Written by Dave Askew

With just a handful of games left in the season, I thought it worthwhile to select some unexpected and potential player targets from the current bottom three teams. These players would both boost our squad and not break our bank.

Obviously there is still room for other teams, including us, to join the bottom three, but as a snapshot in time this would be my preferred choices:

West Bromwich Albion
Foster GK
Nyom RB
Hegazi CB
Rondon CF

Southampton
Yoshida CB
Ward-Prowse CM
Hojbjerg CDM

Stoke
Bauer RB
Choupo-moting CAM
Allen CDM

Urgently require RB and CDM, so top picks would be Nyom/Bauer and Allen/Hojberg.

Assuming James Collins departs, which we sadly all foresee, then either of Hegazi/Yoshida would be good additions. Yes Declan Rice is beginning to blossom but Reid is also becoming somewhat injury-prone.

Now I fully understand there will be cries of not good enough etc but some of these are the crafty picks particularly Mauritz Bauer and Maya Yoshida. Solid performers and genuinely under-valued in my opinion.

We can all pick Butland, Evans and Redmond but they’ll be at a premium. I do also genuinely appreciate the need for top drawer additions, but that’s a topic for another column.

Hopefully this topic starts some conversations!

David Askew
LA correspondent
And yes I do get up very early to watch the games!
COYI