Billy Talbot

Yeah, I tend to agree. If we've bid more than Chelsea have though, that puts something in the "feels most wanted" column. We won't pay him like Chelsea will, but he will get to play for Liverpool and not Chelsea.

Yeah, I think we can do it in some games, at certain points in games, at certain scorelines, but to have it as a plan A seems daft without the personnel to do it properly. I'm starting to lean towards wanting Gomez to start at RB on Sunday, with Trent in midfield. And I'm not a fan of putting Trent in midfield, or of Gomez at RB particularly. But the thought of Mudryk running into to open space all game gives me the fear.

Aye. Also looks like he's gonna be a card magnet.

I'm starting to think we might see a similar side to the one that started at Deepdale last night. Diaz, Jota and Salah up front. Gakpo left midfield, Mac Alister deepest. Jones could play the right 8 instead of Szoboslai.

I don't think he is. He's not that big. About 5'10" I think. His best asset is keeping hold of the ball. I suppose he's a bit Gini-ish.

Nah, their midfield looks even lighter than ours. It's basically Enzo, Chukwuemeka and Mudryk, Sterling, Gallagher, Hudson-Odoi? They've lost Kovacic who always used to have a good game for them vs us and Mount who used to do a lot of their running.

Does he have a release clause?

We already spent money on Mac and Dom though. If they didn’t want to spend money then we wouldn’t have bought them either?

I would expect the recruitment team to have a level of autonomy though albeit with FSG ultimately signing things off. In this scenario, I wouldn't think it's FSG just saying, "nah, he's not worth it". How would they know? That's why they employ people to tell them who's worth what. So that's my question really. Is it the recruitment team being hesitant to say to FSG, this lad's worth the extra £5m or so, or is it FSG being reluctant to to sanction the money. My guess is that they have been reluctant in the past which is why we keep losing staff. But it's difficult to see why they would be reluctant right now, given that we've shed so much in wages, received unexpected transfer fees, have already signed players and are clearly in need of more bodies in midfield. That doesn't make any sense though. We've sold Fabinho and Henderson, so there's budget there.

Yeah. I'd like to know (but I don't think we ever will know) if the hesitance is down the to the recruitment team's opinion that he's not worth that amount, after all, part of their job is to recruit players with value as measure of success, or if the budget they're working with is constraining them. Of course there will be grey area between those two, but there are two extremes. One where the recruitment team is hammering on Mike Gordon's door and FSG aren't signing off on the fee, and the other where the the recruitment team is collectively unwilling to stick their neck out on Lavia at that price.

Arteta calls winning the charity shield a statement means anytime they lose league points a bigger one. it’s gonna blow up in face. either that or Arsenal are gonna win 5 games in a row:

Yeah, me too. I’ve felt burned before mind, but all the signs are there including Klopp saying we will, when normally he’s a lot more circumspect even before we actually do sign players.

He's who RBL are replacing Gvardiol with.

Bit of Gini, bit of Alonso, bit of Moussa Dembele. None of them were great 6ers. Neither is Jones. Not yet. Give him 4-5 years at it he might be. Don't think we will be doing that. He's perfectly capable of doing it in games where we dominate the ball though.

Yeah peak viera is what I keep thinking. Isn’t Lavia is too short for that? we’re gonna have a problem when we play anyone with a big centre forward. They’ll drop deep, win headers in our midfield and the rest of em will scrap for 2nd balls. Our 6 needs to be able to win headers.

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@Dan's theme...

---——- Ali ———- Ibou - Virg (c) - Robbo -—-Trent - Jones— —-Dom - Alexis— Mo --- Gapko - Jota

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it goes really well with salmon.

Where from Joyce?

I prefer...

I thought Jones had a really good game yesterday.

I don't necessarily think that we have to match Chelsea's bid (if one actually exists) but it has to be close enough for Southampton to accept it. It's not quite the same as van Dyke and us and city. Lavia is not VvD and what we're offering for him isn't a world record fee for a player in his position. Soton are now a championship club and unlike VvD, Lavia won't be telling Soton it's Liverpool or I am staying here.