Өвлийн цонхоор идэвхтэй байж болох багуудын талаарх шинжээчийн таамаг

The Athletic’s soccer correspondent David Ornstein will join The Athletic FC podcast every Tuesday this season.

As part of the show, David will answer a selection of listener questions submitted through The Athletic, covering all the latest news from across the football world, and discussing them with Emma Paton and James Horncastle.

The Athletic will also be publishing those questions and David’s responses on our website and app after the show every week. His latest responses are here.

Ryan asks: Now the transfer window is closed, which Premier League club do you think is most likely to be active in January? And are there any major deals that didn’t happen this summer that you expect to be revisited?

David Ornstein: I’m on a hiding to nothing here! There were collapses, weren’t there? So could those deals be revived, such as a Folarin Balogun, if it doesn’t happen before January (the summer windows in Portugal and Saudi Arabia remain open), from Monaco to Everton or elsewhere? Lamine Camara from Monaco to Chelsea — there’s interest from Liverpool and other clubs as well.

Manu Kone from Roma. He came very close to joining Chelsea before they pivoted to Camara. And let’s see what position Roma are in at the time in terms of European football and financial compliance (come the winter window). He’s a player that is so highly rated. We saw him starting a lot for France at the World Cup, and he was looked at very heavily by Manchester United, Chelsea… I think Liverpool like him as well as one of their potential future options.

Yankuba Minteh from Brighton. He’s not back fit until sort of October, November time, but clearly Liverpool pushed for him. And it seems that Brighton might have been open, as they often are, at the right price. Crystal Palace had strong interest from Liverpool in Ismaila Sarr. He was first intrigued by the idea of Galatasaray and then by Liverpool. It seemed he wanted to go. So how receptive would Palace be to approaches in January? Jean-Philippe Mateta, all hasn’t seemed to be particularly well there with him and Palace for a while, and potential moves are always in the offing.

And then could Arsenal look at that front line? They didn’t end up with a sort of world-class attacker, even though Christos Tzolis appears to be making a good impression. Do you remember when Liverpool came close to signing Virgil van Dijk all those years ago, in the summer? It didn’t materialise, and they got the deal done in the January. Could Arsenal pull an attacker out of the hat to almost jet-propel their second half of the season as they continue their title defence and push for Champions League glory?

Manchester United. Of course, they were considering a left-back. Will that be a focus come January?

Everton might be the busiest, because they need reinforcements, a bit more depth. David Moyes is in the final year of his contract, let’s not forget, and will want reinforcements. So I’m going to go for Everton.

Alex says: There have been plenty of reports that Liverpool were involved in some way in Camara’s proposed move to Chelsea falling through. Is there any truth in those reports? Are Liverpool interested in Camara? Could we see them make a move for him in January or next summer?

Ornstein: I’ll reverse that one and say, yes, Liverpool have some interest in Lamine Camara, which would be related to (fellow midfielder) Alexis Mac Allister departing. There were rumours of Manchester City looking at him if they hadn’t signed Enzo Fernandez. I think there was some credibility to that. I don’t know if any sort of formal conversations took place.

Liverpool would have had to look at options, even though they were only going to sign a midfielder, in spite of Curtis Jones leaving, if a further departure occurred. Camara was one option.

I think there’s interest in Kone of Roma, and they’ll have other options as well. Don’t forget they’ve got Trey Nyoni there, who’s really impressing. His pre-season was strong and I think they’ve got high hopes for him, there may be a new contract in the offing. But yeah, that interest was credible.

Circling back to your first point, that they disrupted Chelsea’s move for Camara, I have no knowledge of that at all. I presume it’s speculation and, to my knowledge, not the case. But that’s just because I don’t know about it. So I will have to pass on that one because that hasn’t been mentioned to me by anybody. You have so many conversations around these situations in the midst of, and after, deadline day, and not one person involved in Camara, Monaco, Chelsea or Liverpool has raised that. And given that Liverpool have multiple options, I’m not sure.

Chelsea’s deal got so close and was only pulled because of the Folarin Balogun situation. I think it’s a bit of a stretch to say Liverpool just rang up Monaco or Camara and said, don’t do it, we’re coming for you. So I doubt that one.

Stephen asks: Is there any indication on whether the 1892 consortium will have a say in a new sporting director at Liverpool, and will there be a shift from marquee big-money buys to cheaper options and more squad depth?

Ornstein: Not necessarily. It’s a fascinating question because it’s a fascinating situation right now with this new investment. This is in regards to the Amit Bhatia-led consortium that involves investment from Jeff Bezos, too. They haven’t been formally ratified yet, even though they’re a presence around the club.

And this sporting director situation is live because, obviously, Richard Hughes departed after the window and has joined Al Hilal. Mike Gordon is leading the process. He obviously came back to the fore on behalf of FSG (Liverpool’s owner Fenway Sports Group) after Michael Edwards left the club over the summer, and he’s in charge of this. I think there’s support from Billy Hogan, who’s a key conduit between FSG — the existing majority controllers of Liverpool — and the new investment vehicle.

Julian Ward is there as technical director for FSG and has been there before, occupying the sporting director role, and other roles. The second-club project has not come to fruition, which I think was largely why Ward and others came back to the club, Edwards included.

Ward sort of invested more heavily in work around recruitment, development and other things at Anfield. He did a really good job in the past. He’s doing a good job now. He’s highly rated. He’s coveted elsewhere. He’s been wanted by a number of Premier League clubs and clubs on the continent. And he’s responsible, or part responsible, for a lot of the good signings Liverpool have made over the years, around the time of the Jude Bellingham pursuit. And they went for other options in the end, like Ryan Gravenberch and a couple more and some of the more recent recruits.

I guess the question will be: would he want to come back into that role? Because it didn’t go so well last time. It was quite short-lived. It was around the Jurgen Klopp era, which was not easy for anyone towards the end of that period. Or is he happy doing what he’s doing?

But he’s certainly capable. And you could see Ward being not only a very good option, but a continuity option if this new ownership stake is going to be increased. And obviously the new investors have an option to do so, I think within the next 12 months.

Are we going to see ownership change at Liverpool in the next year or two? I think there’s quite a good possibility of it. Certainly, people you speak to in the game, in the market, around Anfield think so. And so would you want to bring in a new sporting director from outside now, with the possibility of the people who are in charge in the not-too-distant future being different and wanting their own people?

They’ve got David Woodfine, who was assistant to Hughes, but I think he’s seen as an assistant and very good operationally, but maybe not the sporting director. Pedro Marques came in as well, on behalf of FSG, when the second-club model was being launched. I think from what I hear, he’s more on the development side: young players, the academy and systems and structures around that. So I wouldn’t imagine that coming to fruition.

Then you’ve got the external question if we’re going to address it. There are big figures in the market. I saw one report today mentioning (Paris Saint-Germain’s) Luis Campos. Who else is around these days? Edu, who has just left Nottingham Forest. Dougie Freedman left Crystal Palace a while ago and went to (Diriyah in) Saudi Arabia. He had been linked to Liverpool in the past. There was Paul Mitchell linked to Liverpool in the past and was at Newcastle most recently.

I’m not linking these people to Liverpool, let me be clear, I’m just saying that there are big hitters in the game on the continent. You’ve seen the work Chelsea’s sporting directors, multiple of them, have done, which was much scrutinised and criticised for a long time. They’re now maybe getting a bit more credit. They were good Premier League operators.

And that’s something I’m quite intrigued by. Liverpool want to get back to recruiting top Premier League-ready players — players that some feel Liverpool got away from their identity, their style of play. And there are good operators in the game. When you look at, say, Brentford, Lee Dykes, these are recruitment specialists. Ross Wilson, of course, at Newcastle — they’ve had an interesting summer. You’ve got a recruitment specialist at Aston Villa, Roberto Olabe, who came from Real Sociedad and is really a good operator in the game, and a club-builder as well.

So I think it’s a massive question about what Liverpool’s hierarchy need and what is most sensible during this period of transition. I think Ward stands a really good chance, from the conversations I’m having, but it’s important for us not to discount external possibilities. That process is going on now, and they’ll try and get some clarity as soon as possible, because obviously January is coming and, before we know it, we will be at next summer.

In terms of your player transfer question, Liverpool have done some really good work — and expensive work. They’ve invested very heavily, especially in that attacking department. So if you look at it on paper, if Alexander Isak plays like he did at Ipswich on Friday, Hugo Ekitike comes back from his injury; they’ve got Bradley Barcola, kept Cody Gakpo, added Victor Munoz… and they’ve still got Rio Ngumoha. If Florian Wirtz comes to the fore, there are not many better attacks, in theory, in world football. Clearly, there may be some work on the midfield. And you know, what a signing Jeremy Jacquet looks to be in defence.

They’ve got young players coming through, a couple of really young profiles that they’ve recruited. Lucca Brughmans was signed this summer and has returned to Belgium on loan.

I don’t think low-cost signings to pad out the squad are necessary now. I think it’s just adding quality where they see fit. And maybe if that work has been proactive, maybe you’ll see a bit more reactive work from Liverpool in the market as the season goes on.

Their financial situation seems pretty decent, even though they try to run a sustainable model. Look at the new sponsorship deal with Turkish Airlines — the investment, money, appears to be there.

They need to sign the right recruits for Andoni Iraola, for his system, for Liverpool’s identity, if they’re going to keep up with teams like Manchester City, Arsenal and even Chelsea. So it’s an incredibly important time at Anfield, both in terms of the player recruitment and that sporting director situation, not to mention what’s happening at ownership level. So on and off the pitch, my goodness, keep your eyes peeled.

Toby N says: In secondary school, you once got annoyed with me when I missed an audacious halfway-line effort instead of slotting you in. That aside, do you think Chelsea will rue missing out on a central midfield target this summer?

Ornstein: Toby would have been in the year above me at school. We had a pretty good team, and I would have been annoyed if you didn’t slot me through because I would have fancied my chances.

But on to your question, Toby. I think Chelsea will rue missing out on a central midfield target in 1997, 1998 — when I had a year of trials with them.

On a more serious note, I don’t think they’ll regret not signing there this summer. They’ve got a plethora of resources in midfield now.

If they can keep Romeo Lavia fit, there are many in football who think he’s got an incredibly high bar. As he was coming through, they thought he could be one of the best central midfielders of his generation. It’s just that fitness thing, which we haven’t seen before this season, but we appear to be seeing now. Hopefully for Chelsea, he didn’t come off with an injury (after an hour) at Arsenal on Sunday.

They’ve got experience to come in when Jordan Henderson’s fit, and you know, there’s undoubted depth there. But the fact that they looked at Kone, Camara and, of course, Alex Scott, shows it’s a position they have identified that, post-Enzo Fernandez, could do with a bit more. And on Sunday, it did seem like they could do with a bit more.

Chelsea have traded so much in the market since the regime change in 2022 and more recently, pretty effectively. They’ve had a spectacular window, one of the best, you would say, and made a significant profit net spend-wise. And there’s talk of world-record amounts of sales, but they come out of it looking better.

Will they regret or rue it? I don’t think so, but I think it’s an area that we need to keep an eye on for them doing some work going forward.

Luckson D, Manzoors and Riyan V all asked about Bournemouth’s players and interest from other clubs. What are you hearing about that?

Ornstein: Scott is a player of interest to the biggest clubs. And we saw that with, in no particular order, Arsenal, Manchester United, Liverpool and Chelsea looking at him this summer. Bournemouth made clear he was not for sale. He was not going anywhere: ‘Offer us whatever you like. It doesn’t matter. He’s under contract until 2028 and we’re keeping him. We think we’ll get even more for him next summer, potentially, when he’ll still have a year to go on his contract.’

He’s on a relatively low salary. So I’d be interested to see if he signs a new contract, maybe with a release clause. Bournemouth and others have done that sort of thing in the past. And you could see Chelsea, Liverpool revisiting it. Arsenal? Maybe less so now that they got Bruno Guimaraes. Manchester United — I think that’s one of the really interesting ones to watch out for in the summer 2027 market. Is it going to be then, rather than January?

I don’t think Bournemouth are looking to shift any of their players this season, but next season’s a different matter. I mean, you even saw (head coach) Marco Rose on TV before the Newcastle match saying that, in a year’s time, they can go on to even bigger clubs. They’re not even hiding what the plan is here: ‘You are all staying this summer, giving Marco Rose a good chance of European football, and then there will be some trading again.’

So there could be really interesting situations around Junior Kroupi, around Rayan, around Scott, and around one that I don’t think anyone has really mentioned yet: Adrien Truffert.

Alex Scott scores against Everton last month (Michael Steele/Getty Images)

Not many clubs recruited in that left-back position, which means there’s going to be a need on the horizon. Truffert has a really good age profile (he’s 25 in November). He’s the sort of player that you could see moving. Manchester United were one team that we talked about with left-backs over the window, and there will be more. Chelsea were looking for one, and they bought one in the end (Pep Chavarria).

It is going to be an interesting one. I’m hearing a value of around £60million ($81m) and that there’s potentially a deal to be done next summer. I could see him being capable of playing for one of the biggest clubs. You saw Liverpool took Milos Kerkez (from Bournemouth last summer), so they’re sorted for now in that position.

And then Scott, Kroupi, Rayan. Rayan’s got a £130million release clause that takes effect in the next summer window. I don’t expect any of them to go for under £100m, which would be amazing business, obviously, if Bournemouth do it. Their business in the past suggests that even if they sell their best players, they recruit well and get even better.

Their financial situation’s OK from the previous sales and profits. Right now, I think they’re compliant, just about in the Premier League — maybe it’s going to be a bit tighter with UEFA. Several clubs are in that position — are we going to see some fines dished out? Are clubs going to take them as part of making sure they do the business they want and seeing it as a small price to pay?

But then, that’s why the sales will probably need to come next summer, not only because of the players moving on in their careers but also in terms of financial compliance.

Watch the full episode with Emma Paton, David Ornstein and James Horncastle here