The whole point of this New England Saints project is to develop young English players with a bias towards those who featured during the 2017 summer. In two seasons the Saints have delivered two Premier League titles, two FA cup wins, one Europa League and the Champions League (plus the other super cup and shield ephemera). They have delivered a World Player of the Year in Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain. Yet the progress of the young players has been slow, with small attribute increases rather than large jumps forward.
The squad is brilliant, but too big. Too few chances for the young players.
Time for action.
The great thing about being successful is that plenty of clubs are interested in the players. The bidding begins.
The monsters of Europe came in.
Real Madrid and Barcelona are the beasts under the bed. The monsters in the closet. Just as your club is sailing along, with a bright new star leading the way the behemoths emerge to upset your equilibrium. Philippe Coutinho is playing the best football of his life? Don’t get used to it, here come Barcelona. Mo Salah is having a magnificent scoring season. Zidane is heaping praise upon him. Salah the Galactico. Dybala could be the next global star? Sounds right for Barcelona. Xherdan Shaqiri has just scored the winning goal in the Champions League final. Here come Real Madrid.
Shaqiri cost me £15million from relegated Stoke City. He was signed partially because he was terrific player at a cut price and partially because there were clubs interested in Tadic and Mane. Shaqiri could play in both their positions. He was signed quickly but the interested dissipated. Shaqiri had a wonderful season, scoring that historic goal, but actually he was holding back Redmond, Gray and Grealish. Real Madrid offered £40million plus add ons. The monster was welcome.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BY9YL8GM3-I&t=111s
Naby Keita has performed well for me, but could never quite dislodge James Ward-Prowse. Nor did I really want him to, after all this is about young English players. Not only that, but Lewis Cook had a brilliant season on loan at West Ham. He deserved to be in contention for the midfield. The FM 2016 Naby Keita is not the one man midfield of RB Liepzig, I signed him from RB Salzburg for just over £6million. AC Milan offered £17million plus add ons. Another space cleared.
Meanwhile I was discontent with my strikers. Though the team had achieved much the Jay Rodriguez romance couldn’t continue, not after a 20 hour goal drought. Rodriguez is a wide player or attacking midfielder anyway. Over at Spurs Harry Kane was not pleased with finishing outside the top four. I pursued him all summer. Declaring an interest every other week, making offer after offer. Finally he handed in a transfer request. My offer of £50million prised him away. I had a the best English striker for my English project.
Then came a huge stroke of luck, Spurs decided that Charlie Austin and Sadio Mane were the perfect replacements for Harry Kane. A combined £70million was offered and accepted. The sale of Mane created even more opportunity for the young wingers. Mane had also played a lot of games as a striker, so by selling him and Austin opportunity could knock for Solanke, Armstrong or Woodrow. Mane, like Keita, is not the player we see in 2017/18. In 15/16 he is a raw speed machine who can also strike the ball with both feet. In 2016 he is good player and little more. The potential of the English youngsters far outweighs his.
Offers then came in for some of the other young players. Baker, Dowell and Mount. The offers were not particularly good, but were these players going to ever make it into my first team? No, they were not. After a little negotiation and future fees all three were sold.
Space had been cleared. Pathways into the first team activated.
And yet…
There was £150million in the bank.
John Stones and Ross Barkley were unhappy. They would fit into the project remit.
I just made the space in their positions. It would undo the transfer window work.
If I could take a player in any position it would be striker. Kane is the best English forward around. The rest are average, Berahino probably the next best around. Tadic was the only non English player left in the first team. Perhaps this was a place I could break the rules? Armstrong, Solanke and Woodrow could be loaned out, it couldn’t hurt?
The best two players available were Mauro Icardi and Luciano Vietto.
Inter wanted £110million for Icardi. Vietto was at Bayern Munich. Who wanted between £15million and £25million. Vietto signed for New England Saints for £20million.
Woodrow and Armstrong left on loan. In a system with two strikers the choices were now Vietto, Kane, Solanke and Rodriguez. Rodriguez was also an option wide where my other players were Ox, Redmond, Grealish and Gray. Josh Onomah, Tadic and Will Hughes were choices behind the striker. The squad remained big but at least it was now 2 players per position, rather than three. Could more be sold? Possibly, but who? Might it be time to move on Jay Rodriguez and throw romance out the window?