Who’s gone in the summer?

SanPellegrini said:
Out:

Garcia
Mendy
Zinchenko
Fernandinho (and a statue to follow!)

In:

Messi / Haaland (one of the two)
Aouar
Danny Rose
2 x young players who we’ve never heard of (think Ferran)
3 x players who end up on permaloans
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Danny Rose as in the Danny Rose who plays for Spurs?
 
FantasyIreland said:
Which players?
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Of those you listed: Zinchenko, Mahrez, Gundogan, Sterling, and Mendy. I assume Aguero and Fernandinho will leave anyway, but I'd be prepared to give Bernardo one more season to see if he can recapture consistent form and make a position his own. Sterling would be controversial given his age and nationality, but I just wonder if we may not have seen his best already.

We need much higher quality in midfield and attack or risk seeing de Bruyne, our only truly world-class talent (assuming Aguero leaves) stagnate.
 
Out:

Aguero
Mahrez
Zinchenko
Mendy
Fernandinho
Garcia

In:

Messi
Harry Kane
Digne
Angelino (back)
 
There’s players we could definitely move because either (based on reports) we have buyouts agreed and then there’s those out of contract.

So they’d be:
Angelino
Harrison
Fernandinho
Aguero.

I think the top three go and probably bring in around £25m and free up 1 squad space. If Aguero can get fit he’ll definitely stay for at least another season.

Then you’d look at Garcia getting sold for £10m or so. So we’d have about £35m but still only one free squad space

After that Zinchenko looks an obvious choice given he’s hardly going to play unless we have big injury problems. In a covid market we’re probably getting around £15-20m.

The rest of our first team squad look difficult to shift without an actual buyer lined up and we may have to do loan deals. For me, based on form thus far, I’d look to move out in order, Mendy, Mahrez and Rodri to cumulatively create up to 5 new births.

So all up, probably with other CFG sales (like Herrera at Granada) and possibly some of the fringe kids we might get another £10-15m, giving us sales of somewhere between £50-75m.

So outs:
Angelino
Harrison
Fernandinho
Zinchenko
Mendy
Mahrez
Rodri
+CFG and academy fringe

In:
At least one proper, top quality left back
2 central midfield players
1 top quality central striker
1 top quality winger (optional)

All of the incoming players have to be good enough to be in our best 11. No depth signings.
 
If money and availability weren't a barrier?

IN:
Erling Haaland
Lionel Messi
Eduardo Camavinga
Alphonso Davies
David Alaba

OUT:
Riyad Mahrez/Sergio Agüero (if he wants to leave)
Fernandinho
Oleksandr Zinchenko
Benjamin Mendy
Eric García
 
We just need Haaland and a skilful, direct winger with extreme pace.

Get rid of Garcia and Zinchenko.

That would be the only business I think we need.
 
Semper aggressus said:
We just need Haaland and a skilful, direct winger with extreme pace.

Get rid of Garcia and Zinchenko.
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After departure of Fernandinho we will end up with 3 proper midfielders.
I don't count Foden and Bernardo as proper MF because former doesn't give us enough control and retention of the ball and latter is not creative enough.

We should sign Ferna and David replacements.
 
Should get a fair amount of cash in from Zinchenko, Garcia, Braaf, Angelino, Harrison, Herrera etc. I don’t think you can fix all the issues in one window but a Striker and a Fern replacement are most needed. Haaland and Zakaria seem to be the most heavily linked. Think we may also bring in a left back.
 
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I think the squad's in much better shape than we realise.

The only concerns for me are LB and striker.

If Aguero can rebuild fitness and prove himself not to be an injury concern then the striker situation may be fine. I'd only move for Haaland if it was a now or never sort of thing. I'm not convinced any other striker out there that'd be attainable would be enough to be considered an immediate upgrade on the pair we have. If Aguero can't be trusted fitness wise then the club should act promptly into having at the very least a backup striker.

I don't know what Pep's long term goals are with LB. He might still be hopeful with Mendy. He may be entirely satisfied with Cancelo and he may have big plans with Aké. But if there's any uncertainty it'd be welcome for us to sign someone, finally.

Other than that I don't think the squad needs much upgrading. I think Gundogan and Rodri are both far better than people give them credit for, and everywhere else unmentioned is fine too.

We'll assumedly need a Fernandinho replacement. We're not going to get a like for like; you can't just pick out some athletic midfielder with decent skills and workrate and say he'll do the trick. There's noone out there that can replace Silva still, but I wonder if Gundogan is being groomed for the role? That'd make me think that the Fernandinho replacement would be someone who could be like a younger, deeper lying Gundogan.

(Speculation) Then it's just replacing surplus players with fresher alternatives, even if they aren't strictly upgrades. There's nobody I specifically want to replace, but if I had to guess, I'd say Zinchenko is the closest to the chopping block. Mendy possibly too, but I genuinely think had Pep wanted him gone he'd have been gone long ago so I'm unsure. I feel one of Mahrez or especially Bernardo could be in danger. The problem you have is that Mahrez is productive but isn't exactly the right fit, and Bernardo fits the team well but is too unproductive. Carson may hang up his boots but we'd just bring in a similar replacement in all likelihood, and I have no clue what Pep thinks of Steffen.
 
I think we need more selling than buying tbh, we have too many "squad players", players who are useful to the team, but should not be starting in a team like ours. I think academy players should start filling that role now. The money would also be useful for 80-100 mil players who can compete for the first team spot over 50-60 mil backups.
 
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