Postby the flying pig » Thu May 16, 2019 8:56 am
urgh, yeah.
my main thoughts:
(1) keep bielsa. the main priority.
(2) as others have said, we need to make much better use of the loan system, get in four premier league guys in key positions [1-2 x winger, 1 x striker, 1 other]. wilko's law tells us that we can't possibly expect all four to work out even tolerably well, but we need to be doing much better than this year's single, and even then unspectacular, success, in harrison.
(3) in terms of players on long term contracts, we need to triangulate some kind of solution mindful of all of the following:
the value of continuity;
[presumably] a need to trade at some kind of surplus;
the number of years left on individual players' deals [none expire this summer but in summer 2020 it's pablo, roofe, klich, dallas, bpf, and klich;
the fact that the guys we'd get decent fees for are largely the same ones who contribute most on t'park; and
the fact that there's a random element to the demand for your players, driven by what particular holes the clubs with budgets have in their current squads.
my starter for ten would be:
(i) selling roofe [hsa very pleasantly surprised me this year but would fetch decent money + deal imminently expiring, apparently not up for re-signing] and pontus [huge shame given that he's near enough our best player but would fetch v decent molney +, i'm guessing, just won't be up for anoher year here]. would also be very interested in selling douglas given that we seem to have a couple of other guys who can actually run + also do a job at LB;
(ii) keeping everyone else, including kp, promising him that we'll let him go in summer 2020 if we don't go up. allow dallas & klich's [i guess berardi too] deals to run down unless we get a silly offer. kiko & bamford have both had very poor seasons by the standards of, presumably, two of our very higest paid players, but won't be in demand right now & deserve another season to sink or swim.
(iii) look to sign 3+ players, these being two centre backs + one or more of striker/winger/attacking midfielder, just depends on what positions we can fill with loans.