Well, Celtic have a vacancy now Joe Hart is off. He’d be good enough for them, they’d be able to pay him pretty well and we’d be willing to let him go without a princely fee. Makes sense for all.
Probably doesnt mean much, but interesting to see Lallana sat with MLT at the final. I thought he had cut ties with the club. He is a free agent and Brighton fans seemed to think he wasn't done.
Not related to us but Summer 24 for Leeds is going to be interesting. Lots of high wage players coming back from loans as well as all that attacking talent that surely can’t all stay next season as well.
Their squad (and first XI) will be getting a pretty severe utilitarian haircut this summer. Whoever remained - when the final whistle of the season blew - would be left to take step closer to being a bona fide Championship club with no Bellises or whistles. This first season 'back' for Leeds, Leicester and ourselves was rather a liminal one, with Ipswich stepping up to the threshold.
Apparently Russell Martin has said we are going to try and keep Che, McCarthy and Stu Armstrong Mixed feelings about it but I suppose we need a squad and only have a certain transfer budget and need to sign some of the loanees as well as hopefully some upgrades
Alex has been great since he came back in (and showed us what we’ve been missing), but I’d prefer to go in for a new #1 there.
Agreed. Fantastic way for him to end his saints career, but I do (harshly, perhaps) think it's the right time to say thanks and go our seperate ways.
Lets be honest here, there will be a lot of work needed over the next few weeks to ready this team for the prem and there will have to be players that get a handshake and sold to championship clubs because we are nowhere near good enough as a squad to survive in the prem let alone flourish. It has been a marvelous campaign in the end and there shouldn't be any shame in parting ways. Its the end of the story and the start of a new one. I'd be happy to leave the club on a high and see them do well rather than have everything turned around and a season in purgatory getting hammered every week. I've got a list of must keeps and must goes in my head and fully expecting none of it to work out!
Have to say, delighted we've got THB and are going for Downes. I wouldn't spend too much on Wee Man though.
Dragan looked absolutely stoked at the end. Hopefully the adrenaline rush means he'll dig a bit deeper into those pockets...!
Doub't he would cost much at all. He will never play for Newcastle again so would imagine they'd be happy to get anything for him.
Guessing Alex would be brought back for a year as backup. We clearly don't trust Lumley, and with Bazunu out for most of the year we're going to need two keepers. I'm more iffy about Che, just because striker seems like a position of need (particularly if we're going to play AA off the flanks, or if Championship AA doesn't translate up again) and we probably need more than Che there. Really interested what will happen with the loanees, particularly Alcaraz and ABK. Have to imagine that ABK returns, as his season was ruined by injury, and Alcaraz's option is pretty massive given that he didn't have a great time of it with Juve.