After someone on here kept bringing it up, he has made a good point - We currently only have 15 players in the squad.

GK - Courtois, Willy, Eduardo

DF - Cahill, Azpilicueta, Luiz

WB - Alonso, Moses

MF - Fabregas, Kante, Chalobah

AM - Hazard, Willian, Pedro

ST - Batshuayi

The squad looks incredibly short after all outgoings (Zouma loan, Costa, Matic etc.)

It is hard to see us signing 8 players to restore the squad size, will our squad be really short by the time the season starts?

Even with Bakayoko, Sandro, Lukaku and Rudiger it still looks short and I'm not even sure if Bats will stay? At the minute it seems to be sell sell sell but no buy.

We will need a big summer if we're to compete for all trophies. I haven't quite hit the panic button yet it's still early days but it is worrying.

I already said that and i`m sure Batshuayi will go on loan too. So it will be even shorter. Chalobah also complain about little to no time he played. So there is big chance he goes on loan too.

Fabregas and Willy are the other 2,who may decide to move on in some point.

Whitout Michy and Chalobah the squad is exactly 14 men .....

We not only need 11 very strong starting, but also to have strong subs.

If we want to challenge for titles, we will need 8 to 9 new players. And this is all to the idi*** boards who sleep last 2 transfer windows.

 

 

Of course it will look short if you exclude all the rumored "Outs" and include none of the rumored "Ins". 

We have Andreas as one of the CB options, Baker as the CM options. 

If we dont buy Sandro, we will be looking at Baba as the 2nd LWB option, we will definitely buy  new RWB too. 

Edited July 3, 20179 yr by didierforever

Let's say our rumours are true

IN - Rudiger, Sandro, Bakayoko, Lukaku

Our defence will look good enough after these two signings, even though we are still short on right wing back. Fingers crossed we manage to find one this summer.

But our attacking is still really short, even after the signings. We will need another midfielder and probably a striker. We were lucky Hazard, Pedro or Willian didn't get a serious injury last season but it's more likely with more games next season, so we'd need a winger as well.

So really we need 8 more signings, which is hard to see happening. Our team will be short in one position or another imo.

I am surprised people are seeing this as an issue we were rumoured to be having a very busy summer and we have two squads of loanees to call upon if needed We haven't sold anyone who was anything more than a bit part member of the squad with the exception of Begovic who has already been replaced and when Costa leaves he will need to be replaced but that seems all but sorted, yes our squad wasn't overly deep last season but today is the first week day of the window I would expect we are likely to be bringing people in aswell as replacing any squad members that do leave.

We currently have in our squad:

Gk; Courtois, willy (who has just joined knowing he is 2nd fiddle in his twilight years) and eduardo.

So no issues there.

CB; Cahill, Luiz, Dave, Zouma, Christensen. 

It has been strongly rumoured we are bringing in Rudiger, so that is 6 very good CBs even if Zouma goes that's 5 and I would be more than happy with Tomori or Clarke-Salter taking the 6th spot so i would say we have improved our depth at CB.

RWB; Moses with cover from Dave and Aina.

This is obviously the same as last year however we have been linked with options would expect movement or Dave to play more at Rwb next season. This is probably our weakest position.

Lwb; Alonso, with Baba as backup.

This is better than last season as baby is better than Kenedy, further we are linked with Sandro which would massively improve this position even still we are fine for cover.

CM; Kante, Fabregas, Matic then any two of Chalobah, RLC, Baker, Pasalic, MVG as back up.

Personally I don't see Matic leaving even if Bakayoko comes in,  Matic is the better player atm and Bakayoko could do with a year's transition to the BPL, if Matic or Fabregas do leave we are weaker at CM going into this season however I don't see that happening and in that case we would be stronger

AM: Hazard, Pedro, Willian I suppose Moses, Fabregas, Kenedy and RLC count as cover.

We haven't improved here and bar Sanchez we havent really been linked to anyone, this is currently my only worry especially with Hazard injured.

CF: Costa (bound to leave), Bats

Lukaku looks all but confirned to replace Costa and Bats was looking like a dependable back up option at the end of last season giving the extra amount of games next season and Conte's preference for 2 up top i really cabt see him leaving all we currently lack is a 3rd striking option but a young prospect maybe Arf could easily be brought in or maybe even someone like Brown.

There is an exhaustive list of other loanees that could easily full the Hg squad filler slots if we need them too.

Don't count your chickens with Lukaku...Eversh*te still won't take offers less than £100m for him...so basically they can whistle for that price...

2 minutes ago, doctorblue said:

Don't count your chickens with Lukaku...Eversh*te still won't take offers less than £100m for him...so basically they can whistle for that price...

If they buy Michael keane Everton will have spent pretty much 85m this window already 

1 minute ago, CrowBag said:

If they buy Michael keane Everton will have spent pretty much 85m this window already 

Yeah but that's just their cut of the new EPL TV rights money...

If we don't sign anyone those players won't go out on loan. It ain't rocket science. 

1 minute ago, doctorblue said:

Yeah but that's just their cut of the new EPL TV rights money...

Maybe your rite mate but they are also thinking about bidding 20 mill for giroud

4 minutes ago, CrowBag said:

Maybe your rite mate but they are also thinking about bidding 20 mill for giroud

And 30+ on sigurdsson

2 minutes ago, PedroMendez said:

And 30+ on sigurdsson

Spending some serious doller that would take total to 135m 

Who knows what's going on but I'd be very unhappy if we spank anything in excess of £70m for him...I'd prefer spending that type of money on Morata or Belotti instead and wait to get Lukaku next season when he's only got 1 year on his contract left and see Eversh*te crawl on their scouse bellies to offer him to us for less than £50m...

Edited July 3, 20179 yr by doctorblue

Everton are also wanting Rooney.

Huge transfer movement this year for Everton, I'd be shocked if Lukaku wasn't sold.

9 minutes ago, CrowBag said:

Spending some serious doller that would take total to 135m 

I personally think the deal was agreed in principle some time ago as we pulled out of the race for Morata and the quick link to Lewandowski which I think was us trying to force Evertons hand. 

I also think the fee won't be too much north of 65-70m which were the initial figures quoted in the media and as someone mentioned weeks ago in this thread we may well receive a portion of this fee do to the agreement of tge sale to everton and it would be more like 50m

Edited July 3, 20179 yr by PedroMendez

People may be going out, but we are looking to bring in good replacements. Not to mention recalling some of our loan players like Christensen and possibly Baker too

I would say our average size is about 6 foot, so not, not worried at all.

Interesting comments looking back on this thread 4 weeks after the last post.  

4 weeks on and the miserable Asian pre-season tour finally over has left more questions than answers.  By all accounts Conte is not happy and that will eventually get through to the players, depending who or if we sign anyone in the next couple of weeks may well decide our season.  I can't believe that selling or loaning all the players that we have over the last several weeks that Conte has not been consulted; I don't think the Board or Emenalo are that stupid are they?  To leave a title winning manager that right now is as popular with the fans as Jose was with a thin squad knowing that the team will be fighting on all fronts is beyond stupidity itself.  It's not like the Board or even Roman are novices at knowing what is required to be anywhere near successful both domestically and in Europe.  

Am I confident that more impact signings are immediately around the corner, not really, but I hope they have something up their sleeves in the next couple of weeks, because if not we may well end up with yet another 'interim'  to carry us to mid-table. 

Did any1 watched the City-Tottenham? Theirs attack options are surely better than us. In addition, we we'll play in CL tho. Do you guys think that Morata-Bakayoko duo is better than Costa-Matic duo? We ll suffer from this sh*t too much..

So According to the website the first team is:

 

GK - Courtois, Willy, Eduardo

DF - Cahill, Azpilicueta, Luiz, Christensen, Rudiger, Alonso, Moses

MF - Fabregas, Kante, Bakayoko, Hazard, Willian, Pedro, Kenedy, Musonda

ST - Batshuayi, Morata, Costa (included on site but totally dubious)

 

Personally i'd like to see another wing back come in for both sides. Kenedy can give us backup on the left hand side and Azpi can give backup for the right hand side although i imagine he'll feature heavily as an RCB and therefore if we had to choose one I'd prefer a RWB came in.

We clearly need another CM and having not replaced Mikel we are severely missing the depth in this position. Hopefully Baker will prove himself and come in and blow us away but we'll have to wait and see.

Attacking Midfield doesn't worry me as much, I think Hazard, Willian, Pedro, Boga/Musonda can will offer us more than enough cover although I wouldn't cry if we brought in Sanchez or another marquee player for this position!

Striker-wise I think we're set as long as we keep hold of Bats.

To summarise I'd say we are crying out for a RWB and a CM and I'd be pleased with a marquee attacking midfielder. Additionally another Goalkeeper would be nice because i'm very uncomfortable with the potential of Courtois becoming injured and being left with Willy.

So we have a 20 man squad at the moment (Costa is definitely going) and two of those squad members are back up keepers, meaning we have a grand total of 17 outfield players to choose from.  It's simply not enough, especially with us being back in the Champions League.  I'd be happy with three signings at this stage, though four or five would be nice.  If we landed Sandro, Ox and a central midfielder (Sanches would be ideal, even on loan) that would ease my mind a bit.  Getting in another striker and attacking midfielder would be a bonus.

I think we have to be worried about squad size at this point. We have let go of far too many players without bringing in replacements 1st. 

I keep coming home from work hoping we have brought a couple in. We just seem to lack direction. Between 2012 and 2014 we were signing high potential players that really should've put us in a fantastic position for the next 5-7 years. Under mourinho we went back to signing established players. I'm not sure what we are even looking for now. 

It seems to be incredibly difficult to sign any player. If hazard or Courtois want to leave next summer, then it is absolutely vital we get a quality player in return, as even with a bag full of cash, we don't seem to be able to attract the kind of players that would take us back to mixing it with the best in europe. 

With the players we are being linked with, I don't think it will go down as a good window even if we do sign a couple more squad players. 

Let's just hope conte can keep working miracles. 

I'm worried that the Board have failed to bring in cover for our wing backs. That the midfield looks dangerously thin. That we are over reliant on Hazard. That we have only two (unproven) strikers in our first team.

Transfer window has been a farce till now.

And we are now being linked to Danny Drinkwater.

Instead of panicking on the last day of the window, we've started early.

 

 

The title of this thread somehow manages to offend all five of my senses. 

Board will have nothing to complain about if the club ends up in 6th or 7th.

Shambolic.