Oriol Romeu is out for the season,

Michael Essien is hanging out with his old pal in sunny Spain,

John Obi Mikel will be taking a month long vacation to South Africa in February,

Josh McEachran has a 9-5 job up north,

and Mohammed Diame is available for £3 million.

He has the ability to fill the void in our midfield that requires a strong, physical player like Essien. His performances this season have earned him endless plaudits and is showing the same form that attracted the interest of clubs like Barcelona and Real Madrid, when he was just breaking out with Rayo Vallecano. His average rating on whoscored has been a 7.14 with passing accuracy a bit low at 82.5% but that is something that would inevitably increase when playing with better players.

Currently on a wage of £30k per week, we would likely be able to lure him to the bridge with a contract of £50k or less.

As an added bonus, Senegal did not qualify for AFCON so.

£50k per week and costing us only £3 million. 540k per year amortization on a 5.5 year contract with wages of 2.6 million per year. All up he would only cost us £3.14 million per year. A shrewd purchase like this would allow us to had important depth in our midfield, while not hindering any pursuit of a big target like Falcao.

Thoughts?