Who would you buy?

The Albert
4497

Isak. He’s a beast, and does a lot of the things people hoped Origi would do. He’s still young, but so far he doesn’t have the productivity associated with his reputation. They year before looked like it could have been his break out year, but he regressed again this past year. As a stylistic replacement for Origi he’d be interesting, but will likely cost enough to require him to be starting most games, and I just dont know he’s developed enough yet for that sort of role.

If it turned out we were pursuing him though (indicating that those whose job it is know if hes ready for the step up think he is) I’d be excited at the prospect.

4 Likes
4498

He’s got mad dribbling skills. Now if he could only up his goal tally.

4499

We were being linked with him last season i think. Havent seen anything for a while now though.

4500

I don’t tend to pop in this thread very often but assume it’s still very much fantasy football style hopes and dreams?

If we add Nunez, and assuming we’re losing Mane…I’d still like us to add Bellingham. Yes, Dortmund will probably hold on for another year at least but if we can splash £85m on Nunez, we must be fairly flush. After all, Mane ought to generate around £35m (excluding add-ons), Minamino £15m, AOC £10m, Phillips £10m, Neco £10m, Rhys Williams £5m…other fringe/academy players a few million here and there. Basically, I’d hope that we’d break even on Nunez and Ramsay (£5m) with our sales so ought to still have a net spend to play with (even accounting for signing Diaz in January).

We’ve been careful with our spend over the last few years so on a rolling basis we can definitely afford to splash upwards of £100m net this summer, particularly given our earnings this season.

Going into next season with

First XI

Alisson
Trent
Konate
Van Dijk
Robertson
Henderson
Fabinho
Thiago
Salah
Nunez
Diaz

Back ups

Kelleher
Ramsay/Bradley
Gomez
Matip
Tsimikas
Elliott
Bellingham
Keita
Jota
Firmino
Jones

That’s tasty.

2 Likes
4501

There’s no holding/defensive midfielders. Also, you missed Milner.

1 Like
4502

I didn’t miss Milner - he just couldn’t make it into the first 2 XIs.

No holding/defensive midfielders? Fabinho, Thiago, Henderson all capable of covering this position. Bellingham’s been used there before too. Morton, who like Milner also couldn’t make the first 2 XIs, can also be used there.

4503

You forgot Carvalho.

As the sweet present when our squads are so rich that we forget about some players…

:joy:

1 Like
4504

Does he get ahead of anyone in our first two XIs? Not sure.

4505

I think he does.

As things stand, of course it could change during pre-season.

Thing is, I don’t see us getting Bellingham this summer or getting someone new without someone leaving out on loan.

We’ll all agree on about 20/22 positions, the rest few bits and bobs we’ll find out I guess when the staff decides during pre-season.

1 Like
4506

Nunez, Bellingham, Carvalho, Ramsay would be an incredible summer.

Next summer we can sort out the Mo shaped hole if that’s what it comes to.

4507

That is probably a pipe dream. No way we spend that much without huge sales.

Diaz, Nunez and Bellingham in one year??? We don’t have 200M to spend… I’d guess it would be closer to half that.

I personally would have nothing to do with Nunez considering his past knee surgeries; health checks being the one area I don’t trust the club in.

I’d rather try to get Martinelli / Gnabry and see whether Jean Onana can be bought for cheap.

Onana to me is a low-risk punt to see whether he can develop more of a passing game when he doesn’t have to defend all the time. If not, he is still a decent backup destroyer. Then I’d load up on top young talent and try to get our rebuild done in one season.

Of course if a top player like Bellingham becomes available - in our budget - that has priority.

But otherwise I’ve accepted that we are unlikely to beat ManCity to the PL title next season but we will probably still be much better than the rest and we can focus on Europe.

So I’d do the unpopular thing of prioritizing the UCL, domestically doing enough to be comfortably top 4 and otherwise spending a year gearing up for a challenge in 2023/2024 by developing our players.

Gradual rebuild or quick? I personally believe that a gradual rebuild will result in more substandard seasons… But we will see.

4508

Mane
Oxi
Taki
Phillips
Neco

That’s likely over 100 million quid.

1 Like
4509

That’s only if we hit our price targets. I think very likely we will get much less than we want or be left holding the player.

4510

It’s requires only each of them going for reasonable market value.

1 Like
4511

Martinelli has had a serious knee injury too.

With Nunez looking like he will take up a major chunk of our budget, Fabio Vieira looks like one of the better ‘cheap punts’ out there since we have that 12 million first refusal clause.

Perhaps he’s a bit too similar to Elliot, but he looks a steal at that price.

1 Like
4512

I think it is quite a bit different with Nunez. From what I read he had surgery on his cruciate ligament back in 2017, needed months recovery, reinjured it in his first game back and needed surgery again putting him back out for months.

Then in either 2020 or 2021 (can’t remember), needed major knee surgery again.

4513

Except, we tend to over value our players and we have never sold EACh of the players we wanted to.

Mane: we hold very little leverage if we want to get a good fee with Bayern able to afford to wait

Ox: nearly worthless with a high salary, injury history and 1 year left

Taki: maybe we’ll get our £17M ask

Phillips: We had very little interest last season. Bournemouth only rumoured to be willing to pay £8M, transfermarkt value at €8m

Neco: If Ramsay is worth £5M and is arguably better… How do we expect to get £15M???

4514

We’ve shown we are willing to wait and allow players to leave on a free.

I think we’ll find a compromise position of around 35m with a few achievable add ins. But the club certainly won’t be bullied, and we’re certainly going to tell Bayern to get tae fuck if they think that add ons like £5m if Sadio wins three Balon d’or are appropriate.

[quote=“JustHitMyHead, post:4513, topic:114, full:true”]
Ox: nearly worthless with a high salary, injury history and 1 year left[/quote]

English, great player when given a run, and still relatively young. £15m is reasonable.

Five clubs chasing him, so we should get a good price.

He was a lynchpin of Bournemouth’s promotion season, and he is coming back into the Premier League with experience at that level, and higher. Bournemouth would be absolute mugs if they pass on him over a couple of million. I’m sure we’d take twelve with the rest in achievable add ons.

He’s better than Maguire, and I’m not even joking.

Ramsey isn’t better than Neco.

The problem we have is that Neco is too good to be playing second fiddle, and the lad wants to play football. If he was sound with backing up Trent he’d still have a place here. £12-15m is reasonable.

So I think an expection of raising 80-90m of that lot, is the least we should expect. And that sort of covers Nunez (we never account for agents fees or sign ons with this stuff).

I think, especially after a period of relative frugality, we should be able to do Carvalho, Ramsey, Nunez, and then go again on a top drawer midfielder if we want to.

6 Likes
4515

I agree with this. On the players listed I think £100M is possible, but will more likely be £90M. Even so, it is a hefty sum.

It might be a stretch, but I think we would extend ourselves if a deal could happen for Bellingham. If that is not possible this summer, we may sign a mid tier player who might be about to break out, for a more modest sum. Someone like Sangare, before going big on the midfield next summer.

Next summer Bellingham could be our main signing, and Bosmans in/out with Gnabry/Salah, and the next great Liverpool side will have emerged.

1 Like
4516

While the raging discussion is on the attack and midfield, our defense is pretty sorted especially with how much Konate has settled in. But still like to throw this up for discussion, VVD and Matip are 30, while the former looks strong enough for another 2-3 years at least, the latter needs to be managed to keep him healthy for the latter stages of his career, should we be looking out for the ‘other konate’ to be the next CB pairing? We do not know hiw Gomez is going to go, not sure whether Sepp and other youth can step up. Asking this because I saw DE Ligt has only 2 years left on his contract and talks are stalling. Would you sign say de ligt or any proven player for a free in 2 years time (or a reasonable fee with 1 year left) or any youth or Gomez would step up, you think?