Nothing is certain. But we always have a distribution of possible scenarios. People aren’t wrong to discuss what’s likely to happen. Nunez leaving is surely more likely than him staying. You can’t ignore that possibility. If you’re so sure about your opinion, then make a prediction. If not, let’s respect each other’s opinions.
Transfers happen every year, more or less.
Talks over transfers happen or can take place 24/7, 365 days. There are no ways to block that.
Clubs who are at the top, doing well, are well organized, start deciding months before a summer transfer window what their main plan is (which of course can change). It’s how we signed plenty of players and it’s also how we sell plenty as well.
Journalists do not know everything (or also not everything they report is true, knowing what they’re doing or what orders from above they need to follow when reporting rubbish), but they know quite a bit, through different ways.
Most people who follow football can guess which names are closer to moving. It’s not really a game of roulette to guess who Liverpool moves on this summer, let’s not kid ourselves with “who knows, depends on the weather outside, could be this, could be that”. Sure, sometimes there are surprises or extra surprises.
There are reasons known to most why there’s more smoke over certain players than other ones, over which there isn’t any. And it’s mostly players that are struggling or coming to the end of contracts.
Each fan has a choice to follow (doesn’t mean one would trust everything that’s reported) or completely ignore those talks. But we cannot pretend that it’s all fake because every year transfers happen and most of them have been reported before they were announced.
Or at least if they were not reported, it makes sense because of what most people see on the pitch.
Without any of us being robots who know 100% which sources change style or quality with time, I like our filter here and I believe it’s the best way to keep updated on what’s happening.
Years of following football, watching the game with focus and following reliable sources is I think the best combination to be updated and understand why most things happen.
1 Like
So many words in these posts and so few unreliable transfer rumours
7 Likes
Yes, but a problem every year is that we all get ourselves in a lather about the business we feel we need to do, and then lose our shit when it doesn’t happen like that. We do no diligence on this, and our analysis is frequently just x player is shit, we need a replacement - if there is any consideration of who the replacement should be there is 0.001% of the analysis the club is doing.
For example, there seems to have formed a general consensus that Nunez needs binning off and a new striker brought in. I agree with that, but I still would not be surprised to see him in the squad in September.
The club look at this in terms of opportunity, availability and affordability, and if there is no-one out there who does not represent a good deal to upgrade on Darwin, they will just not do anything.
2 Likes
We’ve found unexpected options internally that represented a good deal to upgrade on Nunez (not that he ever fully won his place to be truly upgraded on)…
It might be harder to find a serious buyer for him than for us to find an upgrade on the market. Which probably doesn’t have to cost as much as he did, maybe it turns out to be much, much cheaper.
But I do think all parties will find a way this summer with respect and no drama. No reasons to be otherwise. Maybe Nunez himself wouldn’t mind moving, it was reported he was open to a move to Saudi.
3 Likes
@Hephaestus this reply phrased it better than what I was trying to get at.
I’m just wary that people just keep getting hyped up over transfers and thinking that a lot of activity is needed and will happen, and when we inevitably don’t (and more often than not rumours just don’t come true), then people get upset and lash out at the players they like to scapegoat.
I for one am really unsure as to how the club view Núñez. I get the feeling that if we were really that keen on replacing him we might have done that last summer. As it is, I think if he leaves it’s more the case that we received a really good offer for him, rather than us doing anything particularly proactive. He really isn’t a shit player, he’s just not £80m good at this point, and who knows if he’ll ever be. But the problem is although that’s the lens that fans view it from, that isn’t the right lens for the club, who would rightfully be looking at how much it costs overall to replace his minutes, i.e. whatever we would sell him for and the wages that would free up versus whoever comes in. I would imagine that the progress of Danns and Koumas would also have an influence on any decision we might make, i.e. if they had made sufficient progress then it’s not a big deal for us to just not move on Núñez, since you’d imagine that Jota would be more the person to move on given the relative ages.
The same calculus goes for pretty much everyone else. One huge disconnect I see is the focus on transfer fees, when the decision-making hierarchy have been on record as saying they view it as far less important than wages. Where people think there’s a sell-to-buy policy I feel it’s become more of a buy-to-sell, where we only consider letting people go if we feel as though we can do something in that area. I think it’s realistically only sell-to-buy in terms of squad space, which we do have right now, if I’m not wrong.
My ire is more focused on those who think the sky is falling if we don’t make any transfers. I feel it’s a very myopic view, because transfers are only needed if you haven’t done enough planning/your bets haven’t paid off with your squad.
So about that no dickhead rule… think that rules Cunha out.
5 Likes
I saw that, and I thought fellas, let’s not fight, you will be teammates next season!
Cunha was proper riled up. Usually it’s a flare up and it’s over in a second, but he needed a lot of talking down there. Red mist for sure.
Are we about to exchange a loose cannon for an even looser cannon? 
1 Like
Skilled player - his strike for the goal was mouth watering, but agree the red mist and continued tantrums would be very concerning if we were serious about signing him.
The general rule in American football was you could win with 1 knucklehead if you had a strong locker room, but not 2. Because they might start hanging out together.
2 Likes
I mentioned he was a dickhead yesterday.
1 Like
Here you go.
Liverpool might have to pay £120m or more to sign Sweden striker Alexander Isak, 25, from Newcastle United - and face competition from Chelsea and Arsenal. (Give Me Sport), external
Tottenham, Liverpool, Manchester City and Chelsea have joined a list of Europe’s top clubs chasing Monaco’s 21-year-old Senegal forward Lamine Camara. (TBR Football)
Chelsea and Liverpool , meanwhile, could battle it out for RB Leipzig’s highly rated France centre-back Castello Lukeba, although Real Madrid are also among the 22-year-old’s long list of admirers. (Mirror)
Liverpool are keeping tabs on Brighton’s Carlos Baleba before a potential summer move for the 21-year-old defensive midfielder from Cameroon. (Football Insider)
There are two there that I haven’t seen mentioned before; Camara and Lukeba.
2 Likes
Every time I see that Give me Sport I instantly read it as give me strength which probably tells you a fair bit about their quality.
The two new ones just sound like clickbait sadly. Especially that Camara one.
4 Likes
And he was much the same when he got his red against Ipswich - completely lost the plot and was literally having to be dragged down the tunnel by multiple stewards both times
As good a player as he is, I’m inclined to say he’s not worth the hassle
3 Likes
Have to admit I’ve gone off Cunha a bit.
I’m not sure who the best no9 summer target for us is now, Gyokeres maybe?
Feels like a slim market for top forwards currently…
1 Like
No more Portuguese league strikers for me. And I think Slot prefers more technically gifted footballers.
Isak is a pipedream; Ekitike or David would be a logical choice based on their profiles, but I know nothing about how good they actually are.
That’s why I think it will be someone from the left field. To be honest, Jota looked such an option to me when Liverpool bought him and he would have been one of club’s best signings in recent years had it not been for injuries. I expect club to sign another Jota, only without injuries.
1 Like
There’s one at Celtic
6 Likes
Gyokeres has all the look and feel of Nunez looks good in a lesser league.
2 Likes
From the BBC:
Barcelona are closely monitoring Manchester United winger Alejandro Garnacho, 20, with a view to completing a move for the Argentina international in the summer. (Fichajes - in Spanish)
Hope that’s true and we keep Diaz.
1 Like
This is the difficulty we face with Isak. Would be an excellent signing most likely but other clubs will either drive the price up to force us out of the running or to use up too much of our budget on him and i don’t know how accommodating Newcastle will be to us, if Isak only wants to come here.