21 Apr 2025 21:09:01
What is your rebuild strategy?

We have 5 Categories of players.

1. Premier quality - Ramsdale, Fernandes, Dibling (would Sell 1, loan 1 and keep 1)

2. Top championship, poor in prem - Downes, Armstrong, THB, Bednarek, Diaz, Archer (sell half, keep half)

3. Championship level - Bree, Manning, Fraser, Wood, Smallbone Stewart, Taylor, Aribo, Baz (sell with value >5m, keep rest)

4. Young with potential - Charles, Larios, Edwards, Sanda, Edozie (keep or loan)

5. Hot and cold - Sulemana, Sugawara, ABK, Wellington, Onuachu (sell half, keep half)

This should give 100m+, cut squad by 10, to buy/loan in 5 and have a leaner squad.

Would you be more ruthless? Fight to keep others? Curious to hear people's thoughts.

1.) 21 Apr 2025
21 Apr 2025 22:27:05
I would include KWP in first category.

Is Dibling PL class? Maybe one day, and he certainly has potential, but he needs to improve his decision making and he is fairly easily brushed off the ball.

Give him 2 years and he could become a superstar but he’ should stay with us another season to kick on.

2.) 22 Apr 2025
22 Apr 2025 00:34:01
Yes I would include KWP as prem quality too. I did not include him here as he is almost definitely off as he is out of contract.

I would love to keep Dibling, Fernandes and loan Ramsdale, in case we return. We do need to raise 100m+ and I am not sure we can get there without selling some stars sadly.

Cannot see Smallbone, Bazunu, Aribo, Fraser, Taylor, Bednarek, Diaz, Stewart and Archer sparking a bidding war now!

3.) 29 Apr 2025
29 Apr 2025 00:04:16
Everyone in your category 1 will go, for hopefully £60-70m
From 2 THB, BBD and possibly Downes also go, for a further £20m
I’d keep most of 3 and 4, and sell Sugawara, Sulemana and ABK from 5, make that another £15m

So a good chance we get that £100m if we play harder ball than we have in recently.
I’d honestly just give Lumley and Bazunu a go for the first half of the season, we can take stock in January but no point splashing more cash if either one of them comes good and if not, a championship level keeper in January will be a few mill tops.

Defence seems very championship standard but fairly well covered if lacking decent full backs. Add one or two of them to the shopping list.

Charles, Smallbone, Aribo in midfield is crying out for two more in there. Up front, I just want one season of Tall Paul madness with Archer alongside him. Armstrong as well gives us plenty of goals for that level.

So I think you’re pretty bang on with the overall objective of raise £100m and sign 5 in to improve the starting XI.

There are just three issues to get to that. We need buyers for them all at prices we’re happy with. Some will be easier to get rid than others. We need a manager in pronto so he can shape the squad as he wants. And we need good recruitment which we haven’t had under these owners.

Right now, I’d take a Middlesbrough-ish compete for the play-offs and maybe squeeze in. We have gotten so used to losing, think of our start in 23/24, we were 17th or something in September. New manager is key to arresting that.

What I am looking forward to next season is a totally chaotic league. Wrexham and Birmingham, maybe a Nathan Jones-led Charlton, Ipswich and Leicester being decimated, whoever doesn’t win the play-offs offs will be there or there abouts, Portsmouth, randoms like Oxford, some fallen giants, I have no idea who might win the league if Sheff U win the play offs and it’ll be brilliant.

My one point of cautious optimism is our young spine. I have Wednesday and QPR supporting friends and they’d both love to keep Shea and Ronnie. Those two, Wood, Archer, there are makings of a good young championship side in there. Similarly, it all goes to pot and we end up Luton-ing it. Who knows. Probably the latter ?