Squad as it stands...

[Big Daddy Cool]

Edwards and Harper need to go out on loan for a season in the Championship. It will do them the world of good.

[Gzbaggy]

With the loanees gone, and Al-Habsi, Peltier, Brunt, Barry, Ferguson all released it's starting to look a little thin on the ground.

Imagine the bold players will be out on loan next season leaving us with quite a few gaps to plug. I think we're going to need 7 bodies minimum... 


GK:

Johnstone
Bond
Palmer 
Griffiths

DEF:

O'Shea
Furlong
Gibbs
Townsend
Ajayi
Bartley
Hegazi


MID:

Sawyers
Livermore
Periera
Grosicki
Phillips
Harper
Burke
Field
Edwards

ATTK:
Austin
HRK
Zohore
Leko
Tulloch

I hope you are wrong with most of the  players in bold (I assume you would add Morton to that list) 

If they are not good enough now then they are never likely to be and that is set against a benchmark of Austin & HRK! 

Palmer is older than both Bournemouth keepers (Ramsdale & Travers)

Lamptey & Connolly (Brighton) James & Mount (Chelsea) Gibbs-White (Wolves) Obafemi , Valley & Smallbone (Southampton) Johnson (West Ham) are all younger than most of the above

[Lightnin]

For me one thing post lockdown has shown is probably how much work needs to be done in the summer, at times we've struggled to hit the heights of earlier in the season

I think our approach will be more Sheff Utd than Villa - naturally - it's good he's looking to give the existing players an opportunity. I'd like to see Krov and Robinson signed, I think Grady could be here next season either permanently or another loan besides that I still think we need

GK - Joe Hart is a good shout, won't want to come here to be a number 2 and SJ needs competition

Full Backs - Slav isn't a fan, we may get by at RB but I see us looking for both full back positions to be strenthened

CH - At least one more I'd imagine

CM - Harrison Reed or Conor Gallagher would improve us, again with Krov coming in I still think he woudl like one more

AM/Wingers - Eze would be a great signing but won't come cheap, probably one more player in this position

CF - Think we need two strikers, not sure what we'll do with Zahore, Austin will be hard to get off the wage bill, HRK is OK to stick around the squad as an option IMO but for me the bulk of our money will be spent here

Huge summer ahead if we don't want to do a Naaaarge I guess, look at their squad from last season and look at ours and I'd say there are similaraties in terms of quality and options and they've seemed out of their depth from day one in the Prem, we have a better infrastructure, better manager and more know how of staying up which gives us hope!

Cuzer

Summer?? What summer? It's already the end of July. The problem is that we have less time to do what we normally fail to do over longer amount of time in a higher stakes competition.

I do agree with your view on what we need though. On your Harrison Reed point, I'm a fan but I do think he's a little bit too small and lightweight for the Premier or he'd be playing at Saints. They're about to sell Hojbjerg too so they may not want to sell? I think Chalobah at Watford would be a good shout.

I think the centre forward area will be key and we need to find another Odemwingie.

[SW4Baggie]

With the loanees gone, and Al-Habsi, Peltier, Brunt, Barry, Ferguson all released it's starting to look a little thin on the ground.

Imagine the bold players will be out on loan next season leaving us with quite a few gaps to plug. I think we're going to need 7 bodies minimum... 


GK:

Johnstone
Bond
Palmer 
Griffiths

DEF:

O'Shea
Furlong
Gibbs
Townsend
Ajayi
Bartley
Hegazi


MID:

Sawyers
Livermore
Periera
Grosicki
Phillips
Harper
Burke
Field
Edwards

ATTK:
Austin
HRK
Zohore
Leko
Tulloch

I hope you are wrong with most of the  players in bold (I assume you would add Morton to that list) 

If they are not good enough now then they are never likely to be and that is set against a benchmark of Austin & HRK! 

Palmer is older than both Bournemouth keepers (Ramsdale & Travers)

Lamptey & Connolly (Brighton) James & Mount (Chelsea) Gibbs-White (Wolves) Obafemi , Valley & Smallbone (Southampton) Johnson (West Ham) are all younger than most of the above

Lamptey was signed by Brighton from Chelsea in January....
James and Mount have had  full seasons playing on loan in the Championship 
Gibbs-White played in the Championship and has mostly been a sub/used in Euros
Obafemi and Smallbone again are playing bit part roles...
Johnson at WHU has played 2 games

Only Aaron Connolly has been a regular for Brighton, and his 2 league goals this season have probably contributed to thembeing amongst the lowest scorers in the league.

Most teams in the PL have 2-3 young players who get the odd start and sub appearance, and I'm sure several of our lads will get the same experience this season... Edwards, Harper and possibly Leko given our lack of options up top... but I think all the players in bold would benefit from a year out on loan in the Championship moreso than the odd cameo for us.

Looking forward to seeing what could happen with Field... He was very well liked at Charlton, and he won't have a better chance to stake a claim than this pre-season!

[scotbaggie]

For me one thing post lockdown has shown is probably how much work needs to be done in the summer, at times we've struggled to hit the heights of earlier in the season

I think our approach will be more Sheff Utd than Villa - naturally - it's good he's looking to give the existing players an opportunity. I'd like to see Krov and Robinson signed, I think Grady could be here next season either permanently or another loan besides that I still think we need

GK - Joe Hart is a good shout, won't want to come here to be a number 2 and SJ needs competition

Full Backs - Slav isn't a fan, we may get by at RB but I see us looking for both full back positions to be strenthened

CH - At least one more I'd imagine

CM - Harrison Reed or Conor Gallagher would improve us, again with Krov coming in I still think he woudl like one more

AM/Wingers - Eze would be a great signing but won't come cheap, probably one more player in this position

CF - Think we need two strikers, not sure what we'll do with Zahore, Austin will be hard to get off the wage bill, HRK is OK to stick around the squad as an option IMO but for me the bulk of our money will be spent here

Huge summer ahead if we don't want to do a Naaaarge I guess, look at their squad from last season and look at ours and I'd say there are similaraties in terms of quality and options and they've seemed out of their depth from day one in the Prem, we have a better infrastructure, better manager and more know how of staying up which gives us hope!

Cuzer

For the strikers, first off after Robinson's performance I could see us rolling with him in the PL upfront. He looks PL capable to me. As for the rest:
Austin - keep around as an impact sub, knows how to score in any league but not a starter anymore
HRK - I think the emergence of Robinson takes his spot, doesn't it
Zahore - I don't see a future for him here. Bilic obviously doesn't rate him, couldn't even get a shirt
New - Add a backup/co striker to Robinson. 

So go into the season with 2 "starters" (robinson and tbh) and Austin as an impact sub when you need a goal or in case of injuries
Also this works because we are deep at mid/wingers, so plucking Robinson from there won't hurt. We could also add Eze or someone, as mentioned above.

[SW4Baggie]

For me one thing post lockdown has shown is probably how much work needs to be done in the summer, at times we've struggled to hit the heights of earlier in the season

I think our approach will be more Sheff Utd than Villa - naturally - it's good he's looking to give the existing players an opportunity. I'd like to see Krov and Robinson signed, I think Grady could be here next season either permanently or another loan besides that I still think we need

GK - Joe Hart is a good shout, won't want to come here to be a number 2 and SJ needs competition

Full Backs - Slav isn't a fan, we may get by at RB but I see us looking for both full back positions to be strenthened

CH - At least one more I'd imagine

CM - Harrison Reed or Conor Gallagher would improve us, again with Krov coming in I still think he woudl like one more

AM/Wingers - Eze would be a great signing but won't come cheap, probably one more player in this position

CF - Think we need two strikers, not sure what we'll do with Zahore, Austin will be hard to get off the wage bill, HRK is OK to stick around the squad as an option IMO but for me the bulk of our money will be spent here

Huge summer ahead if we don't want to do a Naaaarge I guess, look at their squad from last season and look at ours and I'd say there are similaraties in terms of quality and options and they've seemed out of their depth from day one in the Prem, we have a better infrastructure, better manager and more know how of staying up which gives us hope!

Cuzer

For the strikers, first off after Robinson's performance I could see us rolling with him in the PL upfront. He looks PL capable to me. As for the rest:
Austin - keep around as an impact sub, knows how to score in any league but not a starter anymore
HRK - I think the emergence of Robinson takes his spot, doesn't it
Zahore - I don't see a future for him here. Bilic obviously doesn't rate him, couldn't even get a shirt
New - Add a backup/co striker to Robinson. 

So go into the season with 2 "starters" (robinson and tbh) and Austin as an impact sub when you need a goal or in case of injuries
Also this works because we are deep at mid/wingers, so plucking Robinson from there won't hurt. We could also add Eze or someone, as mentioned above.

If we're going into the season with Robinson as our first choice striker we may as well start booking our trips to Wycombe and Rotherham the following year.

Krov would be the only one of our loanees I'd be looking to make permanent as whilst I'd like to keep Grady and Robinson, there's better value for money out there.

We need to go big on a striker, a centre half a centre mid and another wide man. Watkins, (Mawson, Fry, Va de Hoorn), Massengo and Eze would do it IMO. Benrhama would be the dream but will be way out of our price range... Joe Lolley not a bad option either.

[Squid]

We need a PL experienced leader of a CH.

Who's available and in our price range?

[Gzbaggy]

With the loanees gone, and Al-Habsi, Peltier, Brunt, Barry, Ferguson all released it's starting to look a little thin on the ground.

Imagine the bold players will be out on loan next season leaving us with quite a few gaps to plug. I think we're going to need 7 bodies minimum... 


GK:

Johnstone
Bond
Palmer 
Griffiths

DEF:

O'Shea
Furlong
Gibbs
Townsend
Ajayi
Bartley
Hegazi


MID:

Sawyers
Livermore
Periera
Grosicki
Phillips
Harper
Burke
Field
Edwards

ATTK:
Austin
HRK
Zohore
Leko
Tulloch

I hope you are wrong with most of the  players in bold (I assume you would add Morton to that list) 

If they are not good enough now then they are never likely to be and that is set against a benchmark of Austin & HRK! 

Palmer is older than both Bournemouth keepers (Ramsdale & Travers)

Lamptey & Connolly (Brighton) James & Mount (Chelsea) Gibbs-White (Wolves) Obafemi , Valley & Smallbone (Southampton) Johnson (West Ham) are all younger than most of the above

Lamptey was signed by Brighton from Chelsea in January....
James and Mount have had  full seasons playing on loan in the Championship 
Gibbs-White played in the Championship and has mostly been a sub/used in Euros
Obafemi and Smallbone again are playing bit part roles...
Johnson at WHU has played 2 games

Only Aaron Connolly has been a regular for Brighton, and his 2 league goals this season have probably contributed to thembeing amongst the lowest scorers in the league.

Most teams in the PL have 2-3 young players who get the odd start and sub appearance, and I'm sure several of our lads will get the same experience this season... Edwards, Harper and possibly Leko given our lack of options up top... but I think all the players in bold would benefit from a year out on loan in the Championship moreso than the odd cameo for us.

Looking forward to seeing what could happen with Field... He was very well liked at Charlton, and he won't have a better chance to stake a claim than this pre-season!

Fair point, but I do think clubs are far too reluctant to give their youngsters a go. I am probably in a minority but would much rather Morton than HRK next season

The interesting thing next season is how many subs are allowed, if it is five then it gives us an opportunity to use them more often

[Hopalong]

For me one thing post lockdown has shown is probably how much work needs to be done in the summer, at times we've struggled to hit the heights of earlier in the season

I think our approach will be more Sheff Utd than Villa - naturally - it's good he's looking to give the existing players an opportunity. I'd like to see Krov and Robinson signed, I think Grady could be here next season either permanently or another loan besides that I still think we need

GK - Joe Hart is a good shout, won't want to come here to be a number 2 and SJ needs competition

Full Backs - Slav isn't a fan, we may get by at RB but I see us looking for both full back positions to be strenthened

CH - At least one more I'd imagine

CM - Harrison Reed or Conor Gallagher would improve us, again with Krov coming in I still think he woudl like one more

AM/Wingers - Eze would be a great signing but won't come cheap, probably one more player in this position

CF - Think we need two strikers, not sure what we'll do with Zahore, Austin will be hard to get off the wage bill, HRK is OK to stick around the squad as an option IMO but for me the bulk of our money will be spent here

Huge summer ahead if we don't want to do a Naaaarge I guess, look at their squad from last season and look at ours and I'd say there are similaraties in terms of quality and options and they've seemed out of their depth from day one in the Prem, we have a better infrastructure, better manager and more know how of staying up which gives us hope!

Cuzer

Summer?? What summer? It's already the end of July. The problem is that we have less time to do what we normally fail to do over longer amount of time in a higher stakes competition.

I do agree with your view on what we need though. On your Harrison Reed point, I'm a fan but I do think he's a little bit too small and lightweight for the Premier or he'd be playing at Saints. They're about to sell Hojbjerg too so they may not want to sell? I think Chalobah at Watford would be a good shout.

I think the centre forward area will be key and we need to find another Odemwingie.

Window slams shut on 5 October so about the same time as usual.

[Hopalong]

A lot of work to do. 

We look a different side to pre-lock-down, very leggy. 

Sheff U will probably want a lot for Robinson. 

Diangana we can forget, so we need to find a replacement unless we run with Grosicki. 

I'd do my best to get Krov. 

Phillips and Livermore need a new diet. 

Key positions to strengthen are GK, LB, RW, LW, CM, LB and CF.