If everyone is fit for the start of next season and this was our starting 11 who would would you replace if we signed a couple of start players. Pretty good starting 11 which is why I think we might sign 2 or 3 back ups pre season rather than starters.

Pope/ Heaton
Lowton, Tark, Mee, Ward
JBG, Defour, Cork, Brady
Barnes, Wood

We may not be able to hold on to all those 11 if the bigger clubs come looking ££££££££££££££££.
Would be anxious we don't lose Pope, Wood,JBG, Defour and Mee; think the rest will stay. Clearly Tarks will be a target but think he wants to be up here with us.

For the first time I can remember I feel confident that none of these will leave. I just think we have something special at present and would take stupid amounts of money to persuade any to go especially when you look at at what happened to Keane and Gray since they left.

Nothing wrong with that starting X1 but you should never stand still in football and as the recent run of injuries proved we need better back ups.
If we improve 2 or 3 we can show this was no one season wonder.

Firthy wrote:If everyone is fit for the start of next season and this was our starting 11 who would would you replace if we signed a couple of start players. Pretty good starting 11 which is why I think we might sign 2 or 3 back ups pre season rather than starters.

Pope/ Heaton
Lowton, Tark, Mee, Ward
JBG, Defour, Cork, Brady
Barnes, Wood

Pope - Heaton

Lowton - Bardsley
Tarks - Long
Mee - ????
Ward - Taylor

JBG - Lennon
Defour - Westwood
Cork - Hendrick
Brady - ????

Barnes - ????
Wood - ????

IMO we need four more quality signings over the next 12 months. Two good players challenging for every position will enable SD to do more squad rotation.

We can only bring a player in now if one goes because we are oversubscribed on the squad numbers - Defour & Brady aren't included currently to keep the others in. One of the goalkeepers and Ulvestad can be removed to allow those two back in next season.

A central defender is very much the key position because we only have three although the way Jimmy Dunne is playing for Accy, he could be considered. I do think we'll sign a central defender though.

I think we are OK in the wide positions but another couple of attacking players would be of benefit. I don't think we'll go back to 4-4-2 though on a regular basis.

I'm happy with that for a starting 11 but we should be looking to improve where possible. For the most part, I want us to strengthen our overall squad. I do feel we can provide much better competition for Wood and Barnes than the current strikers on our books, for example. I also feel we can realistically improve upon Bardsley at RB and Arfield in midfield. The players we sign should be players we feel have or will have the quality to play in the top flight - not players who are 'less than' the current starters. Otherwise, we'll fail to truly improve the squad.

Firthy wrote:If everyone is fit for the start of next season and this was our starting 11 who would would you replace if we signed a couple of start players. Pretty good starting 11 which is why I think we might sign 2 or 3 back ups pre season rather than starters.

Pope/ Heaton
Lowton, Tark, Mee, Ward
JBG, Defour, Cork, Brady
Barnes, Wood

To answer your question and to stick to the parameters of your question, I would replace...wow..............difficult!!!!!!! OK...Wood and Cork.

IndigoLake wrote: The players we sign should be players we feel have or will have the quality to play in the top flight - not players who are 'less than' the current starters. Otherwise, we'll fail to truly improve the squad.

Definitely this.

No progressive team/club should be getting players in solely with the thought of them being back ups. We don't do that anyway.

We can still improve on what we've got, it's not the end game.

An attacking midfielder/No10
Centre back
Winger
Forward

It's too much to get in one transfer window, but ideally that's what I'd like in.

IndigoLake wrote:I'm happy with that for a starting 11 but we should be looking to improve where possible. For the most part, I want us to strengthen our overall squad. I do feel we can provide much better competition for Wood and Barnes than the current strikers on our books, for example. I also feel we can realistically improve upon Bardsley at RB and Arfield in midfield. The players we sign should be players we feel have or will have the quality to play in the top flight - not players who are 'less than' the current starters. Otherwise, we'll fail to truly improve the squad.

Then again, Barnes only cost us about £400k.

Spijed wrote:Then again, Barnes only cost us about £400k.

I'm not 100% sure what point you're making, Spijed. Could you elaborate? Players come in at all sorts of different prices and I'm not sure we can really compare a signing we make in this coming transfer window to one we made several seasons ago and who really came in as backup at the time. Barnes has shown remarkable improvement over time and I'm one of his biggest fans. However, for every Barnes there are plenty of players who don't make such improvements.

It will be really difficult to improve on what we have, unless we can get lucky. We do need competitive back up. I think Marney Arfied and Vokes will be moved on to allow for this

IndigoLake wrote:I'm not 100% sure what point you're making, Spijed. Could you elaborate? Players come in at all sorts of different prices and I'm not sure we can really compare a signing we make in this coming transfer window to one we made several seasons ago and who really came in as backup at the time. Barnes has shown remarkable improvement over time and I'm one of his biggest fans. However, for every Barnes there are plenty of players who don't make such improvements.

The idea that bringing in a player that doesn't immediately look like they are an improvement on what we have.

Spijed wrote:The idea that bringing in a player that doesn't immediately look like they are an improvement on what we have.

I'm not against signing players with potential who aren't immediate starters. However, I do believe that in order to progress, we need to make 2 or 3 signings that really improve the squad. I'm not saying we have to sign an improvement on Tarkowski or on Gudmundsson - very difficult. What I'm saying is that there are players in the squad such as Arfield, Bardsley and Wells who can certainly be improved upon, in my opinion. I think that's something we've done well with over the years that Dyche has been in charge. Our squad has generally improved and I'm basically looking for that to continue.

I think there's a core of 17 that he'll definitely keep.
Then I could see these going.
GKN back to Spurs
Marney - will almost certainly go.
Walters
Wells - has done nothing wrong but I'm sure he wasn't top of our shopping list.
Bardsley - did well at first but is miles behind Lowton
Legzdins
Arfield - done nothing wrong, never let us down, would be happy if he stayed but could see him going
Vokes - I could see us bringing in another big money forward and someone will have to go. It will probably be Vokes given the form of Barnes and Wood.
I don't think many people would be surprised by these leaving. And think it's areas that we'll be looking to improve on.
So we could end up having a busy summer.

Interesting that nobody seems to expect either of our keepers to be moving on. Seems like they've both proved that they deserve to be starting games in the Premier League, and I'm sure there'll be interest in them over the summer.

Squarepusher wrote:Interesting that nobody seems to expect either of our keepers to be moving on. Seems like they've both proved that they deserve to be starting games in the Premier League, and I'm sure there'll be interest in them over the summer.

It may be a big ask to keep them both, but I'm certain Dyche will do all he can to do it.

halfmanhalfbiscuit wrote:I think there's a core of 17 that he'll definitely keep.
Then I could see these going.
GKN back to Spurs
Marney - will almost certainly go.
Walters
Wells - has done nothing wrong but I'm sure he wasn't top of our shopping list.
Bardsley - did well at first but is miles behind Lowton
Legzdins
Arfield - done nothing wrong, never let us down, would be happy if he stayed but could see him going
Vokes - I could see us bringing in another big money forward and someone will have to go. It will probably be Vokes given the form of Barnes and Wood.
I don't think many people would be surprised by these leaving. And think it's areas that we'll be looking to improve on.
So we could end up having a busy summer.

Agree with all of these points but especially in the case of Deano, Scotty, and Vokesy, all of which have been great servants, however their not stupid and will i think realise their going to have to move on to play regular football because as we know their all to good to be sat on the bench, bardsley is nowhere near good enough, Walters not good enough, and as you say Wells never top of the shopping list, so imo, we should not only be looking to replace in the case of Marney arfield and vokes, it's a great opportunity to improve the first 11 and these 3 out would automatically give us that option, also with Bardsley we certainly need better back up, ditto Wells, and top of the shopping list should probably be cb cover for Ben mee. Given all this week can all look forward to the europa league should we get there utc's.