Great post. Like you at the start of the summer I wasnt keen on loads of new players. The club are doing it differently to my preference, and that is great, they know much more than me. I think they will be spending more based on activity to date.
My preference right now is to focus on CB and CF. Assuming Xhaka lands. One of the real bright spots so far in pre season has been Seelt and Huggins. Seelt I thought the other night looked the part. I know judging players in pre season can be dangerous but he just moved like a quality CB. Him, Ballard, ONien and Alese make me think just one more will do. But I want whoever it is to be a real level up. Reimaldo can also play there in an emergency. Will leave the club to work out who but I wouldnt mind some English lads personally. I had thought we would need cover for Hume but happy now to trust in Huggins through to later in the window.
Centre forward feels huge to me. Mayenda is so talented and he deserves to get his chance. I dont fancy Isidor though. I just think centre back will find him easy to play against and in a game where we are likely to need every second of possession he cant keep hold of the thing well enough. We really need someone that can help gel that forward play together. Back to goal they need to be elite. Little wall passes from the wide players to start moving defences around. Going to need to be a strong lad with great touch. Over to the club again. If they are reading Morata and Lauturo are canny at this job
On top of that I would bring in a keeper to push Patto. The coach appointment I think is massive here. I dont mind a Sam Johnstone type personally. If we could really land Ramsdale I would be very happy too.
I dont think that leaves us far away. One thing I am quite confident in is that Regis isnt about to become Ranieri. He wont suddenly rotate his first team in any significant way. I just dont see that in his coaching mentality. He is so focussed on connections and little triangles. Which I am all for. This means the idea of having lots of quality in depth to me is unrealistic. Footballers do not want to sit on the bench. It drives frustration and other poor mindsets. And as a coach you cant really keep good players and not play them. They career is short and they need to build achievements. I dont think we can expect too many in the squad as a result that have been used to playing week in week out and now expect them to be cover. Lads coming in like Tabli might accept it to start with. Seelt, Alese and Huggins will at the start too. But if you have played the games Patto, Cirkin, Rigg, Roberts etc have I would be surprised if all are happy starting the season on the bench. I look at footballers who are subs week in week out and think where is your motivation coming from. The game is everything, it is everything you work for. I could never have been a regular sub, even in lowly non-league. It would have driven my mad. Just think we may need to moderate our thinking a little about how much the club will want a deep squad, versus how much players want to be only a squad member.
