The way forward to the top 10....

[Brian Taylor]

Ten goal decimation of Morton by Hamilton Academicals of which seven were scored by two non-Scots players. Mickael Antoine(4) and Anthony Ardeu(3)

Mickaël Antoine-Curier (born 5 March 1983) is a French-born Guadeloupean professional footballer who currently plays for Hamilton Academical as a striker.

Anthony Andreu (born 22 May 1988) is a French professional footballer who plays for Scottish club Hamilton Academical, as a midfielder.

Career
Andreu spent his early career in France and Switzerland with Monaco, Chênois and Stade Nyonnais.[1][2] He signed for Scottish club Livingston in June 2012, alongside David Luongo.[3] On 2 May 2013 it was announced that he was leaving the club at the end of the 2012–13 season.[4] He signed a one-year contract with Hamilton Academical on 1 August 2013,

OK Antoine is 30 but he can do it..what a game it must have been..Scottish footie I know but?  If we ain't got any money presently then these are available..probably well under the spotlight now.

[class-of-82]

At the end of the day lambert is like the guy who has been tasked with rebuilding and renovating an old classic car yet he cannot afford the quality or new parts needed to do the task properly so he has to shop around old scrap yards and take a chance on second hand parts hoping they gonna do the job (sylla,kea,tonev etc).

Hopefully when the financial constraints come off him then he can be truly judged.

[mr underhill]

as long as it's at Harchester United or some such club, great

[myf]

2 quality full backs one who might be Bertrand, then 2 midfielders -  a no nonsense powerful type and a creative eye for a pass/goal one and then I think we have a chance :

Guzan

?
?
Okores
Vlaar

Westwood
Delph
?
?

Weimann
Benteke

Subs would be any 7 from Steer Lowton Clark Bacuna Gabby Kozak NZogbia and the youth like Grealish

Get rid : Bennett Baker Luna KEA Sylla Albrighton Bowery Tonev

No centre backs?  That is out biggest weakness and would be top of my shopping list - at least two proven players needed.  Vlaar is injury prone, Baker and Clark not good enough and Okore unproven.

[Des Little]

Westwood isn't anywhere near good enough for a top 10 team, and Weimann would be a squad player as well. We need real quality to make strides, and that means paying decent money...this current squad would struggle to get us promoted out of the Championship. It's that poor.

[citizenDJ]

There's a fair old lot of crap in the squad, that's for sure, but two or three smart additions might just be enough to let us enjoy a secure mid table season (oh, the giddy ambition!). Players like Bacuna, El Ahmadi aren't bad squad players and would probably look more useful alongside better players.

Trying to pick a team from the squad that looks a decent bet for mid table obscurity, I get something like this:

                                  Guzan

A new RB            Vlaar          Okore           Bertrand

                             
                 Westwood A new DCM Delph

                              A new ACM

                         Benteke Weimann

Ideally, I'd be looking at replacing Weimann and Westwood, really, but I'm trying to be a bit realistic!

That would leave a subs bench of : Steer, Clark, Lowton/Bacuna, El Ahmadi, Albrighton, Helenius/Kozak, N'Zogbia

You could also switch around to have wingers playing in a wider 4-3-3, so N'Zogbia and Albrighton would take those spots.

Oh, and a better manager, too.

[yaliekins]

I'd say if we had a decent bit of investment with a new owner (s), I'd look to build the team around Guzan, Vlaar, Delph & Benteke. 

Get rid of:
Baker, Clark, Tonev, Sylla, KEA, Bowery, Luna.

Pretty much the rest I'd keep around for squad depth and competition unless there was value in selling them (I'd certainly look into cutting ties with Gabby, but that's for another time).  As much as I'd like to be able to sign quality in every position, I don't think the need for, say, a new right back is as pressing as the need to get some proper centre halfs in and allocate funds for that position. 

I'd like us to get a mobile centre forward who can bridge the gap at the start of the season while we wait for Kozak & Benteke to regain fitness, a left back, two new centre halves, two centre midfielders (one ball winning, one ball playing)and two wingers. 

[Dribbler]

Lerner out - a new owner that has investment needed and the sense to get footballing nous into the club set up

Falkner out - a new CEO that understands football as well as the commercial corporate world

DoF In - a new role to ensure consistency across managers and the various levels of the club of footballing style and approach and scouting and transfer dealings

Lambert out - a new manager that has more tactical nous than Lambert but that can build upon what we have in place already, preferably someone technically minded with an attacking and creative approach to football

Out - Bent, Hutton, Tonev, Herd, Bennett, Helenius, Holt, Luna, Sylla, Bowery

In - Left Back - Bertrand, Central Defender - Lescott, Defensive Mid, Attacking Mid (No 10 type), Box to Box Mid - ?, Winger - ?

[Ads]

20 million on three midfielders would do it. The proportion spent on an attacking midfielder and a physical holding player, who isn't just a Reo-Coker, but has some quality on the ball. I would then look to see if we can get a wideman with a delivery on him and pace. Likely to be a touch over £20 million.

We then need to work the loans to get in a centre half and full back. With Okore, Benteke and Kozak coming back, the new midfielders bringing the best out of Westwood and Delph, then we will be in a much stronger position.

[tomd2103]

There's a fair old lot of crap in the squad, that's for sure, but two or three smart additions might just be enough to let us enjoy a secure mid table season (oh, the giddy ambition!). Players like Bacuna, El Ahmadi aren't bad squad players and would probably look more useful alongside better players.

Trying to pick a team from the squad that looks a decent bet for mid table obscurity, I get something like this:

                                  Guzan

A new RB            Vlaar          Okore           Bertrand

                             
                 Westwood A new DCM Delph

                              A new ACM

                         Benteke Weimann

Ideally, I'd be looking at replacing Weimann and Westwood, really, but I'm trying to be a bit realistic!

That would leave a subs bench of : Steer, Clark, Lowton/Bacuna, El Ahmadi, Albrighton, Helenius/Kozak, N'Zogbia

You could also switch around to have wingers playing in a wider 4-3-3, so N'Zogbia and Albrighton would take those spots.

Oh, and a better manager, too.

Yeah I'd pretty much go with that XI, though I do think we need a sitting midfielder who is more experienced and defensively stronger than Westwood.  I agree we probably need a similar player to Delph to play in midfield (someone like Mulumbu from Albion) and an attacking midfielder who can also play out wide if we need to change formation.  I also agree that we need a new RB (and LB if Bertrand is not signed permanently).   

[Can Gana Be Bettered!?!?]

Don't get peoples fascination with Bertrand. He's played 2ish very good games, some average games and a couple of poor games. It's clearly obvious to me that he's a player who thinks "I've won the league and Champions League - what the fuck am I doing here!?!?!?!?".

We don't want players like that. Especially for the money he'll be wanting.

[Matt Collins]

I think athletico madrid's team cost about £40m. Just saying. 

[SoccerHQ]

Don't get peoples fascination with Bertrand. He's played 2ish very good games, some average games and a couple of poor games. It's clearly obvious to me that he's a player who thinks "I've won the league and Champions League - what the fuck am I doing here!?!?!?!?".

We don't want players like that. Especially for the money he'll be wanting.

Not saying much but he is better than the Luna and Bennett comedy act we've had for the previous two years in that position. And Warnock before him of course.

[Dribbler]

Don't get peoples fascination with Bertrand. He's played 2ish very good games, some average games and a couple of poor games. It's clearly obvious to me that he's a player who thinks "I've won the league and Champions League - what the fuck am I doing here!?!?!?!?".

We don't want players like that. Especially for the money he'll be wanting.

It's funny that what is 'clearly obvious' to one person, isn't necessarily clearly obvious to others. So what is it that is so clearly obvious has led you to believe that about him?

To me I would say that he has clearly strengthened us significantly and taken away much of the startling fragility we had at left back when Bennet or Lunar were playing there. I think we'd find it hard to find someone else of his quality at left back at the current time.