I wasn’t dragging Curtis.
I was dragging the rest of the CM.
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I made a footballing case above for signing Caicedo.
At some point the money obviously comes into it, too. If the price for Caicedo is silly, and the price for MacAllister is reasonable, it tilts things the other way.
I like that there are lots of permutations around our midfield, both with who we might sign, and the emergence of our excellent younger midfielders, and also a second glance at Fabinho, which tells me he still has life in him.
It protects us from having to be locked in on one solution.
My hope is we do our business early and have a good preseason. If we start next season hungry and prepared, like we are chasing it again, rather than in a funk after just missing out in the quad, then I expect good things.
I hardly think anything that has happened in the last few games will change anything that we were planning to do in the summer - who we were keeping and who we were selling.
As for who we’re buying, unless there’s some issue that stems from us finishing 4th or 5th, then I doubt that will change either.
And if that’s personal issue rather than a contractual one, then we probably don’t want that player.
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If it was flipped the other way perhaps.
But we’ve hardly looked like qualifying for the CL all season, it’s only come into focus due to a number of results going our way and a rather excellent run.
I have no doubt those we’ve approached knew it was almost impossible and now see it as unlikely still.
Problem is you could go Man Utd or Newcastle or even Arsenal this summer. Doesn’t much guarantee you’ll play in it every season which is what we’ve done since 17 going to the final three times.
If you were saying I want to play CL most seasons you’d head here. Which is what I assume a player would say.
Might help a bit more if Brighton miss out on Europa but then that would mean Villa or Spurs and I don’t mind Villa but Spurs no.
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They can afford to play hardball with one. I think their pitch to players is you play fair with us and we’ll play fair with you. We know where we are in the pecking order, and we’ll help you get your your move when it comes. But don’t take the piss.
I reckon it’s a done deal, will be announced when the season ends.
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I’m feeling the same.
The fact that both Mac and Caicedo signed contract extensions both at some point this season, makes me think that Brighton probably wants (or agreed to) a conclusion relatively early this summer. Plus, Zerbi’s comments post-Arsenal. So they can shift to preparing their next season, because they’re a pretty small squad even with them two in right now, let alone when they sell a few players. Europe possible next season, they are already active with a few incoming ones.
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This seems like a significant over reaction to what he did.
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Don’t they have a group of young players out on loan that they are looking to bring into the squad this season? I think I read that MacAllister was on loan for a couple of years before getting his run in the team, he wasn’t just brought in straight away and that they have someone standing by to replace him already)
He was signed pretty young from Argentina, but stayed there another few years on a series of loans before making it over to England. Technically he was a Brighton player when he made his Argentina debut, he just wouldnt actually play for them for about another 18 months.
Caicedo was similar.
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They know we’re not going to have a season like this next year, at most they’ll have to wait one year of a 3-4 year contract to play in the CL. They know our rich European history, both all-time and recent.
Would it be SUCH a deal-breaker then? To play for LFC? Under Klopp?
If so then they are myopic idiots and can fuck right off
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Moder should be fit for next season, he can plug back into midfield.
As for loanees they could look to bring back - Simon Adingra is doing well for Union SG. Kacper Kozlowski is an 18 year old CM starting regularly in Eredivisie. Michal Karbownik is a Polish LB who has played a decent ampunt for Dusseldorf. Steven Alzate has actually done quite well for Standard Liege. Andi Zeqiri is a regular goalscorer for Basel. Haydon Roberts may take the “Levi Colwill role” after doing well for Derby and they may already have their GK replacement in Kjell Scherpen who they got off Ajax a couple pf years ago and is currently the #1 for Vitesse.
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This has a Mascherano vibe.
Could not agree more, perhaps those can sign for Feyenoord who play in the Mickey Mouse competition away games often played on plactic turf but hey, they play a few matches in the CL …
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https://twitter.com/pedrogva6/status/1659202683377709057?s=20
Anyone any idea if this is someone worth paying attention to or just the usual Twitter nonsense?
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If it’s not Paul Joyce, then not worth paying attention to.
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If it ain’t Paul Joyce
Ain’t no grounds to rejoice
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That picture looks fake, or he’s got a long neck.
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I recognise the name but can’t remember if he is on the bullshitter’s list or the relatively reliable one… 
I would say though that it would seem to be very odd for a deal to have been agreed now - I would have thought it would either have been some time ago or at the end of the season once the final crunch games are out of the way…
More I read his thread, the more ‘bullshitter list’ comes to mind
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