I'm going to try to split my response to this into two parts - the sales and the buys. I'm going to start with the sales, and the way I intend to structure this part of it is to go through each member of the squad on a position-by-position basis listing whether I would keep or sell the player. I will offer a rough estimation of how much I expect we might be able to get for each player I think we should sell (and I intend to be very cautious here), and I'll give a brief explanation at each positional juncture explaining my choices where I feel it's necessary.
Goalkeeper: Andre Onana (keep), Altay Bayindir (keep), Tom Heaton (sell, free agent). Not sure too much explaining needs to be done here. Onana has cemented himself as a solid starter this season after a rocky start. Bayindir should also stay provided he's happy, whilst Heaton is probably gone this summer with his contract expiring.
Full Back: Diogo Dalot (keep), Aaron Wan-Bissaka (keep), Luke Shaw (keep), Tyrell Malacia (sell, 5m), Brandon Williams (sell, free agent), Alvaro Fernandez (sell, free agent). The two big decisions here were Wan Bissaka and Malacia. I like AWB but don't see him as comfortable enough with the ball in the long-run, but I've decided to keep him simply because I think we need to strengthen too many other areas this summer to leave ourselves also needing a right back. Malacia is an unfortunate case. I think there's a capable player in him but, with Shaw as injury prone as he is, I don't think we can risk Malacia being his only back-up given his long-term injury this season so I'd probably look to sell him for whatever money we can get this summer.
Centre Back: Lisandro Martinez (keep), Raphael Varane (sell, free agent), Harry Maguire (sell, 15m), Victor Lindelof (keep), Jonny Evans (sell, free agent), Willy Kambwala (keep). This is probably one of our biggest needs this summer. Huge injury problems at centre back have, in my view, been one of our biggest issues this season so a revamp is needed here. Varane is an easy decision for me - his contract expires and I don't think we should be looking to give him a new one. Evans is also an easy choice - he's been commendable this season given that he's played far more than we could've expected but again, with his contract out this summer we should be letting him go. The big decision for me was between Maguire and Lindelof - some will want to see both gone but realistically I think we'll need to hang on to one of them or else we'll simply be looking to do too much this summer. I've opted to sell Maguire and stick with Lindelof. Whilst I actually think the former is a better player, his wages are also a lot higher and Lindelof offers the additional benefit of being able to fill in at full-back when necessary.
Midfield: Casemiro (keep), Kobbie Mainoo (keep), Bruno Fernandes (keep), Mason Mount (keep), Sofyan Amrabat (sell, loan expires), Christian Eriksen (sell, free), Scott McTominay (keep), Donny van de Beek (sell, 5m), Hannibal Mejbri (sell, 10m). I think the big controversy here will be the decision to keep Casemiro. This is, to be clear, also one that I am very undecided on. The reason I've opted to keep him is because for starters I think he'll be extremely difficult to sell, and also because if we do get rid of him then we are going to need two signings in defensive midfield this summer when we're already going to need a minimum of six players. Finally, with a lot of the players I'm deciding to let go being experienced leaders, I do think that having Casemiro around to bring those qualities could yet be of some value to us. I think the only other possibly controversial one here is keeping hold of McTominay - I've decided to do that because I think he's a solid squad option and, again, I think I have to be realistic as to how much we can hope for in terms of incomings this summer.
Wingers: Alejandro Garnacho (keep), Marcus Rashford (keep), Jadon Sancho (sell, 30m), Antony (keep), Amad Diallo (keep), Facundo Pellistri (sell, 10m), Shola Shoretire (sell, free agent). A less controversial round here I think, with most of the decisions being fairly self-explanatory. I am somewhat torn on Rashford but, in the end, I think again with so much work needed in other areas we don't want to be looking to replace him too. I think having Garnacho, Rashford, Antony and Amad as your four main wide options, with Mount capable of playing there too and perhaps a few academy players being brought into the fold, leaves us in an OK position here for now.
Strikers: Rasmus Hojlund (keep), Anthony Martial (sell, free agent), Mason Greenwood (sell, 30m). Honestly don't have much to add here. I think all three of these are fairly self-explanatory.
So to summarise then, here are all of my sales listed in order of my estimated price tag:
Jadon Sancho (30m), Mason Greenwood (30m), Harry Maguire (15m), Hannibal Mejbri (10m), Facundo Pellistri (10m), Donny van de Beek (5m), Tyrell Malacia (5m), Christian Eriksen (free), Tom Heaton (free agent), Brandon Williams (free agent), Alvaro Fernandez (free agent), Raphael Varane (free agent), Jonny Evans (free agent), Anthony Martial (free agent), Sofyan Amrabat (loan expires)
In other words, you'd be seeing 15 of the senior squad leaving with around
105 million made in transfer fees. This is a lot of outgoings for one summer, but it looks somewhat more attainable when you consider that seven of the players on the list will be going this summer anyway provided that they are not offered a new deal. The bigger bonus from these sales, though, is that it'd shave around
87 million off of our annual wage bill, which is a pretty sizeable chunk of the current total which stands at 180 million. (Source:
sportrac)
Finally, then, let's look at the remaining senior squad with these sales in mind. For now, I'll not be including academy players outside of the ones who have already played significant minutes this season. I'll be listing players' ages in brackets, alongside the letters HG to denote any senior (i.e. aged 21 or over) homegrown players.
Andre Onana (28), Altay Bayindir (26), Diogo Dalot (25), Aaron Wan-Bissaka (26, HG), Luke Shaw (28, HG), Lisandro Martinez (26), Victor Lindelof (29), Willy Kambwala (19), Casemiro (32), Kobbie Mainoo (19), Bruno Fernandes (29), Mason Mount (25, HG), Scott McTominay (27, HG), Alejandro Garnacho (19), Marcus Rashford (26, HG), Antony (24), Amad Diallo (21), Rasmus Hojlund (21)
With this in mind, we'd have 15 players above the age of 21 needing registering for next season in the Premier League, 10 of whom would be non-homegrown. We thus wouldn't have any major concerns around the Premier League's homegrown rules, with an allowance for up to 17 non-homegrown senior players in a squad.
The registration rules for UEFA competitions should also not prove too difficult, since there you are required to have eight homegrown players with four of them trained at the club's own academy for at least three years between the ages of 15 and 21. Mainoo, McTominay, Garnacho and Rashford satisfy the second criteria already, and when you add in Mount, Shaw and Wan Bissaka you're only left needing one more homegrown player to satisfy the first as well. This could come from a new signing , or even from registering an academy player as the third choice keeper.
Additionally, I think the age profile of that squad also starts to look a bit better. You've got a good core of ten players in the peak ages of 24-28, with five further young talents under the age of 21 and three in Bruno, Lindelof and Casemiro bringing more experience to the table.
These sales decisions will, of course, form the basis for my second part post where I'll look into the potential signings that I think might enhance this squad in the summer.