I think it is a matter of time that 1892 holdings needs to increase our commercial revenue very drastically in a short time for us to have a decent transfer kitty for Jan 2027 and June 2027.
I expect itās because we lost Curtis Jones so it would be good to keep the homegrown quota at a healthy level. I know Nyoni looks promising but heās really young. It would be good to get an experienced CM or DM in to replace Curtis Jones.
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Plus it is good for our Academy players (most of whom are British) to have a few English/British seniors around.
I still prefer Alex Scott because he:
- Does not interfere with Nyoniās development (unlike Wharton) but will support him.
- Has a more complete midfield skillset than Grav and Dom as a Box-to-box midfielder. In other words, a new Jordan Henderson in making. I remember him going toe to toe with Rodri in the City-Bournemouth draw last season.
- Can play CDM comfortably when needed (he played CDM in 12 matches last season under Iraola). He is more like Henderson playing No.6 rather than a specialist one like Fabinho.
Unfortunately Iām not sure anyone is blocking our full backs to do what they want to do.
Iām not even sure I want to see them do all of what they want to do.
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Youāre not wrong, maybe the best signing LFC could make would be a hypnotist to help our midfield and full backs get over their irrational fear of tackling.
Its too late but we need to upgrade the full backs and get a DM.
Just have to get used to needing to score 3 to win a game
Actually, since heās a natural winger, I donāt think thereās a spot in their side that plays to his full strengths, so I wouldnāt be surprised if they let him go at some point, once heās fully fit. That said, Iād expect him to be a massive sale, something in 80-100M pounds region.
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I think we should have at least 2-3 senior English players good enough to start at least 30 matches per season. This is true for City, Arsenal and Chelsea currently, and has always been true for us until last season.
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I agree. Well, or British.
Question is, which 2 or 3 would we like to add to our squad right now?
Maybe people were right to want Spence.
Hm..good question. I think Trafford could have been a good one, in a post Alisson world.
Bellingham obviously, if weāre going full fantasy world.
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Itās deadline day and unfortunately it looks like it might just be further outgoings being confirmed.
At this point itās too late for a major rebuild and the squad is out of space for non home grown players without selling or leaving out an existing player.
With that in mind if I was appointed to a recruitment role for the day to try and do some last minute bolstering of the squad Iād ask City about Nico OāReilly or Arsenal for Miles Lewis-Skelly to provide home grown cover for full back and midfield.
Bowen from West Ham could provide an extra experienced option at right wing and up front and may be willing to make a late move after their rough start in the Championship.
Other than that keep an eye on market opportunities as other clubs finalise their squads, if any one came in for the likes of Endo or Chiesa I would let them move on.
Chiesa certainly, but Endo has said he isnāt going anywhere, and having sold Jones, and promoted a kid as his replacement, itād useful to have him around another season.
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I would imagine they would only be available for a pretty hefty price, and likely want to be starters.
I like Bowen but I donāt think this move makes much sense now with cody staying.
I canāt see anyone coming in for Endo now. He and 5 or 6 others are out of contract next summer so plenty of work will need to be done to prepare for that (mostly in defence) in addition to any other areas that we want to improve.
In Slotās title winning season we had only a single English player make 30 starts, and that required games in all competitions to reach that number. We had only 2 make 30 total appearances
And of course, Im old enough to remember the famous day where Liverpool won a cup final in 86 without a single english player in the side
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Depending on how much time they see on the pitch between now and Jan, we should probably look to move both Chiesa and Endo on. Hinshelwood and Enciso my picks to replace them. If circumstances allowed Iād also look to shift Gomez out and bring Neco back.
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We donāt need to replace Chiesa. He is non-existent.
We could do with replacing the numbers or filling in the gaps in the squad which have gone unaccounted for the last 2 seasonsā¦so you could see it as 2 out (Harvey/Jones + Chiesa) and 1 in.
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I suspect that this will be our aim working towards next summer now, which will already probably need to be a significant one given the number of players out of contract and question marks around several other players in the squad.
Alisson, Tsimi, Virgil, Joe, Araujo, Endo, Harvey Elliot and Davies are all listed on Transfermarkt as being out of contract from next summer, although in Elliotās case it was said on one of the reports of him signing for Valencia that his contract ends in '28 so perhaps he has a clause we may activate to extend if there is likely to be a worthwhile offer on the table (or his performances justify his return to our squad).
Then there are several players who we might be open to trading depending on how they perform this season / whether they still want to be here beyond next summer.
Meanwhile, itās been good to see that weāve been active over the last 6-12 months in bringing in more talent for the academy and that level between academy and first team squad. Hopefully, that will continue and we will see a better rounded squad as a result going forward a year or so from now.
The reporting on Harveyās move to Valencia is that he will still have another year left next season. I think something extra ordinary will have to happen for him at Valencia this year to work his way back into contention for us so its maybe the same thing in terms of a spot needing to be filled, but maybe we approach that will a small amount of money in our pocket.
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I said good enough to start at least 30 matches per season, not actually starting 30+ matches. In 2024-2025, we had TAA and to a lesser extent, Jones (even though Slot never started Jones that much). In 2025-2026 we would have got Guehi had Palace not trolled us, while Jones should have started more. Right now we have none.
In 1986, Steve McMahon was certainly more than good enough to start at least 30 matches.
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