Brendan Rodgers confirmed yesterday one of the core contentions this site has made about this transfer window, that we want a wide midfielder in the Patrick Roberts / Charley Musonda mould. We have Hayes fit again and we have Lewis Morgan on the books now, and both can play on the wing, but he wants one top class player to join them in the squad.
He also appears to want a Stuart Armstrong replacement; this is interesting because I genuinely believed he might leave that position alone as we have plenty of cover in the area and that includes the return of Ryan Christie to the fold.
But it’s out wide that Brendan will probably spend big money.
He values those type of players, the guys who can turn a game. We’ve had some cracking footballers there over the years, from Lubo to Naka and Roberts himself. Speculation continues to link him with a return “home” and this time on a permanent basis; I doubt there’s much truth in it though.
Don’t get me wrong, if he’s available and we can afford him that deal should be done and he should be given the number seven shirt on a permanent basis … but it just appears to me that the ship has sailed there and we’re not going to see him again.
One crazy rumour – that about Alexandre Pato – continues to circulate.
He, actually, is the prototype footballer we need; he has spent much of his career out wide, cutting inside and scoring goals, but it’s just mad to think that we could close a piece of business like that. It would be wildly ambitious, a gloriously sexy move and easily the most exciting transfer of not only this summer but for many, many, many years but it is probably a little rich for our blood. (To say the least; he currently plays in China where his wages are in nose-bleed territory.)
Stories like this will continue to pop up until we announce our signing, but the fact of it, the fact we’re targeting that slot, is now confirmed and from the best source of all; the manager himself. And although we might be weeks away from it, it’s an exciting prospect.