Relegation players (England, Italy)

Taking a look at players currently at Burnley, Leeds, Cagliari and Salernitana, given one from each league will be dropping in to their respective second tier.

Burnley: Dwight McNeil, Nick Pope, James Tarkowski, Maxwell Cornet, Wout Weghorst

Tarkowski is out of contract, so he'll be gone either way. McNeil is a guy who needs the right coach and fit. I mean, that's the case for many players, but he has a unique skillset and physical profile that needs to be nurtured properly. I don't really rate Cornet. Another guy who can kinda dribble and has pace but mostly useless in important situations. Weghorst could also be quite handy as a target man on a good team; not the first option but kinda like Fernando Llorente was for Spurs. Pope is still good I suppose, as is Tark. Could be smart pickups for let's say Saints and Newcastle, respectively.

Leeds: Raphinha, Kalvin Phillips, Patrick Bamford, Illan Meslier, Diego Llorente, Pascal Struijk, Robin Koch

What's weird about Leeds is they have a number of good players. More than Burnley, for sure. The problem is that their purchases have been horrible outside of Raphinha. Koch and Llorente have had fitness issues since joining, and the defensive structure under Bielsa was a joke and left them out to dry. I have no idea of those two and Struijk are actually good or not. I know Llorente looked good and La Real and Koch made the Germany set up during his Freiburg days. All of Dan James, Jack Harrison, Rodrigo Moreno and Junior Firpo have been absolutely horrible for Leeds, and that's on Bielsa/Orta. Raphinha and Phillips will be snapped up, no question. Bamford has had injury issues, but one would assume he'd go to a better English club. I could see Meslier going to a half decent French club, a midtable PL club to be a starter, or Spurs to eventually take over for Lloris.

Cagliari: Joao Pedro, Alberto Grassi (loan from Parma), Razvan Marin, Nahitan Nández, Carboni, Zappa

This club, like Genoa, should not be in this position. There are so many bad teams in this league but for whatever reason certain ones haven't yet been punished. I still think Cagliari stay up, and they have a vastly superior squad to Salernitana. I'm not sure what's happened to Nández, but he's been anonymous this season. Joao Pedro is older but can score goals at this level. Carboni and Zappa are young defenders; probably would stick around in Serie B if that were to happen. Not sure what the deal is with Grassi, whether there's an option/obligation/nothing, and what would happen if the club went down. Marin was purchased by Ajax and his career has gone down the drain, which is sad. Must be a footballer somewhere in him.

Salernitana:

The reality is this club should've been down a month ago. Ribery has rarely been reliable in recent years and despite his absence and nothing from Simy the club has had a mini revival to go into the last matchday with hope of staying up. A number of players are old or on loan, so the pickings are slim.

Genoa: Andrea Cambiaso, Johan Vazquez, Manolo Portanova

Venezia: Gianluca Busio, Mattia Aramu

Watford: Joao Pedro, Ismaila Sarr, Imran Louza, Emmanuel Dennis, Cucho Hernandez

Norwich: Pierre Lees-Melou, Max Aarons

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The season's concluded. I'm happy with what happened. I wanted Leeds to stay up because they have better players, and I wanted Cagliari to go down because it's a trash club with racist fans.

Starting XI of relegated players:

Joao Pedro x2 + Cornet/McNeil

Busio Nández

Cambiaso Vazquez Tarkowski Carboni Zappa

Pope

I'm looking at it more from a "who can be picked up" perspective than that of a functional team. Part of me wonders how many of the players listed are even good. Such as McNeil. He's been underwhelming to say the least from an output perspective, but then again Burnley were really really bad and his role was to create, which IMO isn't his best trait. In a team that attacks and possesses the ball (Chelsea maybe), or at least uses it with purpose (Spurs), his delivery and ball carrying would be harnessed and used more effectively. One of the "similar players" on fbref is Anthony Gordon, and I think that's super accurate. Gordon has the raw talent and athleticism, but his decision making is suspect, just like McNeil. Playing in a negative system with mediocre teammates under questionable management sees this type of player stagnate.