Suarez's replacement

Just did the "Youtube scout" routine on Soldado and Muriel. Clearly at the moment Soldado is the better player, and his style would suggest that he ought to adapt fairly quickly to English football. He's strong and powerful, as well as possessing a good eye for goal. I think Scott said earlier he's what Morientes ought to have been, and I can see that in him.

The Morientes comment was in referral to Michu dude.

I do like the look of Soldado though. Only problem is, I think will lose Luis but it will be drawn out and chances are the likes of Soldado will be gone by gone and we will have missed the boat.

 F*ck me you can see why the World and his brother wants this lad, good in the air hits it with both feet and has a poachers instinct. I'm reading that his club are saying it will cost 22 million quid to buy him and that he wants to come to the Premiership. I say bollocks to Luis and his posturing, buy this lad anyway. Complete no brainer, even if he flops you'd get 2/3 of that back, and he won't.

 Further update on the Brazillian lad who told me last night that we were looking at him and that Lucas was a good friend of the striker. Turns out the fella (the Brazillian punter I was talking to) is very good friends with Fabio Aurelio and lived in his house he had in Kingswood, kind of house sat it for him. By all accounts he went through the academy at the same time as our Fabio (at Flamenco maybe?). Had a good old chin wag with him last night, he was telling me all about different things which happen in around the club, how Aurelio loved Rafa (might be bollocks that bit obviously ;0) ) etc etc. Anyway smashing lad, and apparently the Damaio link came to him in a text from Aurelio (who is now completely unemployed and back in Brazil apparently). Would love it if it were true, looks like a good player to me.

Yeh Lucas could have been working on the foundations of the deal last season when he was injured?  He was supposed do be doing some work for Brendan and the name on his lips was Damaio!

Now that it looks like Suarez is gonna find a way out of this club, come hell or high water, what are we to do? The way I see it we have to find them 30+ goals from somewhere. Say our owners step up and put up some serious cash to try fix this mess, is there even anybody out there to go for?

Been wracking my head all night trying to think of replacements we could get in, tbh I haven't come up with many names. What do you guys think? Who can we get in to try fill the massive hole Luis leaves behind him?

Do we really need another Suarez thread?

Yilmaz or Muriel with either Bernard or Eriksen would ease the blow of losing Suarez.

How is Pato doing at Corinthians? he lost his way because of injuries at Milan but the boy can play. he still is 23 or 24.

Who is the lad banging in goals at Napoli, the lefty. Calaio or something. Howcome nobody ever talk about him going anywhere? Never mind I just wiki'd him and hes 31.

How is Pato doing at Corinthians? he lost his way because of injuries at Milan but the boy can play. he still is 23 or 24.

Badly. I mean, his stats ain't that bad, he's scored some goals, but overall his performances have been below expectations. Corinthians paid a lot of money in Brazilian standards for him and so far have been disappointed. Wouldn't consider him an option myself.

Badly. I mean, his stats ain't that bad, he's scored some goals, but overall his performances have been below expectations. Corinthians paid a lot of money in Brazilian standards for him and so far have been disappointed. Wouldn't consider him an option myself.

fair enough, havent watched him play for Corinthians at all but when he was at Milan, I was a big fan.

Now since i have your attention, what do people think of Diego Costa in Brazil. Brazilian media and the people in general.

Now since i have your attention, what do people think of Diego Costa in Brazil. Brazilian media and the people in general.

Not much to be fair. He left the country very early so he has hardly any reputation here - was an unknown before he started to do well for Atletico. Journalists focus a lot of their attention on players who are either here, or have made a name for themselves in Brazil before leaving. Guys like him, Hulk and many others are often seen with suspicion. Diego Costa, for instance, could be considered for the national team instead of strikers like Jô or Damião, but because he's a relatively unknown while the others are local heroes, his name is hardly mentioned. Some win people over, like David Luiz who also left the country very soon, but some never do.

No mention of Defoe ? Considering our creativity from midfield

F*ck me you can see why the World and his brother wants this lad, good in the air hits it with both feet and has a poachers instinct. I'm reading that his club are saying it will cost 22 million quid to buy him and that he wants to come to the Premiership. I say bollocks to Luis and his posturing, buy this lad anyway. Complete no brainer, even if he flops you'd get 2/3 of that back, and he won't.

Looks like a good player doesn't he mate, actually reminded me of Van Nistleroy in some respects ie. a big lad with good movement, lots of sliding finishes and clearly a good header of the ball and the prospect of having a player who regularly trys the 'escape to victory' flcik over the head is too good to miss in my book!

I bet he's owned by about 3 different cartels though! Must admit i thought he had been sold earlier on the window but obviously not. Based on the little i've seen of the 2 players i would certainly go with this lad over Costa.

No mention of Defoe ? Considering our creativity from midfield

Unless he's become Roy Hodgson, Rodgers would never touch Defoe with a barge pole. Still shuddering at the thought of three years previously when we were being linked to Zamora and Carlton Cole. Apologies to divert the topic, but I still wake up in the middle of the night in a cold sweat screaming because of him.

Just seeing this thread up at the top of the list - and reading the subject, can't bear thinking about it, honest to god...

If Suarez goes, we shouldn't sell him for anything less than £50m, and definitely not to anyone in England.

The title of this thread is a misnomer considering there is no player in the world who can "replace" Suarez.  He's not just a striker.  He drops into midfield, he creates, he plays on the wing, there is no one in the world who can do that for us, except for maybe Ronaldo.  So, replacing Suarez is impossible (hence why I think we should keep him).  But if he is going to leave, there are ways to move on.

My fear is that even if we do get £50m, it's going to be spent poorly.  Rodgers in his transfer windows thus far has only a 50% success rate.  That's really not good enough, and if we're going to get a £50m injection from Suarez leaving, we can't F**k it up again on Downing/Henderson/Borini/Allen etc.  We have to get players who can come in right now and do a job for us.

But, if he's going to go, then there's almost no chance we're going to get 4th next season, so I think we should just rip up the book and start from scratch, get rid of all the players who aren't up to par, and keep only what we know we can count on. 

So the outs would be:

--Suarez, £50m
--Downing, £5m
--Borini, £5m
--Skrtel, £10m (if possible)
--Coates, £5m

If we could make all of those happen, we would have £75m to spend.  I'd also get rid of Henderson too if a decent bid came in, but, you know, baby steps and all.

With that £75m I would pay Muriel's buyout clause of £25m.  He'd be the closest thing to a like-for-like with Suarez.  He's not at a CL club right now and he wouldn't be on crazy wages.  That would leave £50m.  We'd go in for Papadopoulos, for whom they want about £15m.  Now we're down to £30m.  I'd go after Eriksen who is available relatively cheap, for about £15m, that way we would have him and Coutinho for the #10 role if one of them gets injured and to provide competition.  If Eriksen doesn't work we should take a look at Grenier, brilliant, brilliant player who would be available for about the same.  Now we're down to £15m.  We're in dire need of a DM to cover/challenge Lucas, Capoue would be available for about £10m and would do a job.  Bring in Siqueira on loan.

That leaves £5m just from sales alone, so if FSG could stump up another £15m or so (like they were going to do for Costa) then we could make one more marquee signing, and the squad could look something like this, without CL, and without breaking the bank on players on massive wages:

Mignolet
Johnson Agger Papa Enrique
Lucas Gerrard
Eriksen
Sturridge Muriel Coutinho


bench: Jones, Aspas, Sterling, Ibe, Alberto, Siqueira, Capoue

For me the move would be for Lamela first and foremost. Slots in perfectly with what we like in attackers and Coutinho will be moved centrally. Like Federers shout of Capoue, obviously I've raved about him on this forum for many time now. Prefer Clement Grenier to Eriksen me self as well. Lyon are skint and if we put a cheeky bid in we might be able to prise him away.

But for me the replacement for Suarez would be Lamela or Muriel as I've said before.

Sorry to burst the Capoue bubble but reports are that Spurs have something near £9m accepted for him.

Sorry to burst the Capoue bubble but reports are that Spurs have something near £9m accepted for him.

Not sure about a Spurs bid (they're in talks according to Sky), but Cardiff's offer of around 8.5/9m was accepted a few days ago.

As for Lamela, what's his situation? Do we think he'd be open to a move or no?

As for Lamela, what's his situation? Do we think he'd be open to a move or no?

Yes I am quite sure Lamela would welcome a move as we can triple his wages and he will fit into the wage scheme we've got. Roma are not in strong finances.

If Suarez goes, we shouldn't sell him for anything less than £50m, and definitely not to anyone in England.

The title of this thread is a misnomer considering there is no player in the world who can "replace" Suarez.  He's not just a striker.  He drops into midfield, he creates, he plays on the wing, there is no one in the world who can do that for us, except for maybe Ronaldo.  So, replacing Suarez is impossible (hence why I think we should keep him).  But if he is going to leave, there are ways to move on.

My fear is that even if we do get £50m, it's going to be spent poorly.  Rodgers in his transfer windows thus far has only a 50% success rate.  That's really not good enough, and if we're going to get a £50m injection from Suarez leaving, we can't f**k it up again on Downing/Henderson/Borini/Allen etc.  We have to get players who can come in right now and do a job for us.

But, if he's going to go, then there's almost no chance we're going to get 4th next season, so I think we should just rip up the book and start from scratch, get rid of all the players who aren't up to par, and keep only what we know we can count on. 

So the outs would be:

--Suarez, £50m
--Downing, £5m
--Borini, £5m
--Skrtel, £10m (if possible)
--Coates, £5m

If we could make all of those happen, we would have £75m to spend.  I'd also get rid of Henderson too if a decent bid came in, but, you know, baby steps and all.

With that £75m I would pay Muriel's buyout clause of £25m.  He'd be the closest thing to a like-for-like with Suarez.  He's not at a CL club right now and he wouldn't be on crazy wages.  That would leave £50m.  We'd go in for Papadopoulos, for whom they want about £15m.  Now we're down to £30m.  I'd go after Eriksen who is available relatively cheap, for about £15m, that way we would have him and Coutinho for the #10 role if one of them gets injured and to provide competition.  If Eriksen doesn't work we should take a look at Grenier, brilliant, brilliant player who would be available for about the same.  Now we're down to £15m.  We're in dire need of a DM to cover/challenge Lucas, Capoue would be available for about £10m and would do a job.  Bring in Siqueira on loan.

That leaves £5m just from sales alone, so if FSG could stump up another £15m or so (like they were going to do for Costa) then we could make one more marquee signing, and the squad could look something like this, without CL, and without breaking the bank on players on massive wages:

Mignolet
Johnson Agger Papa Enrique
Lucas Gerrard
Eriksen
Sturridge Muriel Coutinho


bench: Jones, Aspas, Sterling, Ibe, Alberto, Siqueira, Capoue

Good point, it's not necessarily finding a direct replacement for Suarez but rather what we would do with the funds.

Defensive midfielder should be a main priority - we can not afford putting a lightweight player (physically) like Joe Allen there again. Teams just trampled through us and Gerrard is a complete waste of talent there. The days with Mascherano and Lucas playing together were arguably the glue that held the team together - no wonder the defensive record looked impressive. I think also with Rodgers playing style of two full backs playing relatively far forward, it would do no harm to have two solid defensive midfielders protecting the back line again. I feel there's plenty of creativity up front now to make this the main priority.

I don't know what others think, but would it not make sense to spend funds this way? Considering we didn't struggle with Suarez's absence at the end of last season gives me enough confidence in our attacking credentials already.

Wayne Rooney...he's Scouse.

Wayne Rooney...he's Scouse.

Pull the pin, drop grenade, cover ears and.........

It would be hilarious