That's not what's being reported. Liverpool have either matched our bid or actually gone a little lower, depending on who you believe. It's hardly surprising that players prefer them and Barcelona to us, is it?
I am well aware of that!! And in general I understand what your saying, but the media are reporting that Pools offer is 45m with 15 in bonuses doesn't look a lot different to ours so maybe this is down to the player and his agent.
I think that as a club we now provide a valuable service in getting players to their preferred clubs, by submitting our own offers and forcing them to act. We should start charging agent fees for said service.
Well it happens every summer so maybe we should recognise that we are limited with this approach where we think we are smart as **** near the end of every window…we’re not good at it and Levy needs to stop thinking he’s going to have a Van Dee Vaart moment every window…sick of it…sick of him. I wish everyone would stop implying that we are the only ones who can get gazumped by bigger fish…it’s because we procrastinate every single time that we get done over. It’s not a surprise that a player chooses Barca over Spurs but you seem to be implying that players from Barca would never join Spurs…which we all know isn’t true. So as much as it’s highly likely they choose the bigger club. If we do our business when others arent too interested, hedging their bets etc…then we get what we want like other lesser clubs than us. Whats so smart about spending the whole transfer window haggling, getting stuck on a paltry fee, it is paltry 4 mill in a multi billion pound set up. Levy got no smart with the football decisions…I stand by that…infact I think he takes the piss because he knows the nature of the fanbase…they’ll be fine on Feb 1st.
Levy's habit of moving late in the window is ****. No arguments with that. You can't get things done quickly when other teams are interested, though. The player's agent/s and the other club will tell other clubs, as it's in their interest to do so. We couldn't get Diaz done without Liverpool having the option to get involved.
So we appoint a really experienced DoF and one of the world's best coaches but nothing much changes in our way of operating on transfers. There are two explanations for this. One is that we were doing most things right and there isn't much for the DoF to improve. The second is that the new guys are being ignored. No prizes for guessing which one people on here are going for despite the other one being much more logical.
I really wouldn't want be going through an even longer summer transfer window, if I were in his place. Managing a club with so little pull must be a new experience for him.
And to make things that much better: Rumours of PSG now having doubts over fatty’s wage according to L’equipe. Eddie Howe not keen on Dele and thus far no concrete offer from anyone for him. Lo Celso was offered to Fiorentina on loan but they said no and no one else wants him so far (can’t blame them I guess).
I don't like Levy or ENIC, however I don't think they can be blamed for Diaz. Diaz wanted Liverpool and Liverpool wanted Diaz. Even if we had offered full asking price, his agent would of called Liverpool they would of matched the offer and Diaz would of chosen Liverpool over Tottenham. If we can offload at least one of N'Dombele, Lo Celso or Dele and maybe bring a couple of players in, its not a brilliant window but could be enough to get us in top 4 with the chance to attract better players in the summer.
Agreed. But over Levy's time in charge we have a better than average return on transfer spend. So expecting Paratici to do other than make minor improvements is wrong.
Missing out on Diaz is frustrating but understandable as there was bound to be interest from someone else but what annoys me, and it’s similar to what I said yesterday, is that this window is 31 days long and yet we basically used the first 25 days as a holiday. Why did we make a bid for Diaz on the 26th of the month? That first bid was rejected, we made a second one yesterday which some rumours claimed may have been accepted. Now Pool have jumped in and looks like they’re gonna nab him. If we’d made our first bid on say the 1st Jan, then the 3rd Jan we made our second and Pool still came in and gazumped is, that would’ve given us another 28 or so days to pursue other targets. But instead, this thick **** of a football club thinks doing their business late on has advantages, which it absolutely clearly doesn’t and we’re now in a stage where it’s likely going to be a panic fest to try and get something done and chances are it’ll be poorly thought out options that end up joining with little success.
I think that even your suggested method is too late. We should be hitting the first day of the window with deals already done. We can't use a player until it opens, but we can complete transfers.
