HBenn

Safely hidden away at a location only JWH knows. He has been at this a long time, he is no fool.

Thanks!

If there is anyone who is a bit more accustomed to reading the club accounts, could they post a link as to how I could get hold of the accounts from the last 4-5 years please?

Yes. Interesting that Klopp described them all basically as not quite yet physically able to play at this level (well Clark, Bajcetic and the lad at right back).

Bloody hell, he is going to Everton!

Was it a repeat from the summer? Surprised they didn't mention that "Naby will be like a new signing" as well. Maybe start throwing in Bobby Clark as the answer to our defensive midfield issues as well.

We have rarely been as badly needing a midfielder as we do now.

No one expects them to not fight to keep their players until the summer. That is obvious. However signing no players now and waiting until the summer to make our "a list" signings could well be foolhardy unless we have an ironclad agreement in Jan that it is not CL dependent. With Fernandez, as Benfica are supposedly making it known that any club would still need to pay Fernandez's release clause whether he goes now or in the summer perhaps a deal for Fernandez could be done now. Our leverage may well not be any stronger in the summer.

Like you say, could be something, could be nothing. Could be rats jumping from a sinking ship or just personal reasons. Struggling to see why a takeover would cause this.

The headline quote was him saying he certainly didn't expect us to be busy. Hopefully that is based on him being ill informed or the club trying to not look too desperate. It would be ridiculous for them not to act unless the summer signings are not CL dependent. Hopefully your right with the positivity.

Quotes on twitter are from an interview he has done with the BBC. Doesn't expect us to be busy. Apparently we are assessing our options and may do something opportunist like Diaz last Jan. Hope that is crap and they are more proactive otherwise they can likely forget about their summer targets! If they havent woken up to how bad our midfield is then god help us. Hopefully he is no longer in the loop.

Well he has done it now. Clearly couldn't wait for Christmas morning.

Would be a great signing. Not sure I can see it happening though with the money needed for midfield and possibly backup forwards. If we go after him as well I think we will need Qatar type of money to fund it all.

Completely agree. Perhaps though they put it off in the summer as they knew they were off. Perhaps they didn't expect Fabinho to drop off so significantly but it feels like 3 and not 2. I don't think they can afford not to start the process in Jan. If they are being backed I would hope that we could bring in 2 now as with a solid midfield feel we would comfortably get top 4 and could possibly spring a surprise in CL.

Yes, feels significant that he hasn't. Either they are completely in the dark about what is happening and don't want to look like idiots or possibly been asked to sit on it.

Or unless the owners didn't want to invest as they knew they were likely leaving. For a club that looks for prudent spending it doesn't seem to be the brightest idea to pay probably £80m+ for a midfielder (Fernandez) that you could buy for £9m 6 months earlier. If someone else is picking up the tab in Jan or June then that is a different ball game.

I agree that we need to. However if two of the players they really want are Enzo and Bellingham and they don't want to/are not available until the summer then we would need serious money to buy them as well as buying someone else in Jan. If we buy say Caciedo in Jan does that mean we shelve plans for one of the other two? We may well have to take that risk if the other two are CL dependent anyway.

Well there is probably about as much chance of it being true as the ghosts of Christmas past, present and future visiting John Henry and him authorising the spend as a leaving gift but hey, we can all dream!

You would think that getting the CL would impact the sales price and so they will be active. Also read, and I don't know if it is utter crap, that if we spent a shed load on players now and add it to the sales price, under tax laws, the majority of it can get written off.

That approach got us into this mess. The only way I would hope the club would entertain that would be if Fernandez and Bellingham were guaranteed for the summer, not CL dependent. Even then it feels too risky. If we are planning to pay Fernandez release clause then not sure why that couldn't be done in Jan anyway. Whatever way it happens I cannot see us not signing players in Jan because I cannot imagine many of those top players will really come if we are not in CL (maybe Bellingham based on comments). It could set us back years unless we have new owners with ridiculous wealth.

Yeah, would agree. Unless we have super serious levels of money coming in and buy someone like Caciedo in Jan as well.

In this case I don't see it making a difference. Sounds like Bellingham favours the move to us but I doubt he is that wed to the idea that if Dortmund say they want more than we are prepared to pay he won't go elsewhere. I think us threatening to do a deal for someone else wouldn't bother them at all.

It will be interesting if they are getting deals done for both in the summer what they do in Jan. You would think they will probably make do until then. I would struggle to believe both of them would be happy to join if we don't get CL so it would be a huge risk. Best case scenario is they are planning to get these over the line while doing something for Jan too. If that happens think it's extremely likely that we are getting taken over by Saudis/Qatar.

Thanks. Was it a Benfica director that said recently about Nunez that there was no way they could turn down the kind of money we offered? Maybe a bit of brinkmanship on both sides and we move for him in Jan? Also, if true, the promise to match any offer sounds completely unlike us under FSG. We always bang on about our wage bill. I am also a bit surprised that we have heard no denials from the usual suspects over any of this. Usually they come out and pour scorn on this stuff. If reports are true about us going after Bellingham and Enzo and making high wage offers maybe the takeover/investment is much more advanced than we know currently.

Houllier managed his game time very well so that by the time he was 21-22 he was able to play 3 times a week without fear of injury/injuries later on