Stop talking about me.
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Nah. Ox and Mino are miles below our starting 3/4. Huge drop off which is why they arenāt used more. Harvey might get there but, like all young players, will take some years to find consistency
Your fifth choice attacker is going to inevitably be some way below the first. Have a look at the other top teams. Their depth doesnāt extend quite that far either.
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We shouldnāt expect Origi, Minamino to be as good as Mane, Salah, Bobby, or Jota. We shouldnāt expect them to be as good for 35-40 games. They just need to be good for few games. We were perfectly happy with Origi in 18/19 and 19/20 seasons. He wasnāt a Mane incarnation back then, he was pretty good and that was good enough.
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[quote=āMascot, post:8289, topic:51, full:trueā]
Of course. Was just challenging the contention that they were ājust belowā the standard of our starting 3. Signing Jota made a big difference as he actually is on a similar level
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The dream is alive!
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Canāt be true. Particularly when we canāt āreplaceā him. Iām constantly reading on here about how Klopp, deep down, wants to keep him around.
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Purely made up in my own mind, but I can see PSG throwing a lot of money at us for Salah after Mbappe goes to Madrid, if contract doesnāt get sorted, and us spending a pretty penny on someone, similar to Virgil and Allison transfer. Probably not Haaland unless wages come down out of stratosphere, but some young hotshot. Thatās my prediction. PSG will throw a hissy fit and immediately try to buy new shiny bauble and pretend losing Mbappe didnāt bother them.
Or probably two playersā¦ though Salah is a bit young to go there yet.
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Have the feeling that Bobby wonāt extend his contract and sign for AtlĆ©tico next summer.
I think one of those front three has to move on to see us spend significantly in that area. Not sure Bobby raises that much in terms of funds but if Jota ousts him as first choice in that central area before the season is done, then maybe heās the one we look to shift rather than renew and then we aim to keep the other two.
However, if one, or god forbid both, of Sadio and Salah arenāt tied up to new deals by next summer then it may be the case that our hands are somewhat forced into shifting one, or god forbid both of them.
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The more I think about it, the more Iām convinced that football (and indeed FSG at the forefront of this) is heading towards a baseball (as far as Iām aware) kind of model. I canāt claim credit for coming up with this, Iām fairly certain Iāve seen someone else here point it out before.
Weāre probably going to see a lot more free transfers and signing bonuses rather than large transfer fees. At that point, it becomes a lot more about the wages clubs can offer, which I recall someone pointing out that itās more highly correlated with actual performance than transfer spending. Itās therefore no surprise that FSG is nudging us that way, and why we may just not see a new contract offer for Firmino (but perhaps one for ManĆ©) considering his potentially reduced role now that we have Jota and hopefully a Minamino with more time in a more normal season.
Itās not that bad a deal for us nor Firmino either. We donāt need to commit larger wages (and a longer contract duration), and he gets to choose his next destination a little more freely. The only thing I canāt work out is how we would replace Salah and ManĆ© eventually. If Jota is going to take over the Firmino role, then we need someone to take over the ManĆ© role. Stylistically Iād see it being more of a Jota over ManĆ© and Minamino over Firmino kind of situation, but then the question is who would take over Salah? Iām not too worried about the possibility of his contract expiring, I think weāve shown that for players who are critical to us in the moment, we would rather keep them and forgo the transfer fee we would get, than to sell them in a panic. However, we do need someone who can play in that right forward role, and as exciting as Gordon looks at the moment, thereās still quite some distance between him and a starting role yet, and there may be other twists in his tale.
I think next summer we will see some high profile departures:
Matip or Gomez
Keita or AOC
Bobby
ā¦and young bloods will fill the vacuum.
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Hard to imagine with Felix and Griezmann already there.
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I feel heās likely to go to Milan or Inter, provided they qualify for Champions League. As for Atletico, itās not impossible. Suarez will leave next summer and they will need someone.
Had anyone else seen this Origi to Turkey story thats out there.
Surely we wouldnāt allow him to leave without the capacity to replace him especially given Bobby already has a hammy 3 games into the season.
Its for next summer when his contract expires
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Think AOC and Keita need big seasons both of them. Another season on the treatment table and I think we pull the pin.
I can also see one of Gomez or Matip going think it will depend on what if any offers we get for Nat too maybe the club see him as adequate for the 4th choice roll moving forward and think maybe Gomez or Matip may net them the fee they wanted for Nat and reduce the wage bill too.
I love Bobby so I hope he stays but if we are going to be in the Haarland or Mbappe discussion next Summer then at least 1 of the front 3 will need to make way to achieve it. If Mo hasnāt resigned by then it may be him. Heād be on the highest wage at the club and would attract the biggest fee. At some point we need to get younger upfront and start planning the next chapter.
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Completely agree with this, and Iām surprised that players donāt run down contracts as a routine thing.
This summer weāve seen the arse drop out of football from a financial point of view, and a few big clubs finding that they just donāt have the resources to bring in whoever they want.
If (just an example) Mo Salah fancies ending his career at Real or Barca, there is no guarantee either of those clubs could pull Ā£100m out of their arses like they used to be able to.
Wouldnāt it require some kind of salary cap and an agreement of the playing field across Europe in order to make the transfer market more like the US player trading model?
I donāt know baseball at all but from limited NFL knowledge, the salary cap often dictates who teams can and canāt keep or sign. Because of the cap, no team can really horde all the most expensive talent so the superstars get spread across the league more.
There was talk of FFP being replaced by a total salary limit proportional to revenues and the possibility that clubs that exceed their allowance would pay a penalty fee on the overspend which I think is a bit like how baseball works so perhaps that is the first step towards that model.
But ultimately, that will still result in the richest teams hoovering up the best talent whether thereās a transfer fee or not. Perhaps the more we see the huge bosman deals the greater the chance the transfer fees start to fall as clubs cash in more often. Not so much so they can spend that money on a transfer fee for a direct replacement but so itās listed as income that they can then use against wages of someone else.