Summer 2018 Transfer Thread

[Lee909]

BREAKING: Loris Karius is emerging as a target for Bundesliga club Bayer Leverkusen - Liverpool could offload both him & Mignolet before the transfer window closes. [@JPercyTelegraph] https://t.co/KnHZXIO4b6

[Anubis]

McCarthy in as no.2

 

[Grinch]

Big Mick did the best World Cup commentary.

[Anubis]

Oliver Bond

@Oliver__Bond

 

Michael Edwards eh.

 

9:13 PM · Jul 31, 2018

 

 

Oliver Bond being a teasing little shit. It seems to hint at Edwards pulling something out the bag, but he won't hint of its good work incoming or outgoing. Or, alternatively, he's just trolling.

[sir roger]

Big Mick did the best World Cup commentary.

 

I like McCarthy. He makes Sean Dyche sound like Joe Pasquale

[Carvalho Diablo]

Oliver Bond being a teasing little shit. It seems to hint at Edwards pulling something out the bag, but he won't hint of its good work incoming or outgoing. Or, alternatively, he's just trolling.

 

[Anubis]

Did you just call me a wanker. You know where Otterspool is, right?

[Carvalho Diablo]

Did you just call me a wanker. You know where Otterspool is, right?

 

[Numero Veinticinco]

Oliver Bond being a teasing little shit. It seems to hint at Edwards pulling something out the bag, but he won't hint of its good work incoming or outgoing. Or, alternatively, he's just trolling.

I think that's a cunt's trick. I fucking hate this 'Ibknow something you don't know' nonsense.

[The Midnight Rambler]

LFC have unpinned the Alisson signing on Twitter too.

[Carvalho Diablo]

I think that's a cunt's trick. I fucking hate this 'Ibknow something you don't know' nonsense.

 

[setreal]

Welcome to Sheffield, Ben Woodburn.

[El Rojo]

Oliver Bond being a teasing little shit. It seems to hint at Edwards pulling something out the bag, but he won't hint of its good work incoming or outgoing. Or, alternatively, he's just trolling.

 

PM'd.

[Bad Red Bull]

Oliver Bond being a teasing little shit. It seems to hint at Edwards pulling something out the bag, but he won't hint of its good work incoming or outgoing. Or, alternatively, he's just trolling.

Graeme Kelly says Bond is talking about outgoings, probably surprised at size of the fee we got for someone out of Origi or Mignolet.

[Karl_b]

Welcome to Sheffield, Ben Woodburn.

A mate of mine is a season ticket holder at Sheffield United and has promised a follow-up to his averagely received 'Coady Watch' series from a few years ago.

 

I'll post them here as a regular update of his progress but I think it's a good move for him. They've lost Brookes, who was their young, creative attacking midfielder and Woodburn should slot in nicely. He expects him to play 25+ games.

[Aventus]

I think that's a cunt's trick. I fucking hate this 'Ibknow something you don't know' nonsense.

"If you know, you know"

 

 

 

No

[Anubis]

The Echo are reporting that Chirivella has turned down the move to Rosenborg, and that he'd prefer a move to another club in England, or Spain.

[Josef Svejk]

Understandable.

[Numero Veinticinco]

The Echo are reporting that Chirivella has turned down the move to Rosenborg, and that he'd prefer a move to another club in England, or Spain.

Fucking Michael Edwards, eh?

[Dr Nowt]

Looks like Joyce has written an article on Pulisic.

 

If anyone has a Times subscription, please don’t paste it on here because I definitely don’t want to read it.

[Gym Beglin]

Hi

[Numero Veinticinco]

Looks like Joyce has written an article on Pulisic.

 

If anyone has a Times subscription, please don’t paste it on here because I definitely don’t want to read it.

Says fuck all.

[sh#t waffle]

Says fuck all.

 

Yep. Though it does also reiterate that we won't be going back for Fekir.

 

I realise that many journalists categorically stated that we wouldn't be buying Alisson, but that was always to do with price. Now that people like Joyce and Pearce are mentioning Fekir's medical issues more openly, I think it would be genuinely weird for us to go back in for him as there will be too much focus on his knee if we now contradict the stories that we were too worried about it to proceed in the first place.

 

I can't say that I understand us ditching the Fekir deal and then not going for someone that can offer similar. We have always known the Ox is out for the whole season, so in effect we only have one midfielder this season (albeit a bloody brilliant one in Naby) that can quickly break through the lines. If Naby gets injured then our midfield is back to looking somewhat pedestrian.

 

The perfect thing about Fekir is that he can both cover the front three, and offer us something different in the midfield three. I realise Jurgen waited for Van Dijk, waited for Keita and waited for Alisson, but that was all to do with the negotiations - if the only reason we pulled out of a deal for Fekir was that his knee is fucked, we're not waiting, we've just pulled out. In which case I really feel we need to bring someone similar in.

[TheHowieLama]

[Tourt]

Looks like Joyce has written an article on Pulisic.

 

If anyone has a Times subscription, please don’t paste it on here because I definitely don’t want to read it.

 

Look away now.

 

 

 

Before Manchester United departed their angst-ridden tour of the United States, there was still time for José Mourinho to offer up one more utterance which sharpened the contrast between himself and Jürgen Klopp.

 

The United manager was discussing transfers and attempting to explain why a tantrum is never seemingly far away while the window remains open.

“In every pre-season it happens the same, with every club, which is that the manager wants more,” said Mourinho. “It’s our nature, you always want more for your team.”

 

Klopp, however, does not want more. He publicly stated as much after the friendly win over Blackburn Rovers on July 20 and we only have to wait eight more days to find out if the Liverpool manager is a man of his word.

 

It will mean no Nabil Fekir — the Lyons attacker’s failed medical put paid to that — and no late bid for Christian Pulisic despite the noise surrounding the American international.

It is almost two years since Liverpool bid about £11 million for Pulisic, then a highly-rated 17-year-old. The offer was dismissed and the way his value has soared to £62 million, the reputed figure at which Borussia Dortmund would consider doing business, suggests a talent who has made remarkable strides in the interim.

 

But if you crunch the numbers, then it becomes clear why Liverpool — and specifically Klopp, given his inside knowledge of the player and his former club — would baulk at making a bid at that price.

 

In the past two seasons, Pulisic has scored seven goals and provided 14 assists in the Bundesliga. In some quarters that will not been viewed as too bad given that he does not turn 20 until next month (English team-mate Jadon Sancho, 18, scored once and produced four assists in 12 top flight games last term).

 

Yet Liverpool would not countenance paying £62million for a player to sit on the bench and those playing statistics indicate that Pulisic, adept on either wing and also as a No 10, would be some way behind a regular starting place at Anfield.

 

To pay that sort of money, Klopp would have to be buying someone whom he planned to start more often than not and Pulisic is not at that point in his career irrespective of what he, himself, might think.

 

Mohamed Salah scored 32 goals and produced 11 assists in the Premier League last season, Roberto Firmino 15 and seven respectively and Sadio Mané ten and seven. The bar is set higher than it has been in a long time.

 

For more context, Xherdan Shaqiri has scored 12 goals and delivered nine assists in two Premier League seasons at Stoke City. He is 26, of course, but cost £13.5 million.

Scratch a little further and Pulisic scored once in his final 19 appearances of the 2017-18 campaign and completed 90 minutes on just four occasions.

Still, Pulisic is a player that Klopp likes, so what happens next?

 

On the one hand, he pushes on and improves his output and productivity because Liverpool have shown this year with Virgil van Dijk, Naby Keïta and Alisson that they are not averse to paying big money for players they believe will come into the starting XI.

 

Alternatively, he sits tight on a contract which has two years left to run in the expectation that Dortmund would have to sell him for a reduced fee next summer rather than risk losing him for nothing.

 

 

Liverpool will continue to monitor the talent, but unless the numbers start stacking up on the pitch then there is no guarantee they will lead the chase.