Dig Dig

Of course becoming some kind of European powerhouse was never going to happen for us but with the trajectory that we have been on, it's a shame that any ambition to achieve something tanglible and meaningful at elite level with the squad we had is grinding to a halt. We are selling off players for top fee's to top sides, in fact even half of our first 11 could be gone. We did this mostly through developing players with the club and quality coaches through shared experiences with the fans. With a few decent additions in the right places along with our playing style, I do believe he could have had a good go at the top 6 next season. We were not that far off Everton who were in the race for 4th right until the end and we could have had a similar crack ourselves, that I'm sure of, maybe even a cup with the right depth in squad. Ulitmately I don't think it would have been unreasonable to expect another season out of players who are barely into long term deals so that when the time comes that they go, at least we might have a little european adventure ourselves which would put us into a better position in terms of going about replacing them.

It's all harmless really and gives him a good opportunity to peddle out his like, hilarious gags and routines, so I don't begrudge him that in the slightest like or something.

Brilliant

Anything but nasty Nic, the Argie and the Champions League dream hey mate? Enjoy, you'll be like a pig in **** this season.

Exactly. I also love the idea of us being miles away from those above us last season, yet half of our team are off to join them.

Words and actions of the new board have not been aligned for some time now yet alot of what they say and do is lapped up.

I thought Cropper was off to play in US?

Yet we are chasing a 29 year old striker in a 8M deal.

Stop wetting the bed mate, this pre-season my well end up being better than last years and I for one am excited to see what Koeman does.

We need a signing per week between now and the start of the season. Hopefully we are as eager to sign players as we are to sell them.

Who is coming back to make it all better for us though?

Heard that he wants assurances that we will accept reasonable offers from bigger clubs next summer should he have a good season.shouldn't be too hard to persuade him!

So that's the blue print every year to 18 months is it?

I don't buy into the concept of us being completely powerless. Everyone who has gone or will go are one very good and long contracts and ultimately we should be looking at the best interests of the club. I can accept 1 or 2 but there should he no expectations around losing 5 key first team players in one window. The club set our stall out earlier in the year and now this is the end result.

And based on that ratio we would have to sign about 14 players to spend it all. I think we will end up spending between 30-40M.

Well those three players were among the very best for us last year and replacing those alone won't be easy in itself. There is also a strong possibility that Lovren and Morgan will go as well so that's 5 massive players from our starting 11 gone. We also had key areas to address to make sure we didn't have the likes of Jos and Gazza playing chuncks of games again and we also needed another striker and AM is the first place . Pelle and Tadic will be unknown quantities in the prem (if we sign them both) and the fact that we are spending 16M to replace players who have gone for 30M shouldn't necessarily be celebrated. Ultimately, we could need around 8 players brought in which is around 1 a week until now and the end of the season. They also need to be of the right qaulity and able to settle in fairly quick. Let's see how we get on.

Why the negativity? I really like it

Too early for this type of speculation, it's only the begining of July FFS. Wait until September before jumping to assumptions about how we'll rebuild

Lloyd Isgrove?

It's a good performance

Could be basic with the rest made up in performance related pay. Wasn't Cortese hot on performance based salarys?

Go suit yourself mate, I'm not telling you what to do or what to be thinking at any one given time. Guess we'll talk in September.

Should have added yourself on the list in your OP, MLG

You're blowing your little trumpet a bit too eagerly MLG. I've seen more people angry and irritated by you over the years than most.