Put it like this, I don’t think any keeper can be as bad as Hugo at kicking. Besides, right now I’d just like a keeper who can save a shot and Strakosha can definitely do that lol.
Tough to say mate. Pool paid £65m for Alisson, Strakosha ain’t as good (but still quality) so I’d say around £45m/£50m-ish if I were to guess.
I’m living in hope. If we want to really transform the defence we’ve gotta pay (or get really lucky). The central core of GK, CB and DM has to be where the big money’s spent in my opinion. LB and RB can worked around as pretty much anything is an upgrade on a broken Davies and an Aurier who can’t defend (albeit decent at attacking). I’d initially written DM off as Dier gave me hope but I think I was being foolish. Dream world says we target Strakosha, one of Koulibaly/ Dias/ Skriniar (preferably Koulibaly but doubtful if we don’t have CL football) and then a good DM, not really too clued up on ideal DMs, HBIC’s listed a few recently though.
definitely the defensive unit...we need a whole new backline I think. As **** as things are...we don’t really need to bolster our attack too much. We need our injured players back...we need Ndombele to be a man and we need a back up to Kane. Done
We keep being linked with that Trabzonspor keeper Ugurcan Cakir but their chairman's asking for the big bucks...but as it's Turkey, that's £25m, so he'd either be a steal that was under the radar or there's a reason nobody's offering the big bucks That being said, I remember Strakosha being linked with us over the summer that seemed out of left field at the time However, I maintain a DM will fix a lot of issues, as midfield solidity will prevent us being overrun in the middle and the knock-on effect is that will lead to less unforced errors from our defenders - which would be a blessing as they seem so determined to make them Denis Zakaria is the dream, but with the Euros around the corner and him having two years on his contract it's likely A German Team are expecting an auction to break out, and similar can be said for Florentino Luis at Benfica considering he's contracted until 2024 FFS, so Soumare looks most likely...provided Lille aren't ****ed off with us for poaching their entire coaching team
Yeah I think the Strakosha link last summer was what made me take notice of him. DM is definitely paramount and whilst it’d certainly help plug issues, I just don’t have faith in the defence/ keeper to want to risk not adding a CB and GK too. I hate the fact I look to Pool for inspiration but if we can add our very own Alisson, van Dijk and Fabinho this summer, I’d go into next season pretty confident.
You don't have to, just look at Poch: signing Toby and redeploying Dier as a DM caused a lot to click into place ...as did decluttering it of Paulinho, Kaboul, Capoue, Stambouli, Chiriches, Soldado and Adebayor that same window
That'll save me a fortune cos I am ****ed if I am gonna pay £50 for a ticket to watch him take 3 minutes per clearance!
With no CL income next season, can anyone honestly see a net spend higher than £50m? I agree: in an ideal world we need to upgrade GK, CB, LB, RB, DM and also sign a back up ST. Giving a very modest (probably unrealistic) ballpark figure of £35m per upgrade and one of £20m for the back up, that comes to £195m. Read that back again. Even forgetting the GK and downgrading the 3 defenders to back up level (i.e. rely on Aurier, Toby and Davies for another year) and we're looking at £115m. Where is that money coming from?
ENIC The owners even if it doesn’t come from them...it’s very important to mention...that it should be coming from them We always act like we are £1 Sterling away from extinction TV rights have increased for the top 6 by 80 mill since last year The most expensive season tickets in world football bar one Plus whatever else ENIC are raking in.
Decluttering will free up some more funds - but that leads to the other obvious point, based on the players I think are on the chopping block/decluttering table Rose - pure profit, given we signed him for a nominal fee, but unlikely to net more than £5m Carter-Vickers - pure profit, but not much of it, as £3-4m is the most we're likely to get Georgiou - pure profit, but a meagre one and we'd be relying on the sell-on clause doing the heavy lifting Dier - definite chance of making a decent profit Foyth - possible to turn a profit on him given we signed him for £8m and there has been interest from Serie A Lucas - likely to break even, maybe make a small profit Aurier - we could possibly break even due to him playing regularly, which is the only positive for that Alderweireld - taking a small loss and possibly subsidising his wages Lamela - eating a loss Sissoko - eating a loss Vorm - not making a penny Vertonghen - not making a penny To be blunt, we may be looking at cash + player options, for example if we're after Godfrey & Aarons at Norwich we could do a lot worse than including CCV as part of the deal - which essentially means we're swapping one CG player for two HG ones, but that's a gamble more likely to come off than endlessly loaning CCV to Championship clubs while Tanganga is getting established
FFP forbids capital injections by the owners. ENIC have reinvested all revenue in the club. I think we can probably afford around £100m in the summer.
Lamela and Sissoko wouldn't incur a loss. Lamela will have zero value in the books as his fee will have been written off over his first contract. Sissoko will have at least three quarters of his written off.