by Chameleon »
25 Apr 2019 02:01
Selling Moore would be an utter white flag as to any ambitions to be anything other than bottom feeders, and even if we get £7m for him then we'd probably spend 2/3rds of that on replacements and still not find someone as good, and that's all before you factor in that he brings a lot aside from his footballing ability. Plus we'd probably lose £1m+ in ticket sales from supporters not wanting to see the white flag team in action.
I think that we have a real chance of keeping Martinez, he reportedly forced his way out for a loan, and has a family all started in London. Assuming that he actually wants to play (very high), if we're somewhat financially competitive (more dubious) I reckon that he'll stay. We'll be able to offer him guaranteed first team football though, something which Prem sides won't be able to do.
A
Obita - Miazga - Moore - Yiadom
Martinez
back 5 is good enough to get promoted.
Up front an inform Meite, Oliveira, Loader +1 is in and around the top 6, then there's only really the midfield to fix up.
The savings can come from our massively bloated first team squad, which I think quite a few people have lost track of. O'Shea, McShane, Baldock, Jaakola, Mannone, VdBerg, Meyler, Aluko, Popa, Gravenberch, McNulty, Nova (stay if cheap), Kelly(?) should all go in the summer, to China if needed.
That's a massive amount of wages off of the books and still leaves us with:
Walker, Ward, Legg
Moore, Yiadom, Gunter, Obita, Blackett, Richards, McIntyre, Holmes, Osho
Barrow, Swift, Rinomohta, McCleary, Harriott, Barrett, East, Olise
Meite, Bod, Loader, Smith
We're clearly a bit thin, perhaps one player in each department. Add in Martinez, Miazga, Baker, Oliveira, and another mid (Eza/Eja) and that looks like a complete squad that can compete in the top half of the table. Baker/Eja would be relatively cheap loans, Miazga we could get back with an option to buy (as Nantes had), Oliveira and Martinez would be the expensive ones, but with the large amount of the wage bill cleared by the 13 a few paragraphs above, increased ticket sales from performing well, would certainly make Martinez/Oli doable. And best of all, we already know that those players would work within the squad and system, so no money chucked away on players that show little sign of working out.