My concern is not over whether we can sign better players than Wober, Harriso, Aaronson, etc. Rather the number of players we'll need to sign.weasel wrote: ↑Thu Mar 14, 2024 5:56 pm LIkewise if we go up then I'm happy to support any player Farke wants to keep.
The big difference though, for the likes of Wober, is that we wouldn't be in the same situation as in being desperate to keep players as we couldn't get better than them in the championship.Farke may have seen Wober as someone he wanted to keep as he thought he couldn't get better to come to us in the championship but if we are in the prem we have far greater pulling power and should be able to attract better players than Wober or others who left on loan.
Hopefully we can get some decent money in for them and Farke will be able to re-invest it and bring in better.
Figure that we've been unable to fill a bench several times this season with our current squad. Last game, we did manage to fill the bench, plus Strujik, Shackleton, Gelhardt injured.
From that we will lose Rodon (hopefully to resign), Roberts, and Anthony to loans
Byram, Cooper, Shackleton, Dallas to contract ends - arguably you'd only resign Shackleton and only as a back up
Klaesson and Firpo will be in last year of contract. You might run down Klaesson's contract. But a financial decision would need to be made on Firpo
Gelhardt, Shackleton, Cresswell have been considered below our needs this season. Not sure what role they could play in the PL
Looking at the end of the season, you only have Strujik, Cresswell and Firpo (1 year on contract) as specialist defenders. Plus Ampadu, but pretty sure he'll be needed in midfield.
BY my reckoning we need 10 to 12 first team players. You'd hope Rodon would be the start of that. Shackleton gets a new contract. But with so many needs, it would make sense to consider people like Harrison, Wober, and Aaronson as part of that number.