jimmylibel

Michael Cox is another writer who has signed up.

Em, wasn’t the brief coming from the club (and a quote from Klopp himself at the start of the summer) that there wouldn’t be ‘much’ spending with the aim only to strengthen in 1 or 2 areas. Not that there would be zero transfer spending. I reckon we’ve missed out on the cover targets we were considering, while others aren’t available this summer.

Spending is also relative. If you have a circa £200m budget (arbitrary figure) then £80m is a sizable chunk but you do have another 60% to play with. Whereas if your budget is £40m then it’s a lot more problematic affording a fee like that.

Probably his Arsenal supporting agent

He’s said he only wants Bayern. We put an offer on the table to him but he’s made his choice. Bayern are now using that to either get his fee dropped this window or else just to take him on a free next summer.

Setting aside the frustrations about this summer’s lack of transfer activity, I’m a little concerned about what our budgetary limitations may mean for us longer term. It seems accepted that the reason we’re not doing much this window is that the wage increases took up the allocation of finance that could have been available. It’s also been suggested that our top earners are now being paid in the region of £200k per week (Salah, Mane, Firmino and possibly VVD to follow). But then you read about players at other clubs getting massive sums. Rashford supposedly getting £250k per week, De Gea looking for £350k per week, one report I saw had Hudson Odoi getting £180k per week rising to £200k per week (although other reports had him getting £100k per week). In that climate how are we going to be able to adapt to keeping pace with the wage levels on offer in the market? It seems like the latest jump has stretched us, can we keep stretching? I’m posing this point because I think this has to be taken into the context of understanding of relative wealth. The club has done well this summer keeping this squad together but that is coming at a price (ie lack of transfer activity). Something may have to be sacrificed next summer to allow for further adaptation. Have recently finished ‘Bring the Noise’ the Honigstein book on Klopp. What was interesting was that ultimately his Dortmund team was caught up because they couldn’t compete financially. Other clubs were offering more lucrative contracts - be it abroad or Bayern. They effectively priced Dortmund out of keeping their own players and were able to catch up quickly as a result. Dortmund also struggled to replace the players they were losing with individuals of as high a quality. Now we are a lot better off that Dortmund, but we are not the top of the pile when it comes to wages by any means. We are vulnerable at the very very highest level to that possibility. Which again speaks to the point HP has been making. We really do need to get our commercial performance to catch up with our on field level. That’s what will make our position sustainable on a longer term basis. PS - I still wish we we’re signing a good quality wide attacker this summer

So the Bale saga continues. Been left out of the 24 man squad for a pre season tournament in Germany. Marca claiming his family stopped the deal going through, Bale’s agent pointing the finger at Pérez not wanting to let him go on a free. His erstwhile Chinese employers have instead gone with Santini from Anderlecht, filling their foreign player quota. Bale’s side also seem to be briefing that he won’t move now and is pissed off with Perez following the collapse of that deal. Oh and for good measure Bale’s agent told the French media that basically Zidane has just never liked Bale. As transfer sagas go this one may be about to claim the Neymar 2019 trophy.

Ryan Kent doesn’t seem to be happy. https://www.balls.ie/football/liverpool-star-cuts-social-media-ties-club-klopp-rules-loan-move-414842 Suppose that’s one way to recuperate from an illness.

That’s an interesting, and realistic breakdown. In fairness HP has been completely consistent on this all summer. At the start of the window he was estimating we had about £40m to spend... I’m just not sure many took that on board at the time. I think we may be having some difficulty getting outgoing deals across the line this summer. Surprised Kent and Wilson haven’t moved by now. We may also have budgeted for Clyne being sold (and his wages coming off our books). Still though, we need another wide attacking option with pace. Even if it’s not one of our preferred/ top choices.

I think this has to be it. There are options that would seem capable of doing a job as cover for the wide attacking roles, even at a budget of approximately £30m. One example is Bergwijn from PSV, supposed to be available at €40m, who we’ve been linked to previously. If it was simply a budgetary matter I think we’d have found a solution. Even if we are holding fire for the preferred options, there could still be movement this summer in one or two cases. (Although realistically something will need to move very, very soon). There are remote chances Dembele or Chiesa come on the market before the end of the window. However both of those would still require substantial investment. So there’s still a piece of this that doesn’t quite make sense, unless there is a funding resource we can draw on but that we only want to use for very specific targets.

Don’t disagree. But Milner started very young and was getting a lot of games at that age. Most early starters seem unable to extend their careers that long* *I have zero empirical evidence for this assumption.

I’m just worried what that does for funds. We probably could have done with that £12m (or whatever he was actually going to go for).

You were a lot closer than I was. Looks like the cap is 40k for the first year on a pro contract. https://www.independent.co.uk/sport/football/premier-league/liverpool-news-youth-players-wages-40000-a-year-jurgen-klopp-a7358886.html

I think the limited performances in the last couple of friendlies and the lack of signings is contributing to that. There’s little sense of curiosity for the season ahead, ie no new player we’re “really looking forward to seeing in a red shirt”. We also know we have to win practically every league game from the off and that was a bit draining at times in the second half of last season. (Regardless of the big shiny reward that came at the end of the season). We have to maintain our high performance levels - if not improve further - and we’re not used to doing that by standing still. It doesn’t quite compute.

We seem to be keen to shift Ejaria on a permanent basis. Asking price is £3m. https://www.goal.com/en/news/liverpool-want-3m-for-ejaria-as-midfielder-seeks-anfield/81056yc9qb8l1wfbrkht4624g

There were reports at the start of the summer that we’ve told him to wait out the end his contract (he has 1 year left) and that we’d take him on a free next summer.

Bayern seem to be getting regular links to him and Thiago was quoted with the whole “amazing player” thing yesterday. I’d say it’ll be them or back to the Premier League.

That third kit is horrendous. There were some previous suggested designs which were doing the rounds at the start of the summer. None of that detailing at the front. More plain black with turquoise badge. Much nicer. Of course if you’re going all black then all red or yellow badges would work. You know in line with our traditional colors.

Some reports that we are working on a deal for 20 year old Abdulkadir Omur from Trabzonspur. We’d immediately loan him back for the season. We’ve been linked with him quite regularly by the Turkish media going back several months fwiw.

Didn’t Klopp bring in a £10k per week limit for young players until they reach the first team? Don’t know if that requires them to have actually played or just to be part of the first team squad.

Those canny negotiators at Barcelona have returned with a new offer for Neymar. £90m plus a choice of 2 players from six different options including Coutinho, Dembele, Rakitic, Malcom and Semedo.

It’s a really curious one that. I think he still had 3 years on his contract. They’ve been hawking him around Europe for months and months though. Long before the end of the season the word was they’d done a deal with Napoli. Seems like they’re pushing Rose out the door too.

Wasn’t there a suggestion some of the journos were being offered 4 times their current salaries? The term ‘multiples’ of their current wages was certainly used.

Absolutely. But, you know, Daniel Levy.

Might be something to do with the £130m asking price Spurs have put on him. (Or because he’s a secondary option for a few clubs and everyone is waiting for the transfer deck to be shuffled in the remaining weeks of the window - he has been linked with Real Madrid if they can’t get Pogba)