The Owners - FSG

The Albert
9077

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 player’s 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 it’s a toss up.

I think Virg will extend as he’s 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 it’s 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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9078

Top of the league by a near record margin at the halfway stage and top of the newly revamped Champions League.

Internet fans: See, I told you FSG had no idea how to run this club.

Who only had a year left on his contract, so that represented a distressed sale :melting_face:

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9079

I gave this a thought - but not for the financial reasons. Klopp’s great team of 2018-2022 is slowly being phased out, a lot of those players have already left, with just a handful remaining. Of those who remain, some look spent, some have aged (even if they are playing as well as ever).

Maybe they want to give the new guy something that is as close to a clean slate as possible? Maybe Trent doesn’t fit tactically on his post 2021/22 form? Maybe the analytics department feel there might be a steep drop-off from Van Dijk and Salah in terms of physical abilities?

Personally, I’d love it if all three of them extended but not at all costs. On overall form, Van Dijk and Salah richly deserve their extensions and I hope they can give two more years of stellar service to the club, while setting a positive example for the kids. Trent is neither a 300K per week fullback, nor a captain material on his form.

That said, FSG should really consider speeding up that process of strengthening the squad by exploring January reinforcement or two. Last summer almost feels like an audition for Slot, like “we won’t commit too much money on signings until we see how good you are with what we already have”.

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9080

How can it be not good enough yet right now? Top of both leagues where one or even both could be secured by getting quality backups. Slot hitting top gear in his first season is fucking insane bordering on a miracle. Even Bald Pep couldn’t get a healthy points lead in the summit of the PL in his first season.

The signs of key players like Gravenberch looking overworked are there already. Robertson has shown to be losing his legs quite dramatically with Tsimikas blowing hot and cold. RB is a Conor Bradley injury away to being a coin toss on which TAA will show up.

Do we really want to rely on the power of prayers and hope Salah and VVD/Konate don’t get a season ender?? Because if one of them gets injured for 1 month, the club will either be struggling to create chances or finish chances or defend properly or even all of the above.

9081

I love a transfer as much as anyone. Thought we should have done a DM and either (or both of) a CB and a LB in the summer.

But what we can’t do is conduct our transfer business this month on the basis of “what if X is out for the season or Y goes down for a month”. That’s especially true if two of those you’re asking the question of are two of the most important players, both of whom we’re trying to get to sign new contracts.

You go drop £50m on someone you hope could do half what Salah does just in case he gets injured. What do you do with that player if Salah doesn’t get injured? What do you do if Salah thinks we’re already trying to replace him whilst also not giving him what he wants to sign a new deal?

That’s a very different proposition to say going out and buying a LB you genuinely believe could be Robertson’s long term successor and letting Tsimikas find a new club to make room for them.

We can be opportunistic to the right deal in some cases this window but we can’t be spending based on what if’s. Especially if those what it’s relate to key players we’re trying to get to sign new deals. You risk causing more damage trying to solve an issue we don’t currently have.

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9082

But there are already issues even without the what ifs. The “what ifs” are just the last straws that breaks the camel’s back.

The issues I mentioned above are issues that are currently unfolding…

9083

Zubimendi and Kerkez in January please!

Then let’s see what’s what with the contract extensions, and do what we have to do in the summer.

9084

Neither Salah nor Van Dijk are currently injured so no need to worry about either of those then.

And you can’t buy a right back based on Trent being good one game and bad the next.

If we really had concerns on Gravs workload we’ve players we could play instead. Not perfect options but enough not to panicked about if we needed them to play the cup games to give Grav a breather. Also any new player bought here pretty much spells the end for Bajcetic.

Left back we have two decent options. If you can get the long term choice this window then great. If not then you don’t buy a stop gap. Bournemouth look like they’re buying a left back this window which gives some encouragement there may be a deal to do for Kerkez this window but they could just be preparing for his exit in the summer.

  • realised this is the Owners thread not a transfer one. Mods, feel free to shift it elsewhere if that helps keep things on topic.
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9085

Don’t bother wasting your energy replying to that person. Only ever comes on here when we’re not doing well, and usually to jerk off about who we could sign if only big bad FSG didn’t bankrupt us.

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9086

Mo had a very poor end to last season and also Virg although good last year wasn’t at the level he has been this season.

So it wasn’t automatic that both should be retained on 2 - 3 year contracts which they probably want.

Trent is different but with Klopp leaving he had to see how things would progress under a new manager and I feel his had was already being turned.

9087

Mo is a conudrum, he is producing unbelievable stats but does very little defensively helping Trent, even though I have heard Slot praise him for his defensive work, which can only be when pressing.

I just wonder if Arne thinks the team may be better with someone who helps in the defensive side better as both Cody & Luis do on the left.

Not easy but who knows what Arne is thinking.

9088

Elon Musk wants to buy Liverpool, says father

Story by Ben Rumsby

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Elon Musk’s grandmother was born in Liverpool

Elon Musk’s father has claimed his billionaire son is interested in buying Liverpool.

Errol Musk said his son, the world’s richest man who is embroiled in an extraordinary feud with Sir Keir Starmer’s Government, was eager to add the Premier League leaders to his business empire.

“He would like to yes, obviously,” Musk snr told Times Radio. “Anybody would want to – so would I!”

Musk snr’s mother – his son’s paternal grandmother – was born in Liverpool before leaving the UK to settle in South Africa.

He added: “His grandmother was born in Liverpool, and we have relatives in Liverpool, and we were fortunate to know quite a lot of The Beatles because they grew up with some of my family. So, we are attached to Liverpool, you know…”

He had earlier been coy about his son buying Liverpool, saying he feared current owners Fenway Sports Group would “raise the price” if they knew of the interest.

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Errol Musk says he hopes Fenway Sports Group do not hike the price of Liverpool because his son is interested in purchasing the club

This is not the first time Musk has been mentioned regarding owning a football club. In 2022, he said that a suggestion that he wanted to buy Manchester United was a “joke”.

Some fans had urged the billionaire tech entrepreneur to buy United after a 4-0 humiliation at Brentford in only the second match of former manager Erik ten Hag’s spell in charge.

Musk tweeted: “I’m buying Manchester United ur welcome (sic).” – a comment that quickly set the football world abuzz. The original post received almost 40,000 retweets and over 200,000 likes within a couple of hours.

But he later clarified that he was joking. In his reply to a comment on the tweet, he wrote: “No, this is a long-running joke on Twitter. I’m not buying any sports teams.”

He added: “Although, if it were any team, it would be Man Utd. They were my fav team as a kid.

“And I’m not buying Coca-Cola to put the cocaine back in, despite the extreme popularity of such a move.”

Musk snr was speaking on the same day his son said his paternal grandmother might have been abducted by a grooming gang if she had been born in modern Britain. Recent weeks have seen the tech billionaire repeatedly post on his own social media platform, X, about the rape and sexual abuse of thousands of vulnerable girls by gangs of mainly British-Pakistani men.

Cora Amelia Robinson, his paternal grandmother, was born in Liverpool in August 1923. She married South African Walter Musk, who was transferred to British intelligence towards the end of the Second World War, in 1944. She then gave birth to Elon’s father in 1946.

Martin Brundle, meanwhile, labelled Musk an “interfering d—” on X.

The F1 legend competed between 1984-96 and has become a major part of Sky Sports’ coverage of the sport. Brundle said on X he is contemplating leaving the platform because of its owner.

He wrote: “I’m conflicted. I like Twitter/X and it has served F1, Sky, me, and people around me, very well for a good while. But @‌elonmusk is such a daily globally interfering d— I feel the need to go somewhere else.”

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9089

This reads completely like tabloid junk.

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9090

Look at that picture and tell me he isn’t a Bond villain. He is only short of a cat to stroke for the full look.

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9091

No cats wanted to be near him.

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9092

If Musk bought us, this place would explode.

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9093

It all started with us joking about the mail article and look whats happened, we have a lot to answer for :rofl::rofl::rofl:

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9094

He did have a pussy, but his mate Donald grabbed it.

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9095

No
We don’t really…
Joking or not, even the thought of this is gut churning.

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9096

Now Sky Sports are running with the story (yellow banner and all)

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