We again face the question this summer of how do we fund a rebuild if we dont win this league and get the ucl money. We need the money but to get it we need to win the league by beating a team who get the money by winning the last league and can fund their own signings. Maybe its better that after thid year the champions dont automatically qualify because its never us. Our recruitment basically needs to be 100% spot on and hope we get a few bargains which isnt sustainable
What we spend will largely depend on what we manage to raise from offloaded players.
People thinking we will spend around £15m like the last two summers will do well to remember that the money was raised by selling guys like Kamara, Sakala and Colak last summer and Bassey and Aribo the year before. Our net spend is tiny and we don't have a spare £15m to spend.
Players like Roofe, Jack, Balogun and possibly Lundstram leaving will free up wages but Lundstram and Balogun at least would need replacing. Roofe and Jack contribute hee haw anyway. The players we have on loan need replacing, just for numbers.
Fringe players, like Hagi, Dowell, Lammers, Davies, Wright, guys that clubs know we don't want, we'll pretty much have to take what we get.
Guys like Lawrence, Souttar, Sterling, possibly Raskin, decent squad options, we could possibly ship out for decent, if not astronomical money but then they'd need replacing and there's no guarantee we improve on quality.
What real assets do we have? Yilmaz maybe? Cantwell and Butland could probably command decent fees but it's probably this summer or never.
Tav and Goldson are on good money and going nowhere.
I'd imagine, having already committed money on Diomande, we're again looking at the bosman and loan market. I'm fine with that to be honest. Having seen some of the players we've bought in recent years, it doesn't seem to matter if you're a £1m player or a £4m player, the difference is negligible. It's a crap shoot either way. I like the idea of more loans with an option to buy.
Just to replace outgoings?
We'll have to bring in a left back. We'll have to bring in a centre back. We need a striker we can rely on. We'll need at least two, up to four wide players. That's before we get to replacing all the ones that people are demanding we ship out.
Big summer.