Yes, so was I. My point was that he was just fine physically in Salzburg and Leipzig, so maybe it’s a colder climate he needs.
maybe in Keita’s case, the media climate is too much. one the fanbase turns on a player in UK, the vitriol gets ridiculous.
To bring it back on-topic though, the rumours that we might have been willing to give him a contract extension might suggest that we have a system in place that weighs up value for money, that he somehow fits into despite the vitriol thrown at him?
I would cut my losses and let Keita move on at the end of his deal. He hasn’t been able to stay fit enough, for long enough, to make enough of an impression. This isn’t a fleeting assessment but based on the entirety of his time here.
Of course he is very talented and offers us something, and we have seen it too, but not nearly enough. Good business means you know when to cut your losses, and - a huge turnaround in availability and performances this season notwithstanding - we are, reluctantly, at that point with Naby.
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I think the point would be that prior to the season, if they had contract talks with Keïta, there would have been a process leading up to that, with comprehensive market research as to who was available, for what price, and what alternatives we would have for whatever cash outlay his new contract would cost.
We don’t just do things on a whim, and anyone who thinks that the homework for Arthur was done in a day would probably be wrong.
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Melo’s a player our recruitment team will definitely have liked and one who is potentially undervalued. He does give me a bit of the Aquilani vibes though but he could turn out to be a great addition. Fingers crossed.
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And you were expecting??? My FB feed is currently full of ugly kids in new badly fitting uniforms. Hardly learned discourse on the issues currently affecting our glorious lads in red.
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A shit show but it proved to be on an unexpected scale.
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Kids in uniforms?
Presume you don’t have school aged kids?
Relax
I will put in emojis in future!
PS
No, my kids are long gone from school…thankfully
I’m ambivalent about our owners. Not ‘FSG out’, but not overjoyed either. Lots of people blaming the preseason. There’s no way Jurgen will have wanted to flog the players after last season, just to make more money. Maybe went along with it to keep the peace.
I get we’ve had great success with our transfer model, but maybe as we now overtake United for profit, we could have pushed the boat out and slightly overspent on a midfielder to keep this season afloat?
Tbf, we tried. Ward’s no Magic Mike.
One move in isolation, maybe. But then you sign them to a five-year contract, and you have to keep them for 5 years, while figuring out how to balance the rest of the team. Who do you cut? What’s the acceptable loss? How much knock-on effect is there on the values of the rest of the team. Who loses playing time and has to go out?
I meant one of our targets. If we had to overpay to get them in this window rather than wait. All hypothetical of course.
Milner, Keita, Ox, most likely Arthur. Hendo and Thiago are aging. We must bring in at least 2 if not 3 new midfielders to replace them.
Wow that’s some original thinking there
The margins for error for us are just very small, a combination of all the criticisms levelled at the owners and Klopp have finally just not worked. It’s probably their first proper fail in many years. A a few small errors (not singing a midfielder, too intense a pre-season etc.) can undo to big effects.
The good news is Klopp knows there is a problem, he sounded a man last night that has sunk to the lowest he will accept and I fully trust him to get us firing again.
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Let’s just get rid of all our midfielders and bring a whole new midfield in.
500 - 600 million. 