Nduwke does look promising but that is in pre-season friendlies and he will need at least 3 years in the senior team to develop while we look to give VVD some rest now and then. He might end up as the successor to VVD or not. Woodman and Pesci didn’t hang in long enough in the starting line up to get more data of them facing PL teams.
As Ekitike, I do hope he gets over that injury well enough…he will be our only goal threat left if Gakpo leaves and Isak goes on an injury…
The problem is we have spent SO much money on Wirtz and Isak and they not only do not fit the league (Isak because the league plays differently when you’re at LFC compared to when you’re at Newcastle), I don’t think there was enough work done to suss our whether they are mentally resilient enough to play for a big club like Liverpool. And the money spent on them is a huge problem because moving them on can only be done at a big loss.
All the other ones you mentioned pale in comparison to this mistake Hughes made. The players are who they are, I don’t blame them at all.
It’s easy to pin all the blame on Hughes (I know I did so above).
But I still think we’re in a post-Klopp hangover. He was the figure head. He got good people around him but he was the clear leader with the long term vision. Since then we’ve had two head coaches, incoming and outgoing directors, and a big turnover of players with no obvious philosophy/approach
No need to be, it was a clause which they agreed on, activated early enough in the summer (it had a date) for them to move on with time on their hands.
And when the Caideo shit was happening Bloom praised the way we went about our dealings with them to a degree he didnt have to say anything about. There is the opposite of an evidence that they as a club are salty about us and being difficult as a result.
If Brighton didn’t want to sell Minteh, all they had to say was “he’s not for sale”. Now they’ve tried to screw us and the move is not happening. They’re left with an unhappy player now.
Yeah I’m sick of us (apparently) playing nice with these clubs. Triggering releases etc. Real et al., look to undermine and get players on the cheap; why should we do the opposite when there is no institutional memory and benefit for future transactions.
Its a small world of football executives. You may want to argue that what clubs think of the way you conduct yourself has no impact on the business you can do. But the fact there may be no institutional memory at lots of clubs doesn’t mean everyone is starting with a clean slate. Nor should we take any lessons from the way Real conduct themselves given they really are a unicorn in the market.
To be fair he brought some really good players into that side.
Evidently above his level here, maybe Jorge being a bit of a knob is what we need. We seem overly obsessed with the player agreements with the club agreement an after thought.
I wish we were a club that managed its squad more professionally; all this back-and-forth with last-minute signings, expiring contracts, and so on is just really poor and annoying. Maybe we really do need a breath of fresh air and a different perspective from the top—simply carrying on as before can’t be the answer. I really wanted to see Iraola get proper support. I’m just frustrated at this point; hopefully, this transfer window closes soon—I’ve had enough.
