The Unreliable Rumours Discussion Thread (Part 1)

Ollie Watkins??? Between 28 and 33 millions for an absolute unknown outside the Championship? :fearful:

Now tell me that Wilson isn’t worth 20 millions…

12 Likes

No Wilson thread, so I’ll put it here.

Can be seen for the first time in training pics. Think he was injured up until now. We’ll see how long he trains with us…

1 Like

Wow. Not sure how he is worth £28m

He was injured then joined up with Wales.

1 Like

With no significant incomings I am REALLY excited to see what Wilson can too. Especially if we are moving to 4-2-3-1.

2 Likes

Reddy now splitting her word salads over two parts so it’s not quite so obvious she’s covering all eventualities, whilst saying nothing at all.

2 Likes

It must be a thankless task being a Liverpool-focused reporter during transfer windows these days - a constant need to be seen providing insight, when in reality you’re given absolutely nothing to work with.

6 Likes

I agree to an extent but I also don’t at all understand the current baiting going on by journos. Reddy’s piece yesterday was completely unnecessary and was a really bad look for her. It came off as insufferably self righteous and condescending.

Who is Kristian Walsh? I’ve legitimately never heard of the bloke. He was having a go at someone on Twitter and made a very odd statement over the weekend: “What’s the point in success if it only puts pressure on future success”. Isn’t that sort of the point of sustained success? As Jürgen says, to be better than you were yesterday? As Millie also said, if we are same level as we were last year that’s not good enough. This isn’t a knock more an observation but I don’t think the journos covering the club are very good. They aren’t informative nor are they illuminating.

4 Likes

No idea what he’s up to these days, but Walsh used to write for the Liverpool Echo.

He might even still be doing that, for all I know.

3 Likes

I dont think that they are contradictory. The first article is aimed at the over reaction we see on Social media by fans and acknowledges that the media play a role in stoking this. The second is more direct in its view of the club’s plans.

1 Like

I’ve just found the tweet. I think the point he is trying to make is what is the point of wanting your club to win stuff if you never enjoy the victory and don’t wish to acknowledge your club’s existing qualities. He quite clearly says he is not saying we shouldn’t look to improve or bring anyone in.

3 Likes

He does bits with the Anfield Wrap, Kristin Walsh. Always find him fair in his work.

2 Likes

His point is basically right. Seems people don’t even take the time to celebrate winning these days, they’re just worrying about where the next one is coming from.

We’ve won the Champions League and Premier League yet a fair amount of our fanbase seem to have forgotten all about it because they wanted a striker they’ve never seen play from Germany.

So essentially, what’s the point of success if you aren’t going to enjoy the success?

16 Likes

I agree as well. I made the point earlier that I’ve waited 30 years for a title win. It lasted about two weeks until Twitter was ruining it.

Part of the problem is that football is too tribal, and rivalries have spilled over into outright hatred. The frenzy for signings is largely a consequence of the terror that someone else is going to win something.

Every one else was terrified of Liverpool winning the league. It happened and they were fine. It wasn’t that bad for them. At some point Man Utd are going to win the league again, and we’ll be fine too.

7 Likes

The article in itself is not wrong, but it feels like a journalist lashing out at fans for being… fans? No offence to Melissa Reddy and im sure she had good intentions here, but transfers and football go hand in hand. Its just that now that we have social media , journos and media outlets exploit transfer hype and even bait fans into having unreal high expectation. The Daily Mirror for example literally puts some daft and idiotic title like “Liverpool miss out on top signing” etc.

While development and training is important, but in truth how many times have we heard things like “Not enough quality on the squad” or “the manager simply doesnt have the players he wants”. And before anyone gets all high and mighty, Liverpool is no exception to this. Only trent can be considered a young player who was moulded into this Liverpool side from the academy, the rest we have recruited and slogged over several transfer windows, its not just purely training and development is it?

Fans have the right to express concern over club activities. And i feel majority of Liverpool fans havent melted down into def con 1 over lack of transfers. We do need things to improve but alot of us understand where the club stands. It is simple in football and for a team like ours. If we win we are hailed as kings , if we lose we are called disasters.

Fans may obssess over the transfer windows , but its their god given right to do so and then discuss it. Of course personal attacks and malicious language are uncalled for and simply unacceptable. No one should be going to these extents. Exercise your right to question the club, but dont be abusive, rude and unpleasant.

3 Likes

The point I think missed out is fans especially on places like Twitter are questioning club’s ambition, FSGs lack of investment in squad and so on. Every target missed out becomes a stick to beat everyone involved and get frustrated to no end, forgetting we have just won the title and can enjoy it?

The same happened last transfer window as well. Let’s strengthen from position where we are on top, else the downfall will begin, etc etc. We ended up winning the title and by some margin. Maybe the club knew what it was doing? Let the downfall happen and then become miserable, right? Or question the club. Why in the present moment when we don’t know how things are going to unfold?

The club, the owners and everyone involved have won this much goodwill and should be given the benefit of doubt for what they are doing, because we are one of the top teams in England, Europe and the world for the past couple of years and that hasn’t changed yet!

10 Likes

Exactly. If Edwards, Klopp and others can’t be trusted after what they have done; nothing is going to satisfy some people. :roll_eyes:

5 Likes

Its like the club can win everything but yet not win.

2 Likes

But nor is it an approach to squad building advocated by our more ‘impatient’ fans. The club are incredible careful and cautious in the market, will swerve signings if they aren’t absolutely perfect.

Klopp himself has expressed dismay at fans who believe you solve every problem by spending money. And that needs to be true for Liverpool, because Covid or no Covid, we cannot afford to get drawn into a transfer arms race. We will lose. If the only route to success is buying players, we will lose. And I’m done with football too. You might as well go support a FTSE 100 company.

What the club has done is embark on a programme of finding all the other variables apart from transfers, and exploiting them. Coaching - the lost art that Klopp has lamented - being a major one. And it’s used an incredibly diligent approach to transfers to ensure that it’s sticking 80-90% of the time rather that the old truism that 50% of transfers fail.

There is simply so many times you can say this, but this approach to running the club has delivered consistent CL football, Consecutive high 90 point finishes a European Cup and a League Title. The clubs employees have more that proved that they are good at their jobs and deserve our trust.

We have to be really careful about what fans have the right to do. Where does the right to complain and be concerned stop? When does it start to have a detrimental effect? I don’t think that fans have the right to harass John Henry (or his wife FFS) on Twitter. I don’t think fans have got the right to sabotage every social media post the club put out.

A bit of acknowledgement that fan criticism will always come with the massive caveat that 99% of the time we are arguing from a position of ignorance would help. A bit of humility is always welcome. For a simple example of this you only have to look at transfers. They don’t work like we think they do. But that doesn’t stop us every single year, totting up how much we think we can sell players for and working out how much we think we’ve got to spend, and who that means we can buy, and then kicking off at the club because the reality is a bit different. Running a football club must feel like trying to drive a car with a toddler sitting in the back seat continually telling you You’re doing it wrong.

11 Likes

Its usually the ‘great we won!’ then long paragraphs on why we are going to be worse off if we do not BUY that irks me at times. Its like your child who got 90 for his exams and you say great but lets do an in-depth analysis on why you did not get 95. You have every right to do that but it is not necessarily right.

9 Likes