ETH proved up until February that his team coaching ideas and his first 11-13 players potentially could mount a title challenge, however their are huge issues in the squad which have revealed themselves in the last 3 months.
The obvious changes are we need an elite Centre forward, a high energy high quality Defensive Midfield/ Centre Midfielder and a new Goal keeper that’s good with his feet. These three areas are what we need to improve just to compete for top 4 next year, to mount a serious title challenge we would need to add a quality Right CB that can be first choice or compete with an injury plagued Varane and we need an attacking right back, Back up striker and finally we need another goal threat, either an attacking 10/Right winger but a goal scorer Someone with a touch of magic.
The reality is we might have £100m to spend plus hopefully another £100m after we’ve sold players, some of these players will be 100% profitable as we did not buy them, assume the club manages to sell ; D Henderson, A Telles, B Williams, E Bailey, DVB, Fred, A Elanga, H Maguire, A Martial and let’s A Tuanzebe and P Jones go. Suggestion which could improve us are ;
Goalkeeper - David Raya PL proven, not top 10 in the world but good enough we can get a deal for £30m
RCB - Kim Min Jae , fast strong physical and a buy out clause let’s say we get that done early £50m easily the Best Buy of business we can do this summer
Right Back - J Frimpong or DumFries both will cost £30-35m both are huge upgrades
DM/CM - Adrian Rabiot, I’d love Rice or Caciedo, we simply won’t have the money to do either because a least one CFW is a priority and maybe two - Free Transfer/wages £10m per year this is a no brainer for the club or we spend £30m on A Onana
Centre Forward - R Hojlund, available not the finished article could play right wing, fast tall strong a decade in front of him but will not be good all the time and will cost £50-60m if not then go buy Goncalo Ramos, again young career in front of him £70-80m but both are available and both suit ETH style. Kane on Osimhen are simply not realistic, price, protracted transfer dealings with their clubs.
Number10/Right Winger - Paulo Dyballa he has a clause in his contract for £17m we missed out in the summer and he’s been Romas best player, he has Garnaucho who he can be role model for and L Martinez who they won world cup together.
He offers more magic either from the start or the bench, he can play with bruno who can drop in the 8 in certain games or others he can play the right wing play maker with a new overlapping right back.
Back up Striker - M Thurham, he’s 6’4 quick strong and at 26 could be devastating at united, he’s also a free transfer, he will think he has a chance to be our starting 9 as he’s competing against a raw 20 year old, finally a goal threat from the start and the bench.
The total cost of all of these is £190-200m and gives us a squad next year that looks like this ;
GK(3)- D Raya, D De Gea, T Heaton (HG)
Defenders(9) - J Frimpong(HG), AWB(HG), R Varane, KMJ, L Martinez, V Lindelof, L Shaw( HG), D Dalot, T Malacia
Midfielder(7) - Casemeiro, C Eriksen, S Mctominay (HG), A Rabiot, Bruno, Fred or Sabitzer, K Mainoo(HG)
Attackers(8) - Rashford(HG), J Sancho(HG), P Dyballa, A Garnaucho (HG), M Thurham, R Hojlund, Antony, A Diallo
A squad of 26/27 with 9 homegrown players, it’s why we will keep Scott Mctominay plus he’s more than good enough as a squad player probably would sell Fred and buy Sabitzer. This team won’t win the Title but it should be top 3 comfortably.
Ideally if money and FFP were not an issue we would all probably want ; V Osimhen, KMJ, M Caciedo, M Maignan, R Laeo and FDJ but all these transfers bar 1 or 2 are unrealistic.
