The Championship 2020-21

Anyone know when the fixture list is announced?

 

When does pre-season start?
It's been boring af so far

 

We had a terrible injury crisis that season, it's amazing we stayed up with Ighalo misfiring too. My guess is Troy was subtley undermining Mazarri behind the scenes after Mazarri sussed him out. I remember people questioned Mazzarri about dropping Troy for an away game and he basically responded by saying how long it had been since Troy scored away from home. Troy probably saw it as me or him.

 

It's been an incredibly slow transfer market so far hasn't it? Not many moves being made and even the free transfers are dragging on (Willian, Fraser etc)

 

Most clubs don't have money to spend. Other than those whose owners have a bottomless pit...

 

Apologies if I've missed it, but is there any word on likely UK TV coverage next season...especially if we have limited attendances or even an empty Vic?

I know there's iFollow in the Champ...but I did note the club also started their own pre-match video coverage post-lockdown online as well, so wondered if WFC are likely to handle the streaming of games in house like Leeds and others?

 

Fixtures to be released next Friday:

https://www.efl.com/news/2020/august/202021-season-dates-confirmed-across-the-efl/

The EFL Cup will also be played through rounds 1 to 4 in midweek before the end of September. I'm pretty sure we still miss Round 1.

 

Fixtures are released on Friday 21st August at 9am

https://www.walesonline.co.uk/sport...-confirm-202021-championship-fixture-18762210

 

13 midweek league games next season which is very good news.

 

It didn't say anything about international breaks, I assume that it would still be a thing next season

 

Teams are going to be clamouring over themselves to get knocked out early in the Carabao Cup.

 

Might as well call it the Man City Cup. With their squad depth, they are the only realistic team to win it again.

 

Yes. If the domestic schedule doesn't break our players, the international one will.

 

Luckily we're already experts at this

 

With the arrival of Ngakia and the knowledge Cucho will not be part of the plan until January at least, where do we need to strengthen/trim the squad to give us the best chance of promotion.

Even with the quality we currently possess, there are still areas we need to address.

The keeper situation is something we need to address. Positions 1 and 3 are fine, but we need a strong number 2 who can easily fill in for Foster. With Stoke's admission that they would accept £8m for Jack Butland, I'd be in with a cheeky £6m bid or maybe we could do a swap deal and give them an unwanted player from our squad...maybe Gray?.......I'd be very pleased with a deal like that.

The only other area of weakness is the central defensive area. Wilmot will probably be a regular, but we need new blood in this position. We need a commanding leader, who is an upgrade on Dawson and Cathcart.

I wouldn't think we need to do too much business on incoming transfers apart from the keeper and centre back.

On the trimming side, well Ngakia's arrival will push at least one, if not two RB's out of the door. You can pick 2 from Kiko, Janmaat and Navarro,

On the left we're good, now that Holebas has gone. We retain Estupinan and use Masina as backup.

Centrally we'll hopefully bring in a quality central defender, plus Wilmot, and move on at least 1 from Cathcart, Kabasele and Mariappa. My money would be on Cathcart or Kabs maybe both. Dawson will be useful and Mapps is versatile without costing a fortune in salary.

Midfield we need to be a bit careful and not lose too much experience. Hughes must stay, and I would hope we can keep both Cleverley and Capoue as the exerience. Add in Qunia, Dele-Bashiru and Chalobah and I believe we'd have an effective midfield unit with a good mix of experience and youth. Doucoure will be the one who would be sold as he's worth the most and is the highest earner.

Up front and on the flanks is where we'll be extremely strong in the Championship. This is the area that really excites me about this team.

Ok, we're not going to see Cucho for a while, but it looks very likely we'll have Suarez. He'll be a brilliant addition to the forward line and will give us qualities we do not currently have. Pedro will be very exciting to watch develop in the Championship.

I really think we've got a good chance of keeping Sarr, but it does depend on whether we receive a big bid. However, if that does happen I think it will happen at the end of the window, so we'll have Sarr until October at the very least I suspect. The same goes for Deulofeu. Without his injury he'd be gone for sure, but no one is going to pay good money for a player who has not played since an ACL injury. He may not even be match fit for us before the end of the transfer window. I think there's a very realistic chance he'll be with us until the January window at least.

So that's two huge players remaining.....but that's not all. I think we could keep Welbeck and Deeney. That maybe OTT, and an incredible wealth of talent at our disposal, but I believe we need Deeney. There will be plenty of muck and nettle games against big bruisers in the Championship. We need players who can mix it, and there's none better than Deeney at that type of game. Without that type of presence to call on, we maybe a little lightweight, even with all that quality. Plus he has the experience to pass on to other players. Welbeck is an exceptional player for the Championship, and even though you will not get 46 games from him, if you an get him on the pitch for half a season, like every other game, he'll be worth his weight in gold.

This is what I hope the club are thinking along the lines of.

In - new CB, backup keeper
Out - Kiko or Janmaat, Navarro, Cathcart or Kabs, Doucoure, Pereyra, Gray, Success, Sinclair.

That to my mind, would be an amazing squad, with players out the door who would generate enough money to bridge the financial gap. It's doable, so let hope the board can put this together.

 

Corrected for you

 

Seriously though, good post. I think that CB is the position in most need of improving, Kabs will probably go, Cathcart and Dawson are more than capable understudies.

For RB Janmaat signed a new contract in January so I imagine that he will still be around. Up front if Gray has a pay cut in his contract I reckon he will stay and may have a better time in this league.

 

Good post, albeit I think a lot of that will change by the time the window shuts on 16th October.

Personally speaking I think we will look to cash in on;

Femenia - £5mil
Cathcart - £2mil
Kabasele - £5mil
Estupiñán - £20-30mil
Doucoure - £20-30mil (£35mil if it Everton because their dumb enough to pay that)
Capoue - £5mil
Pereyra - £10mil
Success - £5mil
Gray - £8mil
Peneranda - £5mil
Sinclair - £Whatever we can get

That’s about £80mil right there that we should make.

Depending on Deulofeu, he could also be sold or loan with option to buy. I would be surprised to see him with us after the October deadline date.

Deeney and/or Welbeck might be gone as well. So I’m not counting on either one of them being here.

We’ve already made £2mil on Foulquier. Cucho and Dahlberg have both gone out on loan, so there would be a loan fee involved. Probably not massive since we can recall Cucho in January. Plus those other players no-one has heard of already out on loan.

As of right now I would expect our starting 11 to look something like this;

Foster

Ngakia, Wilmot, New CB, Masina

Hughes, Quina, Chalobah

Sarr, Suarez, Pedro

Back up 11

?

Janmaat, Dawson, ?, ?

Dele-Bashiru, Cleverley, ?

Pussetto, Deeney, ?

At the bare minimum we need to sign;

A GK who is a solid number 2, but might also replace Foster if he starts smiling his way through games again. You mention Butland, but I can’t see him coming to us, he will definitely be back in the Prem. I do get your thinking though and you’re right we do that position filled.

A Starting 11 CB, my personal choices would be Matt Clarke from Brighton or Jake Cooper from Millwall.

A back up CB, someone who can push on. A youngster that may be at a Prem team but will never make it there. Personal choice would be Adarabioyo at Man City, 22 yrs old, had a great season at Blackburn this past season, 1 yr left on his contract so will be cheap, and will definitely by fighting for a starting place.

A new LB, someone that can push Masina/replace. My personal choice as you all know would be Pickering from Crewe.

A enforcer of a DM, someone who can break into the starting 11 and push Chalobah/replace. We need a Eustace/Behrami type of midfielder with their leadership qualities.

A LM/LW, definitely need someone to play on the left to give Pedro a rest. Whether or not he will make it in English football, but I can see Ivic wanting us to sign Yonatan Cohen from Maccabi Tel Aviv. 7 goals and 10 assists from 15 games as a LW is pretty decent. Albeit in the Israeli league. However he could be a cheap option and be a shrewd piece of business. Only 24 as well.

Those are the six must signings in my opinion.

I would add, but not necessary

Another CB, and CF depending on what happens with Gray, Deeney and Welbeck.

All in all I can see us having a bit of a clear out with at least 11 players being sold/released/loaned out

We will probably bring in at least 6 new players, but could be 7 or 8 depending on some outgoings.

It’s going to be interesting to see if Estupinan and Suarez are at Pre-season training on Monday.

All in all it just the beginning, so this post will probably look different in the next few weeks. For now though, this is what I think.

 

Unfortunately I can’t see Estupinan being with us this season, not least because isn’t he now about to start the final year of his contract?

With Kabasele and Femenia’s contracts also expiring in 2021, I suspect they’ll also be gone.

In defence, I expect the following - Ngakia and Janmaat covers the right back slot. We’ll sign one more centre back alongside Cathcart, Dawson and Wilmot, and another left back to compete and hopefully improve upon Masina.

 

Friday August 21 is the confirmed fixtures announcement date.

 

It is possible that Estupinan may have signed a contract extension. I have mentioned in a previous post that the local newspaper in Osasuna reported that Estupinan was under contract at Watford until 2024.

 

We'd need to see a heck of a lot of moves to make this happen... Have to wait and see if clubs are going to be as active in the window this time with all the current uncertainty.

Assuming lower league clubs rely on gate receipts more than Prem clubs they will be the ones needing to sell players.

May be some value there for us.

 

Lets hope you are right about Estupinan, and if he has indeed signed for us until 2024 I would not be too surprised to see him playing in our snazzy new shirt at The Vic this season.

 

Apologies., but it was Steve Leo Beleck who first mentioned the report in a post on this forum. I saw it elsewhere and I mentioned it on another forum.

 

Bournemouth are going to sell Ramsdale to Sheff Utd. Apparently their fans were promised there wouldn't be a fire sale but it might have just started

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I can’t see there being anywhere near that amount being sold

 

Can't see Janmaat not starting, it fit. Same for Big Bad Troy. Would be happy with that squad though.

 

£18.5mil for Ramsdale is a ridiculous price. From what I’ve seen of him, he is a poor GK. I’m sure Bournemouth fans would say otherwise, but I don’t see it. So I’m not surprised they have accepted that offer. That would be like someone offering us £18.5mil for Gray

 

Especially as Bournemouth only paid £1m for him 3 years ago - from Sheffield United.

United had a sell-on fee but that has been waived according to a piece I read earlier.

 

Does that mean in actual fact they're paying more like £15m?

Either way, nearly £60m for Ake and Ramsdale...their DoF is earning his money alright!

 

Yes a nice little war chest for making a few astute signings eg Toney ? The keeper won't need replacing as they have Travers and Begovic.

 

He has.

The debt they have and the players wages is still massive though. Josh Kings contract runs out next year so they need to sell him this window or they will lose him on a free.

Brooks price tag might put a lot of clubs off. So I can see them keeping him now.

Callum Wilson has 2 yrs left, wants to leave and is probably on a ridiculous wage. If I were in charge of Leeds or any of the clubs outside the top 6 I would be looking to sign both King and Wilson.

King will be cheapish just because his contract runs out next year. So someone could probably get him for £15mil.

Wilson with 2 yrs left, is probably going to cost £25-30mil.

Whatever way you look at it though, Bournemouth have now lost their number 1 GK, their best defender and their best winger (Fraser). I fully expect King to be gone. That then leaves them with Brooks and Wilson as their only high calibre players that are good enough for the Prem.

 

Wilson is on 100k a week so they will be looking to offload.