Used to be the U18s manager. I do remember hearing some murmurings about personality clashes though, he wasn’t very well liked I believe (whether that was the players or senior management I do not know) and he left us to go to a role with the FA.
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Gaffer on Taki
Jürgen Klopp views Takumi Minamino’s quality and attitude as a big reason for Liverpool’s success in recent years.
The Japan forward today completed a permanent switch to Ligue 1 side AS Monaco after two-and-a-half seasons and 55 appearances as a Red.
Minamino arrived at Anfield from Red Bull Salzburg in January 2020 and made 14 appearances during his first campaign as he claimed a Premier League winner’s medal.
He was the club’s top scorer in the Carabao Cup and Emirates FA Cup during 2021-22 to help Klopp’s side deliver a domestic double.
Reacting to the news of Minamino’s switch to Monaco, Klopp told Liverpoolfc.com: “It’s hard to see Taki go, but it’s a great move for him and one he thoroughly deserves.
“An amazing professional; super, talented player. As a person, he is full of warmth and makes everyone feel positive. A manager’s dream, to be honest.
“I’m sure there will be those who think it didn’t quite work out. Those who think this are wrong. I don’t accept that.
“His contribution far outweighs the opportunities we were able to give, in terms of starting matches. He made us better each and every day he was with us – not just in the games he played in but every single session in training. Perfect attitude, winner’s mentality.
“His performances and his goals are the reason we have had to redecorate the Champions Wall so often. His achievements here will stand the test of time.
“I know he will be a big success at Monaco. I’m sure we will look on with a mix of celebration and envy as he progresses and flourishes there.
“He leaves with our appreciation and best wishes. Thank you, Taki.”
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This is something I think about when people comment about our players not featuring in games and that we should therefore sell them…
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All that said, if it was actually felt he was so good as Klopp states, then we didn’t get a great fee for him. I do wonder if we are a bit soft with letting players leave sometimes - since Coutinho (who we didn’t just let leave) we haven’t got great prices for first team players who actively wanted to leave. Compare how we’ve let Mane go to Bayern to how they are getting a higher fee for Lewandowski. Similarly, no way Monaco would sell us a player that Klopp would appear so keen on as Taki for just 15m euro. I think there is more than a bit of poetic license by Jurgen on how important Taki was to us but I accept that his attitude and comments on likelihood to succeed are genuine - hence the ‘nice profit’ (5m euro) being low. Apparently when we signed him (for 7.25m pounds) we thought he was a good buy because he was ‘worth 20m pounds’. On that score he certainly didn’t improve…
I don’t think we’re being soft, we’ve frequently seen the club hold out for higher prices - we’re just not getting them.
Found this graphic, thought it was quite interesting. I wonder if his inability to get a work permit with us hindered his development, or whether he was never going to get a chance with us?
Anthony Driscoll-Glennon to Grimsby on a free from Burnley
Dean Bouzanis from Sutton to Reading
Madger Gomes left Crewe by mutual consent
Michael Ihiekwe to Sheff Wednesday from Rotherham
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It’s a clusterfuck.
Club got brand new German/Croatian owners (with questionable and shady reputation) last autumn who never attended any games or gave a flying f**k about the club. All of their comms went through google translate SMSes. Their first move after takeover was sacking of manager - Savo Milosevic who took over in June. The man spent 4-5 months installing winning mentality, understandable tactics and the club was playing decent football after two uninspiring (being easy on them) balkan-catenaccio managers. One of them was Dino Skender.
New owners then re-installed familiar incompetent face Dino Skender who also happened to be in a relations with one of 'em. Everything went downhill pretty quickly. Football was unwatchable, results were poor and a lot of issues regarding manager-players. Funny because most of the players were his choice. Don’t let me get started about those out of contract players of doubtful quality even for our shit league.
And here comes the latest chapter. They’ve again sacked Skender after 5 months and appointed Robert Prosinecki. This move gave players boost results improved football was getting better. Season ended. When Robert took over he was being promised higher quality players, 4-5 from national teams. None of this happened. Robert and sporting director got disillusioned with owners. Got in a quite a pickle with director of football and tehnical director. After this fight Robert got promise from the owner itself that these two cunts will get sacked.
When he finally arrived from Germany he did a nice little u-turn changed his mind and sacked Prosinecki and sporting director instead and thing went haywire. Accusations from all sides. Total disrespect to Prosinecki (fans favorite) where he was called everything but a manager.
The ultras went berserk and crashed pressie just about when owners were introducting Riera to the press. Ultras now want owners out of the club. Even more because this German owner didn’t even want to talk to them and even called them bunch of drunkards and hooligans.
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Jeez!! Why did they buy the club in the first place!!
Sports KHM washings…
Dunno really…
Really sad. Slovenia was doing good, clubs and country, in the early years after the breakup of Yugoslavia.
Well… the highlights definitely were NK Maribor’s Champions League qualification and national team qualification to World Cup (2002 & 2010) and Euro (2000). Now it’s a bit shit. Almost anybody can win the league with a half decent run. NK Maribor were head and shoulders above everyone. Now due to poor staffing and recruiting they are pretty unspectacular team with a poor academy. They used “to do Bayern” and bought all decent footballers from the league.
The biggest issue I see is lack of quality coaching from academies. All they do is conditioning, speed, stamina. No technical, tactical, tehnique, etc… We have no decent products anymore. Our future hopes lies completely on young Salzburg wunderkind Sesko…
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Pepe Reina rejoins Villareal.
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The old boys won the masters
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Divock is an impressive guy - articulate and very likeable - but it strikes me that he is just missing that inner cunt and obscene self regard which could have taken him to another level. Still, the vast majority of pros would swap their careers for the iconic moments he’s been involved in. Good luck to him, hope he has a happy career and makes his Liverpool uni scholarship perpetual. Wish more players would look to give back in similar ways recognising that football is part of the wider community.
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