They also have very little money. They were desperately trying to sell Zaha last year and couldn’t, even at a much reduced price.
With Hodgson retiring they might find some money to spend but I would be surprised if they came to us to buy. More likely seeking loans.
I’d take a punt on Zaha as an impact sub at the right price.
Yeah they need to rebuild the squad and might be looking for young, low maintenance players.
How about we offer Origi and Wilson for that Eze kid?
Can you put that in a letter to Edwards please.
He’ll be off to Afcon, so don’t see that as being an option.
Zaha is terribly inconsistent. We need a dependable player.
I like the look of Alioski at Leeds. He’s a winger / wing-back, and I’m sure he was playing as LB recently. Could be good back-up for Robbo.
He’s leaving Leeds on a Bosman. Could be an inexpensive gamble. He can’t be any worse than Tsimikas.
Tsimikas isn’t a bad player, he just got unlucky with getting Covid and then I think an injury which kept him out for a while. Its also difficult with being a back up in a Klopp side as he believes in players getting and maintaining rhythm and so it is difficult to get that from just one or two appearances.
Going forwards, with a full pre season behind him, I think we will see a bit more of him, unless he hasn’t settled and wants to leave. In which case the guy from Leeds may be a useful option?
Tsimikas is a good player, certainly better than a lot of the other options we’ve pined for like Jamal Lewis.
But unless Robertson gets injured he’ll struggle to get a look in. Even when Robbo is off form he still puts in solid performances.
Ryan Bertrand is a free agent. Would you be interested?
No, I’m married.
Potentially another option should Tsimikas wish to leave?
It’s too difficult out to guess how much money we have, or how much we are willing to spend. Then how much will players cost? And how much can we sell our fringe players for? And how much of an impact will covid have had, such that there might be some fantastic bargains to refresh the squad?
You would have to think the good players we all know about will continue to be quite expensive, but I’m also interested in seeing what bargains we can unearth. We have form for that, even in pre covid times.
Anyway, minimum three players needed who can all impact the first team: striker, midfielder, central defender. Then some squad players needed too, depending on who moves on.
Will be an interesting summer.
Sancho, Bissouma, Konate.
Probably will be 0/3 in my initial guesses!
If you factor in the potential adverse impact of AFCON (9 January to 6 February 2022) on the squad, then I doubt we will be in the market for any African registered internationals e.g. Bissouma this summer.
Just think Bissouma and Konate may be like the Lewis and Werner/Sarr of last year. We seem to not mind some things being in the public domain but there’s usually radio silence (at least on our side) on the ones we actually end up bringing in.
Before Icardi, before De Sciglio, before Koke…there was Javi Martinez.
How I wanted us to sign him before he moved to Bayern!
You are probably right… so my 0/3 prediction is well on the way!
If Keita leaves, that might give us more stomach for another African midfielder, especially if we bring another in who won’t be affected by AFCON. Lots of permutations, but the point is well made, and we need to remember the impact AFCON will have on the season.
At which point, while I’m on it, it potentially makes Mo a little more vulnerable, especially since he apparently wants to represent Egypt in every form of international football under the sun next season! So if PSG are interested, maybe this is the time we let one of our African strikers go?
Reluctantly, and I’m not pushing him out the door, but this might be the time when a big offer is on the table for him, and a convergence of interests means we use the dough to improve the overall team with a couple of other big signings, much like when Coutinho moved on?
If we sell Salah I seriously doubt we get close to his value this summer. We then have a lot of goals to replace to simply stand still. If we sell Mane I don’t think the price would be much different to the Salah price and a lot closer to being the real value of the player. Losing Mane from the current team hurts us a lot less in goal contributions but hopefully he stays and improves on this year anyway (although not guaranteed as many seem to think. I think, more than Salah, he required an effective Firmino to really shine, hopefully he stays and I’m wrong.). If we are selling one of the two then I’m sorry Mane going is closer to achieving full value and the most scope to see on pitch improvement.
Right and with a fit Gomez and van Dijk he would have played a lot more. Now we had either young/not so good CB’s or midfielders playing CB. Klopp needed stability in defence so he played TAA en Robertson a much as possible.
I think Rhys is the only person who played CB and didn’t get injured. 