Our bloated squad is damaging us

[Skitzo]

I get what you are saying Jeff but we've seen players like Knight play one season then not be included the next, even if it is just what you say its a confidence boost to the players as I expect they will be training with the first team regularly.

 

[Blue Maniac]

The fact that Slimani, Diabate, Silva, Diabate and Ghezzal haven't been given numbers is more significant. They all had squad numbers last season.

Also I don’t see Diabate, Slimani, Diabate or Silva. Or Diabate.

 

[Jeff]

Also I don’t see Diabate, Slimani, Diabate or Silva. Or Diabate.

Have you not heard of the Diabate twins?

 

[Blue Maniac]

Have you not heard of the Diabate twins?

Anything like the Kanté twins?

 

[Jeff]

Anything like the Kanté twins?

No. https://www.instagram.com/diabatetwins/

 

[homer]

Anything like the Kanté twins?

More like the useless ****y twins

 

[tedfoxxx]

No. https://www.instagram.com/diabatetwins/

Investing in youth, that’s the model that makes sense. £30mil for the pair.

 

[Blue Maniac]

Off topic, but a few years ago when Portsmouth were in the Premier League, one of the many, many, many, many random Africans they signed was a tremendously ordinary midfielder called Lassina Diabaté. During this spell, a Middle Eastern football magazine once used a picture of him, unfortunately renaming him Lasagna Diabetes in their caption.

 

[tedfoxxx]

Off topic, but a few years ago when Portsmouth were in the Premier League, one of the many, many, many, many random Africans they signed was a tremendously ordinary midfielder called Lassina Diabaté. During this spell, a Middle Eastern football magazine once used a picture of him, unfortunately renaming him Lasagna Diabetes in their caption.

Gerrimin.

 

[Brown Nose]

Take the 18 from the WBA game (less Thomas who I think will be sent on loan), then add in Morgan, Ricardo, Evans, and the two new players when we've added a centre back (probably Fofana) and right sided forward (almost certainly Under) and then one additional keeper for giggles (Jakupovic). That's 23 players and BR says he works with a group of 22-23 each season. He certainly did last season.

That leaves us with a lot of players not included. This lot are either not good enough or not going to make our squad list:

Amartey, Benkovic, Silva, James, Gray, Diabate, Slimani, Ghezzal, Knight (23), Johnson (22), Hughes (23), Nduku (22), Muskwe (22).

Plus the potentially decent younger kids from the U23s that need loans:

Thomas, Dewsbury-Hall, Tavares, Leshabela, Clark, Eppiah + maybe more.

We probably need to get approx 20 people out in the next two and a half weeks.

 

[Jeff]

We probably need to get approx 20 people out in the next two and a half weeks.

We've got until 16th October to loan/sell players to EFL clubs.

 

[Brown Nose]

This lot are either not good enough or not going to make our squad list:

Amartey, Benkovic, Silva, James, Gray, Diabate, Slimani, Ghezzal, Knight (23), Johnson (22), Hughes (23), Nduku (22), Muskwe (22).

Plus the potentially decent younger kids from the U23s that need loans:

Thomas, Dewsbury-Hall, Tavares, Leshabela, Clark, Eppiah + maybe more.

We probably need to get approx 20 people out in the next two and a half weeks.

So we got rid of most of the above in the end (in bold).

Disappointing to have only moved out most on loan though - James, Ghezzal, Knight, Johnson and Hughes cannot possibly be first team players for us in the future.

The story of the summer is that we could only do so much with no budget. We could clearly only spend what we made and there was one player (Chilwell) that we cashed in on to free up money.

With practically nobody out there able to spend money, we were left with a bunch of players that had some value but no buyers. Indeed, consider the cases of players like King and Simpson, still training with the club and, just four years after wining a PL title, nobody wants them. We did get King off the wage bill, along with the likes of Kapustka, Silva and Diabate. But a lot of rubbish remains on the payroll.

BR wanted five new players and ended up with three. He also ended up with at least three players that he didn't expect to find in his squad - Amartey, Gray and Slimani. No takers for them and time to suck it up on both sides and integrate them into the squad. Bizarrely, we cannot use them in the Europa League, but Amartey has already shown that there is value in them being around.

One point is that a lot of players will be out of contract in Summer 2021: Evans, Morgan, Fuchs, Jakupovic, James, Gray and Slimani from the first team squad.

 

[City Fan]

One point is that a lot of players will be out of contract in Summer 2021: Evans, Morgan, Fuchs, Jakupovic, James, Gray and Slimani from the first team squad.

Unless James gets another new contract, that is.

 

[Miles Away]

One point is that a lot of players will be out of contract in Summer 2021: Evans, Morgan, Fuchs, Jakupovic, James, Gray and Slimani from the first team squad.

I think all of them will leave.

Estimated wages, per Spotrac:

Jakupovic: 1.2M a year (!!)
James: 1.6M
Fuchs: 2.5M
Gray: 2.8M
Morgan: 3M
Slimani: 4M
Evans: 4M

That’s nearly 20M a year in wages saved.

Of that list, realistically we would need to find replacements for Evans and Gray

 

[pork pie fox]

I think all of them will leave.

Estimated wages, per Spotrac:

Jakupovic: 1.2M a year (!!)
James: 1.6M
Fuchs: 2.5M
Gray: 2.8M
Morgan: 3M
Slimani: 4M
Evans: 4M

That’s nearly 20M a year in wages saved.

Of that list, realistically we would need to find replacements for Evans and Gray

I think we’d try to keep Evans.

 

[Miles Away]

I think we’d try to keep Evans.

We may. I think he might choose to move on.

 

[Blue Maniac]

I reckon the only way James leaves is if a massive club comes in with the big money. Barcelona, Real Madrid, Preston, Reading, someone like that.

 

[camberwell fox]

I think all of them will leave.

Estimated wages, per Spotrac:

Jakupovic: 1.2M a year (!!)
James: 1.6M
Fuchs: 2.5M
Gray: 2.8M
Morgan: 3M
Slimani: 4M
Evans: 4M

That’s nearly 20M a year in wages saved.

Of that list, realistically we would need to find replacements for Evans and Gray

We have a replacement for Gray, his name is anonymous, which is identical to most of Grays’ performances.

 

[Robin127]

A quite from Rodgers from today's presser for the game tomorrow

"Leicester City seemed to have a ready-made replacement for Caglar Soyuncu in Croatia defender Filip Benkovic.

Or did they? Apparently not according to Brendan Rodgers, who says sending the 23-year-old on loan to Championship side Cardiff was still the best option.

“He’s not ready to play in the Premier League, it’s the brutal honesty of it," Rodgers said.

"But he needs to play games and that is his mindset as well. It was always going to be best for him and us to get out and play.""

Read what you like into that.

 

[Blue Maniac]

A quite from Rodgers from today's presser for the game tomorrow

"Leicester City seemed to have a ready-made replacement for Caglar Soyuncu in Croatia defender Filip Benkovic.

Or did they? Apparently not according to Brendan Rodgers, who says sending the 23-year-old on loan to Championship side Cardiff was still the best option.

“He’s not ready to play in the Premier League, it’s the brutal honesty of it," Rodgers said.

"But he needs to play games and that is his mindset as well. It was always going to be best for him and us to get out and play.""

Read what you like into that.

Less ready than James Justin, that’s encouraging.