The Squad planning thread

ScottSinclair said:
James Trafford - homegrown GK, buy-back clause (?)
Walter Benitez - Veteran goalkeeper with CL experience for a dominant Eredivisie team playing Cruyff football, on a free out of contract.
Dean Hujsen - PL proven youngster, release clause. Looks destined to be one of the best of his generation.
Jeremie Frimpong - Club-trained, release clause (?), can play right-back and right-winger depending on system and opposition. Bundesliga winner.
Adam Wharton - Talented, homegrown, right time to take a punt on him before his price increases further with the players moving on and the added security in that position with Nico
Angel Gomes - formerly Manchester-based, homegrown(?) talented 8 done well at international level for England. Out of contract in the summer, cheap option to replace Bernardo/Gundo. Huge resale value if he doesn't stake out a spot long-term
Florian Wirtz - break the bank

How is that for a reasonable rebuild?

Assuming Ake moves on because of his injury woes (can't afford to carry both him and Stones now), Gundogan/Bernardo/KdB all leave, Grealish out looking likely. Both Ederson and Ortega leaves
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Isn’t trafford horrible with the ball? That alone would make Pep and Viana not consider him despite being homegrown and maybe the future England 1.

Huijsen is a must have in my opinion. Even though we got Reis and Khusanov he is already very good and this „ we need experience „ is overrated in my eyes. If you are good you are good enough. If just 1 or both of Stones/Ake leaves then I don’t see a problem with it.

Frimpong. I feel like he will get exposed in the PL. he looks like a system player to me who excels in the Bundesliga under a coach who prioritizes his position. He can’t beat Dumfries in the national team.

Never seen Wharton play.
Angel Gomes looks smooth. Let’s see if Viana thinks that too.
Wirtz. I wish.

we would need 4-5 players this summer while losing the same amount for the rebuild. Don’t see why it’s not possible. Especially when the 2GK + Grealish, KDB and 2 of Kovacic/ Bernardo/ Gundogan leave
 
Few people saying sign a left back l, which I'm not against but where are they playing gvardiol?
Centre half or leaving him out?

If we sign a left back, then we couldn't sign a centre half because we would have far too many then
 
117 M34 said:
Few people saying sign a left back l, which I'm not against but where are they playing gvardiol?
Centre half or leaving him out?

If we sign a left back, then we couldn't sign a centre half because we would have far too many then
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Stones & Ake will go in the summer imo.
 
richards30 said:
Stones & Ake will go in the summer imo.
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Think Ake is more likely to go than stones because he isn't injured as often.
Stones is one of the top earners at the club and can't be relied on, which every club in the PL knows.
Maybe Saudi but he doesn't strike me as the type that would like it over there.
 
117 M34 said:
Few people saying sign a left back l, which I'm not against but where are they playing gvardiol?
Centre half or leaving him out?

If we sign a left back, then we couldn't sign a centre half because we would have far too many then
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we have too many now, we can probably get away with losing 8 and signing 4. or 9/5, 10/6 etc
 
i think the outgoings are in a way as important as the incomings in the summer, we've got to discover a ruthless streak and get some players out. Gundo has triggered his second year but needs to be forced out, no renewal for Kev. Average players like nunes and Kova need to go as well. If these players still clogg up the works next year, pep might will keep choosing them over new signings.
 
The 2 biggest issues right now are

1. we need to secure CL for next season - without that people thinking the rebuild will happen at the level required are in fantasy land - the top players wont come.

2. Selling our legends - ANY amount of watery eyed nostalgia about players and extending contracts or not selling them would be HUGE mistake - out - KDB, Grealish, Gundo, Kova Walker, Stones/Ake, Bernardo - all need to be sold - the only one that for me has any type of potential question mark in those is Bernardo - he still has the physicality but he may want to leave and either way Id be happy - the rest however keeping them would be a huge mistake - they are now a hinderance to the rebuild and cant contribute at anywhere near the level required.

Replacing that list of players is the single biggest rebuild that this club (or any club) could face -replacing a player like KDB is generationally defining and thats him alone....replacing Gundo and Bernie is also nearly as hard as it gets.
Replacing Grealish is imho not to hard and we may have already done that with the likes of Mamoush, Doku and Sav all able to play on that side of the atttack.

Replaing Walker is now also huge- Khusonov looks like a bargain but for me he is a centre half....and a very good one - yes he can fill in at fullback and do a decent job but we need a specialist.

What we need is physicality but also techincal aility in the middle of midfield...Nico brings that and even against Madrid last night it was evident that he can hold his own...he was done a few times but that was down to him being on his own in there

Wirtz is the one for me to replace KDB but him alone doesnt cut it....

How do you replace peak Walker, Bernardo and Gundo -that is huge

I think we maybe in for a few seasons of fighting for any type of similar success as we would have to replace those names players with equal quality - that doesnt happen with CL football and even with it is a monumental task
 
K-Bo said:
i think the outgoings are in a way as important as the incomings in the summer, we've got to discover a ruthless streak and get some players out. Gundo has triggered his second year but needs to be forced out, no renewal for Kev. Average players like nunes and Kova need to go as well. If these players still clogg up the works next year, pep might will keep choosing them over new signings.
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Honestly I don't mind Gundo staying. I can't imagine he's been promised game time so let him hang around. He's the captain of our treble winning team and that must mean something in the dressing room. I agree on cleaning up around Nunes and Kovacic.
It's got to be quite difficult as you'd imagine we want to keep strong personalities in the dressing room that are fully vetted with Pep's ideologies. Enter Kimmich I guess?
 
strudelslol said:
Honestly I don't mind Gundo staying. I can't imagine he's been promised game time so let him hang around. He's the captain of our treble winning team and that must mean something in the dressing room. I agree on cleaning up around Nunes and Kovacic.
It's got to be quite difficult as you'd imagine we want to keep strong personalities in the dressing room that are fully vetted with Pep's ideologies. Enter Kimmich I guess?
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Yeah its not easy, but honestly I think one of the main reasons for the current situation is the coddling of pep by the club. letting him have a smaller squad with an increased fixture list, not doing a summer rebuild because pep asked them not to, letting players hang around past sell by dates because they are pep's favourites.

I think the board can't be afraid of pep's shadow. He's not a DOF and I think the squad needs refreshing and Pep needs to relax and be more open minded about younger and newer players. If he refuses or is difficult about it, we should replace him.
 
strudelslol said:
Honestly I don't mind Gundo staying. I can't imagine he's been promised game time so let him hang around. He's the captain of our treble winning team and that must mean something in the dressing room. I agree on cleaning up around Nunes and Kovacic.
It's got to be quite difficult as you'd imagine we want to keep strong personalities in the dressing room that are fully vetted with Pep's ideologies. Enter Kimmich I guess?
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This here is the problem.

Why keep a player regardless of what he has achieved in the past when it is blatantly clear he cant perform ANYWHERE NEAR the level required. We need replacements with the same mentality and some actual physical ability on the pitch..we achieve nothing by having Gundo hanging around (unless you are talking about some off the field ambassadors role)
 
simon23 said:
This here is the problem.

Why keep a player regardless of what he has achieved in the past when it is blatantly clear he cant perform ANYWHERE NEAR the level required. We need replacements with the same mentality and some actual physical ability on the pitch..we achieve nothing by having Gundo hanging around (unless you are talking about some off the field ambassadors role)
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I mean Scott Carson kind of kills that theory for you if I'm honest.
You can't clean everyone out entirely. The new guys need to learn from players within the team and based off who people are saying to clear out (KDB, Kova, Nunes, Grealish, Stones, Gundo, Walker, Aké, Bernardo and Phillips) who is actually left to teach the new players? Coaches only do so much. Retaining a player with next to no expectations in game time, 1 year left on his deal and has been along side Pep for all but 1 year of his tenure at the club feels pretty sensible, especially if you consider him moving into a coaching position.
 
simon23 said:
This here is the problem.

Why keep a player regardless of what he has achieved in the past when it is blatantly clear he cant perform ANYWHERE NEAR the level required. We need replacements with the same mentality and some actual physical ability on the pitch..we achieve nothing by having Gundo hanging around (unless you are talking about some off the field ambassadors role)
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If he stays around as a coach or player coach but only sniffs the bench as the 20th+ option wouldn't be a bad thing at all
 
Stones body gone
Nath I'd keep great attitude however body breaks down
Dias either he goes or Pep's high line, again always injured
Kev gone bet Madrid wont pick him up
Gundo gone bet Madrid wont pick him up
Walker has gone
Silva just not the level we need anymore again where will he go
Doku headless chicken and always injured
Nunes bad buy
Phillips bad buy
Perrone already said he wants away
Kova sold by Madrid in his mid 20's
Jack surely will move on if someone pays his wage
Keepers need 2 by the look of things

Yes I've given my head a wobble and added Phil to it for the right price
 
I think with some of the injured players they have been continuously rushed back and play a lot of minutes.

In recent years we've had the euros after the season, this year we will have the club World Cup. Its never ending and we need to mange it better. I think Stones is worse than Ake in terms of injuries but they are both class when they play. Akanji hasn't really missed that much and is a case of playing so many minutes because of the others. All 3 stay in my opinion and next season may be Stones last as will be his last year on his contract.
 
I think if Viana actually gets players in before some move then it would easier to move the players since they would realize that they are falling way the pecking order.. if we wait for players to leave then it’s gonna be a wasted summer. Lille has 3 interesting players alone with Gomes, David and Chevalier who is PSG bound already I heard.
 
Theres simply too much rebuilding to be done to be back challenging anytime soon, and pep will be gone (contract expries) by the time we have our squad in good shape
 
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