New look squad for next season

Time on my hands so I thought I'd put up a decent team for next season.

Out:
Nasri - £20M
Dzeko - £20M
Jovetic - £20M
Yaya - £20M
Kolarov - £10M
Navas - £10M

In:

Pogba/Bale - £75M
de Bruyne - £30M
Sterling - £50M
Barkley - £30M
Kurzawa - £15M
Hummels - £35M

The numbers may be a touch out here and there, but good enough. Spend is £235M whilst recouping £100M, so net spend is £135M which is affordable under FFP since only about £30M-£35M hits the P&L account each season (increase in CL tv deal is £30M on its own).

I think we'd all agree that Hummels and Bale are well proven and Pogba has done enough in the last few seasons to put him in that category. Sterling and de Bruyne haven't done it consistently for 2-3 seasons but they are going the right way. A bit of a risk with Barkley, but we can afford it and he might make it.

I've also got rid of 6 non HG players and bought 2/3 HG ones.

My team:

Hart
Zabba, Kompany, Hummels, Kurzawa
Pogba, Barkley
Sterling, Silva, de Bruyne
Aguero

You could easily have one of the two F twins instead of Barkley.

If we got Bale instead of Pogba, then I'd play with one DM and Bale alongside Silva.


The rest of our squad would be:

2 keepers (Wright and Willy?)
Sagna
Dimechelis
Clichy
Mangala
Fernando
Fernandinho
Bony

That gets us to 20 players and I'd hope we'd get the likes of Rekik, Danayar, Lopes etc. back to fill the squad. We might need a couple more experienced squad players to get us to 25.

That team would get our average age down by at least 3 years.

To be honest Dawg, i'll be amazed if we buy and sell that amount of players in the summer.....knowing City, we'll probably sell 2 and buy 1 .

That said, as regards wish lists and sales....you're not a million miles away.

I'd certainly go for Bale and Barkley....but we won't get Bale, more likely Modric. We won't go after Hummells (or any CB), but i agree we should. Pogba won't come (neither will Sterling, thank fuck), so as said, we'll end up with Modric n Barkley.

As regards sales, totally agree with all those on your list....but we'll end up with Jovetic going somewhere for around £10m....the rest will end up staying, as no-one can give them the wages they're after.

So, all in all i'm expecting next years team to be pretty much the same as this.....and that will not please us natives very much.

If the team next season is similar to this season, there will be a lot of unhappy people, I agree. Just getting Modric and Barkley isn't nowhere near good enough. Modric would get into our first team, but not sure about Barkley. I think we need four players that are automatic first teamers.

We could keep Navas and Nasri as squad players

Can't see us going into next season with just 2 strikers.

If we got Bale, he'd play up top if needed. We really don't need 4 strikers. I'd be happy with Aguero, Bony and, maybe, Ings with a kid promoted from the EDS.

We saw that we could do more than just get by with Jimmy up top. You could push Sterling up there too if needed.

I'd put money on Dzeko still being with us

shakencity wrote:I'd put money on Dzeko still being with us

If we are serious about CL & regaining our title 1 or 2 changes is just not good enough. After this season it is clear we need to get rid the likes of Yaya, Jovetic, Dzeko, Sagna, Nastasic, Sinclair, Kolarov Navas to name but a few

Can't see us getting Bale or Pogba. Sterling will almost certainly stay at Loserpool so that leaves us with a risky Barkley, De Bruyne & maybe Modric which if we got all 3 would be an improvement on what we have

Would love to see Hummels sign but can see us (wrongly) persevering with a mixture of Kompany DeM & Mangala

I think much depends on if we get a new manager. If MP stays Dzeko and other dross will probably stay, we will make 1 or 2 changes and the season wont be any better than this one. If we were to offer Pep an offer he can't turn down there could be several changes. Maybe he could bring one or 2 like Muller, Lahm & Robben with him 

I'm expecting Pep to finish his contract at Bayern and for our powers that be letting Pellegrini finish his contract with us.

Forbes say that pep is earning $24M a season at Bayern (around £16M). What would we have to pay him to make him leave his contract a year early? I can't see it making much difference to him to earn an extra £5M, especially when he can tell us to wait 12 months for him to come to us. Which we'd do.

I honestly can't see us getting Pep in the summer. He tends to see his contracts out, which means not until the following 2016-17 season. If that's the case - again, why would they change the Manager for one season? That's assuming, that talks with Pep indicates he will come the following year.

I can see MP being there, as long as we secure a CL place - regardless of finishing position.

But, I do see wholesale changes this summer regardless.

It's imperative we reduce the age of the squad - which means definitely getting rid of 2/3 players. We also need to bring in some quicker legs - and get rid of some seriously poor buys that we've made over the past 2 seasons.

Dzeko will bring us some decent money, as would TLMLF and Jovetic. Kolorov would command a fee in the region of £15m. I can't see Navas being sold - though he should be.

Add to that Nasty....we could bring in £60m+ in the summer. Replacing them for that money isn't going to happen - but if we get rid of the likes of Sagna, Lampard and Milner - that's over £300k in wages.

I agree - Hummels would be a decent buy - but then we'd have 4 CB's, excluding Boyata. Still, Mangala could easily fight for a place with Kompany if his form doesn't improve next season. DeM coming towards the end of his career would be decent back-up.

For me, we need another top class striker. If Morata or Dybala come for around £25m, that would be sufficient if we could add the likes of Modric or De Bruyne.

I agree also, can't see Bale or Pogba coming this summer.

Koke would be a coup....but today, it looks as if Real Madrid are now sniffing around one of the best defensive MF's in world football. If we did get him - then one of the Ferdy twins can be sold/exchanged with him.

I think we have to be realistic - even with £200m to spend, I can't see the likes of Reus, Pogba, Bale, Sterling coming to us - and I think £50m for Barkley is just madness.

£25m should be enough to secure his services at his age and injury record - he could turn out to be another Rodwell.

Some youth is an absolute must - and maybe next season might see us having too rebuild slightly and possibly not winning the PL, or getting to the semi's of the CL....but securing another top 4 easily - ready for Pep the following season.

It does seem crazy though, that we have the likes of Rekik at PSV and Lopes at Lille, all getting rave reviews - but both will possibly stay another season on loan.

Kolorov is pants at LB...Clichy, OK. They both get plenty of game time - so why not bin Kolorov for £15m and give his place to a HG player like Rekik? Seems to me to make complete sense all round.

We could always promote Ambrose/Huwala/Barker into the team next season to up our English contingent and HG status..... and we wouldn't have restrictions in the CL next season either.

sorry Dawg...bit of a crossover there.

blueboy wrote:I can see MP being there, as long as we secure a CL place - regardless of finishing position.

But, I do see wholesale changes this summer regardless.

Disagree, if MP's still here, i can't see much activity at all.....but i really hope he proves me wrong and you right blue.

With potentially 6,000 new seasoncard holders in attendance, wholesale changes (with a marquee signing) are definitely required imo.

It's just so obvious that our guys want Pep and to replicate the playing style of Barca from a few years back.

I expect us to let Boyata go so there'd be one space at CB which should go to Denayar or Rekik. Mangala is a fly in the ointment though, as he's been shit, and we may have to buy another proven CB because of this.

I can't see anyone stupid enough to pay £15M for Kolarov. Anyway, I don't think money is the issue - we have plenty available in the summer and could easily spend £250M without it causing us an issue with FFP (so long as we got some decent money in from sales).

The problem with attracting Bale or Pogba is that top players usually want to play where they have the best chance to win the CL. Given Pogba the choice of Bayern, Madrid, Barca or City, we'd be lucky to be 4th choice. And the other three could pay him a lot less than us and he'd still choose one of them.

I really don't was us to cobble together 2 or 3 average signings again that would struggle to make the first team.

I honestly think we have to be realistic. At the end of this season, we'll have won nothing and hopefully have a CL place.

So, let's say the top 4 are:

Chelsea
City
Arsenal
United/LFC

Chelsea will be Champions, Arsenal may have won a Cup.

Which leaves us potentially being in the same boat as LFC/United....but with more money to spend.

United will always be a bigger draw than us for the foreseeable future, so the likes of a Bale, will choose them over us. Chelsea are a massive worry - as with their spending power in the summer - already won a CL trophy and will be current PL champions, they'll be able to match/outbid us and offer similar money to try and lure the big, big names like Pogba.

This season has been a disaster in more ways than one. It's not only left us with 'nothing'....but will have an effect on our summer transfer market if MP stays....and he WILL stay for one more year.

We really have no choice, regardless. We have to spend big, and by that, I mean replace 5-6 players in the summer. I don't mean spend 'big' money on signings in the region of £70-100m, as those players in that category simply won't join us.

Therefore, we will have to buy wisely for the following managerial appointment, but wisely enough to see us at least challenge for the title and put a decent run together for domestic success and the CL next season, but knowing we won't win the CL.

So prepare yourself to see our Cat B players being replaced with A- players, not A* ones.

Players like:

De Bruyne
Kurzawa
Dybala
Morata
even Modric
possibly Barkley

We're in no position to buy Pogba, Bale, Ronaldo, Messi, Reus...they simply wouldn't come to us over Chelsea or United.

blueboy wrote:We're in no position to buy Pogba, Bale, Ronaldo, Messi, Reus...they simply wouldn't come to us over Chelsea or United.

Completely agree blue, but i have 1 question.

Do you think any of these would come if we had Pep in charge?

Every single one of them would want to play for Pep. I think he is that big a draw and a trump card.

A- is better than category B, but we do need an A* there somewhere. They are all young enough to become Cat A players in a year or two which would be encouraging.

But your list has no HG and we can only have 17 non HG players in our squad of 25. By the end of this season, we could well be down to three (Hart, Clichy and Wright). So I can see a big money deal for Barkley coming up or maybe Walcott or Wilshere, just to try and make up the numbers. That's be bad for us as I'd much rather we bought a couple of A listers and had the best quality from our 17 non HG as possible and fill the other spots with kids from the academy. That won't happen, but I think it'd be better for us in the longer run.

shakencity wrote:

blueboy wrote:We're in no position to buy Pogba, Bale, Ronaldo, Messi, Reus...they simply wouldn't come to us over Chelsea or United.

Completely agree blue, but i have 1 question.

Do you think any of these would come if we had Pep in charge?

I can guarantee you right now....IF Guardiola was in charge come the summer, our chances of signing the worlds elite players would increase by 100%.

I think we could feasibly be then looking at the Bale's, Pogba's, Reus, Koke's.....but he won't leave.

Now....the next question is this:

Do we forego one marquee signings and offer Pep in the region of a £20m per year contract?

He's currently on $24m/£16m per year.

Would this be the only way forward to get him in this summer and allow us to sign the marquee names.....as they WILL NOT come under MP.

I wouldn't want to push Pep, just in case it pisses him off. For £20M a year, he won't move. A few extra quid (£4M) to break his contract? Not worth it for him.

The problem is that we could drop out of the top 4 next season the way these clowns are running the club. No top 4 = no Peppy. We've got to at least buy a couple of those A- players and hope we make top 4 again. But I don't these 3 amigos to get the buying decisions right (unless Pep tells them who he wants!).

I hate this thread...it's depressing.

Why, because no top players will come to us? We've still got Silva and Aguero to help attract them...

whoopy do!

Back to the defenders, Mangala, Demechellis and Kompany are good defenders they are way better than the defenders at Stoke, Middlesbrough,Hull, West brom and all the other teams that have stubborn rigid defences. The difference is that these teams have managers like Pullis that know the value of a solid defence and can organise average defenders into an immovable force that sticks rigidly to a game plan and follows the managers directions to the letter.
Compare that to our defenders like Kompany for example who is constantly charging up the park and getting easily dispossessed and leaves us outnumbered on the counterattack as he forlornly tries to get back. Watch these teams and that back line never fails, it's maintained rigidly with a DM helping out and all players tracking back as soom as they lose possession.
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