Originally Posted by
Insidious
I understand what you're saying in terms of him being a valuable servant to the club and that he wasn't costing us the Earth. I like Wijnaldum a lot and there's a BIG part of me would have been very happy if he stayed.
However, if he does, then in 3 years time you would be looking at -
Henderson - 34
Wijnaldum - 33
Thiago - 33
Van Dijk - 32
Firmino - 32
Salah - 32
Mane - 32
Fabinho - 30
Ox - 30
Unless you're Man City, Chelsea or PSG, you probably can't afford to be replacing 5-9 players who are in the "first 17" of your squad over the course of 2-3 windows, so we need to look at doing our work a little more gradually.
It's part of the reason I love seeing us linked to players aged 21-25. You can totally see (age-wise) why we brought Keita, Ox and Fabinho in - they're still "only" 26, 27 and 27. Two of them (mainly injuries) haven't really worked out in terms of becoming constant presences in the starting XI, but in terms of age profile we had done the right thing targeting those players. In theory 2 or 3 of them would be in the "main" midfield three (rather than the bench options) whereas you can only really say Fabinho has been a "success" in that regard.
Those three should have bought us time - Mane and Salah certainly did - Mane has given us 5 seasons already, Salah has given us 4 - and they still have more in the tank - with Firmino (already here) having given us 6 seasons now. Ideally you want to bring in similar profiles of player - I think Firmino joined at age 24, Mane at age 24 and Salah at age 25 - you want to "repeat the trick" as it were, if you can, supplemented by even younger signings and academy prospects to keep the ball rolling.
The main thing to avoid is what we have witnessed happening to Barcelona. They have combined hanging onto players for too long with big wages, plus not getting their long-term replacement targets quite right.
Wijnaldum (in isolation) looks a loss, for sure - but with Curtis Jones breaking through (even though I don't think he is quite ready yet) and Thiago having joined to help "evolve" the side, you can see the logic looking at the big picture - and more tough decisions will lie ahead.
Van Dijk - 32
I get where your coming from on the age thing. But my only concern is next season. Wijnaldum is playing extremely well. Will we replace him with some equally good or better?
We can always get another midfielder next season..some one younger. Just a bit daft how we let him leave in my opinion
Cleaning up the Scots since the 13th century
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