I could see a world where we sell any of Konate (contract) Gomez (playing time and games lost to injury) or Quansah (playing time, development) this summer.
I would not countenance a sale for any of them without knowing about incoming.
I’ve got an inkling for Hincapie this summer. I know it would be three players from Leverkusen, but if he is going to leave as well, we have established a good relationship with them, and we could help fill the coffers for their rebuild in a post-Alonso world.
But his numbers are staggering mate. Haven’t watched him enough to make a call. He has more than 60 goals and assists this season in all competitions though I get he is playing in the Portugal league.
Nunez’s one good season prior to joining us feels like very much the outlier for him, Gyokeres is on nearly a goal a game across 100 games. If you look at goal contributions (ie G&A), Gyokeres is on 122 in the last 100 games in Portugal.
I don’t know whether Gyokeres is the striker for us, I suspect not as there’s no indication we’re interested, but imo you don’t put up those kind of numbers in any major European league without being very, very good.
What fascinates me is that despite the common narrative, Jürgen didn’t “overrule” the data team in Núñez’s signing. I think Graham was specific that Núñez simply wasn’t a fit for the way we were playing back then, i.e. that he wasn’t a Firmino-type striker. It wasn’t that he didn’t have the ability. I’d imagine our data team have the expertise to identify when a player is just a flash in a pan vs the real deal.
I feel like this will make for a great story in 10 years time.
Can’t win them all. Our recruitment has been excellent for a good few years. Nunez did not hit the heights we expected. He might still go on to do that elsewhere, but in all likelihood he will score in fits and starts. We will probably get most of our money back and we will reinvest. From an accounting perspective it will be profit, after amortization.
All’s well that ends well. Good luck to Nunez wherever he lands.