flobaba Liverpool bought van Dijk for £75m seven years ago, and I'd argue 75m then gives you more than 100m now. Point being, whether you're selling or buying a player you're facing the same choice - is the player worth more than that money?

I don't think any Liverpool fans regret choosing van Dijk over that amount of money, and for me Gabriel is in that tier or defenders.

      QuincyAbeyie you should go back and look at comments from all the English media and pundits. They thought Pool were having a laugh.
      The top 2 or 3 players in position, you pay anything for. It’s why City are giving Haaland £500k a week. He’s scoring at a rate Henry and Shearer could only dream off. Lock them motherfuckers down.

      I love a lot of players on this team like White, Havertz, Martinelli but I’d be ready to sell them to fund an Isak. Selling a top 5 player in his position will lead to lots of sobbing yourself to sleep

        Liverpool were able to buy both VVD and Allison because they sold Coutinho for so much money. He had been their best player the prior two years. So let's say for sake of argument that we get 150M for Gabriel, which we put together with the 150M we had budgeted, and now we recruit Isak, Wirtz, and Williams. Is that worth it? I don't know whether it is - but I do know there's always a number.

          Exactly. Fork in big money from asset sale, use that to
          replace outgoing asset and potentially supplement other areas. We don't have to be the best defense in the league to win the league. We need to get more points on board, and goal scoring / creativity is and has been our main pain point, not defending. We wouldn't need to be so dependent on Gabby's set piece prowess for instance if we had say Wirtz and Isak. We lose a big part, but potentially, holistically stand to gain a lot a lot more if we play our cards right. That's Berta's entire job isn't it?

          QuincyAbeyie so may be 100m isn't the number. I'm not fussing over the details. 150 mill? 200m? Whatever it is that leaves us with more money than we would know what to do with. And then let Berta bring balance back to the force.

          But every player is fungible, in my opinion

            This is a hot take but I actually think that Saliba is more replaceable than Gabriel in our current team. There are other young ball playing CB's that are plus defenders out there who I would feel more comfortable partnering with a physical leader like Gabriel than vice versa. For example, I think if we sold Saliba and replaced him with someone like Huijsen, we'd be losing far less than replacing Gabriel with anyone out there right now. The only left footed CB in his age profile that could feasibly step in to his spot is Bastoni, as @Claudius said but I think he would get a lot more exposed in the EPL than he does currently in Serie A. And he's nowhere near the physical defender that Gabriel is.

              samthegooner agree
              One other thing to note is the way we beat Chelsea on the weekend. I know a lot of people were frustrated by that game but I watched it again. We exerted control throughout. And most of our control comes from the back. It’s the goalie and the 2 CBs especially . This defense is what makes us exemplary. You do NOT blow that up.

              If you want to take risks, feel free to blow up the entire frontline except Saka. We have degrees of freedom elsewhere.

                flobaba

                RowJimmy

                Selling Gabriel for 100m+ and signing Isak or Wirtz for that price is trading your defensive strength for attacking strength. That doesn't make us better overall, we've just rejigged the board.

                The reason why the Coutinho transfer worked is because Mane and Salah were way better than him, while it also allowed them to strengthen their defence. We aren't signing anyone half as good as Gabriel. He is arguably the top 3 best LCB in the world. It's only downhill from there and we will end up with someone good but not great and our defence will become an even greater sieve down the left.

                People cry about our LBs now, wait till we take away the man who keeps it in tact. No amount of attacking improvement is worth risking that. We need to add, not trade or subtract.

                Add to that we are losing Partey for presumably Zubimendi and our team becomes a lot less defensively robust and physical in the span of a summer. Our title hopes will be severely dented and no I don't think Isak or Wirtz rectifies that because they play on opposite ends of the pitch.

                      Claudius

                      Every good player has a price, every great player is priceless. I wouldn't sell Saka, Ode (normally), Rice, Gabriel and Saliba for any price. The drop off between great and good is too vast. See Martinelli, Havertz etc. for that.

                        daredevil Isak and Wirtz brother, not or. And. We are operating under a hypothetical scenario where we've gotten "crazy" money for Gabriel, and somehow what I'm hearing is that we have no chance of reallocating these funds in a way that improves us? Will it be challenging to find a replacement to slot right in, yes. Impossible, of course not. This is not prime Maldini/Cannavaro. I wouldn't even say he's Sol Campbell level. He just barely started playing for his national team. At 27. He is good, very good within our system, same as Saliba. He is not untouchable. Same as Saliba.

                        Edit: we have just one untouchable in this team - that's the Starboi. The rest, we can have negotiations about.

                        Edit, edit: Also, if you could ask anyone associated with PSG, I'm pretty certain they would tell you that they have successfully replaced Mbappe. Already. So what are we talking about here?

                            Funded by just the sale of Gabriel! Come on now!

                              Sell/release Tierney, Nelson, Zinchenko, Jorginho, Sterling, Vieira, Neto, and perhaps Kiwior though we’d need to replace him

                              flobaba except we haven't replaced Gabi in Dules's list.

                                I hear Benny Blanco used to be good at playing Center back..

                                  He's right footed though...

                                  There's also Calafiori, who isn't entirely convincing as a left back.

                                  flobaba I hear Benny Blanco used to be good at playing Center back.

                                  As a CB Gabriel is levels above White in almost everything needed for the role. White is for sure in my top 3 favourite players at the club, but he's not someone I would loathe to sell if a great offer came in. The only players I would not sell under any circumstances are Gabriel, Saliba, Saka.

                                  Might have added Rice to the list but didn't only because I feel we'll end up moving him to 6 where he'll be wasted. 'd also possibly Nwaneri/MLS (for now at least) because they still have several levels in them to go before they become one of the top 3-5 players in the world in their position.

                                  Everyone else has a price for sure. Even my other favourite Martinelli and our captain. Just depends on if the offer is large enough. Wouldn't sell any of them for anything but top dollar because they are certainly more than good enough for us and a title winning team.

                                  Everyone else (such as the likes of Zinchenko, Jesus, Vieira, Tomi etc) I'd be more than happy to get what we paid for them back.