I’m sure there is/was a plan in place - poop happens. Think it’s now just a scramble to salvage something and get back to somewhere near our best by August 23.
1 Like
To be honest, Tchouameni rejected us very early on. But for some reason, Julian Ward could only complete 1 easy deal in Calvin Ramsey and 1 moderately difficult deal in Darwin Nunez. It is shocking that we couldn’t get an alternative to Tchouameni early in the window and it is shocking that we couldn’t offload known deadwood.
1 Like
As I said, poop happens and I’m sure there are internal processes that will take stock of the positives and negatives of this season.
Klopp was the one who refused midfielders, I’m not 100% of Ward but to lay the blame at his feet is wrong.
1 Like
From a footballing stats POV, holding on to AOC and Keita and hoping that they will come through unscathed the whole season is an extremely risky approach. Now, with their contract expiring in June this year, we will get zero pounds for the two of them should they not sign a new contract. Even selling Keita for 25-30 million and AOC for about 15million in the summer window are not a bad prepositions if it means we can find someone slightly less talented than keita and pre-injury AOC but is much more durable and has legs in the midfield…
1 Like
The big question the right sort of players will ask of us is what our diagnosis was for what went wrong this season. Do we know why it went wrong? Is it in our immediate capacity to fix it? If we can put forward a credible argument that the answers are Yes, and Because we were missing a player like you, then I think we can still be very attractive to the top caliber of players other big teams might be interested in.
3 Likes
I’m sure if Klopp was given money to buy a midfield he would not have said no. 
1 Like
Well, it feels like were back at square one with this team, minus the feel good factor of Klopp’s appointment, plus another filthy rich pretender to the throne to fight against.
It feels like were going to need much time to rebuild the side, not just in terms of player turnover. We’re likely going to need three or four starters, depending on the system. Two midfielders, a centre back, a forward - that’s how it looks for me at this moment. Doing it on the fly is more challenging part.
My big concern is that it will be a while until we’re in CL again, let alone a CL final. Compare our investment (near impeccable since Klopp came in) to that of our rivals… I think the time when we got lucky with our transfer business on a budget has passed.
I can’t get Arsenal out of my head when I look at this team - once they were out of CL, it took them ages to get back into it (at least I think they will make it next season). We might suffer the same fate unless we play our cards right.
100% and let’s face it Caicedo whose on around £5k a week at Brighton would move here with or without champions league football.
2 Likes
The concern I have is the season is playing out in a way that suggests we were two good players short in our business this summer. For example, lets just say that means Ox and Naby out and two early to mid 20 somethings coming in. The problem is this season is fouling up several players who in August were not on the chopping block for the coming summer. It feels like at least a couple of players are being taken down by how badly this is going making the amount of work we need to do even greater.
2 Likes
Is there an argument (awaits the pelters) for selling Salah next summer to fund the level of rebuild needed?
1 Like
Who’s going to buy him, given his age, wages and current form? 
1 Like
I’d think PSG.
1 Like
Arsenal were bad because post Wenger they had no structure and responded to the need to add quality to the team by adding old over rated players at high prices who acted as anchors rather than inspiration for improvement. If anything their improvement this summer shows that once you give yourself room to bring in new players, you can big strides with just a couple of well targeted additions.
One of our problems since the Covid shut down has been an inability to move on the fringe first teamers that was required to open room for new blood. In retrospect it looks penny rich and pound poor to have not taken small covid market hits on several of these players because we’re now in a position where several are moving on for free and several more look like even more distressed assets. The cost to retool at this point will be net higher than had we taken what we could get for Origi and Ox 2 years ago and used that to bring in 1 replacement…just as an example.
What this calls for now is being ruthless and taking whatever financial hit is necessary to get the 5 or so out of the door that is necessary to make room for the new blood. Right now, there are very few players who are free and clear of the discussion on who should be joining Ox, Naby and Milner.
6 Likes
At this point there is an argument for anything and everything.
1 Like
That’s fair. But also a pretty standard sales pitch. The investment needs to come however.
I’ve mentioned before but really think the club is too slow in improving the team and also getting rid of certain players. It took three seasons for another more higher calibre forward in Jota to be signed, after Firmino, Mane and Salah. That’s just too long with all the games on offer. While Oxlade-Chamberlain and Keita in particular still here and will be let go for nothing.
1 Like
Also that Arsenal team has seen a fair few young players come in or brought through and they have had the space to learn.
Some of our fan base already want to dump Elliott and Carvalho. Oh and let Bajetic make one mistake and he would be gone too.
Maybe Klopp rebuilds us with no further success or he can achieve success during a rebuild.
We are in a seriously bad place and yesterday knocked my confidence completely, Forest away short turnaround 12.30 kick off with injuries to more key players it was slightly predictable.
Leeds wasn’t Europe which is a given in a poor year could even be beyond us. A couple of wins in the league is desperately what we need just to head into the break on a high.
3 Likes
In this period we won the CL and the league. The front line is probably the area of the pitch we’ve done best at freshening up as it’s not unthinkable now, if we can get everyone fit, for us to go into a big game without any of Mo, Bobby or Mane starting.
1 Like
Right now, he’ll do. In fact anyone that can walk (run if we’re willing to pay the high price…) for 90 minutes will do.
I’ve said for a while that the midfield needed a revamp and I’d have prioritised that before Nunez and even Jota and definitely once Gini was going to be off. Never mind that Thiago came in and settled thing to an extent but we were relying on Henderson, AOC, Milner and Keita as the other midfielders - which even then was a bit of a stretch in counting them as being regularly available.
Tielemens was bandied about recently but a lot poo pooed it as not being top drawer. If he was available for ~50-50M, then that would have been a great filler for an eventual starter a couple of years down the road. He is experienced in the league, he’s relatively fit (though a bit fat) and chips in with goals. But, we didn’t and here we are.
I would wager that at some point during last season a gamble was taken to not buy a midfielder on the basis that we would be able to “get by” and wait on the “right player”. Everyone basically gets behind that, including JK, and comes out bullish on the back of a possible quadruple. The gamble failed. I’d like to know was there ever a voice that said, “hang on, we have a bunch of aging and injury prone midfielders, I don’t think that is going to work out or at least not for very long”.
January has to be a window where we act. It doesn’t have to Bellingham (not sure we can even in the summer) or similarly top drawer but it be someone.
1 Like