I had it at £120m all in, but I suspect it won't matter. I'd anticipate that selling a few would mean bigger contract offers for some of those who remain. Even taking that worst case of a squad it's nice that the players we'd be looking for will be the 'cheaper' ones. I'd say we'd want three defenders, two midfielders and a winger added. Shouldn't need to spend all summer chasing strikers again. We'd have to go some to be spending more than £50m on them - and just think of the quality that we'd be talking with two £10m midfielders, a £10m winger and £20m spent on the defence.Bang on mate and as you say I think £100m is conservative. We should be looking at close to £60m for Rigg and Bellingham combined I reckon. That would leave £40m for Neil, Cirkin, Hume, Ballard and Watson. (Apologies if I’ve missed anyone). I think we take £15m each for Watson and Hume. £10m each for Ballard and Neil. Cirkins fitness could be detrimental to his value imo but still get a decent fee for him.
We aren’t going to sell all of those but for me the easiest 3 to replace would be Bellingham, Rigg and Watson. Watson because he’s barely played and we have Mundle. Bellingham the obvious big miss but £30m is a hell of a lot of money and Rigg hasn’t been of the level of Bellingham I think he’d be easily replaceable at the level he’s CURRENTLY playing at.
Edit - just noticed Patto so there’s another £5m more than likely?
I’d be really excited to see the squad we could build with potentially north of £50m to invest. Dependant on Neil’s situation I’d be going all in for Mepham and offering him captaincy. I think we get him for £6-8m.
The other interesting challenge for the club is that when I look at that list of players, it seems like the best way forward may be for us to make a permanent switch to 4-4-2. Mayenda will need to be a starter next season and Isidor isn't being dropped. To me, EM should be allowed to play in his best position rather than being shoehorned in on the wing. That will then have a knock-on for what type of midfielder we need. Two run-all-day, 6 foot monsters please, Speakers!
