Kind of depressing how quickly The Athletic have fallen into the trap of tabloid journalism. I remember them coming into the game with the mandate of not necessarily being the first but being the most informed and putting all the world’s best writers in one place. Seems to have gone to the wayside already.
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So it’s not just me then, I see, re: The Athletic. There’s still a lot of good stuff, but I have noticed the standards have dropped.
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Dominic King is reporting the same - the club must have given them all the same news?
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No it’s not dirty to spend money but the way you phrased it or came across,it’s like conversations i’ve had with work mates and friends who support United and Chelsea,telling me we spend just as much as them in the transfer market by throwing the record fee’s for VVD and Alisson at me to justify their arguement,when it’s complete nonsense.
Yes we spent £300mill in 2 years,i never said we didn’t but we wouldn’t have,had we not made £200mill in sales,meaning we only spent £50mill per year,it’s as simple as that.
I know what you’re getting at,whenever you do the finances,regardless of knowing how FSG have always run the club and stay within the clubs means to spend,you always want them to go above and beyond the clubs budget,you want them to buy just that one more player and add just that little bit more debt onto the club and spread it out over a few years,which never happens.
I don’t know why you do this to yourself,constantly expecting FSG to take the plunge and spend their own money ontop of the clubs profits to boost player purchases,it’s just not going to happen mate,the only way we’ll see another £300mill+ spend again,is if we recoupe a large sum of cash and sell a Salah or Mane type player and the same scenario as Coutinho happens again.
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Doesn’t seem like it would have been a briefing from the club. Why would they float the links to Atlético and PSG?
In any case, I don’t see why there is such a sense of urgency from the online comment section goblins. A chance to rekindle their ire about the Wijnaldum situation, I guess, and confirm their own preconceptions about FSG. It’s tedious.
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I’m still reeling from the last season, Mike, to be honest. We really should have walked it, so I guess that the dealings of our rivals hit me harder than, say, two years ago. That said, with all the investment Man United are making specifically, they have to come good at some point, no, with or without Solskjaer? Plenty of talented players, especially the younger ones, big money, big wages…
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Tricky year ahead with so much players in similar age with their contracts up to 2023. Could be a few massive decisions/events.
However, I didn’t think there would be a problem or such a problem with Hendo. And IF he would leave, maybe next summer surely and not this one?
To lose Gini and Hendo in one window would be a hard one for us. Before even thinking/waiting who the replacement(s) might be. It’s not only losing football players.
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Our failings last season were our own problems, nothing to do with the performances of any other club. If we are fit we are the best team in the league and Man Utd are absolutely miles away.
The main problem I can see with them is that structurally they have no foundations. I don’t care how good their players are, the club needs a full top-to-bottom rebuild both on the field and off it. Even after all this time they’re still under the shadow of Ferguson - while they are I don’t care a jot about anything they do.
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Yes, and the prices have gone up. $72 at the moment for a previous member to have a yearly subscription. I understand that with time they need to have something more basic, less detailed, shorter. Like a transfer track. I still like that good stuff part, so I guess it’s down to what you’re looking for. If you’re willing to spend a bit of money to get that extra good part and just filter out the rest rubbish you don’t want.
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It’s actually how the vast majority of our transfers work. In recent times only Keita and Konate have been pId for there and then and not paid for in installments in future financial windows.
I’m not expecting FSG to spend their money, up till this year (when the losses were a lot less than predicted and quite a bit were due to the way we CHOSE to use and pay off certain revenue streams) we’ve been operating at profits. We’ve not been utilising all the finances the club could have brought to the table, if it wanted. There are also several things that have been paid off far faster than needed to save some money here and there. Is that money saved worth more than what could have been made in increased revenues by really pushing just a little bit more whilst we have a manager the calibre of Klopp? Guess we will never know. But one thing is for sure FSG play things as safe as possible every step of the way whilst making us all fear we are on the point of financial collapse all the way along. Something that never actually gets backed up by the accounts but nobody notices because by then its 18 months later and we are all sitting around enjoying what Klopp is managing to achieve with the backing he did get.
By the way, what’s next, Milner also to PSG?
PSG going full “dogs of war” in midfield.
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Gotta say, I think there’s zero chance we lose Henderson this year. There would need to be a whole load of unforeseeable circumstances for that to happen.
I wonder if this is Atletico possibly asking for Henderson to be included as part of any Niguez deal and whether the agents of the respective players are trying to work that to their respective advantages in terms of contractual negotiations?
That’s feasible but I just cannot foresee any circumstances in which Liverpool would let Henderson leave this summer, even if it meant not signing Niguez.
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It reminds me of political journalism where you imply the fault of the known “bad guy” without actually saying it and the reader can pickup on the dog whistle. It’s why the Daily Mail can talk about crime in a way that lets its readers know they are talking about black people - and thus encourage comments, likes and retweets (as well as comments by people arguing against the racists) and drive engagement. In this same way Liverpool writers can say “contract dispute” and know they’ll attract a tonne of comments and shares about FSG, leading almost everytime to heated debate in the comments sections and increased engagement over a nothing story.
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has to be from Jordan’s agent I would think. The club are renegotiating some contracts, wants Jordan to get a raise while they are at it.
Tabloids need to make up their mind - one minute they are say A Madrid are skint and need to off load players then link Hendo and various other players (names escape me but seen about 4 this weekend who wouldn’t be cheap in trf fee or wages) to them.
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More like they use it in a way that points LFC and FSG as the victims of shocking player greed out of nowhere. Doing with Henderson now what they do with Salah any time there may be an ounce of doubt over his long term future here. Not surprising to me that its always the sources who get the updates from the club directly who do this sneaky mud slinging without openly slinging mud.
Case in point. 2021/22 financial accounts will largely be back to normal, expenditure that has been on the accounts for the last few years in form of transfer debt is nearly completely cleared after leaving the club at around £50m per year, Red Bird Capital investment was supposed to mean that the losses from covid last season and the one just gone have been dealt with and do not need to be recouped from future financial accounts. But:
Cautious. Rely on the brilliance of Klopp to hopefully compete and win things, play things cautious, never speculate to accumulate despite having the closest thing to guaranteed success, income and efficiency in the transfer market as you can have in this sport.
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I think that’s a harsh interpretation. By all accounts we are still interested in making a couple more signings this summer once we’re able to clear roster/wage space. My read is that “2022 as the year to really start refreshing” means that’s when we finally cash in on moving out one of our “big” pieces (Mané → PSG anyone?) to make serious updates to the squad. Waiting for the market to be more “settled” sounds to me like we accept that 1.) we need to wait for a suitor with sufficient financial muscle to make such a transaction worth our while, and 2.) in the meantime the squad with superficial additions (Konaté, one of the midfielders we’ve been linked to, maybe a depth forward) is still absolutely capable of competing at the very highest level, so there should be no rush to dismantle it now.
Meanwhile, per that very same article: we’re also using this time now to lay the groundwork of contract extensions to keep the new “core” in place long-term.
So if they’ve put this in place, doesn’t that explain why they don’t just chuck money at things a-la Roman or the oil sheikhs?
The current set up is exactly what these guys want. They’ve put money into ways to build a competitive advantage that are cheaper than lashing a load of money in the market every summer at the next shiny thing. And it is working.
These guys weren’t born into their wealth or cheated their way into it. They’ve earned it by being cautious, analytical, spotting advantages and opportunities others don’t and making the right moves. Took them a while to work it out here but now they have we shouldn’t use that as a stick to question their ambition or desire to succeed.
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My only concern, and it’s very minor and probably unfounded is that it’s all very well and good waiting for 2022 to start the squad refresh, but that doesn’t seem to take into account that we might not qualify for Champions League next season (we will, but that’s not guaranteed).
And to bring it back to the earlier concerns about what our rivals are doing. Yes what they do doesn’t affect how good we will be over the course of a season, but it does mean that players that could have excelled under Klopp have already been snapped up by other clubs.
Again there’s no knowing who our own targets are, but it’s plausible we get to 2022 in the Europa with Sancho at united and Mbappe signed a pre-contract agreement with Real and the likes of Coman and Malen and already signed up this year and Bellingham deciding he’d quite like to join up again with Sancho at a Champions League club.
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