Our 6 loan players

[Statto]

Areola - PSG - £6-8m
Aina - Torino - £10m
Andersen - Lyon - £25-35m
Lemina - Southampton - £6m
Loftus-Cheek - Chelsea - £20-30m
Lookman - RB Leipzig - £20m
Maja - Bordeaux - £10m

The above is what I estimate keeping what we have would cost- on top estimates it would cost: £119m.

I think Mitrovic would leave for £25m and some other fridge players and people out on loan- call it other £5-7m- let's call it £30m in.

Which will mean out next spend will be: £89m. If you keep in mind we didn't 'really' spend this year then we should certainly be able to afford it if we stay up. I remember Aston Villa spent big when they came up and then spent big the following summer as well.

We need to retain what we have, and buy several more players in the forward positions. I'd imagine it will be loans and maybe a big ticket striker

If we pay £20-30m for RLC we're getting our trousers pulled down and done rigorously. Walk away at that price please.

We already need a winger and a striker. If Mitrovic goes then that's a third new forward we need and they cost £20m each. Sorry but I'd rather keep Mitrovic, probably one of our top 5 strikers of all time, than offload him just because he's off form and let TK spunk a fortune on some random name from Belgium.

Offloading the dead wood will make a huge difference. With Seri, MLM, Mawson, Fabri and Knockaert we have £50-60m in fees amortising in the accounts and just selling them for their book value (probably about a quarter of what we paid for them) we free up budget for that much spending again.

[Tabby]

More to the point as to what the issue with RLC would be is that he is on a very high wage, simlar to Areola (which is about double what any of our other players are on). I can see Areola being willing to take a paycut, and there is an argument to be made to have him as our highest paid player. But with RLC he isn't a stand out player as of now and I doubt he'd be as willing to drop his wages.

[WindyCity]

It's worth bearing a couple of things in mind.
1) There's a stat recorded on FBref.com that measures the amount of passes each player makes that lead to a shot within the next two actions.
For example, if Lookman passes to Maja and he shoots, then that counts as a Shot-creating action. If Lookman passes to Aina who then crosses for Maja who has a shot, that would also count as a Shot-creating action for Lookman (as well as Aina).
Lookman is ranked 1st in the squad for passes in live-play that lead to a shot attempt. While I agree he can be greedy at times, he's also doing more than his fair share going forward to create shots for others.
2) He's only 23 and competing at a very good level (younger than Aina, Onomah and Robinson and arguable better then all 3 of those). He will improve.

Nice to know this information, was not aware.  All fair points, but I would also add ranking first in THIS squad in this regard is not particularly noteworthy as FFC offense is one of the worst in the league and we have very hard time scoring goals.  Very few shot attempts in general, and certainly very few shot attempts that actually are on net or would give the net minder any trouble.  Not trying to be overly critical or harsh, it's just that FFC needs to find a stronger attack next season on the premise we remain top flight.

Your point that he is still very young is a good one and would likely be considered in the equation.