At least it’s a rumour.
The BIG ONE eh? Well we know Klopp likes Blackpool.
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Harry Maguire?
Behave!
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There’s Jokes , There are crass jokes , there are crap jokes and then there’s Jokes about clubs buying Harry Maguire
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Everyone’s got a talent. Some of us do horse eouvre, others reach the the harry heights.
Thats not a joke.
I suppose this post may be slightly premature, because the transfer window hasn’t closed yet and we may have one or two incomings that could change the complexion of the window. However I still think that the manner in which this summer has played out suggests that there are major structural issues about the management of the Club that should be resolved as soon as possible.
The general point that needs to be made is that Liverpool have been faffing around far too much in the last couple of years as far as transfers are concerned. I recall reading that when Michael Edwards was in charge, Liverpool’s transfers were planned 2 years ahead. We were spoiled. Steady, ducks-in-a-row transfer activity with nary a whisper before we signed player after excellent player at fees that were the envy of English football. Such forward planning gives time to look at options and make contingency arrangements. And it showed.
In the recent past, however, a period that coincides suspiciously with the time since Edwards’ departure, things have gone downhill, and fast. By way of example, it has been said that the transfer team under Edwards felt that Jordan Henderson should have left the Club a couple of years ago. Instead the Club - apparently with Klopp’s sanction - gave Henderson a shiny new contract. By last season Henderson was not even a regular starter, and by all reports Klopp still wanted to keep him. This is indicative of a pattern in which Klopp - wrongly in my view - has remained loyal to players who should be leaving the club earlier than they have been.
Comparisons can be made with City, who allowed Cancelo to leave for Bayern on loan (though not for sporting reasons) and romped to a treble. This year City have lost Gundogan, Laporte and Mahrez, but they’ve replaced them with Kovacic, Gvardiol, and Doku respectively. Oil-state-level money was spent on Gvardiol, but arguably not on Kovacic, or even on Doku. In other words, if transfer activity is properly planned, the first-team squad is a malleable thing, and steady, incremental changes to it do not affect on-field success.
By contrast, Liverpool’s summer transfer window began with the Club suddenly realizing - after a horrendous season - that they could not afford Bellingham simply because there were too many holes left to plug in the squad. Jamie Carragher has rightly pointed out that this due solely to a lack of planning within the club. Subsequently, while the two “8” positions have been filled by MacAllister and Szoboszlai (excellent acquisitions) the Club has embarrassed itself with failed pursuits for Lavia (a very good player who we should have got) and Caicedo (whose failed pursuit has let people know that Liverpool has more than GBP 100M to spend on the position, so that Crystal Palace want most of it for Cheick Doucoure). The Lavia one is particularly galling because we now have a situation where we have only one non-homegrown slot left and at least 2 positions left to fill, yet Lavia would have counted as homegrown. All this after giving Adrian, a non-homegrown player, a one-year contract. I am actually concerned that there is an amateurishness to these proceedings that is unbefitting of a club of Liverpool’s resources, management structure, and stature.
And so we come round to Salah. We should have been working on preparing for his departure by now for a couple of years - at least since he negotiated a new contract. Speaking personally, as soon as the Saudis came for Henderson, I saw that they would want Salah. He is, quite simply, the most bankable Arab / Moslem football star on the planet. I’ll be blunt: we need to monetize that. The man has been a fantastic, loyal (and very well paid) servant for Liverpool, but he is 31 years old, he’s not getting any younger, and he has only a couple of years left on his contract. That said, monetizing his departure needs to be done in a planned manner. The problem for Premier League clubs is that the Saudis modus operandi is to start by making the player an offer he can’t refuse, and then open negotiations with the Club. We need to hit the Saudis for at least GBP 150 million, maybe even GBP 200 million, and live with the consequences. The sooner we can accept these realities, the sooner we can start planning for life after Salah methodically and in a sensible manner, not in an unplanned, panicked, haphazard manner.
I think Klopp is a great, great manager. But I don’t think he should be allowed to have anything near full control over the squad’s composition. I’m not sure Schmadtke is the answer, especially on this window’s showing. Whatever/whoever the answer is, the scope of the problem has been made starkly clear this summer.
In conclusion, I read the other day that Ronaldo played 236 PL games, scored 103 goals and made 37 assists. Salah’s numbers are 224, 136, and 54. Ronaldo got 3 PL titles for his work; Salah has 1. Guardiola’s City notwithstanding, it is probably the case that Salah - and the Club - should have more PL trophies to show for these phenomenal efforts. Yet some of the responsibility for this is on the Club. We can and must do better.
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Back in for Lavia 
I think the bigger issue is that some fans are misremembering how things were under Edward’s time here and jumping to conclusions with how they are now. Yes, some transfers were worked on over a long period of time and yes, some came out of the blue - but that was not true in a lot, perhaps even most of the cases.
I’m not sure why you are comparing a situation where player wants to stay, manager wants him to stay with a situation where the player wanted to leave? Even ignoring the differing values to the club of each player.
I fail to see how the club has embarrassed itself over these two attempted transfers.
And why do you assume we have not?
We’ve signed 3 players this summer who most will agree are a huge improvement on who just left so will therefore be 3 starting players in our first choice 11.We haven’t signed 3 first 11 players in 1 summer since Allison ,Fabinho and Naby back in 18/19.Whatever some may think of what we have done in between ,this will be seen as a very good window for us when everything settles although 1 more quality signing would make it a superb transfer window .
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I think the “2 year” thing is also misconstrued. It is a representation of the breadth of our research on potential targets. It doesnt mean that we know what our signings were going to be 2 years in advance. But what it did mean was that when we pursued a player for a position we wanted to improve and couldn’t get him, we had an extensive body of research to turn to in determining the best alternatives. There is no indication that overall approach has changed.
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Is the big one Klopp having a shit.
at least we have man united for comedic relief
The funny thing is people making this point while also ignoring Diaz and Gakpo…
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FIFY
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3rd of July we signed Szoboszlai. That’ll be seven weeks ago come Monday. Since then we’ve managed one more signing and he was clearly no higher than our third choice for the position he’s come in to play.
We’ve also seen two more senior members of the squad leave in that seven weeks. Players on the wane for sure but senior members of the squad we planned to be here for this season.
I always try to be patient and judge our window come the close but we see this summer after summer. We get one or two done early and then despite all the chatter of exploring other deals nothing ever really happens in the few weeks aside from that desperate move for Mello.
Can anyone really see us doing anything else now before the window closes? Even the unreliable rumours seem to have dried up.
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https://twitter.com/indykaila/status/1695085148956471806
The great ITK begs to differ. Has it crossed 5pm yet ?
https://twitter.com/indykaila/status/1695465096426749964?s=20
Must be that.
Makes out it’s like some kind of humanitarian crisis is taking place not the fact that Everton have turned out yet another Everton performance.
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