Who would you buy?

The Albert
6582

this is quite unfair to be honest, on a par with most of your posts on any subject touching ownership and spending.

the amount of toys thrown out of the collective pram on this forum are really minimal and blown completely out of proportion and only emphasised by people wanting to dumb down the conversation.

if you want to go back to where the haymakers started swinging this time around it was almighty Red with a fairly innocous coment about the fans being appeased.

taken as a stand alone comment and out of context i can see where, if i wanted to take offence, and i squinted really really hard, i could pidgeon hole him as being a FIFA manager wanna be who just wants to sign new players for the sake of it.

but id prefer to take it IN context, with the understanding of the evolving conversations, and the fan sentiment and the actual relevance of such a factor.

im sure he’ll happily admit fan sentiment is secondary to good scouting and player scouting. in fact, im sure its such a given on a forum as good as this one that most of us dont want to see it repeated ad infinitum just incase your post is taken out of context.

and finally…regarding the tired old Andy Robertson was bought for 8 million quid rubbish…

there wasnt anyone outside of the football department that could possibly see exactly how well that one turned out, there were raised eyebrows, but trust me, i was around on the forums back then, this place was more than willing to give him his chance…no one really lost their shit and no one was scandalised…

its really, REALLY poor form to throw the old

‘you would have busted a valve when we signed AR’ jibe…

this forum was pretty cool with the whole thing, to be honest.

6 Likes
6583

Yeah but no but next season we might only have to play 40 games in total. :grin:

6584

I don’t recall it happening like that.

The general sentiment appeared to be he’d be a decent back up, but we still needed a quality, starting left back. That didn’t improve when he didn’t appear much for the first half of his debut season.

I think it’s true that no-one could have predicted what an incredible signing he would be. But looking back I think there were the signs that Robbo was a player Klopp would adore. Not just the raw ability, which our lads had spotted even if no-one else had - but the character. Robbo was a lad who had nearly dropped out of football after getting released from Celtic, and was posting on Twitter how shit it was having no money or job. Klopp loves that. The idea that a lad will bounce into training every day knowing what a privilege it is to be there and willing to work his nuts off because he’s seen the other side of the tracks.

6585

Even without my bias for Partizan’s former academy players, I think he’s done well in his career but I also think he’s reached his ceiling at Fiorentina. He’s a jack of all trades at centre back, capable of playing a pretty defensive right back (it’s not a rare occurrence when he plays there), he’s generally a nuisance in the box.

He’d probably be a bit slow when it comes to playing for a side with a high line and in a league where tempo is quicker and pressing is relentless. He’s calm in possession but isn’t someone I’d trust with building up from the back, to be honest. He’s tidy but unspectacular, perhaps his biggest quality is that you know what you’re going to get from him at all times.

Logic says that his next move could be Atletico Madrid if Simeone stays there, though he’d probably have to take up his aggression a few notches (funnily enough, he always reminded me of Vidić, only a version that is tame in comparison to him - maybe a manager who can coax more aggression out of his is the one who raises his ceiling).

3 Likes
6586

Ah okay, I get it. I suspected something like this might be the case.

6587

well thats my definition of being pretty cool with it. i think i was one of the worst to be honest and i really, REALLY, didnt have a meltdown…

some of the revisionist stuff that gets thrown down as fact cuts both ways…and in my honest assessment, this forum is far from a kneejerking, FIFA manager, reactionist cesspit it gets tarred as.

we get the odd tantrum, and to be fair i love watching a meltdown unfold…its just fairly rare.

but this goes back to what i was intimating before really, Almighty Red was taken to task for a comment, you yourself have been victim of the same 'out of context, take one sentance and frame him ’ type posting and its detrimental to the forums. more detremental than the odd outburst here and there.

we should not have to write a massive disclaimer before every post to avoid being tarred with the ‘knee jerker’ brush.

for example, i should be able to say;

‘fuck i wish FSG would back Klopp with a big wedge this summer so we can buy Bellingham’

but i cant, even given my longevity on here, i know id be attacked from some quarter or another…

what i would have to write would be;

i think FSG have done a great job to get us where we are today, and if Klopp were willing, id love it if they could find a way to input extra funds as a one off this summer, to afford an extra midfielder on top of our normally allocated funds. i just hope that theres a way this can be managed sensibly without contravening FFP rules, however, i wouldnt like to be put in a situation where the only way to appropriate these funds would be to be run by an oil state or similar with suspect human rights issues.

4 Likes
6588

Unfair, or you just want to see things through your own rose-tinted glasses?

6589

really?

6590

Maybe I haven’t been phrasing it correctly, but I don’t see how I’m railing against anything but the types who want to win the transfer window and the ego boost that comes with that. So many people talking about how we’re not getting £x to spend, as opposed to being able to fulfil the needs that this team has.

I’m not talking about the vast majority of posters on here either, not even close to a majority. But certainly a very loud, whining, minority.

6591

who?

Notasuperfan would be one id imagine…as hes been a bit vocal of late, nothing completely out of order though in my mind, a couple of runs at FSG when he was maybe in a bit of a mood, then really just asking for the best cattle…be interested to see who the others are, so i can keep an eye out

6592

Hard to say who I’d buy without knowing the budget.

But two midfielders, good players, but athletes also, and a central defender to replace Matip, would be the bare minimum I’d like to see.

I expect outgoings to go beyond contract expirations. Given the evolution required in the engine room, it would seem remiss to retain three older midfielders in Henderson, Thiago and Fabinho, and I expect one of the trio to move on.

I still think, perhaps, we are in for Bellingham. We have our price, we’ve communicated that, Dortmund have said bugger off, we have dropped out. But since then there have been noises that Bellingham is happy to stay there another season, so many be we get him summer 2024, at a price to suit?

Could be wishful thinking, but until he signs for another team, I still think we have a chance for him. But if we don’t sign him, I’m ok with that too, so long as we improve the side, especially in the ways mentioned above,

6593

I agree on the three players minimum but if they were Bellingham, Caicedo and Gvardiol that would be fine with me. All gettable but its just what budget do we have?

1 Like
6594

Look at the pattern of spend the last decade when we haven’t had a Sterling/Suarez/Coutinho/Mane to sell…trust me it’ll help. We’re under the same owners, we aren’t suddenly out of nowhere going to have 200m waiting for us on the table for example.

6595

I think Gvardiol and Bellingham are not realistic enough for us in this window. Due to a combination of money and competition to sign them. Not to say they will necessarily move this summer, they might spend another season at their club. Caicedo, that one I’d give us more chances, but then there would probably be competition also. Depends how much he’d cost, which is as you say linked to what’s even our budget this summer. We saw what happend with Caicedo in January. The media don’t have a clue, they can write that “Klopp will be backed” and still it means nothing. We could go from our often £30m net spend to an, I don’t know, £50m+ one. But a lot of the higher stuff, I just think it’s not happening.

6596

I think people would be really surprised at how much impact even a single top signing (the right quality, physically robust to play most games, and ready to play) would have let alone 2.

1 Like
6597
The Everton Cup (TAN transfer game - are you up for it?)
  • Yes
  • No

0 voters

6599
6600

The Everton Cup was first. Miley’s millions ripped it off. :rofl:

6601

6602

Obviously there is precedent and context for what we have done in the past, but it still doesn’t tell me how much we will spend this summer.

Trust me!

And circumstances are always changing. Who is coming off the overall wage bill? How much is our revenue? What are the reasonable needs of the team? These things change every year.

And what about a minor investor? Will that have any bearing on the spend? They haven’t been announced, but perhaps negotiations have been taking place, and there’s an understanding that we will wait until after the transfer window to announce it, so as to keep prices and expectations down?

To reiterate, we don’t know the budget.

With that said, I am confident we will improve the side and squad. We have to.