Quote Originally Posted by Nineteenx View Post
I'm firmly in the Jenson Millie stays Oxlade goes camp, Millie actually meaningfully contributes, Oxlade's limited meaningful contributions have come in just a couple of games and in the forward position when Mo and Mane were away at Afcon and moving forward, being honest, we don't need Oxlade in our forward ranks or Taki for that matter

You and I have talked about Bobby quite a lot, but he's on 180k and won't play so much next season and we could bring Nunez in instead and have him as part of the regenerating and evolution supported by Mo, Mane, Jota and Diaz, I think that's a tougher call than Millie staying which for me is a no brainer

Bobby's been an incredible player for us, love the guy, but we can't keep them all forever and on 180k if he isn't going to play as much and we could making a brilliant start to the regeneration, well, it seems the sensible thing to do sadly
Ox I think will/should depart really.

Guess it's just about opinions and the "where" of finding ways to open up spaces for incoming players and/or development of existing lads.

Personally (we'll agree to disagree on this I suspect, which is fine) if I had a choice between Milner departing or Firmino departing, I'd be looking at a Milner departure - as well as Ox going. One player can be replaced via an incoming transfer to future-proof the midfield a bit (Tchouameni let's say) while the other can be "replaced" in a different way - an aggregate of minutes given to other players. Take Ox and Milner's minutes out and replace them with Tchouameni coming in and giving Elliott+Jones more of the minutes they need to develop (5 subs rule remember, so more chances to give 20 minutes here and there) to give them the best chance of being reliable squad options, or sources of income (sales) if they don't quite "make it" for us.

With Firmino (again, 5 subs rule) we could hold onto him and perhaps bring someone like Núñez in, utilising ridiculous depth (Firmino, Salah, Mane, Diaz, Jotaz Núñez, Carvalho) for one season to compete on all fronts as Diaz, Núñez and Carvalho get up to speed with our tactical set-up whilst we have opportunities to rotate our forward lads better - and let Firmino leave at the end of the final season of his contract.

Just a different way to free up wages and the quality of squad depth is spread out in a different fashion, whilst giving Jones and Elliott more minutes.