How every Premier League club would cope without their Julian Alvarez equivalent
Manchester City have lost Julian Alvarez this summer and don’t seem overly bothered about it.
“We will see, we are discussing internally about it,” Pep Guardiola said when asked whether City would sign a new forward after the Argentina international left for Atletico Madrid. “It could happen or it could not happen, we will consider and see what to do.”
An absurdly blasé reaction to losing an £82m footballer and it got us thinking about how other Premier League teams would cope without a player of similar value.
We’ve not used the transfer fee as the yardstick as Ipswich literally wouldn’t have a squad if they had to do without £82m-worth of their players. Instead we’ve looked at the fourth most valuable player of each team, as Alvarez was at City according to Transfermarkt.
Arsenal: William Saliba
That’s the title out the window and they may even struggle to get into the Champions League spots without The Best Centre-back In The Premier League. There would be a lot of pressure on the centre-back qualities of Arsenal’s now innumerable centre-back-cum-full-backs.
Aston Villa: Leon Bailey
Not ideal to lose the guy with the second-most goals (10) and second-most assists (9) in the Premier League last season after the guy with the third-most goals – Douglas Luiz – and the guy with the third-most assists – Moussa Diaby – already both upped sticks this summer.
Bournemouth: Milos Kerkez
Annoying to lose him now for €20m when Manchester United will offer €40m in January while Luke Shaw works his way back from a stubbed toe.
Brentford: Yoane Wissa
Top scorer last season with 12 goals and with Ivan Toney set to either leave ahead of the season or sulk throughout it, Bryan Mbuemo would have to do a helluva lot of the heavy lifting.
Brighton: Mats Weiffer
They would probably pluck a Paraguayan child off the streets and increase their value by a factor of 20 and more than cope, but a bit annoying to lose a player before they’ve played a game.
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Chelsea: Christopher Nkunku
Big things are expected after an injury-hit first season and although we’re all waiting for him to be a bit rubbish like most of the other Clearlake signings, again, big things are expected.
Crystal Palace: Joachim Andersen
May yet to prove to be a reality as Fulham remain interested in Andersen’s return having already tabled a couple of bids, but why the centre-back would leave Palace for them isn’t entirely clear. It is though very clear that losing him and Marc Guehi would be a disaster for Oliver Glasner.
Everton: Jordan Pickford
England’s No.1 is now in the very bones of that football club and Everton just wouldn’t feel very much like Everton without him. A like-for-like replacement would cost far more money than the Toffees have to spend.
Fulham: Rodrigo Muniz
Nine goals in 13 games in quite the purple patch last season was enough to make him top scorer for Fulham, who absolutely cannot rely on 33-year-old Raul Jimenez to pick up the slack.
Ipswich: Liam Delap
We still can’t work out how Manchester City got Ipswich to pay £15m for him, but they do it time and again with academy graduates they have no use for. Anyway, Delap looks set to be the main man up top for Kieran McKenna.
READ MORE: Manchester City transfer cheat code: Man Utd among those fleeced for £254m during Pep reign
Leicester: James Justin
Justin being Leicester’s fourth-most valuable player and fellow left-back Victor Kristiansen being the fifth doesn’t say much for their attacking players. It does mean they probably wouldn’t miss Justin all that much though.
Liverpool: Trent Alexander-Arnold
Just imagine how angry Liverpool Twitter would be after no signings and the Martin Zumbimendi snub if Alexander-Arnold announced he was off to Real Madrid.
READ MORE: Five Liverpool fiascos that will see Arne Slot sacked on January 4th 2025
Manchester United: Marcus Rashford
Feels like Rashford is once again in a position ahead of the new season where he has something to prove to a large portion of his own fanbase, but without him they would be left with a collection of seven forwards who have scored a grand total of 58 goals between them in 342 combined appearances.
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Newcastle: Sven Botman
Might not be so bad if they manage to offer enough money to Crystal Palace for Guehi, but presumably the plan is to pair the England international with Botman.
Nottingham Forest: Danilo
Manchester United are supposedly looking at the Brazilian as one of their many Manuel Ugarte alternatives and actually Forest are reasonably well stocked in midfield.
Southampton: Carlos Alcaraz
This could actually happen with a couple of unnamed Premier League sides keen along with Lazio and Flamengo. Southampton would surely need to sign a replacement as we don’t hold out too much hope for Joe Aribo or Will Smallbone against Premier League midfielders.
Tottenham: Micky van de Ven
Radu Dragusin showed at Euro 2024 that he’s perfectly capable of playing a pivotal role for Tottenham this season but the fuse will forever be short on Cristian Romero so not having three excellent centre-backs would be a real problem for Ange Postecoglou with suspensions assured.
West Ham: Nayef Aguerd
They’re apparently actively trying to find a buyer for him following the arrivals of Max Kilman and Jean-Clair Todibo.
Wolves: Hee-chan Hwang
Their joint-top scorer last term along with Matheus Cunha, with both scoring 12 goals, and his departure after Pedro Neto’s may very well put Wolves in the relegation mix.
