We’re going to leave ourselves short by relying on players who have consistently shown they struggle for fitness or young players who aren’t fully ready. We’re already seeing square pegs in round holes and we’re only two games in.
Come the end of the window we’ll see Bayern refuse to budge on Gravenberch (or he goes to United) and we’ll decide it’s him or no one. No mention of the centre back that has been mooted all summer either.
Maybe next summer will be the big one. But with Matip and Thiago off at the end of their contracts and no other real sellable assets then we’ll be looking to replace two first team players with our usual and very modest net spend. Unless of course we decide to cash in on Mo…
I doubt we’ll buy him at all. Bayern have been pretty steadfast in their stance that he isn’t for sale. And if they change on that then he’s got his old manager at a club playing CL football sniffing around.
I can just see the scenario where we get the same stories of “lack of value in the market”, “we buy the right player or no one” or “we tried but he went elsewhere” again come the end of the window.
It’s not even about Gravenberch as such. He’s just the one we seem to have the strongest interest in. If it’s not him but is someone else then fine. But if we don’t do anymore business then we’ll have shot ourselves in the foot again.
To borrow a figure of speech, I think that there is smoke but I’m not sure that there will be fire when it comes to Liverpool’s interest in Gravenberch. They are probably monitoring him because they believe there might a chance to make an opportunistic transfer (young and talented player with decent experience, frozen out at his shiny new big club, relatively cheap).
Our priorities should lie elsewhere, though. I strongly doubt we’ll make more first team additions by the end of the window but if we can bring in just one player now, I’d prefer that player be a really good centre back. I’m not convinced by our midfield options just yet but there are rather strong options, which I don’t really see in our defence.
Valverde is more similar to jones or Elliot than gravenberch is as he has regularly started matches for Real Madrid as both right mid and wing where gravenberch has been mainly a Cm but has played Dm very occasionally
We are in a position where we only have one non-homegrown spot left in the squad unless someone else leaves. If we were to do a midfielder and a centre back then one of them needs to be either homegrown (and therefore likely very expensive) or considered an under-21 for this season.
Gravenberch would be classed as the latter which may add to his appeal and enable us to get someone like Arthur Theate too. If it were me I’d sort centre back and get someone more experienced there and have a Gravenberch/Trindade type lined up for late on.
Worst case , we can register one of the GK’s as homegrown. I think one understudy currently counts as homegrown. Failing which, just register spearing as homegrown player and go ahead and get both the midfielder and CB as normal transfers.
Don’t see how this works for the PL. We can do a maximum of 17 non-homegrown players. We currently have 16 after Endo arrived.
If we want another midfielder and a centre back then one of them has to be either homegrown or born on or after the 1st January 2002. Or we sell someone (fancy Saudi Arabia Joel?)
Worry about the PL rules first. That’s the one that matters.
Listening to Klopp talk about Endo, it was clear that he sees the player a lot more highly than most of us do. I’m quietly confident that this will be another shrewd signing.
He’s 30 but doesn’t have too many miles on the clock. If we sign a defensive midfielder to displace him, it will have to be a very good one indeed, and I’m not so sure we are in the market for a Caicedo/Tchouameni type any more.
I’m guessing Endo will play quite regularly, and will be an important cog in the red machine. Bajcetic can develop, and there are other options too, like Thiago, plus the versatility of Jones and MacAllister.
I’m not sure if we are going to do any more business before the window closes. Maybe Theate as a left sided central defender? Maybe Gravenberch as a u21? Maybe Andre, but for January?
Some possibles, but equally, it wouldn’t surprise me if this is it, for now.
This is the same Pearce who wa adamant Allison wasn’t a target then Thiago wasn’t coming then after Thiago joined there was no more incomings only for Jota to arrive the next dey