Philippe Coutinho

[Dave D]

To be fair, he's probably still not forgiven us for this-

 

 

[Jairzinho]

Surely that should read "RiS-up"

[Gym Beglin]

Another factor might be that we take the Coutinho money now and use part of it to trigger an early transfer for Keita.

 

However, both Keita and Lemar are both ineligible to play in CL for us this season.

 

Maybe a case to be made for using money to bring in Keita and Mahrez (who isn't CL cup-tied) for £50-60m, and then having £100m set aside for Lemar or another player in the summer to replace Coutinho.  

 

I think losing Coutinho but gaining Van Dijk, Keita and Mahrez would constitute a good transfer window, all things considered. 

[Gym Beglin]

To be fair, he's probably still not forgiven us for this-

 

 

 

Luis Alberto is delivering good numbers in Serie A, to be fair.

[Dave D]

Luis Alberto is delivering good numbers in Serie A, to be fair.

 

Good Lad

 

[Scooby Dudek]

I suspected the whole strike thing as soon as I saw the team for the weekend.

 

The way it is ever so slowly unfolding in the media pointing towards a move this month has a touch of being stage managed by all parties.

 

Id be very surprised if Klopp didnt have an alternative lined up. I would think he has but probably agreed for the summer. Be a bit shit, but if he tries to push through a deal now with opening bids for players we have yet to signal our approach for we will end up grossly over spending as was the case with Torres/Carroll    

That is my thought on it as well. 

 

It makes no footballing sense whatsoever for LFC to sell in January. If he goes this month, I point the finger squarely at the owners. 

[Gym Beglin]

I hate the idea of keeping Coutinho around when he doesn't want to play.

 

If he downs tools then we're left looking like fucking idiots.

 

The key thing is to learn from the experience, and I think the club should think long and hard about the risks of building teams around Brazilian players.

 

The climate alone is probably a massive shock to them when you consider that Brazil is comfortably in the tropics, mainly between the Equator and the Tropic of Capricorn.  

Spanish players complain about the weather, and they're well north of the Tropic of Cancer!

 

Argentina and Uruguay are just outside of the tropics, and so you wonder if the key to a successful policy for building clubs around South American players might lie with focusing on those two countries for talent and just having a dabble with Brazilians from time to time.

 

Aguero, Suarez and Tevez comfortably the top 3 South American players of all time in the division, with Zabaleta, Sanchez, Mascherano, Poyet, notable players from the colder regions.

 

I think the Brazilian contingent in the PL has been a really mixed bag, with the best ones being Coutinho, Gilberto Silva, Fernandinho and then you're looking at the likes of Lucas, Edu, Willian, Ramires, Luiz, Oscar and Juninho.  It's hardly Neymar, Rivaldo, Ronaldinho. Maicon, Cafu, Careca, Kaka, Romario and Ronaldo.

[Dave D]

That is my thought on it as well. 

 

It makes no footballing sense whatsoever for LFC to sell in January. If he goes this month, I point the finger squarely at the owners. 

 

I dont think FSG would sell him if he wasnt agitating for a move.

[dockers_strike]

I hate the idea of keeping Coutinho around when he doesn't want to play.

 

If he downs tools then we're left looking like fucking idiots.

 

The key thing is to learn from the experience, and I think the club should think long and hard about the risks of building teams around Brazilian players.

 

The climate alone is probably a massive shock to them when you consider that Brazil is comfortably in the tropics, mainly between the Equator and the Tropic of Capricorn.  

Spanish players complain about the weather, and they're well north of the Tropic of Cancer!

 

Argentina and Uruguay are just outside of the tropics, and so you wonder if the key to a successful policy for building clubs around South American players might lie with focusing on those two countries for talent and just having a dabble with Brazilians from time to time.

 

Aguero, Suarez and Tevez comfortably the top 3 South American players of all time in the division, with Zabaleta, Sanchez, Mascherano, Poyet, notable players from the colder regions.

 

I think the Brazilian contingent in the PL has been a really mixed bag, with the best ones being Coutinho, Gilberto Silva, Fernandinho and then you're looking at the likes of Lucas, Edu, Willian, Ramires, Luiz, Oscar and Juninho.  It's hardly Neymar, Rivaldo, Ronaldinho. Maicon, Cafu, Careca, Kaka, Romario and Ronaldo.

 

Nope. If he downs tools he looks a right eejit not us.

[The Guest]

It does feel like he’s going this window. Despite all the hysteria in the summer everything pointed to him staying. It was late in the window and we hadn’t got our 2 main signings over the line. The club came out pretty quickly and said nothing was happening and he was absolutely not for sale. Now though those two signings are done and it’s really early in the window to line up a replacement. The club are being silent on it.

 

It still doesn’t make sense to me. The World Cup is coming up and he’s on a long deal. We are still in the champions league and the premier league is as tight as it’s ever been. We need that champions league spot. We should be behaving like absolute cunts. We haven’t got infinite money but we do have quite a bit. When it comes to these bell ends offering low amounts I would say to them. If you don’t offer the full 150m then we will be happy to sell him to PSG or Madrid etc for 100m. That’s pretty much what these cunts are offering anyway.

[G Richards]

I’m thinking he stays until the end of the season. A deal may be struck now, so Barcelona can claim they got their man, but surely he plays here the rest of the season.

 

He gives his best, knowing his future is secure, and tries to sign off on the highest note possible. We integrate VVD, wait for Keita, and go shopping ourselves for the best possible replacement for Coutinho, who, I suspect, is not available this month, or if he is, he is likely CL cup tied.

 

He will get what he wants in the end, but it just needs a bit of patience. If he forces it too much, it could easily become a lose-lose sort of thing. He has to understand, with several years to go on his contract, that a win-win must be found in order to go.

 

As Jurgen said, it’s all about the timing.

[Boss]

We’ve only got ourselves to blame here. This shits been going on for years now. Look back at Torres comments last year about why he wanted to leave. He could see we were going nowhere as a club who kept making more 3 year excuses which he saw right through as bullshit and thought he best be getting a move on if he wanted to have some big shiny pots at the end of his career. He was right when he said that we’re still making the same excuses now 7 years later.

 

Unless FSG start taking winning seriously, we’re gonna keep having this shit every summer with our next player having his breakout season wanting to jettison us at the first opportunity. It’s the club, not the players fault this shit keeps happening to us.

 

Spot on.

[dockers_strike]

People are living in dreamland if they think even if we had won a couple of Premier League titles or a Champions League that Coutinho would not want to go to Barcelona. He would still want to go.

[The Guest]

I don’t get this agree a deal now and he will do his best until the end of the season. Why? He’s got what he wants then. He can pretty much sit off for the rest of the year and just make sure he doesn’t get injured. He will be playing in the champions league regardless next year. The only agreement we should possibly do is agree verbally we will sell him in the summer if he works his arse off until then.

 

We’ve all been talking about how professional he’s been but he knows if he had been shite this season then Barca might not have done what Liverpool did with Van Dijk. It’s a lot of money to spend on someone.

[M_B]

Ultimately unless Henry has changed his mind then he won't be going anywhere. He was resolute over the summer and we've seen nothing to suggest his position has changed. The media are just guessing.

[Lee909]

Spot on.

 

 

Agree 100%

Only have to look at the mancs and Ronaldo

Challenging for everything there,paid well but one sniff of Madrid and he wants out.

If you buy South Americans,or Latin players in general they will want to move there if given the chance. 

 

I say but German or more Africans

[Barrington Womble]

People are living in dreamland if they think even if we had won a couple of Premier League titles or a Champions League that Coutinho would not want to go to Barcelona. He would still want to go.

Maybe you're right. But do you seriously think if we were genuine challengers for the League and CL every season and paid competitive wages, we couldn't keep hold of a few more players? We might not keep all of them, but if the pay was comparative and we were creating a winning environment, I'm sure plenty of out top players would be happy to stay with us.

[Scooby Dudek]

I dont think FSG would sell him if he wasnt agitating for a move.

They didn't in the summer. We hold all the cards as a club. He can only leave if we allow him to go. 

If he goes in the summer, fine, but to sell him now can not be justified on footballing terms.

[dockers_strike]

Maybe you're right. But do you seriously think if we were genuine challengers for the League and CL every season and paid competitive wages, we couldn't keep hold of a few more players? We might not keep all of them, but if the pay was comparative and we were creating a winning environment, I'm sure plenty of out top players would be happy to stay with us.

 

Not sure what you mean by a few more players and the past issues within the club are well known. Way I look at it is why would Ronaldo want to leave Manchester United when he was winning Premier league titles, Champions League and Cups? It is not just the winning it is the new challenge playing for a Real or Barcelona even the climate. I think the days of players staying even at winning clubs in England was over some time ago.

[Evil_Ways]

What seems fucked up to me is Barcelona still seem to think their cunting tactics with media etc is able to bring the price down.

Surely after the summer, and then us paying premium for VVD they must get they wont get away with those ridiculous fucking add-ons.

[Evil_Ways]

Not sure what you mean by a few more players and the past issues within the club are well known. Way I look at it is why would Ronaldo want to leave Manchester United when he was winning Premier league titles, Champions League and Cups? It is not just the winning it is the new challenge playing for a Real or Barcelona even the climate. I think the days of players staying even at winning clubs in England was over some time ago.

Real and Barcelona will always be the top destination for South American players. But i do think we will, and have already started to see a bit of a shift compared to the last 5-7 years. Wont be long before we see most of the English sides go far in the CL. The money in the PL is dwarfing the money in Spain, Germany and Italy. Only the likes of PSG, Barcelona, Real and Bayern will be able to challange soon.

Imo

[Boss]

Imagine Barcelona pulling this on City with De Bruyne - De Bruyne refusing to play for the whole duration of two transfer windows. Not only would they not sell, they'd fine the player, kick the player out of the squad until he publicly apologises and vow never to sell another player to Barcelona again.

 

Obviously we don't have that kind of money - or influence - but we can at least have a set of nuts about us. We were lambasted in the summer for releasing a story about a player that preferred us and threatened with a transfer ban. They've done five or six things worse.

 

The problem is though, the owners don't want to upset Barcelona. It's battered wife syndrome. They can do anything they want to us and we'll just suck it up because we only care about the money. If the club had any principles or believed any of the rhetoric they espouse - blowing smoke up the fans arses - then they'd tell Barcelona to fuck off. That's how a club that aspires to win things would handle this situation. 

 

That'll never happen though because the majority of us understand that it's all con. We're a rich feeder club that exists to sell it's best players to Barcelona and Madrid and the extent of our aspiration is qualifying for the Champions League group stage, and it's got nothing to do with the Champions League itself and everything to do with the £40m cheque that arrives because of it. C'est la vie.

[Barrington Womble]

Not sure what you mean by a few more players and the past issues within the club are well known. Way I look at it is why would Ronaldo want to leave Manchester United when he was winning Premier league titles, Champions League and Cups? It is not just the winning it is the new challenge playing for a Real or Barcelona even the climate. I think the days of players staying even at winning clubs in England was over some time ago.

Our issues in the past are not a lot different to now in footballing terms. H&G may have been bankrupting us off the pitch, but we started losing players to barca and Madrid when we stopped trying to be competitive and we became a selling club under H&G and winning became irrelevant. That's never changed, we're still a selling club and winning is irrelevant. Some payers will always want to move to a Madrid or barca. Sterling went to City though and suarez saw more chances of success at arsenal than here.

 

Outside of players chasing the dream of barca or Madrid, others have different lifestyle choices and providing they're being satisfied on a sporting level and are being rewarded in a fair way, have no need to go to a specific club. Like I said, we might not be able to keep Coutinho no matter what, but if we had a culture of winning, we might keep some of our best players. And maybe after 10 years of success with 2 or 3 PL's and 1 or 2 CL's we might actually be a club where people want to join and not join to find a path elsewhere.

[Lee909]

Imagine Barcelona pulling this on City with De Bruyne - De Bruyne refusing to play for the whole duration of two transfer windows. Not only would they not sell, they'd fine the player, kick the player out of the squad until he publicly apologises and vow never to sell another player to Barcelona again.

 

Obviously we don't have that kind of money - or influence - but we can at least have a set of nuts about us. We were lambasted in the summer for releasing a story about a player that preferred us and threatened with a transfer ban. They've done five or six things worse.

 

The problem is though, the owners don't want to upset Barcelona. It's battered wife syndrome. They can do anything they want to us and we'll just suck it up because we only care about the money. If the club had any principles or believed any of the rhetoric they espouse - blowing smoke up the fans arses - then they'd tell Barcelona to fuck off. That's how a club that aspires to win things would handle this situation. 

 

That'll never happen though because the majority of us understand that it's all con. We're a rich feeder club that exists to sell it's best players to Barcelona and Madrid and the extent of our aspiration is qualifying for the Champions League group stage, and it's got nothing to do with the Champions League itself and everything to do with the £40m cheque that arrives because of it. C'est la vie.

 

 

Not just us though

Barcelona and Real do it to everyone and UEFA sit back and let their favourite clubs do it

The fuck around with FFP,dodgy training ground deals at Real and nothings done. 

[Aventus]

Maybe you're right. But do you seriously think if we were genuine challengers for the League and CL every season and paid competitive wages, we couldn't keep hold of a few more players? We might not keep all of them, but if the pay was comparative and we were creating a winning environment, I'm sure plenty of out top players would be happy to stay with us.

What players have left us recently because we didn't pay them enough? Or because we haven't been competitive for trophies?

 

I imagine quite a few have chose to join another club over us for those reasons but I cant think of many recently that have actually left the club because of them.

 

Coutinhos head would have been turned by Barca even if we were winning stuff.

 

Suarez would have gone anyway.

 

You'd be right about Sterling leaving for money/glory.

 

Other than that you're going back as far as Torres, Alonso and Mascherano which was 6 years, 2 managers and a different set of owners ago.