January 2023 Transfer Thread

[Bobby Hundreds]

5 minutes ago, KevieG said:

12 months ago you could have picked up all of Caicdeo, Enzo Fernandez and Kvaratskhelia for the princely sum 25 million. I'm sure there are other examples.  Have the scouting department gone on strike? 

 

There must be players out there who would improve us considerably and not cost 100 million this January. 

 

 

It's too risky taking risks. Unless you count doing nothing as also being a risk in that case LFC are too risky as it is.

 

I'm not even sure risk is a real word now.

[TD_LFC]

9 minutes ago, KevieG said:

12 months ago you could have picked up all of Caicdeo, Enzo Fernandez and Kvaratskhelia for the princely sum 25 million. I'm sure there are other examples.  Have the scouting department gone on strike? 

 

There must be players out there who would improve us considerably and not cost 100 million this January. 

 

You can accuse us of many things but being calm and rational about the signing of a Brighton reserve (though I suppose he was technically established 12 months ago), an unknown  midfielder from River Plate and a winger from Dinamo Tbilisi isn't one of them.

 

 

[KevieG]

1 minute ago, TD_LFC said:

 

You can accuse us of many things but being calm and rational about the signing of a Brighton reserve (though I suppose he was technically established 12 months ago), an unknown  midfielder from River Plate and a winger from Dinamo Tbilisi isn't one of them.

 

 

 

My point is, there are lots of players out there who would improve us.  And yet we suffer on with a decrepit midfield, and will probably offer contract extensions to them.

[TD_LFC]

3 minutes ago, KevieG said:

 

My point is, there are lots of players out there who would improve us.  And yet we suffer on with a decrepit midfield, and will probably offer contract extensions to them.

 

We also could have used some of the 190 million we've set aside on forwards in the last 12 months on a midfielder, no?

[El Dangerous]

Who was the last ace player we signed on a low price punt? Robbo?

[KevieG]

34 minutes ago, TD_LFC said:

 

We also could have used some of the 190 million we've set aside on forwards in the last 12 months on a midfielder, no?

 

190 million on forwards?

 

We let 3 go, and got 3 in. 

 

But I would agree that money would have been better spent on a midfielder than Gakpo.

[Megadrive Man]

1 hour ago, KevieG said:

12 months ago you could have picked up all of Caicdeo, Enzo Fernandez and Kvaratskhelia for the princely sum 25 million. I'm sure there are other examples.  Have the scouting department gone on strike? 

 

There must be players out there who would improve us considerably and not cost 100 million this January. 

 

 

 

Cherry picking three players after the event is very easy!

 

Historically, how many players have moved directly from the Ecuadorian league, Argentinian league and the Russian league and immediately made the step up to Premier League/Champions League contenders? 

 

[El Rojo]

1 hour ago, KevieG said:

12 months ago you could have picked up all of Caicdeo, Enzo Fernandez and Kvaratskhelia for the princely sum 25 million. I'm sure there are other examples.  Have the scouting department gone on strike? 

 

There must be players out there who would improve us considerably and not cost 100 million this January. 

 

 

 

Definitely value to be had, but once 'Liverpool' or another big club name is mentioned I reckon the price would increase a fair bit. Still wouldn't be Bellingham or Tchouameni money, though. 

 

Just out of interest, does anyone know how would the work permit issue play out if we were buying players direct from South America?

[Jairzinho]

8 minutes ago, El Rojo said:

 

Just out of interest, does anyone know how would the work permit issue play out if we were buying players direct from South America?

 

We used to target players who had Italian family as they could get EU passports. Presumably even that means fuck all now.

[El Rojo]

3 minutes ago, Jairzinho said:

 

We used to target players who had Italian family as they could get EU passports. Presumably even that means fuck all now.

 

Yeah, I forgot we took punts on lads like Leto and Paletta. The Italian passport thing was definitely a bit odd. 

[Barrington Womble]

13 hours ago, an tha said:

Can't see Elliott being sold myself.

 

Kelleher is a shame as he is boss - but he is good enough to be a No.1 in the PL and if he wants to be one then reluctantly we have to let him go - insert a buy back clause!!

 

Jones is never making it here IMHO - i'd happily see us sell and upgrade.

 

Phillips is worth 20m to a lower half PL club who defend deep and would play every week who so again sell...he won't have a succesful career playing regularly here

 

I think we have enough to do in midfield without having to sort the Jones problem too. If the club don't believe they can sort the injury problems, then sure, get rid if you can find a buyer, but if we get him back fit, then give the lad a chance imo. He's 21 - there aren't too many midfielders who've set the world alight by that age. He maybe will never be a leading player for us, but if he can keep fit and start contributing as a solid 4th/5th/6th choice midfielder, I am sound with that. Jones is about the same age as when Henderson was when Rodgers took over. Most people (including rodgers) would have fired him into a rocket ship to space for a packet of smarties. 

 

Lots of players develop late, from our highest earning players, you could say Ali, VVD, Robbo, henderson (to an extent), fabinho and salah weren't doing great things at 21. Even thiago who was at a club smashing all kinds at the time, only had about 50 league appearance or something by then (about the same as Jones and until this season, we've not been shabby). I just think the lad has plenty of time on his hands, we have more problems to solve than him in midfield and as long as we believe we can get him and keep him fit, we should be sticking by him. He is one of the very few midfielders on our books who's best days are almost certainly ahead of him. 

[Barrington Womble]

38 minutes ago, Megadrive Person said:

 

Cherry picking three players after the event is very easy!

 

Historically, how many players have moved directly from the Ecuadorian league, Argentinian league and the Russian league and immediately made the step up to Premier League/Champions League contenders? 

 

I don't think that is the point he is making. It's a simple one klopp used himself when he was first here. The world is full of good footballers. Now I certainly think expecting a kid from the equadorian league to make an immediate impact here is a big ask. We need players who can help us now and on paper that would have seemed unlikely. However, there are also players in between an equadorian kid and bellingham who are just sound at footy and would be great additions to our squad without such a big step up to make and don't cost £100m. Secondly, if we had done the right thing and started clearing the decks when players like chamberlain and keita were clearly not up to the game here, then perhaps we can sign the equadorian kid or similar, because we don't need him to make an instant impact. I would say it's probably what we've tried to do with Carvalho, although he has had a little more on him because of injuries.

[Megadrive Man]

25 minutes ago, Barrington Womble said:

I don't think that is the point he is making. It's a simple one klopp used himself when he was first here. The world is full of good footballers. Now I certainly think expecting a kid from the equadorian league to make an immediate impact here is a big ask. We need players who can help us now and on paper that would have seemed unlikely. However, there are also players in between an equadorian kid and bellingham who are just sound at footy and would be great additions to our squad without such a big step up to make and don't cost £100m. Secondly, if we had done the right thing and started clearing the decks when players like chamberlain and keita were clearly not up to the game here, then perhaps we can sign the equadorian kid or similar, because we don't need him to make an instant impact. I would say it's probably what we've tried to do with Carvalho, although he has had a little more on him because of injuries.

 

I get that, but he's picked three players that have just so happen to have all been major successes whilst ignoring the much larger examples of players that haven't lived up to expectations.

[Megadrive Man]

For every success story that Brighton and Benfica have, they also have lots of failures too. 

 

It's a point I've made before but unlike Brighton and Benfica we have less room for error on players and can't afford to give untested players as much game time when we're chasing 100 points in the league.

[Barrington Womble]

9 minutes ago, Megadrive Person said:

 

I get that, but he's picked three players that have just so happen to have all been major successes whilst ignoring the much larger examples of players that haven't lived up to expectations.

yeah, well obviously. he's not going to say we could have signed *insert name of any everton signing for the last 3 years* is he? It's pretty fair to assume with the scouting and data analysis teams we have, the track record of signings and the fact we've been interested in some of them, that it's not unreasonable to assume we could have found some pretty decent mid-priced players, just like we did when building the squad to win the league, when we only really went big with the coutinho money. 

[niallers]

2 hours ago, Bobby Hundreds said:

It's too risky taking risks. Unless you count doing nothing as also being a risk in that case LFC are too risky as it is.

 

I'm not even sure risk is a real word now.

You don't have to take risks to be risk takers but we are taking risks. 

We've finally learned from the bitters. 

[an tha]

49 minutes ago, Barrington Womble said:

I think we have enough to do in midfield without having to sort the Jones problem too. If the club don't believe they can sort the injury problems, then sure, get rid if you can find a buyer, but if we get him back fit, then give the lad a chance imo. He's 21 - there aren't too many midfielders who've set the world alight by that age. He maybe will never be a leading player for us, but if he can keep fit and start contributing as a solid 4th/5th/6th choice midfielder, I am sound with that. Jones is about the same age as when Henderson was when Rodgers took over. Most people (including rodgers) would have fired him into a rocket ship to space for a packet of smarties. 

 

Lots of players develop late, from our highest earning players, you could say Ali, VVD, Robbo, henderson (to an extent), fabinho and salah weren't doing great things at 21. Even thiago who was at a club smashing all kinds at the time, only had about 50 league appearance or something by then (about the same as Jones and until this season, we've not been shabby). I just think the lad has plenty of time on his hands, we have more problems to solve than him in midfield and as long as we believe we can get him and keep him fit, we should be sticking by him. He is one of the very few midfielders on our books who's best days are almost certainly ahead of him. 

I hear you - but i just don't see it in him and for me if we could get decent money for him and use that money to help with the midfield rebuild then I'd do it.

[Barrington Womble]

2 minutes ago, an tha said:

I hear you - but i just don't see it in him and for me if we could get decent money for him and use that money to help with the midfield rebuild then I'd do it.

does it help us though? someone on here mentioned we could get 20m for him. We were linked with Sander Berge last week for £25m, I don't see how he would be an improvement over Jones. It just feels all casino that type of thing to me. 

[Megadrive Man]

5 minutes ago, Barrington Womble said:

yeah, well obviously. he's not going to say we could have signed *insert name of any everton signing for the last 3 years* is he? It's pretty fair to assume with the scouting and data analysis teams we have, the track record of signings and the fact we've been interested in some of them, that it's not unreasonable to assume we could have found some pretty decent mid-priced players, just like we did when building the squad to win the league, when we only really went big with the coutinho money. 

 

I know, but even the players we were bringing in then were much more proven.

Mane, Wijnaldum, Robertson, Salah all had Premier League experience. 

 

Have we had major success with signing a player that hasn't played in one of Europe's top five leagues under Klopp?

 

I can't think of any?

[an tha]

1 minute ago, Barrington Womble said:

does it help us though? someone on here mentioned we could get 20m for him. We were linked with Sander Berge last week for £25m, I don't see how he would be an improvement over Jones. It just feels all casino that type of thing to me. 

I would say around 20m for Jones would be about right.

 

It does not of course mean we have to go out and buy a 20m replacement - him bringing in 20m may mean we can get a 50m player we want but who we wouldn't buy without selling him, we'd only buy someone else for say 30m.

 

I'd like it to work for Jones - local lad, a red etc - but i just don't see it and we have fucked around too long with the midfield - for me it is time to get it sorted and properly and for me he whilst not someone i am saying should be put on the bin bag list with Oxlade and Keita, he is someone that if an offer came in i'd let go or if we need to raise money to get better in i'd let go.

 

 

[Megadrive Man]

Part of the problem we have now is that there's so much money in the Premier League, even the smaller clubs demand huge fees for their best players.

 

In the past we'd be able to get somebody like Declan Rice for around 30 million, whereas now he'd cost £100 million!

 

As much as I've enjoyed laughing at United pay way over the odds for the likes of Maguire and Wan Bissaka, its made it impossible for us to do the sort of deals we did five or six years ago.

[manwiththestick]

Bit late now that Chelsea have already bought half of Europe.

 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/64383217

[Leyton388]

Its fucking scandalous that a club that had debts of £1.5bn can be allowed to spend what they have. Stories they've put a £50m bid in for that Brighton midfielder we have been linked with. 

[Creator Supreme]

Who are we aggressively monitoring so we don't buy them in the summer?

 

Not that I'm a cynic like!

[Barrington Womble]

3 hours ago, Megadrive Person said:

 

I know, but even the players we were bringing in then were much more proven.

Mane, Wijnaldum, Robertson, Salah all had Premier League experience. 

 

Have we had major success with signing a player that hasn't played in one of Europe's top five leagues under Klopp?

 

I can't think of any?

I don't argue with that..but back to the original point, we don't have to spend 100m either. There's players out there who could be great for us and aren't Jude Bellingham or some random flavour of the day with about 20 matches behind them in Europe and costing a fee that would probably make them in the top 5 most expensive midfielders of all time in this league. It doesn't need to cost the earth to transform our midfield. 

 

 

3 hours ago, an tha said:

I would say around 20m for Jones would be about right.

 

It does not of course mean we have to go out and buy a 20m replacement - him bringing in 20m may mean we can get a 50m player we want but who we wouldn't buy without selling him, we'd only buy someone else for say 30m.

 

I'd like it to work for Jones - local lad, a red etc - but i just don't see it and we have fucked around too long with the midfield - for me it is time to get it sorted and properly and for me he whilst not someone i am saying should be put on the bin bag list with Oxlade and Keita, he is someone that if an offer came in i'd let go or if we need to raise money to get better in i'd let go.

 

 

So for me I think dwelling on Jones hides the real issue that we don't have a player at the club in their prime and bossing their position in the side. Jones is of an age where we shouldn't be expecting it and the failure of our squad management (and the incredible drop off of some key players) puts higher expectations on his shoulders than should be there now. Would I have liked him to progress more quickly? Sure. But I don't expect it, especially with his injuries. His injuries are far more of a concern to me than his ability. It was at Porto last year most of this forum was hailing him as the second coming. I said then that was too early to say, as he needed to bring consistency. He's pretty much been injured since or recovering from injury on the fringes. Fix the injuries and we have a good young player to work with. 

 

We should lose milner, Chamberlain and keita this summer. The club need to and should have the funds to replace all 3 (although they probably won't with the current ownership), selling off the fringes of the squad to make it happen just makes another issue down the line. 3 players is enough to deal with. 3 quality players this summer transforms the midfield. All selling Jones succeeds in doing is cover for the neglect we've had on the management of that part of the pitch for the last 4 years, let's FSG off the hook and imo, increases the chances of failure again next year. We don't need a smaller squad. Replacing 3 players is enough for me. Bringing in 3 for 4 would so we can use the Jones money to cover FSG tightness is just another problem to solve through next season.