But what possible reason would the club have for telling Romano this?
Makes us look like we aren’t a serious club.
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Doesn’t have to be true.
Doesn’t have to come from the club if it is true.
It’s not some juicy breaking news really, that we are working on our 2nd midfield signing and are now focused on getting Mac done as soon as possible.
It’s admirable how we keep things relatively quiet in last years, but it’s also impossible for certain things not to come out these days. We are not signing Bellingham - check. We are signing Mac Allister - check. Who cares who broke it first, there can be multiple journalists in the know about what’s happening and when.
Even the most reliable journalists make mistakes, things can change quickly in football. I think we can agree that Romano is one of the better ones to follow what’s happening on the market.
It’s a Barnum statement. It’s an impressive sounding collection of words that give the appearance of insight, when closer inspection reveals it to be bollocks.
He is a bit better connected than most, but his industry relies on continual engagement.
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I’ve always thought that like Goldbridge, he’s a completely invented person. First appearances were on United stand giving the appearance of legitimacy. Far to cool a name too. Great idea if true. Just needs a fake accent and a suntan. What a world in which we live.
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Aside from having a cool combination of name and surname, I think that Lynch’s info has been sound so far (though the portal he’s posting the news on looks horrendous). I’m just a bit surprised that club would be looking at two midfielders and that there are still no links with centre backs, even the unreliable ones (links, not centre backs, we have a few of those already).
Yeah, you have to give Romano his flowers. Guy even had a documentary made on him by some channel. He’s basically established a web of contacts, mostly on players and agents side, but also on clubs side and he’s one of the few who waits for hearing it from the horses’ mouth, so to speak, before tweeting. Problem happens when he’s unable to confirm from both sides of the story (club or player), and one of them changes decision at the last moment. I think thats what happened with Nunez and/or Diaz last time, with ManU and Tottenham fans thinking they have them over the line, but we swooped in.
Anyway, the thing is, these kind of contacts help the concerned parties too. Clubs approach him when they’ve received an offer for a player, but want to “fish” for a higher price. He leaks the story and generates a lot of attention. Same for the player side as well.
He’s half useless for us cause in our case he won’t have any direct source from the club side to confirm or deny, but you can almost guarantee that his player side sources are legit.
- Have non-English name (sounds more legit)
- Use words like ‘monitoring’ and ‘preparing’
- Always refer to ‘sources’
- Name the same players as all the other journalists
- Get good at educated guesses
- Congratulations, you are Fabrizio Romano.
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How does this make us look unserious? The sequence:
- Identify possible targets
- approach targets to assess interest and identify complications in doing a deal
- use information acquired from step two to finalize your action plan
- make offers
This report is just saying we’re somewhere between step 2 and 3 of the process. This is information that could and often does come from the players’ side or clubs’ side, but needs information from Liverpool to make any sense of what will come next. That is likely why his insight has hit a dead end
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Here we go!
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He’s real and has contacts but to suggest he has any insider knowledge of what we are doing is fanciful.
Problem is Joyce wasn’t saying a price tag, only the likes of “football insider” were quoting £70m.
He is fine but with the amount of stuff he puts out I bet his record isn’t actually that good.
He’s a few steps up from the likes of “football insider” but as that bloke a few years that Chang chased after you can actually be very good at this without any contacts.
At least he doesn’t do “big news at 10pm” anyone who does even respected journalists should be dismissed.
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It’s pretty easy really. Just finish with a qualifying statement.
‘Liverpool in talks to sign Kone. Other clubs have also made enquiries”
“Sources say Liverpool have 3 midfielders on list of potential targets [insert top 3 midfielders under 22 in Europe]”
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Priority is obviously midfield - either we get one of the remaining big two we are linked with or we are going big and bringing in 3. CB may depend on what funds are remaining or on whether someone leaves first.
I cant help but think we may seriously consider Fabinho at the back again if we bring in sufficient midfield options.
55 for MacAllister plus 40 ish a piece for Thuram, Kone, and Van Der Ven means roughly 175, or just under one Bellingham according to the rumoured price, to plug the gaps that we all see in the squad. Would be an excellent window if we nabbed them all, especially for the prices touted. Less flashy but probably much better overall than just signing Bellingham.
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We’ve been linked to that Dutch kid though, haven’t we? Van de Ven?
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Henry has promised a big window a few times over the last 5 years, i could easily see this as being the one where the majority of fans agree it is happening.
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Not sure it’s in Jürgen’s, or the club’s, DNA to make such sweeping changes, but two midfielders and a defender seem likely.
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I’d be worried if we didn’t sign a CB this summer. Otherwise we would only be one derby match away from being dropped in the deep end.
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Ah, yes, I completely missed that one. I don’t know what the source was, though, maybe that’s why I didn’t consider it a serious one.
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You can ignore that, there is no way Brighton gives us £5m and Mac Allister.
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Have no idea why some people are obsessed over commenting about journalists, getting all hot and bothered over their information, fuming that it’s just clickbait blah blah, guesswork fume fume. Of course it’s guesswork, maybe educated guesswork at best. These journalists are not sat in the boardroom meetings.
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