Thinking back to last summer, hindsight is a wonderful thing and many of us wouldn?t have rewarded Mikel Arteta wit the £75k-a-week contract week, given his misfiring form this season. Had he been sold to Man City, I think many of us would be kicking off big style and it would?ve been a big blow for our pre-season morale à la Lescott in 2009.
The truth is that I think Moyes?s strategy to keep his best players was the right one and probably the only option he could push with the board given the way we use every penny coming in to offset short- and medium-term loans. We can debate all day why this strategy hasn?t paid off to make us top four contenders. Ultimately Moyes?s match day tactics and decisions are one of the main reasons.
Looking forward, if the money isn?t going to materialise, the club needs to change their PR strategy with the fans and be more open with our inability to invest in transfer fees. The focus should be on reducing the wage bill to take the pressure off our income streams, but at the same time reward our younger players with more time on the pitch before they start looking elsewhere.
Cutting to the chase, I think there?s a good argument to permanently offload the following players: Johnny H (£6m), Yobo (£2m), Yakubu (£3m), Anichebe (£2m), Vaughan (£1m), Agard and Turner (both out of contract) ? that brings £14m in and reduces the wage bill by over £9m per year, on top of the £2m a year the Pienaar sale saved us.
Even getting rid of these seven (five of whom are on loan anyway) it still leaves us with a squad (including the young lads) of:
Goal: Howard, Mucha, Springthorpe Defence: Hibbert, Neville, Distin, Jagielka, Baines, Duffy, Mustafi, Hammar, Garbutt Midfield: Osman, Fellaini, Bilyaletdinov, Arteta, Rodwell, Coleman, Wallace, Barkley Forwards: Cahill, Saha, Beckford, Gueye, Silva, Vellios, Baxter
So who could we afford to bring in to supplement these players? Well Elmander of Bolton and Larsson of Birmingham are both going to be available for free in the summer. Add to them a big signing like Donovan for about £8m and I think we?d have a better, hungrier squad with a reduced wage bill (still down by about £6m) with £6m profit on the transfers. Reality is that either Felli or Rodwell could be shipped out, but I can dream while I chew on my Sunday morning scrambled eggs, can't I?
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I'd be happier with that, rather than the wall of silence we get until a week of the window is left when Moyes declares 'we don't have any money to spend'. If they want to nurture the fans' loyalty then they need to be as honest as they can be.
I would sell Yobo £3M, Johnny £7-8M, Bily £8-9M, Yak £3-4M, Mucha £1-2M, Anichebe £2M, Vaughan £1M, that is £25-30M, for players who contribute little to the current set up ? Mucha, Vic, Vaughan have been replaced with recent signings anyway.
Go and buy any one of the Birmingham centre backs, although many will disagree... Joey Barton will not only add much needed bite, he can also create and score goals.
Another possible switch could be Jagielka (not convinced about him since injury) for Bendtner, Larrson as squad back up would help as well. The balance then should go straight off paying one or more of the loans, and also the above would reduce the wage bill.
On the flip side, some of these lads haven't performed well enough or perhaps not been played in the right position or often enough, points previously highlighted as a negative for Moyes. Wholesale changes are not evident, however, but this summer remains a test for Moyes in the market.
This season was classed as 'defining'; we should have challenged 4th spot, even more so with the inconsistency of Spurs, Chelsea and City. Massive failure I'm afraid.
We seem to have momentum now and need to remain focused for Tuesday to partially rescue this season's campaign.
The cynic in me speculates that he is thinking "If I don't pull my finger out and play to the levels I'm capable of for the rest of the season, nobody will want to buy me in the summer, and I'll be stuck here for another year." Sincerely hope I'm wrong!
As for selling Arteta, who's to say, if we did, how much of the sale Moyes would be allowed to spend? Can't see it being over 50% given the parlous state of our finances.
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