While that’s reassuring to a good extent, given Reggie’s tendency when it comes to squad management (or lack thereof) I do worry that we’ll be inflating the squad size without the money actually finding its way onto the pitch all that much. I know, I know. Trust the club etc
Yes. But Xhaka will be very well paid at Bayer anyway, and with three years to go on his deal. If he comes here, (which I still find hard to fathom!), then it isn't just the cash.
Well he’s on about £200k a week iirc so I’ll let you decide! He’s been scoring for fun over there but it is Saudi after all
I agree. It remains to be seen for me how the size of the squad can cope with 5 players going to AFCON without being too big the rest of the time. But I'll see how it plays out.
If you’re talking about his squad rotation last year the only reason he didn’t do it was because he only had 13/14 players that he trusted, and that was before injuries. I think now with the quality we’re bringing in we’ll see a lot more rotation.
Yeah exactly. Able to cope with the 5 games of afcon surely means too big for the other 33 games. But we’ll see. We can do it by getting the right players in for the final positions (with the right types of flexibility) but we have to get these last few absolutely bang on.
I think it's good that the winger we want is one who can play both sides so we can get depth for two positions in one player
See I don’t believe that’s the case. It was the excuse that fans gave him but it didn’t stack up with the reality when he DID have flexibility (although I concede that he never really had that flexibility across the whole team at one time). The only time he really rotated was at the end when he’d largely given up on the league chase.
But you saw in the final how early he made substitutions, and that was because we had a lot more quality on the bench. I remember people screaming for him to use Adil Aouchiche more even though he clearly didn’t think he was good enough.
Squad size is not irrelevant to be fair. It will need well managing. But we'll see more rotation, something we needed more of last season. And seriously, don't worry about the cash! It's not our concern. No longer are we ran by an opportunist ex family law solicitor, who lucked her way into the job as CEO. Nor do we have Stewart Donald, perched on the end of his desk doing the negotiating. These people here now have spent over four years carefully managing what they own. They aren't going to go nuts. Whatever happens now, the sun has come out after those awful black days before them.
Tbf I think he might be giddy to rotate if our midfield 6 is Xhaka, Le Fee, Diarra, Sadiki, Rigg and Neil
Love the idea of the Xhaka signing but not sure how the midfield is going to look with all the new lads.
I think it speaks for itself really, but Sadiki will be staking a real claim to compete with Xhaka for that 6 spot
Wouldn't be shocked to see Xhaka in the 6 against the top teams and then Sadiki for the others and just on a rotated basis
I personally think he will likely leave myself, I don't think his style will suit Regis especially if Xhaka comes in, the lad will want to play, the new deal isn't going anywhere so far, I think he wants a new challenge, he will go somewhere that has more of the ball i reckon
You'd think after his catastrophic buying spree at Utd, they wouldn't even let him get the lunches in. They must be mad. Literally mad to listen to his view on a player.