I'd call the idea of us signing three midfielders in the January transfer window somewhat "fanciful" to put it mildly.
We're still figuring out how best to utilise Elliott and Carvalho, the club also seem reluctant to give up on Jones at the current time. Bajcetic is a prospect and Morton appears to be doing well at Blackburn.
I'm not naive enough to think that they will all "make it" but I think we are much likelier to trust that some of them will. I foresee a midfielder coming in January if the injury list is still bad, but not necessarily a nailed-on starter. More likely someone who can take some of the Ox+Keita minutes.
Think a first-teamer/genuine upgrade/call it what you will midfielder comes in Summer once we have a better grasp of finances (will we have Champion's League footie or not?) to supplement that.
At a guess, I'd say with Milner/Ox/Keita all likely to depart and us having two few injury-prone mids over 30, I think you can expect -
- Depth option (January?)
- Genuine upgrade to eventually usurp one of Thiago/Henderson/Fabinho option (Summer?)
- prospect promoted from within (Morton or Bajcetic) to supplement increased minutes for Elliott or alternative...
...with Fabinho staying.
No idea what the budget will be, but I'd hope that in the coming 1-3 windows we can address the forward area as well (someone roughly Núñez's age of quality) and a young defender. Midfield is so important of course, but don't want to see us blow everything on mids - one or two of the RIGHT mids would transform things centrally.
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