3 Stacks

Mbappé and Dembélé's fees were linked to their potential. Neymar, whether you like him or not, was minimum top 5 in the world the season he left Barcelona. Coutinho was a 25 year old who despite his talent, had achieved nothing of note in his career and had questions about what his best position and use was. His fee was ludicrous. Everyone knew it at the time and they know it even more now.

Messi is the better player, Ronaldo will have had the better career when both are done.

Fernandinho is in his mid 30's and Rodri is his replacement. It's not that gratuitous of a signing, to be fair to City.

Little hot take of the day there from me.

Attractiveness is part of the package of following women's athletics. No getting around that. Doesn't mean looking good is the only thing they offer, they're obviously in the top 1% of their discipline compared to the overall female population just like male athletes are. Looks are just more part of the conversation. I'd argue if they'd market that more instead of being defensive about it and insisting it should only be about what they do in competition, they'd make more money.

He makes being a top level goalkeeper look really, really simple.

"One of the biggest differences he’s brought to our game is something that largely goes un-noticed. When the opposition try to put a ball over the top or just try to knock it long and play for second balls, we’ve had problems with that in the past. Defenders would be at full stretch and would often only be able to clear it straight to the opposition and allow them to mount attacks, or at the very least get up the field and relieve the pressure from themselves. " This is spot on and along with getting a competent goalkeeper, it's the biggest reason why our defense has become the best in the league. He doesn't allow teams to go direct against us anymore and none of the midtable and bottom sides can construct their play against us any other way, so almost all of them are rendered toothless.

Dani Alves is just remarkable. Best player on the pitch in a Brazil - Argentina match at the age of 36.

Forgot Nasri was a free agent. Phwoar. Author knows his stuff putting Ben Arfa's picture in the tweet. Either of those two would make us favourites for the title.

What a celly by Morgs.

That nutmeg by Lavelle made me audibly gasp.

His case is a little odd. I think the way his game has developed, he's clearly become a better central striker than wide forward, but at the same time, 4-3-3 is our bread and butter formation. To me, he's now squarely in the Cristiano Ronaldo penalty box player mould and I'd like to see us continue to take some pressure off him in the buildup next season because I think some teams figured him out to some extent when he played wide.

Stones and Maguire are very similar, actually. Both very confident in the way they play and defend but considering their level it's the wrong kind of confidence a lot of the time.

Dembélé has been a failure. They paid 120m for him and the extent of the attention that's revolved around him has been for being late all the time, not for his play. I'd pay 50-60m max for him on the off chance he figures it out, but that's about it. And I love watching the guy play. I'd still take him a million times out of a million over Coutinho if it was a choice between the two, though.

Dembele is absurdly talented but he's a fucking idiot. The fee is too high to take the gamble that he'll figure it out and there's too much smoke that we won't spend big.

I take back what I said about them being smart. They're bidding 70m for Maguire, ffs.

My point is that Klopp and the transfer people work well together. They've suggested players to him such as Robertson and Salah, players who we pretty much know for a fact weren't Klopp's first choice, that have turned out brilliantly. I get it, your shtick is to spin it into "Klopp does everything", but the fact is that Klopp has said himself that being at this club in this structure has been tremendous for him. I mean, yeah they could spend more money, I won't argue that. I don't mind it but I won't argue that. But there's really no point in speaking to you anymore on the subject if you denigrate the work the people at the club besides Klopp have done in the transfer market. That's just negativity for negativity's sake. It shows your opinion will never change and you can't give credit where it's due.

He signed a new deal just last year. What an idiot.

Going to China, it looks like.

The "stats boys" are getting it right with a manager that works alongside with them. Rodgers didn't and made it clear he was never going to. That leads to confusion, in-fighting, lack of trust, etc... People can't do their jobs when they can't work together with people they're supposed to work together. That was a mistake that's been rectified and hopefully will be learned from in the future. It's not really rocket science. You get a manager that has the ability to have a working relationship with the transfer people, and good things will probably happen. Also, Klopp wanted Brandt, the "stats boys" wanted Salah and convinced Klopp to buy him. It's not all him. Andy Robertson is also a "stats boys" signing. You really think Klopp knew who Andy Robertson was? Like I said, it's a working relationship. If we can replicate that in the future, even with someone a bit less good than Klopp, we'll be fine. If we don't spend what we earned, the squad is shite and the results aren't up to par, then that won't be right. But right now I don't really care.

The coherence with what they're doing now has to do with flexibility. They're in the shitter right now so the best of the best in the 23-26 year old range won't go there, but if they sign say, Longstaff for 25m but with lesser wages, with James on lesser wages than they usually give, Wan-Bissaka on 80k per week and a couple others with potential, they're at least giving themselves leg room to get rid of them if they don't work out because a club will be happier to take those players on those types of wages and age group. It'd be the opposite of what's happening now where they have countless unflushable turds because they spent poorly at the top of the market and bought too old. In the short term whether it works out all depends on Solskjaer which leaves them with a mountain to climb but I think it's a smart rebuilding strategy.

You mean in 2022? Enjoy the moment, man. We have a manager who has a great and successful relationship with the owners, the transfer people, everyone at the club. Yeah, we'll be worse when he goes and we'll need a rebuild but that's the history of team sport. Maybe it will work, maybe it won't, but we have smart people at the club, that's been proven.

I think this applies to most people. The abnormal ones to me are people who talk to absolutely everybody as if they're best friends and can make anyone feel as if they like them. Wish I could do that. Those are the types of people who are dripping with charisma and end up at the top echelon of society.

It's a business. Can't expect every revenue stream to serve as spending money.

If we can make another star out of someone for just £20m, so be it. But yeah, I don't think you get much for that amount these days.