Squad - Who Stays? Who Goes?

A new manager can galvanize some players that many have lost hope in. I think 5 top signings sorts out this team. A goalkeeper, a centre back, right back; left winger and a striker. We will lose Ajer, Edouard and Christie and maybe one or two others worth a few quid. At least £40 million should be there to spend. £25 million from player sales and £15 million from the club. If as rumoured Steve Cook and Josh King followed Eddie Howe up here that would be a good start. Then we should have plenty of money to really focus on 3-4 top class signings plus a few squad men and a youngster or two. With the right signings we will be back with a bang next year and actually have a system and a plan on the pitch. McGregor and Forrest will be key men going forward. McGregor in particular has so much more potential than he has shown this season but that to me is down to poor leadership in the dugout. The players lack direction..

 

New gk (begovic?) / barkas / hazard
New rb / oconner backup
New cbx2 / jullien / welsh backup
New lb / taylor backup

New def mid (shaw?) /soro / mcgregor / turnbull / new box to box cm / connell

Forrest / new rw
New lw / johnston backup

Ajeti / new target man striker / new all rounder striker.

By my thinking we need 10 new players which would give us atleast 2 players for each position in a 4 3 3.

Sell eddie ajer ntcham boli hendry shved bayo christie bain and or barkas.

 

GK
New GK
Bain
Hazard

RB
New RB
O'Connor

CB
2 New CBs
Julien
Welsh

LB
New LB
Hjelde

CDM
Soro
Shaw

CM
New CM
McGregor
Whoever is best between Robertson, Henderson, O'Connell

CAM
Turnbull
Rogic

RM
Forrest
Whoever is better between Dembele and Shved

LM
New LM
Johnston

ST
2 New STs
Griffiths
Bayo

I wouldn't mind a complete clear out but that won't happen. Ones I haven't included as I think they'll be away but I'd like to stay is Ajer and Eddy. Trusting in the youth a lot here. As Lennon never gave them a chance don't know what they are like, surely a couple be fine for having in the team. Maybe one or two more signings instead of youth players to finish off the squad,

 

If possible keep Edouard, Elyounoussi, Forrest, Ajer, Julien, McGregor, Turnbull, Soro, Dembele and Griffiths. Get rid of the rest of the diddies.

 

Anyone thinking we're going to spend more than £20million even after Eddy & Ajer are sold need their heads checked. I'd move McGregor further forward as you can't have a deep lying midfielder who's as poor a tackler as he is. No more Loans either unless it's to cover an injury emergency. Need to make use of the younger players and find 4 new starters at around £4/5 million each.


GK
Barkas (Call me crazy but still think he's salvageable, confidence should pick up with some better defenders)
Bain
Hazard

RB
New RB
O'Connor

CB
2 New CBs (Need to be physically dominant as neither of the two below are, one starter + one younger player)
Julien
Welsh

LB
New LB
Taylor

CDM
Soro
Shaw

CM
New CM (at a stretch Christie?)
Robertson/O'Connell

CAM
Turnbull
Rogic

RM
Forrest
Dembele

LM
McGregor
Johnston

ST
New ST
Ajeti
Griffiths
Bayo

 

Howe could have got a decent job in England. Hes not stupid, and knows we will lose our best players, and will require at least half a dozen first team players and potentially up to another half a dozen squad players. He is not accepting that role if we arent planning on putting at least 30m on the table

 

Believe me I hope you're right, just don't trust our board to put their hands in their pockets in the current climate.

 

I have every faith that the board will put their hands in their pockets, absolutely no concerns whatsoever.


It's bringing them back out with money in them that concerns me

 

I think we could see a rebirth from Ntcham under a new manager

 

Aye, at a new club...

 

We will see plenty come and go this summer but it is also realistic that our starting front 6 will be as below allowing for some level of continuity.

New
New Julien New New
McGregor Soro
Turnbull
Forrest Johnston
Ajeti

Things we should try and do for our starting eleven.

- Offer Ajer 1-year extension and £50k p/w. Continuity at centre back with him and a fit Julien will massively help the team and a new coach. He can go the following summer.
- Sign David Marshall. He's better than anything we have.
- Sign two attacking full-backs. We have money from Frimpong and inevitable Boli sale. We really need to get these right.

 

Depends on who the manager wants to bring in.

If its Howe we could see a furry of english championship players on a a free as its a market he knows

Think we will see Cook and could see him being handed the armband

 

In most seasons gone by, we have around 15 players that play 30+ games and potentially another 8 that will play 10 games plus

In that first group 30+
Mcgregor
Forrest
Turnbull

Second group 10+
Barkas
Taylor
Welsh
Jullien (injury puts him here)
Soro
Rogic
Ajeti

Potential to join group 2
Hazard
Hjelde
Bitton
Montgomery
Connell
Oconnor
Henderson
Johnson
Robertson

Thats assuming eddie, christie, Ajer, ntcham go.

If two from the second group step up we would need 3 from the bottom group to step up to play 10 games plus and this is also based on no big injurys to the bigger players.

It would them mean we would need 10 players brought in to play 30+ games.

To put that into context, if Ang is announced next week, its like 1 player every week from then to the end of the window expected to get 30 games a season with us next season

A goal keeper
Right back
Centre half x2
Left back
Def midfielder
Box to box midfielder
Left winger
Striker x2

That will cost potentially 35m to do that to a standard we will require, im sure there will be the odd loan in there.

Eddie 16m
Ajer 8m
Christie 3m
Hendry 2m
M.Dembele 3m
Paddy pole 3m

Theres possibly a chance to raise the 35m But will it all be put back into the squad??

Alot of big earners out the door so there will a decent budget for wages

 

Good analysis here and shows the size of job we have on our hands.

I think we will bring in a bit more than £35m if including the Klimala, Frimpong and Elhamed sales which are already worth about £12.5m plus if Hendry was sold for £1.75m and depending if Bitton and Rogic stay. Also Shved, Bayo and Bolingoli will likely move on.

I’m terms of what we need in I would agree with you and think it sadly is the bare minimum we need unless a Hjelde, OConnor, Connell or Dembele really step it up next season.

To be successful in that approach we will have to be able to sign a few out of contract players so that 4 or 5 can be bought for decent money as I can’t see us spending everything we bring in either.

 

Quicker listing who I'd keep in the squad

GKs: Hazard (only as he's young & cheap, 3rd choice)
Full backs: None
CBs: Julien, Welsh
CMs: Turnbull, Soro, McGregor, Henderson, Robertson, Connell
Wingers: Forrest, Johnston (but this is make or break now)
Strikers: Ajeti

Eddie, Ajer, Christie excluded as they'll definitely be punted.

That's 12 out of the whole squad and that's including Robertson & Connell who might go out on loan again.

Huge work. Genuinely need 15-18 players incoming if that's the case.

 

We should give Barkas another year but we need a good competitor for it like David Marshall.

A centre-back and two full-backs (with right-back first priority of the two) are also high priority.

Arguably our front 6 may remain which will give some level of continuity.

Barkas
New New Julien New
Soro McGregor
Turnbull
Forrest Johnston
Ajeti


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Only one I'd disagree with there is Ajeti. I just don't rate him at all. We need a big strong striker like Hartson or Sutton with someone playing of him (maybe another gem like Larsson just waiting to be discovered). Anyhow, It's going to be a gigantean task for the new man and one I hope the board will enable him to do with the necessary financial backing

 

I actually quite like Ajeti think he's a good player who played in a poorly coached side last season, with that said if we are to play 4-2-3-1 which Ange likes and it's likely to be a high pressing style of play i'm just not sure he will fit in as he doesn't strike me as someone who will press with the real intensity needed when leading the press from the front and if he * up then the press * up really. Think we will see a mobile forward come in.

 

Decent money needs spent on a GK, RB, LB, CB, LW and ST

Would be happy for a couple of loans in place for another CB and a RW.

We can also surely find a decent second striker on a free.

 

People talking about us buying 10 players and spending £30 million need to get real as it ain't gonna happen.

We will see Ajer, Eddie and Christie leave plus maybe Barkas and Griff. I reckon we will get the same amount of players back in and we will see more youths come through.