Emotic

Hence all the deliberate "leaks" and agitation by the media and possibly his agent - we want a certain sum to consider a sale - "they" are attempting to lower that sum through unsettling the entire situation.

James Mcatee definitely for sale. I'd take him for 30 mil. Can play midfield, a sort of 10, and on the right wing.

They can buy Toney back from Al-Ahli lol.

Hey, that Nottingham Forest goalie kept the most clean sheets the season past. Let's sign him up!

Liverpool appear to be waiting for a sale before they can place a bid for Ekitike. They might not be as flush with cash as we think. If they end up spending 200 million on Wirz and Ekitike, I'd wonder if they'd have all that much left over. In which case, gazumping us for Eki may not be as good a flex as people think.

Issue is that everyone in the squad will demand their wages upped. Isak and Bruno probably have wage parity clauses in their contracts. Osimhen ended up in Turkey for a reason, despite being Europe’s hottest striker the season before.

We were linked with Szoboslai two years ago, and then Liverpool immediately snapped him up too. Then we got Tonali. Worked out well for us.

Hope nobody pays big money for Nunez or Diaz. Leave them promising to pay a fee that they can't shell out.

Samu reminds me a great deal of Taiwo Awoniyi. Power, pace, not super technically refined. Seems like we're after players with great technique, as much as possible.

The weirdoes in Munich are on the verge of signing Nick Woltemade, who was my next choice after Ekitike. He's basically the German version, same age, same lanky build, same attributes. Odd that these spindly, elegant, creative forwards are so much in vogue nowadays. Akliouche is another one, and possibly attainable, but hasn't put up the impressive G/A numbers yet.

I suppose we can still say "no". But the threat of buying the striker that we are currently pursuing is the odd one for me.

At this point I'm not even sure if the Liverpool and Newcastle management are thinking the same way that Romano/Ornstein/Pletti think they're thinking. The whole "sell us Isak or we will buy Ekitike" narrative is emotive, but illogical from a business point of view, no? All it does is it certainly just drives Ekitike's price up for both parties, and if Newcastle says "Isak is not for sale" (and these "journalists" keep saying that we have), then what's the point of the threats? Liverpool should buy who 1) the manager wants; and 2) is available, just like any other club. Threatening a club owned by Saudi Arabia's sovereign wealth fund is not going to work well.

No point antagonising them. Just sign Ekitike, keep Isak, smash them when we play them. Pure professionalism.

Who's next on our "lanky freak forward" list? Maghnes Akliouche? Nick Woltemade (although Bayern is closing in on him)?

Time to swoop in on Franjo Ivanovic!

A lot of rage-baiting in the past 24 hours is due to the fact that Ekitike is still in play. The sooner we land him, the sooner the absolutely stupid and illogical narrative of "If you don't agree to sell us Isak, we will move on Ekitike....or maybe BOTH!" will dissipate. The news will go back to being "Liverpool bids for Isak", which isn't as cloak-and-dagger with childish implied flexes and threats.

"...who both Nufc and Liverpool like....". Fuck off, he's already our player.

Then they should buy Ekitike by meeting his release clause immediately, which would still be forty million quid less than what they are offering for Isak.

This is a bit bizarre "If Newcastle don't sell us Isak for 100 million, we will sabotage their 80 million deal for Ekitike!". Makes no sense. They might as well immediately take the cheaper option and swoop in for Ekitike for 86 mil now. We want both to play for us, so what is t he leverage they have - either way they move, we'd still not have our ideal situation?

If our owners and management truly want to show intent, then now is the time to put a hard refusal to sell our best players to Premier League rivals and snap up the next best striker on the continent. Please the fanbase and send a message that we aren't here to be anyone's factory farm anymore.

Nicolas Jackson is 100 mil. Why don't the Scousers bid for him instead.

Can't get a French striker from a German club, so we are looking for an "alternative solution in England" by considering a Brazilian striker who doesn't want to leave a Spanish Club, aye.

I agree - much rather spend whatever is left (if indeed we push the boat out for Ekitike and only have cash for one more signing) on a CB, and stick with Popey/Dubs for one more season. That CB better know how to pass it out from defence though, all that terrifying pace in the front 4 will be wasted with Pope kicking the ball out into touch every time there's a chance for a transition.

We sign a covering striker on a free, to afford a number 10, who'd be deployed according to match requirements. I doubt that we were looking at Cunha and Pedro as out-and-out right wingers, for example. They'd most likely be played as attacking midfielders, and cover for Isak.

If DCL on a free allows us to sign someone like, say, Harvey Elliott, then I'd understand the logic. We were reportedly pursuing a "twofer" 10 who can play as a striker in Cunha and Joao Pedro. Now that those deals are dead, a proper attacking midfield to unlock low blocks, with DCL and Osula as the backup strikers may well be a Plan B.