Not Actually that Crucial a Summer as of August 2023...beginning to now think everything isnt fine!

Okay. Here's another example. Dinamo are frustrating the * out of Fenerbahce, and insisting on the full €10M release clause for Livaković, and demand he stay until Dinamo have played the full tie vs. AEK Athens. Also, aren't our finances really good right now? At least that kind of message was sent by the club through financial reports.

We should grow a spine, and start demanding crazy money for our players. Even if it means some young player becomes too scared to sign for us. People still sign for Villarreal, Sion etc., and they have weird owners tough to negotiate with.

 

Spot on with this take for me.

The one thing I will say and only those inside the club will truly know if this is the case or not but I believe we have looked to sound players out who probably are in that £6-9m bracket this summer and got fairly cold responses from the majority of them or holding ones at best.

The other thing is we probably need a better showing in the CL or Europe generally to promote our players. The catch here is to probably allow our better players to stand out we need to strengthen our weaknesses and the players identified to do this aren’t interested in coming here. So ultimately we get a bit stuck in that maintenance phase.

One of the things you see our more progressive peers in Europe do is buy and sell more players than we do.

This relates to the other point about performance of academy players as the other clubs have more coming through so can be more confident in selling their stars knowing some of the gaps created will be filled by players already at their club. Where as we have very little coming through so need to buy all the time. Hopefully this partnership with Admira Wacker can help us here.

Back onto the original point though this summer I believe we should have sold more players than we have both actual first team players and squad guys, caveat being it may still happen and there needs to be interest there.

Overall I am not that bothered about marque signings but I think we need to be clear in what style of player we want for each position and sign players accordingly for those roles.

Just for example given how it looks like Rodgers wants to play say we sign

GK - Matej Kovar 23, Man Utd (LTB £6m)
LB - Kristoffer Lund, 21, BK Hacken (£2.5m)
CM - Mohamed Kaba, 21, Valenciennes (£3m)
LW - Keito Nakamura, 23, LASK (£8m)

None of the above to me are CL players (we can’t really afford them) but all have attributes that make us a better team now and are young enough and value for money that they will all likely be able to sold at a profit down the line, so fit our model. They also have characteristics as well as their tangible playing qualities that will help us retain our title.

 

That case I agree with, far more comparable to us.

More understandable with a release clause however, as they are agreed upon with the player usually to be the fee they go for (if they ever do). Which is a clever way to go, if you can agree with a player when they sign that "this is the fee we'd be happy to sell you for should an offer come in", it's a clear agreement between club and player and neither can have any real argument.

Which could well be something we should do when signing these young prospects, set a minimum release clause that ensures we are very clear what kind of price we expect to get for them in the future.

 

Precisely.

People seem to be confused and think that people are calling for us to be signing McTominay etc, it's totally unrealistic and I think the only people who are calling for them type of signings are very ignorant to Football and finances in general.

But guys like Keito Nakamura are fantastic players, we can get them for under £10m, they will definitely be sold on for good profit and most importantly they are not purely a project or prospect - they would improve our first team right now.

He'll be one of them ones, a few years down the line playing for someone like Brighton and we'll look at him and regret not signing when we had the chance. I know Ange said we went in for Mitoma before Brighton signed him and he chose the Premier League over us - but that is proof of the kind of player we can get for under £10m.

 

What do you class as CL players? Will they have us winning our group? No they wouldn't but I think they could help us turn draws into wins and losses into draws. Nakamura scored 17 and got 8 assists last season primarily as a left winger. Kovar has won the Czech league and Lund won the Danish one, both playing regularly. I'm not sure about Kaba, £3m would seem a lot for a Ligue 2 player.

 

Nakamura is well well within our budget! As above 25 goal involvements last year looks excellent and is a left winger

 

Sorry on the question of what I would class a CL level player, that was just the point I was trying to make, it means something different to everyone but what’s certain is we can’t afford to go out and buy an in form player playing regular minutes in the CL.

I think they are all good players that’s why I named them as examples of the types of players I would love us to go and sign.

On Kaba he is an absolute stand out in Ligue 2, playing for a terrible team but who have a good record of producing talented young players. He has been a regular for at least 2 seasons and is physically well built at around 6 foot and strong.

He can play 6 or 8, his defensive stats are excellent and he also has a nice passing range too and carries a goal threat when played further forward which he did last season on occasion. He reminds me of a hybrid of Wanyama off the ball, with Ntcham on the ball ability when he was up for it. All be it Europe would be a step up for him, domestically he would stroll it here.

A double pivot of Kaba and McGregor, with Hatate given freedom to do his stuff would be class I think.

Below are a couple of interesting profiles on him and his stats last year. Also a video of his highlights from last season.

He may not even cost £3m as he is in the last year of his deal.

 

The most realistic high-level winger we can buy right now. Also, an easy fit into the squad.

 

Ah okay, well if anybody is expecting us to buy a CL experienced player then I think they are delusional to be honest, at the very most it would be from another team who cam bottom of their group. I just want players with experience in a decent league. I know Jullien got injured, but in the full season he did play I thought he was good and playing 3 full seasons in Ligue 1 was good experience to have. I would like to think we could attract players from leagues, if not France then Belgium and Austria, possibly Netherlands too.

 

That's true, but what we ultimately do is turn players into being able to compete at that level... then sell them. Which is why we've made no progression.

 

100%

As I said in an earlier post, I'd like to see us sign a few players in that slightly older age range (25-28) who are of a good quality but aren't necessarily looking to move on in a couple years and are looking for a long term club. I'm under no illusion, it's hard to find but if we could find a few like that, it at least builds a solid base of sorts to keep and build around.

 

I think we are weaker than we were prior to the Christmas 2022 window. We’ve lost GG and Jota who were massive for us. We brought in OH who is a project, Iwata etc and to date, this window, we have 5 in and 4 of which are definitely not immediate starters.
I can’t see Rodgers allowing his ego or reputation get another battering in Europe with us therefore I think we must be going to buy a couple of first team ready players, surely.

 

This was the most excited I had been for a window for ages. Supposed fair size budget for Ange (£30m ish). He leaves we get BR back but he’s only coming back if he’s backed with a squad to compete in Europe, that’s sounds like the budget might be upped. We sell our best player for £25m, everyone thinks ok we will be spending even more.

Reality…signed a few young projects. Probably going to sign a couple more. Underwhelming would be an understatement but I suppose we just have to wait and see how these players perform. So far I can’t see us coming out stronger than we went in.

 

As much as I would love a good roumer to get excited about I'm not worried about the lack of 1st team signings just yet. I think we will spend and it will be near the end of the window. That's when a lot of the bigger signings are done and the players that are surplus to requirements are moved on to help with ffp etc, fully believe the club know what they are doing and know what we are needing. The manager left and was replaced, the scouting team and board are the exact same as when Ange was here so nothing else really has changed. CCV Jota GG all signed on the last day of the window, keep the faith.

 

Theres one right under our nose who was one of the best players in the league last season…

 

Duk??

 

This isn't one of those hysterical pre season posts we've been seeing for months I'm more looking for assurance or to be talked sense into tbh!
After the initial low of Ange leaving and Brendan coming in, I've been telling myself all along how he wouldn't come back without assurances and we have all this money, it will be fine and we will spend big and improve, replace who has left etc.
In the back of my head in a sort of a "surely it couldn't happen, could it?" way I've been having wee niggles like what if we don't punt Scales,Bernabei, etc and upgrade on Taylor and what if all our signings turn out * or even aren't gonna be ready straight away and we still don't replace Mooy and Jota and bring in players of European quality.
It's been playing on my mind with the season about to start at the weekend. I'm sure we're working away behind the scenes and players are talking to other clubs and waiting on Europe being confirmed etc, but this is the kind of thing that's been going through my head a few times a day as the season gets closer.
Feel a bit better after watching the second half of the Athletic game there too.
Sorry for long post just felt like I had to brain dump.