Everton fans used the same song for Peter Reid…
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After yesterday’s game, the spotlight has moved onto our homegrown players, and who will depart and stay. There’s question marks over most of them, which makes our summer plans very interesting.
Let’s start with Jones and Elliott. Jones is used more often than Elliott, which shows that he’s ahead in the pecking order, so I doubt we’ll sell him. Elliott is a different story. We need a midfielder who can bridge the gulf in quality and drop in when we want to rest MacAllister or Gravenberch. Jones should be the fourth choice midfielder, not the third, and that’s one of our areas we should address this summer. He’ll be a decent squad player who seems happy to be here. Elliott on the other hand has made noises about wanting more games, and since Slot has barely used him, it just makes sense.
Regarding our homegrown players, this is what we submitted for this season (2024/25):
Kelleher, Jaros, Gomez, TAA, Jones, Morton, Tom Hill (7 from a squad of 22)
U21’s who don’t need to be registered include: Quansah, Bradley, Elliott, Nyoni, McConnell, Danns
Bradley will be moved to the HG list next season, so will likely take Kelleher’s place. Questions hang over Quansah, Gomez (reports he doesn’t want us to stand in his way if an offer comes in), Morton, Elliott, and of course, TAA.
Does Slot fancy Quansah, or would he be willing to sanction a loan to aid his development? Will Gomez want to seek first team football, or would be happy to spend another season as back-up (I know most of this season has been impacted by injury), as there were reports he wouldn’t kick up a fuss, but didn’t want us to stand in his way if an offer came in which appealed to him. Does Slot see a long-term place for Elliott and his impact sub appearances forming part of his development? Kelleher will be seeking first team football in the summer, and Morton will likely depart too.
As of right now, I could see 5-6 names filling our HG slots next season:
Jaroz, Gomez, Bradley, Jones, Nyoni and maybe Rio if he qualifies.
Kelleher and TAA will no longer be there, and we can only submit a maximum of 17 non-homegrown players from a squad of 25, so I don’t believe we can just fill the rest with U21’s.
According to this article, we could have 2 spots to fill, although without Elliott or Quansah in my thinking, it could be even more.
Do Liverpool have a homegrown issue ahead of next season?
Frimpong qualifies as HG, and I’ve already made the case elsewhere why I’d like us to go for him regardless of that, but very interesting to see that Semenyo would be classed as HG, and Jamie Gittens from Dortmund is another as well mentioned in the article.
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You do realise that you don’t have to fill up all the homegrown slots right?
The main limitation is just that you can’t have >17 non-homegrown players. That’s all.
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While true , it’s always good to maximize the homegrown players. If only to have a more competitive bench.
This is providing we have good enough homegrown players to get in.
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Hard no for Gittens. He seems a Sancho.
Frimpong can be a squad option.
- Alisson
- Marmadashvilli
- Konate
- Van Dijk
- Robertson
- Tsimikas
- Endo
- Gravenberch
- Mac Allister
- Szoboszlai
- Diaz
- Salah
- Gakpo
- Nunez
- Jota
- Chiesa
We’d expect Nunez, Chiesa and Tsimikas to depart, which would give us four non HG spaces.
I think Kerkez will take one, and a striker will probably take another. If Huijsen is someone the club want, that’s another.
So it’s getting pretty tight. A right back could take the last spot, unless we go for Frimpong who is HG.
If we want to add more than that, we’d have to make decisions on Endo, Jota, maybe even Diaz or Konate come into the conversation?
I wonder if the plan is to keep Endo, but bring back Bajcetic (who I think is HG) for midfield. That would give us six.
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It’s really a shame that Robbo doesn’t qualify as homegrown. But those are the rules.
Not sure on Chiesa departing.
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I’m still of the opinion that there will be far less turnover than most people expect. Presumably we let one of Robertson or Tsimikas go for sure, but that spot would likely go to their replacement.
Apart from that what do we need? Because again, if we sign a new forward, one is leaving, so that’s again a straight swap. I’m not sure we sign Huijsen unless one of our centre-backs is leaving, and again I’m still agnostic as to whether Alexander-Arnold is leaving or not, but if he is, surely we would be targeting a younger player who may not need to be registered, since Bradley would be the obvious starter?
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Forgot about Bajcetic. He’d be homegrown.
From the list of 17, I think Nunez, Chiesa, Tsimikas, are certainties to leave, with question marks over Jota, Diaz, Konate and Endo. We can replace all of those with non-HG options.
It’s when we’re looking at back-up options that we currently have i.e. Quansah, Gomez, Jones, Elliott, and if we start selling any of those, we couldn’t replace them with non-HG options, and in terms of depth, that’s when things start to get tight.
If both Quansah and Gomez were to exit, it would leave us looking for at least 2 CBs. We may struggle just to find one at a suitable level, so I can’t see letting both leave.
A loan for Quansah could be very good for all concerned. I’d encourage Joe to stay for at least a season.
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Yeah, it definitely wouldn’t be ideal, and I couldn’t see that happening. I know last year, there were reports Gomez wanted to establish himself as a first choice CB somewhere, preferably in London, and that he wouldn’t push for a move, but would ask us not to stand in his way if an offer did come in.
Quansah really could do with a loan and get some serious game time at the top level. The question marks over him are that Slot really doesn’t like using him, and most of the time, it’s out of position at RB. Ideally, we’d look to loan him out, sign a decent CB, and keep Gomez for another year.
On the whole, I think due to Gomez’s injury, he’ll probably end up staying one more year, although he’ll be 29 years old come May 2026. Saying that, I’m sure someone would still sign him in that age.
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Nyoni and Ngumoha are both U21 and so can play without being registered in the 25 man squad.
I believe Bajcetic will also still be classed as an U21 for next season so his return to the squad could easily cover the departure of say Tyler Morton without contributing to our 25 man squad.
Ultimately it’s about the 17 other spots and aside from Trent and Kelleher anyone else leaving likely frees up a non-homegrown spot. It’s why I don’t see us letting Quansah or Gomez go anywhere this summer.
Jaros, Bradley, Gomez, Quansah, Elliott and Jones is already six. Last year we had seven but one of them was Tom Hill, whoever the hell that is.
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Was this before or after he came out to say that he regrets nothing about staying and felt that it was the better outcome for him?
Doesn’t he? He has played in 7 of our last 11 eleven league games.
The reason our squad players have not played more is that we had a league title to clinch. Slot has focused on getting the best XI out there as much as possible to secure the trophy. It’s nothing to do with him not rating or wanting Endo, Quansah, Elliott, Jones etc…
I think some people on this forum are having a bit of an overreaction to a dead rubber, post-league winning game away at a team still fighting to qualify for the CL. Before the game the opinion of most was that we’ll probably lose because we’ll rotate and the motivation won’t be there for us, after the game the opinion seems to be get rid of all the squad players they’re all shite 
I think we’ll sign a LB, a RB and a CF. We’ll let Tsimikas, Morton, Kelleher and Nunez go. I’d be surprised to see much more happen.
The RB signing, if one is made, will be really interesting. With Salah talking about his conversation with Slot and essentially removing defensive responsibility from him then the type of player coming in on that side will have a big impact on how the rest of the team plays.
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He wasn’t actively looking to leave, but the Newcastle situation with Gordon presented an opportunity. Hopefully, his words are still true this summer, and he’ll stay another year.
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The more I see of him, the more I’m certain he’ll depart in the summer. He just doesn’t look like he’s up to it physically, which was one of my biggest fear - an experienced player coming to PL from Italian league on the back of ACL injury. As much as I personally like him, I’d like us to cut our losses on him.
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Salah’s role will probably influence not just the RB signing but also the signing of a centre back. Whoever it is, he’ll need to be able to cover a lot of ground. We’ll see what happens with Bradley’s fitness but I thought he worked so well with Salah in the attacking aspect - but the two of them leave a lot of space to be exploited on the counter.
I think Gomez also leaves, as does Kelleher (but his replacement has already been secured). I think the club will look to sign a centre back in addition to those positions you listed.
Elliott has only played 90 minutes in 3 games this season, Accrington, Plymouth and PSV in a dead rubber. His game time amounts to 780 minutes, which is 8 games so far. I’ll accept Slot’s comments about Elliott’s injury, and making progress, over the last few months getting back to his old self, but I still think if someone made a decent bid, we’d consider it.
Quansah has played 4 90 minute games this season. Include his overall minutes of around 1200mins (according to Transfermarket), his minutes combine to 13 games overall. That will increase with the remaining games.
The depth beyond the first XI have been a talking point most of the season. It’s not a result of yesterday’s game. If anything, the game reinforced what’s been said about our depth, possible departures etc. I don’t accept the lack of rotation was because we had a league title to clinch, given we were also competing in the UCL until we started looking leggy in February, and lost the Carabao Cup Final and getting knocked out by PSG in the same week. We were competing on multiple fronts, not just the league, and using the same core group of players caught up with us.
There’s a lot of moving parts this summer. Diaz is an unknown, due to a possible desire to move to Barcelona. Konate’s contract situation is another, with PSG and Real Madrid sniffing around. Jota is another with 2 years left on his deal, and it’s whether we let him get to his final year, or cash in due to injuries catching up with him. All are unknowns at this time, and feed into the possibility of upheaval this summer. However, I think the club will already know the answers to these, it’s just the fans that won’t know them until things are announced or briefed to journalists.
So it’s entirely possible it could be quieter than most of us believe, but I think it’s likely it’ll be very active in terms of departures and incomings, and I’ll be interested to see how the likes of Nyoni and Rio fit in, as we wouldn’t want to block their pathway to the first team.
Jusy picking up on your last line I would not be moving any pieces to create pathways for Nyoni, Ngumoha, Morrison or any other player from the U18s or U21s based on how this season has gone. They’re nowhere near the level of the players we are currently carrying as squad players. Elliott is miles ahead of Nyoni, for example.
I’m a big believer in our academy, obviously, but none of them stood out this season and if you’re not destroying the U21 league - as Jones, Elliott, Quansah and Bradley have all done - then you’re not ready to compete at PL level in my opinion.
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