The Squad planning thread

Fucking hell that is some sob story you're writing for one of the highest paid managers of all time who gets to spend hundreds of millions a year and carte blanche to do what he wants.

Laughable to think Pep isn't the loudest voice in the room when it comes to identifying talent and which players they are buying.

Maybe Pep is losing his touch with identifying players, doesn't want to go after the top stars because they challenge him too much, wants to nurture youth players and youngsters and players we can bring in from clubs below us because they think Pep is a god.

The club have pandered to everything Pep wants, when we were on our arse in Jan the club smashed open the bank and gave him hundreds of millions to drag ourselves into the CL. Get to the summer and spend more money and now its going tits up again we wheel out the excuses that A, B, C and D were never good enough and can't believe we didn't buy X, Y and Z.

You're living in an alternate reality if you think Viana signed Reijnders and Cherki and just dropped them off at the CFA and is forcing Pep to play them.

Last night we had posts like 'Pep is picking him to show the board how shit he is'
What sort of fucking nonsense is this.
Pep might want to think about picking a team to win a game, or inspire a squad of highly paid individuals to get off their arse and actually perform when Haaland isn't around to bail them out.

It's getting really boring to just keep spending money because Pep has lost his touch to fix the underlying problems in the team.
Still think the dreaded '115' is hanging over transfers and the club in general. We are buying substandard players now compared to the recent past. Until it's sorted what top player will want to join. I mean Top , world class not just good ones like Marmoush, Alt Nouri, Reinders etc etc
 
Still think the dreaded '115' is hanging over transfers and the club in general. We are buying substandard players now compared to the recent past. Until it's sorted what top player will want to join. I mean Top , world class not just good ones like Marmoush, Alt Nouri, Reinders etc etc
Haaland, Yaya and Aguero were world class when we bought them.
Players like DeBruyne, Kompany , Bernardo were very good players but improved so much after coming to us.
Its probably the same with some of the newer players we have now but there just seems to be so many of them while at the same time a lot of the longer serving players appear to be on the way out.
 
Still think the dreaded '115' is hanging over transfers and the club in general. We are buying substandard players now compared to the recent past. Until it's sorted what top player will want to join. I mean Top , world class not just good ones like Marmoush, Alt Nouri, Reinders etc etc
I think the 115 is certainly part of it and has definitely impacted our strategy in some ways.

But I think there has been a feeling at the club of "Pep will figure it out" for a few years now, and the concern has become more on the image of how much we spend as opposed to bringing in the right players. They have spent 3 years now trying to be cute and develop talent as opposed to buying top level world class talent. They feel very Spursy, they go for guys who have shown solid, good results and have potential but they aren't ready to immediately come in and have an impact to help us win big trophies.
 
Out:

Stones
Ake
Lewis ( eternal loan)
Bernardo
Kovacic
Bobb
Savinho
Phillips

In

Guehi
Bah
Anderson
Wharton
Semeyno
Nypan
 
Issue were spoken repeatedly in the summer....got called all sorts by the usual suspects on here (fucking laughable) .....we reap what we sow
 
Agreed on the outs

Of the ins - who of them is anywhere near the class of what we should be looking at?.....Id say none of them
WHO is ? Who of THEM you think would be able to help us or make us stronger are actually available ? and please don’t call names like Vitinha, Mendes or Barcola like some of here do. They are unattainable
 
Bluemoon hits a new low - Mason Greenwood, lord above.
We are in trouble? In what way?
Get a grip, people.
We lost and we were poor, all over the pitch. It happens, every now and then.
Two weeks ago, we were title favourites again. Now, we are shite.

We are in transition. Many of us called it and we are not going to be winning every game while it happens. We are at least a season away from competing at the very highest levels with consistency. We are capable of beating anyone, but we will lose a few too. Enjoy the journey, the pleasure and the pain.
Totally agree. Too many on here now need to sit back and realise what shite they are talking. Probably a lot of these fanny wipes were telling us to pay whatever it takes to sign Isak and Wirtz.
In my mind they can all fuck off and support whoever is flavour of the month and leave the true supporters to get behind the club as they always have.
 
Whilst I agree that Greenwood is a terrible shout and don’t want him, for me it’s not about knee-jerk reactions to a defeat, it’s more about seeing the lack of quality we have.

Our best XI on a good day is a match for anyone, but beyond that there is a huge drop off.

For me, I don’t see any evidence from numerous chances they’ve had that Savinho, Bobb or Lewis will ever be the level we need. Furthermore if we waste time waiting for them, we’ll slip further behind when someone else buys Semenyo, Vinicius, etc as Arsenal already did with Eze.

We absolutely fucked up not selling Savinho and Lewis when Spurs and Forest offered reasonable money for them. That’s their level, and we want to be better than Spurs and Forest!

The club needs to get ruthless on these passengers, and more ambitious in the transfer market.
100%
 
WHO is ? Who of THEM you think would be able to help us or make us stronger are actually available ? and please don’t call names like Vitinha, Mendes or Barcola like some of here do. They are unattainable
no one is unattainable. players will move for he right price, a different challenge etc.

thats the first point where people are going wrong - we have just recently signed the best striker in world football to a NINE year deal. We also just signed one of the most highly rated goal keepers in world football - if we can do that then why not have other such level of players?
 
Whilst I agree that Greenwood is a terrible shout and don’t want him, for me it’s not about knee-jerk reactions to a defeat, it’s more about seeing the lack of quality we have.

Our best XI on a good day is a match for anyone, but beyond that there is a huge drop off.

For me, I don’t see any evidence from numerous chances they’ve had that Savinho, Bobb or Lewis will ever be the level we need. Furthermore if we waste time waiting for them, we’ll slip further behind when someone else buys Semenyo, Vinicius, etc as Arsenal already did with Eze.

We absolutely fucked up not selling Savinho and Lewis when Spurs and Forest offered reasonable money for them. That’s their level, and we want to be better than Spurs and Forest!

The club needs to get ruthless on these passengers, and more ambitious in the transfer market.
couldnt agree more!
 
no one is unattainable. players will move for he right price, a different challenge etc.

thats the first point where people are going wrong - we have just recently signed the best striker in world football to a NINE year deal. We also just signed one of the most highly rated goal keepers in world football - if we can do that then why not have other such level of players?
Because the goalkeeper HAD TO LEAVE while Haaland didn’t come from a top 5 team. This are different circumstances
 
Can we return Reijnders and get someone else?

Our transfers and squad management has been atrocious for 3 years or so now.

Going to take another couple of years to repair the damage of complacency and terrible recruitment.
How about we play him roles more suitable to his skillsets? The fucking guy starts for the Netherlands and you're calling him shit.
 
Whilst I agree that Greenwood is a terrible shout and don’t want him, for me it’s not about knee-jerk reactions to a defeat, it’s more about seeing the lack of quality we have.

Our best XI on a good day is a match for anyone, but beyond that there is a huge drop off.

For me, I don’t see any evidence from numerous chances they’ve had that Savinho, Bobb or Lewis will ever be the level we need. Furthermore if we waste time waiting for them, we’ll slip further behind when someone else buys Semenyo, Vinicius, etc as Arsenal already did with Eze.

We absolutely fucked up not selling Savinho and Lewis when Spurs and Forest offered reasonable money for them. That’s their level, and we want to be better than Spurs and Forest!

The club needs to get ruthless on these passengers, and more ambitious in the transfer market.
100% spot on...
 
Anyone can pick two of the greatest players in our history.
Let me offer you Erling Haaland Vs Scott Sinclair.
Rayan Cherki Vs John Guidetti

This idea that we only bought genius and now plough the bottom of the furrow follows every lost point and it is ridiculous.
One of the most overexaggerated narratives I've seen. Promoted mostly by those who refuse to assign even the slightest of blame on Pep. It's all the club's fault. The players are all shit (except when they stand out for their national teams I suppose). The same club who brought in a litany of great players too many for me to be bothered listing. Players we could only dream about before this ownership group came along. Anyone raising concerns about Pep is an ingrate, but ripping the club, no problem. What a bunch of baloney!
 
Exits in the summer of 2026 are likely to be: Bernardo, Kovacic, Ake, Echeverri, Lewis, Bobb, Savinho, Trafford, Ortega.

Donnarumma
[Livramento] Dias Gvardiol O'Reilly
Rodri Nico
Cherki Foden Doku
Haaland

[New GK]
Nunes Khusanov Stones Ait-Nouri (Reis)
[Gibbs-White] [Anderson]
[Rodrygo] Reijnders Marmoush
(Marmoush)

Go out and get a decent back-up keeper, get Livramento from Newcastle in a swap with Trafford, then Gibbs-White and Andersen from Forest, then try our hand at Olise, Semenyo, or (if those fail) Rodrygo. That squad can win a title.

We should have gone all out for Gibbs-White this summer. He's tenacious, knows how to scrap and fight, knows how to play for a team looking for transitions, has played behind a big target man for 2-3 years, and he's homegrown.
Like it but why ditch Echeverri?
 
So, Bernardo, Ortega and Stones leave at end of contract. Kovacic and Ake moved on as well due to injuries/being out of favour. Those are the likely departures.

On top of that, you could see Maybe Trafford going. And one of the wingers (I'd say Bobb most likely IMO, not exactly taking chances with both hands this season). I'd say those are the possibles.

Then maybe long shot departures are Rico (Lack of playing time) and Rodri (if he opts not to renew, he'll have a year left and you'd assume we would sell in that scenario)

Obviously not all of those players will go, but hard not to see at least 5/6 exits this summer.
Where is Savinho in all of this? His best position is Left Out...
 

Don't have an account? Register now and see fewer ads!

SIGN UP
Back
Top