Except that is total bollocks. They had bigger and more pressing concerns trying to rebuild and secure the entire management and backroom teams.
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Salah, at Ā£40m, represented our record signing at the time. It was a huge outlay.
It was later in the summer that PSG obliterated the transfer market by doubling the world record.
Salah only looks like a steal because of what happened with Neymar weeks after we signed him.
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You mean for that season or that window?
FSG/Directors seem to have managed the transition to a new manager better than any team in recent memory. That alone should give them enough credit (and trust) in the bank for the player contracts.
If we lose Trent but secure Mo and Virg, plus buy one or more RB/LB/CB, then itās been a successful year for owners despite all the fume
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Signing Salah at Ā£40m (inc add ons) eclipsed the Ā£35m weād paid for Carroll a few season earlier. He was our record signing at the time. The following January we signing Van Dijk.
The point is that fans (and Roma, hilariously) make out we got Salah on the cheap. It only feels that way because of what PSG did to the market literally weeks after we signed him. By the time the season started it felt like weād mugged Roma by paying Ā£40m for an Ā£80m player, but we paid top whack for him at the time.
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Wow, I had to check that. Amazing how transfer fees have got so bonkers in such a short time.
Also interesting to read the articles when Mo signed. All highlighting his āoutstanding paceā and skill demonstrated at Roma. Little indication of the goalscorer he would become
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That is the best case scenario but as it stands, Mo is still far from it, as with VVD.
Iām pretty confident that Mo and Virg will sign, and at peace with Trent leaving
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You just made the point i was going to make FSG oqn Liverpool FC they then employ people to run it.
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Iām increasingly of the opinion that losing Salah and Virgil, given they want to stay, clearly have lots to give, and are so important to the team, would be a disaster.
Trent I think we might have to sacrifice. If he is wanting more than 300k, then I think we have to shake hands and wish him well in Madrid. We canāt be paying a full back nearly half a million quid a week, regardless of how well he can pass a football. You can argue the captain is an exception. You can argue Salah is an exception. Once your right back is also an exception then anyone can be one.
And frankly, Iām worried about him being the captain in waiting. Iāve not seen anything about him that suggests he is captain material. Quite the opposite. Sometime he doesnāt look that bothered about mucking in and getting his shirt dirty.
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You have no clue where contracts are.
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Whatever happens with Trent our next captain has to be MacAllister
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Was just about to post this.
Trent isnāt captain material.
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If you remember the time it was absolutely wild. Literally a few weeks after we got Mo, PSG signed Neymar for 200m, doubling the world record fee.
And then football went a bit mad, because nobody know what a footballer was worth anymore.
Case in point. We got Salah for nearly Ā£40m, a couple of weeks later Neymar goes for Ā£200m, and a couple of weeks after that we end up paying close to Ā£40m for Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain.
Two players not close to being in the same league. But we neither underpaid for Salah or overpaid for Ox. The market just went crazy.
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Hughes you are correct but Edwards return was not to the club but to FSG
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Thereās still a part of me that says Edwards and Hughes would actually quite like to move on from Van Dijk, Salah and Trent. I donāt think we will let all three go but you can imagine the cogs turning in their heads about all the moves they could make after freeing Ā£1m a week in wages.
But with players like Nunez and Endo to move on, guys we likely never would have signed under Edwardsā transfer style, then I expect we have enough cash coming free for us to still be interesting in the summer.
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I was thinking something similar to this. Edwards and Hughes will definitely back themselves to replace them. (Maybe not Trent)
I donāt know what the data is showing about Mo and Virgil - maybe there is something there that suggests a down turn is imminent, and we know the golden goose in analytics is to sell just before the decline becomes apparent. Which means it wonāt be apparent to the fans - I said a while ago that letting their legs go on someone elseās pitch by definition means letting them go before their legs have gone. We might need to accept them being brilliant for someone else for a year.
Certainly itās noticeable from the eye that Mo is running a lot less, and picking his moments more - choosing to be explosive in moments rather than going at high rate for 90ā, much like Ronaldo did in his later years.
What concerns me is that I donāt know to what extent the data can reveal how lucky we got with Mo and Virgil. They are huge boots to fill and it might be too much to expect the analytics/data/scouting to catch lightning like that again.
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And letās not forget that we also have a bunch of other players that ideally weād like to look into their contract renewals as well. Given how theyāre all interlinked, especially with expectations, itās too simplistic to start saying that oh theyāre incompetent, negligent, etc.
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My best guess right now - and we are all guessing, is Trent will leave, Virg will extend, and Mo is a toss up.
Mo is putting up incredible numbers but I also agree there are signs he is slowing down and we are not extending the playerās current level, but rather, trying to make an educated guess as to what his level will be over the course of the new contract. Tricky business and for me itās a toss up.
I think Virg will extend as heās a real kingpin at the back. Even if the pace goes slightly, the positioning is imperious, along with leadership, heading, passing, etc.
I think Trent will go, and I also think the chances have increased that it could be this month.
Sweeting made an interesting point that we might sign a central defender and then consider Bradley and Gomez the right backs as we move forward.
FSG are what they are. We all know the score. They are running a business. We are one of the best run sporting organizations in the world, though for the detractors, there does remain a suspicion that they could have pushed the boat out a bit more for signings. My view is they could have, but itās not really their model to do that, and so once you understand and accept how they work, the frustration dies down.
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