How many players do we need?Updated: July 26th, 2007
With only 17 outfield first-team players currently under contract, I thought I’d look at how many players we need before we have the depth of squad to match Premiership rivals.
Firstly, here’s the squad as it currently stands (Ball and Weaver have been excluded as both are now out of contract):
The second table shows how many outfield players were used in the 2006/07 Premiership season. Figures are compiled using information from PremierSoccerStats and Soccerbase.
I should stress that this is not a precise guide. The figures include players who were sold in the January transfer window and replaced with new signings. In City’s case, two players left mid-season (Reyna and Thatcher) and two were brought in (Ball and Mpenza), meaning we effectively used 23 outfield players last season - six more than we currently have.
But with Dabo looking unsettled, Corradi again tipped to return to Italy and Danny Mills unlikely to figure at Eastlands again, we might well need nine new signings before the start of the season just to return to the depth of squad we had last year.
More Lego creations
You’ve probably already seen Gary Standford’s amazing Lego Maine Road, but here’s an even more impressive Lego stadium.
Staying on the plastic brick theme, here’s a breathtakingly detailed Lego aircraft carrier, a video of a working Lego factory and photos of the 10 strangest Lego creations.
Returning to things plastic and City (and I don’t mean Noel Gallagher), here’s a pretty impressive City subbuteo collection and a rather odd-looking subbuteo Maine Road.