We still have them but we can already signs of regression - especially in Mane and Bobby. Are we going to keep them until their 40 and hope they still deliver? No, we need to provide competition and also plan for their eventual exit. In other words, it's time to be ruthless - Paisley famously said let players age on somebody else's pitch. You're right, FSG have come in and done exactly what they said they would. But I'm sorry, we should not keep quiet and we should not sweep it under the carpet. We should demand more from our owners to invest in the squad. If accepting everything they did was ok, then we would be paying £77 for away tickets, we would have joined the ESL ...
cain is ok. he hasn't found his level yet. newport are pretty much strugglers so he might prove himself. Rhys williams to swansea is alright as long as he actually plays. they have zero expectations and a **** manager who wouldn't do him any favours. they are desperate for players so he'd surely get games. Phillips. we will see. Moving them all will leave us with fabinho and henderson as CBS in December
Agree on both points re Bellingham. Not properly convinced on Barnes yet but he's still young. Unless he refuses a contract to force a move at some point I can't see us being interested unless he becomes really good.
One argument I have seen that I cannot let slip is that we have allowed our Rivals to catch up. Chelsea United and City were going to spend regardless of how good Liverpool had become. We have become the standard so it either we drop off or they catch up. Case in point is some believe Chelsea showed their title credentials because they got a draw at Liverpool. Funny thing is we are apparently not favs because we drew with them. Either we are **** or we are boss. I cannot get my head around that. The gold standard is clear. If you want to win the League with certainity, 95 points is the standard at a minimum. The question we should be asking is can this squad achieve that. Signing two additional players may reduce the workload to the star players, but it doesnt give liverpool the chance to be a dynasty.
We have two HG midfielders in jones and elliott, one even club trained. even the thought of us selling jones is hilarious. rice is vastly over rated. Could he be the next henderson? maybe. is he the next kante? no. at 100mil he can go to cheslea thanks Phillips is vastly over rated. vastly. Bellingham is a kid who was to be bought before dortmund got the claws in not after. He is now superstar money. JWP- no thanks . nice little footballer but the next joe allen. Maddison poor mans mount or grealish. Lets be clear here we have milner who is 92 and ox who might as well be. thats an issue but we have fabinho, henderson and thiago. and we have jones and elliott to develop. we have the problem of a 50mil keita. I see 90mil of investment there thats not worth 30now probably due to injuries. we cannot cry about lack of investment but imo we ought to be crying about lack of ruthlessness to move them on asap. while cheslea are profligate they do have that ruthless edge to improve. We need to borrow a tiny bit of the ruthless edge. Origi should be gone 2 years ago when clubs sniffed about and we hummed and hawed about 30mil. shaqiri could have been gone 2 years ago as well for more money. minamini should never have stepped foot into our club when haaland was 10mil more.
"Deserve" is a difficult word to use. One year we had 97 points and finished second; did we deserve to win it? Last season Man City got much less and won; did they not deserve it? But definitely agree that the team of the last 2-3 years should be remembered as one of the best in the PL and feels capable of winning more. But the Manchester clubs and Chelsea will also feel capable of winning and someone will be disappointed. Hopefully not us. Shaqiri didn't get too many minutes or make too much of an impression recently. Early sigbs are that Elliot can cover that. Wiji is the bigger loss, but we've still got several midfielders. As has been said before, if Keita and Ox (£100m worth of midfield right there) could stay fit and on form, our squad looks so much better. It's again about finding the right players, and as you say, there is value out there. But if the club identifies a value player and thinks they're good enough and we actively want them, do we think we wouldn't buy them?
Unfortunately, 95 points isn't certainty, otherwise we'd have no. 20. More like 100, and even then not mathematically.
I would like to think we would ... but Konate aside, are we saying that there is no one in the market at all that would improve us? Malen went to Dortmund for 25m and he could have been the Mane replacement long term. I'm sorry but I refuse to believe that we couldn't find anyone who would improve us this window.
agreed. you cannot account for others, only your own actions. Massive clubs invest massively. you cannot stop them unless you do a utd and snatch Ronaldo off on his mobility scooter form outside the eithad. however cheslea showing title credentials is something that came up pregame. the reality was lukaku was shown up for a waste of 100mil but the circumstances of the game meant they were easily value for 1-0 at HT and would probably have defended that out. one scrambled moment where james committed the obvious sin meant the game turned on its head and we were expected to go on form there to crack them. they didn't crack so it reflects badly on our ability to beat massed defences but reflects well on their defensive capabilities. apparently...... cos it can't be both ways as you point out based on one game. If you however put 12months of LFC losses and draws against massed defences against cheslea's record of defending under tuchel a clear pattern emerges that nothing unexpected really happened in that game and two top sides cancelled each other out.
in all but 2 years in 130 odd it would be. 95 is more than enough to aim for mate. someone will have to run off into the distance to get over 90 and up there to 95. City have already lost once.
Fair point but then you see teams like West Ham, Villa and Arsenal outspending us over the past 2-3 years, and something doesn't add up.
Spending since winning the CL ... nice to see our net spend is close to Man United's ... u18 team. please log in to view this image
19 prem teams have Outspent us this summer. Bobby could be out for a few months. Club announce hendo contract on deadline day.
Not sure where this 19 clubs spent more than us. Burnley brentford Everton leeds Newcastle Watford and wolves all spent less than us spurs and saints spent about the same.
Announcing the Henderson contract is a piss take. Clearly wasn't going anywhere and it's meant to cover up the complete lack of signings.
Just read it somewhere this morning and although it's great weve not been Outspent by the bottom feeder relegation clubs, those aren't who we are trying to compete with.
The reason Klopp won the league and Rafa/Brodgers didn't. Klopp- very few, but very high quality signings. Probably not entirely Rafa's fault as he had to wheel and deal to get players with no finances... But we'd turn over six or more players a season with Rafa. What signings are we expecting? To improve our first XI we have to spend silly money we don't have and upset our status quo. To improve the squad, you have to bring in someone happy playing second fiddle and waiting their time. I think Klopp and Edwards have played a very intelligent game. Few but good signings are better than many but mediocre signings. I'd rather not sign anyone than the wrong person. Spend the money expanding the stadium and our future revenue for a brighter future rather than just splashing cash on players for the sake of it.
