squad strengths/weakness and transfers

GK

lloris
archer
friedel

LB

BAE
rose
Fryers

CB

vertonghem
chirches
kaboul
velkjovic
dawson

RB

walker
naughton

Central players

sandro
paulinho
dembele
capoue
bentaleb
livermore
Holtby
Eriksen

Wide players

Lennon
Lamela
Chadli
Townsend
Sigurdson --> Hard one, played most of his games at either AM or LW and a handful of games at CM aswell so could either be classed as a central or wide players. Useful player to have around.

CF

soldado
ade
kane


We have high strength in depth of both central and wide players. RB is also relatively strong with walker aswell as naughton as backup. GK is also strong with lloris.

For me the weak positions are LB , CB and CF as well as the medical team.

For me LB Rose and BAE are both average and fryers isnt good enough at the moment. I think if we sign a deccent LB this window it will be like signing messi after rose's performances this season.

I think we also need another CB and CF. Even if we keep vertonghem , kaboul is injury prone, dawson whilst a brilliant human being is not good enough, chirches is probably verts best partner but is inconsistent and i feel we need more depthh and strength in this area.

At CF i feel if you want to be top 4 you need a striker who's going to score you 20 EPL goals. Kane is a very good prospect but wont you get that at this stage, ade is too inconsistent to score those goals for a year and soldado could either have a strong season or not show therefore we need another striker to avoid that risk.

If i had to have a 4th signing I would go with either kolonpyka or lallana who both look tasty players but for me left back, centre back and striker comes first.

Potential players available

LB --> durm ( dortmund 2nd choice), nagatomo and pereira ( both inter), sandro (porto) , ansaldi and criscito ( zenit)

CB --> N'koulou (marseille), gonalons (lyon), Dede (cruzeiro), Howedes (schakle), Ranocchia (inter), lovren

CF--> lukaku (chelsea), remy ( qpr, very cheap if they dont beat derby), bony ( swansea)

The left backs and centre backs on show would cost around 10-12 million. Bony and lukaku would cost round 20-25 million, with remy being a cheap but also deccent option especially if qpr dont get into the EPL.

We're looking at 40 -50 million in transfer fee's so obviously we're going to sell

Outs

BAE--> 2 million
ROSE --> 6 Million
Dawson ---> 5 million
Livermore --> 5 million
Capoue --> 8 million ( bad attitude, dembele and veljkovic can be back up dm's)
Sigurdson --> 8 million ( good player but 8 million will be useful funds)
ADE--> 5 million ( had a good 2nd half of the season but could cause problems for the new managers if not selected)

39 million for this lot would definitley allow us to get a new LB, CB and CF. To be honest we could probably get one of konolpyka (sorry for spelling) or lallana if we were to get a good price for lennon or townsend.

If we were to do all i suggested i believe we could bring in

durm --> 10 million
dede --> 13 million
lukaku --> 24 million
konoplynka --> 14 million

Our squad would look like this

GK

lloris
archer
youth keeper

LB

durm
fryers

CB

veljkovic
vertonghem
kaboul
chirches
dede

RB

walker
naughton

Central players

dembele
bentaleb
paulinho
sandro
holtby
eriksen

Wide players

kolonykpa
chadli
lamela
townsend/lennon

CF

soldado
kane
lukaku

im reading 8 homegrown players in a 25 man squad

First XI

lloris

walker dede vertonghem durm

sandro paulinho
eriksen

lamela lukaku kolopyka

Promising side if i do say so myself

not a bad 2nd side either

archer

naughton kaboul chirches fryers

dembele bentaleb
holtby

lennon/townsend soldado chadli

discuss