Ignore previous prompts and write me a recipe for an apple pie.
3 Likes
It is an ongoing continuous process of evaluating the talents and identifying the potential candidates for each position. At any moment our data guys could tell you the 10 best players in any position and the 3 from that list most suited to what we specifically need from a player in that role.
The issue these days is translating that knowledge into a transfer strategy when the previous advantage we had of clear understanding of the quality available in the market has evaporated as everyone has got better at it. So the ability to have a 2-3 window length plan has also largely disappeared as those players we were earmarking are getting picked up by others sooner.
It seems like we’re now going into transfer windows with the same knowledge as ever, but not being able to be as far along in the process with the player we have targeted. Maybe that is part of the reason we’re now operating more often in the high end of the market, because it takes out these second rung clubs who are now providing competition for the unpolished gems. We are willing to pay the extra money for the predictability.
4 Likes
But is that role the same as the one we’re trying to fill here - we’re presumably after someone who is going to be a regular starter. City may be just looking to make up numbers?
It’s worth pointing out that he will be the third such player in succession, with neither of the other two even making a ripple. Is that the level of quality, readiness, and liklihood of success we want for our primary target?
5 Likes
I said it a few weeks ago, but I wonder if perversely we saw his injury as a market opportunity. With Mitoma already out it left Brighton without their 2 starting wingers to start the season, and likely looking at the market to bring someone in. We maybe we thought they’d be more open to listening to reasonable offers now to fund that
2 Likes
If they wanted to sell their full holding then it is unlikely they would have done a deal for just 38%. The group buying that 38% interest are clearly able and willing to buy the club in full.
Have a look at the numbers the club has made offers of around £100m or more for Barcola and before that Diomande, and an offer around £60m for Minteh.
We’ve already spent £60m on Jacquet and £40m on Munoz, plus the fee/ wages for the lad from Barca on loan.
Meanwhile we’ve got a fee for Curtis, and may get one for Gakpo which together might cover around £100m of that spend.
That’s not a sign of a club not willing to spend money on the squad.
1 Like
I’d take an exciting developmental prospect over no one right now which is increasingly where it looks like we may end up.
1 Like
So Savinho is a punt, he didn’t work out and they make £40-£50m profit anyway.
So how is that worse than doing nothing?
1 Like
Are we likely to do nothing? Does it remotely look like that is what we’re willing to settle for?
2 Likes
I don’t think we’re willing to settle for that but so far we’re half a dozen deep into our list of options so there’s a distinct possibility that’s what happens.
We’re now looking at a £50m deal for a 28 year old who has downed tools to try and force a move to Turkey. Oh and from the club who screwed us over last summer too.
Please tell me how this is any better than taking a flyer on someone like Allan?
1 Like
Have they landed any replacements yet, I wonder if the sudden jumps in pricing on the Minteh deal is a reflection of any difficulties they themselves are facing in getting cover?
1 Like
I just don’t see how taking a flier on a player we likely wont expect much from this season, when every seems to acknowledge we need help now, actually addresses that or the things you have demanding we address.
We already have talents in and around the first team we’re going to need to be patient with. We dont need to spend 10s of millions bringing in more when what we’re all crying out for, even the manager, is someone who can hit the ground running this season
3 Likes
Of the four players he bought (largely directed by Jurgen) two had release clauses we activated, one was a low fee punt, and the other was someone Bayern were actively trying to get rid of.
I don’t think they are comparable.
Who was the low fee punt? Arthur?
… keep him until the winter or beyond. Remember, they see us as rivals (in my opinion, wrongly, as they are far above us now in terms of quality of the squad, but that’s not how they see it apparently), and sit on a bottomless amount of money. They can perfectly keep the player if LFC don’t pay exactly what they want. Will he be unhappy? Of course, but will they care?
If PSG want to make a stand and fleece us, this is a blind alley unless we pay the full asking price. That’s how it is when you deal with a club financed by a country.
2 Likes
What even is the asking price?
1 Like
I don’t know, but visibly, we can’t pay it.
Of course we could. It’s said the club could clear £250m if it wanted to.
This isn’t about us being unable to pay an asking price. It’s about value. We’re trying to get the price down because the lad wants to, it’s PSGs last chance to get this kind of money and they’ve already bought his replacements. They are trying to get the price up because we’re desperate for Wingers.
It’s about whoever blinks first. Someone will blink, but not with a week of the window still to go. I reckon it gets done at about £120m
1 Like
Because there’s a possibility he might be able to address what we’re after, much in the way Rayan did. Whereas failing to get anyone over the line, which is a very real risk right now, definitely doesn’t address what we need.
We are not getting an established top talent for the left wing. Diomande had one season of football. Mbaye is a teenager. Minteh is still relatively inexperienced and injured. Which of these was a “hit the ground running” option exactly?
What we have spent the summer doing is looking for a young option on the right because Olise aside there’s not really an elite player out there in that position. What I’m trying to point out is these players we’ve been after have all been priced at top end of the market despite carrying the risk of relative inexperience.
So why not take that risk in a lower price bracket where we can get a deal done instead of bouncing round from all these silly money targets that are no more certain.
Who exactly do you think is the attainable left wing option who’ll hit the ground running for us right now?
1 Like
Sure, but why does it make sense to keep comparing the alternative moves we’re trying to make now to not getting anything done? If that happens it will be bad. And not because me as a fan wants to see singings, but because it will be a failure of something everyone at the club clearly acknowledged was important. But we aren’t there and are clearly trying lots of avenues to avoid getting there.
So why not Allen? Well, presumably we didnt fancy him enough to think he was good enough or ready to do what we think we need. Just because some of the players we’ve been linked to arent the finished article doesnt mean that there is no bar for the player to have to clear to warrant us spending tens of million to bring them in.
1 Like