David Hodgson

Mad thing is, building Anny road extension would only cost half of Phil's fee. Sell Phil, rebuild the Anny and buy Barkley = a great summer

It's downright racist is what it is. The stupid sauerkraut chomper.

He did go on to become the 5th highest of all time. That's not to bad.

They've been penny wise pound foolish in the past but I don't think there's a conspiracy or sleight of hand going on. Remember they've paid out big enough plenty of times too - Carroll , Suarez, Downing , Henderson , Lallana , Lovren , Markovic , Firmino , Benteke, Mane, wijnaldum and now Salah. The deals they failed to complete have mainly been much cheaper ones than these. I think we failed with certain targets because we put arbitrary ceilings on value, or left a functionary like Ian Ayre in charge of trickier negotiations .

If they end up spending c.£150m net you are going to personally bare your ar*e outside the LFC store in Liverpool One.

Just reflects us signing more no uk footballers who are likelier to move abroad.

Ok let's nail something to something here. If we get Keita and Van Dijk, having spent £40m already on Salah, it means they've been planning to sell Coutinho all along to fund these ? Yes or no ? Anyone think it's possible - just possible - that there might be a sea-change in potential spending policy here for reasons such as - take your pick - the new PL Tv money , increased rev from main stand, CL money , budget carried forward from last summer? My view : they intend spending around £125m net, and want to keep Coutinho. They're planning this way now because a) cash flow is vastly improved (for above reasons ) and b) their asset value is hugely increased (for above reasons ). Spending more now to protect the asset value makes sense and is considerably less risky a policy than it once was. Truth is that selling a big player is not symptomatic of anything other than the prestige and money on offer from certain Euro giants . It has been ever thus : Keegan 77 Souness 84 Rush 87 McManaman 98 Owen 2004 Alonso 2009 Mascherano 2010 Torres 2011 Suarez 2014 Sterling 2015 In every case these players are sold to euro top 3 clubs that are considerably richer than us. It happens under every single ownership model we've had since the 70s. The times to worry about are when we don't produce players that are desired by Barcelona or Real Madrid.

Even if your theory is correct - and it isn't - then the fact that they were planning ahead for this eventuality by putting £70m plus bids in for 2 players and 'staying in the conversation' for a third (Mbappe) does not reflect badly on them. I hope and expect us not to let Coutinho go now, but he is almost certainly in his last year as a Liverpool player. I think letting Raheem Sterling go to City was a terrible decision but I wouldn't hold it against the owners for letting Phil go to bloody Barca - at some point - as long as the fee was substantial.

Managers surely take the 'blame' here ? Kenny and Brendan.

Tony Barrett got a job at Joe.ie with a substantial salary and he reckoned that in being offered it they were effectively buying his Twitter following.

From what I'm 'hearing' (and is pretty much common knowledge to anyone paying attention ) Klopp is very much in the driving seat this summer. Keita is apparently a one off. There's no plan B. I don't think that's the case with Van Dijk. The backs ups seem to be De Vrij or Koulibaly. I think. Then there's Oxo Chambo. Back up to him might be that Gelson Martins. Intriguing one is the striker. Very little noise about one, except - madly - the Mbappe link that just won't quit. Andy Robertson seems a done deal. Worst case then : Solanke Salah De Vrij Gelson Martins Robertson Which doesn't feel enough to compete on 2 fronts. Depends how good the forwards actually are I suppose.

Ha ! That was me. Don't listen to me.

He's not. He has connections.

Dunno. I'll ask him.

I blow hot and cold on them but mainly I think they're 6/10 owners. I know Phil thinks this too . Plenty on here would give them a 2 or 3, and that's not right considering just how s*** some owners can be. I don't see any examples of people really rating them. If there's cheer leading going on it's a pretty tepid variety. FSG are not great, but they aren't terrible. The minute there's a clear cut richer owner out there lobbying us to get rid of them , I'm on board. Until then , the glass is a touch more full than empty. And as for this summer - the signs were very good. We were looking to make the most expensive defender signing in world football and do the bundesliga's biggest ever transfer. Credible journalists were saying we wanted to be in the conversation for £100m Mbappe. I'm happy to kick off at them still if we are not getting deals over the line, but if they are f*cking up, at least it's from a higher starting point. I'll add if they do get these two £70m deals done then fair play to them. I'd feel a bit foolish if I'd spent the summer saying how terrible they were if they they got that kind of business completed. (Is this ok mr Henry sir ? Doing me best here)

It was reported that when we'd agreed terms with VVD that he'd be earning about £180-200k per week.

If their owners are so wealthy why aren't we hearing about Leipzig putting in 50-70m bids for players ? I bet they don't pay more than £25m for a player this summer.

Yep. There's no chance he goes to PSG.

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All our 'pads' here are 'by the sea'. Or 'the Mersey' as it's commonly known.

I don't think he was. In fact Brandt's problem was that he feared lack of game time as a 'development project' squad player.

Ings ?! As if. I don't want to hear his name mentioned ever again. Ings. Ffs. Smh.

And there you go. More boring than all the other transfer ghouls (and we are legion ) are the 'it's all bullshi*t merchants'. The most joyless fu*ks ever to walk god's earth.

What is the spend level at which FSG wouldn't have to f*ck off anymore ? I don't think they've ever topped £40m net before, have they ? Even allowing for more money washing around these days, if they find a way to spend c.£150m net I'm not moaning about them for a fair while.

Any of our first team squad likely to miss pre season friendlies because of internationals ? I can only think of Emre Can because of confederations cup.