tajjuk

Bookies have probably been predicting us 10-12 points light for the last two seasons. Was watching Sky's 'Premier League Years 15/16' the other day and it's easy to forget how terrible we were around November to January. Even if we win less of the games we weren't supposed to win (like beating Arsenal, Man Utd, Liverpool etc.) if we have a bit of a stronger squad depth that hopefully should allow us to rotate players out of form more, make us more consistent and avoid that slump. Do that and we can easily could gain those 10-15 points to get 60 odd. I mean Arsenal come fourth every year by basically beating everyone outside the top 6, if we can cut out the losses to the Bournemouths, Norwichs etc. then no reason we can't be near the top 6 again.

Lower than 8th would be a disappointment unless a cup was won.

How is that so pessimistic? A LOT of people seeming to be expecting a lot from Redmond based on very little. Fact is two of our key attacking players over the last two seasons are not in the squad anymore and we have question marks around several of those we currently have to replace them, both in their quality and fitness.

You just never know though, look at Morgan he went from one of the best defensive mids in the top 5 European leagues. For us he was commanding, covering the grass at pace, snapping at opponents heels, anticipating passes and looking the complete midfielder. Then he changes club and manager and suddenly looks a pit ponderous, less mobile, gets forward less, not as many tackles and interceptions. Could be a masterstroke, maybe Redmond's qualities are better served further forward? I do note that for Norwich he seemed to do better as an AMR rather than an MR, suggesting maybe that when freed up from defensive duties and being closer to box (not easy to do in a struggling team shipping goals) he was a lot more of a threat. From what I've seen he's spent a lot of his career playing as more of a traditional winger, maybe this shift to being more of a forward will get the best out of him? Would still like other options of course and more quality in the forward areas, but Puel does have a history of getting the best out of young players and finding their best positions.

It's a lot especially for a 30 year old and one who seems to have a good season followed by a poor one in his career. But Premier league is such a massive amount of money it's worth the gamble even if they bin him after one season, score 25-30 league goals that gets them promoted he's probably worth £30 million to them.

Well except for Gaston, Osvaldo, Juanmi, Forren, Wanyama. I kind of think if the club thinks a player is worth spending £20 million on then they'll spend £20 million. There is no sense in being prudent for prudents sake, there are no trophies for making a transfer profit. We can certainly afford a player or two at that value just from our sales alone and wouldn't be surprised if we did spend around that amount before the end of the window. I mean for example Jese is about the go to PSG for £21 million, I'm pretty sure if he was interested in joining us we would have spent that amount for a player of that calibre.

Well Wanyama was protecting that defence and Pelle was getting on the end of his crosses/chesting balls down for him. I wouldn't underestimate what we have lost.

Replaced in quality. Austin maybe for Pelle, But the current Jay Rod does not replace Mane or a peak version of himself and Romeu is not Wanyama class. Plus we are supposed to be improving the squad, overall quality of squad is worse than last year and we have more games to tackle. We need two/imo, that are on the level if not better than our current best players, mainly in attacking positions.

Not much incentive for the club to sell as we can't replace him for £10 million. Could see him making a fuss about going to Man Utd, but not Everton.

So the two more signings were a back up keeper and a back up right back as predicted. 3 key payers out, and none really replaced despite four signings. Work to do, attack needs strengthening, especially considering how pedestrian Jay Rod looks.

Jese would be a quality signing, good replacement for Mane, not quite the same raw pace and strength but excellent close control and good finisher. I'd take him even with the buy back clause risk. Rumours seems to have him linked heavily with Arsenal and Liverpool, though why either of those need more forwards is beyond me.

Aside spunking the Bale money badly, weren't Spurs always looking to sign young promising domestic players? That's how they got Bale, Lennon, Walker, Rose, Huddlestone, Routledge, Dawson, Carrick etc. With Davies, Trippier, Dier and Alli being the more recent ones. I think over the years they've probably signed 1-2 young english players pretty much every season and consistently raided the championship and done pretty well out of it. Something we certainly shouldn't be adverse to doing, Lewis Cook, Will Hughes are a couple of examples, clearly there is talent out there. Surely better for these sorts of players to come to us where they will get development time and game time, rather than say Rob Holding going to Arsenal where he will play friendlies and league cup games.

All our income will have gone up from those figures, TV money, match day money, sponsorship and remember we'll have some extra games this year as well, guranteed 3 home games, plus the Europa money isn;t vast but all helps bump our turnover by probably another £6-8 million. Not to mention it's bit one sided to just show turnover without expenditure, Liverpool have a massively bloated squad of in a lot of cases over paid players. They have an old stadium to renew and upgrade, the first instalment of which is £50 million and that's the first instalment. They have the likes of Henderson, Sturridge, Countinho, Firminho, Milner are all on £100 - 120k a week, Benteke barely playing on £140k a week, Ings, Markovic, Leiva are on like £60k a week. Thank to their terrible transfer policy they have players that play 7-8 games a season are getting £60k a week. They have wasted a huge amount of their turnover advantage compared to us, huge amounts, they only made their first profit in like 7 years in 2015 because they sold Suarez for £75 million. We have basically got rid of most of our bloat in wages (likes of Gaston and Osvaldo etc. off the books is probably £130k a week wages alone). I'd like to think we'd never give the likes of a Milner or a Henderson £100k a week, but we can give that to select players who are worth it and key players with the new income. We just can't afford to throw away £60k a week to squad players. I also do think people are putting way too much stock in Redmond, will be happy to be proved wrong but at the end of the day he is an inconsistent young player who struggled to hold down a place in relegated team last year. That is not a replacement for arguably are best player. 2 signings by 9th August fine, though disappointing if it's a right back and back up GK, two signings full stop for the whole window? Very underwhelming and would mean a squad poorer than last year, when we should be improving the squad.

Higuain has been talked about as a top striker for the last few years, he's been linked to Arsenal like every season pretty much as £50-60 million values. He's pretty much the only world class striker that wasn't already at the top 4/5 clubs in the world. He is pretty much the Suarez transfer of a few years ago, similar age, had just had a 30 plus goals season and at a big club but not a super huge clubs. Plus the fee has gone up what £10 million in two years? Also Pogba is over rated, they'll get more worth in goals out of Higuain than Man Utd will get from Pogba at £100 million. it's just sadly the rate these days, Ronaldo was £80 million 6 years ago, now a 25 year old Ronaldo or Messi would be £200 million. Remember Chelsea have just paid Batsuhayi for 35 million Euros, a guy that managed 17 goals in the French league last year and 9 the year before it. Benteke did f all last year and he is still being talked about moving for £30 million. It's no wonder a guy who has been banging them in consistently for 5 years in a top league, in Europe and internationally is going to go for £75 million. How much do you reckon Aguero or Lewandoski would go for? Both about the same age as Higuain and have similar scoring records.

A 'creator' that only managed 4 assists in 33 games with no goals, doesn't seem that exciting, hope that one is wrong.

Yeh goalscoring and creating goals looks like a weak area, all our best players are in defence, aside maybe Tadic. Mane is a big hole to fill and in reality we already had a hole there to fill because we've lacked a goalscoring no.10 for ages, if we had had one of those last year I think we would have finished 4th. So really I think we need two stand out attackers to improve the squad on the lines of Ziyech + Boufal.

Shouting about your massive transfer fund has not serve Everton that well, and it's likely to get no better, everyone already knows they have over £100 million to splash, once Stones goes that is £150 million. Maybe that is our issue as well, people seeing we have £40-50 million from the Mane, Wanyama and Pelle sales and jumping the prices up. Suspect thought that our under the radar and quieter recruitment style will server us better than Everton's 'loadsa money' flash style.

I don't think Romeu is bad, he's a solid player, but he's not as good as Wanyama, not even close. Hence why Spurs were after Wanyama not Romeu.

Yeh that would be Wanyama one of our best players and clearly a level above Romeu. That one. I don't want 'adequate' replacements I want good quality players who improve the squad.

Seems fair enough to me then, shouldn't really affect the funds for bigger signings. Essentially a swap for Juanmi, young, cheap promising player, see how does, if it doesn't work out no great outlay. Lot of midfielders now though if this goes through but still no real replacement for Wanyama quality and style wise.

107 in 190 for Madrid, 71 in 104 for Napoli, in the league plus 30 in 63 for Argentina. Probably in bracket below Messi/Ronaldo level with the likes of Bale and Aguero. The fee is a lot but it was a release clause, way cheaper than Pogba is about to go for and it's pretty much a no brainer for Juve, they get a very good striker and directly weaken their nearest rivals.

Doesn't look like a first teamer but always good to sign some young highly rated talent. What is the fee?

Pretty much echoes my sentiments. The contract for players is great, the two signings are decent, if unproven. But that does not get away from the fact we are 3 quality players down from last years squad and we have not replaced those players, let alone improved the squad and we need to be improving the squad if we want to keep improving. You can't sit still with your squad. Look at the clubs directly around us last year, Liverpool, Stoke, West Ham, Man Utd, Everton, 3 of those already have recruited well. We also sitting on around £35 - 38 million of transfer sales, we have probably cleared several of highest wage earners in Osvaldo, Gaston, Wanyama, Pelle etc. so that should free up wages for the new deals, there is the new TV deal and we have a new main sponsor. The money coming into the club this year has probably never been higher and the club is in probably it's best position for 30 years. I don't want spend for spends sake, but the rumours of them being fairly happy with the squad are worrying considering the position we are in.

Statistically Cedric's defensive contribution last season (tackles, blocks, interceptions etc.) was a lot more than his offensive contribution (assists, goals, key passes, pass success, dribbles, crosses etc.) Same in the Euros, did a lot more defending than he did attacking. Not sure he'd be suited to playing further forward as defending seems to be more of his strong point and he was whoscored.com's highest rated right back in the Premier League last season.

Arsenal supposedly in for Mahrez, so another attacking mid to their multiple numbers already, so another face AOC has to battle past for first team footie, we should be at the head of queue offering him that first team football.