The tomfoolery version: Kenwyne Jones...
With the rumours/talk of Nunes and Dumfries for under £20mil fees i wonder if were focused on improving squad depth rather than top quality.
The media seem to know nothing.
The harsh reality is that half the existing squad aren't even good enough to be squad depth. If all the wage-thieves, sicknotes and workshy cowards are booted out we will need a lot of "ins". This by necessity means that some of the ins need to be at the cheaper end of the scale, because we can't just buy seven new players at £30m each.
If we were to bring in:
Dumfries @ £15m
Nunes @ £16m
Pereira @ £15m
Olise @ £9m
For a total of £55m we would have a new starting RB, a new starting RW / RM (depending on formation), a backup RW / RM and a bit of depth behind Allan and Doucoure in the box-to-box CM positions. This would be a BIG improvement.
Add in someone who can play the DM / 6 position alone in a 433 or a 4-1-4-1, or alongside whoever in a 4-2-3-1 and many of our concerns are addressed. Personally I would want Kalvin Phillips but that would take our spending up to £110m... having said that, if we were able to get clubs to take Delph and Bernard off our hands for nominal fees AND sell at least one of Iwobi or Gomes for around £15m, I'd be happy with the overall net spend around £90m.
The other way to do it would be to bring in Aarons instead of Dumfries at RB (spending a bit more at that position) and bring in Guimares or Kamara instead of Kalvin Phillips (spending a bit less on the DM spot).
Either way you've got five new players, three of which start in the first 11 on day one (Pereira, the RB and the DM) and none of whom are over 26. The other two (Nunes and Olise) are entirely capable of dislodging an incumbent in the starting 11 over the course of the season (Nunes in either of the box to box CM positions, Olise out wide on either wing or as a 10).
TL;DR
- we need to sell four players: Bernard, Delph, Gomes and Iwobi, ideally raising about £30m
- we need to bring in three new starters, and two new youngsters pushing for starting positions as the season unfolds. Likely cost £100m(ish) combined.