He wasnt and no
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No, Rodri or Casemiro were the best. Palhinha had a great season and played really well but I strongly doubt we would be interested in another player with a limited skillset. We seem to be trying to move to a more fluid, versatile midfield whereas Palhinha has a very narrow scope for what he can do on the pitch.
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Buy Lavia, close it out and don’t look back.
If he needs an adjustment period, I don’t see any reason why Mac or Curtis can’t play alongside Trent in the deeper role, at least as an option while Lavia gets up to speed.
This assumes all our veteran midfielders leave. If Thiago is still here he could do the role too, as Lavia gets up to speed.
We might also sign an additional midfielder, but I suspect after the dust settles it will look like this:
Szobo
Mac
Jones
Trent*
Lavia
Bajcetic
Elliott
Morton
Eight midfielders. Great group.
Yes a lot of youth, but a lot of talent too. And Alan Hansen once famously said, “You can’t win anything with kids.”
That will do for me.
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If we can get ~70m for Hendo, Fabs and Thaigo then what would you prefer:
Spend it on Lavia and a CB
Or sell Kelleher (for eg) and get Caicedo or Rice?
Caicedo would be a perfect signing for us (although at that price you wonder why we couldn’t get Jude…) but would be a shame to lose Keevin.
Either way, I think we are close to seeing Kelleher move on. He is a smashing younger goalie, and he needs to play to see if he will be an upper Prem goalie, even world class, or will operate a bit lower down, but hopefully still a solid Prem keeper.
If we sell him, I’d like some sort of buy back option in case it’s the former and he could replace Alisson.
With the unexpected money we might be getting for a couple of players from Saudi, (leaving aside commenting in their laws etc.) it obviously gives us permission to do a bit more than we otherwise might have.
Without knowing the budget, I don’t know if that means snapping Lavia up, or additionally making a concerted effort for Colwill. Perhaps it means a more seasoned player coming over Lavia, such as Caicedo, Tchouameni or Rice (isn’t he Arsenal bound?)
However it shakes down I would be very happy with Lavia and Colwill, and if Lavia is upgraded to say Tchouameni, bring it on.
First, I think it would be pretty dangerous to get rid of all 3.
Thing with Caicedo is, he’s gonna cost double what Fabinho might. At least.
Rice is gone. I’d like one more midfielder and a defender. If it’s Lavia, we’ll see how it turns out next season with our choices in midfield. But maybe there’s another name that might pop up that isn’t Lavia or Caicedo.
Are we genuinely interested in Van de Ven or just “monitoring the situation”?
Doubt it, he looks shite.
Sell everyone and bring in Caicedo and Lavia, with a centre back too. That would do nicely.
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Definitely need at least one.
Who though?
Isn’t monitoring the situation the new go to for “ITKs”.
With the research that @Sweeting has done , he’ll probably be better than most scouts at predicting which non high profile player will be the best for us.
So I’ll trust his judgement
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Arthur Theate from Rennes. Belgian international, 6’3", just turned 23. Left sided CB who plays LB for Belgium. Extremely good on the ball, highly progressive in both carries and passing, wins 62% of his aerial battles which is above average (but not great), excellent attacking threat from set pieces, one of the better plays in Europe at avoiding being beaten by dribblers.
Defensive stats for CBs are misconstrued for a variety of reasons. Most obviously because tackles and interceptions are immediately seen as ‘good’ while lacking them is ‘bad’. However you look at van Dijk’s 2019/20 season (and his entire career to be fair) and he is always among the lowest in tackles and interceptions in Europe. Skrtel and Lovren meanwhile were always high in these categories. Positioning, reading of the game and an ability to make the attackers do things you are comfortable with is far more important than just tackling people.
With that being said Theate’s tackling and inteceptions are among the lowest of active CBs in Europe. This could be an indicator that he is a van Dijk style defender or it could be that he avoida defensive work. I doubt the second one but haven’t seen a whole bunch to confirm this suspicion.
I haven’t seen anyone linked with Theate this summer. Rennes signed him for €19m last season, you’d imagine they would want at least €30m now. If we were to sign a CB that is under-the-radar I think Theate is a good candidate.
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bad memories come flooding in…
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I agree, a defender pulling out a tackle means that he’s beaten by the opposing team. It’s almost always a last ditch effort. Virgil , while he can make those tackles , he doesn’t need to most of the time. Same goes with Matip , though I suspect Matip pulls out the tackles slightly more.
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Even if it’s 40m euros, it still makes him a candidate worth punting on. No doubt the club would have more details on him.
I noticed Theate and mentioned him somewhere here a few months ago, having seen him for Belgium under Tedesco, who is introducing some new things. Think they played Sweden away in that game. Interesting player for sure. One who looks capable of playing either CB, LCB in a 4 or 3 or doing a job at LB. Players like that might be more wanted now and in the near future.
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Some context for these discussions - take a look at this side of the most expensive signings XI (4-2-3-1)
That would struggle to make it to the CL if it played in the prem (well, seeing as it’s mostly chelsea it makes sense)
€30m plus Nat Philips 
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So now that Fab looks advanced, are we going for a defensive mid plus a cb?
That would be my guess.
Though I think the club is now going buy a more ready made DM. I don’t buy the names as they are a rehash of those already suggested and City would milk us.
Any ideas?
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