flobaba Just go and grab someone like Diomande. Young and has the physical attributes, defends well one v one, and with good passing. This is a business decision, and a no brainer at that in my opinion. Over 100 mill for a center back?

It wasn't so long ago numerous people were thinking it would be easy to replace Gabriel for whatever reason. At least @samthegooner has finally moved on from wishlisting for Diomonde to come in and displace Gabriel, though I wouldn't have as big a problem with that as he'd take his spot while still here.

It would be near impossible to replace everything he gives us defensively, marshallling that whole left side of the defence alone and when he contributes for us at set pieces and attack. Fortunately it seems people have finally accepted him as being one of the top CBs in football and genuinely world class.

Anyways, there is no fee I would sell Gabriel for unless he's forcing our hand and refusing to sign no katter the offer. Otherwise give him whatever it takes to keep him.

    So I say every player has a price but having looked at top defenders again, Saliba and Gabriel are soooo risky to sell. Amongst the top 10 or so defenders in the world, maybe only Bastoni from Inter could be gettable. So it’s extremely difficult. My big belief is always be improving. We could sell most of our fullbacks, Trossard, even Havertz and Martinelli in a pinch.
    But right now the CBs, Saka, Rice, Ode feel untouchable

      Yep, I already proposed making him our highest paid and signing him on for another 5-6 years, when he would be approaching or at the end of his prime years.

      However, if Al-whatever makes him (and us) an incredible offer, (anything North of 100m), I'd take it and start seeking options out there that can potentially give us a close imitation of what Gabby brings to the team. Not ideal, but such is life.

        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..