It seems to me that once Gini has gone, and he will be gone because we’ve already got his replacement, then Hendo will be doing that grafting and Thiago will be doing the more skillful stuff like passing the ball forward and connecting with the attack.
Perhaps then we won’t be seeing this Paul Scholes impersonation from Thiago, who of course is the Gini replacement in the first choice midfield.
Of course we will have to sell Mane or Salah in order to bring in Mbappe, who is undoubtedly desperate to wear the liver bird on his chest.
I suppose ARD’s epistle above will explain why that won’t happen. I’ll save reading that for later when I find that I still can’t get asleep here.
Cash freed up before sales could well equal the equivalent of £150m in fees if all allowed to be used against transfers.
Squad value on the books we can free up the equivalent of £230m worth of fees if we stick new players on 6 year deals by extending contracts for VvD, Alisson and Fabinho and letting Keita and Ox move on.
Wages and profits would probably still need a big sacrifice such as Firmino, Mane, Mane+Firmino or Salah (my order of priority).
Basically we may be in line for a much bigger summer than most believe IF the club decides to take a chance and do what it can.
this is what I see, and for the “depth” we have we’re not doing too bad. just injuries…
Allison
Adrian
Kelleher
Karius (loan)
TAA
Matip (out)
Van Dijk (out)
Robertson
N.Williams
Gomez (out)
Kabak
Tsimikas
Phillips
R.Williams
Davies
van den Berg (loan)
Henderson (out)
Fabinho
Thiago
Wijnaldum
Milner
Keita
Ox-Chamberlain
Grujic (loan)
Jones
Salah
Firmino
Mane
Shaqiri
Origi
Jota
Elliot (loan)
Minamino (loan)
Ojo (loan)
we need to get our injured CB healthy, and to keep guys like Keita healthy for an extended period
I wonder why guys like Keita cannot keep up with the regimen and wonder if they should be on a slightly different program than guys like Milner who just have a genetic trait of being unbreakable.
need another FB who can do both sides. a Danilo-type or Alaba who can also play DM. and a top-notch striker. blow it all on Haaland or Mbappe. franchise player for 6-8 years or more.
@Semmy We have had the numbers for couple of seasons now. The problem is, specially this season, we could never fall back on our options. Neco, Tsimikas, Keita, AOC, Shaqiri, Takumi and Origi have combined for 3968 mins while Robertson alone has clocked 3358 mins.
This was a season when we badly needed our backups to turn up.
It’s not a new problem though. We did a bit of bargain shopping again with the likes of Tsimikas instead of taking Danilo off of City. Am certain the owners don’t want to spend £30mil on a backup, but that’s what we are competing against.
Don’t particularly like the phrase but I’m assuming what Messi was/is at Barca, Ronaldo at Real, Henry for a time at Arsenal maybe? Might even be able to define Gerrard as our franchise player for a long time too. I prefer the Messi at Barca example if talking about our future as during a significant part of his time there he was surrounded by other world class players, the team was the main star, how they operated and tied in with their academy. There was joined up thinking and a lot of success.
Looks to be an interesting list of young players with ending contracts…
Alex Collado - 21 - Barcelona - RW: Recently promoted to Barcelona’s first team, scored 6 goals in 14 appearances for Barcelona B this season. Is in talks with extending his contract at Barcelona.
Oscar Mingueza - 21 - Barcelona - CB: Regular appearances in the Barcelona first team this season but could find his chances stifled after they signed Eric Garcia from Man City. Looks set to leave.
Folarin Balogun - 19 - Arsenal - CF: Would likely have been a bigger part of Arsena;'s squad this season if not for his contract dispute. Has impressed in limited outings in the Europa League.
Luca Netz - 17 - Hertha - LB: Has broken through to the Hertha team this season. Bayern Munich approached him in January but he turned the move down.
Melayro Bogarde - 18 - Hoffenheim - CB: Another CB potentially on the move to Barcelona. Dutch defender has made eight appearances this season.
Kays Ruiz-Atil - 18 - PSG - CM: PSG have an issue with holding onto their youth talent and Ruiz-Atil looks set to be the next one to walk away. Midfielder has been linked with Chelsea.
Aleksander Buksa - 18 - Wisla Krakow - CF: Scored four goals in Ekstraklasa in 19/20 before being frozen out the squad for rejecting a new contract. Has been linked with Bayern, Chelsea, Juventus and Inter.
