I do not want Lukaku to go, but I feel he will.
In light of that, and if we consider Mr Moshiri (combined with the TV deal money) may make, say, 35m available for transfer, plus any money we generate through sales...
Wouldn't it be wise to get rid of Stones for an obscene amount (as we know replacing a centre back is much easier and he won't ever be used correctly by Martinez or kick out the silly parts of his game) ... add the 60m or so we'll get for Lukaku ... and hit the transfer market with close to 150m available for new players?
Could build a team around Barkley, Deulofeu, Mori, Coleman ... get a world class goalkeeper in for around 15m, same with a centre back for 15m, two quality strikers for 20m a pop and that's not even half the funds spent / taking into account funds generate and wages saved by selling / moving on the likes of Kone, Mirallas, McGeady, Gibson, Hibbert, Pienaar, Osman ...
We've loads of youngsters who've already been in around the first team... Robles, Browning, Galloway, Ledson... Dowell will be in there next year, Tarashaj too, possibly Henen. Those latter six will be much more valuable to us than the likes of Osman, Hibbert, Gibson, Kone, McGeady and co have been in years, so no worries about a 'small squad' appearing, that won't be the case at all. It's just taking deadwood out, and replacing it with young potential. Win-win situation on that count.
That's not even mentioning the likes of Baines, Oviedo, Besic, Barry, Niasse, Lennon, Jagielka, Holgate, Pennington, Garbutt who should be involved in the squad too.
The following squad, taking into account contracts ending, sales already agreed, likely departures and all of the money we should have as a result of all of those, would be very strong, and I genuinely don't see why it would be unrealistic either.
Goalkeepers:
[New top goaleeper], Robles
Defenders:
Baines, Oviedo, Jagielka, Mori, Holgate, Garbutt, Coleman [New top centre back], Browning, Galloway
Midfielders:
Besic, Barry, Lennon, Pennington, Ledson, Dowell, Barkley, Deulofeu, Tarashaj, Henen, McCarthy, [New top creative midfielder]
Strikers:
Niasse, [New expensive proven striker], [New expensive proven striker]
- I make that 27 players, and of course a good number of them are 'youngsters' and wouldn't be expected to be playing much, so it's hardly a huge squad full of experienced players. Even getting Carrick on a free would be good business in terms of keeping Barry fresh and adding an experienced head to a relatively young group of players.
We'd be going out and buying five new players; hardly introducing a completely new squad in one pre-season. We'd be filling that oh-so-important goalkeeping position, buying two proven goalscorers (as opposed to just having the one in Lukaku), adding extra creativity in midfield and also strengthening the defence and promoting youth.
I understand this will be dubbed a 'Football Manager' style of thinking, but it's likely Lukaku will go, Stones may go and we know for a fact loads of players are out of contract and haven't featured whatsoever in years and thus shouldn't be receiving extensions.