Seeing some rumours about Branthwaite. Don’t know if it is bookies shortening their odds and a rumour coming out of thin air with no substance.
We do want a defender. Preferably left footed, and with years left on the clock. Everton are still in financial trouble as they haven’t been able to get the reset they need.
Arguably Branthwaite might have some legs to it. Obviously they don’t usually deal directly with us, but there have been exceptions, and we may propose a deal they want.
After Slot’s first proper game he commented on winning 1v1 duels. Branthwaite is a unit, so he might be someone for Slot to work with and hone.
I’ve heard Branthwaite is slow. I’ve seen him a few times and haven’t come to that conclusion, but obviously as a big unit he won’t be too quick on the turn.
Probably nothing in it, but if Gomez is off, maybe Sepp too, then Branthwaite could make sense.
We want to talk about being opportunistic, test just how desperate Everton are for cash with a sizeable offer for Branthwaite.
They’re financially fucked and already looking like relegation candidates. Worst case is we rock their boat and start to seed that interest to him ahead of him surely moving next summer. At best they may realise that selling him might free up some cash for desperate moves they’ll need to make in January.
It’s a good shout but might be one it’s worth waiting on January for given he is currently injured and not likely to play much between now and then.
If we know they are likely going to be motivated to spend in January we bide our time letting him get fit on their salary, the. If all goes according to plan start tempting them in Dec and if it doesn’t we move on to someone else
I posted this in unreliable rumours but food for thought here too
Something interesting for comparison. The season when we won the PL, we pretty much had a quiet summer window too. Buying only Minamino and having a net gain of around 40mil. So you don’t have to spend big every summer to win. Keeping that core group can be equally or more important
Mentioned Chiesa a few times as a possible cheap option with bags of experience. Glad that there’s something in this, especially given the crazily low figures banded around for him in recent weeks.
Weirdly for all the “he never recovered properly from his knee injury talk” last season was one of his most productive years ever and only once has he ever scored more goals in the league. The fact that he still only scored 9 goals despite being close to an every game player is a pretty good illustration of how he’s really ever been THAT guy even before his knee injury.
Chiesa - injury prone, lost his speed and already looks slow in Italy /maybe the slowest league in Europe. Amrabat looked like a beast there :)/. Juve are desperate to sell him and get him off the wage bill. Thiago Motta definitely does not see him as part of Juve’s future.
Hopefully this is a rumour, but the source is realtively credible.
Why are we interested? Cheap opiton and maybe the club is trying to find a player to replace Matip in Thiago in the injury list and pay him extra 150 000 pounds per week.
Nothing against Mamardashivili, but if there is one position in the squad where we have depth and quality, it is definitely GK. Alisson - one of the best in the world, Kelleher - top goalie, probably only Arsneal have such a solid 2nd choice. And Jaros - already Czech intrenational, had several very good loans in Ireland and Austria, could be easily a better prospect than Grabara.
They just want to sell Alisson to Saudi Arabia and take the money. Becker could easily be our goalkeeper and be one of the best at his position for the next 4-5 seasons.
Three of our leaders and best players will be free to talk to interested clubs in 4 months and the club is watching. Our best defender, our best forward and probably the best youth product of our Academy since Gerrard. What is going to happen, if we lose Virgil with a serious injury? Konate misses matches regularly because of injuries, Quansah still needs to learn and Gomez is much more suited as a full back /by the way he also missed matches regularly in the past/. Still no central defender, inspite of the fact that last summer it was widely explained that the aim this season is to improve the defence. Well, selling van den Berg looks like that for the gurus running the club.
So next season the club must fill several big holes - central defender, replacement for Salah, left back and defensive midfielder. If they think that Chiesa is the new Salah, they are wrong, the boy is the new Aquillani…
Chiesa - injury prone, lost his speed and already looks slow in Italy /maybe the slowest league in Europe.
Ok… I wanted to double-check this because I haven’t watched him much but a top speed of 34.4 km/h (AVG: 32.9) at the Euros for Chiesa versus a top speed of 33.5 km/h (AVG: 31.33) for Bukayo Saka seems to indicate that if he has lost his speed then he was super-duper fast before.
From what has been said , He’s lost a bit of that acceleration which would matter more than top speed.
The tactics of Allegri didn’t suit his style of play either.
The fact that Juventus couldn’t wait to get rid of him , which included him being linked to a swap deal with Sterling etc means that he’s fallen out with people at the club. (Might indicate a discipline issue)
Other clubs were in the running for him quite a while but there was no offer. Liverpool only went in for him when it was a fire-sale time , Juventus probably waited for Barca to make the bid which wasn’t forthcoming. His swap deal with Sterling probably didn’t go through because of the salary demands of Sterling. Juve who wanted to reduce the salary burden weren’t necessarily going to agree to that.
Faced with Barca not being able to make a bid , the possibility of an Italian rival making a swoop for him with an ultra low bid (which those clubs are known for) , Chiesa mucking about in the reserves and then his personal preferences (probably would want a big club coming in with his obvious talent and Liverpool are a big club).
Variety of factors led Juve and Chiesa to nearly bite our hands off when we made that bid.
To me, the guy may have just gone stale at that defend defend defend club. New environment, new challenge, new lease of life - that is what we want to see from him… imagine being a defender having to face Diaz on the one wing, this guy on the other, and MO running down the centre - Happy days for LFC :0)
