You could have stopped there.
4 Likes
Iâm not desputing that he will go for big money, what I am disputing is exactly how big
1 Like
He is a £40 - £50mil player, he has the potential to be a £100mil player⊠Reminds me very much of Mane at Southampton, not in style but the potential.
He signed for Leeds for around ÂŁ17mil, so Iâd say ÂŁ40mil after 1 good season is excellent value for Leeds. They could sign 2 similar players to him when he joined, which for a mid-table club thatâs a step forward.
It is all dependant on him wanting to leave though, I can imagine Bielsa is a great manager to work under. Although European football and Klopp and well the reds is quite the alureâŠ
3 Likes
No way Leeds sell him âcheapâ at covid prices this summer, heâs under long term contract, plays well for them and they donât need the money.
If nobody offers silly money this summer theyâll happily keep him till a future summer when someone does. Donât see them selling him for less than ÂŁ50/60m minimum and possibly a lot more.
2 Likes
Maybe Mikey will throw Milner in the deal as the lightweight in order to get Raphinha 
Fixed it for you.
Players like Raphina⊠we either need to buy them at the start of their rise, like Leeds did; OR wait until contract winding down once they are more of a sure thing; OR be willing to pay a fortune - and usually Prem teams have money and you have to overpay for talent from mid ranking teams.
All these factors tell me the timing isnât right for this one.
Good player mind, and it looks like his rise will continue.
Edit:
I think we are buying a couple at the start of their rise, sort of cutting out the middle club. Konate is a good example. And if we get someone like Patson Daka that would be the sort of profile too. There might be a few midfielders in this bracket too.
Good players now, but we nab them before their price potentially goes through the roof.
1 Like
I think that is something we have repeatedly tried to do under Edwards but unfortunately have not achieved. The link @Hope.in.your.heart provided yesterday about attempts to sign Doku for example, then there are those other players who went to Dortmund Agyemang, Bellingham and Sancho, Dahoud and BrandtâŠ
I do wonder if it is easier to achieve now because a number of senior players are reaching the stage in their careers where you can see them moving on, or losing their place on form.
1 Like
You can also say that weâve made a few missteps along the way with those kind of players that we have managed to sign, like Keita and Minamino.
It just goes to show that buying players is a bit of a lottery at the best of times for a wealth of reasons (risk of injury, not settling in the area, personal issues, loss of form or lack of suitability for the PL etc), and the younger and less proven the player, the greater the gamble.
Take Doku⊠we obviously made a big effort to sign him back when he played in Belgium and was relatively unknown, but even an article singing his praises has to point out that heâs still far from the finished article and his output in terms of goals and assists still leaves a lot to be desired. Is it a given that if we had signed him back then heâd still be at the club now and successful? Iâd venture not.
I think thatâs why weâll still remain more likely to sign players just after theyâve made their big breakthrough - like VVD, Mane, Mo etc - rather than try to snap them up beforehand, even if it means we pay more. You can pay a lot more, but at the same time thereâs a greater chance of it being successful imo.
14 Likes
Regarding MBappe, I wasnât sure what thread to put this post in.
We all agree itâs not a likely deal the club is able to make as a result of the financials. The transfer fee being a massive barrier before we even get to the wages.
I found this article from 2019, claims Nike is subsiding a large portion of Frankie de Jongâs wages at Barca. They had no financial influence on the actual transfer fee, only wages. So my question becomes, why couldnât Nike do similar here for MBappe and Liverpool Football Club?
4 Likes
Copying Barcaâs way of doing business would get you banned, shady bastards.
9 Likes
Itâs been discussed on here (or maybe TIA) at length as a possibility. Even, the only avenue that leads to us âaffordingâ him. The issue is there is a difference between Nike colluding with us to supplement his income as a way to convince him to leave one of the richest clubs in the world vs simply paying a rising star more after his move up the footballing ladder to a mega club you also sponsor and so can cross promote.
Itâs simply a different set of calculations for Mbappe moving from PSG than it is for De Jong when he was leaving Ajax (i.e. he knew he was leaving and getting more money, so didnt need assurances from Nike that theyâd make a salary shortfall, as none existed) that make it hard for Nike to make the assurances necessary that donât violate rules on third party payments.
3 Likes
Thatâs where I come out on this. I should have clarified my original post.
I donât at all understand or grasp how itâs legal for Nike to underwrite or subsidize any players wages going to a specific club. Where does it end? Slippery slope, IMO. I donât know all the financial legalities but even on a cursory level it screams illegal, or at the least unethical, to me.
5 Likes
Iâve never thought it impossible for Nike to help bring Mbappe here, but everything would have to be air-tight.
Nike would have to simultaneously offer Mbappe improved sponsorship terms only if he signed for Liverpool and weâd have to get him to agree to accept a wage decrease (at least in base pay terms).
And those things would somehow have to happen without any official discussion that weâve colluded on it and no rules are broke because of it.
But regardless, I would only expect us to sign Mbappe if his next move is not motivated by money, but by the desire to play for us/under Klopp and would accept a pay cut or see out his contract to make that happen.
4 Likes
Didnât they help with the Coutinho transfer? This might be a case where the sponsor just agrees to release funds already committed to the club early for a specified reason?
3 Likes
Iâm not suggesting we are snakes, but if something is âonlyâ unethical, but not illegal, we might be looking at ways to smooth it out to get it done.
In a world where our rivals are riding roughshod over financial restrictions, we might be willing to see how we can push a boundary here or there, rather than transgress said boundary.
I donât think we will sign Mbappe, but if Nike and Lebronâs friendship with Mbappe somehow helped to make it happen, bring it on.
1 Like
Not sure how bringing in a player, no matter how his pay could be subsidised, that will be on at least 2-3 times more than the weekly wage of those he plays alongside, can be good for team moraleâŠ!
For this reason alone, I donât think the Mbappes of this world will ever be signed for LFCâŠ
1 Like
Donât we have something like the second or third highest wage Bill in the country? Weâre obviously paying out a lot more than is generally acknowledged.
The secret to getting MâBappe might not be him agreeing to a lower salary, it might be getting him to agree to a lower base salary and accept the big money comes along with the trophies and performances.
2 Likes
As Iâve said before, we could or rather, Nike could provide the relevant incentives.
Also, the only club that MbappĂ© is consistently linked with more than us is Real Madrid. Sure, we believe that the transfer fee and likely wages would be too much for us but equally it would be beyond Real Madrid too. Iâd suggest that currently weâre in a healthier financial position than they are.
The real issue for me is that PSG can afford to demand whatever they like because seeing him leave for nothing doesnât matter to them as much as keeping him for at least one more year.
3 Likes
Yep it seems possible Salah actually earned more off us last year with the title win than Mbappe earned off PSG, its just not guaranteed income. If what Nike pay Mbappe increased (possibly even significantly) based on him moving to a higher profile league, switching to a Nike team and becoming the figurehead for Nikes marketing push for LFC along with other endorsement deals increasing or new ones. Mbappe COULD end up with a higher total salary here than his current one at PSG. Especially in successful years for us. Itâs convincing him to turn down the big offer to stay or nearly as much from other places.
1 Like