign Gakpo and Ramos in the summer.
SR wasted more money in January than anyone IMO. Nathan Jones was reportedly on £1.3m as a PL manager and was Ankeresen’s chosen one. I can’t see SR paying Selles more than that, and we were never going to get Gakpo or Ramos even Ralph knew that.
Yeah I don’t think being cheap is something we can say about SR. They’ve clearly spent money, just made some naïve decisions on the player front and some catastrophic decisions on the manager front
