Liverpool Banter Archive February 04 2014

04 Feb 2014 22:13:10
Heard we have major interest in a kid from Anderlecht, a young Moroccan winger, Nabil Jaadi.

04 Feb 2014 18:01:13
Eds, did anymore info come to light regarding the reason for the departure of Rodolfo & Frank from the academy?

Cheers

{Ed002's Note - Not that I am aware and gossip is not really us. The paint eventually washed out of the goat, so there was no real harm.}

BR wanted his own men in, simple as that.

04 Feb 2014 18:12:45
Looks like we've set ourselves up for a summer of getting battered 10,000 miles away to get lots of money where's surely the best idea would be playing in our own country working at our own training ground so we can get some good work done. I think our (the top clubs) preseason is the reason we all start so bad with weird results etc all the small clubs stay fairly local which is why they're better prepared obviously less players in the national teams too

Yeah, blatantly ridiculous, we toured the Far East and had a great start to the season, and all the top clubs take preseason tours nowadays.

Money is sadly the mediator in the modern game.

Great idea how about you give the owners a ring and tell them you'll match the money the club will make preseason and the lads can stay on the training ground.

Jester314
We could do better than you have predicted. Could do because we tend to do good against the bigger boys.
I think (hope a little too) we will win all our remaining home games. We are a lot better than we think we are!

Here's to a happy ending for Liverpool fans. YNWA

Don't forget, as well as the money made out there, the pre season tour is the only chance many of our overseas fans will get to ever see Liverpool play, plus it attracts a whole new realm of fans for support in future.

I think its a great idea.

So surely you believe going to play against the like of roma, manchester city, real madrid, ac milan and olympiakos is a waste of time? i'm sure you are one of millions of lfc fans who want us to get champions league football next season right? who in the world do you think we will be playing in the cl next season should we make it? fulham, west ham and sunderland maybe? NO, this is a great experience for our team to go out and have a taste of european football and understand how different teams play from different leagues. I think this is a smart way for us to learn and see how the big teams play, who surely we will encounter in the cl.

04 Feb 2014 17:51:09
whats the situation with Aspas. I know he's not injured but he hasn't even gotten a sniff at some game time. is he just not peforming well enough in training or does BR not rate him?

I recently asked ed001 said rogers and co think he is to lightweight

04 Feb 2014 16:22:06
Not a Liverpool related question, but anyone know what happened to the Chinese League? It was only a short time back players were going there for huge money, now most have already left.

Its because of clauses in the contracts. All 'non Chinese' had to have a clause in saying they had to learn how to use chopsticks. Most said 'fork off'.

Is that you Jim Davidson?

04 Feb 2014 13:47:36
Can people stop banging on about dropped points!

Eyes to the front, look to future games. Our destiny is in our hands and we CAN beat any team in PL, we can. The games we lost to the 'big' teams, refereeing decisions did not favor us, but let us look forward! Forget transfer targets past and future. They make no difference to us whatsoever now.

It is there for us to achieve, so let's believe!

YNWA

04 Feb 2014 12:25:04
hi ed, how much did salah cost chelsea really if u take in all the cost and add ons ect?

{Ed001's Note - the add ons have yet to be paid, as they will depend on future events, so they can't be considered as a cost yet. The fee was around £11.6m.}

What did we offer and was that including agent fees ect

{Ed002's Note - The £11.6 was the transfer fee. Time has come to move on from this.}

04 Feb 2014 11:17:23
Hi Eds, Now I'm not normally one for conspiracy theories, but I honestly don't think the last 2 transfer windows were anything more than FSG balancing the books. I don't think they had any real intention of spending at all and I wish they had just come out and said this.

Are we really that inept at transfer dealings to make offers to clubs way under their valuation and expect to sit back for 2 ½ months and wait for the phone to ring, (Salah)

I think you'll find as a rule of thumb the selling club prices their own players not us?

Reports that we were not willing to make a large down payment on Konoplyanka nor make the payment in time does not come as a surprise to me.

Look at previous attempted signings Dempsey/Gylfi/ Willian If we had acted quickly and sensibly in our offers could they not have been bought.

If we had put in a strong/quick bid for Mhkhitaryan before Dortmund had interest could we have got our man?

Do we do enough to make the player feel wanted (by drastically under valuing them)?

If the any of the above were indeed our priority targets someone should be held accountable, and I think the fans deserve an explanation.

People may say there is a lot of red tape involved, hold ups etc. etc. Is this not the case for Chelsea as well? Or is the difference they meet the asking price, pay a decent down payment and in some cases speak to the player (Mourinho called Salah)

The pity is if we had got say Mhkhityran and Kono I think we might well have turned the last few draws into wins and could actually have a a shot at the league.

BR has had to awkwardly defend our transfer dealings or lack of, when inside he must be fuming.

FSG are making BR pay for their mistakes in appointing Commolli/Dalglish and throwing away all that money.

I'm sure to some fickle fans being linked with players will make FSG look like they are trying to get their men. But are they really?

Would respect the owners a lot more if they were honest. because they have obviously told BR money will be available.

If we make top 4 BR has worked miracles, IF we don't maybe the owners will give him the money he needs to add quality to starting XI, Unfortunately this will probably come as consequence of Suarez leaving.

{Ed001's Note - that would explain the signings of Ilori and Sakho then.....}

What a load of dribble, just to point out are Dortmund spurs making a shot of the title? Spurs are clinging on to fighting for fourth by their fingernails, and why bring dempsey into it, I mean really. IMO, the owners will not be caught again shedding wheelbarrows of their cash for nothing, they have supported Brendan in the transfer market the proof is their with the players, the teams financial health is a lot better off than than the way it was going and we are genuine top dawgs for fourth place, yeah challenge for the league and all that but Christ let us walk again before u go jumpin off rooftops thinking u can fly, the club as a whole have had to go into damage limitation not so long ago and have came out fighting hard and credit to everyone involved from owners to janitors, it may have been a gamble not to strengthen the squad but with 14 games left and with no European trips or football to slow us down, 4th would be spot on, if we have cl next year u may well see the talk of "improving the first eleven" coming into action, intact I'd be pretty sure of that.

I have to say I have had similar thoughts regarding our transfer dealings.

Combined with work to re-develop the ground, huge sponsorship deals and a shot of CL money - for an Investment group it would be an attractive proposition to offload if you had bought relatively cheap and wiped off a load of debt

I think one of the Eds has stated, we are making a daily loss, potentials are in place that would make LFC a more attractive purchase.

Has nobody learnt from our previous transer dealing? The times when Commolli went in and got a deal done quickly?
I seem to remember the Downing deal being done quickly because we were held to ransom and paid what Villa wanted. There was rumoured interest from Arsenal and we panicked and paid over the odds.
Henderson was the same, Commolli bottled it and offered far too much first then increased the offer soon afterwards.
Carol? Paying what Newcastle demanded didn't get us very far did it.

The Suarez transfer dragged on but in the end we got the best deal for the club.
Sturridge - we waited until the January because BR only wanted him on loan first instead of taking a gamble. Its called being sensible in the market and not ruining the club financially.
Making the signings no matter what the cost is not the answer.

Great post Dave. Best post I've read for a while. Your spot on re: Mickey and Konoplanka, we would indeed by looking at a title push. Sakho:- Downing sale, Ilori another £6 mill gilt edged punt where FSG don't lose no matter what. You'll only get shot down with critisism and called deluded, conspiracy nutcase etc., etc., but I for one think your on the money with your opinion. I'm not sure FSG even want champs league and the consequential investment required to achieve sustainability.

{Ed001's Note - Ilori was 7.25m and hardly a gilt edged punt as that is expensive for a defender. You really are clueless. Without Champions League the club needs more investment from them to achieve sustainability than it does without it. I really hope you don't run a business, because you clearly are out of your depth discussing it.}

The Echo reports that they have seen the documentation showing the full fee for Kono was transferred 2 hours before the transfer deadline.

So that blows your silly argument right out of the water.

KBL

Not to mention the extra £40 million Liverpool would get in extra revenue.

04 Feb 2014 18:33:01
Well if you're right, and FSG only wanted to balance the books last two windows, and sloppiness in negotiations was actually just a smokescreen, then they need to get a new accountant, because they spent £17m more just in transfer fees than they recouped in the summer. That's not exactly balanced, is it? And there was another £15m formally offered for Konoplyanka with no other sales, might I add. Although I'm sure you think that money doesn't really exist and the club let it fall through deliberately to make fickle like silly old gullible me believe there really is money, amirite?

If you want to critcise the handling the transfer affairs, and the failures to land Mhkitharyan, Salah etc. then go ahead. But keep it logical and in some way based in reality. Do not sit there and in all seriousness state that FSG had no intention of spending money "at all", when even by the most narrow definition of spending in football they spent £17m this year. (And let's not forget extra stuff like agent's fees, Suarez's pay-rise, the fact that Rodgers has bought players to the tune of £85m in two years, and the small fact that they plugged a £50m hole in the club's finance last year without applying it as a debt to the club).

I know there's an element of once bitten, twice shy with some of us courtesy of H&G and all, but this takes 5 minutes of debunking.

Do some degree of critical thinking, please.

I feel like people seem to have forgotten the 50M spent last summer and the 59M spent the year before (with only 9M incoming then).

The single biggest issue (in my mind) is we have had absolutely no gain in the vast majority of our sales the last 5 years or so. Torres, Ngog, and Shelvey are the only ones I can think of where we got more money in then we spent for the player. That is a massive problem as it gives us very little to purchase new players with since the budget is widely blown simply maintaining the squad we already have. Unfortunately, Sturridge aside, I'm not real sure any of BR/the committee signings are much better in this aspect as I think that most of them would also go for less than paid. We simply have to be sharper about who/how we spend in the future otherwise we'll never improve.

04 Feb 2014 21:01:03
Don't even bother Ed001 mate.
Ed02 has put this clown in his place loads of times, he simply slinks away and pops up after draws/defeats!
Funny, he didn't have anything to say after the spurs/Everton games.

Dave240876 - the mere fact that your post is one of the best Ozone has read in a while, is enough for me to decide your post is flawed without having read it. Not good advertising when Ozone agrees with you.

You'd be surprised at what my portfolios worth Ed and yes I am indeed involved in business. Everyone's entitled to their opinion, you see it your way, I see it mine. I see Ilori, Aspas, Borini, Alberto as punts. If they produce and become a fixture in the first team, their asset value doubles. If not loan them out and claw back circa 90% of the fee. I mean come on, the devils in the detail. Name me any one of the other top 5 clubs who are relentless in seeking 'RESALE VALUE'. Maureen wanted a holding mid in Jan and a winger. He got them. Moyes wanted a get out of jail card, he got one. Last year Fergie wanted a centre forward. He got one. Do any of the said players hold resale value or were they bought for the betterment of the team? The barriers imposed by FSG constraining Rodgers in the transfer market are just ridiculous. He may as well stick with the academy as he's not going to bring in any improvements to the first team operating at the level the committee appear to be charged with negotiating in. Mickey, Willian, Salah and Konoplanka. All four would improve the team. Blown out of the water as other clubs became interested whilst Ayre dithered with the begging bowl. We get cast offs and sub standard failures, FSG hope Rodgers will improve. This is purely in the interests of 'resale value' or more appropriately termed 'risk averse'. Cheap in comparison on the wage bill and young enough to come good elsewhere and recoup any outlay.

05 Feb 2014 11:24:13
Let's face it Ozone, you can Blame your beloved King Kenny for the newly imposed transfer restraints.
I love the guy too, but I cannot even imagine the bile you would be spewing if B.R spent £55 million on Carroll and Downing.
Hardly lighting up the league in a poor west ham side are they?

You can't really compare our finances to those of United, Arsenal, City, or Chelsea though. Arsenal have near as much cash as the rest of the league combined, not to mention ~40M more per year than us in revenue. City and Chelsea sit near enough to Arsenal in revenue not to mention the obvious in terms of finances. Chelsea actually do buy a lot of players with potential high resale value (see their list of young players on loan- it's really quite extraordinary and would make a near half-decent PL side with just those). United make around 100M per year than anyone else in the league and for all practical purposes if anyone should be annoyed by their owners it's probably them as they spend well below their means. So to say things like 'we should be targeting the players they are' is a bit ridiculous and ignores the reality of the situation.

04 Feb 2014 10:21:59
Brenda was at the city game last night.
He had to be watching Hazard or Willian or even the young Spanish left back whose name I can't spell?
Maybe it was Yahya Toure or David Silva who will be available in summer.

04 Feb 2014 10:43:36
El-ettihad is what, 35 minute drive from Liverpool?
He probably was watching how Mourinho set up as chelsea will come to anfield. If he went there to watch a player, am afraid they were on the bench and didn't get to play.

Malak

Can't do any worse than the clowns we have on our payroll. Despite what BR says to soften the blow.

Redfanatic, what exactly do u mean?

Redfanatic obviously never watched Liverpool when we had Jovanovic, Poulsen, Konchesky and Ngog in the team.
Suppport the club and the manager or don't bother associating yourself with LFC.

04 Feb 2014 09:53:50
It just goes to show how important those dropped points at WBA are. This morning, we'd have all been thinking, just beat Arsenal and we're only 3 points off the top. Momentum is a big thing. We just don't have enough to challenge, but there will be twists and turns. BTW superb tactical display from Mourinho.

Its still not bad to say beat Arsenal and we are only five points off the top with 13 games to play, and Chelsea and Man City to play at home. All this considering we finished 7th last season.

Jay you're correct. 7th last season below Everton for he second season running. We're breathing down your necks and don't forget the fact.

05 Feb 2014 15:37:59
Oh, that's what that smell is.

04 Feb 2014 06:04:09
Hi Eds
Are we interested in Igor Akinfeev?
his contract expires in the summer

{Ed002's Note - No.}