Summer rebuild

[Mr Happy]

Tbf Gueye had pretty much topped all defensive metrics the season Villa we t down, surprised nobody else really wanted him tbh.

He's not far off those season. Consistency is scary.

 

[bluestevon]

Angel Gomez , Jonathon David and KWP. I am Kevin Thelwell and I claim my £5

One I would bring in would be Bove from Roma (was at Fiorentina) contract will have to be terminated by Roma after his Erickson like incident, zero real cost, very good PR and a very very good young player if he gets back to his form of this season. It's picking up a potential 20-30m player whose only 22 for zero money besides wages

 

[Frosty1878]

I guess the idea is that he would be cheap and he's versatile. In reality though I think he'll be looking for a contract to set him up financially for the future. Would rather look elsewhere.

Yes similar signing to what Young should have been. Would make a good squad player/ cover for injuries. Think he would add something to the squad depth and for not a lot of money so would make sense.

 

[Gallaeo]

Thats actually a shout mate.

That or we go back renegotiate the agreed purchase price.

Has to be an injury clause in the new loan deal!

 

[Nymzee]

Any more than 3-4 players and it won't go well on the pitch. Players need time to integrate both on and off the pitch and 6 or 7 players all at once can have a negative impact. Those of us old enough will remember Howard's magnificent 7.

You can sign 6-7 players and not have all of them on the pitch though. We need a bench.

 

[Nymzee]

One I would bring in would be Bove from Roma (was at Fiorentina) contract will have to be terminated by Roma after his Erickson like incident, zero real cost, very good PR and a very very good young player if he gets back to his form of this season. It's picking up a potential 20-30m player whose only 22 for zero money besides wages

Err he played a few days ago mate.

Edit: Actually I lie, or I don’t lie. The football scores app I use said he started and was subbed off vs Inter. Transfermarkt also says the same but Fiorentina Twitter didn’t have him in squad. Transfermarkt also said 7 Fiorentina subs were made as well. No idea what’s happening there

 

[Makis]

Thinking about this, some ground rules:
- Next financial year (starts July 1st) should see PSR issues mostly being lifted. This January was still difficult because we made a big loss in 22/23 and income hasn't increased yet. 22/23 is removed from PSR calculations & our revenues should increase by at least 50 million next season.
- For PSR calculations 150m is 30m if players sign 5 years contracts. But of course wages have to be considered as well.
- About 20 first team players is IMO pretty much the minimum.
- We have 12 players contracted next season. I also expect Gana to sign an extension. So this would mean a shortage of 7 players. I expect Armstrong to be in the first team squad as well, so six.
- Not every player we need is a starter. For instance, we need a backup goalie.

As I see it, we need both fullbacks, and these need to be starters. A reserve CB as we would only have three (assuming JB stays). This guy would be fourth choice so no point spending big money. Assuming no-one is sold, I figure we need a starting CM, someone who is quality with the ball. A notch up from Mangala. Alcaraz hopefully is worth keeping, he costs around 15m and would replace Doucoure. Most pressingly, we need a right winger & CF. We have Ndiaye and McNeil for LM.

So that's: backup GK, backup CB, RB, LB, CM, ACM, RM, CF. Which makes it eight but would make depth chart something like
GK: Pickford, NewGuy1
RB: NG2, O'Brien, (Patterson)
LB: NG3, Mykolenko
CB: Brantwaite, Tarkowski, O'Brien, NG4
CM: NG5, Gana, Garner, Iroegbunam
ACM: NG6 (Alcaraz), Ndiaye, McNeil, Armstrong
LM: Ndiaye, McNeil
RM: NG7
CF: NG8, Beto, Chermiti

Patterson is in parentheses, because I'm not sure if he's worth keeping. Maybe he could be the backup RM?

I'm not yet sold on Lindström. Some good flashes but would I want him to be our first choice RM for the next years? Has to do more than has shown so far. But if he does, he'd be another sub-20 million signing (17m I believe?).

So how to spend the whatever budget we have? There are many ways, but I'd preface this by saying backup GK should probably be a freebie (and we might need two of them). Fourth choice CB also could be someone more experienced buy who could do a job at a pinch. So a freebie or max 10m.

First thing to look is the free agent market for the rest of the players and since we are talking players club doesn't need to spend on, they can be older players. And there is a good selection of really good players, problem is actually managing to sign them. I don't think we have a chance with guys like David, Sane or Tah. Or even Anguissa. But someone like Walkers-Peters could do a job at right back, leaving more money for the other positions. Has lots of experience, and still only 27 so a longer contract wouldn't go bad. Forest's Ola Aina is another RB with an expiring contract. For LB there is for instance Mitchell from Palace and there are several CBs that could be worth looking at. Not that I think we will or should sign that many freebies as wages must also be controlled. Point I'm trying to make is we don't need to spend 50 million on fullbacks.

So the "let's upgrade but try to control costs" version could be something like:
- Backup GK 0,
- Backup CM 10,
- RB+LB total 25,
- CM 30-40,
- Alcaraz 15,
- Lindström 17,
- CF 40-50.

So two big signings, three if you count the fullback. Very much in the 150m territory even when trying to save money. Now, if DCL has a change of heart I would ditch Beto and sign a better replacement. It's hard to see how to improve the squad with much less money.

 

[bluestevon]

Err he played a few days ago mate.

Edit: Actually I lie, or I don’t lie. The football scores app I use said he started and was subbed off vs Inter. Transfermarkt also says the same but Fiorentina Twitter didn’t have him in squad. Transfermarkt also said 7 Fiorentina subs were made as well. No idea what’s happening there

He's legally not allowed to ever play in Italy again mate.

The Italian FA gave permission for him to be with the bench (not as a sub) because by the rules he's not even allowed in the dugout anymore

 

[Nymzee]

He's legally not allowed to ever play in Italy again mate.

The Italian FA gave permission for him to be with the bench (not as a sub) because by the rules he's not even allowed in the dugout anymore

Yeh looks that way. No idea why a few spots had him down as starting.

 

[bluestevon]

Thinking about this, some ground rules:
- Next financial year (starts July 1st) should see PSR issues mostly being lifted. This January was still difficult because we made a big loss in 22/23 and income hasn't increased yet. 22/23 is removed from PSR calculations & our revenues should increase by at least 50 million next season.
- For PSR calculations 150m is 30m if players sign 5 years contracts. But of course wages have to be considered as well.
- About 20 first team players is IMO pretty much the minimum.
- We have 12 players contracted next season. I also expect Gana to sign an extension. So this would mean a shortage of 7 players. I expect Armstrong to be in the first team squad as well, so six.
- Not every player we need is a starter. For instance, we need a backup goalie.

As I see it, we need both fullbacks, and these need to be starters. A reserve CB as we would only have three (assuming JB stays). This guy would be fourth choice so no point spending big money. Assuming no-one is sold, I figure we need a starting CM, someone who is quality with the ball. A notch up from Mangala. Alcaraz hopefully is worth keeping, he costs around 15m and would replace Doucoure. Most pressingly, we need a right winger & CF. We have Ndiaye and McNeil for LM.

So that's: backup GK, backup CB, RB, LB, CM, ACM, RM, CF. Which makes it eight but would make depth chart something like
GK: Pickford, NewGuy1
RB: NG2, O'Brien, (Patterson)
LB: NG3, Mykolenko
CB: Brantwaite, Tarkowski, O'Brien, NG4
CM: NG5, Gana, Garner, Iroegbunam
ACM: NG6 (Alcaraz), Ndiaye, McNeil, Armstrong
LM: Ndiaye, McNeil
RM: NG7
CF: NG8, Beto, Chermiti

Patterson is in parentheses, because I'm not sure if he's worth keeping. Maybe he could be the backup RM?

I'm not yet sold on Lindström. Some good flashes but would I want him to be our first choice RM for the next years? Has to do more than has shown so far. But if he does, he'd be another sub-20 million signing (17m I believe?).

So how to spend the whatever budget we have? There are many ways, but I'd preface this by saying backup GK should probably be a freebie (and we might need two of them). Fourth choice CB also could be someone more experienced buy who could do a job at a pinch. So a freebie or max 10m.

First thing to look is the free agent market for the rest of the players and since we are talking players club doesn't need to spend on, they can be older players. And there is a good selection of really good players, problem is actually managing to sign them. I don't think we have a chance with guys like David, Sane or Tah. Or even Anguissa. But someone like Walkers-Peters could do a job at right back, leaving more money for the other positions. Has lots of experience, and still only 27 so a longer contract wouldn't go bad. Forest's Ola Aina is another RB with an expiring contract. For LB there is for instance Mitchell from Palace and there are several CBs that could be worth looking at. Not that I think we will or should sign that many freebies as wages must also be controlled. Point I'm trying to make is we don't need to spend 50 million on fullbacks.

So the "let's upgrade but try to control costs" version could be something like:
- Backup GK 0,
- Backup CM 10,
- RB+LB total 25,
- CM 30-40,
- Alcaraz 15,
- Lindström 17,
- CF 40-50.

So two big signings, three if you count the fullback. Very much in the 150m territory even when trying to save money. Now, if DCL has a change of heart I would ditch Beto and sign a better replacement. It's hard to see how to improve the squad with much less money.

Right now across the three stacking mid/winger spots cone next season we have 2 players under contract not counting Armstrong, even if we signed both Lindstrom and Alcaraz we'd still only have 4, we'd need two more in top of those mate especially as Alcaraz may actually be better as an 8 we don't know yet. Similarly we need two in at Centre mid, Garners had a lot of injury issues, Tims completely unproven in truth and Gueye will be 36 next season.

Mitchell at Palace signed a new contract btw otherwise yeah he's been a good shout

 

[DualityNSNO]

One I would bring in would be Bove from Roma (was at Fiorentina) contract will have to be terminated by Roma after his Erickson like incident, zero real cost, very good PR and a very very good young player if he gets back to his form of this season. It's picking up a potential 20-30m player whose only 22 for zero money besides wages

If he's ever cleared to play competitively again, defibrillator and all, he's a great talent.

 

[bluestevon]

Yeh looks that way. No idea why a few spots had him down as starting.

Internet gremlins mate.

He'd be a good low cost pickup though (as kinda like a low cost risk/reward)

 

[bluestevon]

If he's ever cleared to play competitively again, defibrillator and all, he's a great talent.

He pretty much came through checks etc so far fine, just the Italian laws prohibit anyone with an implant or device from participating in professional sport mate

 

[ValBlue]

We haven't had a settled right back for years, a loan just extends that transience. We need a permanent RB at the very least. RB and striker are the positions we have neglected for years and have struggled because of it.

Having a first choice right back on a loan that has an obligation is as good as buying them then and there but saves the immediate expenditure. Free signings are permanents. I’m really not sure what the issue is. Lamptey or Walker Peters immediately become our first choice. A left back on loan just seems sensible, if you want to drop the big bucks on a striker

 

[roy vernon]

Would disagree myself mate, I think he has quality.

Sure if we decide, I think we go back to Chelsea and negotiate with the leverage you mention. I’d take on board the injuries.

As someone else suggested a loan with an option for another year may be the clever play.

Think he’s a player both the Dof and manager would like.

He's a sick note though, regardless of his poor scoring record, he has a very poor injury history. Rather like replacing Calvert Lewin with Calvert Lewin.