The thing I’ve been most impressed with is his lack of giving a shit, at least publiclly, about proving his worth. There was a lot of dismissive stuff written and said about him, he is just a set piece coach", when he was appointed and lots of other managers (Dyche, Big Sam, even Brendan) respond to that sort of stuff as if proving themselves worthy is a separate tasks than just picking up the points. Andrews has completely ignored it all and just gone about putting together a side that does it talking for him.
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Yeah I mean I’d understand either approach really.
Depends on risk tolerance, budget and various other things.
We do a bit of a mix it seems, as you’d probably expect. Paying big for some players but buying some very young for a bit less as you say. We don’t tend to go for too many in the middle though, who aren’t really really young and have had a decent season but are not yet prem proven. Sangare, Abde, even Camara
One or two like Muñoz aand Frimpong, in fairness
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yeah it was very interesting he was mentioned as being involved in the barcola deal.
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https://www.thisisanfield.com/2026/09/lamine-camara-chelsea-transfer-collapsed-liverpool-wait/
I don’t understand the reason behind this. If we like his profile, and Jones has left, surely we pull the trigger now? Every report indicates that we had the financial headroom for this.
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Brentford might do it this season.
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The money next year does Monaco no good when they need it now, and the non-EU player off their books. The idea they’d back themselves into this big of a hole purposefully on the hope of maybe getting 20m million next year is Indy level nonsense.
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Agreed. We absolutely should have pounced if he was the guy.
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The Balogun deal is why Monaco pulled the plug.
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Yeah, news outlets, especially online ones that need traffic and clicks, way over extrapolate these stories.
- We monitor way more players than we ultimate decide we want to bring in. The monitoring is part of the evaluation and filtering process
- We may enquire about players way ahead of time from when we want to address his position or bring him in. This is part of the planning fans decry us not doing
It is reasonable to think we may have an active interest in Camara, and that we even spoke to Monaco or his reps about it. But that it was a move we dont want to make this year
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I think the point is we can assume from the fact that we didnt pounce that we didnt think he was the guy.
It’s not hard to envisage a larger pool of suitors for Alexis in the last year of his deal.
“Mac Allister will be a name to watch with a focus on Real Madrid’s future. His contract with Liverpool ends in 2028”.
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Yep. Unless our finances are absolutely fucked, we didn´t deem him worth going for.
I guess the question then becomes, who is the guy?
Unless we want to give it a year and only bought what we consider to be essentials based on who left.
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I think it could be this. Seems like they feel they’ve got what they need in midfield, that it’s no coincidence it was so quiet with midfield links all summer. No loan deals for extra depth, just nothing at all until the Camara stuff the last couple of days.
And if we look at it purely in terms of numbers, without our own personal bias, they do have six players for two positions. We’ll see if Endo and McConnell are real options the manager likes, or just theoretical, but for now at least it’s not a position Iraola is left short.
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I don’t think that’s a fair assumption, though. It might be accurate, but I think there are other factors that might have driven us to delay our approach. Namely, Macca’s situation and a desire not to block Nyoni’s development at this crucial time.
I also think that we might be keeping an eye out on who will be available next summer. Perhaps someone like Camavinga, who will have two years left on his deal at Madrid and is still only 23.
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Could be yes. They did give Grav and Dom deals that suggest they are happy with them.
I did wonder if they are kind of doing what they did in Slot´s first season too though.
Salah and Konate left so they essentially replaced them, but otherwise keeping it fairly stable without many changes so the manager can supposedly look at the squad and work with what he has.
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Are you suggesting Macca for Camavinga?
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“The guy” in this context means a player we need to bring in now. Other than miscommunication, I agree entirely with what you’re saying.
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Not as a straight swap (or swap + cash), necessarily. Macca could be sold to any club and we’d use some of those funds towards a replacement. I just think Camavinga is the one I’d target if Madrid made him available. A French connection with Ekitike, Barcola, Jacquet, and Olise ( 
) may assist in recruitment.
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I am only available on Fridays but I have never, and will never, set foot in an Ibiza beach club.
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Sweeting and Rab double act would like the Rodgers/TC days. The questions is which of them will be responsible for bringing in Borini?
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