I agree on the three players minimum but if they were Bellingham, Caicedo and Gvardiol that would be fine with me. All gettable but its just what budget do we have?
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Look at the pattern of spend the last decade when we haven’t had a Sterling/Suarez/Coutinho/Mane to sell…trust me it’ll help. We’re under the same owners, we aren’t suddenly out of nowhere going to have 200m waiting for us on the table for example.
I think Gvardiol and Bellingham are not realistic enough for us in this window. Due to a combination of money and competition to sign them. Not to say they will necessarily move this summer, they might spend another season at their club. Caicedo, that one I’d give us more chances, but then there would probably be competition also. Depends how much he’d cost, which is as you say linked to what’s even our budget this summer. We saw what happend with Caicedo in January. The media don’t have a clue, they can write that “Klopp will be backed” and still it means nothing. We could go from our often £30m net spend to an, I don’t know, £50m+ one. But a lot of the higher stuff, I just think it’s not happening.
I think people would be really surprised at how much impact even a single top signing (the right quality, physically robust to play most games, and ready to play) would have let alone 2.
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The Everton Cup (TAN transfer game - are you up for it?)
- Yes
- No
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The Everton Cup was first. Miley’s millions ripped it off. 
Obviously there is precedent and context for what we have done in the past, but it still doesn’t tell me how much we will spend this summer.
Trust me!
And circumstances are always changing. Who is coming off the overall wage bill? How much is our revenue? What are the reasonable needs of the team? These things change every year.
And what about a minor investor? Will that have any bearing on the spend? They haven’t been announced, but perhaps negotiations have been taking place, and there’s an understanding that we will wait until after the transfer window to announce it, so as to keep prices and expectations down?
To reiterate, we don’t know the budget.
With that said, I am confident we will improve the side and squad. We have to.
By my reckoning there are up to eleven players in our first team who may not be here next season…
Out of Contract: Adrian, Keita, Oxlade-Chamberlain, Milner, Arthur (Loan), Firmino
Potential Sale/Loan Out: Kelleher, Williams, Phillips, Matip, Carvalho
Things change and I don’t think we will see all of these players leave but even just the OOC ones is likely to be about 400k-500k per week in wages leaving the club. I’m not sure last time we had a clear out like that?
Edit: Maybe 2016? Benteke, Allen, Skrtel, Sakho, Balotelli, Toure and Markovic left. Maybe similar in wages?
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I reckon that figure could be pushing closer to 700k which would be well in excess of the 2016 clear out. Bobby is on close to 200k. Naby, Matip and Ox are all over 100k. If we were stupid enough to pay Arthur’s wages in full then that’s going to be over 100k as well.
Milner is the only one from those lists who has a chance of staying I reckon. Kelleher, Williams and Phillips should raise a decent amount of funds and a loan for Carvalho makes sense.
Brighton rejected a £70m bid from Arsenal for Caicedo in January.
He signed a new contract - so will it not be more or less than the £70m.
Probably true, but teams will usually seek to charge a higher fee for their key players in winter windows to compensate for the disruption it causes them.
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Seems about right… 
I thought he made it pretty clear he wanted to leave, could have been persuaded to sign a new contract with a lower but out clause. Pure speculation.
Fee (or clause) probably too high for us and think he might be Arsenal bound too.
Shame because I’m starting to thing he is easily one of the best (or most fitting) players linked with us.
Then I presume you’ve not been on Icon? I could do that all day. And did 
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Find it hard to believe we haven’t been linked with him yet. Exactly what the midfield needs, could work in our new structure or the old one, the right age, profile and ready to take the next step up. His numbers are outstanding and he passes the eye test.
A Jorge Mendes client apparently, so perhaps we’ve been able to keep it quiet (wishful thinking).
A bit of a no brainer, really.
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Gotta try it out!
I am generally dubious of defensive mids who make their names in other leagues. I think it’s an area where the different pace of the game is most impacted, but he seems to be Mascherano like.
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