Originally Posted by
Insidious
A killer the way this season is going to work out.
Probably felt that we had enough for a Top Four finish.
In theory, Summer would have then come with the opportunity to get a lot of wages off the books - if most (all?) of Milner, Ox, Keita, Firmino and Melo end up departing then you are talking about something like £700,000-per week coming off the books.
You add Matip and Thiago to that departure list the following year and we are talking about the guts of £1,000,000-per week in wages coming off the books over this Summer coming (2023) and next (2024).
Some longer, amortised contracts for lads in the 20-26 bracket (2 mids and a centre-back, say) and it wouldn't take long to be looking at a squad with only one attacker over 30, a decent midfield (needs additions, obviously) and a central defence with a better age mix.
Van Dijk, Matip, Konate, Gomez, Phillips are our centre-backs just now. Get Gvardiol (or whoever) aged 23-26 when we can ahead of Matip's departure and let the already-on-our-books Van den Berg take the place of a sale for Phillips. Van Dijk would be in his 30s, but nobody else would be. Wouldn't cost hundreds of millions to sign one centre-back.
Full-backs our age profile and quality I think is okay - I think it will look a lot better when midfield is functioning. Robertson with Tsimikas as cover and Trent with Ramsay (and occasionally Gomez) as cover is still alright for me - and certainly our lowest area of priority on the pitch.
Henderson, Thiago, Fabinho, Milner, Keita, Ox, Elliott, Jones, Bajcetic, Melo make up our ridiculous TEN midfielders (arguably 11 if Carvalho is included, if we went for using a no. 10) in the current set-up. Allow Milner, Ox, Keita, Melo to leave in Summer and Thiago next Summer. Let Henderson have Milner's minutes (a reduced role) and bring two good midfielders in. Promote Bajcetic and Morton to get more minutes. You'd have two young new mids, Fabinho, Elliott, Bajcetic, Morton, Jones with Henderson in the "Milner" role. That's 8 mids - 9 if you include Thiago's last season. By the time Thiago leaves you maybe bring a 3rd mid in to keep your numbers up, hopefully with robust players. Two good mids would be expensive, but not unattainably so. The area where we need most work.
With the attack, allow Firmino to leave. We'd have only Salah over 30 in attack. Núñez, Salah, Diaz, Gakpo, Carvalho, Doak are all already on the books. Probably a bit much to expect Carvalho and/or Doak to contribute effectively a whole load, but bringing ONE attacker in (even if it's next Summer) would help a lot.
Think I've totted that up as the following incomings -
One centre-back (doesn't have to cost the Earth)
Three midfielders (two relatively expensive, one less so)
One attacker (doesn't have to cost the Earth)
- with this window, the Summer, the next January window and another Summer within which to bring them in as a bunch of lads depart.
I think most of that is perfectly attainable, even within our model. You still keep many of the personnel and DNA of the side, but freshen it up in key areas - particularly midfield. I don't buy the idea that we need 9/10/11 new players as seems to be the thought process on social media. Just a few key integrations over the coming windows to maintain quality whilst bringing age profile down.
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