Maybe someone who isn’t overpriced from the Prem who can do a similar job? All those guys were at different clubs 1-2 years ago.
But we wouldn’t have approached them much earlier in the window as we had no idea Henderson and Fabinho were off.
I think that has thrown whatever plans we had well out the window. We’ve done the right thing in letting them go but it’s backed us into a corner now where we need one for sure, possibly two and that’s going to cost us. We might just need to bite the bullet a bit or play chicken and take things right down the wire if we’re steadfast on our valuations.
We made our opening bid for Lavia more than a week ago, and were probably in discussions before then. We made our approach for Andre a day or two ago with the window in Brazil closing yesterday.
Such as…?
Go look at the market of defensive midfielders and see who you think has the quality and experience we’re looking for that would be a better long term investment than Lavia. Oh and if he could be homegrown eligible that would be a massive bonus too.
The market for DMs is basically the elite and unattainable (Tchouameni, Fernandez, Rice, Caicedo) some alright ones (Sangare, Palhinha, Alvarez) and then a load of relatively inexperienced younger players or donkeys like Kalvin Phillips, Ndidi, Soucek.
There just aren’t a lot of good and attainable options available. It’s going to need us to take the kind of punt we’re not that keen on making but of all of them Lavia makes the most sense. And we’re already willing to pay upwards of £40m for him so we must be pretty convinced.
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Exactly. We’re waiting on the outgoings to be finalised before we can push ahead. We’re not going to want to commit funds to other deals with the risk of Fabinho or Henderson’s deals falling through. Given the time they took I think we were right to be cautious.
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Good post Rab,
Just to add on this , I know city buy all the best etc , but seriously what is going on with our academy? We have a few players etc were told are going to be phenomenal etc and then they are let go as they just aren’t as good as they are hyped up to be .
Some of those youngsters we have seen in this preseason have looked good, but can anyone honestly say we are going to be hearing about them in a few years ? Are any of them going to be the new talent were in a few years we get offers for their talent on the scale that the Bellingham’s of this world sell for ?
It’s a fickle world nowadays being a fan because people demand we pay £80 million for (insert latest hotshot from FM stats) …but would demand fsg out if klopp said "fuck that , we have an 18 year old who trust me makes Gerrard look like jwp "
Would love to see the youngsters break into the team on a regular basis as in the context we ain’t talking about playing them in league cup games or Europa games …but because we want them starting in premier league matches because they are awesome …I know it’s not going to happen the way I envisage it, but in an ideal world we don’t have to look for players we deem as ideal because they played 25 games in the Albanian first division with a name like Costa coffay…for £50 million.
When we have our own youngsters banging at the door on a regular basis.
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You’ve largely assumed that Klopp and his team think Lavia could become a £100m+ player. Maybe the hold up is that they aren’t that confident of it or don’t think he is worth what Southampton are asking.
If people knew that Bellingham would become a £100m player, don’t you think more people would have been after him before? If we hand out £40m+ to every high-upside player then we are going to be in a heck of a lot of trouble financially even if one eventually pans out.
At the same time, the same argument you are making could have been made to justify buying Thuram (taking that risk) rather than switching to buy Dom.
In the end it seemed like they valued Thuram at a certain price and Dom at another… and once they realized Thuram would exceed what they thought he was worth they went for someone at a different price category.
Well that’s for our scouting/recruitment guys to do but the matter of the fact was Doucoure and Palhinha were available last summer for around £20m…would anyone have suggested then they were good enough to play for us or what bracket would they have been put in here, the alright ones?.. Now they’re being quoted at the figures their clubs are valuation them at, who can complain? It’s not so much about what I or any of us think, ultimately we can only judge once we see them live in the flesh…HG I’m not so worried about, we have 5 in our squad, 2 out on loan, 3 who’ll be eligible from next season + we have 2 non-HG spots to fill if we want to.
What exactly are you basing your judgement there aren’t many good/available options out there on because from my take on last season, not based on what I saw but more the fans reaction, littered to the brim with “there’s hundreds of players out there who are upgrades on Fab and Hendo”, so…where have they all gone?
Right. But that isn’t really relevant to the point I’ve made.
The fee in Andre’s case is not being driven by the same factors as those in the premier league, so it is a little misleading to compare the prices being asked for Lavia and Andre in the way that you have.
Approaching Andre’s club a week earlier than we did would most likely have led to a much lower price being asked by them as they would have had more time to secure a replacement. We chose to move for Lavia instead, so it has little to do with whether we knew of or were waiting for the Heno/Fabinho deals to complete.
His club have also said if we want to do the deal for their end of season/ our winter window, we can do so for the lower fee.
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I’m a bit hesitant to start season with Jones in the #6 role, so would like to buy someone sooner than later.
We have Bajcetic and Thiago currently in squad that look like they could fill that role, and I’d not want Thiago to to play there full time, and not sure Bajcetic is ready to play week in week out after he’s healthy.
Add a few million to the bid and close this one, and i think there’s room for the south American kid in squad as well. We look pencil thin for #6 role currently.
I’m more inclined to think that Thuram was never a primary target.
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Lavia is in the squad for Southampton’s opening league game this weekend.
Most clubs were interested. The difference is Dortmund put their bid in and got it accepted. Most clubs got scared when they saw what Dortmund were willing to buy. We put a bid in, but he chose Dortmund as they presented a more clear route into the first team than what we offered.
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I don’t think based on the friendlies that Klopp has played anyone as a pure CDM. Even Jones who technically started as a 6, we see Mac and him interchanging that role throughout the game. Whether it’s effective or not is beside the matter but if that is the system Klopp wants to enforce in the coming season, means a pure CDM is not necessary and meaning there are alot more options out there of CMs who can interchange like Hendo and Gini used to do
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I think we did that because we don’t currently have a fit CDM with the team.
Before this, probably only Fabinho fits the definition of a specialist in DM role. Thiago and Bajcetic and Hendo were never as specialist and got forward quite often for a 6. It’s still possible we want to get a one to one replacement for Fabinho from a skillset perspective but there is also a reason why we are trying TAA as a 6 when we are attacking.
Prices have been ridiculous for ages, and just lately even more. So in the context of the crazy world of football finances, Lavia, for 50M (hopefully a bit less if we can) seems about right.
Athletic, strong, good in the tackle, fast, receives the ball well under pressure and gives it to a teammate (definitely not saying press resistant though 
) and he looks to pass quickly, off either foot, and even breaks the lines by surging past people.
Yes please. All day long.
The one mark against him is experience. But that’s probably why we are looking at 50 and not 100M right now.
Get it done asap, hopefully with one more bid, and move on. Thiago is the veteran midfielder in the pack, but apart from him the whole thing has turned in a youthful direction, with MacAllister the elder statesman after Thiago, at 24. Bring it on! Many of those lads are ballers, and there’s loads of talent there. They are on the up, and it is going to be a heck of a ride, and much more pleasurable than watching teams run through us at will, simply because we didn’t have any legs in there before.
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It could also be that we are just incredibly light in that position…
I went to main LFC site and looked through squad just to make sure I’m not forgetting anyone and it was jarring to only see 6 mids listed with the first team.
Sorry, I think my ramblings may have taken us away from the actual point I was trying to make.
We’re clearly very keen on Lavia. Keen to the tune of £40m+ bids.
If there was someone out there that the clever bods at the club thought offered us equal quality at better value then im sure we’d already be seeing some kind of moves in that direction.
Someone mentioned him being just a squad player and that being too much money. The point I was trying to make was who is out there ready made to step into the first team that is both of the quality, attainable and not going to cost us a whole heap more?
Most of those names I listed would have underwhelmed us last year and I say that as someone who was desperate for us to sign another midfielder last summer. The reason their value has shot up is that in the short term the risks those teams took look to have paid off. Same with the risk Southampton took on Lavia. Difference being Southampton are asking silly money and others are asking ridiculous money.
So if Lavia is the one you are most convinced of we’re at the point where we’ve really got to get that one done and accept that it’s worth paying the premium for the confidence that one season in the PL gives us versus a lower fee on any of those other names who’ve not yet played in the PL or have as little top level experience as Lavia does.
What we can’t do is end up with no one for the sake of sticking rigidly to a valution of Lavia that is within touching distance of what Southampton want. If there’s another option to move onto then great but no one seems to be able to point one out.
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question…why are we preparing another bid and why will it take a few days?
his manager has said he is in matchday squad as it stands. surely we dont want him playing this weekend
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