jimmylibel

Bale’s agent seems to have dismissed it when talking to Sky. Said something like, ‘I don’t respond to rubbish’

The different window closing dates is stupid. It should be universal across Europe. But realistically the closure of the Premier League transfer window will be factored into any wheeling and dealing for Coutinho and Dembele. Simply because of the financial strength of the Premier League. If you exclude the top clubs in the Premier League then that limits your options for making a sale. It leaves only PSG, Bayern, Juventus and at a stretch Atletico as possible destinations.

Spurs being linked with Bale. Suggestion is they’ll go as far as £55m for him, so long as he halves his wages.

That’s not accurate either. He was being linked left, right and centre last summer because he didn’t have a great first season. But he was one of their better performers last season and if Neymar wasn’t a possibility he wouldn’t be going anywhere this summer.

Well that’s not true. Dembele played well last year and was regarded as having had a successful season for Barcelona. The same most definitely can’t be said for Coutinho.

Also he’ll supposedly be the worst paid manager in the Premier League. I’m sure that will be another positive factor in his favor as far as Ashley is concerned!

In a surprise to literally no one, Neymar returned to PSG today and has told them he wants to leave. Strap yourselves in this one is only getting revved up now. Going to be nonsense coming from all over Europe on how this will play out over the next couple of weeks.

I think there’s some rose tinted glasses being applied here regarding Coutinho. Aside from the ‘injuries’, let’s not forget just how disruptive he was, transfer request the day before the season started, asking the other players to intercede on his behalf, how he sulked for half a season, how his team were briefing the media about how he had fallen out with Klopp and how desperate he/ his wife were to get away from Liverpool. He may well want to return now, but that doesn’t excuse his behavior or the behavior of his representatives at the time. As the club made sure to point out he also signed his long term deal at Christmas and then only took a short term lease on his place in Liverpool. There is logic to the point made by HP. We do have to be more practical about these things and consider these players as commodities to a certain extent. In which case Coutinho isn’t a commodity we should be after based on his performances over the past year. He’s not up to standard based on that form. He’s soiled goods. He’s also no where near as good a fit for our requirements as the other expensive recruit Barcelona will need to shift if they are signing Neymar - ie Dembele. That’s the player we should be concentrating on as he’s exactly the fast, wide attacker we need - one who is young and of as high a standard as our regular forward line.

Joorabchian (Coutinho’s agent) making soothing noises our direction. Interesting, given it was probably the same source that has been touting links to Manchester United and Chelsea, + PSG. He was also one of the sources regularly briefing Coutinho’s exit from us too. “I think Liverpool lies very, very deeply in his heart. He was a big fan of them throughout the campaign. He was wishing for them to win the title and he has a very strong affinity there so I think it will be very difficult for him to go to a direct competitor of Liverpool from a personal standpoint." ***** I do have a fair bit of sympathy for HP’s position over the last few pages of this thread. Whatever you think about FSG (and I’m still in the mixed feelings category), they have been probably the most public and most consistent on the issue of FFP. There’s not a chance we’re going to ignore it. Doesn’t matter if we can or can’t. We just won’t. If you accept that then that automatically puts our options for the summer into perspective. We have a relatively limited level of funding available. I think HP estimated it at £40m before based on the annual accounts. That would certainly tally with the rhetoric and briefing that has been coming from the club since about Feb. Having said all that I also suspect we may be over egging things deliberately in our transfer messaging and that we’re hoping to play it late using the pressures of the market this summer for one or two signings. Not massive, massive money but I think there will be a little extra to play with from a few possible sales. (HP - have the Ings and Solanke transfers been included in the annual account figures?) What’s also worth noting is how little activity there has actually been this window so far. Aside from the big 3 in Spain, no one has really spent significant sums. Yet there are supposedly some massive transfers also pending. I think we’ll start to see the Premier League clubs weigh in over the next couple of weeks and once they start spending (and selling) it will create FFP shaped opportunities. Certain clubs will have to shift players to balance the books or to give them the leeway to buy more. The one I think we would definitely be in for if the price was right and Barcelona needed to shift him (to accommodate a returning Neymar for example) is Dembele. In one of the briefed lines pushed by the club at the start of the summer it was suggested that we wouldn’t buy much unless a generational talent became available. At a hunch I think that applies to 2 players we seem to be monitoring - Dembele and Havertz. (Bayern were meant to have had a €90m bid knocked back by Leverkusen for Havertz (they want to keep him for next season) and we’ve also been regularly linked for quite a while now.) Its not just us that are biding their time. Spurs are supposedly doing the same to Fulham for Sessegnon and you’d imagine someone is also doing the same to Spurs over Eriksen. I guess what I’m trying to say is there will probably be value late on in the market this summer. It’s just about keeping your intentions guarded until the value materialises. Also worth noting that Klopp, while certainly managing expectations, never says we won’t be making signings this summer. He says things like “It won’t be the biggest summer ever...” etc. You’d also suspect, knowing how he operates, that the targets have also been long identified. If they are low value signings then why the delay and why has there been not a sniff so far on who these targets may actually be? I think we’re waiting for the market to shift a little first.

Ok well he basically refused to travel on the club tour and wants Arsenal to waive the last year on his contract. So that behavior is an automatic no. Then there’s the fact he’s not very good (anymore?)... which possibly makes this one of the madder shouts since certain elements on the forum (*cough* Knox Harrington *cough*) was making eyes at David Prutton. Or at the very least since the Poulsen/ Konchesky collective blind optimism double whammy. Sorry Rory.

Zaha’s ‘team’ don’t think Arsenal will be able to afford him. Wonder what was the giveaway, it’s been such a title guarded piece of intel...

On the Barcelona website this is probably listed as “Bartomeu discusses Neymar and Griezmann”

Which may also relate to their efforts to sign Neymar this summer. Think there may end up being a couple of good deals on offer from Barcelona if they do go down that route and need to fundraise.

Suggestions that we’ve signed Harvey Elliott from Fulham, young winger who has the record for being the the youngest ever Premier League player, after he made his debut at the end of the season.

Kevin Nolan the latest Ashley mouthpiece speaking up for his friend, ‘Mike’, saying Rafa knew what he was getting into when he went to Newcastle. A ringing endorsement if ever there was one.

Very surprised at that. Would expect more from Conn. Wonder where his problem with Rafa stems from?

Marketing campaign for Arsenal’s new kit ran into some entirely predictable problems then... https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2019/jul/02/adidas-under-fire-racist-offensive-tweets-arsenal-new-shirt-launch

fydsian... https://mobile.twitter.com/JurgenHead/status/1145302377345572865?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1145302377345572865&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.empireofthekop.com%2F2019%2F07%2F01%2Freds-fan-has-an-incredibly-detailed-and-convincing-update-about-bruno-fernandes%2F

Cheers Maldini.

Thanks, that’s interesting. I had thought of Brewster as cover for Firmino, not the wide roles. Wilson isn’t going to be challenging for a wide role is he? I thought he’d moved central last season?

Cheers. Odd one so.

Are they any real prospects in the wide forward areas does anyone know? That might explain why we’re not going for someone at a higher point in the market - if we were only looking for someone for a season or two (and also taking into account the limited funds available). I presume we’re not expecting Wilson/ Kent/ Ojo to take up that space in the squad.

Tweet from David Maddock earlier this evening. Don't shoot the messenger, but if @lfc make any more signings this summer, as things stand they really won't be £60-70m, high-profile players. Slight possibility of versatile forward/wide-man, but likely to be around £20m mark or less....

Fantastic, cheers Rory.

We should sign him!