Liverpool Discussion posts 4

20 Jul 2026 22:17:51
I was surprised to learn that Ferran Torres is only 26 because he seems to have been around for years!

Not sure he would fancy living in the North West of England again but LFC should definitely ask! In last year of his Barcelona contract! Versatile and a quality player!

21 Jul 2026 09:09:54
If he is half as good as his namesake Fernando, well worth the opportunity, and LFC fans will be able to wear old Torres shirts as well if they never had a number put on the back, though number 9 is presently Isak.

King Kenny's plans when he bought Suarez were to team him as a front two with Fernando, and Gerrard the supply line.

Trophies galore would have flowed with that trio. Torres jumped ship to Chelsea, sadly. Is it similar to Alonso snubbing LFC now?

21 Jul 2026 10:00:02
Torres was allowed to leave because we knew he was no longer the same player after he tore his meniscus.

21 Jul 2026 14:10:40
Hello ShipleyKopite,

His injury record at LFC never stopped Chelsea breaking the British transfer record at the time, circa £50 million; the Chelsea doctor deemed him fit enough also for a 5 and a half year contract.

His record at Chelsea was 172 apps, 45 goals, 31 assists, the next best thing to an actual goal? At LFC 142 games, 81 goals, 20 assists, no trophies.


At Chelsea he won the Champions League, FA Cup and Europa League. Had he stayed at LFC, one will never know whether he would have matched the Chelsea trophies. But alongside Gerrard and Suarez, I couldn't think of any two better PL players I'd rather have at that time as my team mates. Can you?

21 Jul 2026 14:59:16
007, no, he wasn't. Torres was sold and we used the money to buy Suarez and Caroll. We wouldn't have signed either if Torres stayed. There was never a plan or reality where Torres and Suarez played together for us.

21 Jul 2026 20:23:10
RuncornRed, The plan was already in place to sign Suarez. He would have played alongside Torres. We wouldn't have signed Carroll if Torres stayed.

007. It wasn't about his injury record, it was about how it affected his football.

His form dropped off a cliff. Even Stevie and Carra have said in interviews that it was clearly noticed on the training ground well before Chelsea made a move.

20 Jul 2026 21:39:08
Any truth in these Torres rumours of just World Cup player links?

20 Jul 2026 22:04:29
I'm hearing this is going to happen. I posted last week that it's one to keep an eye on. The delay is the fee. Barca were happy with £30m prior to the World Cup. They now want more. It'll still happen.

20 Jul 2026 14:02:06
Hi all, expecting a flurry of activity to happen this week.

Thanks.

Ric.

20 Jul 2026 14:54:16
Woooo!

20 Jul 2026 19:17:25
One sincerely hopes there is another young Kevin Keegan in the 31 man squad that departed for the USA tour from JLA this Monday afternoon, more senior players to join the tour:
Gomez, Endo, Jacquet, Kerkez, Szobs, Bradley, Chiesa, Leoni, Jones, Tsimikas, Ekitike, Marmadashvili, Woodman, Frimpong, Nyoni, Abe, Bajcetic, Chambers, Ramsay, Scanlon, Elliot, Jaros, Koumas, Morrison, Ngumoha, Wright, Hall, Sonni-Lambie, Ndukwe, Davies, McConnell.

Very young, inexperienced squad, don't envy Andoni trying to pick his first ever LFC team to face Sunderland, though match fitness for the first PL game of the season is far more important.

When Sir Bob won the league, and Liverpool's first ever European Cup in 1977, with Kevin Keegan one of the star men, they won one pre-season friendly in 1976, typical Sir Bob that friendly win was the Charity Shield.

I was there in Rome that glorious night as a 22 year old, that will always be my greatest memory of all the trophies LFC have ever won. On the Saturday before Rome on the Wednesday, I was at Wembley when Man Utd luckily beat us to win the FA Cup, that was the only trophy Sir Bob and Brian Clough also never won!

20 Jul 2026 20:53:43
Love this Bond...

21 Jul 2026 00:41:45
Brilliant 007. ?

21 Jul 2026 06:42:05
Great memories 007.

20 Jul 2026 13:24:25.
AWB for RB or Guierterda.
John Stones 2 year deal for CB or Larcoix long term.

Barcola LW replace Gapko.
Ryan RW replace Salah.
Tsimi, Elliot back from loan.

Endo sold replaced by Bouaddi or Kone.

20 Jul 2026 16:33:50
Stones and Wan Bissaka? pmsl.

20 Jul 2026 21:35:30
I couldn't work out what AWB meant, God he is awful, no thank you, and Stones is way past his best.

21 Jul 2026 07:33:41
Looks like Stones could be heading to Arsenal.

21 Jul 2026 13:16:24
Arteta really does like a centre back.

19 Jul 2026 21:17:59
We're 45 minutes away from football being good again.

National football is so unbelievably dull on average.

19 Jul 2026 21:43:46
I assume that you mean international football is dull. The Premier League is national football, the World Cup is international football.

I agree, this game is dull though. Here's hoping it doesn't go to extra time.

19 Jul 2026 21:47:18
Spain struggling vs dat darn low block.

19 Jul 2026 23:11:51
Did you not watch the Premier League last season?

20 Jul 2026 03:59:04
TFE, doesn't sound like it.

20 Jul 2026 09:49:31
I agree this World Cup was so much more watchable than the Prem last season.

20 Jul 2026 10:26:40
Strange, the World Cup was 10 times a better watch than the garbage the PL served up last season. People are strange.

19 Jul 2026 19:01:54
Last one from me since the Toney info had mixed reception. Schade has been extensively scouted by Liverpool and even inquired about fees from Brentford, isn't 1st choice but if other targets do not meterialise interest is there. May well be one for later in the window.

Yes the info I get is from someone in West London.

19 Jul 2026 20:24:14
Is it just me, or are the ITK's getting very thin-skinned? What's with the universal thirst for validation?

19 Jul 2026 21:20:49
Isn't that KFC in West London?

19 Jul 2026 09:03:52
Rogers from Villa to Chelski has ended any potential interest in Wirtz.

No interest in Malick Fofana, Rio is seen as the best option moving forward.

19 Jul 2026 22:12:18
Cross Jarrod Bowen off ye list, he's agreed a new contract today to stay at the Hammers.

19 Jul 2026 07:21:02
This summer window sucks a**. The prices are ridiculous. I think we should keep away. May we will not win the league but top 4 finish is still any day a good place to be with the CL money.
It's better to bet on youth and hope one or two would crack it.

I mean Diamonde, Rayan, Barcola, Rogers for 120 mill is insane.
Last season we signed the best player in Bundesliga for 120m and best striker in England for 135.

Now we getting these random b***** wonder for that money.

I think just keep out and sign youngsters or look for bargains. Barcola Diamonde Rayan Rogers have hardly been successful at their current clubs and they won't be doing much at LFC.

I still think for adding to ranks /depth Nunez for free is a great signing. Probably will give the same out as either of players we chasing and has an obvious advantage over them.

19 Jul 2026 10:34:03
I don't think missing out this window is going to make the prices randomly drop. The way it is going, this is looking to be the new "normal" prices.

19 Jul 2026 11:35:54
We paid £100m for Wirtz plus four £4m sets of add ons for each league or CL we win over the course of his 5year contract and £125m for Isak. Neither have hit the heights yet, but last summer, when we were signing them, there was genuine excitement as the pair were seen as genuine stars. Players that in each position would take us to a complete different level. Elite in their positions. Compare that to this season where kids and other teams squad members are going for crazy prices if you believe the rags. For example, if Rodgers had of gone to Arsenal, as he was expected to, would he really have been much of an improvement on what Trossard was for them last year? And what’s he gone for, £117m? Crazy money.

Suppose what I'm trying to say is that I felt a whole lot better last season paying that kind of money because of the players involved (and even then it didn’t sit totally right), but the players being quoted these kinds of prices for this summer don’t get me anywhere near as excited. We need a RW so I suppose we’ll end up spending big on that position on someone. Suppose the good thing is that after this summer of stupid spending there shouldn’t be half the pressure on Wirtz and Isak there was last year.

19 Jul 2026 15:22:37
Whilst I agree the market is hyperinflated right now, avoiding it entirely is moronic. We have necessary purchases to make. The answer lies in shifting our target market. Taking a leaf out of the book of the likes of Brighton. Currently we're shopping either side of that sort of range. We're bringing in a lot of kids for the future, which is great but doesn't help us now, and on the opposite end of the spectrum, we're fairly exclusively shopping in the £100m+ category, where the talent pool just doesn't justify the valuations.

We need to pivot to that mid-range market and look to try and find a few potential gems. That's where we got Torres, Suarez, Salah, Mane and many others.

19 Jul 2026 15:38:38
Rayan signed for Bournemouth on the 27 January 2026! From a continent on the other side of the world, circa 3 and a half months in the PL and you expect him to be ripping up trees.

Wirtz recorded 7 goals and 8 assists in 49 games across all competitions, PL 33 apps, 5 goals and 3 assists. Rayan 15 PL apps, 2 as a sub, 5 goals, 2 assists, half the PL games of Wirtz, same goal tally.

Andoni signed him for his system, 4-2-3-1, not that he will beat six men and put it in the top corner, and dribble galore. Andoni requires his wide men to play in both halves of the pitch, when we have the ball and when we don't have the ball (defending), that is an absolute requirement for his wide players.

Being a full back, Andoni knows how to nullify opposing wingers, it is not one to one, his wide player when we don't have the ball is to mark man to man the opposing winger, that requires him to then beat two men, your own wide man and full back, he is effectively a defensive shield for the full back firstly, as well as going forward, he will know other measures to stop wingers as well because he was a full back all his career.



Sir Bob had a midfield four of Case, McDermott, Souness, Kennedy not one winger amongst the four, the wide men Case, Kennedy beat the opposing full back by guile, cunning, quick passing and crossing, they proved ye don't have to dribble past six men, stick it in the top corner to score a goal, ye make the ball do your work all the time!

One of Sir Bob's cliches was: it's not about the long ball or the short ball, it's about the right ball! Andoni for me has all the traits and hallmarks of another Sir Robert Paisley!

19 Jul 2026 19:14:15
I'm not convinced signing foreign youngsters will help much in terms of the first team. I can't think of any that ultimately made it who were teenagers when we bought them from abroad. The only youth buys who succeeded recently were Sterling and Rio, the rest who make it through like Trent, tend to have been with us since kids, and they're scarce.



There's such fine margins between players, it does seem that shopping the very top table is as risky as the tier beneath. The likes of Suarez, Mo, Szob, Mane etc were probably second tier but were huge successes, only Ali and VVD were top level when we bought them. Maybe it's the age defenders and keepers mature which means it's better to wait and pay top dollar.

19 Jul 2026 20:29:42
The very top tier as far as I can see is only a handful of players like Mbappe, Haaland, Lamal etc. All the rest are 2nd tier, and there seems to be less and less players you could just hang your hat on coming in and just be a guaranteed success. Likes of Anderson and Rodgers at 116 and 117m respectively show that.

18 Jul 2026 18:46:00
Hi Eds,

What are your targets for the upcoming season?

I'm not really sure where i put us right now. I just hope the football quality picks up, as watching Arsenal win was tragic

{Ed078's Note - If Iraola can get the team playing the way he wants, and I don't see any great reason why he can't, then I'd be disappointed with anything less than a top 3 finish and a trophy push.
The midfield last season was essentially the same as the previous season, when Grav was very good, Mac played more like he did against England a few days ago and Sboz was also good. I would like to see reinforcements added in the middle, but defence needs to get sorted quickly.

19 Jul 2026 11:38:52
I'd be happy with Champions League football and just a bit of positivity back in the club after last season. We'll be good to watch but some things will be new to the manager so top 5 and I'm grand with that.

19 Jul 2026 15:25:06
Top 5 and very strong cup runs, so that we can prove the team is back to full fitness and Iraola can handle the busy schedule that comes with competing at the highest level.