I've mentioned Bazuna on here since he was 16. The lad is going to be a top top keeper, He will go on loan again as he needs to play, only way he comes here is if Spurs spend money on Pickford to replace Lloris. It's not beyond the realms of possibility. And he Bazuna won't cost peanuts either.
What the last few weeks has shown us is we need a ball playing holding midfielder, Delph has really been good and done well but needs to be moved on now, Allan needs replacing. Mina injury problems are also a big problem, we need another leader in his position. I think right back is now an area of strength, if we go 5 at the back, Patterson and Iwobi are more than good enough. Seamus can still play the odd game in a back 5, Godfrey and Holgate need a real organiser to play alongside them, if Mina goes we need someone in that mould to play alongside him, Can't wait for Lampard to get rid of the deadwood.
I think we should aim for younger players with some fight like Mykolenko this summer but we still need 1-2 ready made quality and Lukaku certainly is that.
He's approaching 29 and most clubs outside of the PL are still skint from the Pandemic. I think if we can offload DCL for a good inflated fee its not out the realms of possibility that we could bring him home with the guarantee of regular 1st team football week in week out.
Him and Richarlison up top man oh man
Of the names you've mentioned, just cant see any takers at much beyond loans.
FWIW think Davies will stay, seems to like him and I think he will like his attitude and probably get more from him. Mina I think will also stay, but you hope Thelwell is looking at our medical people.
I sense Richarlison and DCL may go. Kean and Godfrey may also join them. I dont want to guess figures, but certainly upwards of 150m, with comfortable 100m of it in profit.
That will help resolve a lot of FFP issues, and also allow for a couple of years of sensible recruitment.
Delph might stay if he accepts an incentivised deal, which I dont think he will. I sense JKK may stay on a cheap deal for his versatility.
As for recruitment, wouldnt be surprised we we targeted some Chelsea academy players (maybe Sterling and/or the lad at Huddersfield) and wouldnt be surprised to see lads from the championship who are a bit unknown. Think Lampard wants people who will fight and graft, which seems to mirror what Thelwell likes.
He'll want a pay rise.
We can't give a pay rise to someone who's already on £100k p/w but misses 20 games per season due to injury.
We should sell him this summer. I won't deny that he's usually our best defender when he plays, but he simply doesn't play often enough to justify his current wages.
Don't get these constant comments about selling Pickford!
He has been our most consistent player over the last 16 months, we should be ensuring he stays, given the wage he is already on he isn't going to Spurs anyway
Please stop flogging off our assets to the club to justify bringing in "promising young players"
Its all about the spine of the team:
GK: Pickford / Begovic
CB: Mina / Godfrey / Holgate / Keane / Branthwaite / Welch
CM: Delph / Allan / Doucoure / Davies / Gbamin / Gomes / Onyango / Iwobi
FW: Tosun / DCL / Richarlison / Rondon / Kean / Dele
Put FFP/P+S to one side for a moment and imagine the club will be operating on a simplistic model of whatever fees we bring in may be used for signings.
Its all about who we can move out from those groups Whether out of contract or through sales to generate enough funds for a new spine.
The obvious ones are:
Gomes
Kean
Keane
Tosun (OOC)
Delph (OOC)
Gbamin
Allan
But then look at when some of the others contracts expire:
2023
Begovic (if we take a 1 year extension)
Doucoure (One year option)
Mina
Davies
Rondon (One year option)
2024
Richarlison
Pickford
Dele
Iwobi
2025
Holgate
Godfrey
Branthwaite
DCL
I hope that our first two signings are
Colwill and
Gilmour from Chelsea. I think they would cost around £40mil.
But I think we would still need
1 × CB
1 × CM
2 × CF
Thats going to cost big money and even if we get fees for squad players it isnt going to be enough.
Pickford, Godfrey, DCL, Richarlison surely wont all be here next season although it looks likely Juventus will pay £25mil+ for Kean in June.
Somehow we need to keep hold of our better players whilst recycling others to bring in high potential younger players for long term stability in the spine.
Its building towards one of the biggest summers of activity I think we have seen.
