Originally Posted by
I am invisible
Getting it done will be tough, but I think we can at least assume that there's intent there.
If we're serious about trying to get both Aouar and Partey then there's no way we don't sell / swap Lacazette - otherwise I don't see how else we fund everything.
And, yeah, Guendouzi and Torreira look like the other obvious money-makers / makeweights.
Easy, quick wins are surely Mkhitaryan, Elneny, Mavropanos, and anyone else I've forgotten about who's currently on loan (please tell me we've sold Ospina!).
Then, as you say, we've got to cut the surplus players we have in each area. If Gabriel does sign then we're going to have 8 CBs in the first team, which is mental! Half of those guys need to go and, assuming Gabriel, Saliba, Mari or Luiz are all safe, that means a P45 for Sokratis, Chambers, Holding and Mustafi.
Kolasinac needs to go to - they guy adds nothing but expense. Hopefully we'll have enough cover at LB with Tierney backed up by Saka (plus AMN and I believe Soares can both play LB if needed) to not need a replacement?
We probably don't need 3 RBs either, so I would guess either AMN or Bellerin might be sold IF a tempting enough offer comes in. However, I wouldn't be at all surprised if we kept all 3, depending on how man CMs we lose / add and whether we ditch Kolasinac without replacing him.
I'm also wondering if there might be a surprise departure or two somewhere, if we really need the extra funds to get our main deals over the line? Maybe Nelson, if a decent bid comes in (I think we'll be pretty well covered on the wings with Pepe, Willian, Saka and Martinelli)? And maybe even one of the keepers? I love have two goalies of that quality fighting it out, but it may be a luxury we can't afford and don't really deserve, if the rest of the team still needs so much work?
I don't see Xhaka going anywhere this summer - if we're looking at losing Guendouzi and Torreira, and maybe Ceballos if we can't work something out with Madrid, then it will leave us way too light on midfield options. I think he'll be go eventually, but probably next summer, when there's less to think about.
Even without Xhaka, though, that's still a lot of potential outs...
Lacazette
Guendouzi
Torreira
Mkhitaryan
Elneny
Mavropanos
Sokratis
Chambers
Holding
Mustafi
Kolasinac
? AMN / Bellerin ?
? Nelson ?
? Leno / Martinez ?
The really crazy thing is we could afford to lose 11 or 12 players from that list, whilst only adding 5, and it would still leave us with plenty of depth in each area - just goes to show how much fat there is in this squad at the moment!