To put a big fat full stop onto the end of this season there’s only one thing left to do and that’s write about what I’d like to see us do in the transfer window. Last season it was clear to most that we needed at least one really good striker but unfortunately as the early stages of this window commence we’re in the exact same position. A striker’s a priority, and maybe more than one.
Before I go any further I should point out I’m presuming any player I suggest will agree to fit within our pay structure. I’m also assuming the list of players I want to leave will do so quite easily.
The problem with regards to us fans debating what positions need strengthening and which players we should go for is we don’t know what formation the management plan on using. In theory we could change our preferred formation from 4-4-2 (or 4-4-1-1 with vdV) to a more popular 4-3-3 (or 4-2-3-1 variant) with the players we’ve got very easily and each formation would require different signings. For the basis of this though I’ll assume we’ll be sticking with 4-4-2 and 4-4-1-1 next season.
Strikers
The most important signing of the summer for most of us and a no brainer with regards to the type of striker we need. We need someone like Didier Drogba. Someone to lead the line and who’s comfortable in the lone striker role but can also play as part of a two. There’s been rumours of Drogba himself being available although I’d be surprised if that amounted to anything but I’d take him as a short term solution. He’s still got a couple of years left in him at the very top and if he came he’d be an excellent tutor to a young striker like Lukaku or Connor Wickham, both of whom should be seriously considered as potential partners or first option from the bench. They could even surprise a few and push their way into the starting line up.
None of those three would be cheap and the younger two would no doubt be a gamble. Personally I’d prefer to sign Wickham of the two simply because Lukaku has stated he’s a Chelsea fan and I could see him using us as a stepping stone more than anything else.
Other options would be Lisandro, Gameiro and Gervinho who all currently ply their trade in the French Ligue 1. I wouldn’t expect any of these to cost the earth although as with any footballer nowadays they wouldn’t come cheap either. Lisandro and Gameiro are both excellent footballers but I’m not sure how they’d adapt to the English game and at 28 Lisandro doesn’t offer much sell on value which we all know Daniel Levy likes (and rightly so). Out of those three I’d be happy with Gervinho. He would likely cost us £10-15m and is only 24 so like the rest of our team has time on his side to develop.
So here’s what I’d like to see us sign:
Drogba, Gervinho and Wickham.
Three strikers might be too much but I’d be looking to sign Wickham and loan him immediately back to Ipswich for the remainder of the season. With Drogba and Gervinho we should have plenty up front while only playing the lone striker as well as keeping one of our current crop of four. A total outlay of around the £45m mark would see a massive amount of our transfer kitty being used in the striker department but like I said, it’s a priority. If Drogba wasn’t available I’d be looking at Lukaku who could offer similar if not the experience.
Goalkeeper
You’re only a good team when you’ve got a good keeper. There’s no exceptions to this rule and unfortunately Gomes doesn’t have the qualities needed to be a good keeper in English football. He needs to be moved on or at the very least given proper competition to see if he can improve his game. The keeper I’d go for would be Shay Given or Ben Foster. Foster is the more likely with Birmingham being relegated but if we can persuade City to do business with us I think Given’s the better keeper. Foster has had an excellent season in what is his first real season as a clubs No1 and is 7 years Given’s junior so could solve that position for a long time to come.
Central Defender
With Woodgate likely to retire as well as King and Gallas injury prone it’s important we sign a new center half. Bassong isn’t on Redknapp’s radar any more so he’s likely to leave and Khunalo is an unknown quantity although as I’ve said before I expect he’s a marketing ploy so not really someone we should be relying on too heavily. Again there are a number of players we could look at here that wouldn’t cost us too much. Roger Johnson at Birmingham is a very accomplished player and someone like Samba at Blackburn could do a job too. Whether they’d be first choice is another question. With Gallas, King, Dawson and Kaboul all fit they’d have a fight on their hands to guarantee a start but as I said we can’t rely on Gallas and King to play 30+ games a season which then leaves us short.
Caulker has had an excellent season at Bristol City and they want him back badly. If we wanted to save some money I’d have no problem with him being used as cover but the question then needs to be asked whether he’d develop more playing in the Championship or making the occasional appearance for us.
Left Back
This is purely as cover for Ekotto. Danny Rose has done well in the few games he’s played at the tale end of this season but whether he could do that in a long run and with Bale in front of him is debatable. He didn’t show he could be consistent enough while on loan at Bristol City although that might’ve been down to niggling injuries he had. I can’t think of a possible signing for this position because it’s not a priority if we’re going to give Rose a chance.
Right Midfield
Again this is purely as cover for Lennon. van der Vaart’s played there at times this season and often done fairly well but his need to drift inwards meant during those games we lacked any sort of width or danger from the right. We’ve got David Bentley who I’m sure could offer more than adequate cover if we rotated the squad often enough. His problem is with so few chances, he tries to do everything when he does get the chance and often falls short. At the end of last season he was excellent on that side of midfield and Lennon shouldn’t have walked back into the side when he returned from injury.
Again, a position that’s purely for back up and competition and I’d be happy to see some youngsters pushed through or a cheap signing who know’s their job is to push Lennon as much as they can.
That’s 7 players I think we need to sign to enable us to really compete next season but only two of the strikers and the keeper are imperative. The other positions would be bonuses and could be filled by players we’ve already got in our system or we’ve sent out on loan.
How we’ll pay for these signings is another question. If we’ve saved anything from the Champions League instead of using it to take the Olympic Committee to court we should have £40m or so but just in case we should also be able to recoup a fair amount of it on any of the following players I think we need to offload:
- Alan Hutton
- Kyle Naughton (nothing against the kid but he’s never going to be given a chance so why not make some cash on him)
- Sebastian Bassong
- Jonathan Woodgate
- David Bentley
- Wilson Palacios
- Niko Krancjar
- Jamie O’Hara
- Robbie Keane
- Peter Crouch
- Pavlyuchenko
The one you’ll notice I haven’t included in there is Jenas. As strange as that sounds I think we should keep him simply because he doesn’t moan. He know’s his position is on the bench and while it’s one of the bad things about him, it’s also a good thing. If we were to sign someone like Scott Parker then he could take JJ’s place on the bench but if not we might as well keep someone who can come on and do a job (sometimes) when needed but doesn’t kick up a fuss when not used.
I’d also include Pienaar in that list but seeing as he’s only just signed it’s unlikely. Defoe could be off too, especially if he’s not keen to sit on the bench and could be a better option to offload than Pav or Crouch. He’s likely to fetch the most money of the current batch too. If it were possible to sell all those players we should be looking at £50m+ for them and that’s selling at knock down prices which we’ll have to do to get them off the wage bill.
So it’s as simple as that. I don’t know what all the fuss is about when it comes to these transfer windows 
. The one thing I hope we do is do our business quickly. Get it completed as soon as possible so all the players get a proper pre-season with the club. That means not leaving it until the last minute in the hope we can save a few pounds. If a bargain like vdV comes along then fine, go for it, but lets try to have the core of our first team available to play in the first or second friendly.
COYS
Submitted by THFC1882
