Liverpool have always spent money. Now they just seem to be spending it really well. They finished 25 points behind City. The Premier League is another animal altogether. We'll see what they do.

JazzG wrote:

Klaus wrote:

We really botched everything these last two years.

Absolutely, complete and utter shambles this club. The Liverpool owner unlike ours seems to be happy for the club to spend within it's means and try to improve. Our lot from the owner, board and manager happy to run the club basically to facilitate the owner's needs which are his operations in America. They set their goals as low as possible, finish top 4 and maintain a certain cash balance. What they didn't see coming was others around us would improve and were hungry to try and succeed.

Liverpool haven’t done anything. They sold Coutinho for a fortune and are spending that money plus the big windfall from reaching the CL final. When we had the chance to spend we did, averaged 70m a year for nearly 4 seasons. We just spent really poorly.

flobaba wrote:

Meh, no use crying over spilled milk. We can’t let what our rivals do bother us so much. They are further along now than we are in their “process/vision”, and are a more attractive destination right now

There will always be decent players out there to be had, and so long as we are on the ball and progressive going forward I don’t see much to complain about. We weren’t going to turn it all around in a single window were we?

Yeah, we were never linked to Fabinho. 

Looks like our transfer team is keying in on the Bundesliga right now. 

We have two sets of problems.
We aren't ambitious enough when it's time to buy, and have been been buying randomly.
And we don't sell our players at the right time.
Pool are doing both well right now. They've secured 3 times as much for Coutinho as we did for Sanchez and that's going a long way towards funding these amazing purchases. They're putting together an incredible team. Jealous

[Twitter][/Twitter]

Impressive signing.

Where they getting all their loot from?

We really need to do all we can to get Fekir. Can't see Liverpool signing both unless they plan to replace 3 midfielders . Emre Can , Milner and someone else.

What the actual fuck

We should have been all over Fabinho. Liverpool have a class midfield on paper for next season. The cunts.

The good news is that if this is a reflection of the sort of prices we can expect then it looks like there’s been a bit of deflation on transfer values.

Claudius wrote:

We have two sets of problems.
We aren't ambitious enough when it's time to buy, and have been been buying randomly.
And we don't sell our players at the right time.
Pool are doing both well right now. They've secured 3 times as much for Coutinho as we did for Sanchez and that's going a long way towards funding these amazing purchases. They're putting together an incredible team. Jealous

It’s amazing what hindsight does. I thought we were right to hang onto Sanchez last summer but it looks like a monumental error now. An extra 60-40m to spend this summer would have been very useful.

@lorddulaarsenal wrote:

Impressive signing.

Where they getting all their loot from?

Coutinho was a ton of money. Plus they aren't wasting their loot on 15m pound wages. 

Wow, the transfer saga ended in one hour! Must be one of the fastest signings ever

Jesus that was quick. 40m is a fucking bargain and makes the 35m we spent on xhaka even more embarrassing

Fabinho and keita in the same midfield is a transfer muppet dream.

How much is Liverpool's Western Union sponsor?

Can’t see us getting near City and Liverpool anyway. Liverpool have embarrassed Wenger and co in the transfer window since Klopp arrived.

To think we spent £70m on Mustafi and Xhaka.

Fucking hell that was completely quickly. Unbelievable signing for them, exactly the type of player they need

Talk on twitter is they want to wrap up Alisson signing as well quickly.

Tony Montana wrote:

Mate you were pro-Wenger for ages. "Let's see what he can do this year first" kind of thing. Now that it is SO obvious that we're not in a position to challenge you hate everything the board is doing, even down to appointing Emery. It's weird.

What a nonsense argument. While I'm flattered you've been following my posts down the years if you look a bit closer I have been criticising the board and the direction the club has been talking for years now. As for Emery, I didn't agree with the choice but I will back him 100%. I am more than willing to give him a chance and see how it goes. The more I read on him the more impressed I am. I wanted a manager who would go out and dictate the game and play free flowing attacking football.

Oh and btw I'm still pro Wenger, the man had his faults but he's done more good than bad for this club. He's the reason why I can be upset we aren't better because he has put us in a position where we could compete. We have chosen not to however. I was wrong about one thing when it comes to Wenger, I thought he bought us this far and he could take us further. His stubbornness in the end is what prevented him from taking his legacy and the club further. But the problem is more complex than that, the board were equally if not more at fault but this is a discussion for another time.

Salah-37M
Ox-£35M
Dijk-£75M
Keita-55M
Fabinho £45M

They’ve spent something like £250M in the last year alone and apart from Ox they’ve all been quality. And if they do get Fekir and Allison that would be close to £350M that is Utd/City level spending. We’ve got no chance with our self sustaining model especially with the type of players we’re going for.

We should learn from Liverpool to get things done quickly and not dither around. They probably secured Fabinho's signing in early May and decided to announce it now.

I suspect it's the same thing with Fekir, probably done or very close to being done.

Bryant wrote:

We should learn from Liverpool to get things done quickly and not dither around. They probably secured Fabinho's signing in early May and decided to announce it now.

I suspect it's the same thing with Fekir, probably done or very close to being done.

Lichsteiner and Sokratis will be done next week. How exciting.

the fact that we showed no interest in fabinho is perplexing. especially at that price. unless we approached and he turned us down because were not in the CL

mdgoonah41 wrote:

the fact that we showed no interest in fabinho is perplexing. especially at that price. unless we approached and he turned us down because were not in the CL

It is unreal mate.

Let us see what our window looks like, but it is maddening.

Bryant wrote:

We should learn from Liverpool to get things done quickly and not dither around. They probably secured Fabinho's signing in early May and decided to announce it now.

I suspect it's the same thing with Fekir, probably done or very close to being done.

Lets hope we do change our ways but I wouldn't count on it. While the manager has gone the board and ownership remains the same.

mdgoonah41 wrote:

the fact that we showed no interest in fabinho is perplexing. especially at that price. unless we approached and he turned us down because were not in the CL

Doubt we even approached him. We're in no position to sign players like him.

Keita and Fabinho, that is what you call an athletic and energetic midfield. It is infuriating the more you think about it. The Wenger led side of the last few years, would literally have been run off the park against the sort of Liverpool team we will see next year.

Emery has a huge task ahead.

Only way we sign players of that profile is if no one else is interested (like Auba). This is our new reality folks. Being up in arms over us not signing him isn’t too dissimilar to what deluded Liverpool fans were doing when Sanchez chose us over them.

How the tables have turned...

If they get Allison and Fekir, that will be an unreal team and depth. They took just 2 windows to transform that team from average to world class. Literally will have signed every single player we wishlisted. The most annoying thing about their ambitions is we cant even say Wenger Out now.

Cant be panicking at this stage though. They havent won anything, finished 1 point behind their last season league tally and lost a European cup final. We just appointed a manager who beat their manager in a cup final 4 years ago.

[Twitter][/Twitter]

Not sure if that being true would make me feel better or worse?

What do we sit around waiting for exactly? It's maddening.

What a signing for Liverpool. Their midfield is top quality now.

Ricky1985 wrote:

What do we sit around waiting for exactly? It's maddening.

I doubt we were in for him, I'd like to hope we were but I've heard this nearly signed for bullshit too many times.

We're like those bargain hunters who show up to a shop when there is 40% off, think we will back when it is an extra 25% off and find everything is gone. Unless the selling club show resistance clubs go in and get their business done early

goon wrote:

They’ve brought in over 150m in the same period so that’s only a net spend of 100m. Getting to the CL final probably pays for Fabinho too.

We spent over 100m net not too long ago. I don’t think you want to see what we got for our money..

Yup, they've offloaded a whole load of rubbish out of their squad so their net spend isn't that high either. The squad they've built has been done step by step over many windows. We will have to go through that long process now as well.

Ricky1985 wrote:

What do we sit around waiting for exactly? It's maddening.

In general who knows, but in this case we've been a bit distracted for the past couple of months.

What Liverpool have shown us is that it'll probably take a couple of seasons to get to that level in the first place. It's a lot easier to sign players when you have CL football and just reached the final.

Very reliable journalist just confirmed we moved in for Fabinho once we realised Liverpool bid for him but it was too late in the end.

Apparently he is Emery first choice to build a team around for Midfield which is why we didnt have much time to go for him after appointing Emery. Emery pushed hard to convince our board to sign him the last few days. He tried to sign him for PSG last season as well. Makes me feel better we tried to show some ambition, as sad as it sounds. Slow transfer team again, annoying assholes

At least it means Emery realises that we needs a new central mid. That's weirdly encouraging to me.

If he wants a new midfielder we'll get one. Fabinho is a fantastic player; there are dozens more on his level in Europe. The question is whether we bid on him because we've realised it's not healthy to reward Xhaka for failure a third year in a row, or because he was the intended Ramsey replacement...

Why did our transfer team need Emery to tell them Fabinho is a good player? That's what I don't understand.

Everyone knew he was leaving Monaco this summer, we should have been talking to his reps as early as was possible.

It depends on the way this new structure works, right? Should they be bringing in players and getting the manager to work with them or should the manager be the one giving direction to what position/profile we look for?

I think Emery is gunna do good tings for us

I think we weren't interested in Fabinho before due to Wenger's dislike of Mendes. They probably did not want to sign someone before we actually hired a manager.

JazzG wrote:

Ricky1985 wrote:

What do we sit around waiting for exactly? It's maddening.

I doubt we were in for him, I'd like to hope we were but I've heard this nearly signed for bullshit too many times.

We're like those bargain hunters who show up to a shop when there is 40% off, think we will back when it is an extra 25% off and find everything is gone. Unless the selling club show resistance clubs go in and get their business done early

goon wrote:

They’ve brought in over 150m in the same period so that’s only a net spend of 100m. Getting to the CL final probably pays for Fabinho too.

We spent over 100m net not too long ago. I don’t think you want to see what we got for our money..

Yup, they've offloaded a whole load of rubbish out of their squad so their net spend isn't that high either. The squad they've built has been done step by step over many windows. We will have to go through that long process now as well.

We also have to contend with agents hawking their players around once we show interest. This is more damaging to us now that we've been leapfrogged by pool. We are currently the least attractive of the top English clubs (city, united, chelsea, pool), so if the player is good there will most likely be a better offer waiting in the wings

Apparently, the guy who first broke the news that Liverpool will sign Fabinho today is saying that Oblak is Liverpool's #1 target at GK while Alisson is #2.

https://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/transfer-news/breaking-liverpool-complete-45m-deal-12612810

Ricky1985 wrote:

Why did our transfer team need Emery to tell them Fabinho is a good player? That's what I don't understand.

Everyone knew he was leaving Monaco this summer, we should have been talking to his reps as early as was possible.

Maybe because the structure only works after consulting the manager on his plans and how he want to spend his limited budget? I dont know, I'm using some logic to console myself

For a midfield general, I had 5 player wishlisted in mind. Fred, Jorginho, Fabinho are all gone, Keita very early as well. We can redeem it with either Ndombele or Milinko Savic.

I still hope we can sign Fekir, but failing that we can get Mahrez, Guedes, Ozyabal, Bailey or even Lemar/Malcom? Not as good as Fekir but still decent choices available out there.

Clrnc wrote:

Ricky1985 wrote:

Why did our transfer team need Emery to tell them Fabinho is a good player? That's what I don't understand.

Everyone knew he was leaving Monaco this summer, we should have been talking to his reps as early as was possible.

Maybe because the structure only works after consulting the manager on his plans and how he want to spend his limited budget? I dont know, I'm using some logic to console myself

For a midfield general, I had 5 player wishlisted in mind. Fred, Jorginho, Fabinho are all gone, Keita very early as well. We can redeem it with either Ndombele or Milinko Savic.

I still hope we can sign Fekir, but failing that we can get Mahrez, Guedes, Ozyabal, Bailey or even Lemar/Malcom? Not as good as Fekir but still decent choices available out there.

Mahrez looks very close to sitting on Man City's bench for 75m: 

https://www.leicestermercury.co.uk/sport/football/transfer-news/man-city-riyad-mahrez-news-1613143

Bryant wrote:

Apparently, the guy who first broke the news that Liverpool will sign Fabinho today is saying that Oblak is Liverpool's #1 target at GK while Alisson is #2.

https://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/transfer-news/breaking-liverpool-complete-45m-deal-12612810

Alot of Liverpool supposedly itk saying they will bid record fee for Alisson and completing the deal soon.

I can forgive us for not getting other positions fixed yet cause there are plenty of options, but there's literally zero players that is as good as Alisson and gettable for keeper. No excuse for not going for him at all.