It is what it is; we all have to get used to the fact that Slot is far less loyal to the players than Klopp was. He’s used to constantly integrating new players who are given to him and regularly selling off parts of the squad.
I also find it a bit painful to see them all go, but I’m keeping an open mind and will wait and see what happens. It is, however, a bit surreal to see the enormous amounts of money we’re investing. I can’t imagine we’ll see that again anytime soon, so we should really appreciate and enjoy it.
I personally feel we are pretty much spending 3 Transfer budgets in one go. The club have always said they are willing to spend if targets are available, which they appear to all be this window.
We spent next to nothing last Summer, next summer is a World Cup which is a nightmare window to sign players in.
Wouldn’t surpise me if the club leaders have just though go heavy this window, solve all our problems for the next 3 years and we spend nothing next window, which will balance the books.
From memory i dont think it was that unusual for dutch teams who rely on regular sales to fund their operations and encourage players to come to them.
I think our summer business is completely different. Some of it has been forced upon us, some probably delayed from last summer (we were trying to bring in new forwards last year). Some will be opprtunistic. Better to consider our actions over multiple years than a singular one because that will be how the club will be measuring its progress/ setting its targets.
I remember when he played against us at Anfield. He was an absolute handful although you can’t always judge a player on the basis of one game. Didn’t we also stick 5 past Alisson playing for Roma, and that didn’t mark him out as a dodgy keeper.
I do remember that in that game Nunez had the ball in the net 3 times, but two were offside. That probably should have been a warning. I still think he is a very good player, and in a setup that suits his style of play he could do well.
Has he officially accepted the Al-Hilal offer? There seems to be a lot of “shipping cattle” in the news reporting, but he has to agree to this as well.
It all depends what you are focusing on. My hope was to keep most champions around, apart from a couple of fringe players, to reinforce the first team on key positions (done), and then to seamlessly attack everything which is at stake this season, ruthlessly.
Instead of this, it seems to me that we are already calling for patience, as we wait for all the new incomings to settle down. That’s surely the chance our rivals were waiting for? Keeping stability goes over changing one third of the squad at once imo (especially when reigning champions), but maybe it’s just me, and I’ll be proven wrong.
Had it been up to me, the club would have 0.000% relations with Saudi Arabia, but there are no such considerations in the Premier League. I mostly blame the English press who lets clubs get away with this with little reflection and criticism. If they had done their job, it would have been really uncomfortable for Premier League clubs to wheel and deal with the Saudis (they also did that right after Bin Salman had Kashoggi butchered and melted down with acid).
But it is what it is. It’s shameful, but it’s a shame shared by the entire UK league system and certainly the UK media.
I do agree with what your saying about these gulf nations that are effectively using natural resource to bankroll sports teams and sports instead of funding any actual infrastructure to their countries unless it’s a new sports stadium.
I think most of the changes are being forced on the club. And though I was personally one of those who wanted Bradley to have a chance the issue has cropped up again and if he is to make it his minutes need managing. Hopefully he gets enough with rotation.
Both Salah and VVD could have easily gone as well so it is somewhat intriguing that Slot has kept his leaders.
I was a huge fan of the player we saw under Klopp despite his tendency to frustrate in the obvious ways - I find that all action, biting into everything in sight style easy to get behind. Always kept a glimmer of hope he’d improve his finishing and become that monstrous #9 we all wanted him to transform into but Arne let it be known fairly early in the season the chances of that happening were actually further away.
Haven’t got a bad word to say about the guy, leaves as a PL winner & wish him all the best out there.
Last year we were all ready to be patient and give slot time to bed in and get his team together. Slot came in and set his stall out pretty early on that he was not interested in transition seasons, bedding in or any other such bollocks. He was here to win the league, and he did so. I don’t think he has any time for pissing about, and neither should we.
I think we’ve lost two players who we’d have preferred to keep in Diaz and Trent. In both those cases the players wanted to leave.
Everyone else we have lost or look likely to lose is someone we had given up on, or is on the fringes of the team. And that’s the way it should be.
I don’t recall anyone singing Darwin’s praises last season. This hugely unpredictable and inconsistent striker was earmarked for an exit months ago. I was done with him by Christmas. Did you really want to go into next season with Nunez leading the line?
The only one I would be slightly disappointed to see the back of his Harvey Elliott, just because we know his talented he is. But we also know his physical limitations and that he hasn’t got a role here.
Elsewhere, we’ve replaced Trent with Frimpong, bought a left back, which everyone was adamant we needed, secured the most exiting attacking player in the world, possibly the best young striker around striker.
I just don’t see the downside to this summer. If we can get Isak and a Centre Back, I can’t recall a better summer from any club.
Remains to be seen how it all comes together, though. Claiming we’ve won the transfer window before a ball has been kicked seems like the sort of thing we’d mock other supporters for in our leaner windows.
