Sissoko out, Sabitzer in... Wait I like Moussa, Sissoko bench, Sabitzer in.
Sorry in advance for the long post here!
I *think* we may have a spare overseas spot in our PL squad anyway at present, unless Doherty counts as an overseas player under PL rules? (must confess I am confused by all that)
I was trying to work out who we had and their home grown/u21 etc status earlier and came up with the following:
OS = overseas player
AT = Association trained (Not sure if any/all of Davies, Rodon and Doherty count as association trained for purpose of PL?)
HG = Home grown
u21 = classed as under 21 so do not need to be part of the 25 player limit for registrations)
(u21s listed below as not taking up one of the 25 squad spaces)
1. Lloris (OS 1)
2. Hart (AT 1)
3. Gazzaniga (OS 2)
4. Whiteman (AT 2, HG 1)
4. Austin (AT 3, HG 2, u21)
5. Alderweireld (OS 3)
6. Sanchez (OS 4)
7. Dier (OS 5)
8. Rodon (AT 4)
9. Aurier (OS 6)
10. Doherty (AT 5)
10. Tanganga (AT 6, HG 3, u21 - but no longer u21 next season)
11. Regulion (OS 7)
12. Davies (AT 7)
12. Cirkin (AT 8, HG 4, u21)
13. Winks (AT 9, HG 5)
14. Lamela (OS 8)
15. Sissoko (OS 9)
16. Dele (AT 10, HG 6? - was he here long enough before he was 21 to count?)
17. Ndombele (OS 10)
17. Gedson (u21 - but no longer u21 next season)
17. Clarke (AT 11, u21)
18. Hojbjerg (OS 11)
18. White (AT 12, HG 6, u21)
19. Lo Celso (OS 12)
20. Moura (OS 13)
21. Bergwijn (OS 14)
22. Bale (AT 13, HG 8 (was he here long enough before he was 21 to count?)
23. Son (OS 15)
24. Kane (AT 14, HG 9)
25. Vinicius (OS 16)
25. Scarlett (AT 15, HG 10)
Looking at the above we're in pretty good shape for further strengthening for future seasons....
For a start we have Skipp and Sessegnon to come back and both have the bonus of still counting as u21 players next season.
I think a few of the above listed players should ideally be getting loans next season (Cirkin, White, Scarlet and Austin for example) but there are other good u21s in the academy who could fill in if needed
If we want to strengthen in January then we could do so by dropping Gazzaniga from the registered squad. It seems he's now third in line behind Lloris and Hart anyway and Whiteman can hopefully cover the third keeper spot.
The other option is to put Lamela out of his misery. He is a decent player but his injury record is absolutely horrendous. I'd probably wait until next summer to swap him out as he is integrated with the squad, but he takes up a valuable overseas squad place that could easily be put to better use.
I think it's pretty obvious that Gedson will return to Benfica in the summer, especially as he would count as an over 21 next season and isn't worth one of those valuable overseas squad places.
Ideally we can also bring in a better overseas centre half than Sanchez. This should be our number 1 priority bit of business in the summer, if not January.
This summer could also be the right time to think about moving Sissoko on. However I would only do that if we're getting desperate on the 17 overseas signing spaces in the squad, as he plays an important part in our squad and is very dependable.
That really leaves Dele Ali. Unless Jose changes tactics or Dele moves into a deeper role then he is a bit of a square peg for us. I think the club might look to use him to generate funds to buy a player more suited to our team. It will be a shame as he has incredible talent and has given us some brilliant moments but sometimes these hard decisions have to be taken for the good of the club.
Next season we'd see something like:
1. Lloris (OS 1)
2. Hart (AT 1)
3. Whiteman (AT 2, HG 1)
4. Alderweireld (OS 2)
5. Dier (OS 3)
6. Rodon (AT 3)
7. Aurier (OS 4)
8. Doherty (AT 4)
9. Tanganga (AT 5, HG 2)
10. Regulion (OS 5)
10. Sessegnon (AT 6, u21)
11. Davies (AT 7)
12. Winks (AT 8, HG 3)
12. Skipp (AT9, HG 4, u21)
13. Sissoko (OS 6)
14. Ndombele (OS 7)
14. Clarke (AT 10, u21)
15. Hojbjerg (OS 8)
16. Lo Celso (OS 9)
17. Moura (OS 10)
18. Bergwijn (OS 11)
19. Bale (AT 11, HG 5 - was he here long enough before he was 21 to count?)
20. Son (OS 12)
21. Kane (AT 12, HG 6)
22. Vinicius (OS 13) - hoping we could pick him up for about £25m in the current climate?)
That would leave us 3 spaces in the squad to fill. Personally I'd go for:
1. A new centre half. Upamecano would be my ideal player here but probably too expensive and also too desired by the likes of Bayern Munich for us to land him. I'd look to the Serbian, Nicola Milenkovic from Fiorentina as our first choice here (Inter were looking to buy for about £25m if we had bought Skriniar off of them) or perhaps even Matthias Ginter from Monchengladbach, who I think is seriously underrated and has the leadership qualities we need. Alternatively if Burnley go down then I'd happily have James Tarkowski off of them.
2. A new creative but hard working midfield player to replace Lamela. I'd go all out for Marcel Sabitzer here. Think he would fit into our team really well and now that it appears that Leipzig have signed Szoboszlai it should be possible to prise him away and he might even be gettable for under £30m with his contract situation.
3. A beast of a midfield player to take over from Sissoko. My ideal here would be Soumare from Lille. His Lille contract expires in summer 2022 and he is perhaps available for around £30m in the current climate. I think he will explode to be a Patrick Vieira type and this will be our last opportunity to be able to buy him (and we should have a head start with our coaching staff).
I'd also be tempted to swap out Bale for a player like Leon Bailey but I just can't see us having the funds for that sort of deal.
I think that would give us a title winning squad, other than perhaps being a little weak in terms of cover for Lloris. If we wanted to go out and buy a proper challenger for his position then Sissoko could be the overseas player to make way as I don't really see any English keepers who are good enough, although if Bunley went down then Nick Pope would be a safe pair of hands as much better cover than Hart, allowing Whiteman to go out on loan and experience proper first team football.
