Apparently Benteke is pretty much a done deal. Source is TalkSh*te, but one of their guys, Graham Beecroft does have strong links with Villa so may the story holds some credibility. Just trying to calculate how much money we've given to midtable PL teams over the years and what impact have these players provided? Soton, Swansea, Villa, Newcastle, Sunderland ...
Transfer market officially opens today. Liverpool cannot waste time, otherwise we are going to lose out.
Hmm. I'm really not sold on Benteke, but it's clear that BR really wants him, so he must feel he fits with the way he is trying to play from now on. If we were to spend no more than £22m then I wouldn't be too annoyed. He may also work well with his compatriot Origi.
To be fair, we've already signed 6 (maybe 7 soon). I think from this point onwards, it's more a case of getting players out the door.
Still clear that we are after another CM (illaramendi?), striker (Benteke?) and CB (that chap from Monaco). I think signings in those 3 positions, plus the young Scandinavian LB and we will be in a good position to then turf out some crap
Part of the reason why getting signings done so early is important. Sure there is no substitute for match practice, but having the new signings for all of pre-season to get to know our current squad and how certain individuals like to play will be very important
So only the 10 new additions (albeit not all are first team). Shocking, really, that we still need so many new players.
Some of our players last season are not good enough and we need quality players as back up. Our squad was also thin last year.
Yea, but it's been a long time coming. Plus it's also an end of an era (albeit not a memorable one all the time) in many ways with Gerrard, and Johnson leaving and most probably Lucas too. Also it's clear that we really did buy quite badly last summer, mainly in that all our signings last summer should have cost us a total of £60m tops really. I still think Markovich will come good and Lallana does serve a purpose and is a handy sub. Lovren though, I've not even seen glimpses of talent. and Balotelli? We will send him on loan with an option for the other team to buy.
Last summer was a massive failure. Balotelli, Lambert both likely to be sold one year on, no cover bought for an ageing Gerrard, or even Johnson and Jones. Lovren, Moreno and Markovic failing to make an impact (well not a good one). There's only Lallana that has done anything from last summers buys and that has been wildly hit and miss. We well and truly ****ed up the CL aspect of last summer and are now having to make up for it.
He didn't badly want him a couple of months ago. At least that's what he told my mate. Someone could fish out the relevant posts. I can't
All i can say is many players are on their make or break season. I would put it this way. Lallana, lovern and markovic had a poor first year. They cannot do it again or they are toast and we lose massively. Each will have to hit preseason and be really working very hard to get a chance in the 1st 11 day one. then again ANYONE not bursting a gut this summer to get that opening day shirt I think should be back of the queue to play for us. We have seen such a message from Louis van Gaal a lot last year. We've so many players they are all on trial IMO. If they don't work for the shirt then they should be got shut of. It'll sort them men form the boys. As for now it seems 2 keepers in place, 2 RBs, 2 LBs (not including injured flannagan and enrique) 5 cbs including toure but not gomez means there should be a lot of competition for sports there. The CM 3 pick themselves unfortunately. allen and lucas just can't compete. Up front there should be some competition but its lallana coutinho, firmino and ibe for two spots and right now balotelli and ings for the no 9 role. We need more there as i said the guys most hungry this preseason should start the first game and it should be quite hard to force your way in but not impossible thereafter.
I remember you saying so. If theres something coming from the villa side that will be interesting as it will force the usual 3/4 LFC suspects to get onto their sauces.
Lovern isn't that bad. he is an easy target. his game is the direct opposite to skertl. Lovern is best not backing off like skertl always does but actually stepping up into challenged and winning headers. He would be a much better defender with a sweeper beside him who just directed things. Carragher for example would make him look good as he'd tidy up the scraps. both lowern and sahko want to go attack it. thats the issue theres nobody there to sweep up the stuff they don't get. Lovern was better on the ball at southampton too. at lfc he looks shaky. thats half style we play and half confidence.. in the end he's a 10mil player we paid 20mil for and thats half the issue.
You missed out Can. Moreno and Markovic have both shown potential and are both young, so hopefully will develop (although there's obviously no guarantee that they will). Lovren and Lallana are both older though. I just hope we don't have another season of half our players trying to bed in.
