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football spin-off thread: who do you hope/think your club will sign and sell this summer?
Should've probably done this earlier, like.
Hard to really improve our starting XI too much, so think it'll realistically just be a case of moving squad players on and replacing them with better ones for the most part.
Would've sold Kolarov myself, the kid can't tackle, but Mancini has said he wants him to stay and we've turned down bids of £8m & £10m from Inter. Madness.
Stefan Savic will probably get sent out on loan. Word is we're looking at Thomas Vermaelen, but i'm not convinced by him, certainly not at £15m+. Ranocchia from Inter's a name that keeps getting bandied about, as is Martin Skrtel, ditto Coloccini.
The club don't seem keen on giving Nigel de Jong a new deal, so expect him to move, probably to Italy or Spain for £10m or so. Was hoping for Javi Martinez, but it sounds like he's off to Bayern, so De Rossi now seems more likely.
Word on the grapevine is that Adam Johnson's off to Liverpool for around £18m (EIGHTEEN MILLION POUNDS!). Think we might sign a (decent) natural winger to give us that Plan B in tight away games when slick, passing football doesn't work. Arjen Robben's being linked, but still think we might splodge silly money on Bale. Also rumoured to be looking at a couple of South Americans. Reus would've been the one, ideally, but he signed for Dortmund a while ago.
Looks like we're gonna be stuck with van Persie for next year. Hope it doesn't go through. Too old, too injury prone, too few outstanding seasons. I'd probaby just flog Tevez and go for someone like Higuain, or even David Villa, keeping Dzeko, Balotelli and obviously Aguero, but think Mancini may move Dzeko on as well, and Guidetti's going to Lazio on loan, apparently. Adebayor and Santa Cruz will hopefully move on to some mid-tablers or other.
To sum up...
Hopefully...
IN: Martinez, maybe James Rodriguez, Higuain and a solid left-back to play second fiddle to Clichy
OUT: Kolarov, Savic, Bridge(!), Adebayor, Tevez, Santa Cruz(!)
Realistically...
IN: Ranocchia, De Rossi, Cerci, van Persie
OUT: Kolo Toure, de Jong, A.Johnson, Dzeko, Adebayor, Santa Cruz(!)
Shoot...