27 Jan 2026 04:11:54
Bit of fun just for opinions.
Alonso comes in soon or in the summer.
We secured 5th place league finish (not sure how, but let's say we get CL spot)
Alonso can only buy 5 players and sell/ release those he doesn't want, who would you buy?
Mine would be as follows:
Sell:
MacAllister £75m
Gakpo £50m
Salah £45m
Gomez £15m
Elliott £30
Bajectic £20m
Total £235m
Release:
Robbo
Konate
Endo
Buy:
Schlotterback £55m
Lacroix or Diomande (Sporting) £40m
Wharton £75m
Barcola £90m
Olise £105m
Total £365m
Net spend £130m.
27 Jan 2026 06:53:05
Add tsimikas to the list and a LB coming in if one for the youngsters can't step up.
£30 for Elliot is harsh ?.
27 Jan 2026 07:42:39
Gomez leaves on a free this summer.
27 Jan 2026 07:49:33
The prices for the players being sold is wild! I'd say if Hughes got £75m for Mac Allister and Salah then he's done very well.
27 Jan 2026 07:56:07
Sign 5 playes, I cannot name any as I only watch Liverpool games and judge my opinions largely on Ed001 player profiles/ comments ?
But th signings I would want are:
A Mane type of winger who can cover both sides
We need x2 cbs (one of whom who can cover an cover fb)
I would want a combative but ball playing dm.
Then we probably do need another forward player maybe that young winger from RB.
I think we need a bit of aggression a defensive nous in the centre of the pitch and pacey, direction forwards who are aggressive in their attacking play.
In my opinion that is what we're missing, I also think we should play with two sitting midfielders giving Wirtz free rein as a 10. Just difficult as where does Szob fit into this?
27 Jan 2026 08:00:20
Macca will be around the 85-100m, Gakpo 65m, Salah about right, Gomez 10m, Elliott 25m, Bajetic 15m.
We wouldn't release Endo when he has a season left, so he would be around 10m. A few of our younger player will make up another 30m, so all in all sales around around 350m.
27 Jan 2026 08:12:34
This is what I would do, while trying to be semi realistic and taking in account the home grown issue that we are sleep walking into at the moment.
Sign 2 CBs, one left footed who can cover LB if needed, and then use Beck as the natural left back back up. Bradley isn't good enough long term and is injury prone so I'd get rid. Therefore keep Gomez for one more year as cover / experience. New DM as Endo replacement would be ideal, but I think more realistic is using one of the youngsters as cover, Wharton in for Mac Allister who can then play the one deeper role as well to rotate a bit with Grav, and then that won't harm Jones' playtime.
We need a new starting RW, ideally LW a well but don't see us selling Gakpo this window and we can use Wirtz there. So maybe a versatile one that can play on both sides (what Chiesa theoretically should be). That would be the ideal scenario. There aren't many quality left footed RWs though who can adequately replace Salah (Olise is unrealistic), so I'd go all out for Diomande who can start on both sides equally well, and then a young out and out RW who hopefully can fill their potential. Frimpong can cover a bit as well.
In:
CB Schlotterbeck 30m
CB Jacquet 50m
RB Read 40m
CM Wharton 65m
RW Minteh 50m
LW/ RW Diomande 75m
Total: 310m
Out:
Jaros 10m
Konate free
Robbo free
Tsimikas 5m
Ramsay 5m
Bradley 25m
Bajcetic 10m
Stephenson 10m
Endo 5m
Mac Allister 65m
Koumas 5m
Elliot 25m
Chiesa 5m
Other youth players 10m
Loan likes of Nyoni, Danns, a few other youth players etc.
Total: 190m
Net: 120m
Final squad:
GK: Ali, Mama, Woodman
RB: Frimpong, Read
CB: Jacquet, Leoni, Gomez
CB: Virg, Schlotterbeck
LB: Kerkez, Beck
DM: Grav, McConnell
CM: Wharton, Jones
AM: Szoboszlai, Wirtz
LW: Gakpo, Rio
RW: Diomande, Minteh
ST: Isak, Ekitike
Enough cover across all midfield positions with Wharton being able to play deep as well as Grav, McConnell as cover. Wirtz to play between LW and AM depending on line up.
24 man CL squad, with 4 club trained players (Jones, Gomez, Beck, McConnell), and 4 association trained (Wharton, Frimpong, Woodman, Rio). Rio and McConnell might not need to be registered anyway, but that leaves us one space for another foreign signing regardless of that, so maybe a better back up left back, or another number in midfield.
27 Jan 2026 09:00:50
That Semenyo lad might have been a handy addition so.
27 Jan 2026 09:00:59
Bloody hell @Bazzinga now it's £100m for a player that hasn't played well all season.
Is Hughes the dandy highwayman you're too scared to mention haha.
{Ed025's Note - he has to "stand and deliver" now AAR.. :)
27 Jan 2026 09:04:59
Very interesting thoughts DK. I genuinely love playing armchair manager!
My thoughts are similar but I would get a couple of more defensively minded midfielder to sit, and set up in a diamond or box midfield adjustable, basically allowing for playing, flexible attacking midfields that can drift, two up top and get width through the full backs.
GK - Ali/ Mama
RB - Frimpong/ Bradley
CB - Jaquet/ Leoni/ Gomez
CB - VVD/ Schlotterback
LB - Kerkez/ Beck
DM - Gravenbirch/ McConnell
DM - Baleba/ Gomes or Andre
LAM - Wirtz/ Rio
RAM - Szob/ Elliot
CF - Isak/ Danns
CF - Ekitike/ Gakpo
But hey, I guess this is why I'm a SHEQ Director and not a football manager!
27 Jan 2026 09:41:52
Cheers Westwood, just realised I forgot selling Salah as well! So can add another 40m I reckon to the sales list, 80m net not looking so shabby to sort the squad issues out.
Agreed I think we need more defensive midfield depth, I'm a big fan of Baleba but think it would probably be Wharton or him and I think we need a proper passer in midfield with the amount of possession we have. Signing Andre or Gomes if Wolves go down is probably a great idea though! Both good on the ball and hard workers, like getting stuck in. Probably wouldn't cost too much either.
27 Jan 2026 10:07:52
I don't really care about the prices of net spend etc because it's all just total guesswork. Realistically, we can't go out and spend like we did last summer again, so we're going to need to capitalise on all the talented young players we've got and make some more astute signings like we used to under Klopp (maybe even raiding relegated sides). We need 3 things ultimately; tenacity in midfield, a thorough reboot at centre back, and fresh pace out wide.
Loan out:
Koumas, Danns, Chambers, McConnell
Sell/ release: Mac Allister, Konate, Gakpo, Robertson, Endo, Gomez, Salah, Chiesa, Elliott, Ramsay, Tsimikas, Bajcetic
Sign: Adam Wharton (CM), Andre Trindade (DM), Joel Ordonez (CB), Nico Schlotterbeck (CB), Yan Diomande (RW/ LW), Matheus Mane (AM/ RW).
25 man squad (* homegrown)
GK:
Alisson, Mamardashvili, Woodman*
RB/ LB:
Frimpong*, Bradley*, Kerkez, Beck*, Stephenson*
CB:
Virgil, Schlotterbeck, Ordonez, Leoni, Ndukwe
DM/ CM:
Wharton*, Gravenberch, Andre, Jones*, Nyoni*
AM/ RW/ LW:
Szoboszlai, Wirtz, Diomande, Mane*, Rio*
CF:
Ekitike, Isak.
27 Jan 2026 10:41:50
MK, I think that's possibly leaving us light on the wings again. If we sell Gakpo we'd need to go out and grab a Barcola or similar as well. Mane looks good but he's a righty so I imagine he'd just sit behind Wirtz / Szobo in AM, and just be a similar option to Rio essentially.
Think we need a dedicated left footed attacker who can play off the right more naturally, although they aren't really in good supply unfortunately.
27 Jan 2026 11:06:07
Decent list that, MK.
Would swap your suggestion of Andre Trindade for one of Ayoub Bouaddi or Lucien Agoume. Perfect foils for Wharton imo.
I do like the look of Matheus Mane from what little I have seen of him. Looks like a proper player there! Not sure we would be able to give him the minutes he needs to develop. Perhaps one move too early?
Yann Diomande looks the business doesn't he? Similar in profile to Semenyo but much younger and a better dribbler imo. Can play either side. And he's declared that it is his father's dream to play for us too!
Home grown numbers will be a challenge!
27 Jan 2026 11:29:55
AAR91 guarantee we get more than £75m for Salah and MacAllister combined, gobsmacked if we didn't get £65-70 for MacAllister alone, and definitely over £40m for Salah
The prices are not wild at all and like I said, it's a bit of fun instead of talking about Slot all day, have a good day brother, chill!
27 Jan 2026 11:42:32
Well we sell all the players mentioned and then buy all the new players mentioned and then we would be back to square one . we have bought five new players and it has took over half a season for them to show that they are starting to gel . So how long would it take for all those new players to settle . Building a team should of been done over several seasons not in one window it was stupidity to carry that out.
Look at Everton they brought in a number of players and struggled so much they could of been relegated several times . It just does not work and that to me showed that Edwards and Hughes are out of their depth so can they be trusted for future transfers and management selection. ? YNWA.
27 Jan 2026 14:41:10
DK97, personally I like Szoboszlai as the RW and see him as Salah's long term replacement. I take your point about those attacking options being heavily right footed though. We do of course have the left footed RW, Keiran Morrison, absolutely on fire for the u21's. At 19 years old he could be one to watch in pre-season. He put 3 past Arsenal's u21's last week.
Matheus Mane looks a top talent in my opinion. He has that ability to glide past players that is extremely rare in a player so young. I think we need to sign players like that straight from source, rather than wait until they go to Palace/ Newcastle and then they suddenly cost us £75-125m after 1 or 2 good seasons. We missed out on Isak from Sociedad and Wharton from Blackburn and now it'll cost close to £200m for the pair instead of what would've been about £90m.
FPF, I can't see I've seen much of either of those players mate.