I dont hate Masch, Luis or Coutinho for wanting to leave Liverpool and live and play in a better climate for one of the biggest and best teams in the world at the time
what i do hate is the way Barca go around tapping players up,
with endless unsettling reports in their local press, about the players they want,
They treated alot of clubs with contempt on their way up,
look at them now though, i have no sympathy for them.
And Phil canāt get a game for Barca
No sympathy at all Iām sorry
Fify
Some of you guys are so amusingly salty. For at least 12 months prior to Barcaās first whispers there were concerns around the fan base that they were going to come in and take Phil. No one, not a single fucking person, said in response to that āgood, he was only good for a short period under Rodgers.ā Phil was consistently excellent for us, to the point of not only establishing himself in the Brazil side, but doing so in a way that was associated with them going from being a mess to overwhelming favourites for the world cup.
The reason for the failure at Barca was several fold, none of which were because he wasnt good enough
Some people ear marked him to be Iniestaās replacement and he has never remotely been that player. He has played effectively in a genuine midfield role, but always in a more aggressive, high risk way that doesnt suit them
The thing that appeared to advance their interest was how well he played for Brazil alongside Neymar. It provided their path for the post Messi era, with them playing on either side of the attack, both narrow enough to interact a bunch. The problem with this is for Brazil they did this with a very unselfish central striker whose main role was to facilitate this interplay between Phil and Neymar. At barca there was still a period where Messi was still present, and he operated best in the areas where Phil and Neymar tended to work best together. It meant 3 players sitting right on top of each other.
When Neymar left the plan was blown up, but they went ahead with it anyway. There was still a path for it to make sense, but it required he took over Neymarās role, which is more or less a replication of his best role for Klopp off the left of the attack. But they then went and bought Dembele who preferred to play in that role as well.
Itās just a whole mess of confused disjointed thinking, none of which is related to phil not being an absolutely top class player.
Selling Coutinho was arguably the best bit of transfer business this club has ever done. I thought he was a very good (not great) player who we would struggle to replace but turned out we didnāt need to replace him. We used the money to remodel the side and won the CL and PL. It turned out to be a pivotal moment. Iāve got no hard feelings towards the lad at all. He got the move he wanted and it hasnāt gone well. Shame for him, but it turned out pretty amazing for us.
I always had the feeling that we would have won the CL if he waited till the end of the season.
People have very strong feelings on this, but I think its definitely open to debate on whether weād have landed Virgil when we did if we hadnt committed to letting Phil leave in that window.
It must also be remembered we had brokered a deal of Ā£50m for Virgilā¦
Until 10bottles of red wine cost us an extra Ā£20m on topā¦!
What a steal he would have been at the lower sum eh
Totally agree on the part that when he left it never came across my mind personally that this was for good. However given how it turned out and not just from signing VVD and Ali, but also the entire game play, thatās where it feels we may probably not have been the same with him in the side.
That Irish ladās song basically sums it up. We put in some brutally destructive performances with him alongside Mane and Bobby, but it went up a level when Salah came in
But we sold Countinhoooo (but that dont matterm because we got)
Salah
Oh Mane Mane
and Bobby Firminoā¦
I think we had VVD in the budget already, especially since the deal fell through in the first transfer windows. In other words the VVD transfer was not dependent on us selling Phil imo.
I did! Perhaps not in those words but I was pushing along those lines. His best season was his 1st after that he became more and more lazy, said so on TIA. So there was at least 1. I also felt we couldnāt let the opportunity to sell him go past. Sure I was in the minority however i was relieved when he went and extatic by the amount we got for him.
Could be a good idea to move the ex-players thread away from the Albert?
I just always found him frustrating. More than a few occasions I found myself ranting at his general play which was selfish and sloppy on occasion only to be put well and truly back in my box by a moment of genius.
I honestly I think we carried him a little covering his errors in coughing up possession etc. But in full knowledge heād pay that back with something special. For me he needs to be a focal point in a side. A team needs to be set up to allow him to do his thing. That was never going to happen at Barca with Neymar and Messi there. In that sense I also think he limited us a little while The sale funds went to provide a far more balanced group of players.
For me, in hindsight my frustration with the transfer saga was
A) how Barca engineered it
B) the disruption it caused us in losing who was a key player at the time.
I wish Iād had time too watch his Villa debut and see how heās performed for Stevie. But going off a 3min highlight reel, I feel like he may have had a point to prove. Little magician, indeed
Long way back to proving his worth, but itās a good fuckin start and may shut up a few of his doubters.
He wonāt ever be a valid transfer option for the big clubs though. But he can still make a valid career for himself being the main man under stevie at Aston Villa.
Hope he does well (and gets hammered against us)
Very few players make a seamless jump between two leagues. I think more clubs will look at the cases of coutinho and hazard and the style of play of the clubās when making a decision whether someone would be able to make a transition.
Not everyone is a CR7 and a Luis Suarez ability guy to be able to shine regardless of the club they play for.
He played 20 minutes and was constantly out of breath from what I saw, it will take a while before he can play 90 minutes.
Have we to play villa again this season?
Yes, away.