It's easy to look at the older players in the squad like McGoldrick, Basham and Sharp and think they are the immediate priority to look to move on - all been terrific servants, all made great contributions to our success. But we know their best days are behind them.
However, I don't think they are the immediate problem. They could still make useful contributions in a much better squad than we currently have. I think we are now simply paying the price for pretty poor recruitment in the previous two campaigns. Berge, McBurnie and Brewster all cost a combined £67m, and now we would struggle to get £10m combined for all three of them. Mousset made a decent contribution in his first season, but the fact he never does 90 minutes makes him unreliable.
It's now clear Jokanovic was never going to work well as our manager under these conditions. Right man, wrong situation. With Heckingbottom, someone who will galvanise and motivate, the owners are now simply hoping for a minor miracle that he can get the best from a squad where:
- its core is past its best - Basham, Sharp, McGoldrick, Stevens
- the expensive signings have lost us money and failed to deliver on the pitch - Berge, Brewster, McBurnie
- the rest of the squad around them simply average - Robinson, Norwood, Burke, Freeman,
We are in a situation where we haven't got much to sell (other than N'Diaye), and we can't really afford to buy. The situation here won't begin to be sorted until we can clear some of these players out, but it won't happen in one or two transfer windows. Even then, we just have to hope we recruit better. Not every signing will come off, but most of them have to to have a chance of success. I just hope we have a decent strategy for when the opportunity to do it comes.