Alemany basically denying we're in for him. Really hope that's true. Ferran was a good pick up for a decent price, and hopefully also a great investment in our future considering his age. Not to mention he's Spanish and should fit in right from the get go and hopefully only get better, considering his already existing chemistry with the core of our future team in Fati, Pedri, Gavi. But now Xavi needs to calm down and stop trying to fully recreate the Spain national team. Agree with Neeraj. If all goes well, we will have pretty much every player back until the end of January, and in that case we can make do with the likes of Depay and Braithwaite until the summer, whose grit and determination have truly never been questioned, so I imagine Xavi will like him for that alone, at least as a sub until the summer, even if the quality isn't all there. So even if we get rid of Luuk in January (which we might not even do), we're still good until the end of this season. Just need to register Ferran and with the likes of Fati hopefully back for good, and Depay and Braithwaite, we are good to go, even if we go deep in the EL and the Copa. The only way I would maybe like for us to get another player now is, if Dembele leaves in January. But I don't think that's gonna happen, and I also don't think we're gonna put him on the stands if he stays, no matter how much he deserves it. But he could still be of use to us, even in this limited time. And look at it this way, we don't have to worry about him getting injured anymore.
Play him until he breaks (if he does, he maybe doesn't get to pick and choose his next club and if the injury is bad enough, he might even miss the World Cup, which would be our revenge, I guess). If by some miracle he does stay fit, he at least gives us 4 months of decent wing play and hopefully helps us win a trophy or two in the process, and leaves us on a positive note, at least on the sporting side, even if he is screwing us over financially wise. What we can't do though, is commit to someone like Morata right now, especially if we're really going all in for Haaland or Vlahovic any other world class #9 in just a few months, which I think we will be doing, especially if Dembele leaves. With Depay and Braitwaite and even Luuk still here, we don't need Morata for this season, and we absolutely shouldn't commit to him for more time. And if we manage to somehow get Haaland, we don't need more than Fati, Ferran, Abde and maybe another winger as the Dembele replacement to complement him going forward. Need to remember we still have Collado too, who I think Xavi will like for that RW spot next season. In case or should I say in order to get Haaland or any other world class striker, we'll actually need to make more room in our attack (and our wages) in the next few months, not the other way around. We need to be thinning our attack, not adding more just months before we go do that.
So if it was my choice, I'd actually sell Depay and Braithwaite in the summer too, that should raise 30M easy, that alone should also help finance Haaland (in this case take care of the Raiola commision, which we know we'll have to bite the bullet and pay too, if we really want him). Also getting rid of Dembele and sending Luuk back to Sevilla, combined with hopefully getting rid of useless players like Coutinho, Umtiti, Lenglet, will be enough to not only help us bulk up our transfer kitty, but more crucially considerably free up our wages too (which I imagine will still be the bigger problem this summer, considering we're getting transfer money from new sponsors and if we take another loan), so we can afford the wages of Haaland, and also afford to pay some real defensive reinforcements like Mazraoui, Gaya, Christensen, Azpilicueta too.
