PODCAST: Kelleher the hero as Reds advance, plus CL Draw reaction and what's going on with FSG?

[Razoray]

Enjoyed the listen and agreed with the FSG opinions too. I think we all agree that the purse strings could be loosened a bit more, but as custodians, they have fucked up on numerous occasions, however they have rowed back and apologised every time when called on it. 

Better the devil you know is definitely my sentiment but if they stay and keep the net spend at approx £30m pa, we are in serious danger of drifting out of top 4 and that's even prior to Klopp leaving

[Moo]

31 minutes ago, m0e said:

He's also made the point that we can't get transfers wrong.

 

And that makes the most sense to me. FSG, and any business owners worth their salt, hate paying salaries for useless employees.

 

But to sell is the method, but most peo0le don't seem to understand what that actually means.

 

They give him a salary budget and of he makes the wrong signings, we're stuck with them until we sell someone to fee up the wages.

 

Otherwise, their whole business model gets out of hand. And that's how most businesses fail. Too much expenditure on too many commitments.

 

Klopp also said he's not in charge of the spending and that he'd like the owners to take more risks on transfers, or words to that effect.

That's about as clear as Klopp will ever be, at least while an active manager, about having his hands tied.

[Chris]

God damn it, Dave. 

[dave u]

That's not on me, I was clearly joking. I'm not taking the blame for this, I'll happily wear the Madrid thing as I called for it, but no fingers should be pointed at me on this one.

[aws]

*points finger* 

[Chris]

2 hours ago, dave u said:

That's not on me, I was clearly joking. I'm not taking the blame for this, I'll happily wear the Madrid thing as I called for it, but no fingers should be pointed at me on this one.

You put it into the universe. 

[suzy]

Yup, you did it again Dave!!

[VladimirIlyich]

20 hours ago, dave u said:

 

I agree, but how much of it is Klopp's choice and how much is it the owners telling him there's no money to spend?

 

So for example, when Lovren left did Klopp choose to wait until he could get the player he wanted (Konate) or did he want to buy someone and was told he couldn't?

 

To me, that was Klopp taking the chance that he had enough cover until he could get who he wanted. Then Virg gets wiped out and the others all go down too. 

 

I don't know though, but that's kind of the point I made on the pod. None of us know if its Klopp's doing or if he's constantly being told he can't spend. My guess it's a bit of both but mostly it has been Klopp not wanting to settle for secondary or tertiary targets.

 

He did that in the early years, but the level of the team wasn't as high then so it's easier. Since we became good all he talks about is how hard it is to find better players than those he has.

Maybe this is the problem with not having any of the successful old guard left. I'm sure that if somebody would have kept dropping a hint 'this is a big title to win,20 would put us level with United' in 19/20 then surely something better would have been done? Almost everybody keeps spouting as though football only began in 1993 and our 18 titles didnt exist! We may be waiting another 30 years now given the state of football club ownership. History is important to this club and fans but it hard to tell if the owners ever cared about that other than to use it as an advertising tool. Klopp is around my age so he would have plenty of knowledge of our history too.

[dave u]

7 hours ago, Chris said:

You put it into the universe. 

 

No, YOU did! I only responded (with a joke) to you bringing it up.

[dave u]

11 hours ago, Moo said:

 

Klopp also said he's not in charge of the spending and that he'd like the owners to take more risks on transfers, or words to that effect.

That's about as clear as Klopp will ever be, at least while an active manager, about having his hands tied.

 

True but it's the one and only time he's done it, and it was at a time in which he was getting grief for not bringing in a midfielder (which he himself said frequently over the summer was his choice).

 

I assumed the 'taking risks' may have been referring to when they tightened the purse strings after COVID when other clubs were taking out loans and spending freely, but who knows what he meant really. I don't think anyone asked him to elaborate on it, which is a shame.

[Daisy]

I kind of side with your Dad on Queef. 

 

Allison is undoubtedly the best keeper in the world at the moment but he probably only has 3 years left at his peak. 

 

You guys spoke about fergie selling the right players at their peak a few weeks ago. We have got a brilliant ready made replacement for him and could easily bank £100 Mill. 

 

Gutted to see him leave if it happend and god knows we've needed him this year but if FSG stay it's probably the only way we could afford a rebuild. 

[dave u]

30 minutes ago, Daisy said:

I kind of side with your Dad on Queef. 

 

Allison is undoubtedly the best keeper in the world at the moment but he probably only has 3 years left at his peak. 

 

You guys spoke about fergie selling the right players at their peak a few weeks ago. We have got a brilliant ready made replacement for him and could easily bank £100 Mill. 

 

Gutted to see him leave if it happend and god knows we've needed him this year but if FSG stay it's probably the only way we could afford a rebuild. 

 

Thats not siding with my dad though. It's an entirely separate discussion. My dad thinks Kelleher is better than Alisson right now.

 

He expanded on it a bit yesterday and I actually agree with part of his logic, but he's still wrong. He said he's less nervous watching Kelleher because he's so good with his feet, and that Alisson always worried him when he's on the ball because he's expecting him to do something daft or pass it to the opposition. I feel a bit like that too at times, but that doesn't mean Kelleher is a better keeper. Just a better footballer.

[dockers_strike]

I dont think Kelleher is a better keeper than Alli. All he's done in a small sample of games is shown his penalty saving technique and ability to take a spot kick.

 

Yeah, Alli has made mistakes especially when trying to play the ball out with his feet but shot stopping, collecting crosses and general distrubution with the ball is better. Plus Alli has shown he was able to score a goal from open play.

 

Yes, I'd love to keep Kelleher but like mentioned on the pod, I dont think he's going to be satisfied with a couple of cup games a season. I dont think you can put him in the team for a couple of PL games either (and it's too late for CL group games) because if he plays and we lose, some people will just go 'we wouldnt have lost if Alli had played.'

 

It's unfortunate that keeper is the one position in a team you cant keep 2 very good players happy, one is always going to be understudy and wanting regular games.

[dave u]

It's a ludicrous conversation to even be having, and it's completely my Dad's fault.

 

Alisson is the best keeper in the world. Kelleher looks like a very good keeper with lots of potential.

[No2]

It's not you're Dad's fault, Daisy is just a negative nelly who's only happy he's miserable. He only wants Alisson sold so he can have a good moan at the owners.

[JohnnyH]

Allison is like a negative of a photo of Kelleher.  

[Daisy]

Also if you honestly think Klopp was happy with the midfield this summer though you are all bonkers. There is no way he would have wanted Arthur as a last resort. 

 

It was definately a case of we've spent the budget on Nunez, there was no more money to spend and that's it. 

 

We won't sign anyone in January now because of this shit, perfect excuse. 

[dave u]

5 minutes ago, Daisy said:

Also if you honestly think Klopp was happy with the midfield this summer though you are all bonkers. There is no way he would have wanted Arthur as a last resort. 

 

It was definately a case of we've spent the budget on Nunez, there was no more money to spend and that's it. 

 

We won't sign anyone in January now because of this shit, perfect excuse. 

 

He was happy enough until they started getting injured and he panicked. Read the quotes and how they changed over the course of the summer.

[Moo]

1 hour ago, dave u said:

 

He was happy enough until they started getting injured and he panicked. Read the quotes and how they changed over the course of the summer.

 

Not buying that at all.

 

Knowing what we know of Klopp what's more likely?

- Klopp is happy all summer with his midfield options until they start getting injured and he panics.  Instead of taking full responsibility for this he points a finger towards the owners.

- Klopp is not happy with his midfield options but instead of going public with this he bigs up the players he has.  Only when things get ever more desperate does he reluctantly admit his hands are, somewhat, tied where transfers are concerned. 

[Remmie]

On 10/11/2022 at 18:59, dave u said:

So not the umpire then. I knew at the time I didn't have a fucking clue what you two were on about. 

 

"Stupida game"

 

That quote was (quite accurately) about golf, dont besmirch cricket, Furio fucking loves Phil Tufnell. 

[Daisy]

Pearce now pretty much saying FSG have put us up for sale because they won't pay for the squad rebuild.

 

I don't now how anyone cant have the view that they are absolute cunts

[dave u]

16 hours ago, Moo said:

 

Not buying that at all.

 

Knowing what we know of Klopp what's more likely?

- Klopp is happy all summer with his midfield options until they start getting injured and he panics.  Instead of taking full responsibility for this he points a finger towards the owners.

- Klopp is not happy with his midfield options but instead of going public with this he bigs up the players he has.  Only when things get ever more desperate does he reluctantly admit his hands are, somewhat, tied where transfers are concerned. 

 

Nah, he really went after anyone who suggested he needed a midfielder. It comes down to what Ljinders said the other day. They can't afford to get it wrong and the policy is to spend on 'the right player' which was the lad who went to Madrid. Maybe a couple of others who they couldn't get (the Inter Milan lad perhaps, or one or two we don't know about) and when they couldn't do that, they stuck with what they had. It's a pattern, they've done it regularly.

 

I'm just not having it that Klopp goes to Mike Gordon and says "I want this player" and Gordon goes ok well place a bid. Then we miss out, Klopp says "ok how about this player" and Gordon then says "no we aren't sure about him so you can't have him".

 

I just don't think that's how it works. If Klopp and the scouts are sure about a player, they'll be backed. If they aren't sure, they won't even ask the question as they can't afford mistakes in the way City and United can.

 

So effectively it's partly due to restrictions placed on him, but we have to have restrictions because FSG aren't funding deals themselves and nor should they. We should be spending what we make though, I don't think any of us dispute that.

 

The question is why have we not always spent what we've made, and for me it's what Ljinders has said.

 

Now (because of results and performances) I think maybe Klopp wants to veer away from that a bit and take more risks, so we'll see what happens.

[aws]

I think Jurgen and his team made a call that we could manage with what we had and wait for the right player. They were obviously taking a calculated risk with the injury records of some of the midfielders but I don’t think they anticipated that the form of Fab and Hendo would plummet as well. 

[m0e]

11 hours ago, aws said:

I think Jurgen and his team made a call that we could manage with what we had and wait for the right player. They were obviously taking a calculated risk with the injury records of some of the midfielders but I don’t think they anticipated that the form of Fab and Hendo would plummet as well. 

If Fabinho plays as he should do, we wouldn't be talking about a midfield problem.

[Megadrive Man]

The problem I have is this concept that we can't afford to get a transfer wrong.

 

No club or manager ever gets every single transfer right, it's impossible! Our business since Klopp came in is probably as close to perfect as you'd hope to get.

 

The problem is that when we do get it wrong (Karius, Keita) we keep playing them even though we know they're wrong!

The whole time Karius was here he never once looked like a Premier League level goalkeeper. He made mistakes and errors that I've never seen a professional goalkeeper make before, and part of me wonders if its because we simply refused to accept we'd got it wrong.

 

In terms of our spend under FSG then I agree that we don't know how much of it does come from Klopp vs FSG not backing him. Stories have come out though such as Klopp wanting Diaz in January, but was initially told to wait, it was only when Spurs moved in that we reacted. If we'd signed Diaz right at the start of January just before Salah and Mane were due to go away for the African nations, it would have been much better all round. The season before when Van Dijk and Gomez got injured, we simply had to sign a centre back and should have had a deal ready for the start of January. The idea of playing half a season with Matip as your only fit and available centre back was madness!

 

In terms of a midfielder this summer, it's clear that we wanted Tchouameni but he chose Madrid over us. It's clear that we want Bellingham, but Dortmund weren't prepared to sell this summer. My feeling is that we were/are holding out for him. I'm sure that nobody expected that we'd finish outside the top two at the start of the season let alone outside the top four!

Now though we are in a really tough battle with seven clubs having a realistic chance at finishing in the top four. If we don't get it this season then I think we can forget any chance of Bellingham. He's not going to turn down Madrid or City to play in either of the Europas even though he is a Liverpool fan.