I've been pondering on the possible sale of Babel and the players we have been linked with, and what sort of qualities we need in new players to turn things around.
I think we clearly lack pace and power in the team...we are weak on set pieces at both ends of the pitch and could do with having more players in the team who are tall and powerful with good heading ability. Also, aside from Torres, we are desperately short of the ability to beat opponents with raw pace...we have one or two tricky players like Benayoun, but sometimes when our few genuinely creative players are not firing on all cylinders, we are crying out for a player we can just give the ball to and let him run at the defence like Lennon. This problem becomes especially apparent whenever Kuyt gets the ball and at best we keep possession by him passing it backwards and at worst we just lose possession...
Babel in his first season looked like he could be a world beater with a few more seasons under his belt, but he has had his chances and if anything has regressed badly since his first season, and his attitude is poor. But he is also one of the few players in the squad with genuine pace. If I could trust that the money for Babel would go towards a quality creative winger with pace to replace him, then I would be all for it...if on the other hand the money isn't going to be spent to make a genuine improvement, or is going to go straight into the pockets of the Americans, then Babel must stay.