Summer Transfer Thread and Gustavo Cisneros Type Rumours.

[Risso]

Any system is only as good as the players in it though. With Jack fit and firing on all cylinders, 4-3-3 worked really well. With him running rings around everybody, even Trez's graft but lack of skill looked OK, because it gave the more central players like McGinn and Barkley a chance to be more attacking.  As soon as we've had to play a combination of Traore/Trez and El Ghazi either side of Watkins though, it's looked like a massive bag of shite, because none of these three are good enough consistently to make it work.

So while I'm no massive fan of 3-5-2, I think with our current players it could certainly work.  Targett and Cash have been two of our better players this year and would certainly be more than good enough at wing back. The three in the middle would allow the likes of McGinn to play in his preferred attacking role, and we wouldn't have to watch El Ghazi and Traore achieve the square root of bugger all, game after game. Even with Jack back I think it would be good, because he could then have a free role behind Ollie making it far less easy to mark him out of games.

[SoccerHQ]

95/96 being airbrushed from history, seen it all on this site now.

Sir Brian Little adores the formation and really things started going wrong when he did that weird thing at start of 97/98 playing Yorke in central midfield or number 10 or wherever the hell he was while Collymore scored once in his first 20 games.

Will have to have a re-read of his book and lift the quotes just to annoy cdb further (wink).

[brontebilly]

So Tuanzebe in a back three with Konsa and Mings then? The wingless wonders with McGinn and Grealish playing off Watkins.

[SoccerHQ]

Douglas Luiz the ball playing libero obvs....

[olaftab]

Just why? Why must posters keep revealing their depravity?

Three at the back, honestly. Why not bring back slavery while we're at it? Sickos.

As reluctant as I am to agree with cd, three-at-the-back merchants are literally worse than slavers.

I am shocked just when I was mounting up the courage to propose we erect a John Gregory statue in front of the Holte suite😟

[ROBBO]

Targett is the best winger we have on the books.

[sid1964]

With cov-id having a major impact on our finances I cannot see us spending £100 million this summer

With Wesley now coming back to fitness and the emergence of Davis as a goal scorer we don't need another forward, I would imagine that we will look to sign another midfielder and a left back as cover for Targett.

[Risso]

With cov-id having a major impact on our finances I cannot see us spending £100 million this summer

With Wesley now coming back to fitness and the emergence of Davis as a goal scorer we don't need another forward, I would imagine that we will look to sign another midfielder and a left back as cover for Targett.

We don't know what shape Wesley is going to be in long term, and while everybody is pleased for Davis, one goal does not equal emerging as a goal scorer, surely? One swallow and all that.

[Mister E]

With cov-id having a major impact on our finances I cannot see us spending £100 million this summer
With Wesley now coming back to fitness and the emergence of Davis as a goal scorer we don't need another forward, I would imagine that we will look to sign another midfielder and a left back as cover for Targett.

Agree with Risso re Wes and Davis, and: perhaps Hause is the cover for Targett.
If we're talking a major pullback from spending, we could get away with 1 signing - a strong CMF.

However, I think that our owners will see this summer as an opportunity to spend and get ahead of where we are.

[kippaxvilla2]

Just why? Why must posters keep revealing their depravity?

Three at the back, honestly. Why not bring back slavery while we're at it? Sickos.

It only works if you have Alan Wright motoring down the left hand side once every ten games though.

[ChicagoLion]

Targett is the best winger we have on the books.

and we don’t need to go 3 at the back to get the most out of him..

[paul_e]

With cov-id having a major impact on our finances I cannot see us spending £100 million this summer
With Wesley now coming back to fitness and the emergence of Davis as a goal scorer we don't need another forward, I would imagine that we will look to sign another midfielder and a left back as cover for Targett.

Agree with Risso re Wes and Davis, and: perhaps Hause is the cover for Targett.
If we're talking a major pullback from spending, we could get away with 1 signing - a strong CMF.

However, I think that our owners will see this summer as an opportunity to spend and get ahead of where we are.

Surely the Wes and Davis thing should be discussed at the end of the season. For Wes the question was always if he could come back from the injury so he has 6 games to show he is on track for that. For Davis there was the massive elephant in the room that he'd never scored in this league, now he's got his first lets see if the people who thought he just needed the goal to get some confidence were right. if they can get 2-3 goals between them in the next 6 games I think that earns them the first half of next season to really step up and give us 3 good options without spending anything.

For me our target should be (at least) 20 goals from our strikers, 20 from our wide players and 15 from midfield and defence for the season. If you score 55 goals in the premier league you'll be in the mix for the top 6, particularly with a defensive record like ours.

This season the breakdown is Strikers=13, Wingers=20, Midfield and Defence=11 so clearly we need more from the forwards next year but if Wes and Davis can get even a couple between them before the summer reaching that 20 will look a lot more realistic, add a couple from Ollie and we won't be far off this year. That's why I don't think we're as far off really challenging for the top 6 as a lot of people on here think.

That said I don't think there will be a reduction in spending though, if anything this summer is the best opportunity the club will have to flex a bit and spend big money because FFP for the last 2 years is largely unenforceable and I doubt it will survive as a concept as a result. The whole idea needs to be reviewed and the 'ladder pulling' aspect needs to be addressed, particularly given the clubs that pushed for that part are the same bunch of twats that tried to create their own monopoly league.

[kippaxvilla2]

Did I dream that Leicester changed to 3-5-2 the season they went on that amazing run to survive?  Possibly I did but I thought Nigel changed it midway into the season.

[Sexual Ealing]

With cov-id having a major impact on our finances I cannot see us spending £100 million this summer

With Wesley now coming back to fitness and the emergence of Davis as a goal scorer we don't need another forward, I would imagine that we will look to sign another midfielder and a left back as cover for Targett.

We don't know what shape Wesley is going to be in long term, and while everybody is pleased for Davis, one goal does not equal emerging as a goal scorer, surely? One swallow and all that.

One swallow was all it took to get me hooked. [/Julian Clary]

[ChicagoLion]

FFP is dead, for now.
Survival for many is going to be the focus.
Across Europe Governments have been propping up enterprises, relaxing Insolvency Rules, suspending Landlords and Creditor rights.
As we come out of the pandemic we are likely to hear the word " Restructuring" applying to all sorts of Business including Football Clubs.
We are fortunate to have the Balance Sheet and the owners we have and it will be interesting to see to what extent we capatalise on this.