After our second successful season we’ve now proven the first wasn’t a fluke; improving our biggest points tally in top flight football and achieving a top ten finish. Yet it still feels like I could wake up tomorrow and expect to see that it’s all been undone again with one or two key things changing.
We’ve all been overwhelmed at the phenom that has been Bolasie this season, but with a new found confidence and freedom amongst Wilf and Punch too, we’ve had an unpredictable edge moving forward that has scared even the biggest buses that billion pound teams can park.
With the press hovering over Bolasie and linking him to anyone with more money than sense, we’ve got to wonder are we going to have another £4m paycheque on our hands for a 1 season loan to (wilfgate) Man United?
I think the problem, lies at the core of the squad, our blood runs red, blue and yellow.
We don’t have the mentality of a winning team, we expect and prepare for the worst, rather than building upwards and embracing what we seem to be capable of, which is contending for European football.
To do that we need a team of players that don’t follow the script, that can’t be watched and revised and exploited for their flaws. We need to learn to trust what we have and look at what we need to support the talent we have.
With us winning the last game of the season it catapults our total money to spend next season to £74.35m, which could realistically mean a transfer fund of around £30m – £35m to spend on fresh faces. With Pardiola at the helm too, we should be able to go into the market and confidently bid on players and actually secure them too. With talks circulating about Pardiola looking at buying in four players here’s what I think would make best use of our money.
IN:
Charlie Austin £15m – His price seemed to emerge amongst media speculation, after a great season with a directionless squad. He’s a proven goal scorer that has the aptitude to read to the game, players and pitch at a level that surpasses his years. If you combined his goal tally with ours this season, we could have been tickling the feet of a place for European Football.
Steven Caulker £7m – We we’re linked with a move for him in January, but QPR won his services it seems alluring him over with the promise of learning from their other acquisition Rio Ferdinand. He (un)fortunately had a horrible season, meaning we could possibly pick him up cheaper than we first bid and look to revitalise the season he had at Cardiff and secure a long term solution for our ageing back line.
Tom Ince £5m – A mistake we should never have let go of! Another great wide option that can float and comfortably play anywhere along the front line, he wasn’t given enough of chance under our previous management and with our exciting new confidence upfront he’d thrive and add more competition and drive to our developing wingers.
Virgil Van Dijk £5m – One of the most exciting CB’s in the SPL this season, in a settled partnership he has been a part of 11 clean sheets this season. He is part of a quicker fresher look I see us needing in a CB pairing. As much as I mentioned Austins Goal’s those clean sheets included would have perhaps put us in contention for Champions League football.
With these players coming in there does also need to be an overhaul of the players we aren’t using:
OUT:
Yaya Got-to-go: need I say more? I just hope we don’t get an option to buy as we all know how much pardiola loves a French boy. I’d personally pay for his cab fair home.
Shola Ameobi: I didn’t understand his arrival and remain confused at talks of a new contract being tabled, was undoubtedly a great player in his day, but doesn’t offer anything we don’t already have.
Fraizer Campbell: We have a younger better version of him available in Gayle, a capable player that would be better used at squad in the championship I feel, also giving use more money to spend on keeping lil Dwight too.
Jonathan Williams: Great player that we just can’t use with our current format. Barry Bannan makes for a better choice to keep and use should we play a different shape.
Chris Kettings: With the legend that is Jules staying for another year I fear that he just wouldn’t be given any minutes at all, and with us likely needing a replacement number one / two in 2016, I don’t see him being a strong enough option to keep around.
So to answer my own first question, I think we need to be starting the season talking about something better than relegation safety. There are potentially going to be 8 or 9 teams we can comfortably be better than next season. We should be looking to consolidate our top half finishes and proving ourselves as a force to be considered for European football in the next few years.
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