Stay or Go?

[Wilf Wolf]

Pretty much the whole squad is unbalanced.

We don't have anyone who would say playing RCB is their best position. We then have 3 LCB's, two of which can only play there and moving them elsewhere is a car crash. We then have to move our best centre back to the right, as we have done for most of the last 12 months, or risk a disasterclass from Saiss or Kilman. It is staggering that we're still in a position where we've not upgraded on Bennett, but have then have double downed on it by throwing our defensive balance to compensate for it.

We have three senior central midfielders who can't beat a man going forward and are now also prone to being run over going the other way. I have no problem with one of them not being the most mobile, but they need balancing out. Neves is the one we should be building around given his age and ability, but he needs legs next to him and I fear he'll be nabbed this summer in any case. Someone like Bissouma who can help nick the ball in the middle of the park and then have the ability to drive forward would be ideal. Donck has been fucking woeful all season, but I'd be minded to give him the benefit of the doubt with a summer out. We'd be looking at taking a loss on him if we were to move him on which is a far cry from the £25m rumours last summer.

It is clear as day that Nuno has no trust in Vitinha or MGW. Morgan needs to move and settle somewhere for the sake of his career and I'd probably not bother taking the option on Vitinha if we're supposedly going to be short on funds, unless Ruben does move on.

I'm still at a loss as to what Podence is supposed to be. He's far too easily bullied out of it before you even factor in his inability to keep the ball. Combine the two and you have the complete opposite of a modern day forward player at this level. Like Donck, I don't see how we have any option other than to give him the benefit of the doubt though. Couple that with Adama likely to depart and Neto out long-term, he is currently looking like the only real option for August that we currently have on the books. Great stuff.

Jose can get in the sea. I'm not comfortable going into next season with just Raul and Fabio given their respective circumstances, but we're then most likely to back into playing Sagbo roulette as I cannot see us spending big money on another striker when we already have £70m worth in the squad.

All things considered, I'd expect something along the lines of the following:

Patricio, Ruddy

Semedo, Hoever, Ait-Nouri, Jonny

Boly, Coady, Saiss, Marcal, NEW

Neves/Vitinha, NEW, Moutinho, Dendoncker, Otasowie

Neto, Podence, Guedes (inevitable)

Raul, NEW, Fabio

That's a pretty depressing read but hard to disagree.

I'm hoping a couple of signings will have a beneficial impact on existing players - it has worked for West ham and Villa. A dominant CB is an absolute must and more quality in midfield is only a smidgeon behind.

 

[Deutsch Wolf]

At least the last window or two have now universally been called out for how poor they were, which is what some of us were told to get back in our boxes for questioning at the time!

To be fair, a lot of the stuff around windows tends to be people moaning that we haven't signed X number of players inside the first week or so, which never happens for anyone.

Don't ask me why football clubs play weird brinkmanship all the time, but they do. Yet you get the same stuff every year with people seemingly surprised that it happens. If we haven't signed anyone by mid-June (barring RAN/Vitinha becoming permanently ours), there'll be complaints. I don't think we will have signed anyone by then.

 

[Norman Deeley]

To be fair, a lot of the stuff around windows tends to be people moaning that we haven't signed X number of players inside the first week or so, which never happens for anyone.

Don't ask me why football clubs play weird brinkmanship all the time, but they do. Yet you get the same stuff every year with people seemingly surprised that it happens. If we haven't signed anyone by mid-June (barring RAN/Vitinha becoming permanently ours), there'll be complaints. I don't think we will have signed anyone by then.

Usually get to about page 105 of the Summer Window thread before we sign anyone. Anyway, shouldn't you be on the way to Reading to scout Olise?

 

[Deutsch Wolf]

I actually think it's fairly slim pickings from the Champo this year. Brentford will sell if they don't go up because they always do, but they also always get in the kind of dollar we won't spend on players of that profile. Bournemouth only have players we didn't want this time last year. Not much I'd have from Swansea or Barnsley. Two teams that are more than the sum of their parts.

Olise is one for sure, Chair at QPR too perhaps, but there's not much else. Nathan Collins at Stoke is good, maybe we could send them three of our leper squad because they love an ex-Wolves player.

I've recommended Konsa, Eze and Cash in the last couple of years. Let's forget the ones I've got horribly wrong because no-one ever talks about David Bowie and then starts discussing Tin Machine. Eze is the biggest miss for me, wasn't expensive, was obviously leaving and would have been ideal for us.

I'd have Andersen and at a push Lookman from Fulham's loanees, their permanent players are shite. No Albion or Sheff Utd players, ta.

 

[YoungWolf]

I'd like us to go for Olise. Wouldn't cost all that much either. Agree Eze was one we really should have been in for, especially with our issues of breaking teams down at the time.

Much rather have Semedo than Cash though.

Would love Lookman. Definitely have Andersen too

 

[Deutsch Wolf]

I don't think Cash has been brilliant for Villa (wasn't hard to upgrade on what they had there before) but he's a steady player. Pound for pound he has definitely been a better signing than Semedo. If they moved him on they are more or less guaranteed to turn a profit, if we sold Nelson this summer we'd be as good as nailed on to make a loss, even if it were a small one.

Lookman is a bit Adama for me, a better footballer than our current man but a similar lack of actual product. I know it's fun watching players piss past opponents but if it ends up in a goal kick to them, I'm not sure I care that much.

Actually Yokuslu is a good player for Albion but we really do not need another DM.

 

[YoungWolf]

Yeah, I get the financial part (not sure anyone would be wanting to buy Cash though, this is about his ceiling) - I just know which I'd rather have.

Think Lookman's movement is better than Traore's (not hard I know) but he also looks to get to goal rather than get to line and cross, which I think would improve us anyway.

 

[Deutsch Wolf]

Cash cost £16m. Semedo cost £27m.

That £11m saving gets you a long way towards paying for Eze who cost around £17m.

I would rather have Cash and Eze than Semedo on his own.

 

[YoungWolf]

It isn't money that stopped us signing Eze though, is it? If we had really wanted him, we would have signed him.

 

[Deutsch Wolf]

Just looked up Lookman's stats (of course, there'll be a lot of sub appearances in here, but it's not my problem if he can't get in the team). They aren't pretty:

2015/16 - Charlton (CH) - 24 (5)
2016/17 - Charlton (L1) - 21 (5)
2016/17 - Everton (PL) - 8 (1)
2017/18 - Everton (PL) - 7 (1)
2017-18 - RB Leipzig (BL) - 11 (5)
2018/19 - Everton (PL) - 21 (0)
2019/20 - RB Leipzig (BL) - 11 (0)
2020/21 - Fulham (PL) - 29 (4)

I doubt Leipzig would loan him out again (why would they) and I'm not comfortable handing them £15-20m for that.

 

[YoungWolf]

I doubt Leipzig would loan him out again (why would they) and I'm not comfortable handing them £15-20m for that.

I think he would cost amore than that as well anyway so is very unlikely regardless

 

[Deutsch Wolf]

It isn't money that stopped us signing Eze though, is it? If we had really wanted him, we would have signed him.

I dunno, we had a net spend of about zero last summer all told.

Fine for me to say £11m on top isn't a lot, but it's not difficult to be free and easy with other people's money. That's eleven million pounds when we're sitting on an accounting loss of £39m. Yes I know it's mainly a paper loss but still, we've had loads of income this year shut off too. There's a TV rebate on the way too (TBC how much) which again hits the accounts.

To me it was a no brainer at that fee, I'm a huge fan of his as a player but it was one of those where you couldn't lose. Sign him at that price and even if he flops you'll get it back a year later off someone else.

 

[Deutsch Wolf]

As I keep saying about Adama - we primarily play five defenders (who pretty much don't score, unless it's off a set piece) and two defensively-minded midfielders who don't score very much. Dendoncker seems to have given up on missing chances in favour of never entering the penalty box lately. Joao won't ever score many, Neves is fine if we get a load of penalties I suppose, though less useful when Raul is back in that respect.

So it's all on the front three.

How on earth then can we continue to support a forward who has 6 goals in 135 Premier League appearances. 6 in 135! Would you look at that. An average of slightly over 2 goals a season (but with rounding, it is 2 goals a season). Two of those goals came in the same game too, so he has scored in 5 PL games, ever. He's had 5 PL seasons.

We can't sustain that. We get a £30m offer, we take it, it's not much of a question for me.

 

[Johnny75]

Nando's post was about right imo.

Don't think we'll change from 3 at the back but we should.

If we stayed 3 at the back then we need at least one CB. Big dominant and quick. Coady reads the game well enough but we need those players who can be horrible against shit house opponents whilst also not horrendous on the ball. (I like Tosin at Fulham and think he could do a good job).

Our wingbacks are set if we keep RAN and or midfield 2 will be fine with who we have as long as Vitinha is given a proper go alongside Neves.

Our major surgery is up front for me. We need all 3 positions filled.

Raul and another to back him up properly. Send Silva on loan, he isn't good enough on any level to play as a lone striker. I would like us to spend the cash on Toney but I doubt we will. We'd have got Toney this season for less than we spent on Silva. He can fill any of the three positions too.

Bin Adama and Podence and keep Neto. We need one more player to play in the wide positions who will start. Lookman is decent but he's looked no better than Cav when I've seen him. We need better, a Jota type player.

Bin - Ruddy, Kilman, Traore, Podence, MGW, Sanderson

Loan - Otasowie, Silva

Keep - Everybody else as the squad is thin enough as it is

New - CB x 2, IF x 2, STR

 

[YoungWolf]

As I keep saying about Adama - we primarily play five defenders (who pretty much don't score, unless it's off a set piece) and two defensively-minded midfielders who don't score very much. Dendoncker seems to have given up on missing chances in favour of never entering the penalty box lately. Joao won't ever score many, Neves is fine if we get a load of penalties I suppose, though less useful when Raul is back in that respect.

So it's all on the front three.

How on earth then can we continue to support a forward who has 6 goals in 135 Premier League appearances. 6 in 135! Would you look at that. An average of slightly over 2 goals a season (but with rounding, it is 2 goals a season). Two of those goals came in the same game too, so he has scored in 5 PL games, ever. He's had 5 PL seasons.

We can't sustain that. get a £30m offer, we take it, it's not much of a question for me.

It's either sell him or play a way that would suit him.

When we started playing 4231, his contribution (less so end product) was really noticeable I thought. Arsenal away is a great example, constant threat to a really good left back coming inside or going outside (both happened for the goals).

Whereas the way we have played this season and leaving him as the highest forward, just puts too much on him conjuring something up from nothing. Which he may do occasionally, but he doesn't have the movement to play in that role.

 

[YoungWolf]

Nando's post was about right imo.

Don't think we'll change from 3 at the back but we should.

If we stayed 3 at the back then we need at least one CB. Big dominant and quick. Coady reads the game well enough but we need those players who can be horrible against shit house opponents whilst also not horrendous on the ball. (I like Tosin at Fulham and think he could do a good job).

Our wingbacks are set if we keep RAN and or midfield 2 will be fine with who we have as long as Vitinha is given a proper go alongside Neves.

Our major surgery is up front for me. We need all 3 positions filled.

Raul and another to back him up properly. Send Silva on loan, he isn't good enough on any level to play as a lone striker. I would like us to spend the cash on Toney but I doubt we will. We'd have got Toney this season for less than we spent on Silva. He can fill any of the three positions too.

Bin Adama and Podence and keep Neto. We need one more player to play in the wide positions who will start. Lookman is decent but he's looked no better than Cav when I've seen him. We need better, a Jota type player.

Bin - Ruddy, Kilman, Traore, Podence, MGW, Sanderson

Loan - Otasowie, Silva

Keep - Everybody else as the squad is thin enough as it is

New - CB x 2, IF x 2, STR

If we got rid of Podence and Adama and only signed one winger we'd have terrible depth in the wide positions - even worse than currently! It isn't sustainable.

Fabio isn't going anywhere either!

 

[BGreenWolf]

My preference would be to keep all hands on deck- we've been properly fucked by the small squad strategy this year.

Accepting that that won't happen, though, I'd be thanking Ruddy, Saiss, Dendoncker, MGW, Podence, Jose, Traore (if the money's right) and the entirety of the bomb squad for their efforts and shifting them posthaste.

 

[Deutsch Wolf]

I was in favour of moving away from 3-4-3 as a default as you can't build your team around Matt fucking Doherty forever.

I don't want to play 4-2-3-1 so we build our team around Ol' Six Goals.

Play whatever shape you want but not just so it suits players who aren't very good. Bring better players in.

 

[YoungWolf]

I think I'd want us to be built around both shapes next season, tbf. As we've said many times it's about how we play. If 343, we need to be more fluid, more expansive and if 4231 we need to strike the balance better the other way, weirdly.

 

[Johnny75]

If we got rid of Podence and Adama and only signed one winger we'd have terrible depth in the wide positions - even worse than currently! It isn't sustainable.

Fabio isn't going anywhere either!

I did put 2 inside forwards to buy.

That would give us 3 inside forward and space for Campbell/ Corbeanu to come through and Toney/ STR to cover.

You'd still have Raul up top with an actual striker who could play up front on their own to back him/ play in his place.

Shame for Fabio, not his fault but he just isn't there player we need or should've spent £34m on.

I can't see us buying 2 CB's and 3 forwards so it's all a bit moot.