So if you wrote it out as Heaton, AWB, Lindelof, Maguire, Malacia, McTominay, Fred, Sancho, VDB, Garnacho and Weghorst it looks quite bad but a few tweaks through the summer and it isn’t as bad as you may think.
It’s clear we need a centre forward, a De Jong/Bellingham type midfielder next to Casemiro and a young centre back that’s preferably left sided and I think that’s achievable in the summer if we’re clever although by “we’re” I mean if ETH is clever as last summer was the best we’ve had in some time transfer wise.
With Kane only having a year left it makes sense to go after him if we get top four and maybe win a cup as it’ll show we’re on the way back up and ready to challenge for the top trophies if Kane were to join, the way Kane now plays too is perfect for ETH and the players we already have in the other forward roles.
Bringing in De Jong or Bellingham as a partner to Casemiro would be as transformative as bringing in Casemiro himself, both De Jong and Bellingham can pass brilliantly but also have the engine to go box to box and impact both ends of the pitch.
It’s clear Varane and Martinez are first choice so a young centre back that could be built up over time alongside experienced players should be the target so Evan Ndicka is perfect, he’s young and left sided but also on a free so moving Jones and Bailly on as well as one of Maguire or Lindelof balances it out.
That would leave us a back up squad of Heaton, AWB/Laird, Maguire/Lindelof, Ndicka, Malacia, McTominay/Fred, Eriksen, Sancho/Pellestri, VDB/Diallo, Garnacho/Elanga and Martial although I’d be happy with Sancho being used as a 10 back up to Fernandes and Pellestri or Diallo as back up to Antony then moving VDB on and doing the same with Elanga.