In a very unpleasant moment, the horrible thought (headline above) just occurred to me.... My thinking:
£35m on just 1 player? What about the others we need - LB especially? We only got 26 odd milllion for players who have been sold, so there's a big shortfall - especially if we are to buy a LB...and reserve striker....all which, I suspect, would be funded by the sale of Rice....It is the only scenario that seems to make sense.... What do you reckon?
I HOPE I'M WRONG!
Rice has become SO good, he's basically been doing the job of 2 midfielders IMO = all the way across the defensive midfield (left, right and centre)....in that, if you wanted to find a replacement, it would probably need 2 midfield players.... Yes?
IE At the end of last season, with Rice, I think we were basically able to play 4-1 (= Rice) - 4 (= Fornals, Soucek, Noble, Bowen) - 1 (= Antonio/Haller).
This allowed us to be very attack minded, and we scored pot-fulls of goals.
HOWEVER, without Rice we'd need to be, say, 4-2 (= Cullen Soucek) - 3 (= Fornals/Anderson, Noble/Lanzini, Bowen/Yarmolenko - 1 (= Haller/ Antonio)
= Far less attack minded, and could cost us at both ends: Continuing to let in goals but not scoring as many....Oooh dear; NOT good!
So Rice leaving could well turnout to be disastrous.
And, could Cullen step up to the plate now? He's been v impressive, but good enough for the Prem? As such, I do have quite high hopes for him; Cullen could turn out to be a revelation...but not likely to be as good as Rice, eh?
I also do have high hopes for Johnson. I think Johnson's woeful performance v Bournemouth was a protest at Grady going. He was impressive again v Charlton
No good crying over spilt milk, BUT I wish we'd not sold Grady, and struggled on by scoring more goals than we concede this season, and then looking to re-enforce the defence next summer. Agree? ....(Too late now of course.... Grrrrr!)
Well, what do you reckon on that little lot, folks?