Liverpool FC Forum

Bit of chatter coming out of Spain that we're interested in Saúl Ñíguez from Atlético Madrid. Apparently he struggled last season but he's been one of the best midfielders in Europe for a couple of years now so would be an interesting replacement for Gini.

Hopefully things will start to liven up a bit after the Euro's, it's been very quiet transfer wise, not just talking about us but in general, the Euro's have dominated the news cycle.

Eagle » Fri Jul 09, 2021 1:35 pm wrote:Bit of chatter coming out of Spain that we're interested in Saúl Ñíguez from Atlético Madrid. Apparently he struggled last season but he's been one of the best midfielders in Europe for a couple of years now so would be an interesting replacement for Gini.

His passing is no where near Gini’s, probably more like a long term replacement for Hendo, who misses more and more games the older he gets.

Liverpool have been linked with a lot of midfielders this summer. There’s a new name every week and then, after a while, you see the same ones reappearing on the list. Youri Tielemans was once again back on the agenda this weekend after reports emerged claiming he’s top of the club’s summer shortlist.

According to Sacha Tavolieri, the Belgian maestro is interested in a move to Anfield and Jurgen Klopp is a long-term admirer of the player.

Earlier on in the summer, it was suggested a fee in the region of £60million would be what was required to pry the midfielder away from the King Power Stadium. Sven Claes then claimed that Tielemans was looking to earn more money.

As detailed in my Patreon piece on the subject, if you factor in the transfer fee and consider that the 24-year-old reportedly turned down an offer from Leicester to give him parity with the likes of Jamie Vardy on £130,000-per-week meaning he’s going to want in excess of that, the overall package to sign Tielemans is likely going to cost close to £100million over a five-year contract.

The Reds will break the bank for players they consider to be game-changers. They did it with Alisson and Virgil Van Dijk. They’ll no doubt do it again. Does Tielemans fall into that category? Personally, I’d say no.

The former Monaco man is clearly a talent. The Leicester City No8 has the ability to dictate the game, he’s a goal threat from distance and a creative menace. However, there are concerns over his speed and defensive work rate. He’s not that physical presence. He’s also much more ball orientated. For some, this won’t be a negative. They want their midfielders on the ball. Football is all about balance, though.

Liverpool are looking to replace Gini Wijnaldum. Now, it doesn’t necessarily have to be a like for like replacement, but, for example, you can’t bring in someone completely different. They still have to fit into the existing system.

Wijnaldum averaged around 50 passes per 90 last season. That involvement is what you’re looking to replace. The Reds already have players who set the tempo in Thiago, Jordan Henderson, Fabinho and Trent Alexander-Arnold. Adding another one to the mix would come at a cost. You can’t add another ball player without it having an impact on someone or something else.

Tielemans, in a counter-attacking Leicester team, averaged near 70 passes last year. He’s another who is much better with the ball at feet. He wants to be involved. Now, that isn’t to say his game can’t be changed to fit into a role within the Liverpool system. But are you really going to spend £100million on a player who needs to essentially change their game? Maybe you do if you’re a Manchester United or a Chelsea.

Those in charge of recruitment for the Merseysiders can’t do that. They won’t. Not when there are better value for money options out there.

One such player is Saul Niguez.

Initially, it was nothing more than a random link from a small Spanish outlet. This snowballed as last week went on and the mood went from ‘Nah, not happening’ to ‘will he take Naby’s No8 jersey?’.

Now, there’s been a lot written on Saul. There was a feature up on Anfield Index last week. I posted an in-depth report on him and followed it up with an interview on my Patreon too.

There’s a lot of talk surrounding his salary. According to reports in Spain, he’s one of the highest earners at Atletico having signed a nine-year deal in 2017. However, there was talk last season that he wanted an improved contract which would be odd if he was the top earner.

Even if he is on the big bucks, the breakdown in his relationship with Diego Simeone might be one of the reasons he’s looking to move on. He might be willing to take a pay cut to get a Klopp hug. I know I would anyway.


Furthermore, even if he was put on the same salary as Thiago – highly unlikely – the overall package would still see him cost the club around £30million less than it’d cost to sign Tielemans.

Liverpool would be getting a much more versatile player while saving money. In a Klopp squad, multifunctional players are key. It is one of the reasons Wijnaldum was so highly rated, he was like a chameleon. Saul has that about him. He isn’t a high volume player either. Generally speaking, he ticks more of the boxes

The more time goes by and the more I think about it, this whole Wijnaldum business and replacing him makes less and less sense to me. Letting him go on a free and replacing him with players that are good but definitely not better than him, but would cost us a Sh*t ton of money just doesn't make a lot of sense. £60m for Tielemans, get the f*ck out of here. Good player but not THAT good. £45m for Saul who's been poor for 2 seasons now  . I know it's not my money but business wise it just doesn't make any sense to be spending that much money on these players who wouldn't be an improvement on Gini. Younger sure, but definitely not better.

In my opinion, considering we already have Fab, Hendo and Thiago in midfield, I think we should risk it with some lesser known players for less money. £30-35m would be the max I'd pay for a Gini replacement, considering we didn't get anything from his departure.

Tielemans is the better option for us, already proven in the league which is worth half that fee.

Is he worth 60 million though ? Well he is worth more than Ox and certainly more than Keita so imo yes. He has bags of potential to improve too.

So what if he wants to earn more. He reportedly earns 33k a week at Leicester so not hard to beat that. https://www.spotrac.com/epl/leicester-c ... C718%2C000.

He would happily accept 50 to 60k and a chance to sign for one of the biggest clubs in the world I reckon. He will earn a new one pretty quick if he is a success as well.

It's well noted the massive difference in Ginis performances for Holland compared to what he put in here. Why we would want to do that again is beyond me.

Offloading Keita or Ox plus Origi as part of the deal would be good business.

With Gini we got a 92% passer that kept the ball well but that was with Hendo and Milner, we didn’t have the Thiago/Fabinho partnership prior to last season that would have kept the ball as well as add more creative flair, so who best matches up with that partnership is the question we should be asking. We will start the season with Hendo for his leadership but he misses a lot games and probably will miss more and more as he ages, he is who we need to replace not Gini. I don’t think Gini would have played as much last season had we not got crippled with injuries even though I would have picked him ahead of Hendo.

Why haven't they bought Mbappe yet.....   

My son's in Mikonos a the mo and Mbappe was in the same restaurant. I told him to get over there and speak to the lad.

You heard it here first! 

We must sell someone and get some serious money in or we'll be left in the dust....

Left in the dust by who ?

Really hope we get rid of some deadwood aka Origi and co.

I wonder if were going to sell Minamino or send him on loan again.

Lallana in Pyjamas » Wed Jul 14, 2021 8:16 pm wrote:Left in the dust by who ?

City, Chelski and Manure

Grealish 100 million to City
Haaland probably 150 million to Chelski
Sancho 75 million to Manure

What are we doing? NOTHING

Penguins » Thu Jul 15, 2021 6:50 am wrote:

Lallana in Pyjamas » Wed Jul 14, 2021 8:16 pm wrote:Left in the dust by who ?

City, Chelski and Manure

Grealish 100 million to City
Haaland probably 150 million to Chelski
Sancho 75 million to Manure

What are we doing? NOTHING

We have bought a CB


Grealish hasn’t gone to City
Haaland hasn’t gone to Chelsea
And Sancho isn’t going to turn UTD into title winners


People overreacting on rumours


The toys came out last summer when Werner went to Chelsea - how about we wait until the season starts and judge on the football as opposed to the signings

The easy response is to say we don't need anyone however last season we saw multiple cases of player burn outs leading to the 6 consecutive home defeats. The deadwood is holding us back, not the first XI.