For €18million, it is not bad.

Would prefer to focus on midfielders, but not a bad price

Is he any good? Watched a compilation on youtube. Looked like a poor man's Pepe, which is not a good thing.

Gives me son of Gervinho vibes

he's 17 so comparing him to guys who showed up at arsenal at 24 doesn't make any sense.

Like I said in the other thread, this is a financial investment first, footballing second. That's fine with me, as long as he doesn't really "count" in terms of what this window means for next season.

If we can buy guys and flip them for 4x/5x ala guendouzi in 1-2 years, its a smart investment

I don’t understand the financial thinking. The first priority should be the team and it’s competitiveness. The Liverpool squad is often valued at 3x our level, not because the individual players are that much better but because the squad functions well together. That is the best way to get an ROI. Right now all of our players decline in value because they’re in the bad place. We need to focus on spending our money to build a team that can win trophies now. Then all of a sudden people talk about a £50m Saka and a £60m Saliba.

If we're going to have restricted funds then IMO the starting XI/match day squad should come first.

Lille and Southampton sell 70 mill+ players without winning anything. Liverpool sold big before winning. That's how they ended up winning. We need to do both things, we need to move talent through the club and become a conduit for value in order to target the more specific players our coach wants/needs to win things. We aren't just going to show up one summer and buy a title winning team, and doing it piecemeal leads back to the Wenger years. A couple great players, but not a great team.

We need to take a medium term view on the club's footballing success, and a short term view on the players themselves. This whole idea of a growing a young squad from nothing but the academy and buying a couple world class players to top it off is a total crapshoot, and much more a recipe for the last 20 years than any significant footballing achievement.

Coombs wrote:

Lille and Southampton sell 70 mill+ players without winning anything. Liverpool sold big before winning. That's how they ended up winning. We need to do both things, we need to move talent through the club and become a conduit for value in order to target the more specific players our coach wants/needs to win things. We aren't just going to show up one summer and buy a title winning team, and doing it piecemeal leads back to the Wenger years. A couple great players, but not a great team.

We need to take a medium term view on the club's footballing success, and a short term view on the players themselves. This whole idea of a growing a young squad from nothing but the academy and buying a couple world class players to top it off is a total crapshoot, and much more a recipe for the last 20 years than any significant footballing achievement.

Agreed.

I think to an extent, people lean into Liverpool too much because of Coutinho. I think he is a unique set of circumstances. A talented and marketable player who did not fit the team’s clear agenda coinciding with a team that was desperate to appease fans with a big fee signing. Sure, pool have also sold the likes of Solanke etc, but that is just part of a healthy outcome of having

• a clear team building philosophy
• clever targeted recruiting for that philosophy
• understanding when to sell if players don’t fit the philosophy
• having the analytics to understand relative value of players to both parties at transfers

I think this is what you are seeing versus some more focused side business of selling players at Pool. If you are recruiting well, you should have a good combination of value creation through your squad winning and net transfers

Claudius wrote:

I think to an extent, people lean into Liverpool too much because of Coutinho. I think he is a unique set of circumstances. A talented and marketable player who did not fit the team’s clear agenda coinciding with a team that was desperate to appease fans with a big fee signing. Sure, pool have also sold the likes of Solanke etc, but that is just part of a healthy outcome of having

• a clear team building philosophy
• clever targeted recruiting for that philosophy
• understanding when to sell if players don’t fit the philosophy
• having the analytics to understand relative value of players to both parties at transfers

I think this is what you are seeing versus some more focused side business of selling players at Pool. If you are recruiting well, you should have a good combination of value creation through your squad winning and net transfers

Agreed that the planets aligned re LFC & selling Coutinho, but I also think they had the right mind set to seize upon their opportunity to sell, and to then sign their targets regardless of the price.  

I have no hesitation to say we'd not have done either under AW, and I don't think KSE have the appetite to commit to action.  I think they are willing to talk the talk but actual outcomes are more likely to be seen as a consequence rather than the objective.

Signing a new deal at sporting. Obvious horseshit rumor is obvious

Sporting have rejected a €20m bid from Arsenal for Joelson Fernandes. [@abolapt]

Today is a he has not signed a new contract kind of day. We shall se what tomorrow brings.