So now that we're down - Next season's Championship [winning] squad

[lyb]

Sadly not. I should imagine he'll end up at Everton or someone like that.

Wonder if we could loan Klose out for a season? Probably clutching at straws mind. He really is just too good.

 

[brhdodds]

I'd happy giving either 'keeper a run, but think we have to stick with one and let the other move on. Ruddy might either fancy giving it another go with someone like Boro or a final pay check being a reserve at a big club. Chelsea were rumoured to be after him not so long ago.

GK: DR/JR ?
RB: IP ?
CB: ? RB SB RM
LB: ? HT
RM: ? JM
CM: AT JH WH GO GD JM
LM: MJ JM
FWD: ? CJ ?
OUT: DR/JR SW TK MT MO VOO YM NR RB TA SN KL RvW

I could also see Martin and Pinto leaving. I wouldn't think that many players will leave, and would love to keep Brady. The main reason I have YM and SN leaving is because of their wages.
I think we need a back-up GK, a RB, at least one CB, a first-choice LB, RM, LM and a couple of strikers. A couple of players I'd be looking at would be Tom Lees, Jordan Obita, Solly March (his knee injury might put him in the available bracket), Jonathan Kodjia and Nicky Ajose.

 

[KeiranShikari]

Christ, initials, I'll probably have to think about this a bit.

Funny, I really can't see Martin or Pinto leaving. Same with Naismith, unless his release clause really is as low as 4m like some have implied [fans, not anybody within the club obviously]. 

In regard to wages/finances, I believe Neil when he says that the club will be fine financially, even without big sales I think we'll be good to move forward. Whittaker, Mbokani, Bamford, Wisdom, Lafferty, Turner and RVW [We can dream] leaving will free up a lot of money. Add one big sale on top of that ie. Redmond and we'll probably have quite a bit of freedom for Neil to reshape the squad.

 

[Canaryboy]

So Alex Neil points out the age of our squad and says that we need to rebuild.

He's spot on, our squad is too old and we've suffered from a lack of investment in players with their best years ahead of them in the last two and half years worth of transfer windows. Hughton benefited from Lambert's investment in players like Ruddy, Pilkington, Johnson, Howson, Bennett, Martin, etc. 

Alex Neil has since benefited from Hughton's investment in Olsson, Redmond, Tettey, etc. 

Both of those managers purchased players who could realistically give us 5+ years of good football, and that is literally the only reason that Alex Neil had a squad good enough to get us up last season, thankfully Neil Adams didn't get long enough to f*ck us up, because the likes of Hooiveld and Cuellar were the types of signings we could have expected from Glenn Roeder and Bryan Gunn. 

But Alex Neil has had 18 months and three transfer windows, and hasn't thought long term at all when it comes to transfers, he's only contributed to the problem of an ageing squad, he's handed four year deals to Matt Jarvis (29), Naismith (29), and has signed Dorrans (29), and Mulumbu (29), meanwhile he handed a three year deal to Russell Martin and a new deal to Bassong. 

If Alex Neil is now going to start thinking longer term with his transfer dealings and start signing 23/24 year olds for the longer term good of the club and the managers who will follow him, like some of the previous managers at this club have done to the benefit of him, then that is great news. But it grates a bit to hear a manager make a reference to the age of the players when he has spent somewhere around £13m in transfer fees on 29 year olds, which is more than was said to have been spent on Howson, Redmond, Olsson, Tettey, Ruddy and Bennett combined, by previous managers who generally avoided signing players coming to their natural end. 

If he left the club this summer what has left his successor with? And his successors successor? Pinto, Brady and a severe lack of strikers. 

So I'm less interested in hearing Alex Neil's sly dig at the old guard (that's what it was, he was having a dig at the four or five players who could fit his description), and much more interested in seeing or hearing what his 5 year plan is, the one which doesn't reflect any individual ambitions he has in the medium term, because right now if he left us I think he's left the next manager in a far bigger mess than either one of Lambert or Hughton left for their successors. What does he expect Jarvis to be able to offer at the age of 32 for example, considering the only thing he really offers us at the moment is having above average pace (watch that evaporate within the next 12 months). 

Yes Naismith is 3/4 years younger than Hoolahan, yes it is possible that he'll still be effective in his fourth year, but.... we actually signed Hoolahan as a 25 year old. 

Its disappointing that we don't already have the nucleus of our new squad, because we could quite easily have signed 4 or 5 more quality 24/25/26 year olds in the time that Alex Neil has been at the club, could have signed 2 or 3 with the reported Naismith fee alone. 

Pinto suddenly looks like a good player, there is that to cling onto. 

 

[Canaryboy]

TL;DR..... I'm glad Alex Neil identifies the need to reduce the age of our squad, but that is a problem partially caused by him. 

 

[Gaffer]

I recall a Russell Martin interview where he said 'The manager's learning his trade too', which is about as much of a dig as is possible for a captain to have at his manager. What does Neil know about building a squad to compete in the Championship? How many tens of millions are we going to hand him while he 'learns his trade'? Most of his signings have been extremely poor so far. What was the point of bringing in Andreu? Or Naismith? We can expect more of the same because Neil values versatility and 'guts'. But it takes more than that to build a Premier League quality squad.

 

[KeiranShikari]

I'll be willing to complain about the Naismith signing in a year's time if he's still under-performing.If he sticks around I wholeheartedly believe that he'll end up a huge player for this club. People likening it to the RVW transfer make me laugh. 

Brady and Klose made up the biggest chunk of the money spent by Neil [or during the time that Neil has been here] and they look great. Mbokani was okay and Pinto has had a few decent games. Jarvis hasn't been in form since the injury but he'll quite possibly be a decent player next season. I like Dorrans as a squad player too.

Am probably a happy clapper.

 

[Gaffer]

Premier League quality squads are not made up of 'okay' players who have 'a few decent games' and 'squad players'. 

 

[KeiranShikari]

Lucky we aren't a Premier League team then.

Pinto's few decent games came after a few shaky ones where he was clearly getting used to the league and country. Dorrans has actually been a squad player in the Premier League for a lot of his career. I like him as a squad player even more in the Champs, just hope Neil doesn't utilise him as the '''''QB''''' again this season.

Whilst far from perfect it could be a lot worse. Look at our neighbours, what would they give for a player like Dorrans. They've been in and around the playoffs with bang average players like Skuse and Hyam in their teams.

I also like how you didn't comment on Brady and Klose. I repeat 2 of the 3 big money moves have been decent. 

 

[Canaryboy]

I'll be willing to complain about the Naismith signing in a year's time if he's still under-performing.If he sticks around I wholeheartedly believe that he'll end up a huge player for this club. People likening it to the RVW transfer make me laugh. 

Brady and Klose made up the biggest chunk of the money spent by Neil [or during the time that Neil has been here] and they look great. Mbokani was okay and Pinto has had a few decent games. Jarvis hasn't been in form since the injury but he'll quite possibly be a decent player next season. I like Dorrans as a squad player too.

Am probably a happy clapper.

Hey, don't write Van Wolfswinkel off in a yellow shirt yet. He's got 1 year left on his contract, nobody else will want him, and we haven't got any strikers 

 

[KeiranShikari]

Wolfy playing off Lafferty. We can dream. 

 

[Canaryboy]

Dorrans has actually been a squad player in the Premier League for a lot of his career. I like him as a squad player even more in the Champs, just hope Neil doesn't utilise him as the '''''QB''''' again this season.

He's one of those being purged according to yesterdays edition of a respectable Scottish newspaper.

 

[KeiranShikari]

It wouldn't surprise me considering the fact that Maddison will probably be accommodated. 

Still a tidy player though.

 

[Gaffer]

I also like how you didn't comment on Brady and Klose. I repeat 2 of the 3 big money moves have been decent. 

2 excellent signings - we got what we paid for. But if we make 2 good signings and a bunch of duds over the summer then we have no chance of promotion.

 

[KeiranShikari]

Bunch of duds. lol

 

[Fenway Frank]

Wouldn't it be great if we could get all the players in a room and everyone here had to read their posts out to them ?. Be even worse if pink un posters came too !!

 

[KeiranShikari]

Should speak to the media team about setting up a summer youtube feature. Something like that 'celebs read mean tweets' think on youtube.

On a related not I once saw Mark Fotheringham replying to people on the comments section of his legendary Fozzy Flick vid.

 

[Dubai Mark]

I am of the view, despite the disappointment of relegation, that we will end up with a cracking squad for The Championship. ALL of our current squad will be top players in that league, and that includes The Murphy's and probably one or two of the other youngsters. Sure we will lose a couple, but our financial stability these days will ensure we get good money for them, and then go on to add a few quality additions, including a really top striker. The base is there, it just needs sorting out, organising and revitalising.....as mentioned earlier we have so much more quality than the Binners, McCarthy would love even our rejects. We just have to make sure that we have at least two quality options for every position and at least four good strikers.   

 

[OldRobert]

I am of the view, despite the disappointment of relegation, that we will end up with a cracking squad for The Championship. ALL of our current squad will be top players in that league, and that includes The Murphy's and probably one or two of the other youngsters. Sure we will lose a couple, but our financial stability these days will ensure we get good money for them, and then go on to add a few quality additions, including a really top striker. The base is there, it just needs sorting out, organising and revitalising.....as mentioned earlier we have so much more quality than the Binners, McCarthy would love even our rejects. We just have to make sure that we have at least two quality options for every position and at least four good strikers.   

Mark, just out of academic interest, how much do you think that little lot would cost, with wages, signing on and agents fees, IF, you could find them.  I should think every team there is wants that sort of set up!  No offence but I think a little dose of realism is needed.

 

[Gaffer]

I am of the view, despite the disappointment of relegation, that we will end up with a cracking squad for The Championship. ALL of our current squad will be top players in that league, and that includes The Murphy's and probably one or two of the other youngsters. Sure we will lose a couple, but our financial stability these days will ensure we get good money for them, and then go on to add a few quality additions, including a really top striker. The base is there, it just needs sorting out, organising and revitalising.....as mentioned earlier we have so much more quality than the Binners, McCarthy would love even our rejects. We just have to make sure that we have at least two quality options for every position and at least four good strikers.   

The binners are not a good reference point for a decent Championship squad. If Newcastle keep Benitez they're obvious favourites and the usual suspects will be up there challenging for promotion. Then there's always an unexpectedly strong team. Complacency isn't going to help our cause.