Superblue

Hazard champions league bonus money for the transfer kitty, Tuchel will be pleased with Klopp tonight.

EU approval already done.

I think this may have been last autumn. I believe there was some interest from teams last summer but Brighton sold White to Arsenal for big money so there was no pressure on them to negotiate for him at the time. It would clearly be a warning sign on him currently though. I can't see any club taking a risk on him with that hanging over his head. Like you mentioned previous, this may suit him if it means he goes into one more season then can leave for free if and when these charges are resolved.

I too am a big fan of Bissouma and whilst there are always question marks over some player's abilities to "step up" to higher levels I would be confident he could simply due to him being such a big and important cog in the centre of a Brighton midfield who regularly aim to go toe to toe with any team they come up against to dominate possession and control the game. I dont know if his court case is due to be resolved this summer. If it is, and assuming he's cleared, he'd be a great target and I would assume very affordable with only a year left on his contract.

If we sold Jorginho and retained Azpi there would still be similar questions to be asked because the assumption would be that Azpi won't play regularly and therefore whilst he might be club captain, he wouldn't regularly be on pitch captain. I guess if Azpi is still here and can perform a lot of the media representation as captain of the club it would make things easier for someone like Silva to be on pitch captain despite language barriers but even then, he's turning 38 and isn't going on forever. Mount and James are obvious potential long term captains but with them still being so young you have to really be sure giving them that role full time as it would be a bit of a PR disaster taking it away if the club decided to in the future. Assuming the club eventually buys Rice he may also be a better candidate than mount and James for that role too, especially given his experience of doing it at West Ham. Someone that I think could probably work in the short term is Kova. He'll likely play regularly and I think similar to Azpi and Jorginho, he might not be a natural captain but he's someone willing to take responsibility and lead by example and as a result he appears universally respected within the squad for those qualities.

Personally I think its more likely lazy journalism. Both have played full back in the past so as a result the assumption is both can also play wing back when that simply isn't the case.

Cornet apparently has a £17.5m release clause now Burnley have gone down.

I have read in a couple of instances that Chelsea may view the versatility of both Kounde and Gvardiol as important as they feel both could operate effectively in the wing back roles too. Not sure how much I see either excelling in that role (think Kounde would probably be reasonable but won't be near James' level) but if that was a plan it would open up greater opportunities for Colwill in the back 3 possibly. I think unless we buy someone who can obviously play in the middle, out of those we currently have and are heavily linked with, Trev actually looks the best bet to fill in for Silva at times next season.

I think Emerson will be moved on. He had six months with Tuchel before leaving on loan and clearly wasn't in his plans then. He was an ideal option to call back in January given the circumstances but I'd be surprised if Tuchel decided to keep him.

I'm sure someone mentioned this a while ago, may have been @Tomo what are peoples thoughts on Dwight Mcneil as a possible left wing back option? With Burnley's relegation and I think he only has 2 years left on his contract they'd probably take a very reasonable fee for him.

Perisic close to spurs reports suggesting tonight. Disappointing one for me as I think he could do a really good job here potentially on both flanks for a season or two and fill a gap in a cost effective manner. I really hope we don't sink 40-50m on Cucurella and are sat with 100m worth of left backs/wing backs.

Probably hence why he's willing to move on because he probably sees opportunities as limited here. Chalobah being preferred in the cup final says as much to his future here.

Huge difference though between Gerrard who won a few trophies including a champions league compared to Kane who hasn't won anything at all yet. If he goes through his career without some significant silverware I think in years to come he'll regret it.

Rumours doing the rounds are that Mane has decided to join bayern this summer and Liverpool will sell instead of lose him for free next summer.

Whichever way you look at it, the new ownership this summer will be relying on the old guard regarding scouting, recruiting, etc this summer. In an ideal world we could make minimal changes this summer and spend more money next year under a new regime but unfortunately changes are clearly necessary now.

If we sign 2 centre backs to go alongside Silva, Trev and Colwill I'd be happy with that centre back group. Especially if we get a viable second right wing back too as James can fill in at RCB too when required.

Wouldn't be against giving Inter some money and lukaku for barella and Bastoni.

They probably want to sell Carlos so under less pressure to sell Kounde being the more valuable of the two and that way they can try to hold out for his release clause knowing we need centre backs. If they try that I'd move on to target number two at the back and get them first instead. They won't want to keep Kounde next season unhappy with his deal running down further.

Let's see how easy PSG find it to offload him.

I definitely wouldn't look beyond a loan right now. In the same way that we've been stuck in positions before with high earners we no longer want and teams have been able to pull our pants down with loan deals in their favour. If a similar opportunity presented itself with Neymar I wouldn't be against taking a punt with it because he is a much more naturally gifted talent than all of our other attackers. Any bigger/longer commitment than that in my opinion wouldn't be a good idea at present.

I would agree but you would probably look at accommodating that in the same way we always did with hazard. He's obviously supremely talented and could justify a more free role if he's creating and scoring. Unfortunately for Lukaku he's just not a good enough footballer to justify that.

It'll be interesting to see how PSG deal with Neymar. They surely cannot keep him, Mbappe and Messi on the mega wages they're all on, and move for other big names on very well paid contracts this summer like Dembele. Like others have suggested, I can't see where he goes this summer. I think there's a very real possibility that if PSG want him out (at the request of appeasing Mbappe) they might have to let him leave on loan and cover some of his wages. If anyone was in for him I think they would hold the negotiating power. A season on loan under our terms I wouldn't be against, especially if we can't get Dembele.

From what it sounds like the new board are big on Tuchel and ready to essentially give him the keys to the kingdom like klopp and pep have had. So long as we don't tank, I think this needs to be looked upon as at least a 2 year project to build towards challenging for the title. With this in mind and considering how many positions probably need being worked on I'd rather we don't try and do everything this summer if the right player isn't available. The best player available in some positions might still not be good enough and I'm getting those vibes in centre midfield. Let's position ourselves over the next year or two to get Rice at a lower fee when his contract winds down a little or look to be the young exciting team on the up which may prove attractive to Bellingham. This summer a pair of centre backs is a must and I'd love us to address our wing back options and bring in Dembele if possible. For me Perisic and Djed Spence would bring genuine depth in quality in the wing back roles without costing a fortune. One is obviously a short term fix but like Silva proved it shouldn't be dismissed due to age if the player is still good enough to offer something. 5 players like above shouldn't be anywhere close to £200m like is being bandied around but if I'm honest I'd rather us be spending more money next summer when we've had more time for the new ownership to lay the foundations for things with regards to scouting, recruitment, etc.

Us fans have had about as much protection as we're getting from energy price rises at present...fuck all!

I'd be willing to take a punt on Bissouma making the step up but his current legal situation would make me assume no one would be willing to risk buying him currently with that hanging over him. Ironically I think he has a year left now so if he doesn't move this summer he could be a great pickup on a free.