Not Actually that Crucial a Summer as of August 2023...beginning to now think everything isnt fine!

Realistically we could get rid of Abada and O'Riley for a combined £20m and wouldn't miss them all that much.

 

I think we'd miss Abada. He has a knack of contributing big goals over the course of a season. That's difficult to replace.

Anyway, I hope Ange is ruthless. He needs heavy backing in the summer though. History with this board constantly shows that we fail to consolidate periods of dominance. That's a major worry going forward.

 

He's scored a fair few big goals for us aye, but he's now scored 3 in the last 6 months. Contributed very little for most of the season.

 

He's not been getting many starts tbf.

But if we get a big offer he'll be getting sold anyway whether we like it or not.

The broader point though is that we're still very much a poor pot 4 CL side and if we fail to significantly strengthen the squad we'll do very poorly in Europe again and make it needlessly difficult for ourselves in the league.

 

Probably said this earlier but I'd be happy with the following this summer.

Out
Turnbull
Abada
O'Riley
Bernabei
McCarthy
Montgomery
Johnston
Siegrist
Scales
Soro
Barkas

Total fee's: Around £30 million

In
GK
CB
LB
CM (someone like Christie)
RW
ST

RW should be first choice, rest can come in to challenge for spots.

As others have said, we have a real chance to bury the huns next year, but today's game shows we still have a lot of work to do.

 

If you do get the £30m and if frimpong and Tierney move that's another £20m and you have guaranteed UCL cash then you should be spending minimum of 60% of the £50m you bring in

 

Don’t disagree with concept but losing multiple home grown at a time when low on home grown is tricky.

Ajeti added to list also.

siegrist has done nothing wrong / fine in squad.

no one is coming in for McCarthy. He’s been an absolute disaster signing. Money * up wall in panic at the time

 

These are the positions I want us recruiting this summer and will be vital for us competing in all fronts.

 

I'd maybe keep Montgomery and Johnston for homegrown, but id be shocked if either wanted to stay as backup.

Would be selling Siegrist as we need another keeper to be challenging Hart, get him off the wage bill and let Hazard be third choice.

McCarthy is more hope and pray, I think he'll still be here sadly.

 

£30m is very optimistic to say the least.

 

Abada - £12 million
O'Riley - £8 million
Turnbull - £3 million
Bernabei - £2 million
Barkas - £1 million
Soro - £800k
Johnston - £600k
Scales - £400k
Siegrist - £200k
Montgomery - £200k

Total of around £28 million, so just under the £30 mark, but it's achievable imo.

 

Love the positivity but top 2 aren’t going for 20 million as things stand. Add ons may take initial 10/11 to nearer 15 over time but that’s top end.

Does o’Reilly count as home grown England? If so that may bump him up a bit but let’s face facts anyone watching him for last half a year won’t be blown away.

 

I'd be happy if we could get even 20m for that lot. Can't see us getting anything decent for O'Riley tbh.

 

Got to remember he counts as home-grown, so a lot of the lower PL clubs would gladly take him imo.

At his best he's good enough for the PL, but he's wildly inconsistent, I still think we can get around £6 to £8 million for him.

 

Ban this * !

 

I meant a midfielder similar to Christie, I swear

 

We will cause anyone problems going forward, for me the serious investment needs to be another centre half to partner CCV if we are serious about trying to make an impact in the Champions League.

Strachan and Lennon probably had less talent than we do now, but knew how to build a defensive platform to win European games from.

I would give Oh and Bernabei another season, think they just need some game time.

Would not be too bothered to see the back of Starfelt or O'Reilly, if the rumours are true about the fees on offer for these guys from the south, I will drive them down.

 

We need more athletes. Said it time and time again. We get exposed at set pieces due to lack of height and we get bossed in midfield when games get scrappy / high tempo.

This is based on our full season, mostly our European campaign. Not a reaction to today.

Japanese market has worked well for us, but I’d like to see us recruit mainly from European markets this summer - ideally players who have experience in the CL or Europa League.

These are the positions that need strengthened next year in the starting 11:

New GK

Johnston - CCV - New CB - New LB

McGregor

Hatate - New CM

New RW - Kyogo - Jota

​

GK - Hart isn’t getting any younger and he’s not a natural ball playing midfielder.

LCB - Starfelt is great but he’s not the same level as CCV. We need 2x CB’s of CCV’s calibre for Europe.

LB - Taylor is also great but needs stronger competition than Bernabei. Could also argue Taylor is limited by his speed/physicality. I’d loan Bernabei and bring someone more experienced in to compete with Taylor.

CM - Need a proper athlete in here, not a case of sacrificing quality for power, we need both. A great example is Wanyama. The boy Onyenka who played with FC Midytland signed for Brentford is another that springs to mind.

RW - Abada could be away, even if he isn’t he fluffs his lines in the final third too often. Forrest’s career is nearly done.

We need another striker too.

 

I think we fall into the trap of assuming players who have been off the boil for a while still hold a similar value or interest to wht they might have in months past. Not many teams will have looked at O'Riley ir Abada recently and thought they're worth shelling out £10M plus. I hope I'm wrong