Featured: That was the Week that Was (Aug 7-11 2023)

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Monday Aug 7:

 

There were reports at the weekend that Mo was about to be the subject of a Saudi bid. No doubt say high wages for him, but the fee they were reportedly going to offer us for him was £60m. Cheeky cunts. Thankfully Mo’s agent immediately shot it down, saying they wouldn’t have signed a new contract if Mo had any intention of leaving. He’s going to end up there at some point but it’ll be when his contract here runs out. As for the £60m, honestly if they offered three times that amount I’d still turn it down. Why? Because Klopp wouldn’t get to spent it, and even if he did he’d probably sign some fucking kid for £50m.

 

Which brings me nicely onto this. Another bid for Lavia today, another knock back from Southampton. Just fucking pay the money you pricks, you know you’re going to anyway so instead of waiting until deadline day get him in now. It’s still a month later than it should be, and I won’t be forgetting that even if that deal gets done. This summer, which was billed as our most important in years, has been a massive clusterfuck. 

 

Carragher went off about it on Twitter, saying “This is embarrassing. Liverpool for years now have got deals done quickly with no fuss. If you don’t think he’s worth 50M move on, if you really want him pay it. Also not sure why LFC aren’t in for Caicedo, yes it’s a lot of money but Liverpool got big money for JH/FAB.” Agree with every word of that, but what’s mental about this is nobody seems to be kicking off about why we’re even trying to sign this kid. 

 

Everyone just wants the deal to get done, but no-one is asking the obvious question here. Why are we replacing one of the world’s elite defensive midfielders with a 19 year old who has played only 20 Premier League games for a team that finished bottom of the league? He may end up being brilliant and I have no problem with us signing him. I do have a problem with us signing him to be our starting number six and the immediate replacement for Fabinho.

 

Yeah, Fab fell off a cliff last season and may well be finished as an elite level player, but for four years he was probably the best in the world at what he did and was an integral part of our greatest ever team (in my eyes anyway). Replacing him with a kid with virtually no experience is negligent as fuck yet nobody seems to be mentioning that, it’s all just a big clamour to “get it done”. Maybe that’s the genius of this horrendously drawn out deal. Make people just want it to go through so badly that they forget about how fucking ridiculous it is. This is the footy equivalent of “get Brexit done”.

 

Getting back in the top four seems to be the extent of this club’s ambitions now. And that might include Klopp by the way. He’s not thinking about winning the league this season because if he was the first thing he’d have done when Fabinho left was bring in an oven ready replacement (like Caicedo) who we could plug straight in while Lavia learns his trade. Instead we’re going to be moving our number ten back there for the opening game, thereby fucking up the plan we had to have him operating closer to the forwards. 

 

Don’t forget that we wanted Lavia when we thought Fabinho was staying. The idea was for him to learn his trade behind Fab until he was ready to take over. Fabinho leaves and what? We do fuck all to replace him and just go for this kid and expect him to do it. Honestly, it’s so fucking disheartening.

 

On the pitch tonight we beat some German team I’ve never heard of. I saw the second half and enjoyed some of the football we played. Doak is an absolute joy to watch, so electric. Diaz looked in good nick too and scored a lovely goal. Apparently Mac Allister was the star of the show in the first half, playing in the six position. He’s nailed on to be playing there at Stamford Bridge now, meaning we’ll either have Jones or Elliott in one of the two attacking positions alongside Szoboszlai, or we’ll shoehorn Gakpo there which then messes up the dynamic of Klopp’s preferred forward line. The plan for the ‘new’ midfield is fucked already, even though we’ve had all summer to sort it here we are a few days ahead of the opening game and Klopp is talking about “temporary solutions”. Great stuff. Fucking amateurs.

 

We also conceded another horrendous goal from a simple diagonal ball over the top too. Get used to that, we’re going to see it a lot. 

 

Meanwhile, Chelsea are on the brink of signing a player who we should have gone for. Tyler Adams has a £20m release clause and is just the profile of player we need. But instead he’s the one former Red Bull player on the planet we aren’t interested in. I assumed that meant they’d given up on Caicedo, but no, they still want him too. Quite why we aren’t in for Caicedo is anyone’s guess really. Maybe earlier in the summer we couldn’t afford him, but since then as Carragher said we’ve brought in £50m in sales and reduced our wage bill by a million a week. There’s no reason why we shouldn’t be able to do a deal like that, but we all know that we won’t. A team serious about challenging for the league would. That’s not us. We’re about as ambitious as Spurs.

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[mereel]

Love this! It's exactly what I needed after a mad few days 

[DalyanPete]

Feel exactly the same way as above.

You can't beat a rallying speech from the captain! If a horse went past our house now with a Chelsea scarf I'd punch the fucka.

Worrying thing for me, if we don't get Lavia and Caciedo add them to Bellingham and Touchiemo and that's too much for a club of our wealth.

[Marcas]

The whole thing is fucked on so many different levels. There’s been no coherent plan. I never thought a back-room guy leaving would ever derail a club but since Michael Edwards left we haven’t been the same, smooth, strategic force. Is it true he left because of the Hendo deal…?

[Mikhail]

Thankfully Mo’s agent immediately shot it down, saying they wouldn’t have signed a new contract if Mo had any intention of leaving.

 

Mo Salah and his agent showing more loyalty than Henderson what a shocker