The Squad planning thread

[Middedon]

How many "world class" players have moved in world football in that time though?

For the last 2 years how many would you actually want - for me definitely Kvara maybe Wirtz, Osimhen. (Knowing Mbappe wasn't a normal signing)

I agree, I just think there are potentially fewer world class players out there. And the ones that are, aren’t moving or they have a clear destination in mind.

Plus, I think this forum generally considers Khusanov to be the best buy since Halaand. And when we bought him, he was definitely not considered world class.

 

[NQCitizen]

I agree, I just think there are potentially fewer world class players out there. And the ones that are, aren’t moving or they haven’t a clear destination in mind.

Plus, I think this forum generally considers Khusanov to be the best buy since Halaand. And when we bought him, he was definitely not considered world class.

Most of our great players in the last decade have come from that second tier of clubs (just below CL winners) like Dortmund, Atletico, Valencia, Benfica (tons!), Villareal, Porto, Everton, Villa.

We buy B+ players and make them A+ players.

I think the signings we made lately fit the pattern pretty well.

We've never gone out and got a world class star name from a truly elite club, ironically the closest we have come is Donnarumma.

 

[Paul1970]

I'd agree with most, if not all of this except I'd be selling Doku.

Do not understand the fascination with him, it's his third season and he has 7 total league goals. Folk laugh at Saka but wank Doku off

I agree mate . Not a patch on sane or sterling

 

[Paul1970]

Szbos would be so sick to have as a Bernardo replacement. He just scored another free kick against a Big 6 side

Should have signed him at red bull

 

[Quinny851]

How many "world class" players have moved in world football in that time though?

For the last 2 years how many would you actually want - for me definitely Kvara maybe Wirtz, Osimhen. (Knowing Mbappe wasn't a normal signing)

I don't think it's necessarily about not signing world class players. The signings we've made simply aren't anywhere near the same level as players who have left.

 

[Doc_Testosterone]

Considering Chelsea have been hit by a suspended transfer window ban, we may end up with a full ban for a season once the charges are settled.

Would leave us with having to re-roll our current team for next season. Maybe it would prevent us from getting some other car crash players.

 

[WRicko]

I carnt tell how good or bad we or what’s wrong we have so many good games and loose and more bad games than usual but we are still doing well compared to most and the players should be good enough and improve

 

[Gumzy97]

I think we are going for Dembele at PSG.

 

[richards30]

I think we are going for Dembele at PSG.

Cant see it personally mate, 28 years old and with his injury past it just doesnt fit with our model now?

 

[richards30]

I carnt tell how good or bad we or what’s wrong we have so many good games and loose and more bad games than usual but we are still doing well compared to most and the players should be good enough and improve

Yeah i agree mate, £400m plus spent and we have no identity currently or seemingly settled plan?

 

[Gumzy97]

Cant see it personally mate, 28 years old and with his injury past it just doesnt fit with our model now?

I do agree but I did see a article a couple weeks ago that said Hugo Viana has always wanted to be able to sign world class players. Sporting couldn't do that, but here we could, would explain the Donnarumma signing.

 

[richards30]

I do agree but I did see a article a couple weeks ago that said Hugo Viana has always wanted to be able to sign world class players. Sporting couldn't do that, but here we could, would explain the Donnarumma signing.

I cant help thinking that it was a chat about Cherki and his role going forward to be honest.

 

[Gumzy97]

I cant help thinking that it was a chat about Cherki and his role going forward to be honest.

Could be , but also think we want to have a relationship with Moussa Sissoko, as he's the big up and coming agent right now the amount of talent he's got under his agency is quite incredible.

 

[richards30]

Could be , but also think we want to have a relationship with Moussa Sissoko, as he's the big up and coming agent right now the amount of talent he's got under his agency is quite incredible.

Yeah possibly mate, the likes of Doue etc though are just unattainable and i think Viana has a real problem getting the world class players due to the prices now unless they have a year left or clubs with FFP/PSR issues?

 

[Matt.D]

We are a fair bit away in terms of top class players for the starting 11 needed. We are a minimum of:

Top Right back, 2 top central midfielders (3 if
Rodri leaves) and a winger with the X-factor I.e goals, creativity, assists and pace away from challenging at the very top. You’re talking hundreds of million for what we need.

Bernardo will go on a free and Rodri first started flirting with Madrid before his injury and recent comments hint he’s off too imo.

We have spent hundreds of millions and imo are not much better than we were before it. Some players we have bought for fairly big money as part of the so called rebuild are simply nowhere near the level needed to be a first team player for us e.g Gonzalez & Reijnders. Savinho isn’t good enough full stop. Some seem to have convinced themselves Nunes is good enough as a starting right back, whilst he’s worthy of a squad place he is just not good enough to start at the level we want to be at. Marmoush is a problem in that we just can’t fit him and Haaland into a system that works and therefore hasn’t improved the first 11. Semenyo has brought fair amount of goals and is a good squad addition but doesn’t do anything creatively and imo has looked clumsy in both games vs Madrid, so not convinced he strengthens a Pep team first 11 that is already struggling to create and already has Haaland who ‘only’ contributes goals. I think we have a Phil Foden problem too as on form he’s world clsss but it’s been 2 years now and he’s not even showing signs he can get back to the player he was before his POTY season.

Arguably our best player this season has been Doku and he’s not got enough goals or assists in him to start for an elite level side either. Debatable whether he gets on the bench in peps 2 great sides here. That’s how far we’ve fallen.

For me it’s time for Pep to decide to extend again to oversee everything or go. If he’s only around a max of another 1 season then let the new man come in and continue the rebuild as next season will be another transition one and there’s no point it being Pep if he’s then leaving next summer.

 

[bluethai]

Last night showed that Cherki, Doku, and Khusanov have the spirit to keep fighting until the end in tough moments, which should be the standard at this club, so the new squad should be built around them as the core.

 

[richards30]

Last night showed that Cherki, Doku, and Khusanov have the spirit to keep fighting until the end in tough moments, which should be the standard at this club, so the new squad should be built around them as the core.

Gvardiol as well.

 

[richards30]

in:

Fresneda
Anderson
Tonali
Nico Williams

Out:

Stones
Ake
Phillips
Kovacic
Bernardo
Grealish
Marmoush

 

[youngbob]

I made quite a detailed post in a thread last night that seems to have been deleted (the "four in a row curse" thread), so I'll repeat what I can remember here. It's probably more appropriate for this thread anyway.

Since we started winning things from the 2010/11 season, we've experienced FOUR mini cycles and TWO major cycles (imo). These cycles occasionally overlap and coincide at the same time and right now we're beginning our FIFTH mini cycle at the same time as our THIRD major cycle. The last time we had to deal with a mini cycle and a major cycle both beginning at the same time was during the last phase of Pellegrini's tenure and the beginning of Pep's

------

1st MAJOR cycle: 2009-2016. Spine: Hart Kompany Yaya D.Silva Aguero
2nd MAJOR cycle: 2016-2025: Spine: Ederson Dias Rodri DeBruyne Haaland
3rd MAJOR cycle: 2025-???? Spine: Donnarumma Gvardiol Anderson(?) Cherki Haaland?

1st mini cycle: 2009 - 2013. Mancini's team (1x PL title, 1x FA Cup) [5th, 3rd, 1st, 2nd]
Hart; Zabaleta Kompany Lescott Kolarov; Yaya Barry D.Silva Nasri; Aguero Tevez

2nd mini cycle: 2013 - 2016. Pellegrini's team. (1x PL title, 2x League Cups) [1st, 2nd, 4th]
Hart; Zabaleta Kompany Demichelis Kolarov; Yaya Fernandinho D.Silva Navas Nasri; Aguero

3rd mini cycle: 2016 - 2020. Pep's Centurions/Fourmidables. (2x PL title, 1x FA Cup, 3x League Cups) [3rd, 1st, 1st, 2nd]
Ederson; Walker Stones Otamendi Laporte; Fernandinho D.Silva DeBruyne; Sterling Aguero Sané

4th mini cycle: 2020 - 2025. Pep's treble/4-peat winners. (4x PL titles, 1x FA Cup, 1x League Cup, 1x European Cup) [1st, 1st, 1st, 1st, 3rd]
Ederson; Walker Dias Gvardiol Ake; Rodri DeBruyne Gundogan; Bernardo Grealish Haaland

5th mini cycle: 2025 - 2030? The post-Pep years/Pep's third cycle? ...

Who knows.

 

[Middedon]

Most of our great players in the last decade have come from that second tier of clubs (just below CL winners) like Dortmund, Atletico, Valencia, Benfica (tons!), Villareal, Porto, Everton, Villa.

We buy B+ players and make them A+ players.

I think the signings we made lately fit the pattern pretty well.

We've never gone out and got a world class star name from a truly elite club, ironically the closest we have come is Donnarumma.

I agree with this too. I think, Both that there aren’t enough world class players and that we make them world class players after they’re here for a couple of years. I generally think our recruiting has been fine - lots of potential. I think the two issues are we shouldn’t have gotten into a position where we needed to replace a lot of top players at once and I think we haven’t concentrated on midfield enough.