Thiago Alcantara (CM) Bayern Munich

The mad thing is that Leeds destroyed themselves first time round by taking on huge loans to finance O’Leary and they got the the Champions’ League Semi-final. Not long after they were done for. Now they’re back in the PL they’re taking out massive loans again. Did they learn nothing?

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I think we are over pricing them at the moment. Wilson isnt a £20m player. I reckon he goes for £12m.

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Neither is Ollie “unproven outside the Championship” Watkins. Yet he has just been sold for nearly £28m.

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Yeah I did like the way Dean Smith said he was highly sort after - yet he ended up at Villa.

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Define future and risk

The Thiago deal cant be seen on its own because we are also looking at bringing in a forward and a CB. We are also a club that is intent on building long term infrastructure, and are making decisions more about the next 3 years than just the here and now. We are due to renegotiate contracts with at least 6 of our key players in the next season, several of whom are moving towards the last 2 years of their contracts.

If income falls substantially, our current spending becomes unsustainable. Not just the additional spending we will be taking on. And, its quite possible Grujic and Wilson end up out on loan, rather than sold. The club obviously dont feel as bullish as you do.

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Probably only because Villa is desperate enough.

My take on players like Wilson and Grujic is that we are not desperate to sell them and only if there is a good enough price, we will sell them. Klopp will see them as good enough squad players but would probably never make it as first choice. So even if we are willing to sell them, if the right price does not come along, Klopp would not mind having them as backups in the squad.

And again, all you need is a desperate enough club to pay the price we want. So its important for us to hold our position because we are in a position where we do not have to sell because I believe Klopp is happy to go into this new season with the current squad and further arrivals will come only if we get the price we want for these players.

Don’t we have enough midfield players already. My take is, we want to sell them since they aren’t good enough to improve our squad. But we will sell only for the right price. If such deals don’t materialise, we will loan them again.

I think the main problem here is that Bournemouth have gone down so can no longer pay whatever we demand for players.

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Or Fab at CB,

TAA in CM (depending upon opposition)

And Neco at RB.

Given the money they have raked in from sales so far this summer, i wouldnt rule it out yet :grin:

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It’s not a plan, is it. It’s more like a Hail Mary.

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They have probably raked around £25 millions so far. I would happily give them Grujic and Wilson for that amount considering how we have conned them for Ibe and Solanke.

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They got about double that for Ake alone. £20m for Wilson from Newcastle, and have also sold Brooks to Newcastle and a keeper to Sheffield i think.

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The thing is wages. You’re potentially signing a 29 year old on a 3 year deal at say £6m a year before you add in agents fees and signing on fees.

Football goes through the floor and your stuck with little or no way of recovering this, especially as his sell on value is likely to be lower.

As you indicate the market is screwed right now. It’s in free fall. Buying players at last years prices is kind of daft. Without seeing the clubs finances it’s difficult to judge where we are, so I agree with being cautious.

I’m not against the deal, quite the opposite, I think he would be a massive benefit to us but not at the cost of crippling the club.

I wish the Boss followed FSG’s philosophy. Project New Bathroom has wiped me out and the boiler has just decided to throw a wobbly.

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Calling her a boiler isn’t going to help any :rofl:

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:shushing_face: Shh will you?

:thinking: Hmm, there could be a more environmentally friendly option here. A tactical switch to hot air heating at the cost of a few bruises might be a sensible way forward.

No need for the oil burning box in the back room.

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Yeah, they got a tidy €90 millions for their troubles. Now if only they knew how to spend it wisely.

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Well, for starters, how about:

25m for Wilson; 20m for Grujic; 15m for Shaq and 5m for Karius?

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I will take even €50 millions for that lot. :blush:

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I think it merely feels good to claim other clubs, practically ALL other clubs are being reckless by spending.

All other clubs, also, did not seek to use public funds to furlough workers except us and spuds…

All other clubs cannot apparently see the doom awaiting them in the future. We are the only ones apparently aware of, or concerned about it!

Something simply does not add up and the more excuses folks offer, the less convincing they sound.

If our finances are in such dire straits that we cannot compete with Villa and Newcastle in our financial outlay on new players, then perhaps something much deeper is wrong with our setup…

I understand JK’s approach of building on what we have, which is pretty damn good, but it is he and his team itself that identified the need for additions, re Werner, replacement for Lovren, etc

They identified these needs, fully cognizant of our 18pt gap at the top…You have to imagine that there was a reason for this.

The rest of it simply smacks of a whole lot of excuses…

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