Discussion: The summer 2021 cliff edge

lundi 24 février 2020

Looking at the squad, we now have 15 players whose contracts expire before July 2021, 12 of which will be over 30 by the end of their current contract.

They're listed below, with their DOB, their age at the time of contract expiry and a suggestion of what kind of decision we might make on them.

This summer (2020):

Henderson (Jan 87) 33 - 1 year extension
Dann (Feb 87) 33 - let go

Next summer (2021):

Hennessey (Jan 87) 34 - 2 year extension
Guaita (Jan 87) 34 - 2 year extension
Ward (Oct 89) 31 - let go
Van Aanholt (Aug 90) 31 - sell summer 2020 c£8m
Sakho (Feb 90) 31 - sell summer 2020 c£10m
Cahill (Dec 85) 35 - let go
Kelly (Apr 90) 31 - 2 year extension
Meyer (Sep 95) 25 - sell summer 2020/3 year extension
McArthur (Oct 87) 33 - 1/2 year extension
Townsend (Jul 91) 30 - 2 year extension
Schlupp (Dec 92) 28 - 2/3 year extension
Benteke (Dec 90) 30 - sell summer 2020 c£10m
Wickham (Mar 93) 28 - make decision after loan spell

To me it's pretty alarming to think of the amount of work it'll take to overhaul this squad in the space of 2 years, let alone the amount of money. The most I could see us making from the players we might want to sell (excluding Meyer) is about £20m, and it'll take a lot more to replace all of them.

If everything happened as above, we'd have to buy the following players in the next 3 windows in addition to filling the gaps we already have and replacing any additional players we sell:

Right back
Left back
Cover for full-backs
Centre backs x2
Central Midfielder
Striker

We'd still have a lot of players over 30 even if we did all this, but if we don't have a pretty active window this summer, it'll either be a desperately frantic one next year or proper Dad's Army territory come the 2021/22 season.


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