Apparently he is coming on a 3 month contract to see if he likes it, he is coming out of retirement as well. Could end in tears
A lot of S American players seem to want to play for Barcelona. Firmino is linked atm. It seems to be a very big draw for them and isn't primarily about money.
Ward is going in June so we need somebody in to finalise the deals that will already be in place. He's reportedly very abrasive so the club may want to see how people take to him before maybe offering him a permanent role.
as i said in the quoted post but to ignore the pull of a wage none of our players recd until Salahs last contract seems odd after all if Barca offered him half the wages we were paying him i bet he wouldn't have moved
mane current wages are 250k a week. it's gone badly, very badly for him but in the end he was on 100k here wijnaldum left on 90k here and was on 165k after tax (not before) at psg. its also gone very badly for him coutinho left here on about 150k and got 450k a week at Barca now I'm sure he thinks it went great with all the medals he got sitting on various benches. Bobby in his heart knows he has one more contract in him and he is slowing and more brittle so moving to an easier pace will suit. he was on 180k here and certainly won't be taking a pay cut anywhere. hopefully it goes better for him than the others. another emre can was on about 50k a week and went to juve to get 160k a week and a 10million signing on fee. the difference between the above and Bobby is stark. firmino knows his time is up and klopp has new guys coming in. he also knows he's milked all the love humanly possible and leaves on good terms. perhaps he might even return once in a while for a bit of love and affection
They don't really make a difference. Just means a club can't hold a player against his will do long as slither club coughs up. Can still negotiate lower terms of necessary.
We have no idea what our offer was. It could have been a pay as you play type of deal. Btw I don't know if he's going to Barcelona, it's just a rumour.
Will be interesting to see what happens with Nunez next season. Has big hopes for him and has been a tad disappointing in front of goal, albeit has shown promise and potential being a threat with his movement and counter attacking ability. No doubt against packed defences doesn’t play to his strength and needs to work on that intricate play in tight spaces. For references though, in the Prem averages a goal every 188 minutes in his first season. Not bad for a wide player. Nearly 1 goal every 2 full games. Compare that to Rashford who has had a cracking season by most peoples standard scoring 1 goal every 172 minutes. Still not sure what best front 3 is. Gakpo has started to really improve and has that game intelligence in the false 9. Diaz offers that trickers in tight situations but needs a pre season to get back to proper fitness. And Jota just seems to be very effective when ever he plays. Diaz Gakpo Salah seems to be the front 3 but it’s a nice problem to have 5 players that can interchange. Plenty goals there if we can just sort out a midfield to offer protection.
nunez needs backing. but he needs to get his finger out of his arse and learn the language needed to understand what is required tactically and to hit that preseason running. take the place, don't what for it to be handed to you.
we think, but don't know, that bobby can understand just fine but isn't confident to speak in front of the press. I'm sure he can even understand robertson
Nunez is having double language sessions to try and advance a bit quicker. Thiago is his interpreter by all accounts. As to his progress on the field, I read that his first season at Benfica was similar to how he's performed here but in his second season his numbers exploded. Could be a pattern. Not sure how fluent he is in Portuguese or if it helped
good for him. its very much a case of klopp specifically calling him out in public on this one. His first benfica season was indeed average. he was basically 1 in 4 and got more assists than goals playing striker, however the following season he got 34 goals in 41 games and more than a goal a game in portugese league. It should be noted that in his second season he was played in different positions and partnerships at benfica. he played LW, no 10 almost and striker. he scored 10 goals in 5 games from LW according to transfermarkt His issue here is that he is not getting consistent game time. Since that shoulder injury and jota returning (about january) he has been in and out and found it hard to generate any consistency in his game. Noting that this is when gakpo arrived also. Basically klopp's made a call to go with gakpo and jota and then diaz and got 7 league wins in a row so nunez cannot really complain can he? Darwin is form Uruguay so Spanish is his first language, with respect the root of Portuguese and Spanish is not terribly far apart compared to english and spanish. Its a MUCH different language to learn. The point being klopp as very publically called out the fact that nunez need to learn to get the points being made in training, whereas gakpo speaks english and just got them so gets the games. We never hear a word about diaz either. Both are taking the lessons. Again diaz is 18months in and had a long injury to give him time to learn a bit. klopp joked 12months ago he has no idea how diaz communicates to anyone. These guys need to get the job done, I think its not a core ability of the average footballer but its fundamental to the team to be able to communicate.
Still just makes me laugh that Nunez and rashford numbers are prett identical in the prem yet one’s been labelled a massive flop and one is being labelled as having best career of his season.
