He is an embarrassment…
Some interesting bits in this article about Jorg
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That’s fake, it’s clearly Hank from breaking bad .
Yeah we know he was at Disneyland.
So how are we rating this three month probationary period?
As a preamble, I have to say that it does remain a bit unclear where Schmadtke has had a role this far. It appears that Billy Hogan was actively involved in the Caicedo saga and Klopp apparently has a much bigger role than previously. So I am cautious of giving too much credit to Schmadtke or saddling him with too much blame.
But with that caveat aside, let’s take a look at the window.
We triggered two release clauses for two midfielders who appear to be excellent fits (though Mac’s deal is more attributable to Ward). Had egg on our face from the Caicedo/Lavia sagas. Rebounded with Endo and Gravenberch, though Endo seems to be at best a squad option and Gravenberch’s role is yet to be defined.
We sold Hendo and Fabinho for a reasonable haul, offers which only arrived because of deep pockets in Saudi.
No CB brought in, which leaves us vulnerable from a depth perspective.
With Klopp asserting himself more firmly with transfers, perhaps a guy like Schmadtke who is willing to basically do Klopp’s bidding is the best we can do. An amazing transfer guru might be hesitant to work within that structure. But I do think that we’ve been left with some vulnerabilities at certain positions.
I struggle to see why Schmadtke has earned the full time gig, but I also understand that much of this is speculative until we see how the club - and especially our new players - perform over the next few months.
Has anyone suggested he has got it full time?
Gordon took the call on Salah last week so I’m not so sure what any of them are doing much.
With McAllister it’s an odd one as he suddenly turned out to have a 35m clause no one had noticed.
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No, but my understanding is that it was more of an opt-out clause for both sides than one in which they had to officially give him the full time gig. My guess is that we would have heard already if he was departing, but I might be wrong on that.
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Or no one had let on that they knew about. We generally seem to operate with maximum discretion and any noise appears to come from the selling party.
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It could be a limited release clause. Where particular named clubs only could offer. Which is the reason why none of the other clubs were in the running.
I imagine that release clause had only 5-6 clubs named including us.
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And I think we were in the position prior to the world cup where we could have approached and signed Mac on the free.
We probably rate Brighton and their ability to develop players highly and also value the relationship with them. Wouldnt be surprised if Mac was allowed to extend his contract with a one time release clause with the understanding that we would come back in for him later.
Helps to maintain the relationship with Brighton as well.
Yes, Schmadtke said he had an agreement for one year but with a review after 3 months. Not sure how this got reported as just a 3 month deal initially
It is very possible that there is a “limited release clause”… but in the absence of more information, let’s not start imagining that this is the case as well as the number of clubs on that supposed list.
Speculation that’s all
Hard to judge him but the fact Gordan was the one handling the Salah enquiries and the Caicedo pursuit tells me they perhaps aren’t fully trusting of him. But, it’s also hard to know exactly what his remit was this summer given he arrived as the window opened, was apparently able to work away from Liverpool and is only on a short term deal anyway.
Personally I think he’s a stop gap and it just depends on when we find a proper replacement as to when he goes. If he gets past that three month break clause it doesn’t mean we can’t just stick him on gardening leave for the remaining months of his deal if we’ve got the person in we think is a better long term option.
Hard to know how he’s fared - it’s a collective effort, and his role is different to those of his predecessors (Edwards and Ward). I get the feeling that the direction of travel isn’t so much in his control as it was under the previous SDs.
Overall, this summer’s not gone too badly. We are greedy and always want more - I wanted at least one more (a defender), but being pragmatic about it, we’ve just done a full remodel of our midfield, and two of the four have hit the ground running. Endo seems a smart acquisition, and we chased Ryan Gravenberch for a long time, so that’s good. Not clear how much invovlement he had in the Dom deal, but 3 of the 4 we’ve signed from the Bundesliga, so Jorg must have had some role to play. It’s not easy to rebuild a section of the team in the fashion we’ve done - and thus far, it’s been very very good - so much so there’s been quite a lot of praise for Klopp/the team this week from outside commentators.
No issue with Schmadtke being in doing a job, but, as I said yesterday in the Mo Blah blah thread, if we are to receive a massive fee for Mo (next summer), we need a SD in place that has a vision/direction of travel before that happens, as this summer was clearly a bit chaotic, especially once Hendo/Fab were sold. Everyone will know we’ve got the riches to spend, and the market will be difficult.
I also hope this has been good learning from Klopp. He resisted Edwards views on contract renewals on more than one occasion - and the drop offs we saw were somewhat alarming - hard not to imagine Edwards sat back chilling on a sun lounger with a cocktail in his hand thinking to himself “told you so”.
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I dont think either of these imply trust or competency issues. Both are probably cases of contact via existing business relationships/ contacts.
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Possibly. But if the club had appointed a permanent replacement I doubt he’s going to have Gordon going over his head like that.
Even his own description of what his role has been this summer makes it sound as though he’s been here to assist Jurgen rather than take the lead on things.
Coupled with a one year contract with a break clause, that just doesn’t smack of huge confidence in the guy long term.
He may not have, it’s an incoming call to Gordon. So its more likely it was the Saudi’s going over his head. Maybe thats how they do their business.
For all we know Schmadtke may also have already given them an answer, and they responded by going over him.
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That’s 12 months then not full time.
Full time usually refers to the hours worked during a period, not contract length, doesnt it?