If we survived, what would you expect/want us to try for post season? Obviously it would depend on where we finished prize money-wise. Of the current first eleven who would you want us to ship out? Who should we keep? Of course, this thread will probably be a waste of time because the likely hood we do stay up is still small. For me, I would love to keep hold of Sarr, Pedro, Cucho, Louza, Edebo, Serialtra, and Samir. Whether we stay up for not, I seriously think Foster will retire after this season, same with Kiko, Cathcart and Cleverly. We would need some decent replacements of course within budget and no more cheap freebees like Fletcher and Gosling.
I reckon it’s worth cashing in on Sarr even if we stay up and getting a big money replacement (15m or so). Unless we’re able to renew his contract of course. I’d like to see JP converted into more of an 8/10 (a la Joelinton) so maybe a new striker if we do that or an 8/10 if not. We also need our Capoue replacement. On top of that, a young RB to replace Kiko and a CB partner for Samir. We’ll have to figure out if Okoye is good enough too. I don’t think we’d have to do any of these things if we go down; we could make do with Kiko, Okoye and the rump of CBs.
I want us to make sure we buy only the absolute jewels of the Mogi Bayat clients that comprise our recruitment population.
More of the same please, if we stay up the defence is obviously good enough so no need to invest there, unless any Danny Rose type bargains crop up that is. Im hoping at some stage we can find someone older than Claudio and Roy to manage us too.
Exactly. If we stay up that's proof that the defence is good enough, just like it was when we were promoted. New three year deals for Cathcart, Kabasele, Femenia and Troost, and Sierralta moved on on a free to Udinese, please. We need experience not up and comers, and Sierralta has proven without any shadow of a doubt whatsoever that he's not good enough and never will be in his 5 starts in this injury/COVID hit season of his.
I'm sure we will re-appoint both Claudio and Roy in the next 5 years so they can beat their own records.
Sarr will be off this summer regardless. His value will rapidly decline afterwards, think he'll have 2 years left?
Yes. I reckon the club will put an offer on the table to keep if we do somehow stay up but will cash in if he won’t sign and the valuation is met.
Can't see it. He's supposedly on £70k a week. Can you really see them increasing his wages much from there?
In all seriousness, surely they won’t be that stupid this time round? They significantly upgraded a defence that conceded 50 goals in a team that needed to score 3+ to win some games during the first promotion - hopefully they’ll have realised you can’t take anything for granted whatever you achieve in a promoted side. And we’ve conceded 55 goals already, so with games at Liverpool, Man City and Chelsea still to come, even if we do stay up our GA isn’t likely to be much better than in any of the seasons after the QSF one that eventually led to relegation.
I’d wish for strengthening in all positions by players that improve our squad (we will really have a poor squad with the aging players retiring, a few of our top players leaving plus the positions that still need to be filled) I’d wish for a manager that could be with us for a number of seasons. That nurtured our talent. That got a side playing for the shirt I’d wish for owners who had a clear strategy. That I respected. That could take our infrastructure and squad to the next level but next season will be the same as every other season
But they thought WTE and Rose would be enough to strengthen the same defence that was clearly not good enough 2 seasons before, but was now 2 seasons older. And rather oddly despite FS being by far the better of him and WTE the season before, he’s barely been able to get a game. They clearly had doubts about him, yet didn’t have them about WTE and thought he was enough at CB to see us doing better than two seasons before. In short very recent history tells me not to trust them to do things differently.
If we stay up, it’s essential the money is invested wisely. There is a promising aviation business of the swine variety that would be worth a punt
Would be nice to get a manager in who is given a chance to build a squad with players he actually wants and needs.
Out: sarr - sold Foster - retired Etebo - loan finished In: winger to replace Sarr Winger to replace Etebo Winger to replace foster Winger to bolster bench Winger to bolster u23s Winger for good luck Teenage prodigy we can ruin Ageing centre half who's better than WTE but worse than Cathcart Udinese 3rd choice in any position 3 x players with a Belgian agent (various positions)
We know that won’t happen though. TBF no matter who the manager is next season, if we are bottom half after 10 games, forget all this “chance to build” sentiment, everyone on here will be shouting for them to be sacked. At least with Gino in charge we don’t have months of “manager out” momentum building. They are gone in the blink of an eye.
Played for one of the big 6. Tick Proven England international. Tick Got to be worth a cheeky punt. I mean, how could we lose, what could possibly go wrong ? Obviously both parties would need a sign of commitment so min 2 year deal to get the ball rolling.
Even if we somehow stay up, I do think a change of direction will be needed. As I mentioned in another thread, we should get Fergie out of retirement and give him a chance to build the club over the next 10 years. I would also like to see changes in the way we recruit. Two possible strategies would be to re-sign our 97/98 promotion winning squad and see what they have left. Alternatively we should consider only signing players born in Moldova. Or even a combination of these two strategies. What is clear is that we need change and the steps above would be a start.
Fergie? Isn’t it regarded that Utd are in such a mess because he still has a big say in a number of things? He’s long since had his day, things move on. I also very much doubt he’d be around for 10 more years.
