Transfer Window Speculation

[DazzlaJ]

Just saying it’s a low bar. We suffer a bit of battered fan syndrome sometimes.

 

We’d be up in arms if we’d have lost that final, or gone out earlier and signed a couple a kids.

I wouldn't have been up in arms myself, f***ing gutted mind.

 

FSG have hit the jackpot with having Klopp, I just don't see them jeopardising that by penny pinching when they will be making money anyway.

 

I think too many are overlooking Klopps thought process in this.

Mane, Salah, Firmino, Origi, Shaqiri, Brewster > Sterling, Aguero, Sane, Mahrez, Jesus, Foden?

 

 

Well the front three scored more then the rest no? edit that I have no idea lol

Edited July 13, 2019 by DazzlaJ

[Ombudsam]

So it’s basically spend more money then. Thought so.

Sorry, it’s a bit of a vulgar approach to Association Football.

I wouldn't have been up in arms myself, f***ing gutted mind.

 

FSG have hit the jackpot with having Klopp, I just don't see them jeopardising that by penny pinching when they will be making money anyway.

 

I think too many are overlooking Klopps thought process in this.

 

 

 

Well the front three scored more then the rest no? edit that I have no idea lol

There was a subtle shift from the front three to “the attack”. These things are important.

[Hightown Phil]

Mane, Salah, Firmino, Origi, Shaqiri, Brewster > Sterling, Aguero, Sane, Mahrez, Jesus, Foden?

Pretty sure excluding penalties ours listed there beat theirs last season.

 

Sorry, it’s a bit of a vulgar approach to Association Football.

Only when it’s added in via illicit means or via loans. If not, great, spend away. Issue is you seem to want them have us send some accounts to UEFA and them turnaround and go ‘Yeah you can’t do this, but here pay us some money and it’ll be ok’ because you wrongly think it’s what Manchester City and PSG do.

[Ombudsam]

Pretty sure excluding penalties ours listed there beat theirs last season.

 

Only when it’s added in via illicit means or via loans. If not, great, spend away. Issue is you seem to want them have us send some accounts to UEFA and them turnaround and go ‘Yeah you can’t do this, but here pay us some money and it’ll be ok’ because you wrongly think it’s what Manchester City and PSG do.

City and PSG seem fine from here.

 

FSG need to resource our football side so they don’t need miracles to achieve.

[Hightown Phil]

Well the issue there is that City and PSG aren’t actually breaching FFP because what they’re doing runs far deeper than simply having their owner put money in to the club and them then spending it on players. One day it’ll be proven, but unless you want us to be sponsored by the Boston Red Sox it’s unlikely to be something we could replicate even if we wanted to.

[jimmylibel]

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.

[Conrad]

I think we are at the point now where any new signing insn't going to add many more points if any to last seasons total. Virgil and the Alisson have transformed our team, probably adding 10 points each over the season. but we seem to have a really well balanced squad at the minute, so bringing in a huge signing could actually have a negative impact and disrupt the balance. I think we need a few squad players though. we need cover at left back, and probably another attacking midfielder, but we also have a few youngsters who could step up if required. right now for us its about evolution, rather than revolution. I fully expect this season that us and City will be miles ahead of everyone again.

We don’t need any squad players

 

We need 1 or 2 to push the best XI

 

1 would be enough actually

And could make a big difference

[DPD1973]

Firmino was running on fumes at the end of the season, same way as the entire front three were the season before, we do need a player in there to spice it up a bit and to ease the burden.

[kop205]

Yep, basically saying we're not as good as we were

Lots of things fell right for us to get 98 points, whether that be big incidents in games or just key players staying fit.

 

The last few times we challenged for the title on balance we probably left points out there. I think if anything the opposite was true last year and we eked out even more than we might have expected based on performances.

 

It is the perfect moment to be looking to strengthen further so that the same bunch of lads who were heroic last year get some added impetus to push on again. I don't think just expecting them to go out and do the same again is the most prudent of approaches really.

[Earl Hafler]

There’s a logical fallacy and I can’t remember what it’s called, but it’s where you make an argument then reinforce it with a point that contradicts it.

Like the other day, a bloke in work told me “you can’t meet Simon now, all meetings are cancelled today. And also I’m meeting him now.”

You FSG fanboys need to ponder this.

A common one; as is the Nirvana fallacy, where observations and solutions are rejected because they’re imperfect

That's great - means we could afford to sign the core of the squad to long term contracts. Your initial post said that you doubted the cost of that was the reported £150-200m - I was showing how it probably was.

I still disagree and, since that 2016-2018 increase, we’ve lost Coutinho and Sturridge from the wage bill

 

The cost, whatever it is, isn’t a lump sum and is spread over several years, during which time revenues are increasing.

 

The Times reported that our squad secured a £7m bonus for winning the CL and Phil appears to be claiming that almost the entire CL revenue was swallowed up by the bonus structure.

 

Why come out with this crap ?

[Conrad]

Lots of things fell right for us to get 98 points, whether that be big incidents in games or just key players staying fit.

 

The last few times we challenged for the title on balance we probably left points out there. I think if anything the opposite was true last year and we eked out even more than we might have expected based on performances.

 

It is the perfect moment to be looking to strengthen further so that the same bunch of lads who were heroic last year get some added impetus to push on again. I don't think just expecting them to go out and do the same again is the most prudent of approaches really.

spot on

 

we have also never been more attractive to the top players. brilliant club, european champions, amazing manager etc

 

its not like we're 7th and managed by Rodgers.

 

we should have the money to bring in 1 player at the same level as our current front 3.

[kop205]

City got 100 points and spent 60m on a lad who had been player of the year pretty recently, played 40 odd games for them last year and on 3 occasions scored in one-goal wins in the League.

 

I'm not having this 'Buying someone would unsettle us stuff'.

 

I don't think for a second Klopp reckons there is nobody who would improve us so it either comes down to them not being available so we're waiting, or we won't stump up the money it would cost to get them now - though of course there is lots of overlap between those two positions.

[Gethin]

I still disagree and, since that 2016-2018 increase, we’ve lost Coutinho and Sturridge from the wage bill

 

So explain what the £50m+ per year wage bill increase between '16 and '18 went on if it wasn't mostly on improved contracts?

[Rusty Shackleford]

Brewster bagging another couple of goals today might help alleviate the concern. He probably has to do it against the better sides in pre season though.

 

It’s frustrating to be only two or so players away from a squad equipped to go at everything but I guess there’s a reason young players are coming here and turning down some of the best sides in Europe to do so. I thought this no transfers thing was smoke and mirrors but signing the likes of Alisson and Van Dijk is beginning to look like an outlier to get us in a position of strength before going with the original plan.

[Ombudsam]

It just feels like we always leave a hole that needs filling. This City team are a historical anomaly but it doesn’t matter as they actually exist so we need to beat them. If we beat them then we are the greatest ever ever ever. That’s what’s in the line here. I just want everything done to make that possible.

[£440,000]

I think we are at the point now where any new signing insn't going to add many more points if any to last seasons total. Virgil and the Alisson have transformed our team, probably adding 10 points each over the season. but we seem to have a really well balanced squad at the minute, so bringing in a huge signing could actually have a negative impact and disrupt the balance. I think we need a few squad players though. we need cover at left back, and probably another attacking midfielder, but we also have a few youngsters who could step up if required. right now for us its about evolution, rather than revolution. I fully expect this season that us and City will be miles ahead of everyone again.

I think we've got more chance of winning the title this season than we have of getting 97 points again.

[Kvarme Ate My Food]

Brewster bagging another couple of goals today might help alleviate the concern. He probably has to do it against the better sides in pre season though.

 

It’s frustrating to be only two or so players away from a squad equipped to go at everything but I guess there’s a reason young players are coming here and turning down some of the best sides in Europe to do so. I thought this no transfers thing was smoke and mirrors but signing the likes of Alisson and Van Dijk is beginning to look like an outlier to get us in a position of strength before going with the original plan.

Every time we’ve had a summer of underinvestment, loads of people have convinced themselves it was smoke and mirrors. I think we need to learn that when the club says we won’t be spending much, they’re telling the truth.

[Romario]

It just feels like we always leave a hole that needs filling. This City team are a historical anomaly but it doesn’t matter as they actually exist so we need to beat them. If we beat them then we are the greatest ever ever ever. That’s what’s in the line here. I just want everything done to make that possible.

I agree. I’d take back Coutinho in a heart beat as he knows what we’re about and can slot in. Barca still owe us money for him.

Main reason I’d take him back is he could play where Mane plays when Mane covers Firmino in the centre. It’s perfect.

[RBM]

City won all of the domestic trophies last season and have strengthened further.

Edited July 14, 2019 by RBM

[Swipe]

City got 100 points and spent 60m on a lad who had been player of the year pretty recently, played 40 odd games for them last year and on 3 occasions scored in one-goal wins in the League.

 

I'm not having this 'Buying someone would unsettle us stuff'.

 

I don't think for a second Klopp reckons there is nobody who would improve us so it either comes down to them not being available so we're waiting, or we won't stump up the money it would cost to get them now - though of course there is lots of overlap between those two positions.

Agree. Particularly on the ‘unsettling’ point. Makes no sense that. City have already broke their record this summer on a new lad. If we don’t have the money to spend big again, whatever, but go and get what we can.

 

I’d take Coutinho back in a second if it’s a goer.

Edited July 14, 2019 by Swipe

[Rusty Shackleford]

I don’t want Coutinho back. He behaved like a right c*** to get his move and was cryarsing a year after signing a deal and saying he wanted to be a legend here.

 

I want players who wanted and continue to want to be here because that’s what makes us stronger than the sum or our parts. And when one of them doesn’t, rinse the t***s that come calling and go get someone else.

 

But perhaps that player isn’t available yet. There was barely a person on here that didn’t want us to go for someone other than Van Dijk after we f*** it up the first time.

[McBain]

Any player who gets unsettled by an arrival who strengthens the group needs to get some perspective and see the bigger picture

 

I'm doing that thing I usually try to avoid which is criticising theoretical behaviour but it does seem to be mentioned often as a factor in our lack of activity

Edited July 14, 2019 by McBain

[Barnesy_10]

City won all of the domestic trophies last season and have strengthened further.

Yup getting competition in for one of their best players in Fernandinho

 

We pushed them and pushed them and they will be aware that the weeks at Xmas when Fernandinho was missing was when they went on that s*** spell which gave us that massive lead..

 

I'm convinced we will be bringing in a forward... Just doesn't make sense not to... To use Brewster as a reason not to is daft too

[Kid Klopp]

I'd happily take back the Coutinho that left.

 

I don't think that's the version we'd be getting though and I am doubtful he'd get back there again. I just don't see him returning with the fire in the belly he'd need for that.

[Flanders]

I don’t want Coutinho back. He behaved like a right c*** to get his move and was cryarsing a year after signing a deal and saying he wanted to be a legend here.

I want players who wanted and continue to want to be here because that’s what makes us stronger than the sum or our parts. And when one of them doesn’t, rinse the t***s that come calling and go get someone else.

But perhaps that player isn’t available yet. There was barely a person on here that didn’t want us to go for someone other than Van Dijk after we f*** it up the first time.

There was plenty of people on here criticizing Klopp and the club that we hadn’t moved onto another target when we couldn’t get Virgil. They just couldn’t understand such a single minded transfer policy and it is the same every summer and always will be.