Tomo

After his embarrassing PL loans spells id be happy to merely make a profit, no chance we get £10m.

Imagine if we had those three in their prime now under Conte? We'd so be going three at the back!!!

Costa, Tevez, Batshuayi and Traore would be such a top class attack, well balanced in not just attributes but youth-experience wise too.

Swap deals are nice in theory but rarely ever happen for a reason, too many variables. The players Antonio doesn't want he should chat with them and tell them that he's not in his plans and if he stays he will find playing time hard to come by, Danny Murphy mentioned Rafa doing that for him when he joined Liverpool.

Normal circumstances I would say £40m max, but our defense means this isn't normal circumstances. If we have to pay that little bit more for him then so be it.

Remy was a decent squad player for us, like a Hernandez at United type who can fill in and score at a decent rate, although he has served his purpose and i hope he's gone by end of August.

Having a competitive squad isn't about having Hazard on the pitch and Neymar as his back up. How many on paper average player's lifted the PL trophy under Fergie's watch? Infact our new manager has only recently got a Sunderland reject looking like hell of a player. I'm not necessarily saying Ayew is who we should be signing, but our problems last season wasn't due to a lack of top players, Hazard is one of the best in the world, Cesc is one of the top playmakers, Costa is one of the top strikers, Azpi is one of the best fullbacks atleast from defense POV, Tibo is the best keeper in the league and for good measure we have signed arguably the league's best player from last season. It was quite a few factors as to why we finished 10th, the major one's have been discussed to death, but another was lack of depth, if Conte thinks that Andre can come in and do a job as a squad player and fit in to the team dynamic he is trying to build, then who I am to argue? He's certainly better than Moses who fans seem to be begging to get a chance.

Id rather have Pedro as that alternative to be honest, I think he might turn out all right under Conte, and he has already shown he can be very good within a good system.

My ideal situation would be Cesar with a new full back (be it right back or left back as I'm easy with Azpi on either side tbh) and Ola and Ivan as the squad options.

Moses should be first out of the door, he may look all right when its pre season but well, lets just say there's a reason three clubs have decided against making his loan permanent.

Up until I read this thread like now I thought you mistook the blonde male medic (the one that took Evas place) for a women.

Without meaning to drift off topic Moses needs to be the first out of the door. He seems to have good pre season's but when the real stuff kicks off he has about one good game every 15.

I wouldn't want Lukaku under any circumstances, i don't like his style. If we are going to make a winger the second striker, id rather give the gig to Eden and let him roam about freely. My ideal wet dream would be that we take advantage of the alleged discontent between Martial and United (over Zlatan taking his number) but that ain't gonna happen.

Fair enough, we will probably have more of an idea of how the first few months will go in August, the WHU game will be à really intreging. About Zouma tho, I'm not going to lie i'm quite worried, he is not technically brilliant and his main aspects of his game are his pace and power, we have already seen with Essien, Torres and Falcao what can happen to players who's main attributes are pace/physical aspects when they hey a bad injury, although Zouma does have age on his side compared to those three at the time of injuries however.

If we signed Nolito this forum would moan because he's nearly 30 and not world class. I can't pretend I've watched much of Nolito but I'm guessing he's good at tracking back and the off the ball stuff? Which would offer vital balance to Peps side. Also Pedro was a important player for Pep, that alone should suggest he can be useful if utilised correct. We don't have to make yourself underdog, but we also by equal measure dont have to go all Real Madrid and chase Galaticos/flavour of the months.

Don't get me wrong I'm not advocating Conte going down that route full time far from it, but if he has to grind out the games to start with while our new signings gel and last season's players get their confidence back, it won't be the end of the world. I think no CL might be a hindrance at the start, I remember Pep saying once that two games a week helps build motivation and momentum, however at the business end is were the extra break could work in our favour. One advantage Conte has got is after last season the pining for Mou and Hiddink if things are going wrong will be a thing of the past, also all the old guard apart from Terry are gone, so Antonio has almost got a blank canvas.

If we were on 4-3-3 with three solid midfielders then fair enough, but if both are wingers are incompetent defensively in a 4-2-4 we are asking for trouble, especially if Ivan or Baba start the season in the team, not even Kante will be able to cover that much ground to make up for it. If we can build a great attacking team in the future im all for it, but after last season thrash we need to go back to basics first and foremost imo, and that's starting with a solid defensive system, even if we have to grind out wins at the beginning, it's easier to grind 1-0s and 2-1s consistently than 3-2,4-3 etc.

How many have we heard this? "The final piece in the Arsenal puzzle". If they get their first post Wenger appointment right then yeah they will be a serious threat home and abroad, but as long as Wenger's about the title is not happening.

Conte is going to be setting up a very high demanding system, will both Hazard and Mahrez furfil the off the ball demands Antonio demands from the wing? I mean one of them he can and probably will work round, but both? Even last season Ranieri had Albrighton running like a duracel bunny to counter Mahrezs not so great defensive side, and despite last season Hazard >>>> Mahrez. Looking at Giacherrini in the Euros compared to what he was at Sunderland, im not dreading the thought of Oscar staying as much as I was, if he can make Giacherrini look somewhat decent Oscar should be child's play. Pedro also did show under Pep that he is a system player, last year he was basically being told to pick up the ball and make things happen, that isn't his game, hes not naturally talented like Eden, it's the equivalent of telling Willian to play on the shoulder of the last defender, of course he would look shit.

Mata playing in a Conte team would make Mata and Jose look like a match made in heaven.

He looks a shadow of his pre injury self, theirs a reason he was gettable for a relitevely cheap price.

The obsession with 'top level' on this forum is getting ridiculous, unless it's a world class or borderline/potential world class player linked people lose their shit, sometimes I do genuinely wonder if theres members of the Real Madrid board room on here. Conte is a manager known for making a team bigger than the sum of its parts, if he thinks Joao is the right man to partner Kante in the centre that's good enough for me. Pep has signed Nolito and Gundogan, not world class signing by any stretch of the imagination but I bet they will improve City. What needs to he done this summer first and foremost is to build a solid unit again, i still get nightmares on how easy it was for City to counter us back in April.

Sam is 10000x the manager Roy is, he's just what our national team need.

We could never have got Klopp, he had his heart set on Liverpool.

Even if he didn't play he still trained and was a part of a squad in a major, you need to break from football mentally. I think it's a compulsory rule that footballers need three weeks off from football related activity.