They have strong squads and are far more powerful then the rest of the league. They can afford to integrate a few players here and there. But their scouting is brilliant - they benefit from geographical location and cultural similarities with South American counterparts. They also benefit from cheap deals as a result of 3rd party ownership.
Portuguese league is terrible, that's why. Might sound a bit of a stretch but I think we should go for Iniesta, I beleive he's 29/30 and his career has stalled somewhat at Barca. It would give him new motivation and a massive boost the squad needs, let alone the stuff he could teach Coutinho and Sterling.
Ambitious - quality player but not what we need. Coutinho is our 'number 8' (yes he's a number 10 but he's better as a number 8). We have other priorities - GK, RCB, DM, ST.
Agree with this. We should have a list of twenty or thirty players for every position with a in depth report attached to each. We should always have a plan for if and when a player leaves no matter who that player may be. Same goes for the manager, maybe only four or five names but still have a proactive plan just in case. The comprehensive list of players would help any impending manager too
Agreed that it's an 'easy' transition but a lot of these players do develop into quality, world class and move on to bigger clubs. Teams like Porto find the talents at the right time. Which is what we should be doing - and have done with the likes of Can and Moreno.
Papers are still adamant that we're gonna sign Lavezzi - a 29 year old for £14m who will no doubt make our build up play even better but will make next to no improvement on our finishing
No we don't - we just need to be smart in the transfer window and not spunk money in the domestic market. Not that he was necessary, but a player of Shaqiri's quality went for £11m which is a bargain in my eyes. Instead, we signed Lallana who is older, less experienced, no potential, for double the amount.
More of a general point but also keep in mind the homegrown rules. Based on what a lot of people would like to happen we will soon lose; Borini, Gerrard, Johnson, Jones, Lambert, and some even say Allen Swap out Lallana in addition to all that and we're basically playing our U21s
A bit more on home grown: Not home grown: Balotelli Coutinho Lovren Mignolet Moreno Lucas Sakho Enrique Skrtel Toure Will be not home grown soon: Can Ilori Manquillo Markovic That's 3 of 17 places available before sales. Teixeira should become home grown and maybe Origi too.
If it's anything like last year we'll try and strike a bargain with a megarich russian club on the final day i.e. the definition of insanity
we will sing no-one i think the suarez fee is in installments so we can only afford to buy next summer.... I hope.
the argument about home grown v non home grown... is much more simple. the rules require 8 home grown players out of 25 or in other words 17 foreigners are allowed. it is not the same as CL requirements in that if you have less hg you are punished. so: LFC: foreign (17) mingolet. Can Skertl Sahko Lovern Toure Moreno Enrique Lucas Balotelli coutinho players who i think don't count as will not make our 25. Ilori alberto Aspas coates homegrown: joke but should be 8 to make up 25 man team (NOT a minimum of 8)) Allen Henderson Lallana Flanangan Sturridge Lambert borini... I think he counts as he was at chelsea and swansea. wisdom (will be 22) u21. Origi... he will never be Hg for us. he is coming as a 20 year old and never trained for 3 years in england. markovic.. then will move to foreign sterling. only 20 will be Hg then Teix.. might be might not be hg ibe and the rest all u21. I make that without including gerrard and johnson that i can include 8 players who are HG. But the important urel is I can have 17 foreigners max... i count 11 and 4 duds who will never play. that means LFC have plenty of scope to sign players I can only count 11 foregin lads who might play and not all of them are any good so LFC IMO have huge scope to go buy quality and a good price not splash stupid money on average english muck.
MITO you forgot Manquillo Yes the home grown is not a minimum requirement, but our squad should ideally be as big as possible for rotation. Origi misses out on home grown by about 3 months but that's in 2 seasons, next season he's still U21. So next season I think we only have 3 places available before sales. Toure is out of contract so that's 4, but we actually have to shift others before their space is available and that can't be guaranteed. Let's say we want a new keeper. That's 2-3 outfield players which means we do have room to buy quality non home grown players, but home grown is still a benefit since we are losing so many of them.
I didn't care about him cos he's a) average enough b) on loan c) going to be 21 next may therefore u21 next year. Origi doesn't miss out on anything the rule is you must be trained here. Origi has never been trained in england therefore cannot be called HG in any way. I would say we will have no issue what so ever as i've never seen a real full 25 man prem squad barring massively over infalted teams. we've always had about 21 players not including u21s. I'd put it at 4/5 buys easy without running into anything.
I think the rule is just registered for 36 months before 21st birthday, and he's been registered with us since July but his birthday is April.
You need to pay more attention to the wording. If we want top first team quality that will make an immediate impact then we would have to pay. Gk...£5m to £15m Cb... £10m to £20m DM... £10m to £20m St... £20m to £30m Total... £45m to £85m. I just went with the high end as it suited my point
