Fair play to Lerner ..

Yep. Think he's seen the light. He's backed Sherwood to the hilt. I think having a good team headed by Tom Fox behind the scenes has had an enormous effect, starting with bringing Sherwood in in the first place, then having a plan, and doing the scouting and recruiting necessary to bring in the players.

The income from Benteke's sale is only a net £28m and that's in installments, so there's a fair amount of real money being spent. One thing which helps is the wage bill being lowered, with Benteke, Bent, Vlaar and Delph going, together with other less expensive players.

When Sherwood was talking about a clearout after the cup-final nobody thought it would be like this.

...you are just spending the benteke and delph money.

Potential starting eleven against Bournemouth:

..........................Guzan...........................
Richards......Okore......Lescott......Amavi
..........................Sanchez.......................
...............Veretout.........Gueye...............
Sinclair......................................Grealish
.......................Adebayor.........................

Subs: Bunn, Clark, Hutton, Gil, N'Zogbia, Kozak, Ayew/Gestede

Not entirely sure with the money spent how good Ayew and Gusted will be - Gestede's record has been good last two years in the Championship but he couldn't get a game at Cardiff, while Ayew only started scoring regularly last season. I'm confident Ade will deliver in his first season if he does indeed come on board, as Sherwood seems to manage him well and despite his critics he is phenomenal when he's motivated. Hopefully Grealish will add goals and assists to his game this season and go from strength to strength and cut out his off the field antics. Sinclair will be a real asset if he gets his Swansea form back. In the centre of midfield we have genuine quality and can compete with anyone, provided the guys from Ligue 1 settle and Sanchez shows what he can do. Defence is my biggest concern but if we were to get Lescott he would bring a lot of experience and is still very good, WBA's player of the season last year and might get the best out of Okore, who I think is our best young centre back and potentially outstanding if he can stay fit. Richards and Amavi are the best full backs we've had since as long as I can remember and I am sure Guzan will cut out the mistakes with a solid defence in front.

I am quietly confident we can be the surprise package next season and force our way into the top 10, not wholly convinced but the potential is there, plus Sherwood is twice the manager of Lambert and will get us attacking and trying to win every game. The only concern is the number of signings we have made and how quickly they'll gel and settle in England, but potentially we are far better than last season despite losses to key men.

Am I the only one on here who likes Clark?

Yeah but you're not going to get Lescott are you, us selling our POTY to a direct regional and league rival for £1 million? Obviously just a joke bid in response to the Clark offer.

Agree Woy We need to get Clark tied up on a deal,

I'd stick with Clark over Lescott any time. Clark impressed last season and he's at the start of his career; he'll improve further. Lescott's at the end of his, won't improve, in fact I don't think he's as good as he was a couple of years ago.

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