Just thinking tonight…. I don’t think he will stay.
This summer Gundogans contract is up and Bernardo is likely to leave. Probably his 2 favourite people. KDB is probably going to start declining slowly next season due to age and body type.
So if we want to admit it or not, we are gonna need a midfield overhaul and these aren’t the type of players you can replace easily.
A lot of the attention is now placed on Haaland and not the team ethic it has been for the last years with us having no ‘star’ above the others. Not for a second saying he doesn’t love Erling but I think Pep gets his coaching kicks in other ways.
He’s done his work with Foden and I’m not sure he gets much satisfaction working with a 27 year old Grealish who he probably can’t improve.
So the question is, has he got the energy to go again for 3 years or so and does he have the motivation to build a new midfield. I don’t think he does. He’s been here ages, built 2/3 amazing teams so he probably wants to enjoy life for a bit.
70/30 he goes is my feeling tonight.
I'm not sure, I think we might offer Gundogan an extra year. He seems settled and it's not like he will lose any pace! I think you're right on Bernardo though but I think it will allow us to maybe add an extra dimension to our midfield. I wouldn't be surprised to see us move for Bellingham as I think under Pep he would become world class easily.
I was surprised to read that Grealish is 27! For some reason I thought he was about 25. To be honest I think if he carries on playing wide midfield for us then he is wasted. He has the skill, control and drive to play more centrally. I don't think anyone can replace KdB and we will need to manage him, but maybe Grealish can move into the middle to see what he can offer. I can imagine Pep wanting to improve him.
Above all else though, we now have a real talisman player. That player who can turn the key games for us. In the past we've had Sterling scuffing chances wide but now we've got someone who is genuinely world class with potentially no one better than him in the world. I'm sure Pep wants to make him into the greatest striker of all time, no question about that. If we'd had him for the last 2 years I think we'd have won the lot.
I don't think Foden is the finished article yet either.
I kind of think there's enough questions and challenges to keep him going.
I think he will renew for a couple of years and after that, it's going to be the England job for him. He'll have worked with Walker, Stones, Foden, Grealish, Phillips, Sterling, Palmer, potentially Bellingham too. Throw in players like Kane and Maguire who he wanted to buy and the likes of Saka, Alexander Arnold, Mount etc and he will think he's a chance of becoming a manager who's won the lot.
Ultimately if he goes, he goes. He will go down as one of the greatest managers in English football. He created the "Ederson" keeper, he introduced possession football and he played without strikers. He made fullbacks one of the most important positions on the pitch and his influence on Klopp in particular is huge. It's also hard to think of any players who got worse under him - the number of players who went from decent to brilliant is huge. In my lifetime I think the only one who could come close to him is Wenger and he was a visionary but I think Pep is well above him.
