Yes its true, last season only Arthur and Keita would have never walk alone because they did not make any mistakes by virtue of not playing.
Itās going to be moaning about a lack of signing a centre back because we overspent on Caicedo.
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The thing is, dealing with the Arabs recently has broken the taboo that was an unknown to many fansā¦ a will they, wonāt they predicament of sortsā¦ Spending upwards of Ā£100m on Caicedo at this point, has now become like money in the bank for the ownersā¦ Knowing full well the Arab market provides a safety net of recuperating the outlay, even in 5-6yrs timeā¦ Until recently, this type of money, and therefore, reduced risk, was just simply not around.
Does this make it a good, or bad thing for football in the long termā¦? Fuck knows anymoreā¦ but the game does seem to be quickly moving away from us -
Now the march to take back the PL from the Cheaters begins in real earnest :0)
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Nope best one is should hae spent on Andre and Lavia better getting 2 players than 1 after moaning FSG always go cheap all summer
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this might be closer to the truth than many will want to stomachā¦
the criticism, will be that had they acted early, they wouldnt have had to go to the well with Caciedoā¦we had to pay the premium becuase we dont take as many risks in the market earlier, and we are also now, quite desperate.
a stitch in nineā¦
im quite happy we are moving in the market, but popping the champagne corks and claiming some kind of moral victory becuase FSG actually, yknow, spent some moneyā¦ its not black and white.
EDITā¦and yes, we do still need a a central defender.
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Congratulations. The ink isnāt yet dry on a Ā£100m deal for the best player we could possibly hope to get in a position of desperate need and youāre the first to be pessimistic about it.
Please do tell how moving for Caicedo earlier this window would have not meant paying a premium given Brighton have been turning down huge offers from Chelsea all summer?
Also FSG havenāt spent anything. The club has spent money. Another Ā£100m on top of the Ā£90m already spent this window.
here we go.
i was simply suggesting that - as is the sensible train of thought- as FSG cant compete at the āoil moneyā spending level, which has always been the discussion, they need to llok for VFM elsewhere.
spending 110m on Caciedo, doesnt mean we are competing with the oil clubs, it means we just spend a huge chumk of our budget on a player ā¦
as for the āplease do tellāā¦i thought it was a simplistic point, move early before the squad is desperateā¦theres no way we were getting Caciedo this window for anything looking like a good feeā¦thats the point.
i know ill get pelters from most on here as you cant have a nuanced level headed discussion on a football forum anymoreā¦but spending a massive chunk on a player we desperately needed is not this āvictoryā or āvindicationā of the way we are currently being ran.
thats all.
for what its worth, im happy the club have backed the managerā¦ i did like the idea that Lavia at 50 would turn out to be the better deal, but i dont know if thats realistic or not
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or, for that matter,walking.
Oh dear, do you need any help washing all that egg off your face?
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No because they narrative will change to a different moan and groan.
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I thought theyād never walk alone because they needed assistance to get on and off the treatment table
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In hindsight we should have done a deal for a CM last summer, I fully agree with that. I was very vocal about that in fact and got slapped down by plenty in here for my stance.
But sometimes you canāt do succession planning as you would like to. You canāt have the replacements for Fabinho and Henderson in the squad a year ago if you had no thoughts that they wouldnāt be here for this season. The reason weāre able to spend this money is likely because they have moved on.
Ultimately, weāve spent two weeks courting a young prospect to fill this role and weāll actually now start the season with one of the best defensive midfielders in the league. That to me is a victory. Weāve replaced Fabinho with arguably the best player we could hope to get.
Yes itās cost an arm and a leg but most peopleās complaints are that the club donāt spend enough for us to compete. We then spend the money on ready-made, best possible option replacements and the criticism is weāve had to over spend because we didnāt act sooner.
For me this shows weāve learned our lesson from last summer. Weāre not making do, or getting by or hoping some comparatively cheaper prospect emerges to deliver what we need in a critical area for us. Weāve gone and got the best. We did it with Alisson and van Dijk and now weāve done it with Caicedo. Pop the corks, itās fucking great news.
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Whoās better?
And we couldnāt have acted sooner because we didnāt have the fab + Hendo money then
Bajcetic 
I think Rodri is the benchmark but im not sure heād be the right one for us.
Caicedo is probably the best fit we could have hoped for. Maybe anywhere in the world, not just the league.
Exactly! Horses for courses. Rodri may be slightly more polished but he doesnāt give us what we need in terms of physicality and coverage that Caicedo does
Rodri is also immune to being booked for tactical fouling, thanks to being a Manchester City player. Makes him look more efficient than he actually is.
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NGL. The Caicedo transfer was like an unattainable thing. I was resigned to not getting him especially at the prices quoted.
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I think that is a valid question - although Iām a believer that getting deals in place usually takes longer than others would like to accept, so I donāt really see the criticism being warranted. For the club to spend big on Caicedo suggests to me one of three things
- He was always a target, but we either wanted to find a cheaper alternative or believed he was set on a Chelsea move and they would pay whatever it took.
- We left it too late in the window to find a suitable player
- He became a viable target as the saga with Chelsea continued to drag on with little sight
Only 2 would be a criticism for me - however, I donāt believe we would cough up Ā£100m for a last-minute replacement - in that scenario, weāve usually either gone with what we have, or opted for a much cheaper deal, usually a loan. At best, paying the Ā£50m for Lavia would have been the play, or a similarly priced deal for someone like Kone or Sangara etc.
I donāt see either of Points 1 and 2 being that big an issue for us if it has led to us concluding a deal towards the end of the window particularly as we already brought in two quality replacements and were good to go - Klopp himself said at the start of the summer that while he would like all deals to be done asap he fully understood that it wasnāt always possible.