BIG DECISIONS RE: PLAYERS - SOME SPECULATIVE FUN

[Bishop]

Arsenal over spent on rice, £100m plus iirc, to not really get any better.
Liverpool paid big money for vdv, Allison, mane and a few more that weren't a success. For one league and one CL in was it 7-9 years. Is that the really the success it's made out to be? Not counting the "lesser" trophies and of course it's against the behemoth of city, but still.
Look at utd or Chelsea, top dollar for rubbish, £80m for Harry maguire?
Not great returns for the money, and could you imagine us spending £100m on a player, the press would be slaughtering him for every mistake.

Liverpool have finished recent seasons with 97 even 92 points, it's a little disingenuous to say they should have won more. Against anyone else and they would have 2 more titles.

 

[Bedfordspurs]

Liverpool have finished recent seasons with 97 even 92 points, it's a little disingenuous to say they should have won more. Against anyone else and they would have 2 more titles.

They should have, in normal circumstances
This league doesn’t have normal though as we all know

 

[glasgowspur]

Liverpool have finished recent seasons with 97 even 92 points, it's a little disingenuous to say they should have won more. Against anyone else and they would have 2 more titles.

I do acknowledge the city factor in my post, everything in the top flight of English football is caveated against city, just as it should be with Chelsea and utd beforehand to a lesser degree.

 

[DubSpur]

I think Kelleher is decent but overrated, and will almost definitely be overpriced.

He is excellent. His all-round game is good. Liverpool haven't noticed losing Allison, who is one of the top keepers in the world.

 

[Bedfordspurs]

He is excellent. His all-round game is good. Liverpool haven't noticed losing Allison, who is one of the top keepers in the world.

I do have an issue with him wearing tights under his shorts

 

[DubSpur]

Arsenal over spent on rice, £100m plus iirc, to not really get any better.
Liverpool paid big money for vdv, Allison, mane and a few more that weren't a success. For one league and one CL in was it 7-9 years. Is that the really the success it's made out to be? Not counting the "lesser" trophies and of course it's against the behemoth of city, but still.
Look at utd or Chelsea, top dollar for rubbish, £80m for Harry maguire?
Not great returns for the money, and could you imagine us spending £100m on a player, the press would be slaughtering him for every mistake.

I'd settle for one league, one CL, and a couple of cups in 7-9 years. I hate saying it but they were a brilliant team only stopped by oil money and cheating from winning more.

 

[DubSpur]

I do have an issue with him wearing tights under his shorts

Nobody is perfect

 

[Nexus1967]

The sad thing is Tottenham have just been announced as the 3rd most profitable sports team in the world, so we really should be competing at the top of the Prem rather than looking like a very average mid table team. And theres the big problem, until the owners spend big on established players who would improve our team instead of wasting big money on the likes of Ndombele and Richarlison to name but 2 and taking punts on youngsters hoping they come good. I know every team spunks big money on players that flop, but we seem to be masters at it. I think the owners care more about making a profit from go karts etc than actually winning something on the pitch. Still at least we can see some decent bands at the stadium

 

[Muttley]

I think this is where I see the squad, for the 25/26 season. It will always evolve after that.

Venom, GAP, Austin/Keeley/Gunter
Porro, Spence
Udogie, GAP
Romero, VDV, Dragu, Phillips, Vuskovic
GAP, Biss, Bents, Sarr, Gray, Bergval
GAP, Kulu, Madds,
Sonny, Johnson, Yang, Odobert, Moore
Solanke, GAP, Lankshear/Veliz/Scarlett

The departures from this season's squad would be Forster and Davies who leave at the end of their contracts. Then it would be Whiteman, Reggie, Richi, Solomon, Gil plus Werner not being converted. That is 4 places from the active squad and 4 places from the fringe/loans.

Even if we try to fill my 5 gaps with Kelleher, Dorgu, Ederson, Eze and Delap, to use the most popular names, could we afford it? I very much doubt it. That is why we need to consider some other strategies

1) Consider that 2 out of Lanks / Scarlett and Veliz are ready to fill the backup slots to Solanke.
2) Get combinations of Devine / Donley / Abbott / Craig / Hall etc in the first team squad to supplement the midfield.
3) Start player sacrifices with our senior pros like Venom, Romero, Madds
4) Use the loan system again like we did with Werner. Anywhere through the spine could work.

Even my squad above is a little too big. We would still need to loan a couple of players e.g. Bergval to keep everyone happy and make sure players are still developing.

Personally, I've always been of the opinion that we need to focus on quality over quantity in the transfer market. We should now be at the stage where you only ever bring in 2 or 3 senior 1st teamers. Your quantity only comes from buying youngsters to keep filling the pipe. No more major squad overhauls in one summer. We're better than that now.

 

[Mcfee]

He is excellent. His all-round game is good. Liverpool haven't noticed losing Allison, who is one of the top keepers in the world.

Not having seen him all that much I would just be afraid that because he’s already in the premier league at a top club it would take a premium price to get him. If it was worth it then yes for sure. From what I’ve seen he definitely looks more secure than Vicario under high crosses etc and would hopefully have a more calming effect on our defending. Presumably you saw his recent howler v Greece? That wouldn’t go down well here

 

[Jordinho]

Upgrade on Romero and Bissouma would be my priority for the summer. This is as good as they're going to get and it's not good enough. If we can get any money for them we should take it now. They should most definitely not be given new, lucrative deals.

Maddison is probably the one we'd have no problem finding willing buyers for. Just hope we haven't put him on too ridiculous a wage.

We need to add another FB to give our first choice some actual competition and a winger (maybe more if we decide to sell someone). Moore and Yang aren't going to do more than cameos for at least another season.

There's tinkering to be done elsewhere to provide depth, but that can be covered with younger players with potential.

 

[DubSpur]

Not having seen him all that much I would just be afraid that because he’s already in the premier league at a top club it would take a premium price to get him. If it was worth it then yes for sure. From what I’ve seen he definitely looks more secure than Vicario under high crosses etc and would hopefully have a more calming effect on our defending. Presumably you saw his recent howler v Greece? That wouldn’t go down well here

He wants out of Liverpool and he will have one year left on his contract at the end of the season, so it won't be that big a price to get him. The bigger issue is who else will want him.

And yes, seen the howler, trying to forget it, alongside forgetting most games Ireland have played in recently. He's usually Irelands best player, unusual mistake but will happen for every keeper that plays out from the back at some stage, even Edison and Allison have done it.

 

[Dicko]

He wants out of Liverpool and he will have one year left on his contract at the end of the season, so it won't be that big a price to get him. The bigger issue is who else will want him.

And yes, seen the howler, trying to forget it, alongside forgetting most games Ireland have played in recently. He's usually Irelands best player, unusual mistake but will happen for every keeper that plays out from the back at some stage, even Edison and Allison have done it.

Most Liverpool fans admit now that they maybe overrated him a bit after his early appearances in the cup games etc a couple of years back. If you go on their forums they all think he hasn't been great when he's played in the last season or so and should've left on loan or permanently as he seems to be regressing sitting on their bench.

 

[DubSpur]

Most Liverpool fans admit now that they maybe overrated him a bit after his early appearances in the cup games etc a couple of years back. If you go on their forums they all think he hasn't been great when he's played in the last season or so and should've left on loan or permanently as he seems to be regressing sitting on their bench.

??? Most Liverpool fans rave about him. Might be an Irish bias but unfortunately loads of Liverpool fans here and they all think he'd be number one for most premier league clubs. I can't dance with them on that.
And he hasn't been sitting on the bench. He played about 25 games last year and then Ireland games on top of that. This season he's already played 8 games.

 

[Dicko]

??? Most Liverpool fans rave about him. Might be an Irish bias but unfortunately loads of Liverpool fans here and they all think he'd be number one for most premier league clubs. I can't dance with them on that.
And he hasn't been sitting on the bench. He played about 25 games last year and then Ireland games on top of that. This season he's already played 8 games.

Check it out for yourself...

 

[DubSpur]

Check it out for yourself...

View attachment 18018

Or you check out:

 

[Kompakted]

You never know how good a team will be on paper but this set up looks like it has the capability to be immense. However you'd need Biss and Bents to both bring their best all the time and we also would need another couple of viable CBs to step in without a huge drop off in quality, preferably one that is comfortable at LWB as well. Plus an actually reliable defensively minded CM. Oh and a reliably fit back up to Solanke. And a less manic keeper that can organise a defense....Fix those issues and it'd be a squad actually competing for the title which the right coach who knows how to win the league with a back 3, perhaps we could give him a call, he definitely had good relationship with the board and holds them in high regard

Get Poch back. Seriously. He'd have a field day with this squad, particularly the young talent we now have.

 

[Dicko]

Fair enough. I googled "Is Kelleher overrated?" And realise it took me to some posts from a couple months back.

It'll be interesting to see where he ends up. Being a promising no.2 is a difficult place to be. Henderson seems to be the only one I can think of that made it eventually in the PL (Are there some other recent ones?)

There's also that risk that if you back yourself and drop down to a EFL club and it doesn't work out then you may end up spiralling down. It's probably a debate that's been had on here before but I assume our two young (I call them young but they are getting on a bit now lol!) keepers are sticking around for as long as possible. Prestige of being on a PL clubs books and a getting a decent wage is better than joining the likes of Leyton Orient and risking it not working it out must be a tough decision I.e. Back yourself to make it or stay in your safe space for as long as possible etc.

 

[billyiddo]

They’re not cheap players - but they’re not at the top end of fees either. (See Rice for Arsenal at £100 million - identified as the team’s main need, purchased at top dollar with no fuss).

Those signings were also spread out over multiple windows. Contrast with Liverpool, for example, who were at a crossroads and spent massively on two crucial positions in one window. Meanwhile, we bumped along for a season without replacing the man who had been our main source of goals for years.

We buy in the mid-price bracket for so-called big clubs, and we speculate on youngsters (as we have done this summer, when it could be argued that we were desperate for more experienced first teamers and leaders). For every Dele Alli there will be a Jack Clarke and a Ryan Sessegnon.

As I said in the original post, we haven’t really changed our approach since the move to the new stadium. I don’t believe we will under the current ownership as we are achieving a certain level of ‘success’ without hugely increasing our outlay.

I’m not rabidly Levy Out; I’ve kind of made my own peace with it. We are, for now, what we are and it’s likely to be this way for some time.

Arsenal signed Rice after their first 2nd place finish when they had minimal gaps in the team that needed filling - prior to that they were not buying at that level and most likely they wouldn't have been able to either afford or tempt a player like Rice while they were not back in the CL and looking strong on the pitch.

Before you can buy that level of player you need to first build a team that they would want to join - your 100m PL proven players aren't joining a team in limbo that are out of the CL, why would they? If things click under Ange and we get ourselves in a good position in the league and then we don't start acting like big boys (signings of the calibre of Rice) then it will be time to question the ambition IMV

 

[Bedfordspurs]

Arsenal signed Rice after their first 2nd place finish when they had minimal gaps in the team that needed filling - prior to that they were not buying at that level and most likely they wouldn't have been able to either afford or tempt a player like Rice while they were not back in the CL and looking strong on the pitch.

That’s my push back when rice gets mentioned
We can get a £100m player
But we wouldn’t get much else
We need quality to fill gaps before the extra quality otherwise we push the quality to do more and fail
As they have got back in the CL they spent big