You will have noticed we are playing our transfer committee games at the moment.
They were a great idea by John Furlong all those years ago. There is no end to the ways I enjoy them.
Firstly, they have a bit of a reality television vibe where you get to see these contributors be forced to suddenly work together. Secondly, you also get to see how mad and unruly they are. This, my friends, this is what I have to deal with. Thirdly, they are funny. They just make me laugh as the assess the footballers and anything else that comes to mind.
But they are also valuable. They are reminders of the choices in front of people at Liverpool. I think too often we allow the feeling that everything is inevitable to permeate. Last summer, Liverpool didn’t have to engage in a saga to sign Alexander Isak – Liverpool chose that. I hope and expect we see the benefits of that choice in this forthcoming season but Liverpool are assessing an internal situation, an external situation and then plotting a course to take them to the best possible position in the short, medium and long term interests of the club.
This doesn’t mean they are right and last year you can argue they were not; at least about the short term. I maintain they didn’t buy a bad player but the window hindered rather than helped the manager. There is a new manager now and if they hinder him they could set the club back.
I’m not one for “a good season next season would be just getting a Champions League place” not so much because I would be angry if Liverpool finished 3rd but more because I think that initial mindset will lead to Liverpool falling short. It’s important to take stock of the reality – four other English sides qualified for the Champions League and in Chelsea, Newcastle United and Tottenham Hotspur there are three sides who have recent Champions League pedigree who will not have any midweek games. Chelsea and Tottenham have good managers and while Eddie Howe splits opinion it is worth saying that in the last two campaigns where he hasn’t had European football, he has ended it with a Champions League place.
There is not a pathway to plotting a calm course to 3rd from this vantage point. The best way to get 3rd is to aim for 1st and fall short. That should be Liverpool’s plan but obviously you can’t just think about one year.
Different groups have approach this differently which is also what you want.
I have done it a few times – once or twice deliberately unrealistically – but last night I engaged with it properly. I didn’t do myself a surprise because that would just be weird.
I’d keep Curtis Jones but I don’t think the club will. So I accepted that. Of the players who started a game last season for us, I took the money for Mamadashvili, MacAllister, Endo, Chiesa and got the 6 on Cody Gakpo (which I think is a realistic proposition that Bayern Munich offer massive money) and decided to risk it. I also got the biggest budget which I am aware is very convenient.
I went for James Trafford because I think he looks a genuine prospect, is homegrown and we can offer a better pathway than Manchester City at the moment. I went for Oscar Mingueza and Arthur Avom on free transfers – the former an experienced right back and the latter an exciting young Cameroonian centre midfielder who has been playing in France and invested in Adam Wharton and Mamadou Sangare as immediate starting centre midfield options.
In attack I went for Bradley Barcola, Yankuba Minteh and Said El Mala. There is a part of me that really thinks we should be looking for Abde Ezzalzouli having swam in the data but he is very much just a left winger. Barcola and Minteh can play both sides and El Mala can play left and centrally and I think having that flexibility helps, especially looking at how Andoni Iraola used his wide options at Bournemouth.
I decided to keep Harvey Elliott – he can compete with Florian Wirtz and be a right sided option. Lastly I went for Robert Lewandowski on a free and there a ton of reasons not to but I think Liverpool could really do with a one season solution to the Hugo Ekitike problem. All that gives Liverpool five forwards before we get to Rio Ngumoha which is good.
I’d keep Jayden Danns, Luke Chambers, Lewis Koumas and James McConnell about for the season too and I decided we just keep Kostas Tsimikas. Trey Nyoni has a role to play in the season but we need to allow that to be on the manager’s terms, not because he is forced into service.
I looked at the reports of Real Madrid perhaps being willing to sell Dean Huijsen and added him in at 59m and he was my final move when I ended where I did.
You can decide this is all unrealistic given the amount of business but it is where we need to get to. It also allows for the fact that next season another raft of players will be leaving the club, possibly even *clutches pearls* on free transfers in some cases. The centre backs are maybe a bit too young but let’s start there and see where we end up. We’ll be buying experience next summer.
Anyway, have a go. Screengrabs are here: bit.ly/4oaGOzt but I would heartily recommend transferapp.co.uk as a good place where you can see the game. It was developed by Stefan Schulze very kindly for the purposes of this. Where there are mistakes, they are mine (there are mistakes and they are mine). Do all the dice first, make a decision on Curtis (new deal at 10 units or sale at whatever the dice says) and go from there. Do me a favour – keep it to yourself. It’s our silliness, nobody else’s. But it’s also a good way to learn a thing or two.
And isn’t learning through play always fun…
All the best
Neil
