Squad for 2015-16 season

[DublinSpur]

Skimming this thread, there are some people suggesting we'll make 8 or 9 signings, most of which are destined for the first team. I really don't see that at all. Pochettino will want to strengthen naturally, but I can't see him wanting complete upheaval and basically starting again from scratch. I do think there will be some incomings though, mostly because we're almost at the point where we need to replace anyone we let go... there isn't a massive amount of "dead wood" left in the squad. But I imagine the newcomers will *mostly* be younger players replacing the likes of Kaboul, Adebayor and Paulinho... players who aren't really in our match-day squad these days.

I imagine we'll fight tooth and nail to hold on to Lloris, but that may end up outside our control; if a massive offer comes in and the player agitates for a move then it might prove impossible. If that happens I would hope we don't just default to Vorm as Number One and bring in a back-up. In truth, Vorm hasn't really been given a run of games, and he might yet turn out to be great for us, but right now I just think we have one of the top 2 or 3 keepers in the world, and the number of points that a world-class keeper earns a team over the course of a season can make a massive difference. I'd hate to lose that.

Aside from Lloris I don't think there's any player who we'll lose against our will who will seriously weaken us. Kane won't force a move this summer even if a silly offer comes in, and while Vertonghen might... he's not as irreplaceable as I once thought he was. Don't get me wrong, I don't want to see him go, but I imagine we could get someone as good as him for the same money (not like Levy will sell him on the cheap, right?)

I think our starting 11 will be very similar on the first game of next season, but there may well be a few new faces on the bench. My guess would be something like...

---------------------- Lloris (please!)
Walker ---- Wimmer --- Vertonghen ---- Rose
---------------- Mason ------- Bentaleb
Lamela --------------- Eriksen ------------- Chadli
---------------------------- Kane

Bench: Vorm, Dier, Davies, Townsend, Dembele, New Defensive Midfielder, New Striker.


I think we'll sell: Paulinho, Soldado, Kaboul, Adebayor, Capoue, Chiriches.

But I think we'll replace them all - either via promotion from the academy (Pritchard?) or bringing in new players (Yedlin, Alli and Wimmer we already know about). I think our big signing is likely to be a striker (Rodriguez?), and we may even get two (though one would be a younger player willing to back up Kane plus Rodriguez).

 

[Gutter Boy]

Who could we really vastly improve him with??? I'd love to hear some viable suggestions?

Scheniderlain .. Maybe last summer but not now
Cabaye... Great player but will be 30 soon and on big money

Who else???

I know that's Mitchell's job to find someone but I'd love to see some genuine getable suggestions of better players

If we sign another CM, it will be someone like that Rabiot or another Alli - a prospect to come in and understudy Masaleb

 

[Gutter Boy]

I see Rodriguez as left forward Chadli role, and ings as kane back up.

Your team gutter is way way too weak. We need an absolute class central midfielder and winger brought in.

Bentaleb NEW CM (mason and Stambouli as back up)

Lamela, eriksen, Rodriguez (Pritchard, dembele, chadli as back up)

All I and kids can be additional squad players.

I'm not 100% sure, but I think when they played together at Burnley, Rodriguez played centrally and Ings played LWF

 

[Gutter Boy]

I see Rodriguez as left forward Chadli role, and ings as kane back up.

Your team gutter is way way too weak. We need an absolute class central midfielder and winger brought in.

Bentaleb NEW CM (mason and Stambouli as back up)

Lamela, eriksen, Rodriguez (Pritchard, dembele, chadli as back up)

All I and kids can be additional squad players.

Why is it too weak? It is the team that this season will get us 6th (probably) and to a cup final, despite being by some distance the youngest in the league and the coach's first season.

With a few additions like Wimmer, Ings, Pritchard, Alli, Winks and Oduwa, everyone a year older, and a full Poch preseason, we can be very strong next season.

 

[milo]

Oh absolutely. But I presume everyone bar gutter boy still thinks he can be vastly Improved upon. Maybe not. I still think we will though. Or I fear for us challenging on all fronts again.

Players that can't be improved on are few and far between. I doubt that many people would consider buying an upgrade on Mason as a priority this summer.

 

[indianspur]

Who could we really vastly improve him with??? I'd love to hear some viable suggestions?

Scheniderlain .. Maybe last summer but not now
Cabaye... Great player but will be 30 soon and on big money

Who else???

I know that's Mitchell's job to find someone but I'd love to see some genuine getable suggestions of better players

Mitchell is a big fan of James McCarthy at Everton....im not so sure, plus he will cost 15-20 mill which is a lot for him imo

Rabiot seems to be a Baldini fave, but will PSG let him leave

 

[Bedfordspurs]

Mitchell is a big fan of James McCarthy at Everton....im not so sure, plus he will cost 15-20 mill which is a lot for him imo

Rabiot seems to be a Baldini fave, but will PSG let him leave

McCarthy is a woeful player in my opinion and one that cost a lot in the first place. He is technically poor and spends a lot of games kicking players. He is worth about £5m max IMO.

Rabiot doesn't exist in real life as if he did we would have signed him in January as it was a dead cert!!!

But at least your bringing up alternatives

 

[indianspur]

McCarthy is a woeful player in my opinion and one that cost a lot in the first place. He is technically poor and spends a lot of games kicking players. He is worth about £5m max IMO.

Rabiot doesn't exist in real life as if he did we would have signed him in January as it was a dead cert!!!

But at least your bringing up alternatives

yeah as i said im not convinced by McCarthy but just watch how heavily we are linked with him in the summer. He seems to be one of these modern day high energy, runs around a lot, passes sideways type of players that stats men/analysts just love

There is Will Hughes at derby that always gets a mention as a future talent

Johannes Geis at FC Mainz is highly rated, defensive mid with a lot of skill on the ball.

 

[Bedfordspurs]

I'm not 100% sure, but I think when they played together at Burnley, Rodriguez played centrally and Ings played LWF

They weren't at the club at the same time IIRC and Ings replaced Rodriguez

I've never seen Ings play as a wide forward personally

 

[Bedfordspurs]

yeah as i said im not convinced by McCarthy but just watch how heavily we are linked with him in the summer. He seems to be one of these modern day high energy, runs around a lot, passes sideways type of players that stats men/analysts just love

There is Will Hughes at derby that always gets a mention as a future talent

Johannes Geis at FC Mainz is highly rated, defensive mid with a lot of skill on the ball.

Hughes is a great young player

 

[monkeybarry]

They weren't at the club at the same time IIRC and Ings replaced Rodriguez

I've never seen Ings play as a wide forward personally

They were for a short time, but that was Ings having just joined as a 20 yr old and Rodriguez was established. I also think Rodriguez has developed into a WF from having played up front and as a winger in 442's but quite fitting either role

 

[GrimsbyYid]

Players that can't be improved on are few and far between. I doubt that many people would consider buying an upgrade on Mason as a priority this summer.

Are you watching this? And you don't think we need a central midfielder It is our weakest are of the pitch by an absolute fudging distance. Woeful.

 

[braineclipse]

I'm again left feeling that we need a target man type player in the summer.

Burnley defend well and work hard, made it difficult for our midfielders, made us play it long. When he was on we mostly aimed long balls at Chadli and he lost out most of the time. With Chadli off we tried aiming long balls at Kane and despite tremendous effort he too failed to do much with those balls. Perhaps for both it's understandable, they're both decent at it, but it's not their game.

I really think in games like these having someone who the opponents would genuinely worry about physically and in the air when we did play it long could be a tremendous help for us. Pochettino had that with Lambert at Southampton, in theory he has that with Ade for us, but in practice obviously he doesn't.

 

[Danishfurniturelover]

I like Cissco at Saudi Sportswashing Machine think he is pretty good. Saw we were linked with some Spanish kid the other week, a midfielder so if he has been scouted then great.

Maybe the Belgium Tiemmens?

 

[Bedfordspurs]

We need a mix of forward rather than just Kane who does everything well

I agree that a they man option and a small speedster would be no bad thing.

 

[SpurMeUp]

The summer will be defined by who we can offload. We won't sign many players if we can't move a few on.

We need at least one fast tricky winger. The problem is we have Lamela, Townsend, Lennon and Chadli! All decent, none good enough on current form. Then imo we need a strong midfield player to compliment Bentaleb and Mason. But we need to sell at least two of Paulinho, Capoue, Dembele. If Fazio is not in favour, a new CB. Soldado and Ade block the way fresh foils up front too.

The summer will be defined by who we can off load. And likely it will be easier to sell players we'd like to keep than the expendables. For example, Poch might want to keep Dembele, Lamela, Chadli and maybe Townsend and shift Paulinho, Ade, Soldado, Capoue and probably at least one of the CBs. In reality, we will have to see who gets interest, and work from there. Say Townsend gets a £20m offer (yes I know, with clauses etc its possible), we'd have to take that and maybe keep Lennon. And so on. We'll have to be flexible and Poch will have to work with the players that we can't easily sell. Which imo is not that bad, since we need stability. We need some players to settle and if he can get them to push on, who knows? Maybe Soldado will come good. Maybe the faith shown in home grown younger players can be extended to Paulinho and Lamela.

 

[AdamB]

We need a mix of forward rather than just Kane who does everything well

Agree with this. Forward positions are where we've been really short this season - out of all our attacking players, only Kane and Eriksen have contributed meaningfully; Chadli on occasions. We really need a third CF plus at least one other player (who has some pace) for the three roles behind the CF. We cant rely on Townsend, Lamela, Soldado or (regularly) Chaldi and pinning our hopes on Pritchard is too much for a kid.

 

[Rorschach]

What struck me today is that none of our three AM's made a run in behind all game pretty much. All wanted it to feet and it made us predictable as fudge. A willing runner of the channels would be on my list.

 

[Bedfordspurs]

What struck me today is that none of our three AM's made a run in behind all game pretty much. All wanted it to feet and it made us predictable as fudge. A willing runner of the channels would be on my list.

It was like a game from earlier in the season with a lack of movement and pace... And we can't blame ade, Kaboul or Crapoue

 

[milo]

Are you watching this? And you don't think we need a central midfielder It is our weakest are of the pitch by an absolute fudgeing distance. Woeful.

I did watch it and it was not a good performance from Mason and Bentaleb but if we are assessing players based on yesterday's game there would not be many that we would keep.

The question for me is did the team improve when Mason came into the side this season? And the answer to that is a resounding yes. Does he have weaknesses to his game and has his form dipped a bit of late? The answer to both of these is yes too but that is to be expected of a player who has only just broken through.

I would be very surprised if Poch did not give Bentaleb and Mason another season together to see how they progress.