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I wouldn't want Modric. Think he's overrated and his assist tally from last season tells you all you need to know.

Looks very effective on the pitch, but actually contributes very little in terms of goals/assists.

This will be a longish comment so i will warn you all now lol.

Just for argument sake, and ASSUMING these are the players who leave and who arrive, i'd say our squad could be something like:

Out - Anelka/Zhirkov/Malouda/Ferreira/Hilario/Bosingwa. MAYBE - Kalou. (plus Mancienne/Sala/Tore)

In's - Van Der Wiel/Lukaku/De Bruyne/Pastore/Courtois. - MAYBE - Neymar

GK - Cech - Courtois - Turnbull.
CB - Ivan - Terry - Luiz - Bruma - Alex.
RB - Van Der Wiel - Ivan - Luiz.
LB - Cole - Bertrand - Luiz.

MID(including DM) - Mikel - Essien - Ramires - Lampard - McEachran - Pastore - Yossi - Luiz(?)

LW - De Bruyne - Sturridge - Kakuta - Neymar - Pastore - Lalkovic - McEachran.

RW - De Bruyne - Sturridge - Kakuta - Neymar - Pastore - Lalkovic.

AM - Pastore - Lampard - McEachran - Neymar - Kakuta - De Bruyne - Yossi.

ST - Drogba - Torres - Lukaku - Sturridge.


Every player in those positions such as Luiz/McEachran can play in the other positions listed.

So i'd say our squad is fairly well covered and can always be added to with youngsters.

Assuming that those are the players arriving and leaving.

Anyone know whats happened to Diego Ribas and Yoann Gourcuff? Both were highly rated a couple of years a go and it seemed like every club was after them but now it seems like no one is after them.

According to the Mirror and the Sun (I know I know complete rubbish) spuds have a 25mil asking price on him. Although I would guess if it is us that price is going to rise.

Frank - Both have gone down hill in my opinion. Diego hasn't been the same player since he left Werder Bremen for Juventus. He now plays for Wolfsburg but has had a lot of behaviour problems there, and hasn't recaptured form.

Gourcuff hasn't been anywhere near the same player as he was at Bordeaux, still gets in the Lyon side, but hasn't (in my opinion) gone on to the potential he had when he was at Bordeaux.

Steve

Would like to see 2 out and out winger like Valencia/Nani. Don't want to see players like Drogba and Neymar being wasted out wide

In's - Van Der Wiel/Lukaku/De Bruyne/Pastore/Courtois. - MAYBE - Neymar
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I'd say that was very optimistic, but I certainly wouldn't say not to it.

Can anyone clarify this for me.. Is there a limit on the number of foreign players you can have in a squad (ie, not europeans) because I always thought there was. We must be pushing it, with Drogs, Kalou and the South American invasion...

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I think McEachran will be going on loan to a PL club. Hopefully Bolton.
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I reckon he'll stay at the club TBH. As you probably know I want him to be rotated with lampard next season but even though that's unikely to happen I can still see him getting at least 5 starts next season

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Frank - Neymar plays out wide for Santos as he drifts in from the left, so he's pretty effective in that area.

Blue - Not really, well obviously optimistic for a degree, but i think all the rumours of atleast 5 players in are true, especially when you look at bids being made for Lukaku/Pastore etc. And going back to January with further bids being made for Gomez etc.

Obviously a lot depends on the price, but i wouldn't be surprised if we went up to 100M atleast, minus what ever we make on players sold.

Think Hiddink will have told Roman that bigger changes are needed to go with Torres and Luiz, and despite all the fair play talk, i think we'll spend pretty big.

Also no resitrictions as far as im aware, but you need to have the correct number of homegrown players etc.

Sturridge on teh letf and neymar on the right is good enough for me. Two 'out-and-out' wingers is not nesccarrily the way forward.I think Neymar and Sturridge are good enough because they can play as wingers and inside forwards. We need this versatility - a planB, someone who can only play-wide would be stuck for ideas once defenders know what to do, just look at Bale, Young and Valencia. But players like Nani, Nasri, Ronaldo, Messi and Robben are the best forward/wingers in the world. Why? They are not just your typical wide player, they can do different things for the team as well. The most succesful teams in Europe don't use out-and-out wide players, even United in a 4-4-2 have will always have one of Nani and Park on the wings

Blue bashing you can have 17 over 21 non-homegrown players. We currently have 17. With the changes Steve is suggesting we would have only 12.
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Yeah, I'm aware of that rule. But I mean a rule that states something along the lines of, "A club must have no more than X foreign players" this may be only a CL squad rule, but I'm pretty sure it's out there.

Although I guess it's not worth worrying about as I would hope that the powers at the club know the rules!

Gazza,

You've got me all wrong. I don't normally judge players by goals/assists, it's just in this case we need someone to make the killer pass - and I don't think Modric can do that.

Would be much happier with Sneijder or Schweinsteiger TBH.

Gazza - We'll probably loan then if we get them as i suspect that would be part of any deal. But if we do then the list can be altered by either another signing or another youngster and so on.

Not sure on Malouda, as he said in his interview, he has asked twice now for a new contract, but the club will only give him one year, on a year by year contract, would he want that?

And on the squad: Steve would you expect De Bruyne to start if he came to us? I know he's good but I didn't know he was good enough to start for us straight away

BK - Yeah i think he's good enough to start. Iv'e seen him play a few times and i think he could start on a regular basis. If we don't sign a left winger and don't loan him out, chances are he'll be getting quite a few games either infront or behind of Malouda/Sturridge.

But since he can play on the left/right & centre, i think he would start in atleast one of them.

Steve- Think Hiddink will have told Roman that bigger changes are needed to go with Torres and Luiz, and despite all the fair play talk
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Apparently Roman was for these fair play rules, so I can only assume he knows what he is doing and I trust him. So they don't worry me. He must have a plan of avoiding them one way or another.

What about A.Young? Not massively expensive, only 25, home grown player and would be a quality sub pushing for a first team place imo.

Blueb - Young is going to United. Been told by quite a few contacts that the deal is pretty much done.

Wouldn't have been against Young though, but don't think he's been anywhere near as good as he was 2 seasons ago.

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If united get Sneijder and Young they will be pretty strong next year and will take some beating imo.

Although I wont say that when one of them may be reading!

Interesting....

Zamparini has said he will "carefully" consider any big offer from Chelsea for Pastore.

Think he would take about 38M, which is what we are rumoured to be going back with.

Young plays with a scowl on his face.
Typical Fergie player

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