I ****ing love Bruno’s sense of humour and ****housery! On and off the pitch he’s just pure class! Absolutely howled laughing watching the MOTD highlights, totally missed BdB shouting at whoever swung that free kick over his way in the build up to our 2nd goal, even the worst lip reader in the world could have picked up him shouting “****ing givviz the ball”
3 years ago... since then we've qualified and competed in the CL (nearly twice) been in two league cup finals, won one of them and we've finished in the top 7 every year since. Some job that by the staff and players! If we finish 2nd this year genuinely believe the purse strings could be a non issue this summer. If we sign 3 top quality players (GK, RCB, RW) and then get a few squad players improved on (RB & LB, CM, CF) we could be flying next season. please log in to view this image
More optimistic estimates of our transfer budget suggest it's somewhere around £150m max. Could get Trafford, Guehi (or hopefully better) and Mbeumo in, or players of similar calibre, but it wouldn't leave too much in the bank for the other squad strengthening you mention. Unless we sell a few too (Longstaff, Willock, Targett) in which case we're golden.
That's almost exactly where my head was tbh, those three are probably £120m-ish and that's roughly what we've dropped off the PSR cycle so that's kind of what I'm expecting to come in. Krafth/Trippier, Lacselles, Target, Willock/Longstaff - could all be sold and replaced with decent replacements (as above RB/LB/CM/CF). Then get 2/3 of Gillespie, Ruddy, Odysseas / Dubravka off the payroll alongside Wilson as well the players like Isaac Hayden and Jamal Lewis and we could have a mini war chest - or at least decent wages to offer - for 6/7 new players - only three of which need to improve the starting XI.
Think we're all in the same place, no huge expectations and nor do I think a squad that's accumulated the 4th highest points tally over the past 3 PL seasons should be disrupted too heavily. There's surely enough options for us to make a difference to the first XI, finally? £40m CB - Araujo, Garcia, Huijsen, Zabarnyi, Van Hecke, Guehi £50m RW - Dibling, Elanga, Mbuemo, Semenyo, Bakayoko, Yilmaz £20m GK - Trafford, Tickle, Valles, Chevalier, Restes, Verbruggen £30m Young CF - Delap, Ferguson, Kilicsoy, Roque We'll get players out - most hopefully Targett, Longstaff and Wilson. But any four of the above, with the quality we already have, would be sensational.
Would take Huijsen and Delap from that lot. Not sold on Mbuemo and don't think Trafford will come to be back-up to Pope. Suspect @Roland Deschain is in dream world with his prices. Huijsen has a release clause of £50million and don't think Bournemouth will sell him for less.
Huijsen will end up at Chelsea or Real Madrid. Delap's preferred option is Man Utd. Probably because he will be first choice.
