Squad turnaround during summer

[bs1982 22]

Walter admitted it was a huge gamble last season to spend almost all our budget on Jelavic when our squad was so small. In the end it paid off but Ally might have a similar dilemna this summer. We have more money at least thanks to the takeover but a lot of players need to be replaced and the reported budget won't stretch far enough for class in every position. What positions would you splash out on and try and get someone like Jelavic and what areas would you bring in cheaper players or loans to provide cover?

13 senior players and 4 youngsters contracted for next season

GK McGregor Alexander

FB Whittaker Papac Broadfoot

CB Bougherra

CM Davis Edu McCulloch Ness Hutton

AM Naismith Wylde Fleck

ST Jelavic Lafferty Beattie

7 players leaving (at moment) Weir, Bartley, Foster, Weiss, Diouf, Heally, Kerkar

Surely Beattie will be allowed to leave so even just to maintain the same squad size as this year we need to buy/re-sign at least 8 players with a rumoured £10million to do so.

Where would you spend the majority of this?

[Sweeney 241]

a top quality centre mid.

3 good defenders

2 good wingers

[King Jela 21,685]

Healy's leaving ?

[GF John 169]

I'd bring in David Vaughan on a bosman to provide squad depth in the middle of the park and Fabio Borini on loan from Chelsea for depth up top, then spend the bulk of the money on rebuilding the defence.

Quality and quantity can't be mutually exclusive for us this summer.

[Irwin Sparkes 97]

We need a top quality centre half

A left winger at least slightly better than Wylde

A striker at least on par with Lafferty, preferably at least slightly better

Any others would be dependant on player sales imo. Edu and McCulloch are far from ideal, but we don't need a 3rd holding midfielder whilst those 2 are still at the club

[MasterD 7,457]

Need a mixture of both

Majority of the money needs to go on CBs IMO, Weir should be away, Bougie should be sold unless he signs a new deal, basically leaves us with no-one unless we were to use Broadfoot, wouldn't mind signing 1 experienced CB, 1 mid experienced, and a younger player about 21/22 for back up

[havaldo 1]

Gabbidon -Bosman

Spector -Bosman

Pander -Bosman

David Vaughan -Bosman

James Vaughan -Bosman

Conway -Bosman

Bartley -Loan

Muntari -Loan if possible

Kakuta -Loan if possible

Taking into account signing on fees and loan fees, spend rest of money on Ashley Williams & Julien Faubert and we will have a very decent squad

[jdocherty72 215]

Gabbidon -Bosman

Spector -Bosman

Pander -Bosman

David Vaughan -Bosman

James Vaughan -Bosman

Conway -Bosman

Bartley -Loan

Muntari -Loan if possible

Kakuta -Loan if possible

Taking into account signing on fees and loan fees, spend rest of money on Ashley Williams & Julien Faubert and we will have a very decent squad

Gabbidon & Muntari's wages would be too high. That's too much players to take on aswell imo.

[bs1982 22]

We need a top quality centre half

A left winger at least slightly better than Wylde

A striker at least on par with Lafferty, preferably at least slightly better

That was similar to what I was thinking when I posted. Spend the bulk of the budget getting in quality for those three positions who could immediately come in and improve the first team. Would definitely hope to get Bartley back on loan and even offer Heally an extension if his wages are really as low as what has been said. Then look for bargains who won't cost much to replace the other outgoing players.

[Gillete 1,338]

Gabbidon is a bombscare

Ask any west ham fan

They just got relegated FFS and have the worst defence

[KingKirk 26,501]

I dont want to much change, we have squad of winners and I don't want to break that up.

[Ryan_1 1,136]

We need a blend of quality and quantity.

For me we have quality in Allan McGregor, Steve Davis, Steven Naismith, Madjid Bougherra and Nikica Jelavic. If anyone of those players left we would need to replace them with quality.

After that we have some first team players who would benefit from competition. Sasa Papac, Steven Whittaker, Gregg Wylde and Kyle Lafferty are the players I would like to have players challenging them for a place in the side.

We would also need players to fill the squad if we were hit by injuries and suspensions.

Preferably I would like;

Kyle Bartley on loan and another back-up CB.

Vladmir Weiss on loan to compete with Wylde.

A quality CM. David Vaughan would fit the bill.

Another striker, most likely David Goodwillie.

A LB to compete with Papac.

A RB to compete with Whittaker.

Another winger, maybe able to play on both sides.

Obviously that's a prefered list and we'll more than likely not get all of that, but if we get a good blend added with some squad players we'll be in good stead for next season.

[havaldo 1]

Gabbidon is a bombscare

Ask any west ham fan

They just got relegated FFS and have the worst defence

I think your forgetting the Gulf in class between the two leagues, for a bosman n someone who can play all over the defence, he is more than a decent squad player for the SPL

[BlueSuedeSambas 56,413]

Gabbidon is on a rumoured 60k a week.

Even if we could entice him up here there's no chance he would be a "squad player"

[nvager 498]

Will D Weir play on? Will Bartley return on loan? if both happen do we need a CH?

We have three fullbacks - so do we need another one? Edu and Bartley can also provide cover and we have Cole and McMillan too.

At midfield we need to add pace and guile. So I would bring in at least 1 quality centre midfielder and a really good winger.

Striker - We have one great player in Jelavic and two good but inconsistent players in Lafferty and Naismith. I would add at the minimum one quality striker.

That would mean bringing in 3 quality players, but most likely I would add a quality CH too - 2 quality CHs if no Weir or Bartley.

So then 3 - 5 new quality players at a minimum - 1 or 2 CHs depending on the Weir/Bartley situation, a quality midfielder, winger and striker.

Depending then on money a couple of Bosmans too (FBs) and look again to the younger players to come through. We must encourage them too.

[SirWalterSmithLegend 206]

Obviously quality. 4 belters to walk into our first team and no first 11 players sold and we will retain our title.

[Davie2909 21]

I would like another couple of quality signings with a couple of bosmans to beef the squad up.

Craig Conway - Bosman

David Vaughan - Bosman

Gullermo Mollins from Malmo

Jason Puncheon from Southampton

2 Quality CH

a Striker

Thats what i would look at

[steve2368 1]

I would go with a squad of about 21 with youth players (i.e. u21) for back up;

GK - McGregor, Alexander, Adam

FB - Whittaker, Broadfoot, Papac, Foster

CB - Granqvist, Bartley, McGregor, Weir, Cole

RM - Weiss, Conway

CM - Davis, Edu, McCulloch, Ness, Hutton

LM - Puncheon, Wylde

ST - Jelavic, Lafferty, Goodwille, Naismith, Beattie, Fleck, Hemmings

Punt Kerkar, Diouf, McMillan, Scott Gallacher, Healy, Little, Bougherra (sadly!), Bendiksen, Shinnie, Stirling, Campbell and other youths who are over 21 and have no chance of getting into the first team.

EDIT: Give Beattie a proper pre-season and assess.

[GlasgowsBlue 329]

My ideal squad for next season would be:

GK: McGregor, Alexander, Adam

DEF: Bougherra, Whittaker, Papac, Broadfoot, Bartley(on loan), Wendt(copenhagen although other clubs are looking at him),

MID: Davis, Weiss(on loan), McCulloch, Wylde, Fleck, Ness, Hutton, Edu, Whittingham(cardiff), N'Zogbia(if wigan get relegated but his wages might be too high)

ATT: Naismith, Jelavic, Lafferty, Healy, Earnshaw(notts forrest), Goodwillie(if hes found not guilty lol)

I know some of the signing suggestions may be unrealistic but i would like a squad like this.

EDIT: Diouf as a squad player and to wind them up.

[Gaffbear 4,174]

I would look at Nathan Tyson at Forest.Fast as fuck and looks a pretty good player

Ideally we would bring in Weiss and Bartley on loan,bring in 3 or 4 Bosmans if possible and spend our £10m(if true) on 4 good quality players.

[MikeBlue 136]

Difficult to know about CB until we find out if Bougherra is staying if he signs an extension and Weir stays on then get Bartley on loan and we're sorted. OTOH we may need to sign two new CBs if it doesn't go that way.

We've got FBs so competition should come from the youth setup (?Cole)

Main problem is CM - Davis is the only one I'm happy with as Ness has yet to prove he can stay fit. Edu and aren't good enough - that's the key signing for me

Up front / wide if we add Conway and Goodwillie I'd be happy with that

[gunslinger 270]

3 of real quality and 3 good options cheep.

[Del 667]

Some people that post on here are either clueless or living in a football manager/fifa dream world!

Gabbidon, N'Zogbia, Faubert, Muntari?

N'Zogbia is being touted for £8-10m...Faubert turned down a move to Nantes and Newcastle because they couldnt match his wages at West Ham (50k a week)...Gabbidon apart from being dogshit will be on a massive wage and Muntari doesnt even merit an explination!

[RickyTheRanger 2]

I have noticed that Erimenko has been over looked on this thread I rate this guy and think we could get him on the cheap and he would provide another dimension for us next season.

[Kingbo 0]

Think we'll get Bartley on loan, and we should be looking for a more experienced (28-30 year old) centre half to provide competition between them two and Bougherra. We should be looking more for youngsters/bosmans at full back, as we have good experience and decent quality there, short-term at least. We could do with a Weiss type player on loan, then maybe Conway on a bosman and that'd give us 4 (5 if you want to include Davis) options in the wide positions. Another option up front to provide competition for Lafferty to partner Jelavic. (Lafferty should not be played out wide again, as it's painfully obvious that with a run of games, he's at worst a good striker in this league.)