Think this season has shown that we can’t lose Salah unless we get ridiculous money and talking £150m plus in order to go buy 2 top top strikers/wide players who can contribute goals. The guy gets you 20 goals from right wing every single season. That isn’t easy to replace and although diaz looked quality when first came in, his injury seems to have hampered him and Nunez gakpo aren’t prolific enough atm.
Gk - Ali / Kelleher / Adrian. All fine, albeit need to replace adrian in summer with a home grown option. Even more so if Kelleher leaves. Rb - TAA, Gomez, Bradley. Up in the air given have no idea what klopps plan with TAA is but actual full back is probably required. Who comes if they know gonna be backup though? Cb - vvd. Konate. Gomez. Quansah. Not too bad that. Maybe 1 more with the injury concern for Konate but Quansah more than capable of being 4th choice. Whether can get a RB/CB to cover both. lb - Robbo & tsimikas. All fine there tbh CM - szobo mac Elliott jones gravenberch Endo Bajcetic. Prob well stacked. Obvious need for a proper long term DM there though albeit Endo is starting to show quality and don’t know how Bajcetic gonna recover. RW - Salah / Elliott. Bit risk there if Salah goes. Elliott can do a job but is totally different player. Replacing one of all time greats is almost impossible though. LW - diaz. Big season and may need replacing or upgrading in summer if Cf - Nunez gakpo Jota. On paper very good but need to start scoring consistently. Jota prob best goal scorer. So prob need a RB/CB option. Another first choice DM. And at least 1 forward in the summer. That’s before replacements for any departures.
Salah is not going any where, but I like Bowen if we can afford the price West Ham is going to quote.
Can’t see us going for Bowen. West Ham’s star player. English. Only one that scores goals for them. They’ll quote us Rice money and no chance he’s worth that.
it's the fact that as far as can be made out every time they step up his rehab his body shows the strain and they need to lessen it again . Also a year out at his stage of a career has a much bigger effect on development as players often then fail to catch up .
for me that list is probably there or thereabouts but what we need to consider is real ambition or fsg level ambition. gk could be promote again. davies coming back. kelleher should go imo. rb: just buy one. inverted system is no use. cb: we are between ages right now so a space to watch. fsg prob give matip a year. ambition would buy . no 6. endo is half decent but not quick enough. he just isn't. this is an absolutely must. 8s. we have loads. we need to develop them. lw. agree. diaz form has fallen off a cliff since kidnap. cf. agree jota is only one. sell nunez. rw. salah has lost all pace imo. Still worth 20 goals today but for how long? again I'd buy in the summer for 12 months after that. 4 or 5 can always come. an ambitious clb would try it. we will probably make an excuse about spending last summer and buy 1 unless salah goes. remember they made thr excuse they sold up a percentage of the club to pay down debt and that includes transfers made so fsg ain't going to fund huge expenditure especially after losing about 15 to 20mil on anfield road.
Maybe the others will step up and take more responsibility if Salah leaves rather than looking at Mo to do it
it runs from 13/1/2024 - 11/2/24 though presumably players go to camp at least 10 days earlier. the last group stage game for Egypt is 22/1/24 so it's possible only PL game would be against Bournemouth and the FA cup tie against Arse and the EFL semi .
