What approach for next season ?

[kenyon6923]

It's really tricky because we KNOW what's coming - a tough bottom half / relegation battle.
I loved Alan Pace interview on the pitch saying "we take what we learnt last season and we give it our best shot" spot on.
It's common knowledge the last 6 promoted clubs have all been instantly relegated with one club (luton) even doing a back to back relegation season. Ipswich currently 3rd from bottom are 15 points (5 wins) adrift and that's the gap and the levels above unfortunately.
We can't go bust obviously and like with VK we have to give SP the full season unless it gets really bad as we know now there will be many threads for SP OUT there was this season !!!
Playing from the back under VK costed us loads of silly goals last premiership season but can't see us playing a touch longer ?
The team and squad available before 1st game obviously will give us some idea, were looking to recruit what 99.9% of other teams are after goal scorers, goal threats, flair, energetic midfielders, pace throughout team, solid defence.
Another threat is losing part of the spine from this season Trafford, Esteve and Brownhill.

Now we can be totally realistic after recent yoyo seasons and the experiences it bought - think at least this time we can stay calm and enjoy the ride.

[Silkyskills1]

Like many posters on here I'm far from enamoured about being part of the Premier league but promotion comes at a cost. It's going to cost a lot financially and emotionally to try and compete in a league where I don't think there are any teams one could class as 'beatable'. Don't envy the task ahead of SP at all and I would imagine that preparations for next season also include preparations for the season after. A lot of players I expect to leave but absolutely no idea on who might replace some of them.

[fatboy47]

Hold on to as many of our key players as possible...and shift out anyone who may stink the place out...whilst making it clear that there's going to be no last minute exodus of contracted players.

Give those players currently "in situ" a fair crack of the whip.

Be prepared to go long when under pressure.

Import a genuine line leader and an arielly strong cb.

Keep the aims for the season realistic.

Fight like buggery all season

[Tricky Trevor]

Play as we are now but with better quality in key positions.
The absolute necessity is a marksman after that a 6’+ ball winner. I lke Laurent but not sure if he is PL level, although over the years many players have stepped up and thrived.
If Trafford stays and he is contracted a better back up than Hladky would be a bonus. Too many errors in very few appearances.
The central defence is a bonus. E-R, Steve, Beyer & Humpheys are quality and young.

[TsarBomba]

Keep the core of this seasons squad together, don’t buy any mercenaries that want to leave as soon as we’re relegated, and give it our all.

Relegation shouldn’t be feared but accepted as a realistic prospect and planned for accordingly. Relegation shouldn’t put us back to the start again, which is what happened last summer. We’re fortunate Parker worked his miracles.

I don’t want us spunking £100M on wages. Continue to invest in the training ground and at some point soon we need to start seriously looking at the ground.

[Colburn_Claret]

Same approach please
I think we need a goal poacher, rather than a target man type of striker, they only work if you can commit players to play off them
I trust SP and AP to source what we need.
With all theplayers due back from injury and loans, we need to trim the squad. That is going to be hard for both the club and the players, but I don't see an alternative.

[gandhisflipflop]

I’m under no illusions this time around at just how difficult it is going to be. Even though our defensive record is fantastic at this level, there was still a lot of games where I said “that would be a goal in the PL” or “if this was a PL match we would be 2 down by now” to people watching it with me. That isn’t a criticism, it’s just how it is. Teams fluff good chances in the championship, they rarely do in the PL.

I think we need to become a counter attacking side next season or work on a back 3. We have the foundations of a good defensive unit, so we need to take that into the PL and gift even less chances, and be clinical at the other end with less chances. That’s easier said than done and I really don’t envy SP in that regard.

As good as roberts and pires have been, I think upgrades are required in this area, and a quality addition in the centre of midfield should see improvements to the chances gifted.

There will be players out there who we’ve never heard of who is in our budget and will do a job. Hopefully we can identify them like we did with Esteve and Odobert and get them in early on.

[Vegas Claret]

I hate the PL tbh and I absolutely don't want us to take huge financial risks with the debt we have, I suspect the new football regulator will change the whole parachute payments system so we need to be sensible and careful.

[Conroy92]

Approach for me next season has more to do with the off field performance than on it. The transfer windows are massive now in terms of our future success. We need to be targeting young talent such as Esteve and Trafford. So that if we go back down we have a chance of retaining them and developing for another crack at it. We might have to take this route for a few seasons and sell one or two along the way but if we can keep adding to a core young group and developing them at the same time, then in a few seasons we'll have hopefully paid the debt off and be in a position to give survival a real go.

I appreciate that may seem pessimistic to some.

[AfloatinClaret]

...Relegation shouldn’t be feared but accepted as a realistic prospect and planned for accordingly. Relegation shouldn’t put us back to the start again...

That.

Give all of those players who were major contributors to this season's success and who want to stay an opportunity to show if they can cut-it in the EPL. That said, there will be players who get a better offer/want to move elsewhere and we should - at a true commercial value - allow them to do so if that's their choice. At the very least those two items will make this and future summer recruitment easier than last summer's decimation of our Championship team did.
It's highly unlikely that we can establish ourselves as an EPL in the short and probably even medium term, as we don't yet have the financial clout, or the kudos to attract established EPL players. So we need instead to continue concentrating on attracting up and coming players by showing them that Burnley offers them the best 'opportunity' to get some game time to show their ability and try to advance their careers... A second chance for those lads who the top teams are giving up on.
That you 'don't win owt with kids' is generally true,but that's not what we're after - 38 draws would likely keep us up nowadays - but a young team with a few old-stagers might keep us up by next time if not this? At a sensible but still very probably our highest salaries, I think giving the likes of Jamie Vardey a shot at 'one more season' in the EPL is worth a punt: He's undoubtedly not the player that he was five years ago, but he has the knack of scoring goals, which is what we've been most in need of this season. Sure it's a risk, but in financial terms, a one year, performance based -offering the chance of doubling it! - £4 million contract is less of a risk than trying to buy another 'undiscovered gem' like Lyle Foster. We already have Joe Worrall and should Josh Brownhill choose to leave, I think we should be looking for a similar 'final season' player for his position too; an experienced spine, to direct the young lads who'll do most of the running.

[CrosspoolClarets]

Need to spend big money again and plan on a solid framework like this year (more acceptable in that league), with goalscoring ability. That means a strong goalscorer at 9 with players like Edwards, Anthony and hopefully Ramsey feeding them and causing chaos. Those 2 creative positions we will need sibs on and off plus injury cover so realistically need 6 players for those 2 spots (so replace any that leave amongst Edwards, Amdouni, Anthony, Tesor, Koleosho and Ramsey - I don’t count less experienced like Banel).

I wouldn’t be opposed to 3-4-2-1 as a formation with 2 genuine wingbacks in the Maatson or Assignon mould. I’d like (before departures) the big money spent on those wingbacks, striker and a defensive midfielder alongside Cullen. They are the positions where we lack enough quality right now.

But the key - stay solid defensively.

[GetIntoEm]

Keep what we've got, spend a small amount, maybe £50m and see what happens

[RVclaret]

Smarter business - focus on height, physicality and general athleticism. Mix of experience and youth, with a preference for players already adapted to the league and/or country. Retain the key players, only losing a max of 1 (for example if Brownhill decides to part ways, that’s the 1).

Add no more than 5/6 new players, we need a tight knit squad and continue the togetherness we’ve already got. For example, do we really need another left back when Pires deserves a chance and Humphreys was outstanding (and has a nice profile for a defensive left back in the PL)?

Large pre-season focus on attacking set pieces - they will be a key source of goals for a team battling to stay up. We barely scored any this season and it’s a serious area for major improvement. System wise I expect we will see more 3-4-3 / 5-2-3 which allows for an extra cb, and it must be one that is dominant aerially.

[Vegas Claret]

Smarter business - focus on height, physicality and general athleticism.

this has to be our complete focus.

[dougcollins]

Give those players currently "in situ" a fair crack of the whip.

In my opinion, this was VK's biggest error. And he made a few.

[morninbob]

We need a berge type in midfield and an athletic big striker as our 2 main signings.

[Foshiznik]

Utilise the French leagues for targets given their financial situation.

I’d like us to target a first choice left back, a better Josh Laurent style midfielder and a pacey goal poaching striker. Wouldn’t say no to a right footed Esteve esque centre back either.

[fatboy47]

Hopefully we realise quickly that you can't simply write off a season's worth of corners and expect to get away with it in the Prem....it's been a great season, but that particular discipline simply stank to high heaven.

[scamander]

It will be incredibly tough and we will have pundits with diminishing understanding of pretty much anything criticising us for not being able to field Messi, Iniesta etc.

In recent years there have been PL teams circling the drain and which we could hope to get into the relegation scrap. I can't see Utd and Spurs struggling as much next season and the likes of Brighton, Brentford, Palace etc are mich, much stronger.

That said there will be teams in the 14-17th spots but perhaps less likely to capitulate. We can only hope that Potter is unable to get the Hammers going or Wolves struggle but there aren't obvious contenders. There is the possibility that the many teams new to Europe find things difficult due to playing more games but I expect a tough season.

It's therefore really important to realise what the players and manager have done. Let's not forget this and start calling for Parker to go when things get tough.

[JohnMac]

Pragmatism

[Belial]

Smarter business - focus on height, physicality and general athleticism. Mix of experience and youth, with a preference for players already adapted to the league and/or country. Retain the key players, only losing a max of 1 (for example if Brownhill decides to part ways, that’s the 1).

Add no more than 5/6 new players, we need a tight knit squad and continue the togetherness we’ve already got. For example, do we really need another left back when Pires deserves a chance and Humphreys was outstanding (and has a nice profile for a defensive left back in the PL)?

Large pre-season focus on attacking set pieces - they will be a key source of goals for a team battling to stay up. We barely scored any this season and it’s a serious area for major improvement. System wise I expect we will see more 3-4-3 / 5-2-3 which allows for an extra cb, and it must be one that is dominant aerially.

100% we need to smarten up for set pieces - PL teams punish you every way possible and any weakness like this, such as a lack of height, is easy for them to take advantage of - then when it's 1-0 down it's very difficult to come back. Last time round we were weak at both ends from set pieces

[DanH90]

As mentioned above 5-6 players who can actually improve the squad, a mixture of up and coming and some old heads.

1. A striker, that can hold the ball up, run the channels and get 7-10 PL goals. Disagree with those who say we just need a goal poacher type, we are going to be under a lot of pressure a lot of the time and someone who can get us up the pitch and relieve this pressure is a must. This player, if experienced, won’t come cheap, so most of our money should go on this player, or we must hope our scouting team can unearth a gem!

2. A big, physical central midfielder with energy who can drive from deep. A better Josh Laurent.

3. A Right back to compete with Roberts.

4. A goalkeeper to act as better Trafford backup. Experienced head here would be good. Or two keepers if Trafford goes.

Maybe one or two others, but these are the 4 we definitely need, provided we keep everyone that is!

[bobinho]

Hold on to as many of our key players as possible...and shift out anyone who may stink the place out...whilst making it clear that there's going to be no last minute exodus of contracted players.

Give those players currently "in situ" a fair crack of the whip.

Be prepared to go long when under pressure.

Import a genuine line leader and an arielly strong cb.

Keep the aims for the season realistic.

Fight like buggery all season

This…

[ClaretPete001]

I wonder whether the problem with the newly promoted clubs is related to a fashion for trying to out-football better players or a genuine gap between the promoted clubs and the rest.

Stay as we are and approach transfers from a whole club philosophy. In other words, buy, loan and develop players that fit the model.

Invest in a striker and someone to play Laurent's double pivot role with Cullen to give us options when we are away from home or need to park the bus. Be aggressive and competitive for the whole match and look to out sh*thouse better players.

This squad looks much better prepared for the PL than VKs in almost every aspect. My fear is we lose key players. If we can keep the squad together and add a couple of PL quality players where required then I think there are grounds to be hopeful that one of the current PL teams sufficiently weaken to give us a chance.

Finally, as stated above do not fear relegation because if we get it right we will retain a competitive squad in the Championship. ALK also have a big job to do to reduce the debt, weed out the surplus players for fees and buy wisely.

[CnBtruntru]

Fire sale again

[SirBob]

Definitely need to trim the fat, there probably 20 players we could get shut off that are no longer required.

I think we’ll spend another 100m this summer

25m for a striker

15/20m for an attacking wide player

20/25m on a central midfielder

12/16m for a right back

12/16m for a left back

Assuming no one leaves but it’s likely we’ll need to replace Trafford and possibly Brownhill

I’d give the current starting 11 a chance to show what they can do before making wholesale changes, new signings should have to wait for their chance.