The Squad 23/24

[Deutsch Wolf]

Just low maintenance. Has certain limitations but you can pop him in the team and not worry too much. Always helpful to have a centre half who can turn and run, the other two can't.

Also your reminder that 18 months ago Bruno Lage didn't trust him to play even one minute and put Ruben Neves there. He needed more time la.

 

[Lycan]

Looking at the contract lengths in the OP we really need to get Lemina & Sarabia new contracts or risk losing them in the summer. I'd add Semedo to that but I don't see that happening, he's been here a long time now and we will still be able to generate a decent fee for him. Pretty happy with the rest of the squad.

 

[Deutsch Wolf]

Sarabia is 33 when his deal ends, I'm not bothered about that one for now.

 

[Lycan]

Sarabia is 33 when his deal ends, I'm not bothered about that one for now.

I want him to be around next season, we'll sell him in the summer if he's only got 1 year left on his deal.

 

[Deutsch Wolf]

Will we? I don't think so.

Neves aside (who we all thought would leave ages beforehand anyway) there are no examples of that.

 

[Lycan]

Will we? I don't think so.

Neves aside (who we all thought would leave ages beforehand anyway) there are no examples of that.

We won't allow players to let their contracts run down when we can generate income.

 

[The Bear]

We won't allow players to let their contracts run down when we can generate income.

He only cost us €5m or so and he has high wages. I don't see anyone that will be beating down our door to double our money for a 32 year old with a fairly meagre goals/assists output.

 

[Lycan]

He only cost us €5m or so and he has high wages. I don't see anyone that will be beating down our door to double our money for a 32 year old with a fairly meagre goals/assists output.

We don't need them to break down our door or double our money. Faced with a choice between selling him and letting him go for free we'll always choose to generate whatever income we can given the situation we've put ourselves in.

Similar situation with Podence. We couldn't find him a buyer in the summer so we kicked the can down the road by loaning him out but extending his contract for a year. The worst case scenario for us would've been him leaving for free.

 

[Deutsch Wolf]

Saudi clubs aside (and I doubt that) no-one is giving us our money back for Sarabia, it won't happen.

 

[Lycan]

Saudi clubs aside (and I doubt that) no-one is giving us our money back for Sarabia, it won't happen.

We don't need our money back. Given the choice between say, £2m or £0M which option do you think Jeff Shi will choose?

 

[Deutsch Wolf]

Well we got £0m for Adama Traoré.

 

[Lycan]

Well we got £0m for Adama Traoré.

That was before we decided we needed to squeeze every penny possible out of the club

 

[Tony Towner]

We won't sell him if O'Neil wants him. Neves aside, which was needed and inevitable we only sold bench players last Summer until the Nunes situation. Semedo will extend by another year imo

 

[Johnny75]

I wouldn't be at all surprised if Fosun sell a lot of players.

 

[Lycan]

We won't sell him if O'Neil wants him. Neves aside, which was needed and inevitable we only sold bench players last Summer until the Nunes situation. Semedo will extend by another year imo

We sold multiple players that Lopetegui wanted to keep. It'll be no different under O'Neil if we decide we want to make another healthy profit in the summer.

 

[Tony Towner]

We sold multiple players that Lopetegui wanted to keep. It'll be no different under O'Neil if we decide we want to make another healthy profit in the summer.

Lopetegui wanted to keep everyone, he was acting like a dick by the end. His comments re Raul were totally disingenuous

 

[AndyWolves]

Re: Sarabia I'd like us to extend his contract as he's a good player, I can't really see anyone paying money to buy him though.

 

[Tony Towner]

Re: Sarabia I'd like us to extend his contract as he's a good player, I can't really see anyone paying money to buy him though.

We'd only want to offer him half what he's on though. The club have done well to keep squad unity given the delta between his salary and anyone else, particularly as he's been a peripheral player until fairly recently

 

[Lycan]

Lopetegui wanted to keep everyone, he was acting like a dick by the end. His comments re Raul were totally disingenuous

Regardless, he wanted to keep them and they were sold. We know this ownership will lie to and fuck over their managers, I don't see how it'll be any different with O'Neil.

 

[Kenny]

Lopetegui wanted to keep everyone, he was acting like a dick by the end. His comments re Raul were totally disingenuous

To be fair I would be fuming and acting the dick if as manager I was told "so yeah, Doherty and King are your only signings unless we sell another £100m+ worth of players"