Summer 2022 priorities (and realistic options)

[moore_94]

6 minutes ago, Ric Flair said:

Yes he was quite well regarded, we wanted him to stay but there had been a period of time where he'd been lined up for a loan move and didn't get it, then was played out of position and Thomas chosen ahead of him at LB and he got the nod in the 1st team as well which probably made Bassey's mind up for him.

 

It's one of them, was going to happen eventually.

I think he is probably the first player we have not kept (for whatever reason) for quite a while that has actually done well so far?

Edited 6 May 2022 by moore_94

[Xen]

Out:

Bertrand (he's injured, so pay off his contract)

Vestergaard (minimal fee)

Tielemans (£25m)

Choudhury (£15m)

Soyuncu (£20m)

Ward (£10m)

 

In:

Iversen (return from loan)

Praet (return from loan)

Colwill (£?m)

Lookman (£15m)

De Ketelaere (£30m)

Johnson/Madueke (£25m, depends on if Forest get promoted)

Another CB (??)

 

Net will probably be around -£40m with Colwill and the other CB (I'd still take Tarkowski on a free as the Evans alternative). Could probably sell Perez as well (£15m?) if pressed.

Then supplement with youth where we can. We've got some really promising guys in the academy - wait and see how they got in preseason and make a decision on who to send out (to clubs we trust, like Luton) and who to keep around and integrate with the first XI in training.

 

Could genuinely be Vardy's last season, so I'd want us to keep Daka and Iheanacho. If we can get back to playing the style of football from 19/20 and 20/21 then I reckon they could both have a great year. Big if, though, given our current trajectory.

 

Feels like we need a lot more than that to get back to being top 6 competitive though but I don't think we're likely to invest that much, nor will we be able to attract players of sufficient quality without European football. This next season is probably going to be another transitional one - hopefully in the right direction. Whether Rodgers stays for that journey, I don't know...

 

[sacreblueits442]

1 hour ago, moore_94 said:

I don’t remember him being too much of a standout in our under 23s when watching

 

Do you know if he was highly rated at all? Turned down a contract so we obviously thought enough to want to keep him

...pretty much a regular in the old regime!!!

 Very physical player, undecided where his best position would be.

The change in our academy's direction has allowed him it seems to try to start a career elsewhere. 

[themightyfin]

1 hour ago, Xen said:

Out:

Bertrand (he's injured, so pay off his contract)

Vestergaard (minimal fee)

Tielemans (£25m)

Choudhury (£15m)

Soyuncu (£20m)

Ward (£10m)

 

In:

Iversen (return from loan)

Praet (return from loan)

Colwill (£?m)

Lookman (£15m)

De Ketelaere (£30m)

Johnson/Madueke (£25m, depends on if Forest get promoted)

Another CB (??)

 

Net will probably be around -£40m with Colwill and the other CB (I'd still take Tarkowski on a free as the Evans alternative). Could probably sell Perez as well (£15m?) if pressed.

Then supplement with youth where we can. We've got some really promising guys in the academy - wait and see how they got in preseason and make a decision on who to send out (to clubs we trust, like Luton) and who to keep around and integrate with the first XI in training.

 

Could genuinely be Vardy's last season, so I'd want us to keep Daka and Iheanacho. If we can get back to playing the style of football from 19/20 and 20/21 then I reckon they could both have a great year. Big if, though, given our current trajectory.

 

Feels like we need a lot more than that to get back to being top 6 competitive though but I don't think we're likely to invest that much, nor will we be able to attract players of sufficient quality without European football. This next season is probably going to be another transitional one - hopefully in the right direction. Whether Rodgers stays for that journey, I don't know...

 

Where's the net spend of £40 million coming from?

And you really think we would get 15m for Hamza? Behave. 

[Deeg67]

20 minutes ago, themightyfin said:

Where's the net spend of £40 million coming from?

And you really think we would get 15m for Hamza? Behave. 

And 10M for Ward sounds almost as absurd at this point.

[Xen]

26 minutes ago, themightyfin said:

Where's the net spend of £40 million coming from?

And you really think we would get 15m for Hamza? Behave. 

It's a thread for realistic suggestions of what we'd like to see, no? A £40m investment into the playing staff is a reasonably modest amount for a club with our aspirations of qualifying for Europe again, especially as its abundantly clear we need a squad refresh after a few years where picking and choosing a limited number of quality transfers has left us slipping come the end of the season.

 

Choudhury for £15m is perhaps a tad optimistic, but there are plenty of bang-average players who have gone for similar amounts to lower-prem clubs in recent years. £8-10m at least would be my expectation.

 

5 minutes ago, Deeg67 said:

And 10M for Ward sounds almost as absurd at this point.

We bought him for £12m, he's not played any more or less frequently than he did at Liverpool and if anything he's enhanced his reputation with good showings as the first choice keeper for Wales. If a lower-prem club is in the market for a keeper then he's a good option and £10m is about the going rate for that.

 

 

 

[Deeg67]

You don't think three seasons of not managing to earn a single start in the PL will do anything to his value?

[themightyfin]

1 hour ago, Xen said:

It's a thread for realistic suggestions of what we'd like to see, no? A £40m investment into the playing staff is a reasonably modest amount for a club with our aspirations of qualifying for Europe again, especially as its abundantly clear we need a squad refresh after a few years where picking and choosing a limited number of quality transfers has left us slipping come the end of the season.

 

Choudhury for £15m is perhaps a tad optimistic, but there are plenty of bang-average players who have gone for similar amounts to lower-prem clubs in recent years. £8-10m at least would be my expectation.

 

We bought him for £12m, he's not played any more or less frequently than he did at Liverpool and if anything he's enhanced his reputation with good showings as the first choice keeper for Wales. If a lower-prem club is in the market for a keeper then he's a good option and £10m is about the going rate for that.

 

 

 

I'll ask again....where does the £40m come from? 

[kyleolly]

Get Giorgio Chiellini in for a year or 2 to Marshall the defence and coach them at defending set pieces.

[Ric Flair]

9 minutes ago, themightyfin said:

I'll ask again....where does the £40m come from? 

If we are courting any player in the £15-30m bracket which we seemingly are then there's going to be something of a net spend because there's absolutely no way we're getting more than £40-50m combined for Tielemans and Soyuncu and the fringe players like Soumare, Praet, Perez, Hamza etc we may struggle to get anything other than loans for.

 

 

[Xen]

22 minutes ago, themightyfin said:

I'll ask again....where does the £40m come from? 

Some funds raised by player sales, and then hopefully some of the league/Europe prize money and TV money can be ringfenced for player transfers. Some owner investment too, hopefully.

 

I'm not sure what point you're trying to make. That we're only ever going to break even in each transfer window? We spent £60m without any meaningful outgoings last summer, so a net figure of £40m isn't exactly unbelievable.

 

Other clubs of a similar size to ourselves regularly manage to invest similar amounts into their playing squad without falling foul of FFP, so there's no reason we can't also. Will it happen? Possibly not, but at some point this squad desperately needs that extra investment.

[JimJams]

Put the entire budget onto an RW. If there's anything left use it to make Lookman permanent if possible. After that it's s one out one in basis. 

If we're keeping a hold of players that aren't the standard then Rodgers needs to do that thing called coaching. They should generally play less frequently anyway.

[RowlattsFox]

The free transfer market could be key but I've just tried to have a look at potential names and majority of decent options are players who will require stupid wages and wouldn't even consider us. 

[moore_94]

One player I hope we look at on a free is Florian Grillitsch - defensive mid at Hoffenheim

 

Very much a ballplaying defensive mid who scores very highly in progressive passing and carries

 

But also gets stuck in as he scores highly against other midfielders in interceptions and clearances, and decently in tackles, and also aerials won as he is 6ft2

 

None of Hoffenheims player score well on pressures so hopefully this is just my an indication of the style of play Hoffenheim use (his pressures per 90 have dropped over the years to almost half what it was a few years ago as well)

 

[Ric Flair]

59 minutes ago, moore_94 said:

One player I hope we look at on a free is Florian Grillitsch - defensive mid at Hoffenheim

 

Very much a ballplaying defensive mid who scores very highly in progressive passing and carries

 

But also gets stuck in as he scores highly against other midfielders in interceptions and clearances, and decently in tackles, and also aerials won as he is 6ft2

 

None of Hoffenheims player score well on pressures so hopefully this is just my an indication of the style of play Hoffenheim use (his pressures per 90 have dropped over the years to almost half what it was a few years ago as well)

 

Like the shout, got plenty about him. Another player I'd like to see us have a nibble at if they don't come up is Sander Berge from Sheffield Utd. He's had a very good season for them and prior to his move the year before last he'd been very good for Genk. 

 

Can play DCM, CM or box to box with ease. Tall and quick too.

[Ric Flair]

Raiding disillusioned academy players from big clubs like the likes of Brighton and Southampton have done in recent years is another avenue we ought to look at, I know we were sniffing around James McAtee before Man City convinced him to sign a new deal. Maybe we could revisit that although he'd cost a decent chunk but possibly a loan move if we need to bring in cheap additions.

 

One who we ought to be pushing aggressively and offering a platform to become a key player for us is Omari Hutchinson from Arsenal. Contract up next year, rumblings he is impatient and doesn't want to end up like Balogun and Nketiah. Left footed, RW/ACM. He's pure sauce.

[Sankey93]

Brendan has a serious problem, he either goes 3 at the back with wings backs or he uses his winger formation and tbf if he does that then we need to buy 2 quality wingers. We clearly need a RW and for me Barnes is not good enough!

[Dahnsouff]

14 hours ago, JimJams said:

Put the entire budget onto an RW. If there's anything left use it to make Lookman permanent if possible. After that it's s one out one in basis. 

If we're keeping a hold of players that aren't the standard then Rodgers needs to do that thing called coaching. They should generally play less frequently anyway.

Suicide. CB front and centre.

[Lesta2014]

For me we’ve played our best attacking football in a 4231, Barnes shone in this system as did youri and vardy. It’s the way to go I think

[An Sionnach]

Just now, Lesta2014 said:

For me we’ve played our best attacking football in a 4231, Barnes shone in this system as did youri and vardy. It’s the way to go I think

We need a new striker then because none of our current lot can do it. That is now beyond dispute. I dread to think how much that would cost. Calvert - Lewin perhaps - £50 million?

[JimJams]

1 hour ago, Dahnsouff said:

Suicide. CB front and centre.

I don’t think having a CB up front will work, even if he’s playing central.

Maybe the last throw if the dice with Vestegaard!

 

On a serious note RW is the only position which we need a clear improvement for our first 11. A cb pairing of Fofana and Evans doesn’t need urgent improvement. That’s why I say after that we go like for like. If we sell Soy, get in a cb, if we sell Dan, get in a cb. If we sell Vestegaard, get in another member of the Addams family.

Edited 7 May 2022 by JimJams

[JimJams]

25 minutes ago, An Sionnach said:

We need a new striker then because none of our current lot can do it. That is now beyond dispute. I dread to think how much that would cost. Calvert - Lewin perhaps - £50 million?

Given up on Daka already then?

Amazing.

[sacreblueits442]

47 minutes ago, An Sionnach said:

We need a new striker then because none of our current lot can do it. That is now beyond dispute. I dread to think how much that would cost. Calvert - Lewin perhaps - £50 million?

...you are definitely looking in the wrong places!!!

[moore_94]

Do it.

 

 

[An Sionnach]

48 minutes ago, JimJams said:

Given up on Daka already then?

Amazing.

No not at all, but he is not a lone striker , he needs a partner.

Edited 7 May 2022 by An Sionnach