Some good points Trebor, it’s time for us all to take a deep breath. The cold hard fact is that we will be basically going with that team, give or take a player, every week. There’s no real game changer coming from the bench or outside the current squad. Like you say, the owners have gambled that the majority of this squad will be good enough to take us to the promised land,  and then will be discarded for players fit for the top level. Having seen us struggle in the last couple of games, I don’t think there’s even a handful that would thrive at Premier League level. At the moment it feels like we’re running an old car into the ground before taking it to the scrappers to be replaced by something new and shiny. Aaronson is a case in point. He’s never stopped running or trying, but from looking lightweight for most of the season,  he now looks beyond  flimsy and broken, both mentally and physically. There are other players currently struggling in different ways. The point I made about Solomon only ever hurting teams from central positions is looking more and more the case, his one moment of real quality came when he received the ball in the box and fired a shot off. The left side offensively has looked like a cul de sac the last couple of games. There’s nothing dynamic coming from midfield and we are relying solely on Dan James on the right for any kind of penetration. I still think there were 3 massive moments at 0-0 that ultimately changed the course of the game, the ridiculous decision by the ref not to award the penalty and obviously the 2 glaring misses from Piroe. On any other day you expect at least one of those to go our way and it’s a different game. Having said that, Piroe scores either of those chances and were not even talking about how bad the ref was.

Will the likes of Bamford, Meslier .etc now return to premiership wages?

they all will

Surely it will only apply to those players who were in the squad that was relegated from the premiership and had their salaries halved?  Surely those that joined this year will not get a doubling of their current deal?

nope. contracts will say we go up wages increase by, say, 20%. we go down your wages reduce by 20%.
standard contracts. incentives.
they also have a bonus for staying up.
not that either meslier or bamford could be here next year of course

What do we reckon for next season then with regards to incomings and outgoings ? 


Think we need at least 8 coming in if not more. 


Keeper
Left back
Centre back 
Centre mid x 2. 
Winger at least one if not 2. (Solomon plus one other)
A Number 10
A Number 9 maybe 2 of them 


Meslier goes as does Firpo. Possibly Bamford who I think has one year left. Joseph goes on loan. Ramazanni goes on loan. Not sure Gruev good enough at that level. 



Do we bring in Rothwell permanently for squad depth? 


Need to buy well and will need circa £150m