Aguero

[Craig_H]

I think that you are allowed to make a £25m loss the first year so we can start with that.

Say that we will make a £35m profit and we have £60m that we can spend plus the money from the players we sell.

Aquilani £15m.
Poulsen £2m.
Konchesky £2m.
Cole £5m.
Ngog £3m.
Jovanovic £3m.

£30m right there.

That means that we should have a max transfer budget of £90m.

Juve refused to pay the £13m for Aquilani - what makes you think we're going to get £15m for him?

We're never getting £5m for Cole and Jova/N'Gog will fetch about £4m between them.

In fact, having just done my sums with my own estimates on the that list of players you've posted, it does indeed total up to £20m. I think you're over estimating, in all honesty.

[Alex]

I think if we had a good squad that wasn't short of quality we could do as your saying Arn. But were 2 or 3 years off being in that position.

What your talking about is essentially what Barcelona do now. Villa last year, and Ibrahimovic the year before. They can do it because there team just needed tinkering.

[Craig_H]

And i think we need 3-4 proper TOP quality players. 5-6 is, again, an over estimation IMO.

[Lecter]

Arn, if this summers transfer policy is the way we anticipate it being I think your logic will be sound moving forward from next sumer onwards. Unfortunately we have too many holes to patch up this time round (and when I say too many holes I mean half the boat).

Agreed I think hes jumping the gun and trying to apply the long term vision to our short term

I can see the next 2 seasons before we get towards the long term plan (which Arns is suggesting)

This year we'll sign quite a few players, next season a few less then the 3rd year we'll be looking for the odd big signing to finish off the jigsaw

[Craig_H]

The nice thing is that the whole 'sign just one superstar per year cos that's all you need' strategy isnt available to the mancs anymore, because they have a lot of players who need replacing. The cherry on top is that they dont have the money to do it properly

[Rudo]

You don't need to put caps on the word top.

I think we need 5 minimum, possibly 6.

It's a matter of opinion.

[Arn]

We possibly could in the future but not now Arn

We need a leftback, a centrehalf, at least 1 central midfielder and at least one wide player

They all have to be experienced / quality players

We cant afford to promote from within just yet - certainly not for those positions

The youth players will come in on the periphery of the squad and will possible push through as cover but to talk about them as integral squad members is a tad early with the exception of Kelly, Spearing, Flanagan & maybe Robinson who I can all see as getting some games next season

Long term what you hve suggested will no doubt be a goal of FSG's but I think you are jumping the gun on a lot of things

It is all about what KK thinks is important and how quickly FSG want to take us back to the top. Do KK think that Kelly is good enough to play central defender? If he think that then we won't need to sign a new one. That is only example.

How many of our youngsters do KK think is good enough to make an impact? To act as backups?

We also don't know what system he want to use. We need to sign more players if we want to play 4-4-2 than if we play 4-3-3 or 4-2-3-1 for example.

If we want to play 4-4-2 then two wide players must be signed and if we play 4-3-3 then only one attacking player need to be signed.

It very much depends on the system etc if we can afford to pay £40m+ for one player. It is up to KK and how he want to build the squad.

[Lecter]

And i think we need 3-4 proper TOP quality players. 5-6 is, again, an over estimation IMO.

I reckon we'll sign 5 or 6 players for the first team/squad

[Craig_H]

Of course it is a matter of opinion. In terms of truly TOP class players (i think the term can be a bit hazy at times), i doubt we need 5 or 6. We've already got 2 in our first XI (Pepe and Suarez) and arguably aside from Barcelona, i dont think any team in the world has 7 or 8 players of that level.

I agree with Lec that we'll probably sign 5 or 6 players, but they wont all be proper TOP quality ones, 2 or 3 probably will be IMO and the rest will be good without quite reaching the heights of a Suarez or Reina quality of player. As Lec alludes to, squad players (without meaning Jovanovic types )

[destinydude]

I think that you are allowed to make a £25m loss the first year so we can start with that.

Say that we will make a profit and we have £60m that we can spend plus the money from the players we sell.

Aquilani £15m. £10m
Poulsen £1.5m.
Konchesky £1.5m.
Cole (Just give him away on a free)
Ngog £3m.
Jovanovic £4m.

That's about £20m max right there.

That means that we should have a max transfer budget of £90m.

More than what they fetch us as transfer money, getting rid of them from the payroll will help us much better.

Cole - 90k/week
Aquilani -70k/week
Poulsen - 50k/week
Konk - 40k/week or even more (english tax and all that)
Jovanovic - 45k/week
N'gog (Don't think he's on much really)
Degen - 30k/week (We've made ~5m loss on his wages + signon fee)
(Insua + El Zhar) 25k/week

That's approx 350k/week which is ~£17.5m

We can save a lot on the wage bill by getting rid of them. I like Aquilani but he's like Agger. Always injured. I agree that we do need squad players to cover for unexpected long term injuries but neither of these are remotely useful to us barring Aquilani quality wise.

[Lecter]

It is all about what KK thinks is important and how quickly FSG want to take us back to the top. Do KK think that Kelly is good enough to play central defender? If he think that then we won't need to sign a new one. That is only example.

How many of our youngsters do KK think is good enough to make an impact? To act as backups?

We also don't know what system he want to use. We need to sign more players if we want to play 4-4-2 than if we play 4-3-3 or 4-2-3-1 for example.

If we want to play 4-4-2 then two wide players must be signed and if we play 4-3-3 then only one attacking player need to be signed.

It very much depends on the system etc if we can afford to pay £40m+ for one player. It is up to KK and how he want to build the squad.

Minimum we need 4 players thats absolute minimum

Leftback, centrehalf, central midfielder & attacking / wide player

Thats a minimum to play whatever system

You are putting a HUGE onus on the youth and whilst Kenny has brought kids through its been because of necessity rather than anything else

Already Flanagan & Robinson have played ahead of schedule which shows how desperate things had become

Just because its happened this season under exceptional circumstances I wouldnt put it forward as a blueprint

[Rowan]

Poulsen on £50k a week! What a joke!

[Lecter]

Of course it is a matter of opinion. In terms of truly TOP class players (i think the term can be a bit hazy at times), i doubt we need 5 or 6. We've already got 2 in our first XI (Pepe and Suarez) and arguably aside from Barcelona, i dont think any team in the world has 7 or 8 players of that level.

I agree with Lec that we'll probably sign 5 or 6 players, but they wont all be proper TOP quality ones, 2 or 3 probably will be IMO and the rest will be good without quite reaching the heights of a Suarez or Reina quality of player. As Lec alludes to, squad players (without meaning Jovanovic types )

[Craig_H]

No way is Konchesky on £40k p/w and Poulsen on £50k I'm not having that

[Lecter]

Isnt Jovanovic on more than £45 K per week?

Think hes on £60K per week plus