Don’t every shoe have a hole?
We see it so often; a manager excels at a smaller club (ie. Bournmouth), and makes a name for himself, only to get the move to a big club, where he finds that he is out of his depth. I wonder if this is the case wth Hughes. I feel that Hughes focused too much on making a splash in the transfer market this past summer, in going after Isak for a large part of the window, that he lost focus on filling essential holes (ie. central defender, defensive midfielder, speedy winger [after selling Diaz]), thus leaving us short. Granted, we’ve been hit by costly injuries, but I still feel that we would have been short without those. If Hughes goes, he goes. If he stays, then I hope he focuses on buiding a strong team, and not on making a spash, or show of things.
All his signings will be successful given time.
Hughes has been at the auction house for players when he is carrying the most money in his pocket… Easy to make signings/purchases when armed with that back-up.
If Edwards has recruited him then in all honesty, we have to be content with that. As for how good he actually is at his job, his track record in the hot seat at Anfield over a two-three year period will demonstrate what this guy is all about… Though, the rumour mill is saying he might go to the sand dunes, and if that happens, a lot of LFC supporters will still be in the dark as to whether he was the right fit for us…
I disagree. If, for example, the strategy was to rebuild the squad over multiple seasons by focussing only on players who can help us in the long run then it is about how successful the players we bought are in the long run.
Of course injuries can affect this… but of his purchases Kerkez looks quality, Wirtz is quality, Ekitike is quality, Frimpong looks good but has been unlucky, Leoni looked good for his only part game and Isak (I believe) will come good if he is healthy. But that is a big if.
Plenty of clubs come armed with money but not many can be that successful with choosing players (see Chelsea, ManU, etc.)
Where I think Hughes has failed miserably is in his priorities. Isak was probably the best attacker available but he was not the most needed. Similarly Chiesa was the least useful player to retain since everyone knew he wouldn’t play… yet he was retained.
Wonder if the focus will shift more to partnerships with clubs.
Would be a major concern for the club if there is another upheaval - Edwards leaves as the promise of Multi Club Ownership by FSG did not materialised. Hughes off to Saudi or wherever (and some of the supporters want him gone because of not bringing in reinforcement in Spring / hiring of Slot). We complained about delays in contracts renewal for TAA, VvD and Salah last time, I cannot imagine the problems we will have this time.
We had a lot of changes on the pitch last summer, and that went without a glitch. Might as well make a few more, and change the suits while we’re at it ![]()
At the end of the day it’s probably Edwards decision.
I wonder if it is a bit like many transfers, in that when we get involved, the price is increased? Maybe it seems a good idea to multi-club and create some sort of farm system, but there’s no value and too much red tape?
There is a real concern within the game that is growing over the negative impact multi club ownership has. There is the fuckery with UEFA qualifying every year now and real anger at the way Strasbourg have been treated by Chelsea. I wonder if there isn’t some tea leaf reading from Edwards about pending changes to regulations that would eliminate a lot of the perceived benefit to owning a second club?
Meh sack Edwards and Hughes and give that role to Klopp.
That was what I was thinking when we kept stalling
Love it, but can you honestly imagine JK back in any capacity?
Every question would be, ‘Do you speak to Jurgen? How often do you speak to Jurgen? Did you speak to Jurgen today?’
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What are the perceived benefits compared to a larger academy where you send players on loan for experience?
Has to be better than the current “do you speak to Richard or Micheal? How often do you speak to Richard or Michael? You spoken to them today?”
Even with the better relationships we foster now with loan partner clubs you are still giving up a lot of control of the player when you send them out in ways you arent when you loan them only within your own org.
At least that is theoretically the case. I think we’ve seen a lot less in practice than we thought there would be of using this as a pipeline to the first team of the prem club, especially of kids who were first put in the foreign feeder club for work permit purposes. I think Savinho is the only player who has worked his way through that system at City and he’s already been turfed out.
‘How do you feel about today’s result? Is Jurgen around to comment as well?’
No.
It won’t work if you have Slot or anyone else with Klopp looking over their shoulder every day.
The club went there (sort of) with Shanks many moons ago. United gave Fergy too much leeway within the club and so on.