So far we've brought in Dawson, Robinson, Carvalho, Dias, Goncalves and Soudani. It is fair to say a goalkeeper, right back, DCM and another striker should complete our business. Can't say for sure but according to reports these could potentially be Pantillimon, Byram, Colback/Vukcevic and one of Grabban\Bamford\Oliveira.
Supplementing these new players will be Smith, Darikwa, Fox, Figueiredo, Worrall, Osborn, Bridcutt, Guedioura, Watson, Cash, Lolley, Brereton and Murphy.
So ideally we would have a squad of 22 which would be supplemented by the youth players. That would be superb.
I think it's safe to assume that Henderson, Evtimov, Kapino, Mancienne, Traore, Bouchalakis, McKay, Ward, Cummings and Vellios will try to be moved on. Fingers crossed.
Walker (already), Yates, Ariyibi, Grant & Clough are likely to be loaned out again.
If we could achieve the above it would be an unprecedented pre-season. All the dross that has been holding us back for years will have gone and we will have a vibrant young team supplemented by older, experienced heads. I'm not saying we'll win the league but what a statement of intent this will be. We've no idea whether the team will fly out of the blocks or take a while to gel but it certainly should be interesting finding out!
Was looking at this again - since this post we have signed Pantilimon, Steele, Hefele, Byram, Colback and Grabban and have sold/got rid of Kapino, Mancienne, Traore, Bouchalakis and McKay. Cummings, Walker and Grant have been loaned out.
Apparently Tomlin may well be joining on loan so that would be 5 loans so effectively the end of our incomings I would imagine.
That leaves Henderson, Evtimov, Ward, Clough, Vellios and Ariyibi surplus to requirements. Henderson has been training with Bristol City and Clough has been linked with a loan to Hibs. At this point I would be happy to include Lam on this list and think we may as well loan out Yates until January to a Championship side to see how he fares. I can see Evtimov and Ward being released, not sure what the point is of keeping Ariyibi but imagine he'll be loaned out again and hopefully we can sell Vellios back to Greece and recoup £600K or so.
So we may end up with a first team squad of Pantilimon, Steele, Smith, Byram, Darikwa, Fox, Figueiredo, Worrall, Dawson, Hefele, Robinson, Osborn, Colback, Bridcutt, Guedioura, Watson, Cash, Lolley, Carvalho, Dias, Goncalves, Tomlin, Soudani, Brereton, Murphy and Grabban.
That is a decent squad of 26 it has to be said. Good enough for promotion? Maybe, maybe not but it's a damn sight better than we have had for many a long year.
We probably have one centre back too many and I do wonder whether loaning out Smith and Brereton may aid their development as truth be told, can't see them starting many games this season. Would possibly add Worrall as a loan consideration too.