I’m guessing that despite whatever people think about the certainty (or lack thereof) that Núñez and Jota will be first out of the door, I’m thinking to the club they’re weighing up the offers they receive and seeing what options they have available on the market. Díaz might well leave if we can realise more money (above our valuation) for him than for Núñez, and that leaves us the flexibility to bring in another forward whether on the wing or in the middle if Chiesa stays.
All complete guesswork, however. I’ll wait to see where we’re at when the transfer window SLAMS SHUT.
Right, those guys might not leave, but that doesnt derisk the situation because none of those 3 have made cases for themselves on why they should be playing. It still leaves us in a situation where we’ve lost one of most reliable performers and having no option but to put responsibility to replace him on someone who has not demonstrated they can carry it.
To be fair, prior to this season, I don’t think many would have put him in that category of “reliable performer”, no? I remember many saying that his second half of 2023-24 was just a purple patch.
I dont know. I feel like there is a weird vibe around Diaz where he’s been acknowledged as important through his entire 3+ year time here while simultaneously at any point in time we could see criticisms of him of his form only being a purple patch and he isnt reliable enough. It’s kind of like Mo being a one season wonder still 5 years into his liverpool career.
Diaz has been very good for all his time with us. Would prefer him to stay. But I do think Gakpo can nail down the LW position.
I guess it depends on the bigger picture. If we use Diaz funds to help get Wirtz plus a striker that could be great. However, if we sell Diaz and Darwin is still hanging around next year then not so good
I think our interest in a striker is pretty much a guarantee that Nunez is the attacking player that leaves, especially with the interest from Napoli and the Saudis.
With Diaz and Jota having 2 years left on their contracts, we can either renew, keep them for another year and risk losing them for nothing if they want a final payday, or cash in now. It’s really tough, as we don’t know whether Jota just needs a pre-season to get back up to scratch, or if his body has caught up with him. There’s talks of the Saudis looking at him as well, so we could end up in a situation where we receive such mouthwatering offers for all three of them, and we’ve seen under Klopp with the midfield, that the club isn’t afraid to overhaul an area of the pitch in one summer.
It wouldn’t be a complete surprise if Nunez, Diaz, Jota and Chiesa were all sold. It seems a lot, but you make a good point about the club not being afraid to overhaul an area of the pitch in one summer.
If the departures up front run that deep, I could see three incoming, with Danns providing a sixth option, as Slot seems to like 6 forwards.
It seems silly to even talk like this, but this summer almost anything seems plausible.
We overhauled the midfield because of its collective failure that contributed to the worst full season we had under Klopp. We just won the league last year. There is no parallel to draw.
Obviously he didn’t use them all, or rate them all equally, but that’s a group of six forwards that we carried in the first team squad under Slot’s one season so far.
Edit
With the advent of 5 subs I think retaining lots of attacking options is the way forward, FWIW. At almost any given point someone will be off form or carrying a knock, but you still have lots of firepower, both on the pitch and on the bench, ready to come in as needed.
So this summer we’d be shopping for four new forwards, two new full backs, possibly a centre back and hopefully a midfielder too. Plus the new goal keeper from last summer arriving to boot.
Seems like a huge turnover of a league winning squad. Just can’t see us ripping it up that much. I wouldn’t be letting either Diaz or Jota go unless the bid was beyond eye watering. And I don’t buy for a second that Barca have €85m to spend on Diaz anyway.
I will hop into the Mikey Edwards thread at some point to take a stab at it, but I’m thinking we might make five signings (on top of Mamardashvili) and then sell seven or eight.
I’m thinking two full backs and two forwards will be the bulk of the business we do. A fifth signing could go to midfield or central defence, depending on how it all pans out.
If we do more than five and they are all hits, Hughes might need a statue.
But you couldn’t sell four forwards and only buy two, surely? Not with Mo being 32 and gone for the AFCON in January.
I can see us doing a decent bit of business and a surprise name like a Gomez or Elliott going along with the likes of Nunez, Tsimikas, Trent and probably Chiesa.
But that’ll mean full backs and a CF (maybe we think that’s Wirtz) are top priorities. Once you’ve addressed that I think you’re on one out, one in for senior players bar Kelleher whose replacement is already on his way.
If you’re counting the likes of Doak and Morton then yeah, we could easily make eight sales.
If we sold four I’d buy three forwards. That’s IF we sold four.
My expectation is we won’t sell that many, so we will buy two forwards, two fullbacks, and one other player, either midfielder or central defender, depending on how the chips fall with various other players.
Five signings is my best guess, but it’s going to be a mad summer where the possible permutations for incoming and outgoing are greater than any other time I can remember.