Still have high hopes of Tsimikas, but unconvinced by Neco I’m afraid.
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I know Newcastle fans love him, but canonisation may be going a bit too far. 
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HAHAHAHA im sorry “Saint” Allain Maximin, my bad, i didnt mean to go all vatican there
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I believe you made a typo: that should be £5 next to Karius.
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I don’t know if anyone cares, but I made a visualization of our current squad/contract situation which might provide some guidance about when we need to recruit in what areas of the squad:
(being a little presumptuous about Konaté, sue me)
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With Potentially Kane going to M City. Mbappe going Real Madrid and a Sancho going United… Any chance we get a Haaland?
Haaland, Bissouma and Konate would be good business. And bring back Elliott.
Out: Gini. Ox. Keita. Shaq. Origi. Taki etc
Agreed. It is a concern, more about injuries, than the actual games they will miss, because it has happened before and Klopp did manage it. Of course its not ideal, but its not as bad as some would have it and that is also why we have a squad. I believe Klopp can manage it again.
Another CB is a given… as we are uncertain how VVD, Matip and Gomez will bounce back. However, after that I think a new forward is a much bigger priority than a midfielder.
It’s perfectly fine having a different style of play from when Gini was around. And it worked well for us when he was rested at the tail end of the season.
We have Henderson, Fabinho, Thiago, Jones, Milner, Ox and Keita for 3 positions which is more than enough if Fabinho isn’t played out of position. A little health issues there, but 7 good when healthy options for 3 spots. Personally I would like to keep Grujic as well since a backup DM is unlikely to play too many games and we probably wouldn’t get a good fee for what I feel is a decent player.
Bissouma, doesn’t strike me as much of an upgrade on our other options in midfield (except health). Camavinga might shake my resolve (I see his upside much higher).
But the priority needs to be our forwards first… Top forwards are scarce and expensive.
We have about 4 good options for 3 spots. An extra half if you count Elliott who hasn’t proven anything yet. One long-term injury there and we have nothing to change things off the bench… two long-term injuries and we are in BIG, BIG trouble.
I’d rather we tried to get Sancho. Maybe Tammy Abraham if we can’t get Sancho but we need to start the refreshing process of our front 3 now - this year. Or… we might find ourselves needing to change two… or maybe all 3 a couple seasons from now.
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Konate £30m - 40m
Bissouma £30m - 40m
Attacker £30m - 40m
Jota and Fabinho did cost around £40m.
Keita was kind of a expensive ‘mistake’ with £55m.
£30m - 40m - think that’s the magic range were we try to operate nowadays.
So which attackers would cost maximum £45m?
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Attackers
Emi Buendia
Matheus Pereira
Odsonne Edouard
Callum Hudson-Odoi
Tammy Abraham
Joaquin Correa
Cengiz Under
Martin Odegaard
Adam Hlozek
Dwight McNeil
Andre Silva
Ivan Toney
Goncalo Guedes
Wout Weghorst
Midfielders
Yves Bissouma
Boubakare Soumare
Denis Zakaria
Alex Kral
That’s all the recent links I can see to players linked with moves to top 10 PL clubs and expected to be less than £40m
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I don’t think Haaland goes this summer. Things could change, I guess, but it seems to me next summer is more likely.
I saw an article last week suggesting Real Madrid are putting their plans in place for the rebuild of their team, which includes getting Mbappe this summer and Haaland next summer. And that both players have agreed to go there. Wouldn’t surprise me if that’s what happens.
All very speculative, but hey…it’s what we do.
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After Dortmund reached the CL there is no way Haaland is leaving.
He has a release clause for summer 2022 (£75m).
Looks different with Sancho. Newest reports say that they would sell him for £90m (don’t think they will get that much for him) but more importantly they want all the money upfront this time.
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I think it was said that Sancho could leave for less than €90m. I think United will finalize that one this summer.
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About Haaland: I saw a quote from Watzke one or two weeks ago, where he was very clear about him being there next season. He’s normally quite open and honest about these things, isn’t he? Like with the Sancho situation last summer, he set the parameters very early in the summer: 120m and it had to be done before their training camp started.
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I think we’ll bring in £70m+ from selling fringe players and this will cover Konate and, say, Bissouma.
Then we have a choice to make. I think Klopp will probably be given around £50m on top of that to work with.
He could either buy Lamptey and Sarr with that, for example… OR
He could top it up by selling Firmino and bring in someone like Jaoa Felix or Lauturo Martinez.
I do think it an almost certainty that one of our front three will be sold given their ages, contractual situations and need to refresh the squad in a timely manner.
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Sadly yes. I have given up on having the Terrific Three next season. Firmino seems to be the one most likely to go. Jota, Mane, and Salah have combined well when they played together, thus neutralizing the need for Bobby magic while increasing the potential for goals.
Where’s this from? I can’t see us spending big on a back up right back.
I’d actually prefer to get Oxlade to play there, I think he’d be great.
I wonder if he tries to stretch it and go for Sancho @ £70mil… And we sell Mane or Bobby next summer. Seems a lot is against us for the forwards next season with their national teams so having 5 quality players for 3/4 spots is needed for 1 season.
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It depends on what you mean by “big”? I can see us spending £15m to £20m on someone like Lamptey.
He’s home grown, talented, similar attributes to Trent so would be a good back up/understudy and, if he developed well enough, could facilitate Trent’s transition to midfield (if that’s potentially part of his future?).
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4 years left on his contract and English? I reckon you are talking more than that.
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You could add Donyell Malen to the attackers list and Florian Neuhaus to the midfielders list.
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