I think the same type of link on transfers exist between Chelsea and NF, Villa and Newcastle.
Fair enough.
I would go absolutely bonkers if he leaves on a free to that lot again, had we signed Camara we should have told him either you sign an extension or we will sell you to whoever pays the money whether he likes it or not.
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Re Camara and Balogun:
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Not quite arguably. I rate Fernandes´ potential pretty highly.
I think him and Camara would be a good pair, funnily enough.
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Fernandes might have been on the shortlist, but I wonder if we would have even bothered after Spurs dropped 85M on him. He was seen as a potential market opportunity when the Irons went down - 85M is well above market value, IMO.
And all because of this Liverpool saga.
Joyce saying midfield will be the focus next season, name drops Camara. About 9 months too early to open a thread fro him thoughđ
Havenât read the article but my first thought was duuhâŚthatâs obvious as weâve lost Curtis and Endo will be leaving with Maccaâs future here up in the air, but then there is a good chance we are also losing our two main goal keepers, 3 CBs (donât think either of our current candidates to stay are left footed are they?) a back up left back and may still have question marks around our starting RB position.
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Whilst also needing to replace van Dijk, Gomez and Tsimikas whilst hoping Mamadashvilli can step up to fill Alissonâs gloves.
Seems like a lot of work needed at the back to be saying midfield will be the focus.
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Itâs frustrating that we had the highest net spend but the squad is still so thin and unbalanced. Feels like weâre a couple of injuries away from a really tough season.
Thatâs the last Iâm saying on the matter though. Gonna get behind Iraola and the team, hope our expensive signings smash it, and we get a bit of luck with injuries for a change 
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Going from what was happening near the end of the window, my feeling is the club doesnât have faith in Mama to be our no1 and will probably move him on fairly soon, hence dropping ÂŁ30m on this Belgian kid.
That being the case, wouldnât be entirely surprised to see Ali retained for another year or two to see how he develops and kick that can down the road a little further.
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Yeah thatâs a distinct possibility. Either way weâve spent about ÂŁ50m on keepers in the last couple years, albeit the kid wonât cost that up front, and weâre talking about extending Alisson again as heâs still out best option even though heâs not at his best anymore.
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That struck me as a really smart deal. Essentially, we have bagsied a promising future talent at a reasonable price. It seems to suit both clubs.
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Whether itâs a lot of work really depends on how much we want to complicate it for ourselves.
The way the club has been looking at transfers of late, I could see the club deciding that have to make a statement to replace Van Dijk and getting themselves embroiled in a ÂŁ120m three month saga trying to buy the best defender in Europe.
Activate Quansahâs buy back, and CB is sorted. Replace Mac Allister with Camara and midfield is done.
I really donât want to see the club trying to spend ÂŁ100m on another superstar. I think that totally misreads the needs of the squad at this point.
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But you still need to replace Gomez/Araujo and you could argue Quansah is more the player to fulfil that than to step into being the leader of the defence.
So you still need another CB and a LB just to get back to where we are now. The business youâve already done is well in excess of ÂŁ100m and weâd be lucky to get ÂŁ50m for Mac with just a year left and Real Madrid encouraging him to hang on another year.
So, a net spend of at least ÂŁ100m to pretty much stand still. And thatâs the issue Iâm getting at. We donât have the quality of depth we need right now and the focus next summer will just be plugging the holes left by those leaving for nothing.
Where does that leave us in terms of possibly looking at whether weâve got what we need at RB. Could we be in the market for a number one keeper or will we make do with either a declining Alisson or an unconvincing Mamadashvilli? What are we doing about the likes of Chiesa and Endo. We donât use them a lot but they take up a place in the squad and are senior pros you canât just replace with kids. Anything to address those will cost money with very little we could raise to offset that spend.
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As always with these things, time will tell.
I thought the Mamadashvilli deal was smart. Get him in before heâs needed and phase Alisson out. Doesnât look like itâs happening that way.
Still not actually sure what weâve paid up front for this lad. Saw something that suggested a nominal fee with a load in add ons that could take it up to ÂŁ30m. But then seen other reports suggesting itâs upwards of ÂŁ25m up front.
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And what if Quansah doesnât want to come back or says he wants to take his time to think about that offer? itâs sounds a nice easy solution for us but may not be deliverable so we may have to go back into the transfer market to compete for other players anyway.
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Why the hell are Liverpool journos name-dropping Camara now, especially when he was this close to joining Chelsea in the final moments of the last transfer window?! That hardly says weâre running a smooth operation. I really hope weâll get some clarity from the powers that be soon, especially when it comes to Hughesâ departure and his, hopefully long-term successor.
At least the club will have more manoeuvring space next summer with so many high earners off the wage bill (Alisson, Van Dijk, Gomez, Tsimikas and Endo all gone) but I donât see another planned big sale aside from Mac Allister. We have to hope the club will somehow be able to qualify for CL because all those reinforcements will not pay for themselves.
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Thats why Iâm perplexed why we didnât go for Camara now at the purported 50m- we could have raised enough from selling Macca to at least cover this. Seems odd.
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