Defence:
OUT -
Rojo and
Darmian - That's surely a no brainer. Plus
Valencia is leaving on a free (already decided).
IN -
De Ligt (by far the best CB available, and young) and
Wan-Bissaka (Defensively very solid, PL proven, English, young).
Midfield:
OUT -
Matic and
Pereira as decent fees can be gotten for both. I assume
Herrera is leaving on a free anyway (
probably already decided). So that's 3 out.
IN -
Rice (mobile, good on the ball, physical, incredible reading of the game for his age, young and English) and
Bruno Fernandes (Energetic, technical, creative, goalscoring).
Attack:
OUT -
Alexis and
Lukaku. Alexis needs to be off the books from a payroll perspective. And Lukaku is a potential 70M transfer fee sitting on the bench. Funds which need to be reinvested.
Mata will likely leave on a free, so can't count that.
IN -
Sancho is an absolute must. He ticks every box.
Coutinho I believe could be gotten at a good price, and is an elite player. He'd bring dead ball expertise, and final ball precision. I'd play him on the left, and have Rashford and Martial rotate as the CF.
Potential line up:
Rashford
Coutinho ______________________ Sancho
Pogba ________ Fernandes
Rice
Shaw _________ Lindelof _________ De Ligt _________ Wan-Bissaka
De Gea
Subs: Romero, Smalling, Dalot, Fred, McTominay, Lingard, Martial
SQUAD:
GK: De Gea, Romero, Henderson
RB: Wan-Bissaka, Dalot
LB: Shaw, Young
CB: De Ligt, Smalling, Bailly
CB: Lindelof, Jones
CDM: Rice, Fred, Garner
CM: Pogba, McTominay, Fernandes, Gomes
AML: Coutinho, Lingard
AMR: Sancho, Chong
CF: Rashford, Martial, Greenwood
With Herrera and Mata leaving on a free on top of the other six, the squad might be one player light. That's a 25 man squad, but assumes real contributions from Garner, Gomes, Greenwood, and Chong. That's a judgement the manager has to make. They'll only get good enough if they get some minutes. So I'd say go for it. But I can easily see an argument for bringing in another utility player who can play anywhere along the attacking front line.
I'm not comfortable with spunking endless cash, so we do need to sell some assets, such as Lukaku. We paid 75M for him, and even when he hasn't started much, he's still our top scorer. In this market, you have to fully expect to recoup your initial investment give or take 5M.
OUT:
Rojo (7m)
Darmian (5M)
Matic (20M)
Pereira (15M)
Alexis (free)
Lukaku (70M)
Herrera (Free)
Mata (Free)
Total: 117M
IN:
De Ligt (80M)
Wan-Bissaka (40M)
Rice (50M)
Fernandes (60M)
Sancho (100M)
Coutinho (80M)
Total: 420M
Net Spend = 300M. Ouch.
Lots of the purchases will include clauses etc. But that's the sot of investment it will take.