Liverpool Rumours Archive January 26 2014

26 Jan 2014 22:19:55
Wow, not posted in what feels like a long, long time. A quick couple of questions eds- tv reporting Blackpool will be willing to loan out Tom Ince- is it to us? If not, do you have any idea where he might go? Finally, would loaning him out till the end of the season have any effect on the fact he is a free agent in the summer- could it affect compensation payment etc?

Thanks in advance Eds. Keep up the hard work lads.

{Ed001's Note - Swansea I think, we weren't in for him.}

27 Jan 2014 01:35:13
tom ince no wait suso will come home a better player

26 Jan 2014 17:44:32
Hey Ed02
I saw you mentioned yesterday that you would ask someone about interest in Gokhan Inler today if you got the chance. Just wondering if you have any news
Thanks

{Ed002's Note - I am awaiting a response. I did ask.}

Thanks for asking Zaklfc, it was me who asked yesterday, couldn't bring myself to ask again. I can't see there being any interest tbh. Rumoured targets are getting dismissed over and over, I'm beginning to think we won't sign anyone.

No problem Dezmondo. I agree with you we are getting linked with too many players and none of them seem to be realistic

Apparently the interest is genuine but he is keen to stay at Napoli, I could be wrong.

26 Jan 2014 16:01:57
Afternoon eds
Which clubs are showing an interest in suso?

{Ed002's Note - He is on loan for the season - perhaps a question for the summer. I would think a number of Spanish sides would then be interested.}

Why do we want him out?

26 Jan 2014 12:33:03
Top of the morning Ed02.

A question if you don't mind. When a transfer goes tits up as it has done recently (mentioning no names), Ayre seems to come in for a bit of stick/abuse. Some posters basically claim he is a poor negotiator and very slow in getting deals tied up. In your opinion, would this be a fair assessment? Or is he trying to do the best job he can under the financial constraints he is put under?

I remember a while back you mentioning Liverpool putting in bids way below the asking price therefore not even getting the other team to negotiate. Would they have been better of advised not to go for such players and save themselves from the embarrassment or is there always a chance, therefore worth a go so to speak?

Lastly, leading from the first 2 questions. If Chelsea had not have swooped for Salah would Liverpool have got their man for the price they offered (A third of the asking price?). I appreciate its a bit of a loaded question and I fully understand if you don't want to answer this bit.

{Ed002's Note - In my opinion the posters know nothing of the situation at all and as the new type of fan lives only in a blame culture, Mr Ayre becomes the target in such situations. These are the same people who want, Jones, Gerrard, Moses, Allen, Henderson, Johnson, Cissokho, Enrique, Sterling, Agger, Skrtel, Kirikou, Coates, etc., etc. out. There will be a process that decides what sort of money the club will be willing to pay for a player on a case-by-case basis. If an offer is only a third or so of what the selling club are looking for they would typically not be interested in any negotiations as it would be seen as futile. There will also be financial constraints that will need to be adhered to. Aside from interest from Newcastle there was also a bid made by another side for Salah - Liverpool would certainly not have gotten him for the amount they were offering. It was clear that they would have needed to go to Basel with a much improved offer.}

Ed do you think not signing Salah was the right thing to do or not? I'm a fan, I care nothing about money, just want to see my club grow better and better. So please tell me in monetary terms, could not signing Salah deemed a success?

{Ed002's Note - I have no idea what the question means.}

26 Jan 2014 16:26:50
Wasn't our initial bid for Suarez something like £12.7 million? Only to be practically doubled within a week?
Ed02, any idea if this is true or am I making stuff up?

{Ed002's Note - I don't recall the numbers but it was something like that.}

Krishna, you are asking a hypothetical question and only time will tell if Salah going to be the next Oscar or if he'll end up the next Torress .
The club (Our club) obviously thought he is very useful, that's why they initiated negotiation, the fact that they again failed to complete / close suggests there is a problem that the club need to address.

Eds the question seems to ask whether the club are not prepared to negotiate due to their valuation on players being no where near the selling clubs or is it the fault of Ayre specifically as he is not skilled at negotiating? I hope most fans who use this site want to support the club and not spend their time slagging everyone off but u must understand these events become very public fails in the eyes of the fans and we want to understand why we lose out.

Cheers

{Ed002's Note - The fans work in a 100% blame culture and have been shown repeatedly to blame the owners and Mr Ayre for another transfer window where eight £40M players failed to arrive.}

It's seems strange all the same that we spent close to 3 months scouting him, he was earmarked to be a starting XI player and yet we wouldn't spend £11mil to get him. Keep in mind we've recently spent £10mil on Borini, £7mil on Aspas and £7mil on Alberto all to warm the bench.£11mil for a starter doesn't seem that much.

Ed, I think the Salah situation does emphasise a problem in the way we pursue players. I accept that we do not have the money that many of our rivals seem to have, but we proved last January that there is a way to do well in January. In that window we went early and we went fast and landed both Coutinho and Sturridge. The issue highlighted in the summer with Mkhitaryan and to a lesser extent Willian, and now with Salah is that we wait too long and then start too low, thereby giving other teams the chance to react. It is even worse in this instance, as Chelsea would probably not have bid for Salah if we had gone for him on Jan 1st, as they would not have had Mata money ( or need to replace him). The fact that nothing happened ahead of the visit of Henry and Werner means we wasted our best chance of stealing a march on the competition. That would seem to have really cost us. This is the best chance in ages to crack the top 4, but it required us to be ready on Jan 1st and then to go quick and hard to get the players that BR deemed to be the ones to improve the first XI. I am not saying it is down to Ian Ayre, but I think collectively the senior team made a big mistake in delaying and then starting too low on our primary January target. From the outside it looks like we are a little naive as to how the market works these days. We don't have the pulling power we used to, so we have to be far smarter in how we go to market, and right now we are just making ourselves look a little daft as we constantly get beaten to players. The biggest concern is that Luis Suarez must be looking at this and going "this is the problem, no one wants to come and join me here!" Do you not think we need to re-think our approach somewhat to ensure we can bring in players who can improve our First XI as opposed to just attracting a plethora of squad players?

{Ed002's Note - The delay in the summer was largely due to Suarez. Liverpool were not in the same ballpark as Basel in terms of price for Salah.}

No disrespect eds just another opinion. I would say the md of a company is pretty good place to start when things are done badly. After all the book stops at the top! In an earlier reply you suggested we had a committee which arye was part of. Let's check his credentials for being on that committee. He had little experience of signing players and doig deals and knows nothing about football. How on earth is he any where near it? Dempsey fiasco was a joke now salah! If we had of signed Dempsey for peanuts I might add he would now be a valued squad player sometimes starter. We need a winger to push on for top four how is it not worth going in at 11 mil? The book stops at the top and yet again the team will just miss out. Same old problems "this time next year". What a shambles. A window when we need decisive action to kick us on for a real possibility of success the chance goes begging. Not just on salah but the whole window. Mata to utd Chelsea sign three. Our main rivals with big squad already put u to shame

{Ed002's Note - Chelsea did not sign three players to replace Mata. So with your erroneous cliché about the "book" stopping at the top, perhaps you should go after the owners who are at the top. A nice little hate campaign to force them out and get Sheikh Al Thani or Sulaiman Al Fahim in?}

I would say all the comments on this thread are generally questions with some sarcasm, frustration and clear lack of understanding at what goes on at MD level in a prem club and especially at LFC so eds002 please try and respond constructively to the debate rather than giving people short shrift.

Are u clear what happened in the Salah deal?

{Ed002's Note - Try not to be an idiot - I am perfectly clear what happened with Salah.}

I didn't say Chelsea signed three to replace mata. I said many sign mata and Chelsea have also bought players. If we are to compete over a season with rivals such as these then we should be getting things done. Low balling for players highlights weakness at magement level not ownership! Ian arye is at the top of management and has a large portion of responsibility. Are you suggesting he doesn't? Our owners have spent millions already there the last in line. The management/ arye have responsibility for putting that money to good use and sign players not mess around until other clubs beat us to the chase.

Why are you arguing with the eds you just come off looking like a pelican. If you don't like there opinion don't come to the site, no one is forcing you to.

Rather than blame us for being too slow isn't it obvious that Chelsea let us, Spurs or another team do the negotiating, agree a fee and then they come in over the top and offer more at the last minute?
That is Chelsea's strategy. You can't blame the management at Pool or other teams for that!

{Ed002's Note - You clearly don't understand how any of this works.}

Let's just stick to the point.We have a great chance of breaking back into the top 4, but we all see we need some help in doing this.Salah, who we scouted and apparently negotiated with Basel for didn't happen.Most of us would of liked to see him in a red shirt, and felt much better about our chance's if he had arrived.But as Chelsea got him for £11m, we are none to happy as to who and why We didn't get him.So we play the blame game, and Ayre is first on the list.

27 Jan 2014 18:12:38
Absolutely spot on niceaction

26 Jan 2014 09:23:00
The times reporting we are interested in Andre Gomes from Benfica. Eds will Benfica sell with Magic leaving?

{Ed002's Note - I would think it unlikely that they would want to sell at this time. I have had a message this morning asking why the times have a picture of André Almeida in their article rather than Gomes.}

Ed the players rights are actually supposedly owned by Jorge Mendes, so would I be right in thinking that it's his decision whether Gomes leaves and not Benfica's?

{Ed002's Note - He has third party ownership. You need Benfica to agree, the player to agree and all other parties who have a stake to give it up.}

25 Jan 2014 23:16:30
Hi eds reports say we are after Saul Niguez any truth in these?

{Ed002's Note - Saul Niguez is on loan for the season and clubs that have enquired have been told to come back in the summer with a serious pot of money. His father is has spoken to a number of clubs and I really don't know if any are seriously interested. Would be one for the future that could suck a sizable sum from whatever funds might be available. Another club thought this was happening in order to leverage a better deal with Atletico - who don't yet see him as first team material.}

26 Jan 2014 00:48:02
Awesome reply ed2! I just read the same, that we've held talks with his dad.

26 Jan 2014 16:29:14
I would rather play Rossiter or Coady than waste a huge chunk of cash on an erratic foreign teenager, Saul Niguez.

I fully expect him to sign this week! haha