Summer rebuild 2023

So, there are 21 games left of this miserable season. We're finishing about 8th-10th I reckon at this rate. We didnt strengthen the areas we needed to in the January window so a massive rebuild is needed this summer.
For the sake of the argument lets say we at least get some new owners (full sale or partly), and that we have some realistic funds available. Hell, even the Echo says we have some money to spend.

Players out of contract:
Adrian, Ox, Keita, Milner, Firmino.

Firmino will probably get a new deal. Not sure about Milner. The rest can leave.

Players that could potentially be sold:
Fabinho, Matip, Phillips, Henderson, Gomez

I'm guessing only Phillips and one CB and CM could actually be sold.
Henderson will  probably move on to a Milner type role next season, and Gomez has more resale value than Matip. I'd rather sell Matip though given he'll be 32 next season.

Players in:
Bellingham, Matheus Nunes, Kouadio Kone, Evan Ndicka

Hopefully we'll get the Bellingham deal over the line and it still sounds promising.
Matheus Nunes is probably already done if rumors are to be believed.
Kouadio Kone could be the perfect 6 for us going forward. Gladbach want 40 mill.
Ndicka is out of contract this summer. Left footed CB, 6'3 and can play both CB and LB. 23 years old and will be a great signing for whoever gets him.

What would you do this summer? In the realms of reality and no FM style approach.

 

Bellingham, Kouadio Kone, Caicedo, and Gvardiol.

Not too keen on Nunes though he'd do as well



and Mason Mount !

 

Caicedo and Gvardiol is another 160-170 mill though. Cant see that happening. Mason Mount is a good shout.

 

I think Rice would be ideal for us.

 

It's difficult to know without knowing how much money we have to spend. I'd say over the next 2-3 years you'd want to replace (as starters):

• Robbo
• Possibly Van Dijk
• Fabinho
• Henderson
• Thiago
• Salah

(I know Fabinho and Henderson aren't starting now but nominally they're first choice). That's 6 players you need to bring in. With Henderson and Fabinho you need to sign top class players now; with the rest you either need to sign players who can bed in over the next couple of seasons, or wait until those players fall off a cliff and spend money then. Then, in addition, Milner, Chamberlain and Keita are on the way out. I don't know whether Carvalho, Elliott or Jones will form part of a midfield in the future. It may be too early for Morton to be part of the squad and Bajcetic is still very young. So you then need probably another 2 midfielders at least to fill out the squad. Then you add Gomez and Matip, who aren't up to standard anymore. So that's two more defenders. That's an awful lot of players to start replacing. I've no idea how we go about doing that in a way that is as effective and settled as possible. We should have been starting this years ago really.

 

Can see Chelsea and Arsenal fighting it out for Rice, and he’d probably like to stay in London.

 

I think Chelsea deem themselves too good for Rice. So we'll be up against Arsenal mainly.

 

Well the reality is we're losing 3 midfielders in the summer so would it be FM like to bring in 3 adequate replacements?

Usually you want to replace your outgoing players + sell off the players who are surplus and use that to reinvest in other replacements..

Even with Bobby departing I think we're ok in the forward areas (everyone being fit of course) Diaz (Gakpo) Nunez (Jota) Salah (Doak?) + Carvalho in the wings.

I'd look at possibly adding in Kelleher to the outgoing list if we can get a good 20m or so for him and put that to a midfielder....we need at least 2 coming in, 3 would be a welcome bonus but realistically lets say 2. Not at all arsed about Bellingham and for me Caicedo can fuck off too with him being pictured in a Chelsea shirt, begging to play for Utd and swinging his cock for Arsenal. So I'd look at clubs in leagues that are struggling financially and take advantage of that.

We need to target young energetic midfielders with quality, For me Nico Barella would be #1 on that list, probably worth 60-70m.....maybe could get Inter to accept somewhere closer to 40-50m, it's a shame Bennacer recently extended his contract....so I'd move over to Locatelli or Angussa, again both would command a modest fee.
Also a big admirer of Sekou Fofana who's having another exceptional season with Lens.

With Virgil and Matip ageing and Gomez/Ibou being very injury prone, it would also be a smart move to sign a CB in the summer......nobody crazy, even if it's someone like Soyuncu who's out of contract this summer or look at players' contract up in 2024.....and look at someone like Elvedi.

 

What's the point of making a long list?  We won't get more than 2 players when we need 4 or 5.
Klopp will say we have Morton, Bobby Clarke, Steph, Hendo, Fabs, CJ and Thiago.

Even at academy level we are tight. We should be spending anything upto £20m but we spend on average less than a mill. I think we should get Jobe Bellingham now.
FSG having failed to sell the club and and get any new funding will say uncertain times lay ahead and the club needs to tread carefully to make sure in can withstand any economic storm.

 

I'm going to assume stupidly that Bellingham and Nunes are coming - for a cost of about £200m. Personally I'd look to sign Mount, a DM (Rice?) and another, physical midfielder - Thuram, Kone, Caicedo, that sort of profile. Obviously this is going to require new owners; but I'd be looking to sell Fabinho, Henderson and Curtis Jones if needs be.

I'd sell Gomez, Matip and Phillips, and look to sign 2 more CBs. And I'd probably try and bring in a LB with the potential to take over from Robbo; maybe selling Tsimikas in the process. Not sure about forwards.

 

People would actually take Chelsea's scrap overs? Christ.

Guessing no one saw anything of England at the World Cup or anything of Chelsea this season, otherwise they'd be able to figure for themselves what a useless overhyped piece of garbage he is.

 

I really hope we do have real money available in the summer otherwise it's midtable for the forseeable Klopp or no Klopp.

I find it hard to envisage anyone leaving given how we've operated over the last few years but if this shitshow doesn't force our hand, nothing will.

Even so, we have a small squad so there can be no mass clearout. Looking at the below, it's clear we need to do more adding than removing.

GK: Alisson, Kelleher, Adrian
RB: TAA, Ramsay
CB: VVD, Konate, Matip, Gomez, Phillips
LB: Robertson, Tsimikas
CM: Thiago, Fabinho, Henderson, Bajcetic, Jones, Milner, Ox, Keita
AM: Elliot, Carvalho
FW: Salah, Jota, Nunez, Diaz, Gakpo, Firmino

Highlighted the ones that could potentially be candidates to leave. And might be way off but been wondering whether we'll end up having to deal with a wantaway TAA in the summer, which is why I added him too. I can see a lot of people wanting to cash in (if that is still an option after this season) but it'd be pretty sad if he leaves, particularly with his value at it's lowest.

RB

Irrespective of what happens with TAA, we need a right-back. I liked the look of Ramsay in the 20 minutes I got to see of him but we need someone who is available and ready. We can't go into yet another season with Milner as our plan B. Unless Ramsay is going to that man for us, it's a must signing.

LB

On the other side I'm inclined to stick with Robertson and Tsimikas for another season unless an amazing opportunity is out there to get someone great.

CB

Once again we've ended up with a quartet of defenders that can't stay fit (tad harsh on VVD but whatever) so would love to sort this out but not sure we can afford to. Gomez has recently been given a new long-term contract and he's English so can't see him going anywhere. The other option is try rehabilitate Fabinho's career at the back - perhaps in the Matip role - as we're unlikely to get any suitors for Fabinho offering hard cash. I'm guessing it's going to be another season of banking on the fitness of Konate and VVD.

CM

Where to fucking start. Hopefully we finally see the end of Keita and Ox. If Keita gets handed a new contract, I give up. Henderson and Milner if he sticks around need to be on the bench more often than not. That leaves us needing two midfielders. I don't really know what I think about getting Bellingham if it even remains a possiblity (or ever was). Can we really afford to spend that much on a single player? Plus he'll invite a lot of pressure onto the side, which I think will continue to struggle next season.

AM

I'd send Carvalho on loan. He's gotten next to no game time this season and it's not going to get any better for him next season.

FW

We've just spent the best part of 150M on new players but it feels like we still need to go out and buy the next Salah or Mane. This the area of the team where I feel like we need to be the most ruthless. Teams always struggle when they can't score goals and this team has been labouring for a while now (even last season).

 

All valid points. I think the forwards are pretty much fine next season given that we will have both Jota and Diaz back. Gakpo will be integrated and Nunez will hopefully be better. Hopefully Doak can be more involved as well.
If Salah continues to play below his standards next season I can see an exit in 2024.

Carvalho should go out on loan next season

 

Our midfield has been fucking abysmal this season but another factor has been that no-one is scared of our forward line anymore. They are happy to push forward, play pretty passes out etc etc.

Look back to last season and at times Diaz was shouldering the burden of pressing oppositions back and creating all on his own.

Gakpo doesn't look like he's gonna be a player to score 20 a season for us. More of a creator if things work out.

Jota is a crock. He can't be relied on.

Diaz hopefully comes back the same player, fingers crossed Nunez justifies the faith and Salah improves... but... and I'm not necessarily saying we sell any of them yet... just too hit and hope for me.

 

I agree with everything you posted here in this thread.

But one thing I am confident off is that at the end of the summer transfer window, we will all be underwhelmed and there will be a feeling of "Is this it?".

 

Ha, most definitely.

 

New contracts for Adrian, Milner, Bobby, Kieta & Ox, extensions for Thiago & Matip and exercise the £35m option on Arthur after missing out on Bellingham - job done.

 

Random fact - Never in our histories have Liverpool and Everton played each other in a league below the Premier League/First Division.

 

Haha, most definitely. But WE can plan a rebuild that we think might work.

 

Make us Dream!