Summer Transfer Window 25/26 *Sponsored by Bigpig*

BaZ87 said:
With Kerkez and Frimpong we'll certainly be adding some serious pace to the side and you can't say it's not needed. Salah's no longer the speed merchant he once was and while not slow, neither Gakpo or Diaz are real flyers on the other flank. Szobo was our only real starter that had any real legs on him.

I'll no doubt be proven wrong but with the interest in Wirtz and these two full back (probable) signings I'm starting to convince myself that we're not going to sign an out and out centre forward this summer and it'll be something like a box midfield or false 9 + 2 high and wide forwards. I can't see a world where we have Salah not tracking back and 2 fullbacks flying forward without Szobo in the side and maybe we'll balance that all out by having an extra body in midfield as opposed to a centre forward.
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Heres a thought regarding a no.9, could a possibility be to play Salah in the CF role, to make use of his finishing ability and reduce the requirement on him physically as he gets older and play Frimpong on the right side and Bradley at RB, thereby being able to play both Bradley and Frimpong ?
 
Tombstone said:
Heres a thought regarding a no.9, could a possibility be to play Salah in the CF role, to make use of his finishing ability and reduce the requirement on him physically as he gets older and play Frimpong on the right side and Bradley at RB, thereby being able to play both Bradley and Frimpong ?
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I did wonder last summer whether Salah would move more centrally (more as a 10 than a 9) but after the season he's had and how we've played, I just don't see it now. It was few months back so may have changed (I doubt) but a statto put out a tweet showing how few shots whoever played as our 9 was having compared to our wide players - that wasn't by chance and wouldn't suit Salah. And while Frimpong is an attack minded wingback/fullback, he's not an out and out forward that will get the attacking return our eggheads want from forwards.

Although from an offensive point of view rather than a defensive one, having a flying fullback behind him will help Salah. As I mentioned, he's lost half a yard of pace now and sides do double up on him - that will be a lot harder to do though when you've got a flying machine making over or underlapping runs around him. As long as Szobo's in the side or another who can do two peoples running then hopefully the defensive side won't be a huge issue. The Wirtz link is what confuses things and makes me question (along with the fact we haven't played with an out and out 9 this season) whether we will go for a striker.
 
BaZ87 said:
I did wonder last summer whether Salah would move more centrally (more as a 10 than a 9) but after the season he's had and how we've played, I just don't see it now. It was few months back so may have changed (I doubt) but a statto put out a tweet showing how few shots whoever played as our 9 was having compared to our wide players - that wasn't by chance and wouldn't suit Salah. And while Frimpong is an attack minded wingback/fullback, he's not an out and out forward that will get the attacking return our eggheads want from forwards.

Although from an offensive point of view rather than a defensive one, having a flying fullback behind him will help Salah. As I mentioned, he's lost half a yard of pace now and sides do double up on him - that will be a lot harder to do though when you've got a flying machine making over or underlapping runs around him. As long as Szobo's in the side or another who can do two peoples running then hopefully the defensive side won't be a huge issue. The Wirtz link is what confuses things and makes me question (along with the fact we haven't played with an out and out 9 this season) whether we will go for a striker.
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I wonder if not getting a striker might be a bad idea, we've seen whats happened to Arsenal with the lack of investment in a striker. Salah has had a superb season, but if he scores 10 goals less next season those 10 need to be made up from somewhere, especially if the likes of Arsenal do improve with a striker next season and put up more of a fight. Maybe a combination of Frimpong+Wirtz can fill those missing 10, but I wonder if not getting a striker to replace Nunez will be seen as weakening. Having said that , Kerkez, Frimpong, Wirtz and a 60-80m striker, would be nigh on 300m and I'm not sure, even with outgoings, that I see FSG splashing that amount...though I'm happy to be proven wrong on that :)
 
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C Kent said:
You forgot a cb from your list @Tombstone :p Ekitike is apparently available for 70m. R.e. Wirtz - man city have apparently pulled out
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Ah yeah and a CB, Wirtz would be a hell of a signing, he's been class every time I've seen him but could I foresee FSG forking out 120m or more for him , of that I'm not convinced. I also feel that Wirtz himself would rather Bayern but the idea of Szobo, Gravenberch, Mac Allister and Wirtz running around the midfield regions is downright pulse racing.
 
I think he's bayern bound aswell..but... Wirtz is sponsored by Adidas and who are our new shirt manufacturers? /raise eyebrow

Yes, I'm straw clutching :cry:
 
Tombstone said:
I wonder if not getting a striker might be a bad idea, we've seen whats happened to Arsenal with the lack of investment in a striker. Salah has had a superb season, but if he scores 10 goals less next season those 10 need to be made up from somewhere, especially if the likes of Arsenal do improve with a striker next season and put up more of a fight. Maybe a combination of Frimpong+Wirtz can fill those missing 10, but I wonder if not getting a striker to replace Nunez will be seen as weakening. Having said that , Kerkez, Frimpong, Wirtz and a 60-80m striker, would be nigh on 300m and I'm not sure, even with outgoings, that I see FSG splashing that amount...though I'm happy to be proven wrong on that :)
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And yet we've just won the League without playing with an out and out striker. Even when Nunez has played, our only proper striker, he's done more work going backwards than going forwards. As we've show (and when we won the League last time too) you don't need to have a 20 goal a season number 9 if you've got goals from elsewhere. I'm not saying we won't sign a striker but if the Wirtz link is anything to go by then it looks like our priorities lay elsewhere but maybe that's just us being opportunistic as players as good as Wirtz don't become available all the time and if we can't do that deal we then look at a striker.

I think we get hung up too much on positions rather than attributes and roles in the side. As I touched on with in my last post, our main goal threats are our wide players - other sides do it differently with a goalscoring number 9 and suppliers in wide positions. The end result is the same.

As for money, it wouldn't shock me one bit if we spent that sort of money. How much we spend is usually massively underestimated - in Klopp's last summer we had a net spend of around £160m and we could potentially spend £300m+ without having a net spend much beyond that. There's a fair amount of players, many of whom that don't or barely feature that could leave this summer and mostly fetch decent money. I wouldn't be shocked if Kelleher, Kostas, Gomez, Morton, Elliott, Doak and Nunez all left. Those alone will fetch a lot of money.
 
BaZ87 said:
And yet we've just won the League without playing with an out and out striker. Even when Nunez has played, our only proper striker, he's done more work going backwards than going forwards. As we've show (and when we won the League last time too) you don't need to have a 20 goal a season number 9 if you've got goals from elsewhere. I'm not saying we won't sign a striker but if the Wirtz link is anything to go by then it looks like our priorities lay elsewhere but maybe that's just us being opportunistic as players as good as Wirtz don't become available all the time and if we can't do that deal we then look at a striker.

I think we get hung up too much on positions rather than attributes and roles in the side. As I touched on with in my last post, our main goal threats are our wide players - other sides do it differently with a goalscoring number 9 and suppliers in wide positions. The end result is the same.

As for money, it wouldn't shock me one bit if we spent that sort of money. How much we spend is usually massively underestimated - in Klopp's last summer we had a net spend of around £160m and we could potentially spend £300m+ without having a net spend much beyond that. There's a fair amount of players, many of whom that don't or barely feature that could leave this summer and mostly fetch decent money. I wouldn't be shocked if Kelleher, Kostas, Gomez, Morton, Elliott, Doak and Nunez all left. Those alone will fetch a lot of money.
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I hope you're right because I dont foresee Salah having the incredible season he has had this season, imo we've won the league this season because of Salah basically doing the job of a right winger and a striker. I hope we do sign a striker to replace Nunez.

I guess the money thing is more that I dont see FSG spending 120m on just one player. I hope they do because Wirtz is awesome (though I think its moot anyway because I'm very much of the opinion that he will go to Bayern rather than join us)
 
Tombstone said:
I guess the money thing is more that I dont see FSG spending 120m on just one player.
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I have no doubt that they would. They sanctioned a £110m offer for Caicedo and when you adjust for football inflation (certainly in relation to our turnover), the fees for VVD and Alisson are £100m+ deals today - in fact the VVD fee as a proportion of revenue would be £120m today. VVD was also 26 when we signed him, FSG would be a lot more comfortable spending that sort of fee on a 22 year old.
 
BaZ87 said:
I have no doubt that they would. They sanctioned a £110m offer for Caicedo and when you adjust for football inflation (certainly in relation to our turnover), the fees for VVD and Alisson are £100m+ deals today - in fact the VVD fee as a proportion of revenue would be £120m today. VVD was also 26 when we signed him, FSG would be a lot more comfortable spending that sort of fee on a 22 year old.
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Hopefully you are right
 
Andybtsn said:
That's some downgrade from Gyökeres :p
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Delap is backup for Gyokeres. ;)

To be honest he would be a gamble too, especially at the £100m he'd end up costing.

I've watched Delap quite a lot and he looks a solid player, a real handful, whether he'll ever be a great goalscorer... probably not.
 
Robbo said:
Delap is backup for Gyokeres. ;)

To be honest he would be a gamble too, especially at the £100m he'd end up costing.

I've watched Delap quite a lot and he looks a solid player, a real handful, whether he'll ever be a great goalscorer... probably not.
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I remember him in the Championship on loan at Stoke, Hull and someone else and can't help that he massively overachieved last season.

He's a good runner, strong and tricky, but he reminds me of someone like Nunez in front of goal. He lacks composure. I thought he'd end up at someone like West Ham!
 
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Shamikebab said:
Delap is pretty damn cheap, we'd likely not lose much if he didn't work out. It does feel like buying yet another inexperienced striker though
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Certainly seems less risky than the £60m we spunked on Hojlund. I'd prefer someone with more experience but decent strikers are rare and buying young seems to be what Wilcox want's to do. It makes a lot of sense for the long term and it's hard to see how he could be worse than what we have. Anyway it looks like Cunha is moving forward. The club is showing far too much professionalism for my liking. It's unnerving.
 
Harvey Elliott's post match comments seem to indicate that he'll be off in the summer. Even before the Wirtz links his time looked up so it won't be a shock if he's off.
 
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