Pick some young English talent...

Can you make up a decent team mainly using young English/British talent that we could, conceivably, acquire? Add a few world class players to make it good enough to challenge if you want to.

Hart
Clyne, Kompany, Rekik, Alves
Sterling, Henderson, Barkley, Bale
Aguero, Silva


We could buy those players for under £200M.

..............................Hart..................................

Trippier...........Vinny..........Rekik............Coentrao

.....Sterling........Barkley....Pogba..........Bale.........

.................Silva..............Aguero.......................

How much? £240M? We can still afford it. I'd prefer Pogba to Henderson too!

Trippier - £10m?

Coentrao - £15m?

Sterling - £40m?

Pogba - £70m?

Bale - £70m?

Barkley - £30m?

= £235m

We sell:

TLMLF - £25m

Dzeko - £20m

Jovetic - £20m

Just 3 players will recoup £65m, so brings it down to £170m.

We also lose the top earner at the club, plus these two and - Lampard, Milner and Sagna - that's close to £750k pw.

So let's imagine these salaries:

Bale - £250k
Pogba - £200k
Sterling - £160k
Barkley - £100k
Trippier - £80k
Coentrao - £100k

That's £880k pw...almost like for like salaries...but youth and much better players.

And, I was being 'generous' with the wages - top end.

No doubt we could let go of one or two more:

Nasri - £25m
Fernando - £15m
Kolorov - £15m

There's another £55m in and £240k pw in salaries.

I think if you got rid of the 1st list, Kolarov and Boyata, we'd nearly be there in terms of salary.

Possibly.

It all depends. I think Kolorov may go and bring in some decent cash. Nasri is another who may go, especially if the likes of DeBruyne comes in, who is another who I think we should not only buy, but WILL buy....so maybe Barkley is omitted if we ever got Pogba.

DeBruyne or Barkley at £35m?

Tough choice. I think DeBruyne has possibly proven himself more, but not English.

I think once again, it will come down to what TOP players they bring in.

On the market COULD, but not guaranteed to be are:

Pogba
Bale
Sterling
DeBruyne
Henderson
Clyne
Hummels
Coentrao
Dybala
Hernandez
Benteke?
Barkley


The obvious BIG 2 are Pogba and Bale. If we got either of those it would be amazing - both, simply stunning.

These are definitely the 2 BIG summer signings we should be going ALL OUT for at the expense of any other, including Sterling.

If we got Pogba, but not Bale, then the likes of Sterling, Hernandez, DeBruyne would definitely improve the first team.

If we got Bale, but not Pogba, then likewise, DeBruyne and Sterling would supplement the team.

The likes of Barkley, Henderson and Dybala become squad players.

I think we need 3 players who will replace the likes of TLMLF, Milner and one other as a guaranteed first team starter.

We're not far off and we could end up adding some experience at the back and possibly one or two striking options as well.

......................................Hart........................................

Zaba...................Vinny...............Mangala............Clichy/C'trao

..............Pogba...........................Fernandinho........................

....DeBruyne.....................Silva.............................Bale...........

........................................Aguero......................................

Or, if we only got one of them.........

......................................Hart.............................................

Zaba...................Vinny................Mangala............Clichy/C'tra..

....................Pogba...........................Fernandinho..................

Sterling............................Silva............................DeBruyne

.......................................Aguero......................................

or:

......................................Hart..............................................

Zaba.....................Vinny..............Mangala...................Clichy...

.....................Barkley...................Fernandinho.......................

Sterling............................Silva..........................Bale/DeB......

.......................................Aguero.........................................

All nice teams. Fingers crossed.