Thiago Alcantara

[fabinho]

I remember when he signed and the general consensus from the opposition fans was that they all may as well give up as we'd be winning the league for sure with him as an addition.

[fabinho]

Xavi apparently in pursuit of Thiago at Barca.

[S-RED]

they can take him for Depay, Pedri & 20mill ;o)

[Exiled_red]

I've seen £25m mentioned which is barely more than we paid for him. We would obviously need to bring in a replacement and I don't think £25m goes far towards the sort of players we need to be looking at particularly in January.

Also I thought Barca didn't have a pot to piss in?

[Doc_Piptorious]

I've seen £25m mentioned which is barely more than we paid for him. We would obviously need to bring in a replacement and I don't think £25m goes far towards the sort of players we need to be looking at particularly in January.

Also I thought Barca didn't have a pot to piss in?

Think 25m would actually get a quality midfielder in January as guys like Zakaria, Kessie and a few others will all be in the final six months of their current contracts and as such would not be going for the sort of fees they would if they had years to go.

The problem with selling Thiago for one of them (ignoring playing styles etc) is that we currently need one or two new midfielders as things stand with Thiago here, so selling Thiago would mean we would need two to three incoming.

[Mark79]

Think 25m would actually get a quality midfielder in January as guys like Zakaria, Kessie and a few others will all be in the final six months of their current contracts and as such would not be going for the sort of fees they would if they had years to go.

The problem with selling Thiago for one of them (ignoring playing styles etc) is that we currently need one or two new midfielders as things stand with Thiago here, so selling Thiago would mean we would need two to three incoming.

We don’t need one or two in addition to what we have, we need greater availability within the group. 8 midfielders should be more than enough, if half of them didn’t frequently have availability problems.

One out, one in is fine. Replacing 2 or 3 of the current group between January and Summer would transform the availability of our midfield.

Assuming the new arrivals don’t inevitably become crocks soon after joining us

[Norbs]

I thought he was £6m

[Irishnev]

I've seen £25m mentioned which is barely more than we paid for him. We would obviously need to bring in a replacement and I don't think £25m goes far towards the sort of players we need to be looking at particularly in January.

Also I thought Barca didn't have a pot to piss in?

Barca are broke - non story

[Doc_Piptorious]

We don’t need one or two in addition to what we have, we need greater availability within the group. 8 midfielders should be more than enough, if half of them didn’t frequently have availability problems.

One out, one in is fine. Replacing 2 or 3 of the current group between January and Summer would transform the availability of our midfield.

Assuming the new arrivals don’t inevitably become crocks soon after joining us

And there is the crux of the matter. We would only need one if the rest of what we have were more reliable but they are not.

Another reason why I am thinking two in is because a number of players, good players, will be in the final six months of their contracts some January. So could be a chance to get some in on reduced fees (granted they would be free in the summer albeit maybe with more clubs in for them) and they would have six months to be bedded in whlst also be available to be cover for those we have.

[kev776]

And there is the crux of the matter. We would only need one if the rest of what we have were more reliable but they are not.

Another reason why I am thinking two in is because a number of players, good players, will be in the final six months of their contracts some January. So could be a chance to get some in on reduced fees (granted they would be free in the summer albeit maybe with more clubs in for them) and they would have six months to be bedded in whlst also be available to be cover for those we have.

Franck Kessié, Marcelo Brozovic and Denis Zakaria are all in the last 6 months of contract in Jan, all are gettable. Kessie should be a target.

[Mark79]

And there is the crux of the matter. We would only need one if the rest of what we have were more reliable but they are not.

Another reason why I am thinking two in is because a number of players, good players, will be in the final six months of their contracts some January. So could be a chance to get some in on reduced fees (granted they would be free in the summer albeit maybe with more clubs in for them) and they would have six months to be bedded in whlst also be available to be cover for those we have.

That's why replace 2 or 3 of the less reliable ones.

But replacing Thiago with one player of greater availability doesn't increase the need for more reliable midfielders. That need already exists anyway.

Not that I would say no to 2 in January, but I think the club would definitely want or need to shed 2 at the same time. Or maybe 1 now and knowing Milner can be released in the Summer would work.

[Doc_Piptorious]

That's why replace 2 or 3 of the less reliable ones.

But replacing Thiago with one player of greater availability doesn't increase the need for more reliable midfielders. That need already exists anyway.

Not that I would say no to 2 in January, but I think the club would definitely want or need to shed 2 at the same time. Or maybe 1 now and knowing Milner can be released in the Summer would work.

I'm not pushing for Thiago to be replaced. I was just saying if there was any truth to it that I still think we would need others in along with a Thiago replacement.

Thiago is down the list of those that I would want replaced.


Agree we might need players to go out before bringing others in, but with an unusual amount of players available in January that look a good fit for how we play I think it might be worth the risk of bringing in two instead of one and then shedding two in the summer from what we have.

[Doc_Piptorious]

Franck Kessié, Marcelo Brozovic and Denis Zakaria are all in the last 6 months of contract in Jan, all are gettable. Kessie should be a target.

Yeah Keisse looks just right for how we play and he would bring extra energy, pace, strength and mobility to our midfield.

Would not be against Zakaria coming in either tbh.

Marcelo Brozovic is an interesting shout. Think his age is against him a bit now though as unlike the other two he would probably need replacing not long after some of our current crop of players. Unless I have his age wrong in my head. Am thinking he is 30 or 31.


Another issue with Brozovic imo is how good he is which might seem like an odd complaint but for me he is a world class DM so we already have Fab for that, then again Brozovic has a lot more than just being a DM to his game so would depend if we wanted to use him in a more box to box role instead of at DM or maybe even have him play in a double pivot with Fabinho



Edit: Just googled Brozovic and he is a little bit younger than I though as he just turned 29 yesterday.

[Irishnev]

[ame="https://twitter.com/basstunedtored/status/1462142311819796480"]https://twitter.com/basstunedtored/status/1462142311819796480[/ame]

[Buzzo]

That’s some stat