Another difficult window with a lot of cleaning up remaining.
Jan is walking, and we need to make Rose's move permanent, and find Wanyama a new home.
No more drama surrounding contract rebels - anyone on 2 years or less signs or leaves. Dier's contract is expiring in 2021, and even though I like him and think he can turn this around, if he doesn't sign by summer we sell.
In the 2 year remaining gang we have Hugo, Gazza, Foyth, Aurier and Lamela. Besides Hugo I'd get rid of the rest.
Leaves us with making sure Sissoko is out.
Out of the loanees I'd have Amos back in a heartbeat for second DM, and I'm still waiting to see how KWP fares.
So, a CB, DM, RB, ST, Keeper at the very least.
I don't see this resolved over the summer.
As far as I can recall and apart from those retirees who weren't / couldn't be moved on, since ENIC took over no players that I can find or recall were ever allowed to dip beneath two years left on their deal unless they were in the process of agreeing a new one.
To me that's why it's so remarkable that Levy had such deep faith and trust in Poch and agreed to run players on when this was what the players were saying - that trust in Poch's judgement could cumulatively cost the club as much as £50-100 mill (if we'd sold Vert, Toby, Trippier, Eriksen and Rose earlier).
Levy and the board must be licking their wounds over this one.
Unless KWP performs badly his deal will turn into a permanent one in the summer, CP now have first dibs on him.
I think we will see four additions in the summer.
We will have 8 players with 2 years or less come summer, it's mad. To think that the narrative that Poch wasn't trusted and backed still exists.
We are looking at 5 players leaving at the very least, and this number could well stretch up to 10 - KWP, Rose, Wanyama, Jan, Foyth, Dier, Gazza, Aurier, Lamela, Sissoko, even Hugo's contract needs to be sorted and there isn't another keeper in sight.
This is what I have for next season, and it's bare bones without any RB or a senior DM:
Hugo
Sess, Davies
Toby, Sanchez, Tanganga
Amos
GLC, Ndombele, Winks, Gedson
Ali, Son, Bergjwin, Moura
Kane
Poch left our squad in absolute ruin.
As far as I can recall and apart from those retirees who weren't / couldn't be moved on, since ENIC took over no players that I can find or recall were ever allowed to dip beneath two years left on their deal unless they were in the process of agreeing a new one.
To me that's why it's so remarkable that Levy had such deep faith and trust in Poch and agreed to run players on when this was what the players were saying - that trust in Poch's judgement could cumulatively cost the club as much as £50-100 mill (if we'd sold Vert, Toby, Trippier, Eriksen and Rose earlier).
Levy and the board must be licking their wounds over this one.
Unless KWP performs badly his deal will turn into a permanent one in the summer, CP now have first dibs on him.
I think we will see four additions in the summer.
Ex do you think with everything he had to do regarding the stadium, Levy took his eye off the ball ?
Aurier will be signing a new deal - at least the club have put a new improved one before him. Gazza will only stay if he's no.1 (allegedly). Lamela we can't give away (he really should have been another Sandro and I swear I can't find anyone in the current recruitment/assessment regime who can explain how Poch got him a new deal).
Even Sissoko getting the deal he did is an amazement to me (desperation on our behalf?)!
That is horrendous . What are /were the management thinking . But then there weren’t any players out there that could improve us .We will have 8 players with 2 years or less come summer, it's mad. To think that the narrative that Poch wasn't trusted and backed still exists.
We are looking at 5 players leaving at the very least, and this number could well stretch up to 10 - KWP, Rose, Wanyama, Jan, Foyth, Dier, Gazza, Aurier, Lamela, Sissoko, even Hugo's contract needs to be sorted and there isn't another keeper in sight.
This is what I have for next season, and it's bare bones without any RB or a senior DM:
Hugo
Sess, Davies
Toby, Sanchez, Tanganga
Amos
GLC, Ndombele, Winks, Gedson
Ali, Son, Bergjwin, Moura
Kane
Poch left our squad in absolute ruin.
The bad news continues then...Aurier just plain isn't good enough...he is no wing back and an unreliable defender....who decided to offer an improved contract?Aurier will be signing a new deal - at least the club have put a new improved one before him. Gazza will only stay if he's no.1 (allegedly). Lamela we can't give away (he really should have been another Sandro and I swear I can't find anyone in the current recruitment/assessment regime who can explain how Poch got him a new deal).
Even Sissoko getting the deal he did is an amazement to me (desperation on our behalf?)!
Aurier will be signing a new deal - at least the club have put a new improved one before him. Gazza will only stay if he's no.1 (allegedly). Lamela we can't give away (he really should have been another Sandro and I swear I can't find anyone in the current recruitment/assessment regime who can explain how Poch got him a new deal).
Even Sissoko getting the deal he did is an amazement to me (desperation on our behalf?)!
Be a right laugh this Amazon show won't it. They should call it Riches to Rags - A Year at The Lane.I am now convinced of it; I cannot ever recall him investing so much faith in a manager/coach and getting so emotionally entwined with his behaviour and missives.
Levy allows his subordinates to get on with the job.
Contrary to general opinion he does not micro-manage, but that also doesn't mean he doesn't pay attention to detail, typically he works very long hours; in early, leaves late - but despite his work ethic, I can't help but feel that because of our run in the CL and the recent history of remarkable Top 4 finishes (unparalleled in our PL era) that he ignored Poch's cryptic and at times nonsensical utterances., which as you know were to me great big warning alarms going off.
Letting Poch keep contract rebels was to me (and I said it at the time and argued this here) foolhardly and counter productive.
Gazza wants to be a number 1 to stay?
That’s the funniest thing I’ve read in a long long time.
It's OK saying don't give Aurier a new contract, but is that really sensible? Are we really serious about selling 2 RB's in the summer and bringing in 2 new ones? The realist in me says that's a tough ask. Aren't we better protecting his transfer value by offering him a new contract whilst buying someone like Aarons. Let the pair of them slug it out for the RB slot next season and then make our choices for Aurier. I actually don't think he'll be short of suitors next Jan or next summer as long as we aren't greedy.
It's OK saying don't give Aurier a new contract, but is that really sensible? Are we really serious about selling 2 RB's in the summer and bringing in 2 new ones? The realist in me says that's a tough ask. Aren't we better protecting his transfer value by offering him a new contract whilst buying someone like Aarons. Let the pair of them slug it out for the RB slot next season and then make our choices for Aurier. I actually don't think he'll be short of suitors next Jan or next summer as long as we aren't greedy.