Thread by @nonewthing

We have to find a cheap CB to it, if that's what it takes to get Rice and Caicedo.

Emmanuel Agbadou is my latest recommendation after we missed out on Ousmane Diomandé (but I'm sure the club knows a few more options).

Rice, Caicedo, Agbadou is elite level expense before sales.

After securing our buildup against injuries (this season is another proof that our buildup is the most important part of our team; can't do anything if we have issues there), the 3 other possible positions are

RW
LCM
CF

Let's look at what could happen there

For me, this list is a qualitative list of what I believe to be our possibilities within reasonable expense and what our team needs and media reports.

Kante, Tielemans are free (not cheap, though) transfers at LCM.

At CF, we seem to want a different profile to Jesus/Trossard.

But it's position we shouldn't be getting any incomings for now unless they were an ELITE UPGRADE on Nketiah/Jesus/Trossard. The only outlet CFs I see that are potentially reasonably available on the market and fit this bill are two:

Rasmus Hojlund
Ivan Toney

If it isn't those two, we shouldn't consider as we are currently overstocked in the position. Getting one of those in as it is will necessitate us shifting both of Jesus/Trossard wide. So they must either be absolutely elite or we can wait for Evan Ferguson or another later.

Trossard is necessarily the Reiss Nelson replacement for me but we'd be overstocked at LW and understocked at RW.

I have an idea to keep expenses down and use Jesus to do it at RW if it will allow us get Rice/Caicedo. CF will still have Nketiah/Trossard among other possibilities

But, if not, Diaby is my recommendation. Why? We still need a creative passing ballstriker like Raphinha but with Trossard among others, we have proven that we have enough creativity to do it without that.

What we now lack in the frontline are outlets of the highest order.

Given that we like to do it with a false 9, having two pacey outlets is a necessary option against the best teams like Liverpool/City who will seek to control our forwards by squeezing a high press and trying to dominate duels.

Difficult to do that against Diaby/Martinelli.

Trossard/Saka (possibly Jesus) as the dribbling wide creators, and Martinelli/Diaby as the pacey outlets for high pressing teams.

I like having a balance of every profile in a squad. So that is it for me.

These 3 positions MUST BE afterthoughts after we secure Rice/Caicedo/CB.

Unless it were an extraordinary budget, I think, we will be unable to do the right deals if we spent 40-50 million on a Guehi.

Probably means no Ricedo or whatever.

That is why it makes sense for it to be a cheap CB, meaning we can unload our full financial firepower where it

ought to go.

Remember the Madrid lesson: the most important thing is filling your squad with THE BEST QUALITY you can find/access.

At the advanced positions, we already have first team options and they should be afterthoughts unless a QUALITY market opportunity emerges.

The key thing we need in this squad is

—Another option to Zinchenko, hopefully with a defensive upgrade and possibly at RB instead of being LB depth

—Partey's replacement as he's not reliable for a full season without Europe (much less with Europe) and he's physically declining

—Possible Xhaka upgrade or at least future replacement

Those are the most important things our team needs to be there next season, regardless of injuries.

Rice (6, LCM, CB)/Caicedo (LB, RB, LCM, 6), Agbadou (CB) solve everything immediately with ELITE QUALITY.

These are the necessities.

Now, we can now begin to consider what the possible sales of Tierney, Balogun, Partey, Lokonga, Holding, Pepe etc etc will ALLOW us to do in advanced positions.

That is how it must work. Address the necessities with ELITE quality, first.

Basically, make sure to get both Rice and Caicedo, then we look at other possible business depending on funding and our sales.