If we want to come straight back up (assuming we're relegated, which is by no means certain) then we are going to need to keep players like Klose & Brady and upgrade on players like Martin, Bassong & Hoolahan. The championship has move on since we were last there and same again will leave us as a championship team.
I know they're (comparatively) well rewarded, but can you honestly see Klose, Howson, Brady and Redmond meekly accepting yet another relegation-linked wage drop and then being prepared to slug out another long, hard season in the championship. Just one season after the last long, hard (and successful ) slog? It's a short career, and very few of them will want to spend it bouncing up and down with a yo-yo club like ours, sadly. If the worst happens, I'll be amazed if any of those four stay - and there'll doubtless be others, too, who don't want to experience perpetual déja-vu.
Well for Klose & Brady it would be their first, although with Brady he would have been relegate in consecutive seasons. With the exception to Klose I can't see a lot of PL teams being interested in the others as starting 11 players, there will be other championship teams though. After all none of them have exactly set the PL on fire the 2 seasons they've been playing in it. They all have probably passed the point of another club wanting to buy them for potential, they will still be under contract. If I was McNally I'd keep them all at least until Christmas and see how we do. But my point remains that the quality and depth of quality has improved significantly since we were last in it and will do next year. If we're serious about coming back up (not that it's certain we're go down) then we would need to be buying players of the quality of Klose, Howson, Brady and Redmond, or indeed better, not selling them.
I think we have to be realistic, really. If we stay up, the price of players will be sky high and we will still be the poorest club in the PL so a few quality players will be about it. If we go down, then we will need to replace the players leaving and I think Klose, Howson, Brady and Redmond are a reasonable guess. Much will depend on what AN thinks that Murphys, Toffolo, Loza, McGrandles, Maddison, Thompson and Godfrey will be able to do. My hope is that it'd be an opportunity to develop a team instead of just bolting one together. We have a lot of older players and we need to start planning for the future.
Klose's injury might be a blessing in disguise - we may keep him for the Championship if it's a six months thing. Unfortunate for him as it will mean he also misses the Euros which I assume is the reason he decided to join us to get lots of game time
I can't see Brady or Klose staying when we go down. They will be poached. I wouldn't be surprised if people had a serious look at Howson. I've been surprised we haven't had bids from teams like Palace, Stoke, etc for him in previous seasons. I can see many many clubs looking at/ bidding for Redmond, because he will be class, and has been under valued here this season. Apart from that, I think it's mainly players who would stay with us, unless we didn't want them. That will all depend on how many of our better players we lose. Might need to keep some of the deadwood to make a squad. One thing I really don't want is AN raiding the Scottish leagues for players in the Championship. Tony Andreu looked like a decent player in friendlies, But even though AN knew him from his old club, still doesn't fancy him. Which I find baffling! Otherwise we could be looking at another Peter Grant Championship campaign.
And to think I was quite excited when we got him. Goes to show the difference in standard of play in the two leagues
I'd be happy with that with the exception of Ruddy. He is one of the few players in our squad who has shown in the past that he is PL standard, albeit not always this season. He's still relatively young for a keeper, whose to say he won't come good again. If we were to sell him I suspect that there are a few PL teams that would want him as a number 2 keeper at least.
Keep Ruddy. Keep Bassong, Martin, Jarvis (and probably Wes too) if we're in the Championship. Whittaker, Andreu and Dorrans can go.
I'm sorry, but Bassong and Martin would be top of my 'clearout list', as I think between them they have cost us so many goals over the years and I would be tempted to give Toffolo and perhaps the Murphy twins and perhaps Loza a chance to see if they can make the step up.
The thing is, these players let us down in the Premiership. They did however get us out of that league again. I'd keep Martin, and consider keeping Bassong for the Championship. Jarvis would be good in that league, he's got the work ethic. I wonder how Mulumbu would be in that league. Surely he'd be good at that level? Although would be good to see Vladis get some regular starts in the Championship. Actually see what he can do if given a chance.So could maybe let Dorrans and Mulumbu go.. Again, depends on how many players we lose who we wanted to keep.
I'm with Braveheart if we go down it can't just be about coming back up, we need to come up with a team that can compete. So in my mind we need to keep our key players and build a team around them. As this season has shown we need a strong CB pairing so keep Klose and try and find a second CB with potential to play in the PL after a season in the Championship working with Klose. There is no point in keeping a lot of players that may be able to get us out of the championship, knowing full well that they are not good enough for the PL with the view to making wholesale replacements if we're promoted.
That's easier said then done. A lot of our players will be difficult to offload as they will be on good Champ wages, They will also fancy us for promotion and a good wage increase as a result. then there is attracting any one who has more than just potential to be able to play PL footy. Name a CB who would come to us if we were relegated that is significantly better than Bassong or Martin? Look at the best Champ defenders, who do they play for? The sides chasing promotion. If they get it then they are out of reach, if they don't are they really better than what we have? And would there club part with them if they fancy another promotion push? Unfortunitely our ability to upgrade on Bass, Martin, Jerome et al is utterly dependant on us staying in the PL. Best we can hope for is some more players of comparable ability to augment the managers tactics. we need to function better as a team with what we have and then add the missing pieces if we get promoted. If we can only hang on to Klose, Redmond, Brady and Howson then we are half way there if we hit the PL again, the building job is well progressed, lose them and we must start again....again! Bah!
Best we can hope for is our scouting network identifying players from (possibly) foreign leagues, Belgium, France, Holland etc that no one else has heard of and get them to commit before big moneybags clubs get a whiff of the scent So what we can't afford to spend on fees and wages, we spend some of scouting far flung places for undiscovered 'gems' *In an ideal world*
I agree with a lot of what you're saying, but I think in terms of centre backs, a new signing doesn't necessarily have to be significantly better than Bassong or Martin - they just have to be less error prone. I've no problem conceding due to good attacking play, but too frequently we concede due to committing defensive Hari-Kiri. Bassong at the weekend being simply the latest example. A centre back who isn't as good in the air, perhaps not as strong in the tackle, but has the presence of mind to lump the ball long out of play when needed, to keep things simple, and stay in position would definitely be an improvement.
Whilst I agree with what you say in essence, Martin and Bass are both capable enough to play in a side that can achieve promotion. What you describe sounds like a better player than both Martin or Bassong, granted with different strengths and weaknesses. Most of the CB's in the championship will have a mistake or two in them that's why they are not at PL clubs. What we really need is to keep Klose, if we lose him then it is an organiser that we need, because surely that has been his biggest impact at the back, making the others look good enough! Bah!
