[theo_luddite]

1) which players will be willing to stay and fight to get promoted back should we go down?
From the team yesterday
1 Lössl
33 Hadergjonaj
25 Jorgensen
26 Schindler - but I wouldn't be surprised to see him in a Premier League or Bundesliga 1 team
3 Malone
6 Hogg
10 Mooy The Blue Mancs have first dibs if he doesn't
23 Quaner
21 Pritchard
22 Ince
24 Mounie - he may go to a club that will give him more of the ball so he can do what he does best, score goals. He might not be first choice however depending on where he goes.

Substitutes
2 Smith
8 Billing
9 Kachunga
13 Coleman
15 Löwe
17 van La Parra Marmite this chap. Personally I don't think we'd miss him. All professionals in any sport have ego's but this one is too big for his own boots in my opinion. Had we not hired the backroom chap from Wolves I doubt we'd have signed him in the first place. Yes he can run the ball out of defence and cause fullback's some problems but there isn't a centre back in the League that doesn't know his crosses will mostly be average, if he hasn't thrown himself to the floor at the first sign of a tackle.
20 Depoitre - might get a loan to a top division club elsewhere in Europe

Regarding the rest -
Green has been well paid not to play, I doubt he'll be playing next season either unless he fancies lower league wages.
Kongolo - won't sign permanently unless we stay up, he'll be elsewhere, he's good enough
Williams - he'll still be around for at least the first half of the season
Scanz - would like to see him still playing for Town. Might depend on who's managing us.
Payne - might be sold on at a profit
Hiwula - will we loan him out again or give him a chance? Tbh, I've forgotten whether he's still ours or not.


2) if we stay up how much are we going to be spending to improve the quality
I'd say most of this season's £100m will have been spent on transfer fees (or will have been allocated depending on the terms) and wages. Thanks to the stupid money spent by a certain French Club on a lad they bought from Spain, transfer asking fees suddenly doubled overnight. We did our business early and got what looked like reasonable quality. We'll have to spend double that next season for similar quality, but then, we don't necesssarily need to replace half the squad like we did when we came up (10, 11, 12 signings this season whether you count the loans that became permanent or not?). If we get any silly money offers for some players we'd be daft not to consider it and use it to bring in some that are a bit better than we have now.

3) if wagner leaves who's going to replace him, both if we stay up or if we go down.
Staying up? A lot could depend on who goes down. Of the current British managers who may or may not be available, Sparky Hughes, yes I know what I said above. He might however get a longer term from Sarfampton if he keeps them up. Of the foreign breed, possibly someone from a German or Spanish 2nd Division club or an up and coming coach from one of the top ones looking for his first break. We should know enough about British talent (I do wonder??) so someone that knows players in European Leagues again wouldn't hurt. No, I don't know any names. There might also be a former England Manager and Town player looking for a job in the Summer, know what I mean wack? Football wouldn't be very pretty though but he'd make us more effective against the top 6/7.
Going Down? We could do a lot worse than the lad at Wigan. He's a former Wigan player though, so that will still have some pull playing in the same Division, assuming they come up.

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PS - I believe it was Newcastle that wanted Depoitre, but because the Fat Spanish Waiter had an already bloated and overpaid squad, in his words - they couldn't compete with the wages we were offering.