Nah, he sends the dodgy money men and the deals always get done.
Listening to Ian Graham on a podcast from the Blood Red channel.
Itās just fascinating.
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Longer and more buttoned up version of the conversation with Graham in the Athletic here
Some interesting tidbits
- It speaks of some already well known issues with the TC of the Rodgers era, but makes the point that the real issue was not the āyou get one and we get oneā solution they settled on, but that both were so insistent on vetoing each others choices both sides tended to end up with only their third or 4th choice. That is how we ended up with Moreno.
- Baloteli was actually a signing the data supported but the data guys acknowledge as an illustration of the limitations of a data only approach to identifying targets.
- The data guys wanted Mane before he moved to southampton, but lost out in the horse trading that was going on at the time to Rodgers getting his choice of Lallana
- Robbo was their second choice, but they turned attention to him when Emerson Palmieri tore knee ligaments. Everyone was on the fence about Robboās defensive abilities, but Klopp decided if he was as good going forward as the data suggested they could make it work
- There is a good bit on Nunez identifying that while he scored very well on the data analytics, it was one they had big reservations about due to how different a profile he had. They often identified players who scored well, but in areas that didnt suit what we need - a good player but not a liverpool player, and that was how they initially viewed Darwin. When Klopp pushed on it they didnt oppose his signing because he had scored so well in terms of young forwards, but instead went to lengths to emphasize that signing him would require a significant change to the way we play to get the best out of him.
This one blew my mindā¦we were pushing for Tom Ince when he was at Blackpool and only turned attention to Coutinho when that move broke down. I may have known that at one point at decided to delete it from my brain.
For me the biggest take home though is that in his version of events Graham is offering a challenge to the tabloid type stories about people leaving because of fallings out. Graham seems to make clear that the creative tension was real but essential and valued that simply everyone was doing a tough job and doing it with people who pushed them all the time, and it isnt reasonable to do it year after year after year and not need a break or a change.
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Yeah I remember us being quite in for Tom Ince around that time.
I remember Coutinho coming out of the blue a bit, might have been the first example of one of those.
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There was a lot of smoke around Ince but it was difficult to know how real it was and how much it was his dad drumming up column inches about him. I think I had reconciled that we were interested in bringing him back, but this stunned me to think that had it worked it likely would have meant we never got Phil.
Talk about sliding doors.
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Ince has one of the strangest career arcs I can think of, with a massive inflection point when he turned down Monaco and Inter to go Hull where he would really not get much of a chance. At one point he was being talked about as the next big thing, but he has basically had a Championship career
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Obligatory āI man marked Tom Ince when I was 16ā moment. Ripped him to pieces. My team lost 10-0 but I was on fire and limited him to only 5 goals.
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Shades of my āI defended against Michael Jordanā story, in a pickup game where the demographics shifted significantly while my team still had the court. To make it interesting, he decided to only score with Kareem-style skyhooksā¦which he didā¦a lot.
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Shades of me bowling in nets to VVS Laxman.
Somewhere Simon Davies is telling his āI once marked Limieā story 
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Ian Graham is interviewed on the Athletic Blood Red podcast channel (which I think is where a lot of these points come from). Really interesting conversation.
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I think this particular bit was well known but I canāt remember who the source was back then. I assume that Palmieri would have been a proper left back for us, he was decent even after his injury.
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If thereās any love by anyone for our Boston-based friends these days, please tell meā¦what are you on and where can I get some of it?
As in because they havenāt bought anyone.
Say they had bought Zubimendi, buy this keeper and say another CB would that suffice.
I donāt really care with what weāve currently sold. I am concerned we have shown no movement on the right side of attack without at least tying Salah down to a new contract but itās very minor at the moment.
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Does Linda count? Always got a lot of love for Linda me.
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I like that we are a well run club, I suppose you prefer Hicks & Gillett.
We arenāt a team that spends for spendings sake.
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Oh there you areā¦the FSG apologist. You must be overjoyed atm.
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I wish we had better owners, like Chelsea, Manchester United, Everton, Tottenham and Manchester Cityā¦said no one ever.
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Bloody FSG apologist.
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