Nat Philips

[miller0863]

Possibly.. but do we believe that comes off for him 8 or 9 times out of 10, or 3 or 4 times out of 10?
I think we should keep him, he’s a horse for a certain course, particularly Burnley or their ilk

[Nineteenx]

Possibly.. but do we believe that comes off for him 8 or 9 times out of 10, or 3 or 4 times out of 10?
I think we should keep him, he’s a horse for a certain course, particularly Burnley or their ilk

Sign Konate, let Kabak return from his loan keep Phillips, to me Phillips has the heart of the lion, he's a great lad to have around in the group, he can play the cup games, he can come on as a third CB late in games when we're looking to see them out and the Burnley's of the league are bombarding our box

[teesred]

Agree with 19s post above. Seems silly to spend 18m on Kabak when Philips is just as capable and already in our books.
Hes done enough to be part of our squad and could do a good job for most prem teams. The decision might be difficult for him personally. Does he stick or twist? I think there's plenty of clubs who'll have him if he's after playing games.
He could literally be back to playing virtually no games at all next season.

[jr81]

Agree with 19s post above. Seems silly to spend 18m on Kabak when Philips is just as capable and already in our books.
Hes done enough to be part of our squad and could do a good job for most prem teams. The decision might be difficult for him personally. Does he stick or twist? I think there's plenty of clubs who'll have him if he's after playing games.
He could literally be back to playing virtually no games at all next season.

He will get some games of he stays. No doubt we will have a couple of inured CBs next season at some stage

[Insidious]

Agree with 19s post above. Seems silly to spend 18m on Kabak when Philips is just as capable and already in our books.

I'll be happy with whoever we keep I think. Ideally for me I would sell Matip (sorry Joel, you're amazing, but your fitness....) and would buy Kabak and Konate, so we had Van Dijk, Gomez, Konate, Kabak and Phillips.

I won't be desperately disappointed if we don't get Kabak as he isn't "excellent" at anything yet, but he has SO much time ahead of him when it comes to development. He only turned 21 in March so in centre-back terms he is still a toddler, yet came into our dire injury-laden situation and didn't disgrace himself.

Schalke are in serious need of funds. We could potentially pick him up for a touch cheaper (say £16m) and either keep him in the set-up, or loan him out somewhere for a year with the side giving us a loan fee. Centre-backs have become more expensive in recent years so if he bloomed and stayed he could prove a bargain in 5-10 years and if he doesn't quite reach our desired level, he is unlikely to be sold for £2m or anything when we want rid unless his development falls off the edge of a cliff.

So I'd lean towards his acquisition, but wouldn't lose sleep over it.

[Steveo]

Agree / Matip good though he is is pointless when he is hardly ever available. Kabak looks tempting at the price but would still take a decent salary.

Phillips is fine as backup (provided he is ok with that) - IF we have both Virgil and a fit Konate...

I would look to bring in another decent backup too.

[teesred]

I think we'd be lucky to sell Matip. Big salary and injury prone. Not many clubs will go for him in this current predicament do I'd imagine he's staying for now.

[LEGS]

I hope we get Kabak ive seen enough to know he has something, Schalke say they want £18m but we could try get him for lower ???

Whilst we have 2-3 CBs coming back from bad injuries we could loan him for the season whilst they see if they return to top league paying his wages and a loan fee.

Phillips is making that a very tough call and his benefit is he is homegrown.

[Nineteenx]

I think we'd be lucky to sell Matip. Big salary and injury prone. Not many clubs will go for him in this current predicament do I'd imagine he's staying for now.

I wouldn't sell Matip, give him one more season, get Konate in so we can manage both and look to keep both fit by not overplaying either, I don't think in the past we've managed our CBs that well, as in giving them minutes when they've returned from injuries or just making sure we give them minutes so we always have 3 at match fitness without overplaying the more fragile ones.

It's not like we haven't had opportunities to give them minutes when we've had leads of 2 or more goals in games or had cup games or European games in which we could give them 30-45 minutes, I think that needs to be managed a lot better next season so we always have at least 3 CBs at full match fitness, Konate can also play at RB as can Gomez, and it would be great to keep Trent and peak levels if we have opportunities in which the scoreline is relatively comfortable, there will be lots of scope for making sure they all get minutes

I just don't think it's at all clever to repeatedly put ourselves in that situation in which we only have 2 CBs at match fitness