chiswickblue

I smell an Enrique de Lucas summer.

That fitness record does make the decision to sell Hall even crazier. And no, he didn't want to leave because his family are all Geordies. He had just signed a new deal. I'm sure the club would love to sell Chilwell and Sterling but there's very little chance anyone wants to buy them at this stage of their careers.

He literally scored the winning goal in our last match.

If we finish 6th we are in the Europa League if City win the Cup, Conference League if Utd win the cup. If we finish 7th we are in the Conference League if City win the Cup, not in Europe if Utd win the cup (assuming Utd finish 8th).

Only 6 players officially injured, lowest of the season!

I don't think he'll even get on the bench ahead of Sánchez. At least it would mean a younger keeper could play regularly for the development squad rather than having to tag along with the first team.

I think his exact salary was confirmed by Galatasary when he signed, which was higher this season when he's been on loan then falling next season when he's fully their player.

Richards is a central striker really, not so much a winger. We only have Broja, D.Fofana, Burstow and three other development squad strikers playing in his position...

They've updated this, so you can have more CL spots but if you win the EL or CL and don't finish in the CL spots in the league they reduce the EL or ECL spots accordingly. Additionally, the UEFA Champions League and UEFA Europa League titleholders are each guaranteed a place in the league phase even if they do not qualify for the competition through their domestic championships. If the UEFA Champions League or UEFA Europa League titleholder qualifies for the UEFA Europa League or UEFA Conference League through one of its domestic competitions, the number of places to which its association is entitled in the UEFA Europa League or UEFA Conference League is reduced by one.

And a left-footed right winger. We only have Palmer and Madueke in the first team squad. Hutchinson and Angelo on loan, plus Kendry Paez to arrive next summer. Loads of space for another.

It would be very like them to fall away and allow us into the European places, then manage to win the Cup and kick us out of Europe again. One of the other bad points about the Conference League is you have to play a qualifying round in August. If we make the Europa League we go straight into the group stage draw (although the EL group stage is now 8 matches per team whilst the Conference League is only 6 matches per team).

It seems to be a lot easier to convince people to allow a £60M signing time to come good, rather than to convince them to allow an academy player time to come good - or someone that's been recovering from a big injury.

As well as needing to get past Man Utd and Newcastle, we also need City to beat Utd in the Cup final if we're to make the EL. If Utd win the Cup, 6th place would mean the Conference League for us next season. Brighton and Bournemouth should be on the beach, not that they will be easy matches, but Forest are fighting relegation so I think that will be the toughest of our remaining matches.

Also a clear message from Poch about creating a core of Cobham/English players. Captains this season have been James, Chilwell, Gallagher, Colwill and Chalobah.

If we take a pragmatic view, wur approach to player transfers this summer would be similar to our approach to the coach. Poch isn't great, but if there a candidate that's available, definitely better and it worth both the expense and further disruption? Neither Sterling nor Mudryk has played well this season, but is there an alternative that is worth the expense? We also have top prospect Tyrique George getting into the matchday squads now, do we want to put another player ahead of him? Jackson doesn't score enough of the chances he gets, and may be better drifting out to the left. Is there a striker available that is worth the expense? Or do we hope that Broja is back to full fitness or David Fofana has improved enough, and use them as alternative striker options next season? We've looked like we need a new DM for most of the season, but largely because Gallagher has been played further forward, Enzo has been playing injured and Lavia + Ugochukwa have missed most of the season. If all of these players are fit next season, do we need someone new? We also have Andrey Santos, Casadei, Matos and a few other academy prospects. CB has also looked like an issue for a while, but now Chalobah and Badiashile are showing the value of players having time to get back to full fitness after injury. With these two plus Colwill and Disasi, is there another CB available that's worth further outlay? That's before we consider what sort of shape Wes Fofana is come the summer. In general, after two years of turmoil I would advocate an absolute minimal number of changes to the squad and coaching team ahead of next season. More focus on set pieces and player fitness are more important than changing the playing squad. Silva is leaving and selling Hall and Maatsen will hopefully be enough to cover the losses from previous windows. If we're very lucky we'll find takers for Lukaku and Kepa too.