Well, Aina is not over 30. And signing Robertson for a few million quid from a relegated team was a rare, you could say all-time great scouting success; not a standard every transfer should be measured against. You might as well ask for the next Suarez or next Salah.
Sorry. Forgot the third option - journey man players who are available for free.
- We need those value multiplier signings this summer to address most of the gaps in our squad. That is how our title winning team was built. Not focusing on the initial process and wages but one what the player will deliver over the period of his tenure relative to his cost. We need to go back to focusing on those players who will explode in value within 6 months to a year. Need at least a hit or two in that regard.
- If the answers to our problems are Kerkez, Ekitike, Hjuisen, Aina - then we might as well shut our vaunted data analyst team down. Our great team were built on non traditional transfers like Robertson or brilliantly reinventing existing players like Gini.
- Under Edwards and Klopp, if the right player was not available we were more than happy to wait and risk an unbalanced squad. I criticized them a lot during that time for that. They were right. I was wrong then.
- Slot has shown no sign of being pragmatic or compromising in accepting players who do not meet his vision. See Endo, Harvey, Chiesa. So why bother with Aina unless he fits Slots vision.
- We need a player who can provide serious competition for Bradley or outclass him and push him to the bench. Slot seems to like Bradley. Unless Aina is that player, whether he cost zero or 20 million, no point in signing him. Guess who else was cheap- Chiesa.
- We have two all time greats whose level will be waning in the next two years. We have a legendary keeper who will leave in the same time frame. We have a generational talent who is leaving for Madrid. Alexis and Konate are two players who can potentially develop to that rarified level. We need more players with that gold dust in their play.
- I don’t care whether we spend 20 million or 200. I want to see more out of the box innovative signings.
If Aina wasn’t available for a free, would be advocating for him. If yes, that’s great. If not, stay away.