I’m not sure FSG do bruised billionaire egos. There may be a need to pacify some fans, but I don’t think that requires spending £60m on a player - they could probably find a cheaper ‘name’ that would do for a lot of fans. Whether that player would be good enough or the right sort for Klopp though is another matter - and I would like to think they are doing it more for him than any of us particularly.
I’d love Palhinha here. Lavia is still only 19, the responsibility of being our only DM might effect him.
And about the Saudis - we could have refused, I’m wondering if Hendo or Fab really wanted the move
If nothing else, this entire saga should be a lesson to us all on the decline of the standards of communication in the digital age…
Sky Sports said…Chelsea are still pushing to sign Lavia and have been close to an agreement with Saints late last week. huh?
BBC a minute later (quoting Sky Sports) said…However, Chelsea, who had been close to an agreement with Saints late last week, are still pushing to sign the 19-year-old.
Obviously the different modes of communication, Twitter v a live feed, play a role here, and maybe AI is at play.
But the general tendency of major organisations to just pump any old shit out there is fascinating, don’t you think?
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For all the competition… I think both sides will come off worse for it.
Chelsea can try and raise us again and we might move elsewhere. But we have caused them to have to pay much more for Caicedo and they “might” have gotten us to pay a bit more for Lavia.
Actually, the whole Friday fiasco did remind me of something. A few years ago, I sold a set of Winter wheels for a car I no longer owned on EBay. The didn’t go for that much but the auction closed and I had a buyer who was ready to pick them up.
I then got a call from someone who had bid once, days before, and said that he would pay me double the winning price if I cancelled the auction. I didn’t agree to that. It was an honest sale that the winner put an honest bid for and was prepared to complete the sale as soon as possible. My basic rule there is that I don’t deal with scheisters.
Obviously football is a different business but frankly I think it will be shown that we dodged a bullet with Caicedo, or more specifically his disruptive entourage. Lavia has stated that he would like to play for us and simply needs the money men to sort out the details. I’m hoping that he is true to his word.
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I was hoping that by the end of your anecdote you had swapped your wheels for two midfielders and a CB and had won the PL/FA/EL treble.
Yeah, it’s all well and good being wise after the event!
Amazingly, he wasnt. He was a player we had the intention of trying to buy in the summer and just used the money we earned from the Torres sale to push it up. Amusingly, before his presumed second half of the season increased his price further 
Great to see that as a fan base we have learned 0 lessons from when this comment was said about everyone Southampton looked at 10 years ago
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Guy at the Standard says chelsea still remain in pole position…but not sure how if they havent agreed a fee.
That said,… everyone said they couldnt afford Moses and have just paid £100m upfront.
I’ve become incredibly wary of anyone linked to Chelsea and their reports.
It’s the Guardian but I call bullshit on this one. If the club was negociating the 50m fee, they won’t suddenly want him for 60m. I don’t believe this for one moment.
Disclaimer: IF however everything of this comes true, then Schmadtke needs to be sat into the next plane to Germany, as he’ll have proven his utter uselessness. But I don’t believe that someone hired by LFC these days can be so incompetent.
We are already doing what you are suggesting we need to do, and with some success. Bajcetic, Elliott, Doak, Carvalho, Ramsay, Clark are all examples of this sort of signing who are either going to contribute tot he first team this season, are not far away from it, or have shown the challenges of treating these sorts of “smart” deals as risks
My concern with it is that yesterday our issues seemed more one of bravery than ability or know how. Once Chelsea found a bit of rhythm we responded by becoming a step too conservative which gave them even more room to play. What we needed was someone holding everyone’s feet to the fire to push up further and apply the pressure that would make it difficult for them to play. I dont see that coming from a 19 year old. But then I also think it isnt necessarily a DM issue, in that I dont think Caicedo would have been the solution to that problem yesterday either.
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I don’t remember anyone saying that.
I think too much has been made of this supposed price tag of £50m, and that all these “bids” have been normal run negotiations, hyped up by the media, coupled with Chelsea’s involvement.
We know our club likes to spread the cost of player deals, so maybe this deal actually works out way better at £60m with a large chunk being in add ons and a smaller upfront fee.
Re. the Guardian - who knows - all the sports reporters are throwing darts with their eyes closed half the time.
Re. Schmadtke - who knows what’s going on - but until we know who we’ve signed, we can’t really judge.
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That’s where we’ll miss Hendo. His leadership rather than footballing contribution. Virg is placid and Trent quieter also. Maybe Dom will become the driving force
i wake up and there is chaos… wtf did u all do!!
I think it was Milner who described Mac as being a bit shy so my immediate thought is that this may be where he has a challenge to lift his game.
Given we pretty much had a new midfield to work with yesterday and we know that Klopp is a big believer in incremental improvement and will have to have started that learning again with these guys, there should be improvements with the same players as the season progresses.
A few years ago I went to a charity event at the school my friends’ kid goes to. They had a silent auction and as I always do at these things I got in early and made a bid on 10 or so items just to get the ball rolling. I never win these things but its always good to bid to give someone a target to beat when it’s a charity event.
With an hour to go I looked and no one had bid again on any of my items. I guess a school event is not the same as the black tie events I usually go to. I went home committed to $1000s of shit I didnt want.
The lessons there is know the market you are bidding in
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That’s when Henderson stepped up to the plate and moved us on. Thats a captian and VVD needs to be more vocal now and be the one that makes us take a game back
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All i have read is Joe shields had been working on Lavia behind the scenes while the world was busy with moises