I can't see a massive overhaul the likes of which some are expecting, but we do have to put the new manager in the best possible position to succeed and a degree of that will be recruitment. There's a couple of key points to address.
I think the biggest questionmarks fall into 3 categories:
- Older players, or players soon out of contract: Salah, VVD, Robertson. I can see a world where they all stay, or I can see a world where 2 of 3 leave. I think a lot depends on the offers that come in (if any) and in VVD's case, the willingness to stay on. I do think we'll be looking to recruit at all three positions, even if it's just with one eye on the future. Trent is the real unknown here - inclination is "of course you renew him" but he'll likely end up our highest earner by a distance with a new contract (assuming Salah leaves), and even his own willingness to sign one might be dependent on how Slot sees his role in the team moving forward. It's probably the first order of business when Arne comes in to sit down and have that conversation with him, as it could entirely change our summer business.
- Suitability for our future style of play. From everything I've read, it sounds like Slot favours incredibly intense pressing from the whole team, but very much leading from the front. I think that immediately puts some of our players at risk and I'm not sure we have the squad depth as it stands to sustain a more intense style of play given we're already stacking up injuries with a less intense version of it. I do worry we could see a season like Spurs, where we start like a train and then start picking up injuries/tiredness and gaps start to appear. We'd need to give Slot the players and depth to play this way.
- The attack. It reminds me a bit of the midfield a few years ago whereby you're like we've got a good number of talented players, but they all sort of come with a caveat one way or the other - finishing, goalscoring, fitness. It's been done to death on the main board so I won't hash over it again, but I'd like to see us try and create a cohesive attack that works well as a unit, whereas it feels right now we have a bunch of good attacking players who don't really complement one another or know how to play together. The only thing resembling link up play between them this season has been the Nunez/Salah combo, and those days may be numbered.
I think as a minimum we need a LB, CB, a 6 and a forward, but how far does the budget stretch if those are to be genuinely top class additions. That's probably another £150m - £200m on top of last summer's outlay - is that feasible? Probably not.
Feels like usually by this time of the year the club knows its top targets and we start hearing leaks about incoming players. I imagine they'll want to run it past the new man, but with a move back to more data-led/analytics based recruitment, I daresay the shortlist is already more or less in place. Of the tenuous links we've seen reported by the less reputable sources, which ones seem realistic? I think there might be something in the Summerville rumour, but beyond that I've no clue.
