Possible affordable targets for next season

[Woodleyclaret]

First loved and hated in equal measure Szmodics
Good finisher at a skint club
Whittaker Plymouth emerging talent in the Oli Watkins mold
Harrison Reed Fulham not their first choice good tackler and playmaker
Potts PNE decent defensive player
Conway Bristol City possible deal as their manager rated Scott Twine

[NewClaret]

I think it depends who leaves.

Priorities will surely be LB as Charlie will go, CDM as Cork will go (possibly Brownhill if we get a bid) and RB if Leeds go up and Roberts gets an offer. Tresor I wonder whether his loan was contingent on us staying in the Prem so may go back.

I think we’ll look at Europe and probably for players we think could play in the Prem with loan offers with options to buy this time.

I think we’ll be fairly inundated with loan offers from Prem sides looking to turn their unwanted/needed players to £20m players like we did with Maatsen, THB and Tella but I’d hope we’d learned our lesson to only do that if we agree an option ourself. I think the squad is much better now numbers wise so we won’t have to agree to loans that don’t make sense to us.

Players on a free worth a look:

Pape Gueye
O’Hare

Do wonder whether Leverkusen might loan Tella as he’s been hardly used by them and presumably losing value fast if that continues for a second year. Another barnstorming Champ season could see them make their money back.

Ditto Cornet. Not sure anyone would bid £17.5m for him now whereas a good championship season could see him recover his value. Could he play LWB? Not sure his fitness would manage a full season in the Championship though.

[Darthlaw]

Any Wingers or CB's?

We're short on them.

[Bosscat]

Any Wingers or CB's?

We're short on them.

[Theivley Pike]

Anyone above 5’ 11” ,and 12 stone.

[ArmchairDetective]

Find it almost impossible these days to predict who we will end up signing, unless we've already been linked with them. Might as well throw a dart at Central Europe and pick a 22 year old playing in the country it lands on.

I don't think we need another overhaul. Matt Williams said as much in his Radio Lancs interview. Our squad is huge and filled with players that should be more than competitive in the Championship. Let the young players find their feet. I think we'll spend money but only to the tune of whatever we bring in selling players.

Wouldn't be surprised to see us go in for O'hare again. Based on nothing but prior interest.

[burnmark]

Any Wingers or CB's?

We're short on them.

We could very well be short of wingers.

[morninbob]

We could do with a few experienced pros on free transfers.

[jojomk1]

Anyone above 5’ 11” ,and 12 stone.

That rules out Alan Pace

[elwaclaret]

I think it depends who leaves.

Priorities will surely be LB as Charlie will go, CDM as Cork will go (possibly Brownhill if we get a bid) and RB if Leeds go up and Roberts gets an offer. Tresor I wonder whether his loan was contingent on us staying in the Prem so may go back.

I think we’ll look at Europe and probably for players we think could play in the Prem with loan offers with options to buy this time.

I think we’ll be fairly inundated with loan offers from Prem sides looking to turn their unwanted/needed players to £20m players like we did with Maatsen, THB and Tella but I’d hope we’d learned our lesson to only do that if we agree an option ourself. I think the squad is much better now numbers wise so we won’t have to agree to loans that don’t make sense to us.

Players on a free worth a look:

Pape Gueye
O’Hare

Do wonder whether Leverkusen might loan Tella as he’s been hardly used by them and presumably losing value fast if that continues for a second year. Another barnstorming Champ season could see them make their money back.

Ditto Cornet. Not sure anyone would bid £17.5m for him now whereas a good championship season could see him recover his value. Could he play LWB? Not sure his fitness would manage a full season in the Championship though.

Cornet? He spent enough time in the treatment room in the Premier… he’d be out for a month getting a tough stare from championship defenders.

[Carlos the Great]

I would be scrutinising any signings if I owned Burnley FC after how last summer worked out .. It’s not fantasy football .. VK can blame the players for not performing but he chose them

[Darthlaw]

We could very well be short of wingers.

After signing them all, we'd be fairly brainless to ship out all of Koleosho, Odobert, Twine, Benson, Zaroury, Churlinov & Redmond. That's even assuming we don't sign Tresor, Bruun Larsen or auto renew JBG's contract.

It would be very Burnley though to sign four wingers one summer to complement our existing five, before getting rid of seven the following summer to leave ourselves short

[Woodleyclaret]

OHare is a good shout with McNally much liked at Coventry a possible make weight

[bobinho]

We are shopping in the basement. Our terrible season and the dropping of almost everyone who got us over the line won’t have done anything to fill potential new players with confidence in coming here.
It's really irrelevant who we want or like, VK will have his targets, and if last summer is anything to go by, we’ll all be surprised by his priorities.

[alwaysaclaret]

I would be scrutinising any signings if I owned Burnley FC after how last summer worked out .. It’s not fantasy football .. VK can blame the players for not performing but he chose them

Reading between the lines I'm not too sure he chose them, he should have of course, but maybe not how vk works.

[claretspice]

What we'll be after depends on what we sell of course, but there are always some relative bargains to be found in the Championship and it'd seem to make sense to be looking for some solid Championship experience and leadership to compliment the callow players we'll have in the squad. There are a couple of out of contract players we've been linked with before, in O'Hare and Sam Field at QPR, and another experienced head who will be on a free is is Paddy McNair at Boro. Apart from their experience, McNair and Field have the sort of presence we'll hopefully be aiming to add to the squad.

There's another QPR player that I've been very impressed with this season who looks like he may be out of contract, or at least only have one year left on it: Sinclair Armstrong. He'd certainly command a development fee as he's homegrown and young, but as a raw pacey and powerful centre forward he's caught my eye more than once when I've seen QPR on the box this season. If we're after a forward, he'd seem a good option. Linked with Palace and Celtic.

[Vegas Claret]

We need a LB for sure if we don't give Charlie a new deal. I'd like to see a midfielder to properly compliment the team so Berge can play in his best position. We will probably need a striker as we don't know how much we can rely on Foster and obviously Jay will go. I'll add, I hope the players we bring in are 26+ years old, we need some experience in this team. I can't give you any names though

[Newcastleclaret93]

I’ve watched a fair bit of championship football of this season and the standard is really poor.

However here’s four players that stood out for me as being a level above the rest, I would be happy with any of these coming through the door:

Gabriel Sara from Norwich
Jacob Greaves from Hull
Whittaker and Azaz from Plymouth


A bit of an outside shout for someone that I think would add a bit of steal to our team.

Ben sheaf from Coventry. Reminds me a bit of Jack cork

[NewClaret]

Cornet? He spent enough time in the treatment room in the Premier… he’d be out for a month getting a tough stare from championship defenders.

Well I did think that. Think he’s on about £70k a week as well but I’m not sure anyone is paying him that anymore, certainly not in Europe and I assume if any Prem clubs wanted him he’d have gone in January on loan somewhere. But he’d get the fans onside again as we all loved him.

I actually thought of it when wondering who could replace Maatsen as an attacking, quite high scoring LWB. Could cover striker too. He’d be quality in the Champ.

I was never sure about Mastsen’s defensive ability to start for us in the Championship but goodness me I don’t think we’ll get a better option for the Championship than we had in Maatsen. Cornet was best I could come up with.

[NL Claret]

2 left backs required for a start. Position not been addressed in last 2 transfer windows, Taylor gone from a championship bit part player to a PL regular only because of the lack of competition in this position.

[NewClaret]

I’ve watched a fair bit of championship football of this season and the standard is really poor.

However here’s four players that stood out for me as being a level above the rest, I would be happy with any of these coming through the door:

Gabriel Sara from Norwich
Jacob Greaves from Hull
Whittaker and Azaz from Plymouth


A bit of an outside shout for someone that I think would add a bit of steal to our team.

Ben sheaf from Coventry. Reminds me a bit of Jack cork

I don’t think MUD analytics has a championship module tbh

[NewClaret]

2 left backs required for a start. Position not been addressed in last 2 transfer windows, Taylor gone from a championship bit part player to a PL regular only because of the lack of competition in this position.

I actually think Taylor is better suited to our Prem style than Championship.

I’d love him to stay but I don’t think he will.

[Newcastleclaret93]

I don’t think MUD analytics has a championship module tbh

I would like to think that VK has identified we need a bit of steal (players that are used to the physicality of this country) so I’m hopeful he targets at least a handful of talent already in this country.

No doubt we will still attack the Belgian markets still as well

[NL Claret]

I actually think Taylor is better suited to our Prem style than Championship.

I’d love him to stay but I don’t think he will.

Our PL style is slow and laboured, time to move on from the likes of Taylor, Cork and Jay Rod.

[timshorts]

Whitteker?

Let's get real. If he goes anywhere, it will be to a club higher than us in the pecking order. He declined interest from lazio in the last transfer window, seemingly because he thought that he needed to stay at Plymouth a bit longer to learn his trade.

[NewClaret]

I would like to think that VK has identified we need a bit of steal (players that are used to the physicality of this country) so I’m hopeful he targets at least a handful of talent already in this country.

No doubt we will still attack the Belgian markets still as well

I think what we need for a season in the Champ vs our next season in the Premier League (fingers crossed there’s another) are different things.

For me ‘steal’ is size and strength, physicality. If that’s what you mean I agree but I don’t think it’s necessarily exclusively in the Championship.

[Vegas Claret]

in terms of speed, how does Obafemi compare to Tella ?

[Vegas Claret]

I’ve watched a fair bit of championship football of this season and the standard is really poor.

However here’s four players that stood out for me as being a level above the rest, I would be happy with any of these coming through the door:

Gabriel Sara from Norwich
Jacob Greaves from Hull
Whittaker and Azaz from Plymouth


A bit of an outside shout for someone that I think would add a bit of steal to our team.

Ben sheaf from Coventry. Reminds me a bit of Jack cork

Isn't Azaz on loan from Villa ?

[Big Vinny K]

How many injuries has Cornet had this season ?
He’s out now with another hamstring injury.

O Hare would be a risk too from an injury point of view but he’s obviously quality in the championship.

If Ipswich don’t go up I like Conor Chaplin.
Conway at Bristol City looks a decent prospect too.
If Luton went down i think their keeper (ex blackburn I know) looks better than both of ours.

Jaden Philogene at Hull looks to have something about him. And I think Ekwah the Sunderland midfielder was outstanding against us on the Turf last season but not sure he’s having as good a season this year as he did last.

[Swizzlestick]

Isn't Azaz on loan from Villa ?

He’s now at Boro. On the bench tonight.

[Theivley Pike]

in terms of speed, how does Obafemi compare to Tella ?

Obafemi looked rapid last night and wasn’t afraid to put his foot in,something sadly missing this season.

[Casper2]

I actually think Taylor is better suited to our Prem style than Championship.

I’d love him to stay but I don’t think he will.

What is our Prem style ? I thought it was supposed to be the same as our championship style

[Big Vinny K]

What is our Prem style ? I thought it was supposed to be the same as our championship style

Really ?
You think we have played the same style this season than last ?
Have you watched a game yet this season ?

[NewClaret]

What is our Prem style ? I thought it was supposed to be the same as our championship style

Well we’ve been 4-4-2 most of the season unless you’ve missed it. And about 20% possession vs 80%.

[NewClaret]

Really ?
You think we have played the same style this season than last ?
Have you watched a game yet this season ?

Does make you wonder, doesn’t it??

[NL Claret]

I don’t think any of us know what our Prem style is, what is it? Anyone?

[Nonayforever]

What is our Prem style ? I thought it was supposed to be the same as our championship style

I think that is a perfectly legitimate question.
It isn't a possession based team, nor a pressing style. We aren't robust, not really long ball in the true sense of the word, don't play to hit the opposition on the break, not a fast fluent team, we don't park the bus, we certainly don't threaten with any set pieces.
What is our style ?

[Newcastleclaret93]

Really ?
You think we have played the same style this season than last ?
Have you watched a game yet this season ?

Tbf I think you could argue our style is the same.

A team that passes out from the back and try’s to use tricky wingers to get into the final third and create.

Off course our formation has changed but I’m not sure our style has changed as much as people make out.

[Theivley Pike]

I think that is a perfectly legitimate question.
It isn't a possession based team, nor a pressing style. We aren't robust, not really long ball in the true sense of the word, don't play to hit the opposition on the break, not a fast fluent team, we don't park the bus, we certainly don't threaten with any set pieces.
What is our style ?

It’s called Freestyle ,every team that plays us knows that they’ll get 3 points for free.

[TsarBomba]

I don’t even want to think about more incomings.

We need a massive clear out, and more importantly, we need to start instilling a culture back into the club, which has been lost in the last 18 months.

The bedrock of our promotion was the remnants of the ‘legs, hearts, minds’.

[Theivley Pike]

I don’t even want to think about more incomings.

We need a massive clear out, and more importantly, we need to start instilling a culture back into the club, which has been lost in the last 18 months.

The bedrock of our promotion was the remnants of the ‘legs, hearts, minds’.

Agree that we need a big clear out obviously Cork,Rodriguez,Taylor,JBG ,perhaps McNally and Twine,but whose going to buy Ramsey ,Koleosho,and Redmond who will need to prove their fitness,how many do we keep of the CH’s ,who will want Tresor,etc etc.

[Goliath]

Lallana, Welbeck, Diallo, Hulme from Sunderland

[Theivley Pike]

Lallana is another slightly built player,I don’t think that’s who we need
Wellbeck had become a bit injury prone,don’t know about the other 2

[Goliath]

Lallana, Welbeck, Diallo, Hulme from Sunderland

Leaving us with a team along these lines

..................Muric

Hulme....Beyer....Esteve....Taylor (or new)

..........Cullen.....Berge

Diallo.........Lallana........Koleosho

.................Foster

Subs.

Benson
Welbeck
Zaroury
Ekdal
Brownhill (probably sold)
Al dakhil/Delcroix
Odobert
Obafemi

[Tricky Trevor]

OHare is a good shout with McNally much liked at Coventry a possible make weight

McNally got good reviews last season, at Coventry, but is now at Stoke and not playing that well.
Bobby Thomas replaced him at Coventry and is playing well. Sadly he is no longer ours. Although I think we have better than both.

[Goliath]

Lallana is another slightly built player,I don’t think that’s who we need
Wellbeck had become a bit injury prone,don’t know about the other 2

Experienced pro who works hard, can press well.and understands what it takes to reach the top.
He also could use the ball a lot better than Brownhill from the number 10 position which weve lacked all season.

[Theivley Pike]

Experienced pro who works hard, can press well.and understands what it takes to reach the top.
He also could use the ball a lot better than Brownhill from the number 10 position which weve lacked all season.

My Grandma can use the ball better than Brownhill ,probably the least dynamic and motivational capt we’ve ever had.

[boatshed bill]

Do we need to buy any more players.
Best thing we can do is ship some out.

[Big Vinny K]

Tbf I think you could argue our style is the same.

A team that passes out from the back and try’s to use tricky wingers to get into the final third and create.

Off course our formation has changed but I’m not sure our style has changed as much as people make out.

Our style is not the same.
The way we use our full backs is completely different.
The way we pass it out from the back is very different - we rarely try and break the lines.
Our approach to the press is completely different too.

Whilst I accept that a lot of this is down to the players we have and also the opposition our style is definitely different to last season.

It’s not as linear as tika taka versus long ball style - there’s a whole myriad of things in between that and whilst we are clearly not long ball we are also doing a lot of things different to last season.

[Newcastleclaret93]

Our style is not the same.
The way we use our full backs is completely different.
The way we pass it out from the back is very different - we rarely try and break the lines.
Our approach to the press is completely different too.

Whilst I accept that a lot of this is down to the players we have and also the opposition our style is definitely different to last season.

It’s not as linear as tika taka versus long ball style - there’s a whole myriad of things in between that and whilst we are clearly not long ball we are also doing a lot of things different to last season.

Yes I appreciate that there are changes, but I don’t think the changes are as polar opposite as some like to make out.

I personally think we are trying to play the same way but it’s just not working as effectively due to the opposition.

You can see it in flashes the patterns and style. Last weekend being a key example of that.

I would honestly argue our style at the heart is the same but we are tweaking it to try and get something that works.