This will be a very decisive summer in terms of the future of our club. I think this summers events are very much interdependent. For example: new board/fresh money coming into the club = Hughton, crucially, will probably stay = our key players will stay = we will put in a strong bid for automatic promotion without the hinderances the Europa League brought us.
No money comes into the club = Hughton will probably go = most of the best players will go = a midtable finish at best.
I'd like to run through the spine of the team and think, with you, about who will stay and who will go:
In goal
Ben Foster will go to Baggies, if not Tottenham. He has to go to a Premiership club, at 29, these are the best years for any goalkeeper. He will leave and hopefully we can get a strong £5 million for him. I'm not utterly convinced about Boaz Myhill in goal for us. He made a lot of mistakes at the start of the season that had cost us points. If we can get some more money into the club, I'd be hoping to get a better quality goalkeeper to replace him. Don't spose Joe Hart's struggling to get a game at Man City is he?
Defence
Curtis Davies and Steven Caldwell are two very solid centre-backs, and, now they've had a year to gel together, could become key members of our Championship campaign next season. Davies might want to leave if a Premiership club comes in for him. You'd hope to get a good £4 million for him. I'd be happy if we could keep David Murphy at left back, he's scored a few goals last season and gets forward a lot. At right-back, I don't know when Stephen Carr is coming back from injury. He's certainly aging at 35, if Peter Ramage doesn't stay with us we'll need to get some cover for Carr anyway.
Midfield
Chris Burke. My favourite player at the club. I would even have him in my team ahead of Sebastien Larsson, who's now at Sunderland on the right-wing. Burke can beat fullbacks with ease, and it is very entertaining to watch as fans. He's our Ronaldo. If he leaves the club, it would have to be for £4 million at least. On the left-wing, I'm hoping that we can keep hold of Andros Townsend. I'm a massive fan of Nathan Redmond, but he plays best when he isn't bombarded with games. In the Championship, the games come at you like a cannon, Saturday, Tuesday, Saturday, Tuesday. Redmond's pace will never be as effective if he plays all of those. We need a good left winger to rotate Redmond with. In the centre of midfield, I think Keith Fahey is quite underrated by our fans. He works incredibly hard and is the man who links up play and is always in space and always has time on the ball. As well as that, Jordan Mutch has played incredibly well and with the influence of Hughton to encourage him to get forward more and hit shots, he's played well.
Attack
Marlon King has scored 18 goals for us this season- almost a goal in two games. An exceptional job. I did wonder about signing Marlon King in the summer- I wondered if he was a replacement for Lee Bowyer. But he's scored goals and that's what's going to change any fans minds- it's certainly changed mine. Nikola Zigic has had a disappointing season. I thought that in the Championship he'd be hitting them left right and centre, when he in fact scored more than half the goals he scored in the season (7 goals), when he scored 4 goals away at Leeds United. Whenever he's played, it's almost been like his height has been more of a hinderance. The fact that he's so tall means it takes longer for him to get his shot off because his head is saying: 'okay, shoot', by the time his leg moves the ball has gone. He playes like a partially-sighted, disabled 6-year-old. And we payed a record £7 million for him? Whilst I kind of want him to score, because I'm in contact with him on Facebook- he's a nice guy, but just not good enough. Sorry, Nikola!
The most crucial thing, is that we can keep Chris Hughton as manager. Only he can rebuild this team into a serious promotion contender with hardly any money to spend. If that is possible at all, only Chris Hughton can do that. He has to stay.
