I’ve been following the story for a few days. The talk is that Liverpool thought they could get him for £20m. We’ve supposedly told them it’s £50m with Hibs having a 10% sell-on fee. They’re not prepared to pay that.
I do love how the press seemingly ignore small details like him signing a brand new contract in December less than six months ago.
News now (I know I shouldn't) have Liverpool interested in SJM for reputed £50m. I love the guy but I would take him in the car myself for that
I think we could manage without him but Deano loves him, as does Jack...he's a tremendous character to have in the squad. One of the few examples where I'd be keener on him to stay for non-footballing reasons than what he does on the pitch (which isn't to say he's pish...he's a fine player, but we are going to be crowded by top midfield options by the end of the summer). It would be the first sale of a key player under the current ownership and even at a silly amount (i.e £50m), it would knock-us back in the reputation we have worked so hard to re-establish as a big club that means business.
Quote from: eamonn on June 24, 2021, 12:21:01 PMI think we could manage without him but Deano loves him, as does Jack...he's a tremendous character to have in the squad. One of the few examples where I'd be keener on him to stay for non-footballing reasons than what he does on the pitch (which isn't to say he's pish...he's a fine player, but we are going to be crowded by top midfield options by the end of the summer). It would be the first sale of a key player under the current ownership and even at a silly amount (i.e £50m), it would knock-us back in the reputation we have worked so hard to re-establish as a big club that means business.Agreed. He’s a leader like Mings who also adds more than just his ability. Think Buendia will be another one. There are quite a few in our team who would get in top 4/6 teams, which is why we are rapidly becoming one.4 more and we’ll crack it IMO. DM, Alvarez, Smith-Rowe, JWP. No sales.
Quote from: Percy McCarthy on June 24, 2021, 01:18:39 PMQuote from: eamonn on June 24, 2021, 12:21:01 PMI think we could manage without him but Deano loves him, as does Jack...he's a tremendous character to have in the squad. One of the few examples where I'd be keener on him to stay for non-footballing reasons than what he does on the pitch (which isn't to say he's pish...he's a fine player, but we are going to be crowded by top midfield options by the end of the summer). It would be the first sale of a key player under the current ownership and even at a silly amount (i.e £50m), it would knock-us back in the reputation we have worked so hard to re-establish as a big club that means business.Agreed. He’s a leader like Mings who also adds more than just his ability. Think Buendia will be another one. There are quite a few in our team who would get in top 4/6 teams, which is why we are rapidly becoming one.4 more and we’ll crack it IMO. DM, Alvarez, Smith-Rowe, JWP. No sales.Rather than loooking specifically at the top 4 I think we should compare ourselves to Leicester, that's who we want to 'be' next year. If you pick the best 11 from both of us I don't think there's much in it but they have 2 big differences to us.We have no one who compares to Ndidi and lets the 4 midfields/wingers in front of him play their game.We haven't had a reliable backup to our primary centre forward.Fill those 2 gaps and I honestly see nothing in the team that finished 5th that we can't match. After that we just need a bit of luck with injuries or to add depth to cover for them. If we can overtake Leicester then the top 4 isn't such abig jump from there and I don't think it would be impossible this year.
Quote from: paul_e on June 24, 2021, 01:33:22 PMQuote from: Percy McCarthy on June 24, 2021, 01:18:39 PMQuote from: eamonn on June 24, 2021, 12:21:01 PMI think we could manage without him but Deano loves him, as does Jack...he's a tremendous character to have in the squad. One of the few examples where I'd be keener on him to stay for non-footballing reasons than what he does on the pitch (which isn't to say he's pish...he's a fine player, but we are going to be crowded by top midfield options by the end of the summer). It would be the first sale of a key player under the current ownership and even at a silly amount (i.e £50m), it would knock-us back in the reputation we have worked so hard to re-establish as a big club that means business.Agreed. He’s a leader like Mings who also adds more than just his ability. Think Buendia will be another one. There are quite a few in our team who would get in top 4/6 teams, which is why we are rapidly becoming one.4 more and we’ll crack it IMO. DM, Alvarez, Smith-Rowe, JWP. No sales.Rather than loooking specifically at the top 4 I think we should compare ourselves to Leicester, that's who we want to 'be' next year. If you pick the best 11 from both of us I don't think there's much in it but they have 2 big differences to us.We have no one who compares to Ndidi and lets the 4 midfields/wingers in front of him play their game.We haven't had a reliable backup to our primary centre forward.Fill those 2 gaps and I honestly see nothing in the team that finished 5th that we can't match. After that we just need a bit of luck with injuries or to add depth to cover for them. If we can overtake Leicester then the top 4 isn't such abig jump from there and I don't think it would be impossible this year.I'd say in Barnes, Maddison and Tielemans they've got more consistently excellent players than we have in the attacking areas. Obviously we have Jack who is better than all of those, but the drop off in quality when Jack was missing last season was stark. Buendia is a step towards putting that right. I agree that a top quality defensive midfielder is a must. It doesn't really seem to suit either Luiz or McGinn's natural game.