hang on just a moment, i have to challenge this one. Kevin keegan sold for 500k. Kenny dalglish bought for 400k. We were also operating in an era where the crowd and money coming in was literally it so you have big crowds in you could spend that. the fact is we moved to replace kevin keegan. we didn't add Dalglish to the club just like that. Hanson was a classic LFC buy who was eased in aver the couse of the two years and souness was the one big buy. you'll find prior years and following years where young players like rush, jones, etc were purchased and eased into the playing squad The point being we didn't go out and lay down a million on a super star, we replaced one with another and took in cash doing it. LFC make superstars, we don't buy them. You could have chosen 1981 when our bob got rid of kennedy, case and clemence and bought lawrenson and nicol as an example of shedding the older players and bringing in absolute top top young lads who go on to be super stars or you could have highlighted 1984 where we let souness (31) go on his italy adventure and bought molby macdonald and walsh. We also let thommo go at 31. again letting the older players go and bringing in young players. Or again 2005 when rafa was in (special case this) he bought crouch, sissoko, reina, agger. after reaching the final in 2018 LFC bought allison and keita and fabinho and shaqiri and sold a few squad players but we had sold countinho that january and got in vvd as well. After winning it in 2019 we didn't let anyone go but bought the wunderkind elliott who is now clearly a 80mil player (if grealish is 100 mil this kid is 80 today) we let squad players like kent and ings go. really the message here is that "the model" was always to buy talent and bring it on while letting players who are going to drop off go. what we are doing now is we are rewarding aging players and making them impossible to sell off as their contracts are so big they can sit them out. 2025 for henderson is a joke. Fees are also out of all proportion and not based on revenues we or anyone else can rely on but are spending masses. 100mil on grealish, 97il on lukaku?? these are crazy numbers for players just not with it. My view is that there is a fine balance to be struck. I think dortmund go a little too far with the players, they have probably too many "developing" and they are not getting the results they should on the park. Dortmund younger players Haaland Bellingham coulibaly Dahoud (now 25) Brandt (now 25, ruined himself going to PSG) Reiner malen (bought to replace haaland) guerreiro (now actually 27 but bought young) kamara (only 16) they older players don't really have the quality.
I don’t understand saying how smoke fans are just happy making do. Or making excuses for the owners etc. no one is sitting there going oh we’ve done brilliantly not investing huge amounts into the squad. Of course ideal world we’d all have liked a couple more players to improve the squad on key areas. I don’t think any 1 fan on here would disagree with that. The point is, moaning about it here won’t make the club buy anyone. And we don’t know the ins and outs of the conversations being had and maybe it’s klopp who has said no to some targets etc. We can’t just blindly blame fsg for not signing any other players. we already have a maxed out squad. Now the quality of that squad is obv up for debate but if you can’t move players on, what are we meant to do? Unlike Chelsea who just stock pile players on big wages then just loan them out at fraction of price, that’s not how we operate so can’t afford to do it. Every single fan on here wants us to compete and win trophies. And to do that we need to strengthen but if we don’t, then do be it, we get behind the team support them and then see what happens. We all thought we made a huge mistake buying no one when we won the CL, then we went and won the league the following year. If klopp thinks we’ve got replacements internally that can step up then brilliant, if he’s wrong then him and fsg will get plenty of stick for it. That’s why they get paid the big money.
btw: brentford. guess what. theywon the 180mil lottery and wages are reflecting that. they can actually afford to update thier squad and try improve based on the new gap between revenue and wage commitments. simple really. we are giving far too much money to too many players imo. Ox, keita, 120k per week nobody is giving that to them elsewhere minamino 75k per week origi 80k (no wonder nobody wants him) milner 150k (thats just too much for a 36 year old) by all means pay the top dogs but when you've average squad players on massive wages but at the bottom end you try squeeze kids and lose them and at the top end cannot complete with the 300-400k clubs then you have to wonder why.
Income statement and statement of financial position cash flows dictate who is bought not opinions on who is big. That part seems to skip your logic alot. What I have not seen is a list of the so called 2 players who would have been happy to come to LFC to sit on the bench and hope our front 4 or midfield players get injured so they can get a game. I have seen names like Donyel Mallen who had the option to replace Sancho and be a first teamer in a champions league team. I know he aint coming. I believe the money to invest is there but the timing is not. This team still has some mileage left. Funny that our strikers are aging and the so called competition Chelsea bought a 28yr old Lukaku for 100million City bid 125 million for a 28 yr old but because ours 29, they are old. It is also interesting that the top scorers in the major leagues are in their 30s or late 20s. Messi Lewandowski Ronaldo Vardy Immobile Kane Salah. This narative that once you get to 30 you are dead is lazy too.There is sufficient time to refresh the squad and wanting new toys to make the fanbase feel happy is not Klopps way. He has said that solutions can be found in the market or inhouse so I will go with his judgement all day.
I agree with that. Our wage bill is high and we are wasting a lot of money. We’ve just given Hendo a bumper new contract until he’s 35 and the guy is already injury prone and not playing many minutes.
We’re already seeing regression in Firmino and now potentially Mane. How long do we continue to flog them until we need to find a replacement. Jota is one but we surely need another one. You say we don’t have a lot of cash but what do we do? Do we sell them now whilst they have value or do we hold on, get every last ounce from them and then just have to spend big on a replacement? if we can’t compete with the big boys, then we have to be smart - so let’s be like Dortmund. But oh wait, their targets would prefer to go to Dortmund because they’ll get more game time. So now we’ve ruled out big name superstars and we’ve ruled out potential superstars.
God forbid the owners actually invest in the team. I'm assuming when we go back to struggling to get in the champions league you will be happy crowing about how good the training complex is.
I would like to understand the thought process to your conclusion as currently this squad is structured to win, has had investments since the last league win and according to you we will go back to struggling to get in the CL. I am struggling because a weaker squad than the one we currently have finished 3rd, got to the CL quarter final with Nat Philips as the senior CB. Who outside City Chelsea and United will usurp us I am enjoying this debate but I am struggling with your conclusions
He's not saying that though, is he? You asked where the money has gone and he offered a perfectly reasonable explanation.
Atm both views represented are fair and it really could go either way Defo a clear divide on thought processes within the fans though Fun to read
It's not just this transfer window I'm ever so slightly pissed off with, it's the consist lack of ambition. At the moment our first 11 can go toe to toe with anyone, but next season? Certainly not the season after when the majority will be in there 30s What happens then? Will people finally cone round to the idea that buying the bare minimum maybe not the best idea?
Perhaps I'm being soft, but I'd prefer it with less belligerence. You don't win an argument through force of will - it's by presenting a compelling case that you convince others. This includes taking into account factors that go against your conclusion and not just dismissing them out of hand. I think you're quite good at that, btw.
I think you have finally come to some convergence with what we are saying. The squad right now is good to challenge. Your worries seem a season or 2 away. Until then, your points will be fair but for now can we enjoy one of the best Liverpool teams in a generation and worry about the rebuild later?
but this is the thing - why were we third? Yes we had some horrible injuries but we went into the season with only 3 senior centre backs (2 of whom have a horrible injury record). We then the opportunity to rectify that in January but instead waited right until the last minute and picked the cheapest options possible. Then there was a period where we couldn’t score - where were the options? Jota was injured but surely we had someone else To fall back on? We even loaned out Taki to fund the cheap CB option lol. Im not saying that FSg have never spent but we really need more investment. We’re one injury away from having to rely on Neco playing arguably the most important creative role in our whole team. We’ve already lost bobby to injury but we’ve also got afcon to worry about - and we then have to rely on bobby to actually score goals. I maintain that this team is still very strong but we have to be lucky with injuries and there is no room for error. There is no buffer. I just wished that we did have some wiggle room - look at kostas for example. Robbo is one of our most important players but how refreshing was it to see kostas come in and arguably actually do better than Robbo. We don’t need two world class options for each position nor could we afford it. But we need better options.
Your last sentence is the concern for me. I often get called short sighted because I want to keep the squad fresh each year. But waiting years and then rebuilding is very short sighted. I highly doubt we will be able to fund an overhaul in a single window when the time comes nor do I think Klopp would want that much change in such a short space of time. Plus - we could very well be out of rhe CL next year or the year after, then what happens to our recruitment? It was a close reality last season due to lack of defensive cover and Klopp was expected to perform miracles again to turn it around.
