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It's what it is. Positive net spend, cleared out a lot of deadwood, bought some key players but didn't stick the landing well enough Lacking a CB, CM, WB and CF come January

Wijnaldum was good for Newcastle and Liverpool. 2 ex Spuds in the list.... And I would rather Gusto play in midfield than sign Pogba... Marcelo Brozovic is a free agent too.... Ah yes, I remember how they loved him. Lol.

We would be pretty mad not to go for Wjinaldum and/or Brozovic. They've been on ice in Saudi for a few years and are now available on a free.

Well, I absolutely do not want to encourage @just and @PloKoon13 but ...Yves Bissouma is a free agent, although it's unclear whether he signed with Fulham Bissouma has no driving licence ala Fofana and inhaled nitrous a la Sterling. Culturally, he seems a great fit.

Bissouma (30). Wijnaldum (35). Ndombele (29). Pogba (33). Desperate I know. But once the directors learn Bissouma played for Brighton they’ll find a way to pay for a free transfer.

Barco the giant killer .. everything depends on you .. he made the Argentina squad let’s see what is he made off. But expect a lot of chopping and changing now- Monaco are turds but didn’t we do this with Chalobah any Guiu ourselves -

Who's going to tell him when he wakes in the morning?

Any free agent midfielders we could add as a short term fix outside of the window? Time to beg.

They can’t get off that light. They must be forced to bench Camara and reinstate Bakayoko in his place also.

It's possible that this one is on Camara as much as anything else then. I know we're in desperate need of warm bodies in midfield at this point, but Camara isn't a replacement for Caicedo or Essugo, he is not that kind of player. Very much in the Busquets/Jorginho/Mikel mould and is more similar to Lavia minus the injuries.

Ben Jacobs has reported Liverpool DID contact both Monaco and the player to ask them to wait and that is why the plug was pulled on the deal, maybe that is what camara also wanted.

I agree that our midfield is weaker than last season. Barco and Henderson looked like great signings when they were squad players that raised the overall floor, but we will go into this season without any of our first-choice midfielders from the last two seasons. However, I don't think that Alonso or the board should be let off so lightly by the 'squad not good enough' approach. We scarcely have a game a week for most of this season. We should be competitive for the title and comfortable for 3rd, anything else is a sideways step at best. We do have enough quality in James, Lavia and the others to maintain good performances at least until January. Only Santos is a real loss. Fernandez has no role in Alonso's system, he is unwilling to play as a deeper midfielder and insists on playing as a second striker. His role is usurped entirely by Rogers, Palmer and Estevao. I am more worried about striker. Pedro has been crucial to our system and it's unclear whether Welbeck will offer even a similar reference point for the attack. Welbeck also has a shaky injury history himself so it's likely we are going to see Rogers, Estevao or Neto as a false 9 at some part of the season because Emegha is not the answer.

Yes the last one is the key. If we truly want to be consistent we definitely need more control. We would have seen fans complaining about Alonso defensive/dinosaur tactic if we drew our two games which let's be fair could have easily happened.

So it's on the player to kick up a fuss. Which is rather unlikely really, especially if he does actually want to go to Liverpool.

The AI overlords say he would have no ground to do so. We could take the issue to CAS OR FIFA but it would be a complex and unprecedented thing to do. So looks like that's that. Monaco left scrambling to get a club from turkey, Saudi or Portugal to buy either player, or someone else. My guess would be their Russian midfielder to Saudi.

Sure, but we will not get much more than a few million in compensation, at the very best. It almost wouldn't be worth the legal fees. It would be different if Camara himself objected to Monaco's decision, or believes he was inconvenienced, then FIFA might consider sporting sanctions as there would be a contractual stability issue. Hopefully CAS rules that the breach is so severe that Monaco must not just refund us for Laurence Stewart, Axel Disasi and Benoit Badiashile, but actually have to take them back as well as penance.

I’m not convinced Camara was the long term solution anyway, but it doesn’t cover the problem with our midfield. A fit Caicedo and Lavia would be fine thru Jan. No one would bet on that outcome though. Still think we might recall Essugo for some depth. Barco should play also - which he’s young, he was good enough to go to the World Cup and this is a chance to prove himself. Nothing I’ve seen convinces me Camara was a better option - was a numbers game there. It’s done now anyway. Need to get the most out of what we have, and be serious about one or two targets in January.

Rogers is being played as part of a front 3 so I don't really count him as a midfielder. Enzo F. generally played alongside Caicedo rather than as one of the wide guys like Rogers so I don't see that as a like for like replacement. Our midfield last season was hardly great and yet we have weakened it. We've let Andre Santos, Fernandes, and Essugo leave while bringing in Barco and Henderson. I think most of us imagined Barco and Henderson would likely have peripheral squad roles this season but now it looks like they could be starting regularly.

No he doesn't. He's good, but he's not that good and even if he was world class, we still wouldn't challenge for a title with what's going on behind him. Fulham and Brighton were proof that what we have is not good enough. We can go into the youth team all we like, but we won't find anybody ready to step in to the senior teams midfield. All of this is compounded by the fact that Caicedo is injured, with very little pre-season, after a season where he was already looking burnt out. Our midfield is weaker than it was last season, and it was already weak then.

Certainly the player must feel like taking his case to CAS the way he was messed around.

I think Gusto started in midfield against Brighton because Reece and Barco had played full games against Luton and Caicedo wasn't ready to start. Assuming Caicedo is still injured I suspect we will see Lavia and Reece start.

I can only see that being remotely triggered if De Zerbi is still manager at Spurs at the end of this season. Given their record with managers, that seems unlikely.

Enzo's goals are such a furphy. 10 goals and just 4 assists is pretty good for an AM, but's a very average return for a second-striker which was essentially his role under Maresca/Rosenior. Rogers playing in a similar attacking role adds the same stats but also with the additional ability to carry the ball on the dribble, which Fernandez cannot do. Cherki has been known to have some serious attitude issues when things aren't to his liking. I doubt he makes it past this season with City.

I wonder if there is a possibility to go to CAS over this.

It definitely makes sense to focus on our primary targets but I doubt it will be any easier to prise them from their respective clubs in January or next summer. Other clubs will no doubt join the battle for their signatures. For the first half of this season we need to hope that Caicedo is not seriously injured and that Lavia can stay fit. Reece is an option but not a reliable one given his injury record, and we don't yet have a date on Henderson's availability. Barco should be a decent option but it remains to be seen how he does against the bigger teams. I think it was a mistake to let Essugo go until we were sure that Camara deal was fully completed. He could have provided some more cover. If we hit a few injuries we will be back to playing the likes of Gusto in central midfield, or tapping into the academy.