Elm Park KidNewCorkSeth I know its generally not a good thing but I am quite excited about how many youngsters have been brought on the trip.
If we presume the senior squad looks something like this:
GKs - Walker
RBs - Yiadom, Watson, Howe
CBs - Moore, Osho, McIntyre
LBs - Blackett, Obita, Richards
CMs - Rinomhota, East, Holsgrove
AMs - Meite, Barrow, Swift, Loader, Olise, Barrett
STs - Novakovich
For the moment then we might actually get by with a few, clever loans or sneaky free transfers. We only have 4 holes in the squad (only..) being GK, CB, CM and ST (yes that is literally an entire spine of a team missing but I'm trying to look on the bright side)
We are set at Right and Left back which feels weird to say considering since our last relegation we have never been set in both these positions (including back up), our attacking mids are pretty good as far as championship quality. Meite, Swift and Barrow as an attacking trio could be very dangerous at times. Loader, Olise and Barrett (if he can make the step up) all make decent back up material. Finally 2 of the positions we desperately need to fill will be partnered with 2 of our best players in Moore and Rinomhota. So its not like the entire spine needs to be built.
If we focus on those 4 key positions Gk, CB, ST and CM (in that order please) then we should be fine to use this season as a building block while steering clear of a relegation battle.
We would be extremely vulnerable to injuries though. . . . . .
If you want to stay in this league then every game you need to start with at least 8-9 players that are proven at Championship level. We have barely that number in the squad at the moment.
There is probably only a handful of clubs in the world who are not vulnerable to injury. We have to accept that we will need a little bit of luck on the injury front this season regardless of whether or not we get another 4 players in the door. The younger players I have listed above should really be pushing to get on the bench and hopefully the coaching team can get them to the point where should we suffer a couple of bad injuries they can fill in until January/end of the season.