Leaving us two strikers short (if ade leaves), a creative mid short, backup for both wings short, a keeper only here for a year and a defender or two short...
And that's without retiring Gallas, who i assume you missed out...
We may have spare wages and cash to spend, but I can't see that working out well for us. We need two strikers, yet we've failed to address this striker issue for almost two years now..
Gallas has 12 months on his contract i see no reason why he would want to retire early so we would have to pay money to get him to retire, it may sound good in our lists that we all like to do to say gallas retire but if he has a contract he will not lose out on a couple of million and retire early i just do not see that.
As for the back up for the wings i would have townsend in, i think he can step up, i place faith in him. Maybe he would take easing in like livermore did but i think he could be good enough and might if we gave him time become very good. Personally i think he can become another ashley young if he gets enough game time to continue to improve.
On the other wing i would go for Holiett from blackburn who has shown he has pace and a good cross and can perform in the prem so not a massive risk and not on massive wages. Then the is the option of actually doing some scouting work and bringing in someone from europe, allfrey (spelling, barca lad) on loan. Think it more important we have players who are similar styles so the team has a style of play to fall back on in bad spells.
I imagine ade will leave so yes we will be 2 strikers short but that has us being short sighted over the last few seasons because we are in my opinon lacking upfront. I would not be totally against vdv leaving as i do not feel his is fit enough for english football and we do not play fluid enough with him in the team. If you sold vdv and brought in dembele who has a year left on his contract i do not think we would be in a worse position.
I would like to see us put some of the money we could raise towards to good strikers if we can actually convince them to come here. Or maybe one good striker and 2 others. I understand it is a lot to change in one summer and could backfire but we have left the striker position stagnate the last couple of seasons.
I may lose some people here but next season i would not mind if our strikers were, Llorente(or player of similar quality) dembele, defoe and then a player many would possibly not like but a harrier someone like a shane long or rickie lambert or grant holt. I think a strike force like that would compliment each other and last a season and we could use different players for different types of opposition.
Worth noting that everton and Saudi Sportswashing Machine managed to find strikers from around europe in january that have done a good job for them, the future is not all doom and gloom the players are out there we just need to have confidence in our scouts.
