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It’s a strange one. I wanted half the team replaced around January but now, different questions. Can Diame keep this form into next season? He’s been outstanding. We’d have to spend 30m on a player who’s doing the same job.. (I’m not saying Diame is worth 30m but he’s playing like a player who should cost that)

 

Shelvey, again.. poor for quite a long time. His success now seems to be linked to Diame doing the donkey work for him. Would keep and extend his contract.

 

Dummett has shown he can perform. New contract. He needs decent back up in case he gets injured again.

 

Yedlin could probably be upgraded for someone else but again, would anyone else put the same sort of shift in?

 

Perez finally seems to have found his best position, Ritchie could be upgraded but same as Yedlin, hard to find someone who would make the same sort of effort. Plus Jacob Murphy should hopefully improve.

 

Assuming we can keep Lascelles and Lejeune, all that Rafa has to do this summer is get some better backup for LB & RB and sort out the attack.

 

If he’s looking at a different central midfielder, I think Merino could be sold ? I suspect he’s not settled here and wants away.

 

Gayle should be sold on. As will Mitro and he might sell Joselu as well, similar to how he got rid of Daryl Murphy. Rafa can be cold like that..

 

So that’s 3 forwards and a left winger we need to sign along with any other squad players that could come in.

 

Chelsea might let Kenedy go for 20m, Slimani could cost the same (seems worth it though) and god knows what we’d have to pay for a pacey forward who can score..

 

Keeping Lascelles is more important than any other signing we might make.

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Of the current bottom three I'd take any of the following

 

Southampton

 

Davis

Dušan Tadić

James Ward-Prowse

Mario Lemina

Sofiane Boufal

Ryan Bertrand

Nathan Redmond

Cédric Soares

Jack Stephens

 

Stoke

 

Choupo-Moting

Jese

Diouf

Shaqiri

 

West Brom

 

Jonny Evans

Chadli

Jay Rodriguez

Rondon

 

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Pretty relaxed about who we sign tbh. Other than the odd exception like Sels & maybe Lazaar, players that Rafa has signed that you'd expect to go straight into the team have done well.

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33 year old Steven Davis?

 

Wonder if any Prem teams will gamble on Grealish if Villa don't come up

 

Grealish.. poor sap. He turned down playing for Ireland after representing them at U21’s thinking he was gonna be some sort of superstar for England. Funny how things work out.

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Of the current bottom three I'd take any of the following

 

Southampton

 

Davis

Dušan Tadić

James Ward-Prowse

Mario Lemina

Sofiane Boufal

Ryan Bertrand

Nathan Redmond

Cédric Soares

Jack Stephens

 

Stoke

 

Choupo-Moting

Jese

Diouf

Shaqiri

 

West Brom

 

Jonny Evans

Chadli

Jay Rodriguez

Rondon

 

 

how many of them actually improve our first team significantly? bertrand probably, evans maybe, lemina maybe, cedric probably...the rest would be squad players imo

 

you could argue the likes of rodriguez/rondon etc. would improve on gayle but we should simply be aiming for better than their level anyway so it'd be backup again

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the thing we have to consider now, and i'm sure rafa will be, is that he's managed to get a bunch of championship players to top half and pushing for more

 

there is no point in signing more of the same type of player for next season just because we can snap them up cheap, we should be looking to make a next step a la kenedy/slimani types wherever we can

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Of the current bottom three I'd take any of the following

 

Southampton

 

Davis

Dušan Tadić

James Ward-Prowse

Mario Lemina

Sofiane Boufal

Ryan Bertrand

Nathan Redmond

Cédric Soares

Jack Stephens

 

Stoke

 

Choupo-Moting

Jese

Diouf

Shaqiri

 

West Brom

 

Jonny Evans

Chadli

Jay Rodriguez

Rondon

 

 

how many of them actually improve our first team significantly? bertrand probably, evans maybe, lemina maybe, cedric probably...the rest would be squad players imo

 

you could argue the likes of rodriguez/rondon etc. would improve on gayle but we should simply be aiming for better than their level anyway so it'd be backup again

Shaqiri easily

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Bertrand or Gibbs would be excellent for us. They probably won’t be too expensive too given that the top teams have this position filled. I could see Everton going for one of them but we should try. They’re both better than Dummett and also tick the English box. Also both proven in the league so it’s lower risk.

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Of the current bottom three I'd take any of the following

 

Southampton

 

Davis

Dušan Tadić

James Ward-Prowse

Mario Lemina

Sofiane Boufal

Ryan Bertrand

Nathan Redmond

Cédric Soares

Jack Stephens

 

Stoke

 

Choupo-Moting

Jese

Diouf

Shaqiri

 

West Brom

 

Jonny Evans

Chadli

Jay Rodriguez

Rondon

 

 

how many of them actually improve our first team significantly? bertrand probably, evans maybe, lemina maybe, cedric probably...the rest would be squad players imo

 

you could argue the likes of rodriguez/rondon etc. would improve on gayle but we should simply be aiming for better than their level anyway so it'd be backup again

Shaqiri easily

 

think we've been through it, not rafa player you'd imagine?  lets hope we sign kenedy for the left so he'd replace ritchie?  not sure rafa could deal with that lack of workrate

 

talent wise though aye

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Of the current bottom three I'd take any of the following

 

Southampton

 

Davis

Dušan Tadić

James Ward-Prowse

Mario Lemina

Sofiane Boufal

Ryan Bertrand

Nathan Redmond

Cédric Soares

Jack Stephens

 

Stoke

 

Choupo-Moting

Jese

Diouf

Shaqiri

 

West Brom

 

Jonny Evans

Chadli

Jay Rodriguez

Rondon

 

Half the players on that list would be a disaster. Stephens and jese? Seriously?

 

Southampton are in the relegation zone for a reason

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I don't know that there are any on that list the balance between being a significant enough upgrade to invest in as well as providing value for money. (Not to mention Rafa's approval.)

 

Take Bertrand; a very good player, and better than Dummett (much as I love this new version). But he'd cost stacks of cash, and is it worth spending all that cash on a player who is, yes, an upgrade, but not that much of an improvement to justify the expenditure? Cedric over Yedlin is a tougher call, but it seems Rafa really likes Yedlin. There aren't many others I'd want to spend the asking price on.

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