Tuesday 13th May is the
beginning of preparations for next season, according to our boss. Rumours will be rife, of course; it’ll be hard to keep
up at times I’m sure. Over the coming weeks and months though I’m going to try to sift through it all;
separating ‘sensible possibilities’ from ‘utter tosh’.
It’s already begun elsewhere...
The Manyoo ‘clear out’ has
begun, starting with Vidic and Camel Gob and Chelsea have agreed a fee for Atletico Madrid
 |
| Errrrrrrr...where next? |
W.B.A. & Tottenham Hotspur
have already parted with their Managers [both after a very short time in charge]
and rumours are that West Ham United are about to do likewise…perhaps even as early
as today!
It’s ‘all go’ already!
What about us?
Well a couple of months before the season finished I’d already issued a rather lengthy list of areas for improvement and possible / realistic targets. Some of these had
received rumour-links with us; some of those have continued while others have
gone quiet. Others were my own, personal preference-targets.
There have since been a few others associated with a possible move to the Etihad but before I list those, here’s a summary of the positions that Manuel will, I’m sure, have been looking at whilst sat at his office desk this morning onwards…before his well-earned summer holiday.
There have since been a few others associated with a possible move to the Etihad but before I list those, here’s a summary of the positions that Manuel will, I’m sure, have been looking at whilst sat at his office desk this morning onwards…before his well-earned summer holiday.
Keeper:
Completely unnecessary if Costel
is to stay in my opinion. But if he does decide that he’s had enough of being
Number 2 to Joe, then of course we need another
one.
Does Pellegrini go for a more-than-competent ‘back-up’ to
Joe - either in the form of a talented youngster OR a
32+ and vastly experienced one – or does he go with a keeper who can
SERIOUSLY both challenge and even, dare I say, keep Joe on the bench?
Well the former could come in the form of Wilfredo (Willy) Caballero and the latter, perhaps,
is Stoke City
Left-back:
An absolute must in the summer!
Kolarov: Decent going
forward, not so good at defending most of the time. That’s just not a good
enough situation whatsoever - and there’s
even an argument for a complete clear-out of that area and a couple coming in…
Right-back:
Zabaleta, for all his Player Of
The Season (from me) efforts this season, just cannot continue to perform like
that without a break, I’m sure of it. He somehow
got his second wind in the last few games – when it looked like he was
finally fading – but we just can’t risk that for another (long) season.
 |
| Micah Richards - Uncertain future... |
Central defence:
It’s absolutely vital that we get a top-quality centre half
in soon to build a formidable partnership with Vincent Kompany. But the question for me is, will one addition in this area be
enough. Well there are many factors to consider before we can answer this.
- Will Matija Nastasic be fit next season?
- Can Demichelis perform to the same, latter-season-form when, most likely, asked to just cover for the new, in-coming-star, central defender? Martin got better and better with games under his belt; both fitness and confidence-wise. Will he be as effective providing respite-cover for a much younger set of central defenders ahead of him?
- Will we be bringing back – and using – Karim Rekik?
Defensive
midfield:
With the departing Gareth Barry
and the highly-likelihood of Jack Rodwell
heading for the exit door also, we’re left with Fernandinho
and Javi Garcia to fill that ‘holding’ role in
the middle. Enough quality? I would say not.
Before he’d even kicked a ball I, perhaps unkindly, just wasn’t
too convinced about our new Brazilian. And in his first few weeks he did little
to convince me that I was wrong.
However, almost under the radar he turned himself into a
vital component; similar to Nigel de Jong in
that his reliability in front of the back 4 allowed Yaya
to be confident enough to maraud forward for large spells of most games.
So why, towards the end of the season, did Pellegrini drop
him for Javi Garcia?
As for Javi himself, he’s just not good enough. Often
producing a 5/10 performance with the occasional 4 or even 3 chucked in for not-so good measure; he rarely peaks
above a 6. When not faced with a strong, opposing midfield he can often cope
and look cool enough at times…but surely
he’ll be moved on in the summer.
That’s why I’m so concerned and puzzled about the number of
games he got ahead of ‘Ferdi’ towards the end – are we not now going for Porto ’s
Fernando ‘The Octopus’? Despite signing a
new contract for the Portuguese side in January this one is SUPPOSED to be a
'done deal’…
In my opinion, we need one. Could I suggest for a moment, though, that James Milner would be perfect for this role and we would, therefore, not need
to splash any cash in this area?
Attacking / creative
midfield / winger:
This is where I get greedy. Samir Nasri,
Yaya Toure, David Silva, Jesus Navas (and the versatile James Milner) would be mouth-watering for most Premier League AND European sides. And when you look
to the likes of Emyr Huws and Marcos Lopes from the EDS,
we have talent coming through in that area of the field too.
I know you can’t just buy and stockpile players for every
position BUT…assuming that the EDS lads aren’t quite ready to step up just yet,
if David gets injured while another one is suspended for example, then all of a
sudden that “wealth” of attacking midfielders looks a little thin to me.
And, yes, I’m SURE Stevan Jovetic
could ‘do a job’ – and a bloody good one – in the middle or down the left of
midfield. But just look at the quality of Chelsea
and some of the top, TOP teams in Europe ; at
what they have at their disposal in the middle and on the wings. Is THAT not
where we want to be?
So I say again; it might seem greedy of me but to ‘move up
the levels’ I would be looking for us to bring in another, quality attacking / creative
midfielder-winger in the summer.
Strikers:
If they could all stay fit for the most part then, no; we
simply don’t need one. Even after me being picky about our attacking midfield
options we should…SHOULD have enough in our forward locker in Alvaro Negredo, Edin Dzeko,
Sergio Aguero and Stevan Jovetic. I’m not sure what on earth is happening with
John Guidetti; towards the end of the season he
couldn’t even get on Stoke City’s bench (unless he was injured…again)!
And we have exciting prospects from the EDS in the form of Devante Cole, Jordy Hiwula
and Jose Angel Pozo.
HOWEVER…if we are to move Alvaro Negredo on after just one
season at the club – a rumour that wasn’t
going away for a while – then we would most DEFINITELY need an addition ‘up
top’.
And there’s the ‘progression’ argument again too. You don’t
stand still and do well in this league; most of the chasing pack are going to
be in for top strikers in the summer believe me.
There’s a bloody good
argument that we should get a striker REGARDLESS of whether we ‘off load’ a
front man in the summer.
Personally I think that would be TOO reckless and greedy…but
equally I could understand it.
SO…
Absolutely minimum requirements in the summer:
1 left-back
1 right-back1 central defender
1 defensive midfielder
Not unreasonable spending:
1 keeper
1 left-back1 right-back
2 central defenders
1 defensive midfielder
Splurge time!
1 keeper
2 left-backs1 right-back
2 central defenders
1 defensive midfielder
1 attacking / creative midfielder / winger
1 striker
Which is it to be I
wonder…
(Sensible) rumours
since my blog-posting on 16th March…
Ross Barkley - Central midfielder - Everton
Good chance of ‘leaving
the wage bill’ in the summer:
(* = Almost certainties / ** = Certainty)
Costel Pantilimon
Richard Wright *Dedryck Boyata
Aleksandar Kolarov
Joleon Lescott **
Micah Richards *
Gareth Barry **
Javi Garcia
Alex Henshall
Jack Rodwell *
Scott Sinclair **
John Guidetti *
Alex Nimely *
Luca Scapuzzi **
For us it has to be another TWO levels…
The chasing pack are already
ruffled and are plotting against us for next season. And, I’m sure, our
owners will not only want us to carry on performing well on a domestic level but
will also want to see even FURTHER improvement in Europe .
That’s why not only is standing still not an option; but neither is moving
ourselves up just 1 notch.
Although I’m sure he’ll tweak his
defence a bit too; most pundits have been quite-rightly stating for ages now that
Chelsea
 |
| Manager of the Year...but not a happy chappy. |
Arsenal will always be there or there abouts and in the summer, no
doubt under the radar, they’ll pick up a diamond or two as well.
Under-performing – albeit finishing 6th - Tottenham Hotspur will be a bigger
threat this season coming too, I think. I had them down as a dangerous force at
the start of last season but it just wasn’t to be. They’ve already off-loaded
their “temporary manager”. Watch out for these…
I can’t see Everton having the same season next time round; I think they’ll
struggle in the league at least…
And then there’s dear ol’ Manyoo. I hate to say this but if they HAVE got
this Louis Van Gaal fella and they go on to spend big on decent players in the
summer and it DOES ‘click’; then without ANY European football to “distract
them” - a la Liverpool last season - I can see them being very strong
contenders for the league title.
That’s why we need to notch
ourselves up TWO levels in the summer to stay way ahead of the game; with
the kind of signings that can propel us close to the real cream of European
sides.
No nervously looking over our shoulder now; no half-hearted follow-up attempts. We
need to forge ahead and shout from a good distance in front of the rest...
“Catch us if you can!”
“Catch us if you can!”
No comments:
Post a Comment