[Albion] First Game Starting Line-Up Prediction 25/26

[Mellor 3 Ward 4]

Full back has been talked about a bit

But centre back? There's likely to be a few in a few out here

Dunk - Stays of course, but clearly sucession planning needs to be in place.

Webby - 50/50 whether he says, but even if he does then he'll only play half the games. Put him down as a quarter of a player

Van Hecke - This is the big risk of the summer. The player we least want to lose, but if the right offer comes in we probably will.

Cashin - Unlikely he'll be here. Will be loaned out initially is my guess.

Igor -Does he want to stay as a perma back up? Does the club want him? I personally don't think he's done enough to realistically show he should be starting in a top half half PL team. I think we'll cut our losses on him.

Remodelling our defence is going to be the story of the summer in my view. I expect plenty of activity at centre back

Still have to ask why we signed him.

 

[Right Back]

Interesting that many are going with Wieffer and Baleba in midfield. FH always goes with one of them this season and doesn’t seem to see them as a pairing.

 

[Silverhatch]

It’s JPvH that I fear losing most. What with the blessing/curse of getting POTS, I fear it’s almost inevitable that a club with a pedigree above our own comes in for him. I was delighted to hear that he had no plans to leave, but I suspect that position will be tested before the end of the transfer window.

Meaning no disrespect to Lewis, who’s clearly had to play through injury for parts of this season, JPvH has been incredible this year.

There are very few PSR compliant clubs that’ll be able to meet the Albion’s (internal) valuation of Van Hecke. The footballing ecosystem is a different beast currently and player representatives know that plenty of the big hitters are financially hamstrung (unless they ‘play’ the rules).

 

[singing4seagulls]

Interesting that many are going with Wieffer and Baleba in midfield. FH always goes with one of them this season and doesn’t seem to see them as a pairing.

Not sure if that's down to injuries and guiding a new player into a new team/league.

Since Matts has been getting regular starts, we've had Beleba as a centre back, or Matts has been at right back. Not had the chance to see them both in midfield yet.

We'll find out next season I guess.

 

[ricky marlowe fan club]

I don't think we'll be signing many players in the summer but I think they'll be a lot of churn with some loaned players gaining a squad place and some big, big sales. Mitoma to the Europa Cup winners, Pedro to Liverpool/Arsenal/Europa Cup winner/Chelsea, Adingra to Marseilles, Enciso to Atalanta/Napoli etc.

I suspect we'll start with something like this.

Players like Wieffer, Baleba, Kadıoğlu and Minteh could have massive seasons for us.

-------------------Verbruggen----------------------
New RB----JPvH-----------Webster----Estupiñán
------------Wieffer-----------Baleba---------------
Minteh------------Georginio-------------Kadıoğlu
---------------------Welbeck-----------------------

Rest of squad:

Steele
McGill
Veltman
Igor
Dunk
New CB
Buonanotte
Tzimas
Yalcouyé
Gomez
Hinshelwood
Ayari
O'Riley
Gruda
March
Osman

Sold:
Pedro
Mitoma
Enciso
Adingra
Sima
Barco
Sarmiento
Moran

Loaned:
Ferguson
Watson
Cozier-Duberry
Scherpen
Doyle

Edits:
Rushworth
Beadle
Do-Young
Cashin

Released - end of contract:
Offiah
Lamptey
Duffus

Retired:
Milner

Still missing , Jackson, O,Mahoney, Vickers, Cahill, Flower, Barrington, and Chouchane , Any others?

 

[North Carolina Supporter]

-------------------Verbruggen-----------------
Veltman —- - JPvH-----Webster---Estupiñán
-----------Baleba---------Ayari———-
Minteh------------Georginio-------- Mitoma —————— Joao Pedro ———————

Rest of squad:
Hinshelwood
Ferdi
Weiffer
Dunk
Rushworth/McGill ?
Buonanotte
Yalcouyé
Gomez
O'Riley
Gruda
Osman

Sold:
Igor
Enciso
Adingra
Sima
Barco
Sarmiento
Moran
Steele

Loaned:
Ferguson
Tzimas
Watson
Cozier-Duberry
Scherpen
Doyle
Beadle
Do-Young
Cashin
Duffus
Offiah
Lamptey?

Retired:
Milner (overdue)
March (sadly)

 

[Hugo Rune]

Still missing , Jackson, O,Mahoney, Vickers, Cahill, Flower, Barrington, and Chouchane , Any others?

They'll be a few more. Difficult to keep tabs on the enormous amount of playing staff!

 

[Machiavelli]

This despite the fact that he has played 24,27,37,37 and 35 games so far in the last 5 seasons, his best run in the whole of his career.

Who makes this bollox up, and worse still, what idiots believe it

*edit* I was only quoting league matches, I've now added the cups

It's not just believing it. It's also confidently trotting it out on a public forum. I've lost the will to try and explain what constituted the turning point in Welbeck's fitness/appearance because those that need to read it won't bother.

 

[Machiavelli]

The club is going to have some surprises in place for us this summer as they always do.

That said, I think the summer is more about which of our existing players can we get to sign a new improved deal than how many new players can we get in the door. For example, I think Lamptey will sign on for another few years.

If we can do a deal with at least one of Van Hecke and Baleba along the lines of, "sign on till 2030, you'll be right up with our top wage earners and if anyone offers £60m+ you'll be free to go" I think we'll have done well.

We'll need full backs on both sides. I really think we need to see what is happening with Kadioglu. The way this is going, is he even going to be fit for the start of pre season?

FH said a few weeks back that he could potentially play this season so, on that basis, I'd say that pre-season will be fine.

 

[Withdean South Stand]

Beadle
Kadioglu
Van Hecke
Dunk
Estupinan
Hinshelwood
Baleba
Minteh
Rutter
Sancho
Welbeck

I think we'll have sold Verbruggen and Rushworth to freshen up our GK options, for starters. I also suspect we'll sell Mitoma and Joao Pedro's as good as gone. I would like to see Bounnanotte given his chance to play, but I do suspect we're going to go out and sign an expensive winger. We were linked to Sancho before, I think we'll go get him.

 

[WATFORD zero]

With the squad we have when fit, I'm not sure that there is going to be much turnover at all.

Bart 22, Rushworth 23, Steele 34
Dunk 33, Webster 30, Van Hecke 24, Igor 27, Cashin 23
Veltman 33, Lamptey 24, Estupinian 27, Ferdi 25
Baleba 21, Weiffer 25, Hinshelwood 20, Ayari 21, Gomez 22
Mitoma 27, Adingra 23, Minteh 20, Gruda 20, Solly 30
Joao Pedro 23, Georginio 23, Welbeck 34, O'Riley 24,

A bit of experience in Steele, Dunk, Veltman and Danny, a few in their prime and a lot of youngsters getting better every season. I really can't see more than a couple of first team signings unless a few get sold which I'm hoping not. I really can't see 'a major rebuild' of any part of the squad.

And there's still Buonanotte, Enciso, Ferguson, Tzimas, Yalcouye, Osman, SIma, Sarmiento, Scherpen, Cozier-Duberry and Offiah finishing their loans.

I've now jinxed it so watch for over a dozen in and out

 

[Whoislloydy]

We 1000% need a new left footed CB. Webster had a handful of decent games before injury, but I still don't rate him.

 

[Diablo]

Hopefully Tony and his team will have a few surprises for us !!

 

[singing4seagulls]

We 1000% need a new left footed CB. Webster had a handful of decent games before injury, but I still don't rate him.

I rate him, but I do think he's still liable to the odd clanger.

Had a misplaced pass in the Wolves game which thankfully they didn't make anything of.

 

[Not Andy Naylor]

I'm glad I don't have to sort out the imbalance in our squad. We're overloaded with wingers and number 10s but thin elsewhere, as the injury situation has shown this season. The main dilemma is keeping Gruda/Gomez/O'Riley/Ayari/Buonanotte all involved and happy while bringing Yalcouye back from Graz and maybe giving Harry Howell some game time. But we badly need more pace at the back, and nobody I know thinks Cashin is the answer. So can we not buy any more wingers or number 10s until we've addressed that?

Sell:

Verbruggen if the rumours of big-money offers are true. We've got two or three worthy replacements. Mitoma wants to play in the Champions League, which is why he turned down the Saudi offer. Adingra needs to be playing every week somewhere, but I don't think it will be here. Joao Pedro is an asset that may start to depreciate if we don't cash in.

Keep:

Enciso has never had a defined role with us, but he has shown that he can play the Mitoma position. Ferguson was the most promising young number nine in Europe. I simply refuse to believe that he has gone so far backwards. Play him.

Buy:

A central defender with pace. That has been our weakness for a number of seasons.

 

[Mustafa II]

Mitoma's not going anywhere. He's Japanese.

 

[Jam The Man]

Not sure whether it’ll make a difference or not, but I believe Mitoma is having a mansion built in Hove for him, his family and staff.

 

[brighton_tom]

The thing that excites me for next season is that with the current players as a base, you can add a couple of the injured players returning that will almost feel like new signings (Kadioglu, Georginio, Solly), and then top that up with the best of the current loaned players (Pick a few from Yalcouye, Tzimas, Buanonotte, Enciso, Osman, Ferguson, Beadle etc)... meaning without even spending any money our strength in depth will be insane. With Fab a year into the job, and inevitably a few defensive recruits, we could be looking at the basis for something very exciting!

 

[Hugo Rune]

Keep:

Enciso has never had a defined role with us, but he has shown that he can play the Mitoma position. Ferguson was the most promising young number nine in Europe. I simply refuse to believe that he has gone so far backwards. Play him.

My pal is a Brentford fan and went to the Ipswich game. He told me that Enciso was the best player on the pitch at left wing and was virtually unplayable. Kayode, their right back, was meant to be marauding down the Brentford right but he had more than his hands full trying to deal with Enciso, his attacking game was nullified.

He could not believe it when I told him that we were probably selling him because he won't sign a contract extension.

 

[BluesRockDJ]

Jesus can we finish this Season first

Absolutely !!