His celebration today certainly looked like a goodbye.
With him being added to the squad, Bobb on the verge of returning, kdb hopefully being available more, mcatee desperate for minutes he isn't getting, Nunes wanting more game time then the likes of haaland, foden, doku, grealish and savinho. Peps got a lot of people to keep happy for just what is 4 positions. There's going to be several unhappy forward players come the summer, and a lot of tired defensive ones.
Realisticallly the unhappy players from that list are going to be McAtee, Grealish and Nunes. Seems pretty clear that they are going to have to leave in the near future. Plus, KDB is obviously leaving too.
Bobb and Savinho are competing for RW,
Doku and Grealish are temporarily competing for LW, with Grealish on the chopping block in the summer and ideally a new left winger signed that allows Doku to be a rotation player.
KDB to compete with Foden and Marmoush in the short term, before leaving in the summer and a creative midfielder being signed (maybe someone like Baena)
I think that pretty much sums up the plan of action in the forward areas.
To complete the rebuild, Grealish, KDB and Nunes HAVE to leave imo. McAtee is one that we’d love to keep longer but it just seems unrealistic to expect it.
With those departures, a big-hitter left winger and creative midfielder both to join in the summer.
Then for the 4 positions we’d have this:
ST: Haaland & Marmoush
LW: New signing & Doku
RW: Bobb & Savinho
Attacking midfielder: Foden & New signing
Bearing in mind that most of these players are versatile, it is perfect and full of youth.