Vitor Reis | £29.4m deal agreed (p43)

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I know he’s made of glass, but losing stones means losing an experience leader, who’s hugely popular with pep and the squad. On his day he’s world class and can play midfield as well. I’d keep him
Stones is useless to us in the treatment room. It's on the pitch we need him, which is becoming increasingly rare for the 30 year old.

It's time to put sentiment aside & look to the future. This is the most miserable season we've had to endure since Pellegrini, & things need to change.
 
Stones is useless to us in the treatment room. It's on the pitch we need him, which is becoming increasingly rare for the 30 year old.

It's time to put sentiment aside & look to the future. This is the most miserable season we've had to endure since Pellegrini, & things need to change.
Yep, I love John Stones, but since he's joined us, here's how many league games he's managed per season: 27, 18, 24, 16, 22, 14, 23, 16, and 8 so far this season. Those are Ledley King numbers.
 
Yep, I love John Stones, but since he's joined us, here's how many league games he's managed per season: 27, 18, 24, 16, 22, 14, 23, 16, and 8 so far this season. Those are Ledley King numbers.
That's why it pains me to repeatedly see Stones drawing his decrepit body to England duty every time he gets the call. His injury situation will only degrade further with his advancing age.

It's time we began preparing for life beyond Stones, Walker, KDB, Bernardo, Kovacic, Aké & Gundog, & brought in serious competition & cover for Rodri.

The situations regarding Nunes & Jack also need urgent attention. That's over a third of the outfield squad with serious question marks over their immediate futures, & we have little to fall back on without them.

How/why have we allowed this situation to develop?
 
That’s where those 2 younger CB come into play and Marmoush. Next step is the midfield. Those players will be easily replaced during the next 4 windows in my opinion. If Jack leaves that gives room to someone like Baéna in summer who should also be KDB‘s replacement at the same time. Honestly I’d like to see someone like Livramento too. If everything goes well Gundo and Kovacic can/ will be replaced by Wright& O‘Reilly but that’s hard to tell.
 
That's why it pains me to repeatedly see Stones drawing his decrepit body to England duty every time he gets the call. His injury situation will only degrade further with his advancing age.

It's time we began preparing for life beyond Stones, Walker, KDB, Bernardo, Kovacic, Aké & Gundog, & brought in serious competition & cover for Rodri.

The situations regarding Nunes & Jack also need urgent attention. That's over a third of the outfield squad with serious question marks over their immediate futures, & we have little to fall back on without them.

How/why have we allowed this situation to develop?
Well yeah, Ake hasn't been much better.

10, 14, 26, 29 and 8 so far this season. At least he's got better every season, but we've had awful luck with injuries at CB. Ake had an injury the season before we bought him, and I remember a few people being a bit worried. But the two seasons before that, he played every game, so he was hardly a crock until he came to us.
 
Well yeah, Ake hasn't been much better.

10, 14, 26, 29 and 8 so far this season. At least he's got better every season, but we've had awful luck with injuries at CB. Ake had an injury the season before we bought him, and I remember a few people being a bit worried. But the two seasons before that, he played every game, so he was hardly a crock until he came to us.
I think it's the product of having a small elite squad playing 60+ games per season. We've rinsed them like an F1 car which has shortened their career spans.

We should've either expanded the squad or put the succession planning in place way before now. We've had the best of all of them. They've all played at the highest level, & reaped the rewards on & off pitch, but we've hammered them.

Pep has lessons to learn from this season. As I said, we either have a larger squad, or we plan to replace players from when they hit 30 years old, if injuries start to pile up & their physicality slips below a certain level.
 
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