If we are able to survive relegation this season.

Heaton
Lowton, Tarkowski, Mee, Ward
Five at the back from which to build. Of course cover will be required for the defensive positions.

JGB, Hendrick, Defour, Westwood, Marney, Brady.
Additions of quality required to supplement the above. We must improve our retention, playing and offensive ability. Playing the game in the opponents half has to be one of the best forms of defence.

Gray Vokes/Barnes.
One of top quality would be nice. The three above I'm sure would be more prolific with improved provision from midfield.

Five or six quality additions in the summer should suffice. While I believe that the money will be there for transfer fees, it's the level of wages we're willing to pay that is going to be the handicap.

Keane off to a club competing for the champions league.
Barton uncertainty over the charges he faces for gambling.
Boyd perhaps looking for a three-year deal somewhere else.
Arfield lost it ever since he began playing for Canada. Likely to get a decent offer from a championship club with a budget to spend.
Flanagan to return to Liverpool. Would have loved for him to show signs that he is getting it back and would be worth a bid, not seen it though on match day.

I've included Defour in the to keep squad as he may find that a pre season with SD and the encouragement of an improvement in quality signed over the summer is enough to convince him to give it another season. I could be totally wrong in that he may want away and/or SD may not want to retain him. I really would like to see him stay, come back fitter, and bring in some additional quality of his level.

A striker is sorely needed as well as a midfielder with an engine like Marney. I'd like to think Marney could make a comeback and get back to his best but the combination of his age and the severity of the injury makes me concerned. I can't think of a player who's recovered from a double ACL injury.

I'd love to see it but fear Defours body is just not up to the pace of the PL.

Boyd arfield to go
Vokes maybe too

The midfield in saying has not quite found its correct balance with the players we have as yet as we haven't had chance to form the one that suits our system.
Injuries have impeded our formation in this area but i still think we need a right sided pacey winger that we are short of in my opinion.
Defensively we are well balanced and it picks its self with Heaton safely between the sticks.
If it has to be dislodged then we need cover for the center of defence and maybe young blood left and right back to future cover for Ward and Lowton
Up top we need to recruit most defiantly prime priority but we will have an hefty fee and wages to consider this may be a stumbling block but we need to and around the 20 million mark you would not get much change but that has to be the caliber of player for this league.

If Spurs really want Gray then swap him for Son if possible. A player who makes clever runs and can get the best out of Defours passing.

Quickenthetempo wrote:If Spurs really want Gray then swap him for Son if possible. A player who makes clever runs and can get the best out of Defours passing.

Could swap Keane for Lukaku while we're at it

Quickenthetempo wrote:If Spurs really want Gray then swap him for Son if possible. A player who makes clever runs and can get the best out of Defours passing.

Swap Gray for Son? Why not see if they'll throw in Alli and Kane as well?

I would go for Will Hughes from Derby.

It's time he was playing in this league, it'll never happen there and at 22 the 'potential' tag can be thrown away, he needs to move. Always impresses me, knows Hendrick's game inside out and the potential for his value to increase is there even though the fee would likely need to be £15m (or in that area).

I've commented before, if Gray goes to Spurs, I will plait snot and juggle soot.

If we stay in this league, I think every position will need strengthening,apart from Mee and Heaton if they stay that is,I think our team needs at least eight new faces in it next season....if we stay up.

Joey Barton will have another season in him.

jedi_master wrote:I would go for Will Hughes from Derby.

It's time he was playing in this league, it'll never happen there and at 22 the 'potential' tag can be thrown away, he needs to move. Always impresses me, knows Hendrick's game inside out and the potential for his value to increase is there even though the fee would likely need to be £15m (or in that area).

His fee a few years was meant to be £15million.

You're probably looking at £20 million plus now.

Pace and possession - players that can deliver on either of or both of these whilst providing the obligatory work rate.

Eight new faces would be too many but there's. It a position we shouldn't look to improve on, if a suitable opportunity arises.

DCWat wrote:Pace and possession - players that can deliver on either of or both of these whilst providing the obligatory work rate.

Eight new faces would be too many but there's. It a position we shouldn't look to improve on, if a suitable opportunity arises.

I don't think we can go with the same core of players next season DC we could get found out,I don't think eight is to many,finding them is the problem.

Steve1956 wrote:If we stay in this league, I think every position will need strengthening,apart from Mee and Heaton if they stay that is,I think our team needs at least eight new faces in it next season....if we stay up.

Lowton is unlikely to be replaced since he signed a new contract and Tarkowski, Hendrick, Brady, JBG are more than good enough for us at this level, along with Gray and the right service.

Spijed wrote:Lowton is unlikely to be replaced since he signed a new contract.

I'm not talking about replacing them we need cover in every position,so we need to look for Eight new players who are better than the ones we have,and the ones we have now can become back up players and we know that they can be trusted if called upon.

Who would you want back? Charlie Austin, Danny Ings or Jayrod? Year long loan? We may need one of them if Barnes gets a 12 match ban for an elbow on Lukaka this weekend!

If we do stay up and I sincerely hope we do then we will need a fairly major
rebuilding job as can see two or three leaving and possibly one or two not having contracts renewed.
So 4 or 5 incoming.
Keane is almost certain to go as well as possibly Gray, Boyd and Arfield.
Also Defour may not stay.
As it doesn't look as if we've got many, if any youngsters coming through then
we'll need to shell out a serious amount.

The good news is we may have 40m or so from those we do sell to start with and arguably another
30m or so from next years Premier League funds. So we shouldn't be short of cash albeit 10m nowadays just gets you a
decent Championship player.We'll probably have to break our transfer fee record yet again.
Even if we go down then we'll still need two or three.

This will be the ultimate test for Dyche.
Will he be able to get 4 or 5 in of the right type and take us to the next level.
The next level will be to stay in the Premier League and pitch for a top ten place
and start playing more attractive football.

jurek wrote:If we do stay up and I sincerely hope we do

You don't sound totally convinced we will.

Charlie Taylor from Leeds good with ball at his feet.
Jay rod no need to talk about him we all know what he gives.
If not jay then tammy Abraham on loan from chelski.
Dale Stephens good squad player and free.
Max power for the name only please.

I've liked the little I've seen of Taylor, he certainly has a good delivery on him. My Leeds supporting mate isn't too convinced about him though, thinks he will be found out in the Premier League and is easy to deal with as too one footed.

Robertson might be less of a gamble, particularly with Premier League experience. Whether Hull staying up or not would make a difference to his availability, who knows.

taio wrote:Could swap Keane for Lukaku while we're at it

Rileybobs wrote:
Swap Gray for Son? Why not see if they'll throw in Alli and Kane as well?

I'm presuming Spurs will be in for a top class striker this Summer if they're to progress as well as maybe Gray. Jansen (sp) has been a flop so it could be that Son goes back to being third choice striker or sub appearances coming on the wing. I rate him highly but I don't know how many other clubs would be in for him if he became available. Plus if they do want Gray it leaves us in a good position.

We need to be aiming for the best players we can get. Who would of thought Stoke could sign Bony from City? West Brom Chadli?

Quickenthetempo wrote:I'm presuming Spurs will be in for a top class striker this Summer if they're to progress as well as maybe Gray. Jansen (sp) has been a flop so it could be that Son goes back to being third choice striker or sub appearances coming on the wing. I rate him highly but I don't know how many other clubs would be in for him if he became available. Plus if they do want Gray it leaves us in a good position.

We need to be aiming for the best players we can get. Who would of thought Stoke could sign Bony from City? West Brom Chadli?

The point being that Son is a much better player than Gray.

Son might be a bad move as he has to do national service
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It's difficult to plan too far ahead in case an offer comes in that is too good to refuse.

Assuming we only lose Keane.

We have to grow into this league and adapt accordingly. A sprinkling of an upgrade in every position, without necessarily expecting the world from anyone for the first season/half season.

If I was to prioritise, based on Keane going, I'd bring in another centre half (who? I don't know) Maybe a bit more of a holding midfielder, a winger with creativity but a good work ethic and a more prolific striker. I love Barnes, Vokes et al, but someone like Josh King at Bournemouth who has that natural instinct.

I would have mentioned Ricky Karsdorp at Feyenoord as a competitor for Lowton (nothing against Lowton btw) as he is a typical Dyche player. Energy, quick, decent crosser. I wasn't impressed with him in the game against Ajax recently but overall he is exactly the sort of player who would fit in at Burnley.

Quickenthetempo wrote:We need to be aiming for the best players we can get. Who would of thought Stoke could sign Bony from City? West Brom Chadli?

son is one of spurs' best players.

bony wasn't one of citys, neither chadli one of spurs'.

absolute non-starter.

i don't envisage wholesale changes but we'll need another centre half, another forward and the midfield will need upgrading again.

there a case for replacing all of marney, barton, boyd and arfield - all great servants but all limited.

equally there are cases to be made for upgrades on barnes and vokes, again for the same reasons.

At least we've got a ready made replacement for Keane.

Spijed wrote:At least we've got a ready made replacement for Keane.

I see your angle, but; if he went I'd suspect we'd be bringing in another centre half who'd challenge Tarks.

People need to be realistic about where we are and what would we should be trying to achieve. We're a very good team because everyone in it knows their role, and also their team mates roles, and their strengths and weaknesses. We certainly can't afford to junk all that by replacing 5 or 6 of the first team this summer. An ideal summer would be one which ends with no more than 3-4 changes of first choice personnel from this season, but with the first team still being improved overall after the inevitable departures.

Ignoring departures, the only position where I think we currently "need" to improve is in the link role between midfield and attack. If we're playing 4-4-2, that's primarily a player to replace Barnes in that number 10 role - someone who can still do the job of dropping in when we don't have the ball and holding it up, but who can make us a better possession football team and provide that killer ball. You can also make a good argument for someone to add pace out wide, both in a 4-4-2 but especially if we play 4-5-1. Perhaps one of Boyd or Arfield would be moved on to make space for the latter arrival, but that extra striker would give us 4, which is the right number.

Both full backs have been more than adequate this season, the rest of the back 5 much better than that, Gray has established himself as someone capable of scoring goals and being linked with bigger clubs at this level, whilst the midfield is an area we've already upgraded hugely over the past twelve months (we've signed Barton, Defour, Hendrick, Westwood, JBG and Brady) and at some point we've got to let those players gel. So we don't need wholesale changes

The likely departures of Darikwa and Flanagan (our choice) and Gray and Keane (not our choice) will open up a need for first team ready additions at centre half and up front, and at least back up in both full back positions, which probably means we're looking at at least 5 additions to the squad this summer as a minimum. I also take DCWat's point that if a really good opportunity to sign a good player at the right price in any position, player, we ought to be interested. Robertson is an example of this - Stephen Ward is good enough, so we don't need a starting left back, but Robertson's pace would give us a different dimension. The same applies to the centre of midfield, well stocked as we are. But realistically, we'll only be in the market for one or two such purchases.

We have to build slowly, keeping the core characteristics of the squad that got us there. Lots of examples of teams who have tried to change too much too fast and fallen flat on their face as a result. I don't see Burnley or Dyche making that mistake.

Pretty much what I said Spice.

We need to walk before we can run. Slowly, gradually improve the staff.

Staying up was always a priority, at whatever cost. Then we can build a stronger core structure of a team.

I can't see us pushing anyone out really, possibly an upgrade on Darikwa if there's one lined up, but I doubt that's a high priority. Considering how much Boyd and Arfield have played this year and how loyal he is with his players I can't see Dyche being keen on losing either, definitiely not both, just based on how they carry out their roles in our system, which I doubt we'll see transformed.

The ones I think we will lose will be the unavoidables, Keane because the money will be too big, Defour and Gray because I think offers will come and their heads will be turned. That's 3 replacements required. I think there will be interest but I'm hoping we'll be able to convince Heaton to stay.

Flanagan's a gonner, we should work on the assumption that Marney won't be able to come back from this one (although if anyone can...) and Barton, who knows, I think we'd be daft not to be looking for a replacement though.

And as I see it we're already a CF short as we are now, so the shopping list for me (based on losing Flanagan, Keane, Barton, Defour, Gray) is 1xLB, 1xCB, 2xCM, 2xCF. If Boyd goes then 1xWM (wide midfielder).

I think we will be doing some targeting now and I also think we will get Dale Stephens
We can not afford to be trolling it out this coming window we need to act fast and ruthless Get em in for our pre season
striker is top of the shopping list for me and with contracts to sort, players that will move on only the club will have a a genuine idea and the scale of this already, we can only really surmise on whats been wheeled about and probable happenings
Like as been said any positions of player that will strength our squad at the right price we should go for
We could see up to six player or more leave but its all if buts and may be's on the other hand we could retain the lot

I'd love us to go all out to sign Moussa Dembele from Celtic this summer.

Only 20, but looks a real prospect.

UpTheBeehole wrote:I'd love us to go all out to sign Moussa Dembele from Celtic this summer.

Only 20, but looks a real prospect.

Rumoured Celtic wanted £40 million and Chelsea were willing to pay it.

I think we could sneak it with a bid of £40 million and a penny

Small change after we sell Keano for £50m

Don't think Dembele is worth £40m, but he does look very good for his age. His old team mate at Fulham Ryan Sessegnon looks special too.

According to an Oldham fan I spoke to, O'Neil is looking good for them. Isn't it time we used some of our young players, like Everton are doing. It will bring some energy and enthusiasm back to the team. Agyei is also worth a look, particularly if we have a game or two where we are safe this season.

Always up for using young players. If they are better than what we currently have.
If not they can continue getting a grounding at poor League One clubs.

I wouldn't change the squad too much. You could lose more than you gain.
I would expect 2 or 3 first team starters at most, and maybe another 2 if needed in January.
It's going to be another hard slog next season, perhaps even harder, but the team spirit is essential if we are to stay up (again).
I think if we survive next season we could be set for a very long spell, by sticking to the principals the club and SD have installed.

I think any new players coming in will be mostly British and from relegated Premier teams or the championship. And none of them will be Will Hughes or Dale Stephens.

Agree with you Firthy

Frenchclaret wrote:According to an Oldham fan I spoke to, O'Neil is looking good for them. Isn't it time we used some of our young players, like Everton are doing. It will bring some energy and enthusiasm back to the team. Agyei is also worth a look, particularly if we have a game or two where we are safe this season.

I see your point about agyei however the money for finishing High as we can is too much to be playing kids when were safe. Not sure the exact amount but I'm sure it goes up a few mill for the higher you finish.

It's £2m per position higher.

Cover for RB,LB and CB
One wide man allowing Georgie Boy to move on if he doesn't sign the 1 year deal on offer
One centre mid to play alongside Hendrick
One striker as upgrade to Ash and Sam assuming Gray stays

Dyche has made a great play about the continued improvement in the club's performances since he came in (and quite right to do so)

No club in the Premier League can afford to be complacent about their current squads and all will be looking to improve for next season (that is a given)

We have to do the same

Thinking back to last summer, I'd be happy if we got a couple of players in before the season starts.

CFS wrote:I see your point about agyei however the money for finishing High as we can is too much to be playing kids when were safe. Not sure the exact amount but I'm sure it goes up a few mill for the higher you finish.

And if he comes good and is up to the challenge,it could save millions in finding a replacement striker.

There is no option but to make changes, improvement does not allow to stand still. Surely prospects of bringing in new faces will be easier than last year as our prospects for club are brighter. My hope is all players for next season have a full per season which SD values so much. Personally I would like to see Ings on loan deal, unlikely to get game time at Liverpool and ending this season approaching fitness.

alicante claret wrote:There is no option but to make changes, improvement does not allow to stand still. Surely prospects of bringing in new faces will be easier than last year as our prospects for club are brighter. My hope is all players for next season have a full per season which SD values so much. Personally I would like to see Ings on loan deal, unlikely to get game time at Liverpool and ending this season approaching fitness.

A fit and performing Ings would be ideal for how we play. Someone that can and will drop back, both to defend from the front and link midfield to attack, more a 4-4-1-1 at times.

I'd like us to have the flexibility to use a 4-5-1 especially away from home, but we need more pace out wide and a real general / passer who can break up play and get us going forward.

In fairness, Westwood he hasn't had the opportunities to prove otherwise as yet but I don't see him as more than decent back up and although JBG has been good on occasion, we need some pace on the right. Despite plenty midfield signings recently, this seems to be the main area to focus on again.

We may need to replace both Defour and Barton, we definitely need a striker and a winger (or someone capable of playing both roles effectively) and a centre half as a minimum. So that's 4/5 first team and any others I'd assume would be depth.

A step too far but I'd love us to have some full backs capable of playing in a 3-5-2. Not a criticism of either Ward or Lowton but they wouldn't be suited to that.

It should be another very interesting summer and no doubt frustrating at times.