David Hodgson

Naby Keita is f*cking brilliant and if you can't see it ya ma's a nonce's ma. N-N-N-Naby Keit-A

Yes. But we're the bestest of the best. Now. For now.

You picked a Saturday in the football season. Don't even say a word lad. And wtf are international breaks for eh ?

The only one I can think of who was sent out on loan and came back to play anything approaching regular first team football was Jordon Ibe. And then not for very long.

I think it's quite a tough call for Klopp. The midfield 3 against West Ham looked really balanced and played very well. We are very good and Palace aren't. There's a strong argument (Molby's) that we should just back ourselves. But....before West Ham happened, Henderson (or Fabinho) would've been everyone in the world's choice to play no 6 for Liverpool at Crystal Palace. And ether being taller than Wijnaldum would've just been seen as a bonus. I think if I was the manager I'd just toss a coin, and make an early sub if it looked like I'd made the wrong call. But then I'm ahead of my time.

In conclusion , you broadly agree with my analysis ?

In the 4 seasons prior to last summer , our net spend is £80m. That's over 8 transfer windows. In the last 3 windows our net spend is £160m (and that's despite selling a £142m asset). So an increase per window from £10m to £53m. I'd say that represented a radical change in spending policy, and is greater than the rate of inflation in the transfer market over the period, and, as you've accepted, is high relative to our rivals. We are now one of the big fish in Europe in terms of our spending power. Let's enjoy that fact for a few minutes.

Ha, Im behind no curtain . I don’t care about FSG, they’re nothing to me, but I find most (not all ) of the criticism of them just to be wilful mistrust rather than based on substance. And I generally think in terms of our wider ‘project’ that it’s better that we default to unity.

And we’ve spent around £160m net. So yeah , we’re up there.

What’s the point of saying that ? My assessment is entirely objective . I only want Liverpool to win.

It’s not equivalent to that at all. Look at what our rivals have net spent in the last year.

I think we're one short, but our buying has been really good over the past year. There's no grounds for negativity over our overall work in the market. Since finishing 4th in 2017 we've added : Salah Chamberlain Robertson Van Dijk Keita Fabinho Shaqiri Alisson for c.£340m we've lost (of any note) Coutinho Can for c.£190m (all sales) That's a) a helluva net spend by any measure , b) one of the biggest gross spends in the world in the period, c) involves paying world record fees in 2 positions, and d) really good planning and deal making, e) and we've tied Salah and Firmino down to big new deals. Credit too for bringing the Fekir deal to the brink of success. A massive shame that fell through. Had it not failed there would be zero room for criticism.

If he signs it proves me right, if he doesn’t , we’re still in the dark. Needles to say , I’ll have the last laugh.

I don’t buy the mingebag theory , since last summer. I don’t even think they’re working to a firm budget figure. I have a theory - because the transfer market is in an extremely bullish phase, and FSG are nothing if not guys who read markets, that they see value in doing as much business as possible now, rather than later. We’re now at a point where Harry Maguire is a £75m player and Danny Ings worth £25m. They may be reading that this upward price trend is not plateauing any time soon. If they think that , better to buy now, than next year. Also, I think they’ll have re-valued the existing squad and calculated that they have made enormous gains. The club are back and doing well in the CL. TV money pouring in. New stadium revenues . The cash is flowing. The fact that they’ve written out £350m worth of cheques in 12 months says they’re in expansive mode. We’ve Just blown Chelsea out of the water to do a world record deal. This isn’t the behaviour of penny pinchers. If Fekir was the right buy they’d find the money. I don’t doubt that.

Yes. His Liverpool career has been a travesty. He’s hoodwinked good people for too long. This is very fair.

It’s not one lad, but there’s a quality issue yeah. This is where I think Keita is key. If he gives you the attacking threat level we currently get from any of our top front 3 , then he can effectively compensate for lack of adequate cover there. We saw out the second part of last season with a front 4 of Mane, Firmino, Salah and chamberlain. We lost chamberlain and could still be potent with Milner. I think we now can pick combinations of Salah, Mane, Firmino, Keita and Shaqiri, where we put any 3 of them on the pitch and still beat 70% of the league , quite comfortably. But we are a body light. I’m getting past the point where I need to keep saying it though because I trust Klopp knows this too, has weighed up options, and that we are where we are for a reason. And I don’t think lack of funds is that reason. Probably right. But it’s the nature of the league we play in. No one has retained the title for a while now and there’s a reason for that .

That all sounds right to me. I get the neg head vibes because when you think about depth for the front 3 positions it’s obvious we are one body short, but..... ..... we haven’t just added numbers, we’ve added quality. Since the beginning of last season, we’ve added the most expensive defender and the most expensive keeper, in the world, ever. That’s some way to address the team’s Achilles heel. That’s what we’d previously look on and watch proper big clubs do. We’ve attacked a problem like we’re Real Ma-f***ing-drid . Then in midfield - we had lots of decent 7/10 lads, but there was a gap in class between them and our front 3. So we’ve attacked that issue by bringing in 2 very very highly rated young midfielders who both still have very high potential ceilings. And at a cost of £100m. Naby Keita is the key. If he’s as good as he looks capable of being then we’ve added another world class player. That’s a huge thing. Across the team, I think we underestimate the trajectory our two young full backs are on. Especially Trent. Up front we have 3 lads who are as good as anyone in their positions in Europe. Rotating them efficiently is vital. I have high hopes for Shaqiri and I think he’ll have games where he almost looks like our best player. Sturridge is the bonus we need to pray for . If he stays fit then we have the numbers we need. Winning the league ? Our team and squad is equipped to get mid 80s points level. We’ve got as good a chance as we’ve had since 1990.

Sorry , yeah. The problem we have with Ings and Origi though is that anyone who has actually watched them play in recent times will be able to see that they’re both absolutely crap. I mean really awful. I think we’ll get eff all for them.

Hmmm. I’d say that’s classifiable as ‘not interesting’ speculation. QUINVI Quite Important Not Very Interesting

Naby is definitely better than all of the 1979 ledge midfield, apart from Souness. Although I’m thinking he probably is better than him too. Way better than Whelan, McMahon, Johnston or Lee. He’s defo better than Gerrard, Alonso or Mascherano. So yeah. He’s in our top two greatest midfielders of all time. Which is a solid start.

You jest but I was that close to adding that one. The replacement for Phil was categorically the £60m French lad, and but for a medical would be directly filling Phil’s boots now. There was no other plan. That was it. Like for like, near as dammit. There may now be a new plan. But that’s another story.

Thanks. I realise that the odds against him signing lengthening by the hour now. I don’t believe however that we simply walked away the day after the medical.

I don’t agree on Fekir, Phil. And I think the press lads are being played. Here’s my dots : 1.People forget quotes from people in the loop along the way. That president of the French football federation the day after it all broke down. ‘Just a bit of renegotiating needed ‘, or words to that effect, he said . Fekir’s agent in the middle of the World Cup when asked about Fekir and Liverpool says ‘the story isn’t over’. 2. Liverpool badly wanted this player, that much is a fact. The question is, was the medical report so bad as to make LFC abandon the signing, or did they seek better terms? The above suggests the latter. 3 . Many reports hint at a concern about the long term viability of Fekir’s knee. Short term, no such doubts . Medium term ? Who knows . He’s clearly a fit healthy player who is not currently injured. He can do a job for Liverpool tomorrow . 4. So, there’s a price where he’s worth the risk. At £15m, no brainer. At £25m worth it. More than £35m maybe too risky. 5. Liverpool may have viewed the opportunity cost of buying Fekir to be too great . If that were the case I think we’d have seen movement on another target by now. We haven’t . 6. The position needs filling. We went into the CL final shorn of 2 of our main front 4, having lost Coutinho and Chamberlain. There’s no way in earth it wasn’t the summers number one priority to fill that position . Shaqiri, a reborn Sturridge and Curtis Jones will not have changed that thinking . I know time is against my theory but I’m sticking with it for 6 more days. Then I’m out.

Woodbury is going out on loan. To villa it looks like. I think we’re prone to telling ourselves things that aren’t true because we want things to be all right. God knows I am. I think telling ourselves that Jones or Woodburn can do the job that we were prepared to spend £60m on to get Fekir to do, is an example of this. Woodbury ? Ffs WOODBURN

yeah, like he was going to give Danny Ward a chance to become our number one keeper