The Unreliable Rumours Discussion Thread (Part 1)

[Bekloppt]

West Ham fans are salivating over Origi according to unreliable rumours

[Flobs]

Good to see some movement.
I hope Mickey gets what he needs to make the purchases he has earmarked.
I’m not getting excited yet, I expect rumors will go awol soon.

[WeeJoe]

@Bekloppt

West Ham fans are salivating over Origi according to unreliable rumours

He’ll score winners in the semi final and final of their FA Cup run, then put his feet up and smoke cigars for the next 4 years of his contract. Job done

[Iftikhar]

@WeeJoe

@Bekloppt

West Ham fans are salivating over Origi according to unreliable rumours

He’ll score winners in the semi final and final of their FA Cup run, then put his feet up and smoke cigars for the next 4 years of his contract. Job done

Money well spent, I would say.

[redfanman]

@rab

Slight worry that there doesn’t appear to be much interest in Origi at the moment.

I thought one of the journos mentioned yesterday that there was interest in Origi from teams both in England and elsewhere, I don’t think any names where mentioned. As in previous seasons, I wonder just how much interest he has in leaving this summer.

[LondonRich]

Good to see deals out in the pipeline. Shows again that no-one knows anything until they are done / close.

Personally, I am pretty confident we know what we are doing and what we need. We just need to give it time.

What history shows is that FSG / Klopp do not panic buy!

[redfanman]

@ZinedineBiscan

But he left it up to Hendo. We now know Hendo sought Downing out for advice on what to do, and Downing said he should stay and fight for his place, which he did. The rest is history.

My recollection was Brendan was pushing for the move and Hendo refused - I hadn’t realised that Downing had a hand in this. Good to know.

[redfanman]

@legalalien

26? Maybe in the far north; is that where you were? 26 is the overnight low right now.

OK. Enough weather. As I said in the thread that can’t be replied to, and I know this isn’t the Who Would You Buy? thread, but if we are selling or loaning Phillips, Williams and Davies, then how about free agent Scott Dann as an emergency back-up CB? He is a Red after all.

No, I was on Kyushu, in Kumamoto, which I was often told by Japanese colleagues was one of the hotter places during the summer, and colder places in the winter.

It’s been a long while since I was there, so I actually looked up the answer on a couple of websites. I thought the figure looked low…

[rab]

@redfanman

I thought one of the journos mentioned yesterday that there was interest in Origi from teams both in England and elsewhere, I don’t think any names where mentioned. As in previous seasons, I wonder just how much interest he has in leaving this summer.

He’s such an odd one. He’s had these huge highs and you’d have thought most people that have experienced that would want to keep chasing it, even if it requires a step back. He can’t be under any illusion that he’s going to be a first choice here and even his role as a backup has been diminished by the arrival of Jota.

If we’re really in the market for another forward then he must know the writing is on the wall. I suspect he’ll still be here coming to the end of the window and we’ll end up loaning him out with an option that’ll never be taken up.

[AnfieldRdDreamer]

@redfanman

My recollection was Brendan was pushing for the move and Hendo refused

Rodgers pushed for Dempsey but not for Henderson to be included. He went to Henderson asked him if it’s what he wanted and when told no Henderson wanted to fight for his place got more respect for the player and started giving him more chances based off that. Was a turning point in Hendersons career. Prior to that he’d still been used almost exclusively as a winger who could cover CM, after that Rodgers almost exclusively used him as a CM.

[Sweeting]

Grujic and Awoniyi, barely kicked a ball at the club between them, were both fairly disappointing out on loan (bar a period at Hertha for Grujic and Mouscron for Awoniyi) yet we are making a significant profit.

Grujic loan fees have essentially covered his purchase fee from Red Star in the first place (5m) but even if they hadn’t we still doubled our money.

Awoniyi is an even better deal. Signed for 300k and sold for 6.5m.

[AnfieldRdDreamer]

@rab

and we’ll end up loaning him out with an option that’ll never be taken up.

Agree with rest but he’s in the last 12 months so won’t be any loans, or if there are no options.

[redfanman]

@rab

He’s such an odd one. He’s had these huge highs and you’d have thought most people that have experienced that would want to keep chasing it, even if it requires a step back. He can’t be under any illusion that he’s going to be a first choice here and even his role as a backup has been diminished by the arrival of Jota.

If we’re really in the market for another forward then he must know the writing is on the wall. I suspect he’ll still be here coming to the end of the window and we’ll end up loaning him out with an option that’ll never be taken up.

I wonder if he just enjoys being part of the set up there. He may believe he won’t ever be part of a club reaching same level again, and has friends he likes being with, so just wants to make the most of it. We often see players in regards to the fees they can obtain and their wages, and give little thought to the personal situations because in most cases players do appear to agree to moves quite easily.

[DanLFC]

@Bekloppt

We seem to have lowered our prices. I thought we wanted 15m for Grüjic

At a guess i’d say Grujic made it clear he wanted Porto and we have decided not to stand in his way so have lowered our demands to facilitate the move.

He’s been on loan since he signed but has always kept his head down and worked hard and tried to win his place at the club.

Wish him all the best with the move.

[Lowton_Red]

@redfanman

I think I read over the weekend that the owning company is losing quite a bit of money. I wouldn’t be surprised if the drop in quality is linked to cuts being made behind the scenes.

According to Axion, The Athletic is not profitable.

This information is not in the public domain as The Athletic does not disclose detailed financial results in the US. So, I can only assume that Axion discovered this information by way of their negotiations to merge with The Athletic, negotiations which ended without success in May of this year.

Also according to Axion, the New York Times is looking to acquire The Athletic.

With regard to The Athletic’s UK subsidiary, “The Athletic Media Company UK Ltd”, which was incorporated on the 13th May 2019, it has yet to publish its accounts, which were due on 31st December 2020.

For a newly incorporated company, failing to publish its first set of accounts on time (21 months from date of incorporation), is not generally considered to be a good sign.

[KeillRandor]

@Bekloppt

We seem to have lowered our prices. I thought we wanted 15m for Grüjic

Apparently also a sell on clause. Might have been 15m up front no sell on or less up front but with a sell on.

[rab]

@AnfieldRdDreamer

Agree with rest but he’s in the last 12 months so won’t be any loans, or if there are no options.

If he’s not going to be a big enough part of the squad to warrant taking up a non homegrown place then I could see them accepting a loan to save on the wages and then letting him go for nothing if the alternative is him just sitting around the place for another year and going for nothing anyway.

[rab]

@redfanman

I wonder if he just enjoys being part of the set up there. He may believe he won’t ever be part of a club reaching same level again, and has friends he likes being with, so just wants to make the most of it. We often see players in regards to the fees they can obtain and their wages, and give little thought to the personal situations because in most cases players do appear to agree to moves quite easily.

I get that. I’m sure we’ve all worked in places where there are people happy to coast along where they are and that’s no bad thing. I’d just have thought with sports people, the degree of competitiveness and dedication required to make it pro in the first place would mean you don’t get many of those types at the top of the game.

Our time to move him on was after we won the CL. His stock was as high as it was ever going to get but instead he got a new contract I believe and it’s been down hill for him since.

[GermanRed]

Pessimistic as I am I’m saying those higher fees that have been reported about our possible sales in the last two months came from information given from Club to journos to maybe generate a bit more in the end.

Reality is that most of Nat, Wilson, Shaqiri, Origi will be closer to £10m than to £15m while pre Corona we would be able to get +£15m for each of them (including Grujic).

[Limiescouse]

@ZinedineBiscan

He did. But he left it up to Hendo. We now know Hendo sought Downing out for advice on what to do, and Downing said he should stay and fight for his place, which he did. The rest is history.

Even the story Hendo tells, Rodgers didnt want to do that swap. The way he tells it Rodgers was conscious that the change in circumstances (big money signing from former guy, not great first season, not considered integral to the new guy’s plans) may have made Hendo consider his options. When Fulham came back with that swap offer he didnt want to take it, but felt if Hendo was going to push to leave it may as well be as part of a deal we were pursuing, so he put the option to Hendo. Hendo told him to not be soft, and the rest is history.