We finished second last season (miles ahead of the Moyes Boys) with Aspas as back up so your point about it being a poor option makes little sense (no surprise). We replace a player who's gash with a player who's got 117 goals in 235 appearances. We may well go into next season with Suarez, Sturridge, Lambrini and Borinio as our 4 options plus Sterling and don't be surprised if we bring in another such as The Plank. That's a much improved front line at an outlay of very little money. So is this really as pointless as you think? Now all we need is the final piece of the jigsaw....a brand new defence .....which in fairness we'll have the cash for thanks to us saving cash improving our options up front...oh and being in the Champions League What are you doing with your Tuesday and Wednesday evenings next season btw?
Thing is, if you don't sell to us someone else will come in with a bigger offer. They still might come in over our heads with an offer we can't or won't match. You'll want to get as much as you can for him, but I'd rather see clubs hold on to their better players and make the league more competitive overall. Not going to happen though, sadly.
Hmmm I see your point Saint but surely it works both ways....we paid a kings ransom for a ****ing donkey like Mandy, we gifted Villa a fortune for Drowning, the manks went crazy with the Fellaini deal, we got £50 mill for Torres who now looks shot to bits etc etc. There's plenty of occasions where the bigger clubs pay way over the odds and don't get vfm.
Sure, but our board have to back up words with actions, particularly having just lost our manager and talisman. It makes no sense to sell Lallana prior to a World Cup, just because that's what Brendan wants. For £25m, we'll only get £18.25 which actually isn't great for someone of his quality. If he is to be sold, hopefully he'll have a great World Cup and we can whack up the price. Shaw going isn't really something we can't suck up, particularly at £30m (plus a have another LB youngster coming through that may be equally as good). Lallana at £18.25 presents something of a greater issue.
Very true, but surely if left in the team where they originally shone, then they should continue to do well? It's as much about balance as individual skills. Somehow Nando had lost his mojo before he left us, though that only became clear with hindsight. Seems unlikely now, but perhaps Mandy would have gone on to great things with the Nukes, he seemed happy there. (though I might have gone a bit too far with that one) Saints were a bit too inconsistent last season to seriously attack the top places, but if they were allowed to build on that then they might be more successful in future. My point is that I'd like to see a better, more competitive league overall, not just one where any decent player gets snapped up by the big boys to look pretty on the bench. Same with players like Barkley, I'd rather he stayed with the BS and keep them up there.
Agreed on that. A lot of our inconsistency occurred due to a raft of defensive injuries at the same time and a small squad. We all had high hopes moving forward, which is why there's something verging on meltdown going on (if we sell Lallana prior to new manager coming in, it'll go full scale). You try having Christian Gross as 2nd favourite for the managers position!
If he's only that much I'll buy him myself. I get your point. Your board can refuse to sell him in the way ours refused to let Gnasher go. It bought them a lot of respect amongst the fans and made the club stronger. As you say, it's a decision with implications greater than the loss of one player. If we get Lallana, then I'll support him obviously, but unless we're going to spend a real ****load this summer (then what happens with FFP?) then I'd rather we spent that amount plugging our holey defence.
Again I see where you're coming from and agree to a certain extent however....if the owners of clubs like Saints want to continue to build then they have to fight to keep as many good players as possible. Unfortunately Saints seem to be in trouble with theirs and so other clubs will come circling. It's not us that's not allowing them to build it's themselves (owners not the fans obviously). Let's not forget we had owners not so long ago who were trying to shaft us too so as much as I sympathise it's not something I feel the need to lose sleep over. This has been going on for many years and I don't see that it's made the league any less competitive than it was when "I were a lad"
That was only about 10 years ago, according to your usual mythology. I'm not having a go at us in particular, Billy. If anybody's going to benefit, obviously I'd want it to be us. I'm just doing my grumpy-old-get thing and lamenting the way money has distorted the game- because I do think that even if the situation hasn't changed, it has become more extreme. More a case of degree than kind.
You probably need Lovren more, but please, you all seem nice enough. Leave him alone for the time being
Some Welsh moron ruined ours. Hes probably made a thread about saints transfer targets by now. And auto correct is a bitch isnt it
Have a stress free tuesday and wednesday for once. And you did finish miles ahead of moyes united. Not quite as far ahead as we have for the past few decades but a good effort all round. We won the same amount of silverware though which as all liverpool fans have been saying for years now, is what matters most I suppose technically we did win more silverware. Which technically makes moyes more successful than rodgers. Dont be offended though, my first thought was 'like **** he is'.
