How far are we from Champions League?

[LAToffee]

We lose Lukaku and the calculus changes entirely. We could spend well and make up the loss or we could really struggle and lose more players.

 

[SerenityNigh]

However, look at the RS and Arsenal, they could drop off quite easily and their sides arent far superior to ours...

A successful squad cuts their own path. They take advantage of the failures or misfortunes of others, but do not depend upon this.

 

[GwladysPhil]

We lose Lukaku and the calculus changes entirely. We could spend well and make up the loss or we could really struggle and lose more players.

I don't think any of our squad apart from Lukaku would be able to leave for bigger clubs - but I agree in that if we sell Lukaku it's how we recover by spending the profit generated.

 

[SerenityNigh]

Three or four years if we have good transfer windows.

The gap between success and failure isn't that large, at least not concerning CL spots. The league is a different matter.

 

[Igrok]

We are 10 points and goals away...

 

[The binman chronicles]

I've checked it out and were not that far at all, 134 miles from the Champions League final:

 

[Barnfred 55]

After Lukaku 'demanding' that he wants Champions League, I was thinking "how far are we from a Champions league side?"

If we use the current 4-3-2-1 system, then add in the players from our current squad who could get us there next season...where do we actually need to strengthen at a minimum?

.................................GK

Coleman.....Williams.......LCB...........LB

..........RCM...........Gana.....Schneiderlin

.......................Barkley......AM

..............................Lukaku

Rotation
Robles GK
Holgate RB/RCB
Galloway LB/LCB
Baines LB
McCarthy DM
Davies CM
Besic CM
Lookman AM
Deulofeu AM
Bolasie AM
Calvert-Lewin FW

I feel that we need to ideally have 2 teams to make up the squad and we are quite close to having a very good 1st eleven and also players to come in on a rotation basis.

GK -- Robles has done very well but top keepers win leagues. See the difference in quality between Robles and Martyn/Southall.

LCB -- I think Williams is a better player than he has shown for us this season. Could it be that when played with Jags(past it), Mori(erratic) and Holgate(young) hes not showing his quality? Time to bring in a top LCB or move Williams there (where he plays for Wales) and bring in a RCB.

LB - Ive been in awe of Baines and was delighted when we signed him from Wigan. It appears that age has caught him up as well as niggling fitness issues. We need a younger version with Baines mentoring him.

RCM - I'm big on youth but feel that we need a superstar in central midfield. Davies can rotate in/out but i think we need a true powerhouse central midfielder.

AM - Basically, we need a superstar attacking midfielder/second striker/support forward to link with Barkley and Lukaku.

CF - Obviously we need someone who can rotate or back up Lukaku.


I dont think were far off now. 6 players more as a minimim and I think we have a Champions League quality side.

With TV money/player sales(see below) we could do it...now over to Walsh!

Outs
Jagielka
Kone
Mirallas
Lennon
Barry
Valencia
Stekelenburg
Mori
Garbutt

How far off do you think we are?

In my opinion Zat I don't think we're actually that far away. When you factor in the lack of fitness at the start of the season coupled with the players getting used to a new manager and systems, and the awful sequence of results in the autumn, I feel as though we are surprisingly close to the teams above us at this stage of the season.

I think first and foremost we must try our hardest to keep hold of Rom, and Ross for that matter.

We then need to bring in 2 new CBs, one of which needs to be a class act, a left back/LWB, a playmaker/attacking midfielder and a back up centre striker. The playmaker also needs to be a dead ball specialist. Personally I would also replace one of our defensive midfielders with a more forward thinking one, just to give us more balanced squad. I haven't gone for a GK as I think other area's are a higher priority. If we had the available funding I would probably also bring in a young keeper to develop too.

CB (classy) VVD or Manolas
CB2 Keane/Gibson/Maguire. Somebody who knows the PL.
LB/LWB. Robertson. Possible somebody younger like Sessegnon or Celtic lad.
Playmaker/AM Sigurdsson/Mertens/Lewis Baker/Hakim Ziyech
Striker Dembele/Abraham

I would also sell Macca, hopefully for around £20m and try and bring in Tielemans, hopefully for about £25m.

I reckon outlay on that would be about £160m/£170m.

In addition to Macca I would sell, Niasse, Clevs, Funes Mori, Deulefeu, McGeady, Lennon, Jagielka. Kone's and Valencia's contract will have lapsed. From the development squad I would sell 2 out of Galloway, Browning and Pennington plus Garbutt, Jones, Grant, McAleny, Henen, Byrne, Dyson, Duffus, Rodriguez, Tarashaj. I would hope that we could possibly bring in as much as £90m from that lot, with Macca, Funes and Del bringing in the bulk between them. That means that we would need to find £70/80m from TV revenues and Mosh. Given that we have had hardly any net transfer spend this season, we should be able to find at least £50/£60m from the increased TV revenues.

That would give us the following potential squad (including some of the development players who should be there or thereabouts).

GKs. Robles, Stek
FBs. Coleman, Baines, Robertson , Kenny, Connolly
CBs. VVD, Keane, Williams, Holgate, Galloway
DMs. Gana, Schneids, Davies, Besic, Barry, Walsh
AMs. Barkley, Tielemans, Sigurdsson, Lookman, Mirallas, Bolasie, Dowell
Sts. Lukaku, Dembele, DCL

That squad would meet all the various rules regarding home grown players etc and is big/good enough for a shot at PL and Europe imo. It's balanced as regards skill set and varied enough to enable us to play different systems according to the opposition. I think it's doable too. The hardest one to bring in is probably VVD but Koeman's relationship could swing it.

 

[SerenityNigh]

Look at how well Monaco are doing. Mostly through players coming through the ranks who are now 18-23. If Walsh is buying in top young talent each window then we could emulate them, or at least have quality depth.

Monaco are in a 1-club league

 

[SerenityNigh]

We are 8 points away with big games coming up, win our next 3 and we be within 2 points with 7 to play, it's very much on this season.

One thing I liked about Martinez was his comment along the lines of, "If you need a new club to win, maybe you're the problem. Just win."

There's an element of truth to that.

 

[squonk]

I can just about make it out on the horizon. There are some clouds in the way though.

 

[The binman chronicles]

If we maintain our current form till the end of the season then we are already there.

Leicester didn't need to buy a load of players to win the league and yes that is the exception rather than the rule, but the season before they did, that Jan to May period they were near the top of the form table. (Just like us now)

We like them still require other teams to not perform as well as expected, but out the top 6 teams i only see Chelsea and Utd improving, Pep looks out of sorts with City, I think Spurs may add some players but their team is what it will be now as they still haven't got the pull to attract the best, Arsenal could be in transition without Wenger and the RS are similar to us.

We have to keep doing what we are doing, incremental improvements, a new CB, maybe GK along with another forward and it may get us close next year.

 

[Ducans elbow]

If utd win the Europa cup they will be in the CL does this open another E C place in he prem?

 

[Biff malibu]

Just look at the table and the games and you will see we are about as close as West Brom are

 

[GwladysBlue]

There is no way on Earth that Williams is good enough for a team challenging for CL, especially when he is another year older.

Average at best. Probably one of the slowest players I've seen in an Everton shirt.

 

[OneTrueLegend]

For me the top teams are;

Chelsea
Man City
Tottenham
Arsenal

For us to get in the champions league, we would have to have a brilliant season and one of them, would have to have a bad season.

On top of that, there are Manchester United and Liverpool. They are in the same position as us effectively, waiting for one of the top 4 to slip up, so they can slip in and get 4th.

I think it could happen, Spurs could have a shocker playing at Wembley next season, Man City could get even worse at the back and Arsenal could sack wenger and get worse