Assuming no-one comes in, I’d bet on the trio of Jones, MacAllister and Szoboszlai as our regular starting trio, complemented with Bajcetic, Elliot and Thiago. If Thiago can be fit before the start of the season, then he’ll come in and take one of the three available places.
As long as everyone is fit, we’d probably do ok with that (good enough for a top four place, that is), but I for one would prefer to see Elliot among the attackers rather than in midfield, and if one or two important players get injured (Jones, one of the two new lads), then shit will hit the fan again I’m afraid.
But I’m 100% sure that something will happen between now and September first.
I don’t think Southampton will get nervy. I think this is just some wishful thinking by some of our fans.
They have raised plenty of cash this window from other sales and as far as I am aware are not in need of additional money this window.
Lavia’s fee last summer was relatively small (around £12m) as was his ‘replacement’s’ so they will profit from it one way or another.
Good chance they bounce back to the premier league this season, so it is unlikely his ‘value’/ price will drop that significantly this year, if at all.
It’s win win for Southampton, and I don’t see much pressure for them either, with Lavia.
Keep the player? Great. He can help us get promoted back to the Prem.
Sell the player? Would rather not, but if so, this is the price.
If we are to sign Lavia this window, we will need to hit their price, or get very close, within a few million.
My take on the situation (maybe it’s just a hope) is that we are in for a bigger fish, preferable to Lavia, which is why we haven’t closed the deal on Lavia yet. There may be complicating factors around the bigger fish - tougher to prise away from the club, or maybe other factors need to align to make the deal possible?
If it ends up being Lavia or no other option this window, I think we will close the deal on Lavia asap.
I won’t go too far into that question in this thread, but I’d like to see him in a supporting role of the strikers. When playing as an out-and-out midfielder, he gets easily outmuscled.
Hopefully he’ll prove me wrong this season if Kloppo plays him in midfield again.
I like Elliot to come on and play mid against the teams that park the bus, from the start or as a sub. Probably not against the top teams that will give some back to us. Maybe he’ll change that this year and grow into more of a two way player. But I don’t think he’s a winger, he’s definitely a mid. If you take him out of midfield, we have only 5 senior midfield players going into the season.
Liverpool’s 14th bid of approx. £49.5m bid expected to be rejected by Southampton…it is assumed Liverpool will finally have got the message Southampton will NOT accept anything less than their £50m valuation.
I am very rarely in the buy more players camp, but I just don’t see waiting until Jan as a viable option, not least because it is pretty apparent we didnt expect both Hendo and Fabs to leave so currently have a gap we weren’t planning for.
Also, I know we all hate the Twitter in the know bollocks but this guy has consistently been out ahead of every single person on this. 19 hours before anyone reliable reported it this time. Each and every bid he’s called well before it’s been in the mainstream.
so we probably bid something between 38-41 million with the rest in addons…can’t make this shit up honestly…what are the talks for??? we know what they want…
If anyone has been following the pursuits of the likes of Declan Rice this summer then this doesn’t seem overly surprising. Teams are playing hard-ball because they themselves know their replacements are going to be expensive.
It’s like trying to buy a house right now - everyone’s prices are raised because they know everyone elses prices are raised.
Fact we have made three bids clearly shows we are keen on him and the gap between the valuations is now fairly small. I expect we get this done with a bid equivalent to 50m but with a chunk of it coming from add-ons that won’t be activated this season.
Liverpool clearly see themselves as having time to negotiate. They are not rushing to get Lavia in before the start of the season,
