Even he’s not stupid enough to sign up for that.
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We do need a top class CB but other than that, I don’t see us spending much. We just reported a loss of 46m and there is worse to come. People are going to be in for a reality check soon. PL clubs are really exposed to the pandemic and I think there is a reckoning coming regarding player’s wages. The current outlay is probably unsustainable for many clubs, us included.
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The more I think about it… the less I believe we should spend big. At this time last year we were thinking that things would be better by the fall. What if they are not?
A loss of £46m over 3 months versus this entire season with a virtually empty stadium PLUS the likely loss of Champions League money. How much is the CL worth to us typically? £50m to £60m? This could be a hole of a quarter billion pounds and counting…
Plus there is no evidence that next year there won’t be another variant. Can we spend big and bet everything that revenues will be back to normal by the fall?
What if it is not? I wouldn’t make any big splashes this summer. We need to clear out the dead-weight and spend smartly.
Kabak for 18m. Yeah sure, why not? Keep Nat for one more season and with VVD, Matip and Gomez back we should be good in most cases.
If we can get Konate for 35m? Then yeah sure, but we should then sell Matip, Davies and Nat first to offset as much as possible.
Attacker: who would be affordable and the best? Odsonne Edouard / Silas Wamangituka / Donyell Malen… We could also go the route of selling either Mane / Firmino and finding his replacement at a similar price.
We are more likely to retake the Champions League slot, which will be harder with the same squad, if we spend big. IMO, I don’t have lots of faith with an aging squad. Big transfers made by Klopp and Co have 100% success rate if they are not injured, so I do not worry about Downing/Carroll-style flops. So, if Klopp ends up buying say, Sancho, I am certain that he will succeed if he remains healthy.
Finally, if we don’t spend this summer, we will have to spend a lot more by summer 2023, perhaps up to £300m.
As for Kabak, if he is expected to have pace as his strong point prior to his loan deal and yet turns out to lack pace, what’s the point of buying him?
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And we would have stood a very good chance of not losing that if we’d have attempted to spend £25/30m earlier on in the Jan window. This league is too difficult to succeed in without addressing issues. As great as Klopp is at developing players he still needs a basis to work from. I don’t think anyone is expecting a high net spend or anything but some drastic work needs completing this summer.
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That’s a massive assumption. We’ve seen how players can take time to settle under Klopp, and we can’t be guaranteed that players will be hits, even with our track record.
The age of the squad is overstated. This isn’t a group of 35 year olds. We’ve a fair few pushing 30 and it’s the right time to start bringing down the average age, but there is plenty of life in these players. From the core lads, I wouldn’t be pushing anyone out of the door.
So 3-4 new players to freshen things up. Sales from the fringes of the squad. Evolution not revolution.
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You say this but by the end of Summer '23 we’d have only 13 players left 9 of which would be on their last 12 months of their deals. (One of which is Origi, just won’t go anywhere that lad).
We’ve got an awful lot to either extend their deals (meaning wage increases and we’ve got the 2nd highest wage bill already) or we would have to move significant numbers on over the next 2 summers.
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Maybe the club should borrow a thing or two from Italian clubs’ way of dealing. For example, Bissouma on loan to Liverpool with an obligatory option to buy if he plays a certain amount of games, with Liverpool paying all of his wages, while Harry Wilson moves the opposite way on a similar deal. 
I’m not even sure that I’m joking about it.
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Another one is player trades that aren’t really player trades. So just for simplicity using same clubs and players. Brighton “buy” Wilson off us for £15m we then use that £15m as the down payment on a Bissouma deal £15m in year one, £10m in bonuses the other £10m spread over next year and the year after at £5m each. I think I’ve actually oversimplified that but just to try and show how some deals, particularly bigger deals may get structured to limit how much cash changes hands.
Italians are masters of negotiating/breaking down deals through a hundred tiny options (patience, long delayed payments, throwing their stock-players of suspect quality in, etc.). I often imagine them at a Sunday lunch table with the grandmother issuing orders. I’m dreading the day when that league gets back to be arguably the strongest in the world.
Edwards who?
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Brighton has no incentives for loaning Bissouma. Yes, that would save cash, which is in very short supply, but he is a contributing player. Wilson is not in our plans and he would be hemorrhaging cash, which is in short supply for us as well, if he isn’t at least sent on loan.
Hypothetically, the way I see it playing out:
Wilson + a down payment + subsequent payments spread over 2-3 years + addons
Brighton gets a player they need without spending cash, gets some much needed cash, and a future cash stream. Liverpool gets the player they need without hemorrhaging too much cash, offloads a player whom we don’t need.
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Kabak
Konate
Bissouma/Neuhaus
Abraham
And if one of the front three is sold, Sancho.
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And by front 3 you mean one of Origi, Shaqiri or Wilson? 
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Oversimplified? I thought I could speak or write even a bit of English until I see the owners thread and finance-related dictionary! And I dared not ask for a translation!
I’ve recently rewatched The Godfather I and II and your post immediately reminded me of them and gave me a good chuckle. 
I imagine Edwards going into the Italian mountains to ask for advice from some elder transfer consigliere. “Eddie, my sweet boy, make them an offer they can’t refuse - Wilson on loan and a box of cannoli, Grujić on a permanent deal, take a hit on him now but don’t forget to ask for a sell-on clause”.
Dread not, though, I don’t see them surpassing any other league of the Big Five any time soon, not unless the Premier League empire crumbles under the weight of debt and player wages.
I was mostly tongue-in-cheek in my previous post, though I agree with this assessment. You could swap Bissouma’s name with many other players out there, albeit the ones who play in clubs that probably aren’t of top six level in PL (some might say that Liverpool isn’t either, though).
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I know, I know. Just couldn’t resist to chip in with my wisdom.
I think I will have to talk about the term “physical prime”. So, normally, physical prime for athletes fall between 25 and 28/29. So, half of our squad, especially the midfield, have passed their physical prime. This matters a lot given Klopp’s high-intensity football style.
But then, buying Sancho after selling Salah means that we will simply grind Sancho to the ground instead of Salah. So, I prefer having both Salah and Sancho.
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I wonder how much Harvey Barnes will cost.
As for Kabak, if he is expected to have pace as his strong point prior to his loan deal and yet turns out to lack pace, what’s the point of buying him?
We can forgo him and buy someone like Botman instead. One obvious pro of buying Botman is that he is 1m90, which means he is probably better than Kabak on the air.
Absolutely! I would prefer both Salah and Sancho too.
Overall, who would you buy:
Kabak - doing well enough, price low-ish, further improvement to come
Konate - looks like a possible younger VVD, very high ceiling
Bissouma/Neuhaus - need to strengthen midfield
Abraham - Origi replacement, upside could be high enough for him to score many goals here
All of the above assume we keep the current strikers, apart from Origi. It assumes Wijnaldum leaves too. We will have a central defender too many, but with lots of question marks over several of them, to do with fitness and returning from long term injury, that’s no bad thing, for now.
Then…
IF one of the front three departs, in addition to all the above, I’d like to sign Sancho, assuming the likes of Haaland and Mbappe are out of reach.