I don’t think that anything is evident about our hitherto summer business except for that it’s causing anxiety and distress to the fanbase.
2 Likes
If the guys in the squad are to be offered some respect for their past endeavours, might be best not to make numerous signings before a decent appraisal period has passed upon them by the new regime. Timeline of new manager incoming, pre-season return to service delays and hardly any break in-between playing games last season to this, has not been ideal for pushing out the shopping cart across Europe immediately.
The present squad IMO, is good enough until January at least, if not for the entire season.
Keep the powder dry whenever possible is what I say. Get those abandoned properties in the shadow of the ground purchased, if money is to be spent, and start getting some plans drawn up for extending the Kop.
Seventy Five Thousand fans packed into Anfield on a tense CL Semi-Final under the lights… Now that would be a memory to cherish
2 Likes
Last year we bought 4 senior players, 2 of whom were proper coups right at the top of the market, and promoted two kids from the academy to significant role The same group of fans were complaining that wasnt enough then and that FSG’s lack of ambition was on show as a result of them trying to sell the club.
As you say,
4 Likes
I’m not generally one to questions the owners, as they and Liverpool have done great things with them at the top, but it seems the money in vs money out is trending in slightly wrong direction. They’ve sold off minority shares for large sums. We secure bigger and better sponsorship deals seemingly all the time (see latest ‘gambling partner’).
I know they’ve also spent large sums- stadium example 1A- but are they operating by making tidy profit?
https://x.com/JCuzzy1/status/1824139562135982503?s=19
No idea if claim is true, but kind of feels like it. I can understand VVD and Salah tough negotiations as you struggle to think what they’ll be like as they age, but why in the world have we not given TAA a new contract?
Essentially we have seemingly generated a large quantity of money through minority shares, business opportunities, and player sales and have reinvested none of it on renewed contracts or players. When put in context with a lot of the staff quitting within the last couple years, and rumors the club was up for sale, it might be worth keeping an eye on. FSG are largely despised by red Sox fans. I wonder if page is going to turn on FSG if they let Trent walk, Redsox fans turned on them a bit when they let Mookie Betts go.
Again, I’m huge fan of what FSG has done with Liverpool, just wondering if they are taking small step back in what they are willing to spend after feeling like they’ve accomplished their goals.
1 Like
That simply doesn’t square with the amounts of money they were reportedly willing to sanction on Caicedo, Lavia, and Zubimendi.
1 Like
I don’t disagree! I’m more worried about the contracts than the inability to get a signing over the line. Klopp isn’t there to walk into the room and tell everyone to stop messing about and get it done. They obviously want to cap weekly wage structure and that’s generally when your best players leave because they earn more elsewhere- combined with increase of cash flow around the place that’s what has me wondering if coin has flipped.
Lol am i wrong about FSG perception in Boston?
I agree. This, much more than no new incomings, is a reason for concern. Let’s face it, Trent is maybe angling for a move elsewhere, or at least wants to see if an offer comes in that he can’t refuse. Not sure what fsg can do if that is the case. Just waiting for the time being, and hopefully a willingness to stretch themselves as far as they can if they need to. Trent is world class after all, and deserves a world class contract. But for the time being, it’s probably a poker game between fsg and Trent’s representatives.
By the way, that ongoing, very serious issue is possibly a reason why we haven’t signed a lot of players so far.
1 Like
Largely because Trent has probably made it known to the club he didn’t wish to sign a contract yet. With Mo and VVD it might be because the club wanted to get the opinion of the new coaching staff and senior recruitment team first.
we have a great squad both in depth and quality but there are still Qs that remain about the future direction it goes in. FSG are doing the right thing in being cautious, looking to spend when it is appropriate.
The hardest thing in football is for clubs to avoid panic spending and then leaving the club bloated in debt or overheads from a squad that’s too big and can only be cut at excessive cost. Look at what has happened at Utd and Arsenal during Fergie and Wenger’s last years at the respective clubs - and what they have done since. Look at what Chelsea are going through. I think people forget how lucky Arsenal have been that both PEA and Willian essentially walked away from the club letting their exorbitant contracts end.
This was always going to be a summer of evolution when it comes to playing staff - because of revolution in coaching staff. I assume that Slot would have ideally wanted to have enough time to make a proper judgement of players that had already been there. We see some results there: we know he isn’t satisfied with no. 6 options at his disposal and there’s been a clear-out of sorts when it comes to young players.
However, I feel there’s a pressing need to address the contracts of Trent, Salah and Van Dijk, as well as the CB issue (Gomez isn’t one, even though it’s always great to have at least one such versatile player). I think the club are playing too smart again on both fronts and that is really concerning for me as a fan, especially as club’s captain, whose contract is running down, publicly asked for new signings because of the workload that is becoming unbearable for top level players.
Yeah it’s mainly contracts for me.
Trent doesn’t actually worry as much due to who we have though I’d rather him sign and then go instead of going for free.
The right side concerns me as does CB. Those players are ageing and VVD can’t play every game.
1 Like
The same captain who would complain if he wasn’t picked for a game?
As for contracts, they do need to be sorted, but again they are part of the wider decision making that needs to happen as to the squad’s direction.
1 Like
For some reason all the talk about captains and contracts made me think we were talking about Henderson instead of Virgil.
1 Like
Maybe he wasn’t referring to himself. 
Another way to interpret is that he thinks that this team isn’t far off winning the title (truthfully, we should have been in the mix until the very end of the last season) and that it needs an injection of quality.
Regardless, I’m a bit frustrated by our attempts to always buy the 10/10 player and that it seems that there are never 9/10 options out there. I’m neither pro- nor anti-FSG and there are mitigating circumstances behind our failure to inject quality into the first team this summer but I always the feeling that we’re about the only top club where that happens.
We’re not. Looking at other club’s signings would dispel that notion (depending on your definition of top clubs of course) - they may make signings but how many of them are actually ‘quality’?
Furthermore, how much scope do those teams have for strengthening is probably greater than ours - Arsenal had less depth than ourselves for example and are perhaps midway through their plan with Arteta. Arne has only just started with us so we are very much back to the prepping stage…
1 Like
Akanji isn’t a 10/10 player, yet he perfectly fulfills his purpose at Man City and has improved considerably. That’s the type of signing I’m referring to - not everyone can be Van Dijk or Alisson, nor I’m expecting them to be.
Since you mentioned Arsenal specifically, I’m jealous of the way they handled their need to strengthen at DM by buying Rice (Calafiori may be another player of that type) but I understand your point, it took them time to resolve other issues in their squad.
However, even though they finished ahead of us for two successive seasons, I’d rather look at the likes of Man City, Real Madrid or even Bayern when it comes to squad building. They don’t always buy 10/10 players but they seems to buy the players they need, when they need them more often than not.
At least two of those clubs operate at a different financial level to ours, through fair means or foul.
2 Likes
Rice was perfect for Arsenal, because he was a really good player who filled a gaping hole in their side, was available and didn’t want to leave London.
If we had 115m to put on Caicedo we could have got Rice, but there was never any inclination he wanted anything other than Arsenal.
Sometimes signings are like that. There was never any serious war for Van Dijk. He was always coming to Liverpool.
1 Like
FSG can fuck off.
4 Likes