The thing is, some clubs across Europe will have to offload relatively expensive players at the worst possible time to balance the books. There will be good deals to be had. The question really is if we will have the funds to compete, not to mention European football to attract the better players.
If they’re not prepared to stick in some cash, even on a short term cash flow easing basis, then I can see the tide turning for them this summer with plenty of your fan base. Their investment in that club currently stands at £0 & due to the pandemic it’s at this point where their model will come under the most scrutiny imo, as if you’re to push on again next season and get back to challenging at the peak, then you need to invest. We had this problem with Kenwright. The first Sky cheque arrives late August iirc & we could never get our business done early, as we literally had to wait for that to arrive, as he was incapable of funding even a short term loan.
I agree tbh, for what you’d likely get for him you’d be better served keeping him. Unless he decides he wants a fresh start then I think he’s unlikely to be moved on.
No mate, my point was about your squad in general really. If there’s no investment then I just can’t see you getting back to challenging City, and you’ll drop back to where you where 3/4 years ago, as one of the chasing pack.
We already have. People just don't realise it. Look at the squad. Firmino is miles off Mane imo has lost the hunger, I seriously question whether he gets it back. Henderson is headed for 31. Milner is done Keita has failed Thiago has a lot to prove in terms of fitness. Alison looks like he needs to work on kicking. Dunno what's going on. Wijnaldum is already checked out. Our team next season may well be a very very similar first 11 to the title winning one but there are many questions and little back up. Alison Taa Gomez vvd robertson Henderson fabinho thiago Salah firmino mane The only back up then is jota, tsimikas, jones, keita And we cant rely on ox, matip etc etc.
No doubt that I think we need to add 2-4 players this summer but this squad is still in really good shape IMO. Injuries have badly decimated our team which then snowballed into a drop in heads and low confidence. But if we can definitely get the likes of Gomez and VVD back (and Matip) fully fit then our team is massively stronger. In order to be competitive, we do need to be lucky and keep the core group of our team injury free. City are running away with the league but let's be honest - they're nowhere near the level there were 2-3 years ago, that was their peak. And this current side isn't that great. They were struggling massively at the beginning of the season and were dropping points almost every week. That was when squads were pretty much on a level playing field in terms of injuries and freshness. It's only when other teams suffered more injuries and fatigue, did City start to run away with it. Why? Because they have the biggest and most expensively assembled squad in world football.
This is true Jimmy, but it is what it is. We need to look at what we need to climb Everest again, rather than hoping it gets smaller.
We did it once before, and we can do it again. I genuinely believe we would have walked the league this season if we kept VVD fit. His injury alone caused a knock on impact to the defenders and midfielders around him. In fact, we were able to cope for another 1-2 months without him but unfortunately our owners screwed us in January. Of course, it was our own fault for having that much of a reliance on him in the first place but hopefully lessons are finally learned.
Agree with a lot of that, except walking the league. I said back in December that City were still favourites due to their squad size, and that any team wanting to win it would have to finish above them. I truly believe that had we kept VVD and Joe we would have CHALLENGED City, but we were getting those injuries in Jan/Feb/March because, like most in the league, we haven't got City's squad and can't absorb them. I can only think of United and Chelsea that come even close to doing so. But your point on the owners is true -their model is totally inflexible to emerging situations. Nonetheless, even had FSG bought us 3 £50m CB's early in the window, it doesn't account for the fact that our tactical reaction to injuries - and yes, this means Jurgen too - has been as woeful and inflexible as FSB's has been to the changing, strategic landscape.
You know, if only.... Matip is one of the best CB's in Europe when he's not injured. A bit like the cicada that comes out every 17 years in the US is the best cicada in town: but just once in every 17 years.
Agreed. I think FSG definitely cost us the title by not backing us in January and getting another good quality CB (Sorry MITO but Ben Davies could be the most useless signing we have ever made!). But Klopp's failure to change things sooner and adapt is what will cost us top 4.
i'm convinced that Matip has always been Klopps first choice to partner VVD however as he is so frequently injured that Gomez plays and Klopp , rightly imo , sticks with it while things are going well or until Joe gets injured .
Wasnt just him though. As you say we coped ok without him with Gomez and Matip. Was only when we lost 1 and Fab went back there things got bit iffy and then we destroyed our midfield with Hendo going back there when Matip got injured.
You are young, you do not recall jimmy carter. Istvan Kozma or the glory that was Sean dundee I don't agree that they cost us a title. The title was gone in novemebr, peoepl just didn't realise it. Citys form was already powering on and ours was already dipping but peoepl didn't like being told that. If we'd bought a top CB on jan 1 then we would have saved top 4, maybe got second or whatever. Failure to change things is easy to say but we have been horribly let down by mane and firmino in particular and we had few options. If kabak say arrived jan 1 not jan 31 then maybe he would have got into the side sooner and got up to speed quickler but we were losing by the odd goal mostly not shipping goals. We couldn't scope in a brothel from late decemebr and are still flaky. How do we adapt when the options are Shqirir and origi? The real issue for me is long term decision making by klopp et al over several years, we have had mostly hits onthe big signins but we have made do with poor enough squad options. Buying jota was a good call but with him injured we had no options. I would have changed things and we discussed these several times on this site but klopp didn't, i'm not the manager so its easy to say just change. I think we should be seeing how the club have worked on keita for several weeks to get him actually fit, we should be seeing how the club have worked with kabak (and who has done well with guidance) We are where we are but the reality is we got thumped 2-7 by villa with VVD. The warning signs were there. We got a lead when city were caught by the late start and european games in the summer but city were coming hard at everyone for months and peoepl were bruying their heads in the sand with us on top of a very mixed bag. Our form was already tetering. It fell in the absolutel toilet. Right now lets be clear, Utd have 57 points with 9 to go. The are likley to have certinly <80 points in 2nd and likley <75. 4th will be more or less about the 70 mark as normal as cheslea have picked up form under tuchel. It might have been 65 otherwise.
Fair enough but you probably didn't expect us to win the CL and PL without investment but we did. Not saying it'll happen again, in reality it's very unlikely but only time will tell.
Even though I think that we will finish outside of top four or even the European places altogether.....I don’t think that we can judge our future on this season.....in a Covid season when we could not add what we really needed to, we lost an entire suite of CB’s and midfielders and even the only realistic alternative to our front 3 meaning that our previously successful front 3 could not be properly rotated for a third season. Our best 11 (or 14/15) have proven that they are good enough. Class is permanent and all that. Give them a proper pre season and a season that isn’t as compressed as this one and add 2 or 3 players and we’ll be there or thereabouts. City will always be the target because of the size and quality of their squad - we can never escape that - but in the next decade they will be beaten occasionally by different clubs to the title. Who will beat them will depend on the circumstance of that season. One of those clubs will be us...several others will have a chance occasionally too - It’s a reality. Last year was our year because circumstance fell nicely in our favour - we were virtually invincible - this year it didn’t. Period. What we once had, we can have again (goes for most of the top 10 clubs).
