TheReligion
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I think that’s fair and don’t disagree.I think it will depend on how successful they are at buying. Personally, I agree that they won't be able to write players and sums like Bakayoko, Drinkwater, Lukaku, Kepa etc off like RA. However, I am not sure they will do this as some of their buys have been truly shocking.
As for the current squad situation, I understand that Lukaku is a €80m liability at the moment, but that liability is a known issue and would've been calculated in their numbers within the bid. So, writing a player like him off or what every sum they have to accept would've mostly been already calculated. Thus, I can see them taking haircuts on players this Summer as I do see them backing Tuchel.
Another factor is that they have committed to spend £1.25BN over the next ten years in investment. Obviously, there is the stadium issue, but from what I know about the Earls Court project, don't be surprised if they swing some sort of deal there which will leave them with the SB site to develop/leverage. I have written about this before, so won't repeat myself, but EC is in desperate need for a anchor tenant to get it off the ground. There is certainly a deal there to be made there that could be very lucrative; especially as the RA stumbling block is gone.
So, yeah, they cannot go around buying so many dud players and writing it off, however I still think they'll be well up there in terms of gross spending.
Their recent recruitment hasn’t been great when you look at it. Especially when you consider players like Livramento, Tomori, Abraham and Guehi have been cast aside and cost them nothing.
Will Gallagher and Billy G get a chance?