Agreed on Downes making us tick, but he was either ill or not bothered under Still. Scienza had that poor run, but he was the only shining light in the first part of the season.
Totally agree re Bree and Peretz.
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Agreed on Downes making us tick, but he was either ill or not bothered under Still. Scienza had that poor run, but he was the only shining light in the first part of the season.
Totally agree re Bree and Peretz.
I'd vote for the player who we would have missed the most if theyd not been here. Has to be Scienza for me. He lifts the whole team when he's on it and he's been on it more often than not.
I think by far the biggest factor affecting this summer is keeping Tonda. The players clearly love his tactics and man management. SR will be confident he can do a job in the premier league and will hopefully back him. I also think he would have a say in transfers too, I remember him being very vocal about Bree coming back for example.
If we do go up, with 3 or 4 shrewd signings, I would be way more confident of staying up this time.
If we do go up, with 3 or 4 shrewd signings, I would be way more confident of staying up this time.
When you cut out the context it does sound daft. But the upgrade for Stephens would be if we get promoted and didn’t want a repeat of last season. Maybe he’ll suddenly prove he’s up to the premier league. But not only was he not last year, he also let us down badly with suspensions
If we do go up then we are going to have to hope that a lot of the squad who played last season in the PL looked so bad because of the manager.
Ideally though we will need to sign about 10-15 players like all successful promoted clubs do and have only a few from this year in the strongest line up
Comparing the 24/25 PL squad to now (based on the squad list in August 24 so some later arrivals aren't on it and some may not be like for like just putting a new squad member where one has gone)
Bazunu -> Peretz
McCarthy
Lumley -> Long
Lis -> Jones
Walker-Peters -> Roerslav
Manning
Stephens
Harwood-Bellis
Edwards -> Quarshie
Bree
Wood
Sugawara -> Jelert
Bednarek -> Welington
Downes
Aribo -> Fellows
Smallbone -> Matsuki
Lallana -> Azaz
Edozie
Charles
Sulemana -> Jander
Dibling -> Scienza
Alcaraz -> Bragg
Amo-Ameyaw -> Romeu
Mara -> Robinson
Armstrong -> Larin
Stewart
Brereton Díaz -> Archer
Taylor -> Sesay
Larios -> Williams
Onuachu -> Oyekunle
I think our midfield is better overall, defence is not miles weaker (we had KWP making it look lopsided quality wise) and up front I think we're better off too. So I don't think we need 10-15 new players to be competitive but we definitely need:
Peretz + Backup
CB upgrade over one of Stephens/Wood/Quarshie + replace Jelert
Striker that is a step up over Archer + cover if we lose Larin and / or Stewart
So if we got those plus shifted on Downs and Ramsdale and added some left-field but quality signing and on top of last summer and January windows I think we'd be good to go in the PL with Tonda and not playing the suicide football we did last time around.
Bazunu -> Peretz
McCarthy
Lumley -> Long
Lis -> Jones
Walker-Peters -> Roerslav
Manning
Stephens
Harwood-Bellis
Edwards -> Quarshie
Bree
Wood
Sugawara -> Jelert
Bednarek -> Welington
Downes
Aribo -> Fellows
Smallbone -> Matsuki
Lallana -> Azaz
Edozie
Charles
Sulemana -> Jander
Dibling -> Scienza
Alcaraz -> Bragg
Amo-Ameyaw -> Romeu
Mara -> Robinson
Armstrong -> Larin
Stewart
Brereton Díaz -> Archer
Taylor -> Sesay
Larios -> Williams
Onuachu -> Oyekunle
I think our midfield is better overall, defence is not miles weaker (we had KWP making it look lopsided quality wise) and up front I think we're better off too. So I don't think we need 10-15 new players to be competitive but we definitely need:
Peretz + Backup
CB upgrade over one of Stephens/Wood/Quarshie + replace Jelert
Striker that is a step up over Archer + cover if we lose Larin and / or Stewart
So if we got those plus shifted on Downs and Ramsdale and added some left-field but quality signing and on top of last summer and January windows I think we'd be good to go in the PL with Tonda and not playing the suicide football we did last time around.
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Sunderland and, as much as I hate to admit it, Nottingham Forest appear to be the models
Leeds also signed 10 players for the first team squad which I didn’t realise
Although Burnley signed 13 and they are miles off the pace. They are a warning sign because on paper it doesn’t look like they really tried to cheap out.
Suggests that us only adding a few players here and there would be foolhardy. The gap is so big now. You only need to look at all the 25m plus players in forest’s side and they are at risk of the drop. How much of that can be put down to their crazy owner and constant manager changes?
This of course is assuming we get over the line.
Yeah we signed about 10 or so before last season as well, like Burnley it was poor recruitment.
The blueprint is obvious, sign 10+ players and hope you get it right. You have to add in that Burnley and Leeds were both 100 point sides in the championship so starting from a better squad than we are
I do feel a lot more confident with Spors/Tonda in charge of this over Martin/Ankersen.
When I say a lot more, I mean a LOT more.
Yeah completely agree. I actually thought we had a decent window when we went up last time, we just had no chance with Martin in charge.
Anyway I don’t think we end up getting promoted anyway, has a semi final play off loss to Boro written all over it
Not sure I agree with that. We would end up buying 10-15 average players (like we have done before that dont add much). I would rather spend for instant our budget was £100mm on 3 or 4 real quality players.
GK - Let hope we can sign Peretz at a reasonable fee
Defence - Base it around THB, Bree deserves a go, Manning and Stephens may need upgrades, but would like to see Manning given a go with good support in front of him
CM - think we have enough to survive as long as we keep what we have
Wingers - An upgrade on Fellows I think, Scienza will be fine
CM - Azaz and Matsuki - may provide enough for us to be 17th
STr - one quaility signing required to lead with Ross and Larin as back ups - need to resign Ross and buy Larin. We would have a work man like team with a lot of spirit, with a great coach.
Come on man, Boro are out of form and well we are completly opposite. We need to go hard tomorrow. the tick over in last two games and then go hard again. We have been best team in the league since Feb with a strong mentality, why do you assume they would throw it away now
We’d get even less points than last time if we did that I think. I think we’d need a keeper (Peretz/Ramsdale most likely), 2 full backs, new centre back, 1 midfielder who is better than what we have, number 10, 2 wingers and 2 strikers (not called Larin) which would take us to 10, then depending what we do with the out of contract players maybe some depth as well
Probably around 1% of that figure. Not that we'd ever remotely spend that much in one window.
Well we clearly won’t spend that much. The 3 teams who have come up and actually survived in the last 4 years are Forest, Sunderland and Leeds
Forest signed 31 players in their first season, spending about €200m
Leeds signed 11 players for about €113m
Sunderland signed 18 for about €213m
So yeah around about £100m outlay if we follow Leeds’ model which is roughly what we spent last time we came up. I’d prefer to sign a few more (around the 15 mark) and up the spending to say £140m as I think that gives you a bit of room for error
Given we get promoted ofc, for me it’s looking like:
GK - Peretz.. obviously! & a young backup. What about Shea’s brother Piers for a cheap backup option from Wednesday?
CB - Need 2 new in this position for me. 1 Prem experienced (could we pull of a coup and get a Stones now he’s out of contract & getting on a bit!?) - obvs that is total dreamland & never gonna happen but I think we need someone experienced alongside another rogue Spors find from a mid table Bundesliga team that could make the step up instantly. Fabian Schar of Newcastle out of contract in summer, someone like that could work.
RB / LB - looks like Welly gonna go & think Manning needs to be backup for us really, same with Bree. Ryan Sessegnon out of contract in summer? KWP back if Hammers go down? Andy Robertson if Spurs go down & can’t fulfil the pre contract they have with him?
CM - Feel we’ve got a lot in this department, but maybe another out & out DM, Lavia style signing could be needed for the intensity of the step up. Bragg is clearly gonna be quality, but just think he might benefit from a season out on loan in Champ next year & Flynn can’t do it on his own.
CAM - As much as I rate Azaz. Hes totally unproven at the top level. Competition is needed here massively. Maybe we can get the other signing we wanted too? Spertsyan? Or someone of a similar mould.
RW - Fellows, Matsuki are both great but again more competition needed & a strong direct flair type player would be great here.
LW - Scienza obviously our stand out player, but again more competition needed imo. Edozie a decent option, but again another physical direct option would be my shout to challenge Leo a bit.
CF - Larin & Stewart both have to stay on for me & then this is the area we need to go all out. We need multiple options & competition alongside someone with serious quality. Jimenez is available in the summer as out of contract at Fulham. Could offer a proven option?
GK - Peretz.. obviously! & a young backup. What about Shea’s brother Piers for a cheap backup option from Wednesday?
CB - Need 2 new in this position for me. 1 Prem experienced (could we pull of a coup and get a Stones now he’s out of contract & getting on a bit!?) - obvs that is total dreamland & never gonna happen but I think we need someone experienced alongside another rogue Spors find from a mid table Bundesliga team that could make the step up instantly. Fabian Schar of Newcastle out of contract in summer, someone like that could work.
RB / LB - looks like Welly gonna go & think Manning needs to be backup for us really, same with Bree. Ryan Sessegnon out of contract in summer? KWP back if Hammers go down? Andy Robertson if Spurs go down & can’t fulfil the pre contract they have with him?
CM - Feel we’ve got a lot in this department, but maybe another out & out DM, Lavia style signing could be needed for the intensity of the step up. Bragg is clearly gonna be quality, but just think he might benefit from a season out on loan in Champ next year & Flynn can’t do it on his own.
CAM - As much as I rate Azaz. Hes totally unproven at the top level. Competition is needed here massively. Maybe we can get the other signing we wanted too? Spertsyan? Or someone of a similar mould.
RW - Fellows, Matsuki are both great but again more competition needed & a strong direct flair type player would be great here.
LW - Scienza obviously our stand out player, but again more competition needed imo. Edozie a decent option, but again another physical direct option would be my shout to challenge Leo a bit.
CF - Larin & Stewart both have to stay on for me & then this is the area we need to go all out. We need multiple options & competition alongside someone with serious quality. Jimenez is available in the summer as out of contract at Fulham. Could offer a proven option?
I still think the standout signing of the promoted teams last season was Sunderland somehow getting Mukiele for £9m. A few of those would be great!
it’s hard to disagree with the mass signing strategy for a promoted squad, but we must avoid squad bloat again.
I don’t know how many are out of contract this summer, but if we do go up then we can’t be sentimental on contract renewals(Bree) and loan signings(Larin)
No need to have more than 25 first team players in my view(regardless of age)
If we don’t get promoted, then I’d probably try and keep Stewart, Larin, Bree & Peretz
I don’t know how many are out of contract this summer, but if we do go up then we can’t be sentimental on contract renewals(Bree) and loan signings(Larin)
No need to have more than 25 first team players in my view(regardless of age)
If we don’t get promoted, then I’d probably try and keep Stewart, Larin, Bree & Peretz