DJS

If all we need to do to get Kovacic and Icardi is give them Lovren and Lucas, why isn't this deal done yet? Dream scenario that. Harsh on Lucas but would be an amazing deal for us.

I'm not sure FFP does actually give us a better chance. On paper it should do and it certainly should've done years ago. But nowadays, Chelsea make more than us in revenues, so do Arsenal and Man Utd (by a country mile) and in fact, so do City if the football authorities are going to swallow all of their so called sponsorship deals which conveniently bring in hundreds of millions, by sheer coincidence, from Abu Dhabi based companies. We can't compete without FFP & to be honest, we can't compete with it either. Im fact, I think it's fair to say that won't compete for top honours with any remote level of consistency, under FSG, full stop. Entirely regardless of whether FFP exists or is enforced.

The accuracy of this is painfully abundant. We were more out of our depth than a 14 year old in a nightclub.

Is it not possible Leo, that Sterling's issue is less about money and more about wanting to be as successful as possible, winning honours and playing CL consistently? I imagine that's equally on his mind as much as cash and I can't blame him for that. If he thinks the club's ambitions aren't as high as his own, I couldn't blame him there either. Evidence doesn't suggest the owners are especially obsessed over the idea of winning, or if they are, don't really know how to go about it. If that's the case, and I think it is, Sterling wanting to go (if he does) is entirely understandable to me. I want the club to win things too and unlike a fan, a player has the opportunity to go elsewhere if the club a*** about.

Reading that Sterling never does anything 'special' on the pitch is weird. The League Cup goal against Chelsea proves it wrong, not many players can do things like that. Winning games on his own is a tall order and quite a demand - I doubt there's 5 players in the league who do that with any kind of consistency. Hazard, Aguero, Sanchez. Who else? Big thing to level at any player as a criticism, especially a 20 year old kid. He certainly struggles with being able to strike a ball properly (so does Coutinho) but Sterling has got it right though nowhere near often enough. Norwich away comes to mind. He definitely needs to work on it but it's largely a technique issue and for a kid, I don't see why it can't be worked on and improved. As you mature and with experience, you learn how to strike the ball and what shape your foot needs for any given shot. That's the difference between strikers who get through and just close their eyes & blast it, and those who recognise when you just need to slide it along the ground at pace, or delicately lift it over the keeper etc. Not saying Sterling will ever become brilliant at this but to write off his chances of improving it at 20 seems over dramatic.

The reaction of the plastic flag waving c***ts, as well as that of the Kop almost makes the Drogba idea worthwhile. It's been a while since football's been a laugh.

I agree, don't want him to go, but assuming he will. If so, and with Can likely to revert to midfield, don't see any likelihood that we'll have a nice wedge to spend on a Lucas replacement. In which case, a Bosman will do. Flamini perhaps? Milner's not a holding mid.

Not a pop at you but this is such typical LFC/FSG mindset. "Minimal cost must equate to virtually nothing" with very little appreciation of context. Transfers cost money. Fee, wages, agent, signing on fee, compensation etc. Cutting out the fee obviously doesn't make it free but removes what's usually the biggest cost. In the scheme of things, it's pretty minimal cost. Else lets just forget buying players altogether because we don't want to see those pennies leaving the account....

Well the way I'm looking at it is that Johnson is going, we need a new RB whether its first choice or cover for Flanno. We can either shell out some money on one, or get a freebie in Richards. Likewise re Ings, assuming we ditch one/some of our strikers who don't score. Ditto re Lucas possibly going - get a few million for him, replace him with a Bosman. Sell Lovren, get Vlaar - would we notice a drop in quality? Arguably could increase it. I don't think the money is there to recruit all the positions we need with a transfer fee attached to all.

Thank you! This is what I've been banging on about. Our tendency to almost faint at the thought of paying someone £150k is not only small time but extremely outdated. Top players cost money. We seem only willing to fork out £150k type wages on a Suarez level player, which is insane. Let's be honest, anyone lucky enough to have a Suarez or player of his ilk happily playing for them for 'only' £150k per week, is getting the bargain of the century. In reality, Suarez level players can command wages of £300k plus a week. If we think the top end salary in our squad is around £150k per week then we're either in cloud cuckoo land or we simply aren't interested in having genuinely top class players.

Since we don't seem to have bucket loads of cash to spend, I'd advocate getting a few freebie cheapo squaddies who aren't world class but can do a job. So the likes of Ings, Milner, Flamini, Richards, Vlaar etc. Bit of depth there at minimal cost. And spunk the budget on a proper top striker who kicks footballs into a goal quite a lot.

The odd established 28 or more year old would do our side the world of good. Goes against FSG's 5th commandment in the book of how not to win at football though, so will never happen.

Which players out there who even come close to winning their teams games every week and are 'only' on £150k? Hazard is on more, Rooney is on more, Yaya is on more, Aguero is on more, Di Maria is on more. There are plenty who don't win their team games regularly who are on more. I think your numerical judgement is a bit out.

May have miscounted On second inspection, it's actually 8 seasons. Still a shyte fitness record.

Hate to piddle on your chips but Benteke has never scored 20 league goals in a season in his entire career (that includes his time in Belgium too) & has actually only managed more than 16 once. Lack of fitness/injuries are another issue - in his entire career, he has only managed to play 30 league games in 3 seasons out of 11. You wanna spend £30m based on that record? I'd honestly rather spend £10m on Charlie Austin (17 PL goals for QPR) and Ings (10 for Burnley) than £30m on Benteke. I wonder whether this is an area that we're going to struggle in, partly due to not having a coach with continental pulling power. Imagine what Rafa or even Klopp could get for £30m. Benteke would be a lazy, obvious signing without the record to remotely justify the cost.

Nah, losing at Chelsea is standard. Be f****ed off that we couldn't score against West Brom & Hull, let alone beat either of them.

The intentions are right but these lot don't or won't understand what it takes to succeed at the highest level. Too busy leaking stories for PR while other clubs say nothing & just get the job done. We bleat, Man Utd sign Depay. The latest in a long line of failures in the market. I want this mob out personally. We'll never win with their 'be smart and do things on the cheap' mode.

Trippier is a right back isn't he? Nothing to do with Sakho or Lovren.

Hmmm. So all things being equal, he's not great. Just promising with a lot of potential and possibly a high ceiling.

Talk of Sampdoria being keen a couple of weeks ago. Nothing more been reported on that? I'm desperate for us to get shot of him, because he's not very good, isn't that bothered and because our chances of getting a half decent striker surely rest of shipping Mario out and getting him off the wage bill.

11/10 on Chelsea is one of the most generous prices I could've fathomed. Insane. I'd have priced them at something like 4/7 or even 1/2. Odds against?? Easy money, if one could bring one's self to bet against their own club.

A great player? 'Great'? Really?

I'd settle for both us and United getting beat on the weekend. No chance we're beating Chelsea at their place.

By virtue of the fact that he scores goals, he fits in ahead of all of them. Don't know how true it is, but the word is that Depay wants to play in the Premier League and not in Ligue 1.

So it's Depay OR a proper striker. If they mean business, why not get both? After all, "we can compete with anyone in the transfer market", right Mr Werner?