In my opinion, we have the money to get good central defenders. Ferdinand and Vidic are leaving, and that frees up the wages to get us a good player. Plus, we only have 3 first-team defenders, so along with Michael Keane coming up, we really need a defender who will always be available to play.
An experienced head will be best for us as we've lost tons of experience in Ferdinand and Vidic. That said, I'd still want our central defenders to step and take the mantle rather than have the new signing do this. For this reason, I'd prefer a defender like what we had in Brown and O'Shea so that the likes of Smalling, Jones, and Evans can get as much match time as possible in defence. However, that's unlikely, so the next best option is getting Vertonghen or Garay. Benatia's another great option, too, but if Man. City's after him, he won't resist their exorbitant wages and challenge to overcome the bigger club in Man. Utd.
Garay is the most likely option as the increase in wages for him will be manageable for us (Ferdinand and Vidic leaving have freed up lots of wages). Plus, he's played with and learned from Luisao (extremely underrated defender) and has played through two European finals, already, as well as being involved in several title challenges with Benfica. He won't be the leader and organiser like Ferdinand and Vidic were, but he'll be the calm presence in central defence that someone like Jones will hugely benefit from. He'll also like the prospect of playing in England and trying to win the Premier League plus having the chance to play in the Champions League, in the future, and having the chance to win it, too.
Vertonghen is also a proven defender who's excellent on the ball. He's a bit more aggressive defender than Garay is and is more prone to getting caught out, though. However, he has the pace to recover from these situations, and his great man-marking and technique will, hopefully, make up for him not being as good at reading the game ahead of him. Other than this, he'll be harder to obtain since Levy will want to get as much money for Vertonghen as possible, and his wage demands may be higher than what Garay may want, too.
About other teams, I don't know if they will want the same players. Barcelona and Bayern Munich prefer ball-playing defenders, so Vertonghen will be likely and Garay won't be, for them. Man. City are going after Mangala and Benatia, according to the papers. With Chelsea, who knows what Mourinho will do. He could eke out as much as possible from Terry and thus not go after another defender. Either that, or he could go after young talents more established than Zouma and Omeruo.
To conclude, I'd like us to get Garay and promote Michael Keane. However, I would prefer that we give Smalling and Jones as much match time as possible in the coming season and fulfill their potential.
