Summer transfers

[RedMagic]

If we're considering bringing Quansah back either our owners aren't prepared to splash the cash on a top quality CB in the summer, or they think Quansah has dramatically improved to the point where he has cut out his mistakes and shortcomings and is now a reliable CB who can play at the heart of our defence for years to come.

If the latter of those two scenarios is the case, why have we not heard anything in regards to noteworthy praise over his performances for Leverkusen? Surely if he was playing well enough to indicate he is now good enough to be a long term starting CB for us, we would be hearing from various sources about his improvement and how Leverkusen are desperate to keep hold of him?

[Daffydd]

I'd be more interested to know if Quansah would want to come back.

Rumour mill also raised questions over his relationship with Slot.

Still, hatchets can be buried and managers can be moved on.

[RedMagic]

Maybe both Quansah snd Slot should be moved on?

[Nineteenx]

Rumour mill that we are considering bringing Quansah back a year earlier than when the release clause would have kicked in.

In theory we have "dibs" on Quansah at the end of the 26/27 season.

At the time most links said the release clause was £60m, whereas current rumour mill stuff (pinch of salt) indicates £51m.

If £51m is the correct figure and we sold him for....£35 million (???) then you'd be talking about essentially paying £16m for a 2-year loan where he gets a bunch of first-team experience.

If he came back into the fold having accelerated his development and stuck with us for 8-10 years that could actually be seen as reasonable enough value in the wider context, though a LOT remains to be seen.

Did he learn to front foot defend in Germany as that’s what he needed to learn

[Insidious]

If we're considering bringing Quansah back either our owners aren't prepared to splash the cash on a top quality CB in the summer, or they think Quansah has dramatically improved to the point where he has cut out his mistakes and shortcomings and is now a reliable CB who can play at the heart of our defence for years to come.

I'm not sure that it's necessarily an unwillingness to splash the cash - he would still cost a reasonable wedge (rumoured £51m) and that would be on top of us acquiring Jacquet (£60m wasn't it?) so we're already talking about £110m on centre-backs alone, with most fans crying out for one (or more often two) pacey wide players, a defensive-minded midfielder and potentially cover in one of the full-backs areas.

That would suggest that there's belief in his improvement, which is no real surprise given he is actually getting regular match time and in a weaker League. It's easy to forget he was picked ahead of Konaté (and at the time we might say on merit) for the first League game, but unfortunately was bombed out after one bad half of football - a bit wild considering some of the dumpster fire performances some of our other lads have put out on a regular basis.

It'll be interesting to see if Konaté stays. A quartet of Van Dijk, Konaté, Quansah and Leoni certainly doesn't look bad on paper, especially if one of Gomez or Endo remains at the club given that both are capable of cover when we're pushed on the injury front. Without Konaté it would of course look lighter.

[jozza800]

I really dont like the idea of buying back players after they've been sold (though it did work for Rush! ). I don't know why we didn't just loan him out for a year or two.

Assuming Konate and Joemez stay, then I think we've got more than enough at the back.

I'd prioritise on upgrades on Mo and Gakpo for next season, whilst hoping Mac can get back to where he was in the first half of last season.

[Insidious]

I really dont like the idea of buying back players after they've been sold (though it did work for Rush! ). I don't know why we didn't just loan him out for a year or two.

The sale will have helped generate cash and the buy-back clause meant if he developed to a level that we wanted, we had the option of using it. We may not - still rumours at this stage - but good to know it's an option.

Also, by actually selling, there's a much greater chance of the player actually playing, versus a situation like with Villa and Elliott for example.

Initially the reported figures were a £35m sale with a £60m release clause for us at the end of the 26/27 season. Let's say that's true - if someone said we could pay £25m for accelerated development and a lot of game time for Quansah (back then, when he had got ahead of Konaté in the pecking order...) for a player who would be....24 (?) by the time we'd be buying him back, I'd probably have taken it.

You'd essentially be paying £25m for the accelerated development of a Home-grown quota player that might give us 8-10 years of service. That £25m net with the player maybe giving us 8 good years (if it transpired) could end up looking like really good business, but undeniably ifs, buts and maybes at present.

[Nineteenx]

Maybe selling him with a buy back clause was an exercise I juggling the books, we needed the fee to invest in players in the summer.

Quansah wasn’t a bad defender, his issue was he wasn’t a front foot defender, he wouldn’t take the aggressive positions Virgil and Konate do and stop forwards getting hold of the ball and linking

He used to back off to our area and that would allow other players to join and lead to goals. So I’d be looking for the evidence he’s now able to do that

We need to keep Konate he’s I’ve if the best there is at it

[Ravo19]

Hopefuly keep konate and give virgl one more season then replace him with quansah.

[Nineteenx]

Hopefuly keep konate and give virgl one more season then replace him with quansah.

We’d better keep Konate he’s exactly what we need and there are a very limited number of players out there at that level of what he does

[Steveo]

The Konate we’ve seen of late yes - not the fella of the second half of last season and most of this.

[Daffydd]

Konate has played more league games for Slot than he did for Klopp.

[Insidious]

Hopefuly keep konate and give virgl one more season then replace him with quansah.

I think that if, in a few seasons time, our pick of four centre-backs was, in no particular order -

Konaté
Jacquet
Quansah
Leoni

We'd probably feel we weren't doing too badly. It would certainly be an excellent age profile, which is a good platform to further improve from.

[jozza800]

The Konate we’ve seen of late yes - not the fella of the second half of last season and most of this.

Think that can be said of quite a few.

Mac being the most obvious. We all know how much quality he has, we've seen it. And he's not being helped by the system but it's not just the off the ball stuff, his ball control and passing seems to have one AWOL.

Hopefully, he can pick it up in the home straight, in the same way Konate's form has really picked up.

We could do with Mo and Gakpo sorting themselves out as well...

[Nineteenx]

The Konate we’ve seen of late yes - not the fella of the second half of last season and most of this.

Konate’s world class, he was top class when.i saw him at Leipzig and everyone was raving about Upenecano

Even the best players make the odd error here and there and Konate has barely made any, he did get blamed for a lot of shit that wasn’t his fault

I remember him miscontronling as can happen to any player on occasion having beaten the attacker to the ball as there was no pressure on it because someone fucked up in the counter press, so putting it out for a corner

They scored from it through no fault of his, you and others were ripping Konate for it

That’s what happens with some players, especially if I’ve backed them, and wanted them before any alleged interest, been the same with Grav or was for ages and the same with Macca