Tinpot Club
Star Player
Lots of people advocating clear outs and all sorts of positions we need to strengthen in. Most of which is going to be fanciful thinking compared to the business we actually do this summer. Two important points to bear in mind I think:-
1) We already have a very strong squad. Maybe not the biggest and perhaps slightly unbalanced in certain positions. Not many teams would have coped with all our injuries. There is of course a 25 man squad limit too. Get our injured players fit and we are very competitive.
2) Unless we sell, there won’t be a huge bottomless pit to spend. We’ve announced our first loss in our PL era and supposedly have a training ground to build. I felt our January splurge was more of an advance on this summers budget. Finally there are rules by how much you can increase the wage bill each season.
Personally I can’t see much more than £30m being made available. That pretty much gets you one first XI ready player and one, maybe two younger players to push the more established players.
There are two positions I feel are an absolute necessity to strengthen - midfield and RB. Even with Lerma and Cook as the main duo we need stronger depth and that’s not even mentioning the sacrilege of having an option of playing 3 in the middle.
At RB, Adam Smith is so far ahead of his rivals for his position it’s almost like the Kane situation at Spurs. Therefore recruiting a backup is tricky. This is the ideal position for a (cheaper) younger player to come in.
Sure a new no. 1 GK, a LB or a winger would be nice to have. If we do have the cash available then great. Should Fraser leave, then we would hopefully be able to bring in a quality replacement.
Maybe I’m being a bit conservative on what our budget might be but I think we should be prepared for a frustrating and disappointing window. We might have to use the loan market again.
Finally, I’ll repeat what I said at the start. Our fully fit squad is a very competitive squad. Even with just 1 or 2 key additions there is no reason to fear for next season.
1) We already have a very strong squad. Maybe not the biggest and perhaps slightly unbalanced in certain positions. Not many teams would have coped with all our injuries. There is of course a 25 man squad limit too. Get our injured players fit and we are very competitive.
2) Unless we sell, there won’t be a huge bottomless pit to spend. We’ve announced our first loss in our PL era and supposedly have a training ground to build. I felt our January splurge was more of an advance on this summers budget. Finally there are rules by how much you can increase the wage bill each season.
Personally I can’t see much more than £30m being made available. That pretty much gets you one first XI ready player and one, maybe two younger players to push the more established players.
There are two positions I feel are an absolute necessity to strengthen - midfield and RB. Even with Lerma and Cook as the main duo we need stronger depth and that’s not even mentioning the sacrilege of having an option of playing 3 in the middle.
At RB, Adam Smith is so far ahead of his rivals for his position it’s almost like the Kane situation at Spurs. Therefore recruiting a backup is tricky. This is the ideal position for a (cheaper) younger player to come in.
Sure a new no. 1 GK, a LB or a winger would be nice to have. If we do have the cash available then great. Should Fraser leave, then we would hopefully be able to bring in a quality replacement.
Maybe I’m being a bit conservative on what our budget might be but I think we should be prepared for a frustrating and disappointing window. We might have to use the loan market again.
Finally, I’ll repeat what I said at the start. Our fully fit squad is a very competitive squad. Even with just 1 or 2 key additions there is no reason to fear for next season.