iwasthere2012 wrote:Ted Hughes wrote:iwasthere2012 wrote:Ted Hughes wrote:Well I'll fire it back at you; which homegrown players do you think are better & cheaper ?
That's not my point. My point is for the same money you'd spend on the likes of him and Barkley you'd buy better quality abroad, I'm sure. Take your pick there.
The academy players coming in can make up the squad positions elsewhere and fulfil the homegrown quota.
It's just my opinion. If it turned out we got him this summer, I wouldn't be greatly upset.
Then we would need to fill a further 6 places with academy players, if we are to operate a full squad (& most of those players are qulified on the UEFA B list anyway so don't even need registering in the A squad) . So effectively we choose to have maybe 6 empty places, rather than have players such as Sterling or Barkley ? A smaller squad than under the ffp restrictions ?
It wouldn't be everybody's choice on here, I know, but I've stated several times I'd be quite happy if City choose to move out the 8 or so that we expect and replace with 4 absolute A-listers. No room for spending over the odds on Sterling/Barkley etc. if you are talking £50mil+. Keep the money for your Pogba's and even Reus and the likes, even Bale if that's their wish. the players you think we should go for are subjective.
Bring back Denayer , Lopes, Ambrose if he's good enough. Put some of the academy in the squad as backup to the first choices that survive the cull.
Like I said, wouldn't suit everyone, but if we still put out a team that could secure top three, I'd be happy. It would be something we would grow with year on year.
I'm not sure having 18 senior players, or even 20 is feasible without considerably weakening the squad - as I reckon we'd need to spend big money on 3 versatile players to make it work.
Assuming we flog Dzeko and Jovetic and ended up buying 2 wide forwards cum midfielders such as Bale and Sterling, both of these can play up front on their own in an emergency, as can Silva. An EDS player would likely still be 5th or 6th choice but we would have considerable flexibility in formation that we don't currently have.
So that's 4 forwards out of 18 places taken care of
In midfield, assuming Milner, Nasri, Toure go, and we bring in Pogba, we would have Fernadinho, Fernando, Pogba, Silva who would form the core of the 3 in central midfield, with Navas, Bale, Sterling out wide. This argues a case for Kolarov to stay as cover for the left midfield position or bring one of the left sided kids through - i wouldn't be comfortable with a kid being 1st backup to someone like bale though. We would also be light of cover in the centre, and we don't have any kids ready to step up in the middle just yet.
That's an additional 6 players, with arguably at least 1 more senior pro needed as cover for Silva......that might turn out to be Yaya staying.
In defence we have Clichy, Kompany, Mangala, Demichelis, Denayer, Zabaleta, Sagna. I think this leaves us a bit light in all honesty as there really isn't any great depth of cover there (Kolarov already included above), and I'd also be tempted to keep Boyata (possibly at the expense of Sagna) given Kompany being made of glass and none of the EDS lot being close to ready.
That's 8 defenders.
Throw in Hart and Caballero, and the squad would work out as 20 players, with 6 association trained (Bale, Sterling, Pogba, Clichy, Denayer, Hart). We would end up with kids on the bench a fair bit during injury crises, but running the squad so thin means we'd have to have the bring the very best talent in, anything less and we would struggle badly as soon as we had a couple of injuries.
What would it cost to do this? Fuck knows, its all going to be a bit silly this summer I think, but if we are bringing money in for Dzeko, Nasri, Jovetic I think we would struggle to get more than 30/40m......could we get Bale, Pogba and Sterling (or Reus) for sensible money within the current FFP regime? I doubt it, we'd need FFP to be lifted or to sell Toure, otherwise we are going to end up with inferior players and a thinner squad, which is my big fear of this type of scenario.