Summer 2018 Transfer Thread

[J-V]

Just a couple of days after announcing he will be representing Guinea instead of Italy, to play alongside Keita.

 

Can't imagine Napoli will let both Jorginho and Diawara leave though. Will be one or the other.

 

Money talks with them.  Though if Jorginho goes first expect Diawara's price to go through the roof much like Lemar's.

[Remmie]

If we are after Diawara and Napoli are open to the transfer early on, it might have the added bonus of preventing Mancs\Chelsea or anyone else from signing Jorginho.

[Bjornebye]

Ousmane Dembele banged in 2 earlier for Barca late on

[J-V]

Ousmane Dembele banged in 2 earlier for Barca late on

Come and get me plea.

[Paul]

Keita in the bag and it looks like Fekir is too. Spend big on Neves (who'd be perfect as our holder/creator, sitting behind Naby and Fekir/Ox.) The kid is like the reincarnation of Xabi Alonso.

 

The only other decent money I'd shell out would be on a proper partner for Big Virg.

 

We can tinker with the rest.

I think we’re ill equipped at full back behind the two first choices. Clyne does not give us the width and crossing ability we need (despite being a good player) and Moreno is Moreno.

[razor]

Have we bought a keeper that I'm not aware of?

[The Acolyte]

Nope

[Guest]

Have we bought a keeper that I'm not aware of?

We bought Mignolet a few years back. Were you aware of that? Karius was bought a couple of years back. Were you aware of that? 

[razor]

We bought Mignolet a few years back. Were you aware of that? Karius was bought a couple of years back. Were you aware of that? 

 

I think you may be inadvertently supporting my point, Moto.

[Guest]

I think you may be inadvertently supporting my point, Moto.

I remember once Mignolet said he wanted the number one shirt for Belgium as he deserved it. Courtois was unimpressed.

 

Courtois knows.

[dockers_strike]

A good read.

 

The timescale varies but, rather curiously, the figure remains the same. “There cannot be any messing about,” implored John Aldridge earlier this week. “We need four quality players, players worth £50million each. That’s £200m on new talent. We need the best we can get.”

 

In February 2016 it was Alan Hansen dreaming of a summer budget “more like £200m”, this time to be used on “five major signings”. Four months earlier, a single week after Jurgen Klopp had been appointed Liverpool manager, Robbie Savage noted that “the money spent is ridiculous”, the only remedy to which was apparently “to spend £200-300m”.

 

As Ian Doyle of the Liverpool Echo would attest, there is a unique allure on Merseyside surrounding such an arbitrarily large figure. The reporter sated the appetite of supporters as early as April last year, promising a summer investment ‘nearer £200m’. With Champions League qualification not even in their own hands at the time, it was a bold statement.

 

Yet it was followed by a comparative whisper. That the outlay reached just under £80m by the window’s close was treated as a personal affront by certain fans demanding a certain level of financial sacrifice. To watch Everton spend almost twice as much on exactly twice as many first-team players was seen a sign of standing still, not moving forward. It was no way to prepare for only a second season in the Champions League since 2010.

 

A year later, everything has changed for the better on the field, while little has altered off it. Liverpool stand on the precipice, their hard work over the last nine months to be viewed only through the prism of the next few days: in three, a home game with Brighton; in 16, a Champions League final with Real Madrid; in seven, the transfer window re-opens. Aldridge is just one of many already focusing on the latter.

 

As Klopp prepares for a season-defining final, discussion already surrounds what Liverpool “need” in the summer, how “there cannot be any messing about” when they look to improve a squad that could yet be crowned European champions. Both manager and players are justifiably refusing to look beyond the end of this month and their noses, but there is a growing number of fans and pundits looking to cut theirs off, impatient at the mere idea of Liverpool failing to build on such solid foundations.

 

The desperation to capitalise on an unexpected peak to avoid a depressing trough is nothing new, yet it is still disheartening. Antonio Conte spent his Premier League title-winning celebrations informing the Chelsea board of the need to keep funnelling money back into the squad, despite his coaching and tactics having been arguably the most important factor in their initial success.

 

In the eagerness to stay at the front of the race, it is easy to forget what got you there in the first place. Choosing to save your lottery winnings instead of spending it all in one go is undeniably the least sexy option, but it is often the necessary one. The renewal of Roberto Firmino’s contract suggests Liverpool will sensibly look after their family and friends first before looking to reinvest elsewhere.

 

It is a refreshing change of pace. The summer after they agonisingly finished second in 2014/15, Liverpool signed nine players for £117m: a level of upheaval Klopp would never consider. “If you always change four or five positions, it’s wrong,” he said in March. “You don’t make the team better.”

 

This is only the second campaign in which Liverpool have spent more than £100m, and the first culminated in a sixth-place finish, an ignominious Champions League group-stage exit, and Brendan Rodgers losing his job five months later. For a man who once rather shrewdly compared assembling a squad to “trying to build an aircraft while it is flying”, it was a risk to try and stay airborne while replacing the fuel tank, propeller and cabin crew at the same time.

 

Klopp will ignore the noise and avoid that mistake. This is his 16th full campaign as a manager, and only the sixth time he has spent more than £10m. He is European management’s most consistent overachiever for a reason. Believe him when he says he will only sign “a couple more players” to improve squad depth, and also when he insists that is enough to assure continued progress.

 

If those players arrive for £5m instead of £50m, there should be no uproar or surprise. Liverpool’s likely starting line-up for the Champions League final will feature as many cheap parts – Loris Karius (£4.7m), Andrew Robertson (£8m), Trent Alexander-Arnold (free), James Milner (free) – as it will expensive components in Virgil van Dijk, Mohamed Salah, Sadio Mane and Firmino. Klopp has proven himself adept at spotting both a summer bargain and a designer label in the same market.

 

Three Premier League clubs spent more than Liverpool this season, but no club has managed to strike a better balance between domestic and European progress. To demand a greater investment is to ask Klopp to rip up a successful blueprint before renovations are even complete. Every club needs to invest and improve year on year, but the last thing Liverpool “need” is £200m to do so.

Matt Stead

 

http://www.football365.com/news/f365-says-200m-the-last-thing-klopp-and-liverpool-need

[stringvest]

Its not about the numbers. But it is about the quality of the players and the ability of the manager and coaching staff to extract the maximum from them as individuals and through coaching to ensure that the team is more than the sum of its parts. The better the quality of the players, the less reliant we are on the transformative skills of the management, which will work better with some players than others.

 

The obvious reality that cannot be addressed or mitigated by miracle working is the significant drop off in ability once we need to call on anyone outside the first team. The only way to fix this is to buy more good players than we have.

 

I believe Klopp is a pragmatist. He’ll buy as many players as he feels he needs to improve the squad, subject to availability.

[dockers_strike]

Its not about the numbers. But it is about the quality of the players and the ability of the manager and coaching staff to extract the maximum from them as individuals and through coaching to ensure that the team is more than the sum of its parts. The better the quality of the players, the less reliant we are on the transformative skills of the management, which will work better with some players than others.

 

The obvious reality that cannot be addressed or mitigated by miracle working is the significant drop off in ability once we need to call on anyone outside the first team. The only way to fix this is to buy more good players than we have.

 

I believe Klopp is a pragmatist. He’ll buy as many players as he feels he needs to improve the squad, subject to availability.

 

Totally agree.

[El Rojo]

The fact that he was willing to make Van Dijk the most expensive defender in history while also picking up a great left back for £8m is encouraging for a number of reasons, not to mention the construction of our best attack in a very long time.

 

We'll go big on one or two players this summer, but given that Lewandowski (Blackburn almost signed him) and Kagawa (Japanese second division, FFS) came out of nowhere, any more modest additions could also be pretty interesting.

[SasaS]

Who is this Diogo Leite fella? We have obviously developed a taste for young Portuguese central defenders after we snapped up that Tiago Ilori guy for just 8 mill. This one is apparently double that.

Buying players in Portugal has always been sound for us. Maybe they'd take Lazar as makeweight.

[The Acolyte]

Do I detect a hint of sarcasm?

[SasaS]

Never. It's the lowest form of wit.

[cloggypop]

Sarcasm > puns

[Remmie]

 

 

Who is this Diogo Leite fella? We have obviously developed a taste for young Portuguese central defenders after we snapped up that Tiago Ilori guy for just 8 mill. This one is apparently double that.

 

Buying players in Portugal has always been sound for us. Maybe they'd take Lazar as makeweight.

Is buying Portuguese players the new buying Italian players?

 

An incredibly annoying opinion in both cases. There may be a slight issue with your sample size of 2. Are you against the Neves rumour as well? Manchester United did alright with the thundercunt Cristiano Ronaldo...

[Strontium]

Sarcasm > puns

Where Diogo to, my Leite?

[Dundalis]

Keita in the bag and it looks like Fekir is too. Spend big on Neves (who'd be perfect as our holder/creator, sitting behind Naby and Fekir/Ox.) The kid is like the reincarnation of Xabi Alonso.

 

The only other decent money I'd shell out would be on a proper partner for Big Virg.

 

We can tinker with the rest.

Haven't seen any of Fekir, but from what I can gather in my 20 minutes of googling research, he's really not the Klopp type in terms of defensive workrate, and probably not going to be the best option played in midfield, unless we are we are willing to allow him to be a player that the others make up for defensively. That said looks incredibly talented offensively. I'd still like another quality player up front for a bit more depth behind the front three.

 

Pulisic, or even someone like Maddison if we could get him in as an ideal replacement for Lallana.

[SasaS]

Is buying Portuguese players the new buying Italian players?

 

An incredibly annoying opinion in both cases. There may be a slight issue with your sample size of 2. Are you against the Neves rumour as well? Manchester United did alright with the thundercunt Cristiano Ronaldo...

 

Which is a sample size of 1. No, I'm not against buying players from anywhere in particular, however, this is some 19 year old kid and so far, we have not had much luck with buying young defenders from Portugal, Spain, South America. When it comes to defenders, it seems too risky to buy potential.

 

[stringvest]

Totally agree.

 

 

It might cost us £300m.

[Remmie]

Which is a sample size of 1. No, I'm not against buying players from anywhere in particular, however, this is some 19 year old kid and so far, we have not had much luck with buying young defenders from Portugal, Spain, South America. When it comes to defenders, it seems too risky to buy potential.

 

Apologies, the Italian players thing just makes me see red, I was a bit too scathing thinking you were saying the same thing.

 

What do you suggest instead? I have zero knowledge about this particular kid so maybe he'll be shite, but if the scouts have done the legwork on him they need to make the move. English players seem to be overpriced, especially talented young ones, so I can see the logic.

[SasaS]

Apologies, the Italian players thing just makes me see red, I was a bit too scathing thinking you were saying the same thing.

 

What do you suggest instead? I have zero knowledge about this particular kid so maybe he'll be shite, but if the scouts have done the legwork on him they need to make the move. English players seem to be overpriced, especially talented young ones, so I can see the logic.

 

When it comes to defenders, it seems safer to wait and pay more once they have proven themselves, the fact may be that it is not possible for the scouts "to do the legwork" because the players do not sufficiently develop at an early age, in terms of qualities needed for being good defenders. I am not nearly knowledgeable enough to base my opinion on anything else but our track record, and this tells me that our best defenders come here as finished articles. This kid is 19, he is still playing for their U-23 team and 15 million plus release clause  mentioned by the Guardian article sounds ridiculous. So, my first thought was, here we go again, young Portuguese defender, what could go wrong.