Dave Posted May 15, 2011 Share Posted May 15, 2011 Coloccini, Enrique, Barton, Tiote, Ben Arfa; these are quality players. Then we have the likes of Harper, Nolan, Gutierrez, Krul, Taylor, Williamson and Simpson who have proven they can live with this level, and some promising youngsters. Maybe I'm being deluded/unrealistic but with the Carroll money there's no reason we should be selling any of the above. Dump the shite, build around that lot and we can really push on. No excuses this summer. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Optimistic Nut Posted May 15, 2011 Share Posted May 15, 2011 Top 6 level players Ben Arfa, Tiote, Coloccini, Enrique, Jonas Add to those Williamson, Barton, Nolan, Simpson & Krul you have a core of a top 8 side. Buy 3-4 players in the top 6 level bracket with 2 or 3 more of the next level maybe, and I think top 8 at least competing closer to the likes of Everton is a very realistic goal. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest bimpy474 Posted May 15, 2011 Share Posted May 15, 2011 Players with pace would be liking, showed today if you chuck some pace into our team we can play on break really well Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RR15 Posted May 15, 2011 Share Posted May 15, 2011 Drogba's handshake with Pardew clearly means he's signing for us. One of our physios also gave him a squirt of water from a lucozade bottle, done deal. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
JH Posted May 15, 2011 Share Posted May 15, 2011 On top of that core, I'm very impressed with the quality we have coming through too. LuaLua, Ranger, Ameobi and Ferguson all held their own today - they can only get better. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Yorkie Posted May 15, 2011 Share Posted May 15, 2011 Three serious upgrades to the first team would see us firmly re-instated in the top half, with a genuine challenge for Europe. Every time i've come away from seeing a game this season (bar the odd calamity) i've thought - fuck it, there's so much potential in the side. Cos there is. If we don't atleast improve on this season, the summer will have been an absolutely colossal failure. Obviously, take caution on second-season-syndrome, but with the players we have and the money to spend, you'd think it'd almost be harder to go backwards than forwards. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Decky Posted May 15, 2011 Share Posted May 15, 2011 We are very close to a top 8 side. If we spend well in the summer we could well become the 7th best team in the league, the best of the rest so to speak. It might seem unrealistic, but we have got good players and potentially £35 million to spend in the summer. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Beren Posted May 15, 2011 Share Posted May 15, 2011 Agree with O-Nut, swapping round Jonas and Barton. Really great to see Ferguson in midfield. Not a complete performance or owt, but so brilliant to see more than one midfielder willing to run at defenders and take on players. Gave Jonas much more space too - he's been overburdened by being the only real creative midfielder for too long. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
midds Posted May 15, 2011 Share Posted May 15, 2011 Coloccini, Enrique, Barton, Tiote, Ben Arfa; these are quality players. Then we have the likes of Harper, Nolan, Gutierrez, Krul, Taylor, Williamson and Simpson who have proven they can live with this level, and some promising youngsters. Maybe I'm being deluded/unrealistic but with the Carroll money there's no reason we should be selling any of the above. Dump the shite, build around that lot and we can really push on. No excuses this summer. Couldn't agree more. We've got a few players we need to ship out because of their wage (Smith, Xisco) and a few who simply aren't good enough but we have to keep the quality we already have as a bare minimum. We should be adding another 4 quality players with the Carroll but if we can pick up a couple of Bosmans then all the better. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
colinmk Posted May 15, 2011 Share Posted May 15, 2011 Coloccini, Enrique, Barton, Tiote, Ben Arfa; these are quality players. Then we have the likes of Harper, Nolan, Gutierrez, Krul, Taylor, Williamson and Simpson who have proven they can live with this level, and some promising youngsters. Maybe I'm being deluded/unrealistic but with the Carroll money there's no reason we should be selling any of the above. Dump the shite, build around that lot and we can really push on. No excuses this summer. Agreed. Get a good striker in and we have a solid spine of a team, with a good up and coming goalkeeper. I think here are two or three other positions that need to be filled with top 6 level bracket players like you say Nut to take us to the next level. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
madras Posted May 15, 2011 Share Posted May 15, 2011 the only reason any of those players will leave is if they want to or we are offered silly fees. (same with most players at most clubs) Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
JH Posted May 15, 2011 Share Posted May 15, 2011 Coloccini, Enrique, Barton, Tiote, Ben Arfa; these are quality players. Then we have the likes of Harper, Nolan, Gutierrez, Krul, Taylor, Williamson and Simpson who have proven they can live with this level, and some promising youngsters. Maybe I'm being deluded/unrealistic but with the Carroll money there's no reason we should be selling any of the above. Dump the s****, build around that lot and we can really push on. No excuses this summer. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
colinmk Posted May 15, 2011 Share Posted May 15, 2011 the only reason any of those players will leave is if they want to or we are offered silly fees. (same with most players at most clubs) And chances are they will want to leave if we don't show the type of ambition we are talking about here. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Turnbull2000 Posted May 15, 2011 Share Posted May 15, 2011 Other than avoiding relegation, what is there to play for the in the league? The Champion's League is practically a closed shop, and the Europa League is a dire, heavily devalued competition IMO. Christ, I wish could have the UEFA Cup of old back, with good teams, a knockout format and non of this Champs League dropout bullsh*t. Only then I could excited at the realistic prospect of competing for 5-8th. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Yorkie Posted May 15, 2011 Share Posted May 15, 2011 When you think of it, simply having a better striker would have done us wonders in the second half of the season. Games against Spurs, Sunderland, Blackburn etc were drawn rather than won purely because we had nowt upfront. That's another six points right there. And that's just improving one position. Having Ben Arfa, possibly another winger, another CB, maybe another RB... the potential is massive. The crux of the squad really is very promising. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
James Posted May 15, 2011 Share Posted May 15, 2011 This lot have done brilliantly and have shown that they can get results off anyone. The key now is to get some strikers in, and then to add depth to key positions. No need to make significant alterations to the defence or midfield if it can be helped, unless the right player became available. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Decky Posted May 15, 2011 Share Posted May 15, 2011 We need to raid some players from the relegated sides and try our best to make sure they come to us. There are decent players going down that a good few Premier League sides will be desperate for. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave Posted May 15, 2011 Share Posted May 15, 2011 Think of the impact Robert and Bellamy had on the side we had at that time. We went from 11th to 4th. Obviously we had a much better manager back then and we're not going to be breaking into the top four any time soon, but decent money spent well this summer could have a similarly positive effect. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
TherealnorthernTOON Posted May 15, 2011 Share Posted May 15, 2011 What I really want is just to add to what we got. More pace, get more options to choose from. Right now we got nile ranger as sole option to change games from the bench. Get rid of some of the dead wood. Get in a few more players with something extra to offer. N'zogbia would be a dream come through. I would really like us to look at skjelbred again. His contract is going out soonish. He still got some unfulfiled potential. He is a pure energized runner who can take a man on. Keeps things simple on the ground though. But he got some more pace then several of our midfielders. With that I really just hope our general play looks better, some games we just look so clueless going forward. We should have someone from the bench who really could shake things up a little if our plan fails. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Optimistic Nut Posted May 15, 2011 Share Posted May 15, 2011 We're potentially going to finish this season within 3 points of 7th spot, I really think £15-20m could consolidate top 8 next season, if Ashley does do what he's promised though and spends the £35m correctly, why not think of top 6 and pushing even Spurs closer? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Yorkie Posted May 15, 2011 Share Posted May 15, 2011 We need to raid some players from the relegated sides and try our best to make sure they come to us. There are decent players going down that a good few Premier League sides will be desperate for. I'd go for N'Zogbia and absolutely no one else. Never sits right with me, going for relegated players. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave Posted May 15, 2011 Share Posted May 15, 2011 the only reason any of those players will leave is if they want to or we are offered silly fees. (same with most players at most clubs) And chances are they will want to leave if we don't show the type of ambition we are talking about here. Precisely. The prospect is there and they can all see it, that's why the Carroll sale prompted negative reactions from players like Enrique and Barton. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest sicko2ndbest Posted May 15, 2011 Share Posted May 15, 2011 ? ? Colo. Jose Barton. Tiote. ? Ben arfa ? ? Add 6 of similar quality you are challenging top 6 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
madras Posted May 15, 2011 Share Posted May 15, 2011 the only reason any of those players will leave is if they want to or we are offered silly fees. (same with most players at most clubs) And chances are they will want to leave if we don't show the type of ambition we are talking about here. define the ambition, do you just want the money spent on fees or do you agree that wages have to be taken into consideration aswell as other monies coming in (and that doesn't necessarily mean further outgoing transfers). fwiw i'm quite convinced the overall expenditure on the squad will go considerably up this summer. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Anderson Posted May 15, 2011 Share Posted May 15, 2011 Really frustrating looking at that core as the one thing we really need to add to it is a top quality centre forward. Now I wonder where we could have got one from. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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