Fill the gaps..... You choose your squad for next season

4th, CL Qualification and a Trophy.....NOW lets build!

Good Morning All,

After last night’s triumph, the season is now officially over, full focus is to The Club World Cup but more importantly building the squad to go another step further next season.

I personally think we are nearly there but need a few players to get us over the line, in this article I am going to detail out the players I would keep from the current squad and leave blank the holes I think need filling, leaving you guys the decision to fill the gaps via a poll. All Poll options are being provided via sourced info from Simon on the site over recent months.

This is the most accurate of any hypothetical squad build we will have done now we know we are playing in Europe’s prestige competition next season, have the added income from UEFA & the PL becuase of that and can attract that higher calibre of player.

To me it seems pretty obvious the areas we need to strengthen, I am taking into account Simon’s info he has put out in recent weeks around New Goalkeepers, Strikers etc and the likelihood of us addressing that area of the squad.

All players / options highlighted in bold are my choices of squad build next season which accumulates to a 25 man squad built of 3 GKs, 5 CBs, 2 RBs, 2 LBs, 5 CMs, 6 AMs / Wingers & 2 STs

So lets get started;

Goalkeepers;

NEW NUMBER 1 GK - Poll Below

Filip Jorgensen - No2

Marcus Bettinelli - Keep, great for the group

Robert Sanchez - Sell

Lucas Bergstrom - End of Contract

Kepa - Sell

Djordje Petrovic - Sell

Mike Penders - Loan

Centre Backs;

Levi Colwill - Keep, Starter

NEW STARTING CENTRE BACK REQUIRED - Poll Below

Tosin Adarabioyo - Keep, squad player

Trevoh Chalobah - Keep, squad player ad, plenty of minutes)

Mamadou Sarr - Keep, rotation and adaptation to England

Aaron Anselmino - Loan to Strasbourg to replace Sarr

Axel Disasi - Sell

Renato Veiga - Sell, huge profit in a year

Wesley Fofana - Reluctant Sell

Benoit Badiashile - Sell

Full Backs;

Marc Cucurella - Keep, starter

NEW BACK UP LB NEEDED - Poll Below

Ben Chilwell - Sell/Let go

Caleb Wiley - Sell/Loan

Malo Gusto - Loan (assuming Maresca Stays), still so young, had a bad 24/25 and struggled to adapt to MAresca’s philosophy.

Reece James - Keep, my Skipper!

Josh Acheampong - Keep, Back up to Reece, can cover in CB as well.

Alfie Gilchrist - Sell/Loan

Centre Midfielders;

Moises Caicedo - Keep

Enzo Fernandez - Keep

Romeo Lavia - Keep

Andrey Santos - Keep

Dario Essugo - Keep

Lesley Ugochukwu - Sell

Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall - Sell

Mathis Amougou - Loan

Carney Chukwuemeka - Reluctant Sell

Attacking Midfielders / Wingers;

2 Signings Required in this area (one left winger / one rotational 10) - Polls Below

Cole Palmer - Keep

Pedro Neto - Keep

Noni Madueke - Keep, he either explodes next season or sell next summer

Estevao - Keep

Mykhailo Mudryk - Loan (as long as precautionary ban ends)

Christopher Nkunku - Sell

Joao Felix - Sell

Raheem Sterling - Sell

Omari Kellyman - Sell/Loan

Kendry Paez - Loan Strasbourg

Tyrique George - Loan

Strikers;

2 NEW STRIKERS REQUIRED - Polls Below

Nicolas Jackson - Reluctant Sell (Reluctant because I believe in him, just wrong club for him)

Marc Guiu - Loan (top prospect)

Datro Fofana - Sell

Armando Broja - Sell

To be honest, I know this is a hypothetical article but I dont see any of the targets, names or positions as unrealistic. I have tried to keep it as realistic as I possibly can and like I mentioned above, all names have been reported by Simon in some way in recent days/weeks/months.

For clarity these are my choices;

Goalkeeper - Mike Maignan

Centre Back - Ilia Zabarnyi

Left Back - Jorrel Hato

Left Wing - Rodrygo

Starting 9 - Osimhen

Rotating 9 - Delap

The only signing there that I cannot see happening is Rodrygo, but hopefully I am wrong or other names come out of the woodworks there.If there are any names I have missed from Simon’s reports, articles etc then please comment them.

Thanks for reading!

Luke Rushbrook