spacemonkey

On the positive side, he's played more more minutes in the league and Europe than Gomez has in each of the past give seasons and that interview further up would suggest that he feels his mental health issues are now more under control with professional help than they had been in the 18 months prior. Who doesn't love a "market opportunity"?!

Has played zero minutes so far this pre-season but Barca have only had one match and he was on the bench for that so seems to be on the cusp of a return, perhaps?.

Bradley, Frimpong and Gomez combined managed about 26-27 matches worth of Premier League action last season. Includes minutes at CB for Gomez and right wing for Frimpong. Ramsay had zero. Not particularly feeling that Spence is the solution but hope Iraola has a plan that doesn't involve Dom and Jones playing there and is backed in that plan.

Agree that he almost certainly won't be in squad regardless but it's one of the positions I would like to see strengthened most, along with a winger/forward and a defensive midfielder. All should be good enough to start regularly. I'm not asking for much!

Non-home grown (max 17): Alisson, Mama Virge, Kerkez, Kostas, Leoni, Jacquet Macca, Dom, Gravenberch, Endo, Wirtz Isak, Gakpo, Ekitiké, Munoz, Chiesa Club trained: Gomez, Jones, Elliott, Bradley, Jaros, Bajcetic Association trained: Woodman, Frimpong That's 25 players. Left out of the CL squad: Ramsay (not homegrown because of the loan to Kilmarnock but even if he were the squad is full), Pecsi, Harvey Davies. Notable mentions: Nyoni and now also Rio on List B Need to sell or loan players out to make space for that additional winger and a RB. And the likes of Mama, Endo, Chiesa weren't at the World Cup but there still appears to have been virtually no chatter about any exits of fringe players. Hope things start happening in both directions soon.

Need to sell non homegrown players who aren't going to play (much) anyway to make space for new signings. Right now we can sign one association trained player. Anything beyond that means we're leaving someone out. And that's assuming Ramsay is being left out regardless. Not saying we don't have depth issues but the numbers are there, more a question of which positions they play in and how injury prone some of them are. On that note, we could probably leave Ekitike out for first half of the season so that gives some short term wiggle room. Sell Endo, Chiesa and things look different.

Welcome to Liverpool, Jadon.

I tried. Was just looking at young players on that list further up who are at clubs that tend to be willing sellers. The options just really don't seem very inspiring. If this Billy Gomes ends up tearing it up for Brighton or Bournemouth in a year's time though, I'll come back to this!

If we're looking at younger potential, William Gomes at Porto, perhaps? Never seen him play but he seems to have managed 8 goals in ca. 1,200 mins in the league this year and appears to be quick and young at 20, if not particularly productive yet in terms of assists. Not thrilled with the idea of relying too heavily on kids though. Same would have applied to Diomande.

Chelsea have Neto, Estevao and now Quenda as options for the right wing, plus Palmer if need be. With them being that well stocked in the position, perhaps Hughes will be tempted to pursue a loan deal for Victor Moses.

You don't think they're preparing to throw their hat in the ring for Chiesa?

Isaac Christie-Davies treated like a dog.

Wouldn't want to block the path for Figueroa and Morrison.

He's been great this year, barely a mistake defensively and very much a goal threat too (both headers and long shots), but he's not quick and therefore perhaps not the best fit for a team playing a high line.

Exciting if we manage to replace the manager with the worst record in the league at defending set pieces with the manager with the... second worst record in the league at defending set pieces.

All very well saying we should buy another CB but I for one am excited to see Ndukwe in pre-season. Ifeanyi one can make the step up it'll be him.

I reckon we end up signing nobody for CB beyond Jacquet and just hold on to Gomez before then exploring options again next year when Virgil leaves and frees up those wages and they have a better idea of how Jacquet and Leoni have developed. Not saying I support this approach, it's just what I think is likely to happen. Maximise money available for replacing Salah and, who knows, maybe even a defensive midfielder?! Personally, I worry Ekitike may never fully recover which only adds to our struggle to create chances from open play let alone scoring from those chances. I do agree that a new manager could potentially change that quite significantly despite the depth issues.

Expecting that to be Tsimikas. Which seems a clear downgrade.

We're currently one over the quota for non-homegrown players in the CL with Chiesa missing out (until Leoni's injury). If I've understood correctly, Rio can go on List B next season (if we qualify!), Robbo is replaced by Tsimikas and Salah's spot is taken by Jacquet. Meaning currently zero non-HG spots available for additional signings (incl. a Salah replacement!) until existing non-HG players are moved out. Chiesa out to make way for Salah replacement. Endo out to make way for a midfielder who can contribute more. Ok, great. But if we start letting Gomez and Jones leave, we would struggle to replace them unless we buy "association trained" players as we did with Frimpong last year. If Konate, Macca or Ali leave, that makes space of course but absent departures our room for manoeuvre is rather limited even before considering how much money we might have. I'd be tempted to try to loan out Mama and use Jaros (who wouldn't use a non-HG slot) as no. 2 next season if he's expected to be fit for pre-season.

Would need to drop someone from the CL squad to make space for Geertruida which could risk leaving us short in other areas. Personally feel that we've made the home-grown aspect unnecessarily difficult for ourselves by letting several home-grown players leave at once / not playing them much last season causing them to want to leave. Seems we could be on track for more of the same with Jones now. It just weakens the overall squad and the next generation of youth players may not be all that keen to hang about either.

He'd be home-grown, club trained and all. No-brainer. Almost.

Vuskovic is earning rave reviews on loan in Germany this year (dominating in the duels, on the ground and especially in the air), so Spurs may feel that they have a ready-made replacement at CB. Possibly less injury prone too, though not as quick of course.

Thought Newcastle might go for Franjo Ivanovic who was being linked with various big clubs in Europe and would be much cheaper than Sesko but he appears to be on the verge of joining Benfica now.

Think I read in German press earlier that the Newcastle bid was rejected more due to the payment structure. Can't remember where I read it now though.

When I saw the news I immediately called my wife out of concern that our 13 year old would find out while out and about in town on his own. Too late. He'd gone out with his Diogo Jota shirt on this morning and a random stranger has stopped him in the street to tell him the news. In a bit of a daze now.