Caicedo, Bella-Kotchap and Lavia.
Sell Hendo, Fab and Thiago to fund the new signings and lower the wage bill and the age of the squad. And the owners won’t need to spend on midfielders in the next 7-8 seasons.
That’s well over 150m right there. No way we’re going to get anything close to that for the three you mentioned.
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Here’s a name that doesn’t seem to have been mentioned much, if at all, and yet he seems to tick a lot of boxes for us… Mohamed Camara
Club - Monaco
Age - 23
Position - Defensive Midfielder
Nationality - Mali
So what’s to like aside from the positional need and being in the right age bracket?
Well, he’s a defensive midfielder from Monaco and the last one of them we had worked out alright. 
He’s also played for one of the Red Bull clubs and we all know how much we like a player that’s been through the RB system.
He’s Malian and let’s be honest, we’ve all missed worrying about how we’ll cope with the January AFCON absences now Mane and Naby have gone. And guess when the next AFCON is? That’s right, January 2024.
Injury history I hear you ask? Well he’s only missed a handful of games in the past couple seasons so he’s not made of Weetabix held together with masking tape.
Now, is he any good? Well I don’t know, I’m not a scout but his YouTube comps are suitably impressive and he looks like he runs about a lot and does some tackling and passing.
Interestingly I searched his name on here and one of the only mentions was by @Sweeting who was doing some midfield analysis work back in November 2022. There he ranked him as the 20th best midfielder on his scale. And guess who he ranked 19th? One Dominik Szoboszlai. Coincidence? Well yes, probably. (Who would you buy? - #5192 by Sweeting)
Anyway, I’m only chucking this out here in the hope some Twitter muppet is reading this and starts a new rumour so we can talk about anyone that isn’t Kalvin Phillips.
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I can picture him in our team
But seriously I think 22-24 is the age bracket we are looking at. A player with a few years at a high level. That kind we might be willing to go to the 40m bracket. That’s the only thing I think works against Lavia for us. The price tag. Not that we cannot pay, but it’s not good value.
My guess is that as soon as Fabinho is confirmed, Lavia will be completed quickly.
Fees will be similar, maybe a bit more for Lavia, and then we will be looking at defenders.
No midfielders if Fab and Hendo stays. If they both leave then Lavia and Trindade - think will be 60 million put together provided we can get Lavia for 40 million. We will be recouping almost all of it from fab and hendo’s sale.
Here’s a nice breakdown of the available midfield prospects to fill our #6 role from the Anfield Wrap.
If you want the TLDR the top candidates mentioned in the video are Florentino Luis, Trindade, Amrabat, Lavia, and Adams.
Out of those five, who would you buy?
I really like both of Joe Willock and Jacob Ramsey - although I doubt either of them would be available this summer
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I’d buy Caicedo and then a squad player like Sangare or Kone who would probably be cheaper to get than some of the other names banded about.
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Yep Caicedo would be a great signing but I don’t think we can afford him.
Go for Thuram or Kone?
Good video this, spoiler alert… Florentino Luis comes out on top. He kind of rules him out due to price tag, but no one seems to be available for sub £50m so may as well spend a bit and get the right lad in IMO.
Thiago looks like a monster in those stats though, if we can get fitness and form out of him this season we’ll be flying.
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Yea Thiago was the big takeaway for me in the video. We just need to find a way to limit his minutes assuming he stays.
Ok, I’m going to propose a player who we could bring in to play in midfield. Now remember, this is just a suggestion, made on a forum, please don’t bite my head off. I just feel like it should be mentioned.
Arthur.
Could maybe get him on a low fee (10-15mil?), or take him on loan again. He’s being touted with a loan move to Fiorentina for next season. He’s already settled in, knows the tactics, teammates etc. We’ve already put the miles in on his rehab so why not put our selves in position to reap the rewards? His talent has never been in doubt and he is experienced playing the holding role as part of 2.
I know, I know… but if we could mitigate the risk of another injury with the right payment structure/ low fee etc…
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100% it will appear in a post match thread at least once.
This sounds like the sudden idea of a lad who was down on his luck, had smoked a bowl full of crack cocaine, and just been dumped by his girlfriend would make in his darkest hour. After considering his sheer desperation to even utter such a thought I’d reply, “You’re just high mate!”
Scargill? Fowler?
Melo. Brave suggestion.
I’ve been thinking we are going to sign Lavia and we won’t look back. But with the delay over Fabinho’s deal, and rumoured Bayern interest (why?) I’m half wondering if a Gravenberch or Kimmich deal might materialize.