For me group 3 are the player we need to think about very carefully.

I would say he following is a list of players likely to still be here in September

GK Bentley

Defence - Semedo, Collins, Dawson, Kilman, Toti, Bueno

Midfield - Lemina, Gomes, Nunes, Boubacar

Forwards - Cunha, Sarabia, Kalazdjic, Chiquinho

Strikers - don’t have one of those

Definite departures - Neves, Moutinho, Adama, Jonny, Jimenez, Costa, Ait Nouri

Possible sales - Sa, Neto, Podence, Hwang

Loaned out - Hodge, Lembikisa

If I am anywhere near correct, the positions we need to strengthen in will be keeper, defence, midfield, forward, striker. Showmethemoney

I honestly don't think we need a massive overhaul and i think our squad with the addition of a proper striker is easily top ten material.

Personally the first two i would push out the door would be Semedo and Hwang.

Concern is which players are now unsettled? Along with Neves I would have placed Ait-Nouri and Neto as two with probably the highest ceiling but it now appears both are likely leaving. Don't know what we do with young potential but it isn't good whatever it is.

A few stories saying a deal between Wolves and Barcelona for Neves has already been agreed but one report reckons the fee is only €30m, if he goes there he won’t be playing at the Camp Nou for a while as that is being renovated, they played their last game there for a while yesterday in front of over 80,000 winning 3-0 with two early goals from Ansu Fati

surprisingly Toti has been called up to the Portugal squad. Fair play lad.

I’m of the opinion that we are in need of quite a major rebuild this summer. 4 or 5 quality additions at a minimum.

Will Fosun play with fire again next season? We were fortunate we dragged ourselves out of the 💩 this year.

comment by Cinciwolf----Old Trafford record attendance.....WOLVES V GRIMSBY. .......lolz (U11551)
posted 3 hours, 30 minutes ago
surprisingly Toti has been called up to the Portugal squad. Fair play lad.
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That is a surprise. He has the attributes to become a cult hero here, in the mould of a Mo Camara or George Elokobi; where his physical attributes and commitment endear him to fans and make him a good squad player to have around. Not sure he is an international level defender for one of Europe's top nations though.

comment by Tamwolf (U17286)
posted 1 hour, 49 minutes ago
comment by Cinciwolf----Old Trafford record attendance.....WOLVES V GRIMSBY. .......lolz (U11551)
posted 3 hours, 30 minutes ago
surprisingly Toti has been called up to the Portugal squad. Fair play lad.
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That is a surprise. He has the attributes to become a cult hero here, in the mould of a Mo Camara or George Elokobi; where his physical attributes and commitment endear him to fans and make him a good squad player to have around. Not sure he is an international level defender for one of Europe's top nations though.
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Yeah agreed. Done ok but certainly nothing to get a national call. Maybe they have picked a second level squad?!

Cinci, one of the things I like about a discussion like this is that 2 people can have such diverse opinions about the same player, in this case Semedo.

You have him as one of the first players you'd have out of the door, whereas I had him as "already good enough".

Thankfully I don't have to justify my view, and neither do you. This is a football forum where we are, or should be, able to disagree. There are issues about which I, and I'm sure you, might get very agitated, but football, generally, is not one of them.

I wish all on this board would talk football, agree and disagree when necessary, without resorting to abuse.

Well I've got that off my chest.

Still mulling all this over, so at the moment my only comment is about Semedo, who for me is like marmite, you either like him or not.
For me, he is about as good as we will get at this time.

I think what makes this summer different is that it’s not a matter of whether we want a clearout or need a clearout, we’re going to get one. There’s a list of senior professionals that we pretty much know won’t be here next season and the dilemma now is whether we have the resources and leeway with ffp to end up with a stronger squad despite that. I think Lopetegui’s concern is understandable although I do wish he’d have had that debate behind closed doors with Fosun rather than with the press

I think Semedo at times looks a Rolls Royce of a player with good skills and makes a valuable contribution to rhe way we play. But I do think he has his shortcomings defensively particularly in terms of positioning. I tend to agree with Boston that we’d struggle to find a better replacement although a years development on a loan to a championship club might be all Lembikisa needs to be ready

Semedo would probably start for most other Premier League clubs. Unfortunately, he is the latest boo boy so tends to get judged unfairly compared to other players. I think it is mainly due to the time he joined, a summer where we spent a lot of money to stand still.

I think prior to Dawson joining, he struggled a bit with overloads on his side. Collins tends to get drawn towards the ball for crosses, which can leave Semedo in no man's land and having to choose whether to; go narrow to stop the inside threat, drop to cover the wider threat or hang in to try to cover both. This has left him being caught under the ball or with players having a run on him. We even saw it with the first Arsenal goal at the weekend, where Collins got drawn to the man Kilman was already marking rather than tracking Xhaka; causing him to jump under the ball and leaving Semedo caught between two players. I've seen Semedo blamed for this goal, when it is 100% Collins. Dawson would have had his body open, so he could see the run of Xhaka, held his position and likely have won the header. Communication is also better under Dawson and I actually think Collins would benefit a lot from playing alongside him at some point.

I think Semedo is a really good one on one defender. You never really have to worry about him coming up against a fast and skillful winger. He generally deals with it. You don't see him get ruined repeatedly by a winger like Bueno did at the weekend or Toti has a couple of times this season. Yet they seem immune from the type of criticism Semedo gets.

Incidentally, I also think RAN would get into most Premier League starting line ups. Not really sure what has happened to him, but I think he is one we are going to be kicking ourselves over if we let him leave.

Never once heard Semedo getting booed. Don’t know why you invent these prejudices that fans have against certain players which is just not evident at Molineux.

In the penalty area it’s Semedo’s job to mark the player coming in from the left. For Arsenal’s first goal Kilman covered the near post, Collins covered Jesus and Semedo didn’t cover Xhaka.

As for RAN he has looked really good as a wing back at times but hasn’t improved as a defender which is why Toti and Bueno are, quite rightly in my opinion, preferred to him in a back 4

comment by Tamwolf (U17286)
posted 12 hours, 43 minutes ago
comment by Cinciwolf----Old Trafford record attendance.....WOLVES V GRIMSBY. .......lolz (U11551)
posted 3 hours, 30 minutes ago
surprisingly Toti has been called up to the Portugal squad. Fair play lad.
----------------------------------------------------------------------

That is a surprise. He has the attributes to become a cult hero here, in the mould of a Mo Camara or George Elokobi; where his physical attributes and commitment endear him to fans and make him a good squad player to have around. Not sure he is an international level defender for one of Europe's top nations though.
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No idea how you can put Toti in the same category as those two, he's a talented footballer, not sure he's a left back but he's a very tidy player and he's had some good performances in that role.

Must admit when Toti was chosen to play left back I thought it was a mistake and an accident waiting to happen but he’s really proved me wrong. With him and Bueno I think that’s one position I feel comfortable with moving forward. Although in reality we probably have a third choice because I think Ryan Giles may well be good enough for the Premier League given the chance

comment by Spangles (U17289)
posted 2 minutes ago
In the penalty area it’s Semedo’s job to mark the player coming in from the left. For Arsenal’s first goal Kilman covered the near post, Collins covered Jesus and Semedo didn’t cover Xhaka.
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Given Jesus put the cross in, Collins can't have been covering him. Saka was in the middle and who Collins got drawn to, with his body closed.

Trossard was the widest player in the box, coming in from the left. So if you think its Semedo's job to mark the player coming in from the left then that's who he should have been marking. If he'd moved in on Xhaka and the ball had gone over him to Trossard to score, then you'd have blamed Semedo again.

We had three defenders in the six yard box. They had three forwards. It's poor communication and awareness from Collins and Kilman to allow one of the two in the centre of the goal to be unmarked. All it took was for Collins to open his body and be aware of Xhaka and communicate to Kilman to take a step back so he can cover the additional threat. Dawson would have done this, Collins didn't. That's why Dawson has been so important.

comment by Oldgoldilox (U17303)
posted 8 minutes ago
comment by Tamwolf (U17286)
posted 12 hours, 43 minutes ago
comment by Cinciwolf----Old Trafford record attendance.....WOLVES V GRIMSBY. .......lolz (U11551)
posted 3 hours, 30 minutes ago
surprisingly Toti has been called up to the Portugal squad. Fair play lad.
----------------------------------------------------------------------

That is a surprise. He has the attributes to become a cult hero here, in the mould of a Mo Camara or George Elokobi; where his physical attributes and commitment endear him to fans and make him a good squad player to have around. Not sure he is an international level defender for one of Europe's top nations though.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
No idea how you can put Toti in the same category as those two, he's a talented footballer, not sure he's a left back but he's a very tidy player and he's had some good performances in that role.
----------------------------------------------------------------------

He is more talented than those two, but we are also playing at a higher level than when we had those two; so I guess it's all relative.

I think he is more likely to bulldoze his way through than do anything skillful and probably plays higher than his technical ability through his commitment and physique. That's why I put him in that bracket.

comment by Wulfrunnut (U17298)
posted 10 hours, 37 minutes ago
Cinci, one of the things I like about a discussion like this is that 2 people can have such diverse opinions about the same player, in this case Semedo.

You have him as one of the first players you'd have out of the door, whereas I had him as "already good enough".

Thankfully I don't have to justify my view, and neither do you. This is a football forum where we are, or should be, able to disagree. There are issues about which I, and I'm sure you, might get very agitated, but football, generally, is not one of them.

I wish all on this board would talk football, agree and disagree when necessary, without resorting to abuse.

Well I've got that off my chest.
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Thing with Semedo is when you pay Barcelona £32m or whatever it was, you expect to get a player that's pretty close to the finished article, not one that looks like he's playing his first season as a right back, which is what we got back in 20/21, he was all over the place. Wasn't much better last season but has improved in recent months.

I’ve always thought with Semedo that he came with the reputation of being a signing from one of the top clubs in the world but that was a team that was regularly getting 80% possession so he was rarely put under pressure. I like him and am pleased we have kept him on, but he has his faults and maybe more than you would hope for from a player signed at that price from that club

We have decisions to make this summer on Giles and Cundle who were both loaned out to championship teams this season and both have done really well. A year ago we were in the same position with MGW. He was sold for a good fee and was probably Forest’s player of the season. Whether Cundle and Giles can do as well in the top flight time will tell but we might have got to the point of giving them a chance in our squad or letting them go. And the same can probably also be said about Fabio. All three have probably done as much as they could to make their case while on loan

Hoever has also done well at Stoke in the second half of this season.

I think there are questions over Giles defensively and I guess that will decide whether he gets a chance or not. I did see him play against Blues earlier in the season, but he wasn't challenged much defensively that game.

I haven't seen much of Cundle since he went on loan. Might have a look on the forums of their loan clubs to see what the supporters are saying about them at some point.

Always think it’s a good measure of how a player has done on loan if the club they’ve been at want them back. Certainly Swansea have said they’d like to loan Cundle again and same with Middlesbrough and Giles. Hoever seemed to end the season well with Stoke but before that PSV couldn’t wait to see the back of him and ended his loan early. Think with him there’s more questions about his attitude than his ability. Dion Sanderson was also wanted back by both teams he’s been loaned to in Sunderland and Birmingham. Looks like he’ll be sold this summer and both those teams will probably come in for him but wouldn’t offer much of a fee.

Next season I think Hodge and Lembikisa would be really good loan signings for somebody

Also wonder whether we will try to get Chiquinho and Kalajdzic back up to speed or loan them out. We have seen with Raul, Jonny and Neto that finding form after a long lay off is far from easy.

Read that PSV manager Ruud Van Nistleroy has said he would love to take Fabio back there again next season and said he is a pleasure to work with. But also read this week that Ajax would like to loan him. Must have impressed in Holland if both those clubs would like to take him