Ric Flair Posted 20 January 2022 Share Posted 20 January 2022 1 minute ago, An Sionnach said: I wouldn't write off Caglar and Ricci based on this rather disjointed season. We have all seen them play to a very high standard. Jonny is not looking good but could be replaced with Tarkowski if we offer him the best contract. I have mentioned Elmas , he could certainly replace Tielemans if he can be persuaded that we are an ambitious club. That might involve 10 million more than what we could get for Youri . Otherwise achieving 40 million or so for fringe players would finance the right sort of wide midfielder. Amartey and Hamza have upped their value recently and Praet is playing better I believe so that might be possible. Not a chance Soyuncu is staying here unless his form drops that much that he realises he can no longer attract the same calibre of club that he thought and has a change of heart. Soyuncu has opted to stay on £45k a week for the last 2 years that we've tried to renegotiate his contract. He could have doubled his wages but he's opted not to. Likewise Ricardo could have seriously improved his terms but he opted not to and then got injured. Both are off and if they aren't I'm not sure that's a good thing. 3 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Genesis1 Posted 20 January 2022 Share Posted 20 January 2022 The thing is we're all plotting and planning and at the end of next summer we'll have some Celtic mid replacing Tielemans and Rogers saying he's happy with the squad he's got and Albrighton still has a lot to give at right wing. Realistically wouldn't want to sell Ricardo or Castange either but I'd be happy with Praet replacing Tielemans. Oh, and as for those suggesting Ward-prowse, I can't take it, I just can't take another Southampton player here, whatever his strengths and weaknesses, please no more!!! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jazzy_Jeff Posted 20 January 2022 Share Posted 20 January 2022 Sell: Soyuncu, Vestergaard, Bertrand, Tielemans, Mendy, Praet Buy: 2 cbs (1 as starter, 1 squad) 2 cm , starting RW and Lookman Loan out: Ben Nelson, Braybrooke, Callum wright (championship) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AKCJ Posted 20 January 2022 Share Posted 20 January 2022 Think we need players with the right mentality more than skill in the summer. I actually think it's one of the most talented squads we've ever had but they're cowards. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
North Leeds Fox Posted 20 January 2022 Share Posted 20 January 2022 For me, we need to focus on a starting cb, rw and youri replacement. Then to improve the squad, a backup winger (lookman), backup cb and backup full back. To facilitate that, we would have to get rid of our 'premier league experience players' vestagaard, Bertrand and perez as well as get maximum value for all the players out of contract next year. Tbh we are not going to do all of that, but I would also like us to get back to targeting the best championship players and young players from abroad(which we already good at). Players like Ramsey, brennan, de ketelaere, nat phillips, szalai etc Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eddylcfc Posted 20 January 2022 Share Posted 20 January 2022 Fully fit squad next year could look like… GK Kasper Ward Stolarcyk Full backs JJ Castagne Ricardo Thomas CB Fofana Cags Evans Amartey CM Ndidi Tielemans (I would rather him go for nothing than go a whole season light in midfield - could be the difference of relegation and not). KDH Soumare Maddison Wingers Lookman (activate clause) Barnes Albrighton Strikers Vardy Daka Iheanacho Initial thoughts Sales of Choudhury, Perez, Praet, Vestegaard, Bertrand will generate some funds to prioritise wingers and CB’s. Ideally two of each. We genuinely look pretty set everywhere else but my gosh do we need more options in the two positions mentioned. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LVFox Posted 20 January 2022 Share Posted 20 January 2022 (edited) The club needs a real clear out in a whole manor of places. Playing staff wise I'd like the squad next year to look like this: GK: Kasper, Ward RB: New, Castagne LB: Justin, Thomas CB: Fofana, Evans, Amartey, 2 x New (Starter and young backup) DM: Ndidi, Soumare CM: New, KDH AM: Maddison, New, Alves RW: New, Albrighton LW: Barnes, Lookman CF: Vardy, Daka, Iheanacho Tielemans, Ricardo, Soyuncu, Mendy, Choudhury, Perez, Praet, Bertrand & Vestegaard can all go - I imagine that raises around 100m. Very easy to play Football Manager with that money, but I'd like to see us go for: RB: Aarons from Norwich or Singo from Torino CB: Kempf from Stuttgart (A free agent this summer), not sure about the youngster but there has to be plenty out there to be a backup option. CM: Ricci from Empoli or Simons from PSG - We will miss Youri's passing through the lines far more than any other aspect of his play. AM: De Ketalaere from Brugge RW: Madueke from PSV may be too pricy - I'd love Sarr from Watford if they went down. Similar to what @Ric Flairsays, we need to get back to what we do well. Buy at around 10-20m and sell for around 50-60. We've become so mediocre in that regard lately and it's gone under the radar. Congerton can piss off to Atalanta, anyone who sanctions that move for Vestegaard is an idiot, and if he didn't sanction it, then he's got no use anyway. We need to re-establish our link with Leuven, too many players have had crap loan moves there, but if used correctly that club is a huge asset for us. Look at what it did for Sowah. Would allow us to buy players for around 5m top, and loan out for constant first team football, returning to us either ready to challenge for a squad place, or at least ready to sell for more than we paid. We also need to prepare for Rodgers' departure. He won't be around for ever and we are becoming too reliant on his staff and his way of thinking. When he's gone, we need a coach that fits our philosophies rather than the other way around. Edited 20 January 2022 by LVocey 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
escape2victory Posted 20 January 2022 Share Posted 20 January 2022 Big decisions ahead in the summer with lots of players out of contract in 2023. Out: Tielemans, shame but clearly doesn’t want to be here so get what we can in the summer. Soyuncu, 12 months left on contract in summer. Would benefit both parties if he left. Ricardo, 12 months left on contract, unfortunately too injury prone, get what we can. Perez, 12 months left, not good enough, get what we can. Mendy, sell Bertrand, season long loan in the the championship is the best we can hope for, then release Vestergaard, probably a loan to the bundesliga is the best we can hope for Praet, sell to Serie A Hamza, would be tempted to offer new contract as decent squad player but not going to get the game time especially with no European football next season Would bring in a CB to play alongside Fofana. Evans and Amartey as back up. A left footed left back to compete with Thomas. Obviously a central midfielder to replace Tielemans. Lookman on a permanent and a right winger 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bryn Posted 20 January 2022 Share Posted 20 January 2022 Think the reality is our days of sticking players on over 100k a week are probably over barring a massive change in fortunes. Think it may be a blessing in disguise that the likes of Kasper, Vardy and Tielemans are likely in their final year or so at the club. Don’t underestimate how much difference a few less players on £120k a week makes if we replace them shrewdly. Once the injury crisis resolves we have capable players on significantly less money coming through like KDH and Thomas. This will give us some room to rebuild. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LFox99 Posted 20 January 2022 Share Posted 20 January 2022 2 hours ago, FoxesWalk said: 1st Team RW: Madueke Yeah I'd rather not bother with him. Seems to be trouble on and off the pitch. Hasn't gotten a good run of games this season and just recently got arrested because of a fake drivers license Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LVFox Posted 20 January 2022 Share Posted 20 January 2022 What I would add as well is we desperately need a centre back with leadership and organisational skills. Doesn’t necessarily mean an experienced one, but we need some mental resilience Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
escape2victory Posted 20 January 2022 Share Posted 20 January 2022 (edited) Schmeichel Ward / Jakupovic Justin New CB Fofana New LB Castagne Evans Amartey Thomas Vestergaard New CM Ndidi Soumare Dewsbury-Hall New RW Maddison Barnes Albrighton Iheanacho Lookman Daka Vardy Edited 20 January 2022 by escape2victory Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RowlattsFox Posted 20 January 2022 Share Posted 20 January 2022 First thing is to make room in the squad. Vestergaard, Bertrand and Perez the main ones for me that need to be gone, even if its just on loan. Need an organiser of a centre back, a on-pitch leader, If everyone is fit and available, I really don't think we need much. Still need a reliable right wing option. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DerbyshireFox Posted 20 January 2022 Share Posted 20 January 2022 Definitely a major overhaul needed at the back. Fofana needs a long term partner. Much as I like him, Cags on the evidence of this season isn’t the man for that, and with only a year left and no sign of that being extended currently, had to be a candidate to be moved on. Vestergaard was a strange signing full stop. Capable of being a good defender if you play to his strengths, yet we play to his weaknesses. Was never going to be the right fit. Evans, our ‘brain’ at the back, sadly can’t put a consistent run of games together. An experienced head to partner Fofana would be a key addition. Who I’m not too sure. A capable stand in who can compete for a starting berth would be great as well. Options wise I’m not sure who we go for. I can understand not wasting money in this window if there isn’t the right calibre of player available, and would rather keep the money in our pockets until the summer than end up with another Ryan Bennett. In terms of targets, I’m not too sure who is out there! Denayer could get a good option, although haven’t really seen anything of him at Lyon. Smalling appeals to me but I think it would cost to get him out of Roma. Nat Phillips potentially if he doesn’t go anywhere this window, and then the obvious links to Tarkowski. Ginter is an interesting one as well. I made peace with the fact Youri would be likely to be sold this summer the minute he only signed a four year deal. He’s been fantastic for us, and we will miss his passing abilities when he goes. The question is do we go for a like for like replacement, or strengthen weaker areas to create a new threat ie the elusive right winger! Ideally you replace and buy a winger, but will we have the budget for that? Zakaria on a free appeals hugely, but competition will be huge for him. Madueke was talked about a lot during the summer, but I’ve not heard much on him for quite a while now. Most importantly we need to settle on a system we want to play and stick with it. It’s impressive we can adapt our systems, but it’s starting to show we are Jack of all trades, master of none tactically. The most effective we’ve been under Rodgers was the 4-1-4-1 in his first full season. There’s been some promising signs in the 4-3-3 this year, but three at the back has to go. It doesn’t suit us how we play it. If we stick with 4-3-3, I’d go for a box to box midfielder to compete with KDH. Bissouma wound be great but expensive!! Until we decide on a definitive system, it’s difficult to pinpoint the recruitment. One thing is for certain, there are changes coming. I hope the recruitment team can keep pulling off some shrewd moves Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Costock_Fox Posted 20 January 2022 Share Posted 20 January 2022 3 hours ago, urban.spaceman said: Trick someone into buying Vestergaard. Preferably Newcastle. “That statue you have just outside your city…. Does it want a friend? 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Foxes96 Posted 20 January 2022 Share Posted 20 January 2022 I still feel we have a decent core/ group of players to work with. Especially the likes of Thomas, Justin, Barnes, KDH & Maddison linking up well who we should be building our team around along with Fofana & Daka. However due to contracts expiring and players looking to move elsewhere we have several gaps that will need filling. Based on the below leaving can see us having a c. £100m budget to play with, so would go with the below hopefully giving us a more balanced squad. Although looks like a lot on paper and probably way off the mark anyway. Out: Tielemans - £40m Söyüncü - £20m Ricardo - £15m Perez - £10m Mendy - £3m Praet - £12m Total - c. £100m In: RB - Ramsay £5m CB - Ginter £0 CB - Schlotterbeck £15m CM - Loftus-Cheek £23m RW - Tsygankov £17m LW - Lookman £15m RW/ CAM - Blas/ Faivre £15m Total - c. £85m 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tommy Fresh Posted 20 January 2022 Share Posted 20 January 2022 (edited) 2 hours ago, Ric Flair said: We aren't that good at getting free transfers across the line, I don't know if we baulk at the games and demands that representatives will do in these situations but other than Bertrand I don't recall any prior to the 2016/17 season. There's got to be a reason for it. Fuchs, Albrighton, Cambiasso, Upson since being promoted all prior to 2016/17 off the top of my head and there's probably a couple of others. Just had a look Hamer and Schwarzer are the other notable ones. Edited 20 January 2022 by Tommy Fresh Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ric Flair Posted 20 January 2022 Share Posted 20 January 2022 11 minutes ago, Tommy Fresh said: Fuchs, Albrighton, Cambiasso, Upson since being promoted all prior to 2016/17 off the top of my head and there's probably a couple of others. Just had a look Hamer and Schwarzer are the other notable ones. Yeah, the only others I think are Hernandez and Jakupovic. We've tried and failed though to get Thauvin and Otavio and a few others. Seems like we get put off by the demands which is fair enough but worth considering when plotting how easy it is for us to overhaul our squad on a budget. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chocolate Teapot Posted 20 January 2022 Share Posted 20 January 2022 Tielemans is off. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Strokes Posted 20 January 2022 Share Posted 20 January 2022 3 minutes ago, Chocolate Teapot said: Tielemans is off. Good, he is shit Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Torten Posted 20 January 2022 Share Posted 20 January 2022 I like the look of that Bergwijn 👀 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gubbins Posted 20 January 2022 Share Posted 20 January 2022 3 hours ago, Ross 'LCFC' Turner said: There's a lot of deadwood in this squad and a lot of contracts running out by the end of next season: Amartey Kasper Vardy Ricardo Soyuncu Perez Mendy Tielemans Choudhury Evans Add to the list above that Praet, Vestergaard, Bertrand SHOULD also be moved onto, we have a huge rebuild ahead of us. I reckon Amartey will get a new deal but even so it's a scary amount of players thqt will need replacing and only 2 of those 10 players will actually produce decent fees. No real point in talking about Bertrand and Vestergaard leaving. They've hit the jackpot and like perez will keep picking up wages one way or the other until their contracts expire. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr Weller Posted 20 January 2022 Share Posted 20 January 2022 In my view a major overhaul would be a mistake because the ethos and balance of the squad is strong. It’s easy and tempting to make lots of changes but it’s also expensive and risky. Currently we are a centre back away from being top 6, though if Tielemans moves on we would need to replace him somehow. Beyond that if a great prospect became available of course we should go for him but it’s not always the case. Finally we must reduce the number of injuries as it’s holding us back. Some are inevitable but not this many and it’s too much of a coincidence to attribute it solely to bad luck. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ric Flair Posted 20 January 2022 Share Posted 20 January 2022 11 minutes ago, Mr Weller said: In my view a major overhaul would be a mistake because the ethos and balance of the squad is strong. It’s easy and tempting to make lots of changes but it’s also expensive and risky. Currently we are a centre back away from being top 6, though if Tielemans moves on we would need to replace him somehow. Beyond that if a great prospect became available of course we should go for him but it’s not always the case. Finally we must reduce the number of injuries as it’s holding us back. Some are inevitable but not this many and it’s too much of a coincidence to attribute it solely to bad luck. We equally could be foolish not doing an overhaul this summer as the amount of players we have who's Co tracts are expiring in the next 18 months is significant and several we won't want to extend and there's a few who clearly fancy a new challenge too. To not take care of that this summer and leave it to the summer after would be a huge mistake. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
escape2victory Posted 20 January 2022 Share Posted 20 January 2022 5 minutes ago, Ric Flair said: We equally could be foolish not doing an overhaul this summer as the amount of players we have who's Co tracts are expiring in the next 18 months is significant and several we won't want to extend and there's a few who clearly fancy a new challenge too. To not take care of that this summer and leave it to the summer after would be a huge mistake. Agreed. A mini overhaul is definitely on the cards due to the number of players who come the summer will only have 12 months remaining on the contract, and due to the lack of speculation around extending these players contracts, it seems the club are planning/expecting this 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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