Ne Moe Imya

As someone who grew up in South America speaking Spanish, and has heard Rodgers speaking Spanish, let me just clarify that although there is no real definition for "fluent," Rodgers could not possibly be described as such.

The best thing about this summer is that our club is finally building for the long-term rather than just desperately lunging for the latest over-rated, over-priced wonderplayer. It's been youth, youth, youth, everywhere, and with a real eye towards not just challenging for fourth this season, but going beyond that and challenging for the league in three or four years. And with the youth that are being brought in (the likes of Canos, Chirivella, Ibe; the best 16-17 year-olds out there) it looks even better the further out you go. No longer are we pursuing the Joe Coles and Milan Jovanovics of the world; now we're content to say "yes, it may take a few years for Raheem Sterling to set the world on fire but we're prepared to pay the money now and develop him properly and wait while he gets ready." Alberto, Coutinho, Sterling, Allen, Borini, even Mignolet are still going to have 5-6 years left in their primes after 2 more seasons. Are all of them going to pan out? No, but we're pursuing the right kinds of players, at the right ages, and I'm excited to see where it takes us.

I should know better than to argue with anyone who would say something that stupid, but ... Cheap is not the same thing as wrong. Is this move cheap? Yes, it does save us money. Is it wrong? No, we wanted a GK improvement so we bought Mignolet. You'd like to think you could spend 110k/week better than on your backup goalkeeper, so they made the sensible move of loaning him out so Napoli pays his wages (I'm sure we'll pay some of them, but never half). In the end, after a year, Reina will probably be sold for slightly less than Mignolet came in for but not by much. In the meantime, we're probably paying Mignolet 50k/week or so, and we'll be saving more than that on Reina's wages so we're slightly ahead of the game, financially speaking. And then, of course, when Reina is inevitably sold next summer we will be way ahead because we'll only be paying Mignolet's salary which, again, is probably half of what Reina's was. So, overall, we're going to be financially neutral on the goalkeeper switch this season and after next season we'll be ahead. And not only is it not costing us anything, we improved (and got younger) at a key position. Can't see how anyone disagrees, unless you somehow think Reina is worse than Mignolet (which is a different discussion and suggests that you haven't been watching Reina over the past 2-3 years).

This is the problem. I would guess West Ham are probably the only club stupid enough to give him even close to what he's earning with us. Didn't someone say he was on 80k/week? I'm fairly sure I read that somewhere, and it's mind-boggling. I swear sometimes I think that Comolli was picking up brown paper bags stuffed with cash from Ferguson just to make sure we didn't get back on our perch as soon as he retired. Downing refusing West Ham's offer, the one club (well, apart from QPR maybe) that would be foolish enough to match or almost match those wages, just shows how unflushable he's going to be. We'll end up paying him most of his 4 million transfer fee to leave next summer is my guess.

Edit: answered above. Great odds, IMO.

This is really key, isn't it? Because he's not worth that kind of wage, not even close. Well, maybe if he came on a free, but Rooney on a Suarez-level 120k/week is worth a £30 million transfer fee, perhaps. Certainly not more than that. However, on 250k/week, that's an additional £6.8 million/season over and above what he's worth, spread that over 4 years and you're really paying him £27 million and change more than his true value. At that rate, unless he's willing to take a massive cut in wages his true transfer value is probably less than £5 million.

I honestly think Moyes thought he was pulling some sort of "mind games" with this whole "They offered Mata + 10 million" bit. The problem is no one with half a brain believed it and now he looks a fool (even if it were true, which it could never be, how stupid would he have to be to turn down that offer?). What's more, he managed to look like more of an ass than Mourinho, which takes some doing.

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I'm assuming he wouldn't go to West Ham because of a wage issue? I guess we'll just have to grit our teeth? Or give him a big payoff or something? Seriously, if you didn't know any better, you would swear that Damien Comolli must have been a Manc agent working from the inside to destroy Liverpool.

This. Never saw the need to hate him, really, just another footballer who thought he was better than he was, didn't appreciate the fans, and ruined his career. Yawn. But an exclusive with that rag? That is really beyond the pale for someone who came through our academy. How he could do something like that is amazing, the atrocious gobshite.

I agree with you that it's not an easy sell to Higuain. However, that said, it seems that the only clubs really in for Higuain (and he's already said goodbye to the Real fans so it's not likely he'll return) are Arsenal and Tottenham, and if we can't convince him that we're at least at their level or have a chance of getting there with his help then we have no hope at all of ever getting back into the top 4. As to how long he'd stay if we fail to get into the CL, I don't think we can have that as a consideration. If that were something we were taking into account then why buy any quality player, because as soon as we fail to make CL for 2 seasons they'll just leave. By that measure even the Coutinho signing was a mistake because he'll be gone next summer. I really think the only hope we have of getting a player on the level of Higuain is to use the fact that Real want Suarez. If Real put pressure on him as well to accept our offer, I think we would honestly stand a good chance of bringing him in. You may disagree, and that's fair, but I think if we thought Real's price was OK we could convince him to come.

I have been banging the drum for Higuain for a while, I think the only way we get a top player to come here is if we use the leverage we have from the Real bid to get one of their unwanted players to come here. Higuain fits the bill perfectly; deadly finisher, and surprisingly still just 25 years old so he would suit the owners' desire to not get older players. I don't understand the argument that he would compete with Sturridge; surely if we want to get top 4 (and eventually challenge for the league title) we need more than one top striker, if anything I see the fact that he would compete with Sturridge as a positive. All that being said, if the rumours that Real are going to offer us Higuain + 15 million euro for Suarez are true then we should absolutely tell them where to put that offer. It's in the neighborhood of the Arsenal £30 million "bid" that we laughed off, if you consider that they basically rated Higuain at £23 million when Arsenal were bidding for him. I'd think long and hard about Higuain + £20 million (what's that, 24 million euro?) though. Edit: Just went looking for a source on all these rumours and realised it's Tancredi Palmeri, who really should work for the Daily Mail with the accuracy on his transfer reporting. Dreadful source.

I really think it could go either way, but you're right, it will depend on the first two months. If they're still in the top 4 and within 5 points or so of first/second at the end of October, then the press will start to "rally behind him" and the like and he will be given a season or two. If, however, he's out of the top 4 and/or more than a game or two from a league challenge, it will get ugly very quickly. I could easily see fan protests, rumours in the tabloids of "losing the dressing room," etc. Basically, they have a decent chance of turning into a less-successful version of Chelsea in very short order. Still, even under Moyes I think there's too much talent there for him to completely bollocks it up in one season. They'll finish 3rd or so, and if they get lucky and have a decent cup run or two their fans will be reasonably pleased IMO. I would love to see this happen, but I can't see it. There is an outside chance it all snowballs and gets completely away from him if it goes sideways in the first month or two, but assuming he's still on stable ground in October then there's every chance he'll be there for a couple of seasons. Which, all things considered, might be better for us than them sacking him quickly and getting a quality manager in. :D:D

And according to Ballague, Moyes "wasn't convinced" that he would fit in there. Which is probably nicer, if true, given what it says about his eye for talent. I'd far rather face United with the likes of Cleverly and Fellaini in the middle than with someone really good like Thiago.

Have to agree with that. Assuming Suarez, Downing, Coates and maybe a couple others are sold, and that we were always planning on ending up spending 20 million or so after sales, you'd think we'd have 70-80 million to spend. That should be enough for something like Draxler, Lamela and a decent CB. Now, obviously, that will never happen, but I do think we should be setting our sights high rather than settling for Aspas and Muriel (or someone at that level) as a replacement for Suarez.

Wow. That is surprising. Even taking into account our debt situation at the time, we were sold for £300 million only a few years ago, and a healthy Liverpool must be worth at least triple whatever Fulham would be worth. At least. I would actually guess quite a bit higher than that. The new TV deal and other rights agreements must be making a huge impact on the value of the teams in the Premier League.

This is exactly right. People are just looking at Pacheco, seeing how he never got back on track after a loan to Spain and assuming the same will happen to Suso. The difference is, Suso has Liverpool-level talent. He'll be back and will get a chance in our first team, I have no doubt.

O Fenomeno - was coming into his peak right as I was getting old enough to be seriously interested in football. Still haven't seen anyone since with the combination of pace, power and balance. Bergkamp - I have a soft spot for the kind of player who just has magic in his boots and seems to always puts just the right amount of weight on a pass. Coutinho is looking like another one of these players, and they're so enjoyable to watch. Iniesta - Would be the best player on almost any side in the world, but is happy to play third fiddle to Xavi/Messi at Barca. Honourable mention - Bebeto, whose heroics at the '94 World Cup were SO important to this Brasilian-born 14 year-old. I don't know if I'll ever care about Liverpool as much as I did about Brasil at the time, though it's odd that as time has passed the success of the national team has paled in comparison with my fervor for LFC.

True, Konchesky, for example, was much worse than Babb or Ince. Still, Carroll wins this in a cakewalk. As I said earlier, I think he would be in the conversation for worst signings in football history, not just Liverpool.

No one, obviously, which is why we should bend over backward to keep him. However, if he does go, I'd like to think that we could bring in another Coutinho-esque player. Perhaps someone once rated as one of the best in the world but now after a season or two of a bit of stagnation maybe the shine isn't quite as bright and we could nick in. I'm thinking maybe Muniain might be attainable, with a large bid (that the Suarez money would more than cover). Higuain could be gotten if we made it a condition of the Suarez sale, which to me would be a very sensible approach if we're sure Suarez is going. Why not take steps to ensure that we could bring in a very good replacement? It might be the only way to sign a player like that, because of the non-CL factor, but if we made it clear that was the only way Suarez would go I think Real would put pressure on him and he might come here. Or maybe Shaqiri? Or Alexis Sanchez? There are good attacking players out there who are sitting on the bench elsewhere and might be available. Or just go to Roma and try to see if 28 or 30 million and a big contract is enough to pry away Lamela. Probably wouldn't end up with much left over after the Suarez money in that case, but we'd have 10 or 15 million on top and we could finally solve the right forward problem for good. Any way you slice it, Suarez leaving is probably not a good thing for us on the pitch. However, if managed properly it doesn't have to be a disaster.

I came on here to post that one, figuring I'd be the only one with any knowledge of the Bolivian LFPB (I grew up in Bolivia). Really sounds ace in Spanish. How on earth did you hear about it? We also have my local team growing up, Wilstermann, inexplicably named after the country's first commercial pilot who died when he crashed his plane, killing everyone aboard.

This is exactly right. He might be worth that to Chelsea or Malaga or someone with loads of cash, because he can just be rotated with another 20 million + player and if he doesn't work out, the other one probably will. For us, it would be a ridiculous decision. Far too risky.

If you have a few minutes to waste and want to read something highly amusing I recommend this link from an Everton forum: Would you swap Jelavic for Suarez?

Luis could have been in my top 3, maybe even second if he'd just kept his mouth shut, led us back into the CL and then moved on after a year in the competition. Looking pretty unlikely for that to happen now.

Definitely a candidate for manager when he retires. Get rid of all this continental "scouting committee" setup and go back to a former top midfielder with a great eye for talent. Worked a treat last time we tried it. Edit: Just noticed that MajesticSuarez has finally managed to get himself banned, which has to be the best news to come out of this transfer thread over the past day or so.