Think there’s a good chance we baulk at the fee for Kerkez with potentially a few spots to fill.
For me he’s clearly the best option. Right age, right profile, PL tested. But can we be spending £40m-£50m on a fullback? How keen will Bournemouth be to do business given the vultures will be circling to pick off the likes of Huijsen, Kluivert and Semenyo.
Only other options I could realistically think of are Hato at Ajax, Gutierrez at Girona and Carreras at Benfica. All fit that up and coming, attacking full back mould.
Hato perhaps lacks the experience we generally look for but he’s already established at Ajax and a part of the Dutch set up. He has the advantage of being more capable of stepping in at CB than the others giving that flexibility we value.
Gutierrez has a release clause at about €35m which makes the deal easier. Carreras would have the added motivation of sticking it to United who let him go last summer.
Really think it depends on what we need to do elsewhere but I’d be surprised if whoever we go for isn’t in this pool along with Kerkez and Ait-Nouri.
Kerkez for me. Like everything about him. Lots of links to Huijsen too from Bournemouth…they will be hard to negotiate with for the pair.
At RB, frimpong appears to have a release clause. Aina from Forrest is available for free…could be decent along with Bradley to share the burden. Aina is 29 though.
By way of example: say Kerkez is 40m and Kelleher is 20m on the open market. Let’s say both sign on 5 year deals and the acquisition cost is amortized over the 5 years.
Kerkez would be a first year reduction in PSR of 8m for us (1/5 of 40m) with Kelleher representing a 20m gain.
For Bournemouth, Kelleher would represent a 4m first year reduction in PSR (1/5 of 20m) with Kerkez representing a 40m gain.
12m PSR profit for us, and 36m for Bournemouth.
If both parties inflate the deals by 10m, then Kerkez would be a first year reduction in PSR of 10m for us (1/5 of 50m) and 30m gain on Kelleher.
For Bournemouth, Kelleher would be 6m reduction (1/5 of 30m) and Kerkez a 50m gain.
20m PSR profit for us, and 44m for Bournemouth.
Both teams get 8m more wiggle room in PSR, and the difference in transfer cost between the players remains 20m. Win-win, and the numbers are still credible, which I think is a requirement.
We were close to bringing in Zubimendi. Are we going for a CM again and do we think that after Gravenberchs outstanding season the profile for new signing in that position has changed?
Depending on other necessities (team might need three more new players in addition to those we already know team needs), I think Slot will go for one more midfielder of defensive/controller variety. Out goes Endo, in goes someone else. Wish it was Bajčetić, though, and I wish to believe it mostly depends on him.
To me Kerkez is miles ahead of Ait-Nouri. Ait-Nouri is probably a little bit better in his technical skills but Kerkez’s energy, drive, pace and power are lightyears ahead. No contest for me, push the boat out for Kerkez.
I wouldn’t be surprised if we thought there was still a need there. We’ve done well with what we have, but you can see with the way we often use Mac that two deep ball playing mids is something Slot likes the option of doing and we have limited options for how to do that right now, especially with Mac also being one of best options as one of the attacking mids. So a new one gives us more options for how to use Mac as the game needs, allows for better rotation at the base of the mid, and even takes some of the work load off Dom if allows Mac to be the attacking mid in more games. So you can definitely see the value in it. Maybe Gravy’s success there changes the profile a little bit of who we’re interested in, but I wouldnt be surprised to see us go back for someone like Zubi even if not him.
Of course, Steph is the big wild card here. Last summer there seemed concerns over his ability to play through tight spaces as much as there was his physical readiness. If this loan continues to go well maybe it’s a position we hold off on doing anything with for another year given it’s very possible we’re already committed to having to make 4 other moves (replacing the out of contract 3 plus a LB).
I think we forget how young Bajcetic is. He only turns 21 in October. For context that’s younger than McConnell who you’d still consider as something of an emerging youth player.
I think it’d definitely be too risky to go into next season with him and Gravenberch as your main six options. But if we believe there’s a first team player in him, and it certainly looked that way before his injuries, do you want to block his pathway with a big money signing there? He’ll need to play to continue his development and did start out as a CB so maybe he’s a bit of an emergency option for us there too.
Alternatively, if we think the injuries have hampered his development to the extent he’s not going to be the player we once thought he might be then after a decent six months in Spain it might be the time to sell.
Personally I think I’d want to keep him around, sell Morton and let McConnell get some game time on loan. Question then is do you hold off another year on buying a big money CM and keep Endo around. As these things often do, it probably depends on the contract three and how much business we have to do elsewhere.
We have four midfield options that Slot uses regularly - Mac Allister, Gravenberch, Szoboszlai and Jones. Clearly we need a fifth, and the last couple of weeks we can all see a bit of fatigue creeping in.
Credit to Endo. I would not call him a fifth choice like the other four, but Slot has started to use him a bit more lately. If Bajcetic can come back and get into the reckoning, I’d be fine with that too.
We will clearly have to sort out several other positions ahead of a fifth choice midfielder, and if we don’t make a midfield signing, it could be a bit of luck that Bajcetic needs to come back and make an impression.
I suppose it will all depend on budget and how many other signings we need to make.
I think it has much to do with his injuries and those January reports from Liverpool-related press that Liverpool were willing to sell him at the right price. It’s always better to find long-term solutions in-house, especially given that club already have to do a lot of strengthening in other areas, but those reports have discouraged me from thinking that Doak might have a future at Liverpool.
