That's it, basically. One, ideally two strong midfielders; one solid central defender (the rest can learn around him). The strikers will be fine once reliable supply lines are established and we can stop hoofing it forward.
I don’t think we need a centre half. I’d go with 2 centre mids 2 forwards a left back and a winger alongside a loanee with experience in any position. All need to be first team ready plug in and play not diamonds to polish.
We need someone like Butterballs now playing at the pigsty a goalscoring midfielder and a ball attacking brick shut house of a centre forward.
We only have one striker with any experience. Centre half is probably the one area we aren't short. We are painfully toothless up top. I'm not sure what you have seen to think the strikers would be fine?
Ulloa from Leicester Nugent from Derby James Wilson from Manchester United Dominic Solanke from Liverpool Lys Mousset from Bournemouth Danny ings from Liverpool Ashley Fletcher from Middlesbrough Ideally any of those strikers would be great for us... obviously if we can afford their wages
No they won’t. This strategy would in my opinion almost certainly get us relegated. We’ve got 4 decent centre backs. We need at least one striker & a central midfielder first & foremost & probably another winger if the rumours about Barnes are true. The big issue is a lack of quality in the final third
We aren't going to do anything crazy. I know that because it is the message that I heard repeated time and time again during the press conference. So what wouldn't be crazy. Well, we could do nothing. If we do that, we will be relegated. If we are relegated, we will go down with a team that is ready to challenge for promotion, less the expensive loan players, who will return to their club. I also presume that we will do so with our pile of cash in tact, though that is by no means certain following the acquisition by new owners. The fans will suffer a season of trauma, followed by a season of hope. Going down might represent our best chance of building a team on sound foundations. We could do the minimum. We could sign a big man who fits in with THE PLAN to increase our forward options. This would allow Hecky to continue playing the defensive shield in front of the back four and may give us a bigger share of the long ball hit in the general direction of the front two. It would give us a better chance of survival, but there are no guarantees and we may still go down. If more cash was not made available during the summer, both for more new signings and to subsidise the wages budget , then survival this season would inevitably lead to future seasons of struggle and inevitable relegation at the end of some future season, but with a smaller pile of cash. We could do what Hecky wants. We could bring in 4 players. The question the new owners will inevitably be asking themselves is, if we invest a considerable sum of money, and we subsidise wages budgets to a greater degree, will that give us a team that will challenge for promotion to the Premier League. I would suggest not. With an investment of £10m and a wages budget guaranteeing a £5m loss per season, we still have 7 weak links in our squad. There is no doubt that we will do better, but will we do well enough to be any better than an "also ran" in our division, and does that represent a wise investment for a group of investors who will no doubt concentrate on return on investment. I am not even going to consider the final option, which is to invest massively and chase a chance of glory and big bucks.
So, knowing all this (Im assuming we havent been bought by the only billionaires in the world who are stupid) - why did they buy us?
Two huge assumptions in there; 1. That the loan players we have are expensive 2. That we have a squad up to challenging for promotion from L1
Not necessarily experienced... but definitely better players needed, same age, older or even younger... don't care,
Got to be talent over experience. Plus we'd be better loaning if possible rather than buying in. And finally it's up front we're deficient in terms of options. It's all about scoring. A creative midfielder would be wonderful too.
And that we would be able to afford to retain our better players. Last time we had to clear everyone out.
Pretty much agree with that list as the bare essential, whilst knowing we'll get nowt like it and if we did it'd probably have cost us as much if not more than keeping what we already had......................spreadsheet-o--nomic!