Now that the winter window has shut, we turn our attention to the summer and the "who stays, who goes" question.
I've compiled a list taken from the offal of all players listed for the 1st team, it includes those out on loan, some overage 21s and youngsters who have already featured in the 1st team this season.
As yet we have no idea what Jürgen will do, not just in terms of players out but also will he strip us right back to a solid 15-18 regulars that can rotate without losing balance, form etc and then use the most talented of our youngsters as the back ups? Or will he keep the majority and bring in a couple of real quality to bolster what we have?
Most of you will be surprised at how many players we have and how bloated the squad actually is.
Keepers.
Migs, Bogdan, Ward, Fulton.
I will hazard a guess and say that Migs will stay after the new contract but I'm not sure he'll be No.1.
Bogdan needs to go and probably will as he's never been good enough, not even as a No.2.
Ward will be 23 in June and has had a fantastic loan up at Aberdeen, playing every week and gaining experience. I've watched Ward play regularly with the u21s and I have to say I wasn't that impressed but he was a completely different player on Monday night. He was Captain for the night and he never looked troubled, came for everything, marshalled his troups well and never stfu. Who knows he may be enough to challenge Migs for the No.1 spot meaning no money needs spending in this position.
Fulton will turn 20 in the summer and out of all our Academy keepers he's the one who has impressed me the most over the last 7 years of watching the Youth games. He's recently gone on loan to Portsmouth and is getting games, which is really good considering his age and the level they play at.
Defenders.
Clyne, Enrique, Toure, Lovren, Sakho, Moreno, Flanno, Skrtel, Caulker, Ilori, Smith, Gomez, Wisdom, Jones, Williams, Randall, Maguire, Cleary, McLaughlin.
That's 19 players for 4 positions.
Enrique, Toure and Caulker I'm assuming will go as their contracts are up so that leaves 16. Wisdom, Williams and Jones are out on loan, 1 in the PL but not getting games the other 2 at League 1 clubs so they'll probably all go too.
Randall, Maguire, Cleary and McLaughlin. The first 3 are regulars at u21s and all are either 20 or will turn 20 this year so time is still on their side to develop. McLaughlin at 22 has suffered from so many injuries in the last couple of years but so far this season he's been injury free. Like Smith on the opposite flank, he's got pace to burn and was one who many of us had high hopes for in his early career but I don't think he'll be kept.
So that leaves us with Clyne, Flanno, Skrtel, Sakho, Lovren, Gomez, Moreno, Smith and Ilori, 9 players for 4 positions. Jürgen has no idea (apart from dvds at Charlton) what sort of player Gomez is and we've no idea how well he'll recover from his injury so he'll stay for at least another season. Maybe an upgrade on one of the senior Cbs and work with the rest.
Midfielders.
Milner, Hendo, Lucas, Allen, Can, Rossiter, Stewart, Brannagan, Tex, Chirivella, Alberto, Grujic, Allan.
13 players for 2, sometimes 3 positions.
I can see us losing Milner, Allen, Tex and Alberto, possibly Stewart with possibly one other quality CM arriving. Rossiter could go either way due to his contract situation. Grujic should come into the 1st team and hopefully we will have sorted Allans work permit out so he becomes available.
Attackers.
Studge, Ings, Origi, Benteke, Balotelli, Ibe, Firmino, Cou, Lallana, Ojo, Yesil, Dunn, Kent, Canos, Sinclair, Marko, Awaniyi.
17 players for 4 positions.
Out of those Balotelli, Yesil, Sinclair and Dunn will leave with possibly Benteke and Lallana if we need some extra funds.
So that's 53 players, yes that's right 53 players!!
I know I've included some of the youngsters and obviously not all of them will have a future with us but after watching our youth closely over the last 7 years we currently have the best group of kids we've ever had in the 16-20 age group. There's no real prodigy types like Raheem but there's 23 lads, almost a full squad, who are more capable than the team that had Flanno, Wisdom, Sama, Robinson, Coady, Pacheco, Suso, Tex, Raheem, Morgan, Ngoo etc in it and most of them are playing at a reasonable level.
Fulton
Alexander-Arnold
Cleary
Hart
Masterson
Canos
Dhanda
M Gomes
T Gomes
Wilson
Kent
Brannagan
Ojo
Woodburn
Gomez
Philipps
Adekanye
Allan
Ibe
Grujic
Awoniyi
Chirivella
Rossiter
So with all this talent already at the Club, personally I'd rather see us stripped right back to the bare bones of that 53 man list, bring in 2 or 3 exceptional players and use the Youth as back ups and integrate them into the 1st team.
That's one hell of a job to do.
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