22 Jun 2015

Done Deal: Liverpool sign £6m 'leader' who's 'really keen' to work with Brendan Rodgers

With the club crying out for experienced, top quality players with European experience, Liverpool have once again done the opposite, and completed the signing of inexperienced Charlton teenager Joe Gomez, who has become the club's fourth signing of the summer.

On Saturday, Liverpool confirmed:

"Liverpool FC have today completed the permanent signing of Joe Gomez from Charlton Athletic. The 18-year-old defender has penned a long-term deal with the Reds"

No transfer fee is mentioned on the official Liverpool FC website, but according to The Independent, Liverpool triggered Gomez's £3.5m release clause, but the total fee is more likely to be £6m.

After sealing the deal to Anfield, Gomez raved:

"It's a dream come true. It's a bit surreal and it hasn't really hit me yet. But I'm buzzing and just excited to get started. I was really keen to come here and play under [Rodgers]"

So, what can Liverpool expect from Gomez, and inexperienced youngster who only recently turned 18? In his own words:

"I'm a ball-playing centre-back who likes to be physical and has got a bit of pace. I'd like to say I'm a leader as well"

On his favoured position:

"I definitely see myself as a centre-back, I feel more comfortable there and enjoy it there. So in the long-term, hopefully centre-back".

On getting into the first-team:

"That's my aim. I want to come in and challenge and be involved. But I know that there's top-quality players and centre-backs already here"

On his ambitions:

"To get involved in the team and challenge for a place. And make my debut as soon as possible. Long-term, to be a key part of the team and win trophies".

Well, good luck with that.

It's great for Gomez personally to seal a move to Liverpool, but the chances of him breaking into the team ahead of Skrtel, Sakho, Lovren, and Toure are slim-to-none.


Even his own manager at Charlton - Guy Luzon - doubts the youngster's ability to make the step-up. In May, he told Kent Online:

"I don’t think if he [Gomez] signed for a Premier League club he would play, and at his age he needs games"

Coates, Ilori, and Wisdom failed to win a regular place at centre-back, and I doubt that is going to change with Gomez.

Jamie Carragher is the only player in the last 20 years to come through the youth ranks and become a regular at centre-half, so that is the size of the task facing Gomez.

I personally couldn't be any less enthused by this deal. If the fee is £6m, then it's a misuse of limited transfer funds, but then, what else is new?

Author: Jaimie K


202 comments:

  1. sign firmino , swap sterling for dzeko negredo and jovetic

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  2. That's true. And if we do it right then it needn't be a perpetual state of affairs. I also feel like the 'city' issue is a bit of a cop-out, an excuse to not go after the top players. We've just got to grit our teeth and get the deals done, as you say.

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  3. Don't really think that is relevant to a young brazilian these days.

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  4. Mate...

    I've been holding off from posting the exact same sentiment for weeks now...

    The only thing you missed was, BR not only kicked Carroll out...he did it immediately, without even giving him a chance, or keeping him as a Plan B if his "death by football" Plan A failed...

    ...which it did from the get go.

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  5. Find me one and I'll ask him ; )

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  6. Or does it prove that he has very little control over transfers!!!

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  7. And show him your brazilian....?

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  8. sign firmino , bacca and rondon. swap sterling for negredo and dzeko

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  9. Rough weekend, Jaimie? Cheer up. We've got a midfield of Henderson and Milner to look forward to.

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  10. He has very little control over what comes out of his mouth... ; )

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  11. Kindof...


    To be fair, he was really showing signs of pushing on and elevating his game when he was bludgeoned nastily by that scumbag Swansea player.


    Couts was out for a while and never really fully regained his pre-injury form that season.


    If that didn't happen, I'm pretty sure he'd be further down the road development wise.


    The thing that was lacking, was consistency. That improved last year, so hopefully...

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  12. Centre-Back??? Nah, You're gonna play as a striker :)

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  13. I Disagree! The likely of him getting in ahead of Skrtel and Sakho (perhaps Can, who I hope will be in midfield this season!) is slim, but beond that, surely it's open season and no better place to make an impression than at a club with a struggling defense!

    This kid has all the opportunity in the world to do well at Liverpool I think. Illori has been unlucky, as he has been injured and not had a stretch of games yet, perhaps he will see more game time and earn a cap for liverpool.

    As for Wisdom... he did well at Wbrom. don't see why he cannot get a chance, and it's not like he hasn't pulled the shirt on before.

    Lets hope rodgers manages better this season coming. Need the big names now!

    Illamarendi, Kovacic, one of those strikers that have been reported on... Clyne

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  14. Come on huggy we know deep down there's a bit of love for BR.

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  15. I wouldn't read too much into what Gomes's current manager said in May- he might simply be trying to encourage the youngster to stay at Charlton.

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  16. If all the reports are correct and City come back with a 50mil offer for Sterling by god we better accept it.


    That is what you would call the deal of the century.


    Every single City supporter I know are in utter disbelief that they are even bidding for Sterling, let alone looking increasingly likely to bid 50mil for him.


    For the love of god if they offer 50mil ACCEPT IT

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  17. I think once Sterling asks for 250k a week they will pull out.

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  18. I've not read 3.5m as the figure. Is the 6m including various add ons?

    Would still like to see Llori given a chance personally. I think he'd compliment Sakho well.

    Sure Gomez will end up on loan for first season or two. So should get a loan fee and some of wages paid

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  19. Not worried about paying £3.5 million for a youngster, he might well turn out to be a shrewd signing. It's more concerning when the club spend £35 million on Andy Carroll and then sells him for around £15 million less than 2 years later or when they spend £20 million on Markovic and then rumours abound that he will be sold after one season.

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  20. I don't know why but even with that £50mil, the idea of Sterling leaving for City leaves a bitter taste in my mouth. He has great potential, pace good work rate and all but there is nothing we can do with two years left on his contract and him wanting to leave.
    But if he is leaving then I'm glad City are overpaying; it's refreshing to see us selling an overpriced English talent rather than buying one. But if sterling doesn't want to show respect for the club we shouldn't show any for him.
    I want him gone but deep down I think we may regret selling to such a rival in future years. I just hope he doesn't turn into a 'Rooney' figure for City for the next ten years.

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  21. He wasn't even a regular at Charlton. At least 3 years before we see much of him. Reminds me of Danny Wilson.

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  22. Imagine we getting all these players in summer....Illaramendi, Firmino, Bacca, Clyne.....Good business I would think.

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  23. "I was really keen to come here and play under Rodgers". Every players knows his standard and manager that is on per with him.
    Wouldn't blame him really, it's not his fault lfc are sliding into transfer mediocrity...,with Rodgers desperately trying to ensure the team are 100% British

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  24. Yeh and lets hope he has learnt more with playing for his home land and with better players around him.

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  25. People need to get over this for me The £35m for Carroll was simply passing on the £20m overpayment Chelsea made for Torres, because it was the January window. Torres was really worth £30m max and Carroll £15m. The chief exec (Purslow I think) at the time confirmed these were our valuations at the time, and that the two deals were linked in this way. Chelsea paid a massive premium and so we has to pass on to get the player we wanted. Turned out to be the wrong player obviously, but the fee is almost
    irrelevant under these circumstances. If you want to look at this in cold economic terms we paid £21m for Nando in 2007, he was on £130k per week when he left, we used his fee to finance Carroll and most of Suarez (we paid an extra £5m) who's combined wages were the same as Torres. Carroll didn't work, Suarez did but we sold them both for a combined £90m.

    All I am saying is these things are not as cut and dry as the papers state, there were specific conditions that people need to consider.

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  26. Erm.. but being led and directed by BR...

    Hence they're likely to be played in goal or anywhere across the back line ;-)

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  27. hmm...so what is the solution? because BR is staying...like it or not!! We have to strengthen anyway right!!

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  28. Don't get me wrong, they are good players, and the best we can hope to acquire given our current status.

    But it's a mystery to me why we still holding on to BR.. as it will all end in tears by Xmas..

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  29. I don't know why you don't get over this Jaimie, its the same every time we sign a youngster, Here's the news....the days of getting top youngsters from all over the country for free are over. The catchment area rules mean we can't just just scout them and sign them when they are 15....they have to sign for a local club. Then they are under contract and you have to pay for them....it's the same for City and Chelsea both of whom have done numerous deals like this with little first team result. It is a bit of a lottery and you just have to sign all the promising ones you can in the hope that 2 or 3 make it and save you big fees further down the road.

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  30. We have to just accept it and move on. Its not in our hands. Best we can hope now is that we have a good transfer window.

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  31. almost every post seems to be one of 3 types:
    1. We'll never get anybody, we're happy with ings etc
    2. BR will play him wildly out of position.
    3 we'll end up 6th,7th,8th, 12th or whatever.
    This has been constant , and it seems that won't change. Post a comment along these lines, and you'll get LOTS of support.
    Any signs of balance, positivity, or support for any of Rodgers' positive traits will be met with derision and accusations of delusion.
    Just so you know.....

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  32. I am anti-BR as you know it but it makes no sense to keep repeating 'sack BR'...'BR won't play them right'....Fact is that we have to accept BR is staying (at least for a while) and one should comment/discuss accordingly. It gets a bit boring otherwise.

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  33. You see in previous seasons that would have enthused me. Put the past season to bed, look forward to the next season in hope and anticipation.

    But after some 40+ years, this is the first time I feel nothing, complete dis-empathy - a feeling of being lost and bewilderment.

    We've just been thrashed 6-1, and going back to Stoke on day 1 of the next season, have 6 additional difficult away fixtures on the trot - and I see no outcome other than my beloved LFC struggling under the leadership of BR.

    Someone please explain where the hope and anticipation is?

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  34. Much like JK, I don't understand this policy of BR's to buy un-tested young players for relatively large sums, rarely play them in the first team, loan them out and then sell them on for a loss.

    To name a few Borini, Aspas, Alberto and Illori. If you average a £7m likely loss on the above four, that the equivalent of a top level striker (ie Lacazette).

    Shockingly bad mis-management:

    1. For locking out transfer budget on an under-used asset
    2. De-valuing the asset by never playing the player
    3. Willing to sell on the asset at a massive loss.

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  35. 4eva LFC, LFC 4eva11:43 am, June 22, 2015

    I have to say i do like who we are being linked with now, Illarmandi, Koiceck, Bacca and Fermino although i can't see the later comming. But it has to be said that the other three are possible their prices are reasonable and we really haven't spent that much so far, if we sell Sterling to City then it is very possible to spend on the rest. But i would like to see Tiago play this season surely BR has to be thinking about it. Sorry for the spelling.

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  36. Apologies for my negativity..

    .. from what was a very optimistic fan of 40+ years.

    I just need to rediscover my faith somehow ;-)

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  37. Let's hope about having a good transfer window for now because players we buy are going to be at the club even after BR is sacked (by November, maybe). Our new manager should have enough talented players at his disposal to stage a fantastic revival from January, especially with slightly easier fixtures in the second half of the season. ;-)

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  38. But Alves is past it, don't you know?

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  39. I agree. Joe Gomez is another failure waiting to happen. I am 100% certain about it because we have too many senior players in CB position and another three potentials on loan somewhere every season. Liverpool is a bad place to be for a young CB.

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  40. Yeah silly kid. CB is where Can and Sturridge play

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  41. Don't get me wrong, this kid can play, as can Illori, Coates and Wisdom,

    But will BR play him at CB, or play him out of position or worse loan out again..?

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  42. Pretty much this.


    FFP has only made this much much worse. They might of relaxed the rules but that only really effects a very small handful of teams.


    The fact is that buying young players is one way that clubs are able to make money.


    I hate it but it is what it is.

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  43. 4eva LFC, LFC 4eva11:59 am, June 22, 2015

    Jk as much as i can see where you are coming from i would take the likes of Gomez over any player that just does not want to play for us. I would like to se Matoya, illarmendi, Koievcic and either Bacca or Fermino signed asap and Tiago back as well this is not only doable but reasonable. I hope Gomez shows more patients than Sterling. Start sellig the players we don't need and give these guys more time to adapt to each other, deals should be done quick to allow for the settling process to take shape.

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  44. CB is a position that really a player needs some maturity i would say 3 years minimum before he is ready anyway.

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  45. The biggest problem BR has, is the same as every other manager who was appointed that wasn't supported by the fans is that it takes very little for the fans to turn.


    Fat Sam at West Ham, Moyes at Utd, Various Chelsea managers..


    Most Liverpool fans did not want BR, were not excited by his appointment and general had reservations from day 1.

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  46. No comments on BR from my side ;-)

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  47. Don't apologise mate. It's only cause you care and it is actually ok to be fed up a bit. I'm pretty sure that come the start of the season you'll be optimistic and hopeful when we spank Stoke. :)

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  48. No apologies are needed Neutral
    It's just the way that pretty much all the boards are going after last season, and although we don't always agree, you always have a basis for your comments which isn't always the case with some others.
    look at the change between 12/13 and 13/14. Suarez aside, it was night and day
    We'll see. And if it goes wrong, hopefully Klopp will be up to the job..

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  49. Absolutely. You have to speculate to accumulate, especially when you don't have the means to just go out and blow 200 million in one transfer window.

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  50. Exactly. It gets old. I read a post yesterday which said two words: BR Out.
    What is the point of repeating I ad nauseum?
    I would prefer Klopp, but BR does have SOME positive (and relevant/useful) abilities. We have to hope he's the 13/14 BR rather than the 14/15 one

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  51. People don't want us to sign quality youngsters, then complain that no quality youngsters make it to the first team. You simply can't win with some people.

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  52. You are right that was the club's propaganda at the time: we overpaid for Andy Carroll because Chelsea overpaid for Fernando Torres. It is completely laughable as business sense because the two things are not connected. Yes, Chelsea were prepared to over-pay for but where is it written that that means we need to then overpay for Andy Carroll? You might be tempted to reply that with Torres leaving we needed to bring in Carroll as a replacement but here is the flaw in the logic: when we bought Carroll we were aware that he was carrying an injury which would keep him sidelined until at least half way through March. In the circumstances it would have made more sense either to soldier on with what we had (not only had we just added Suarez to our ranks but Kuyt could have reverted to his old position as a striker as an interim measure) or to have bought in someone on a loan move. We could then have gone back for Andy Carroll in the summer and got him for a much more reasonable price.

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  53. Aspas and Borini untested young players? Aspas arrived at 26 and Borini was a regular starter at Roma. At what age did Chelsea sign Courtois?

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  54. Yes Please!!! IMO..... our transfers just started!!

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  55. I don't see any problem in loaning him out. The boy is 18 so certainly not ready to start for Liverpool. Sign him now before he costs double the price and then develop him till he's ready. It makes perfect sense when you look at it without an anti-Rodgers bias.

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  56. Mignolet is no God...

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  57. Trust me, Raheem Sterling is not as capable as Rooney in terms of sending the ball into the next.

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  58. Courtois is the ideal example of what to do with young talented players. We should get them young enough so they don't cost the earth like Markovic did .

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  59. A change to the catchment rules would help as well mate.

    For years the system worked as the biggest clubs would get the most promising youngsters from anywhere they could find. These youngsters would then have access to the best coaching at top clubs, the ones that make the grade would be retained, the others are released and filtered down to the smaller clubs having been coached to the highest possible standard to maximise there ability.

    The problem for me is two-fold with the catchment system as it has been for the last 15 years. Firstly if a player is signed by Leyton Orient, for example, they are not going to be coached to the same level they would be at Liverpool, nor would they have the same level of players around them in their age group, which I think is another key in max development.

    Secondly the knock on problem is that Leyton Orient now want £1m for an u19 player they have developed, and prem clubs can get a similarly promising u19 player from a continental club for nothing because of differing rules (no tribunal etc) so what we have is a situation where a team like Arsenal have to pay £1m for Jermaine Pennant at 15, they get their fingers burnt and now consequently they only sign english players they can find in their catchment area and the rest of the places are taken up by free foreign hopefuls, mostly from top division clubs who have been coached to a higher standard than the ones they could sign for £1m from Leyton Orient or Bristol City. And you can't really blame them for this can you?

    This to me is a clear direct link to the demise of our national team, and the shrinking of our pool of players to select for it. It isn't that clubs don't give English players a chance it's mostly that the rules have dictated economically that there are more foreigners in top academies now than English. Liverpool actually deserve a bit of credit for actually trying to buck that trend a bit although even we have half of La macia's former youths in our academy.

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  60. Because he isn't a big name. Your previous track record allows you to make massive mistakes and get away with less criticism.
    Imagine if BR had spent £60m on a player , and he scored 3 goals all season?
    Carnage. Yet who mentions it about LvG? Hardly anybody. Let alone £32m for Luke Shaw..

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  61. Yes Please!!! IMO the transfer market just started!!!

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  62. Mhkitaryan. Costa. Salah. Willian. Sanchez. Remy. All well known British players...

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  63. This is again back to the 'net spending' theory. To me, we sold Torres for 50 mil pounds is one thing but bought Andy Carroll for 35 mil pounds is another. I'm not too sure if a striker in his prime that scored 81 goals in 142 matches was only worth 30 mil pounds and a boy that scored 14 top-flight goals was worth half of that. In any case, the purchase of Andy Carroll was genuinely a joke of the century in the soccer world and I believe we are still a laughing stock among soccer clubs till this very day.

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  64. It only makes 'perfect' sense when you are 'certain' about his price doubling in few years time. We had similar expectations from Coates and Llori. Its an expensive risk if you consider the cost of all our potential signings together.

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  65. So our strike force, supposing we get rid of Ballotelli, Borini and Lambert, would consist of Ings, Origi, Sturridge, Bacca, Rondon, Dzeko and Negredo?? How many of them can play at right wing back???

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  66. It may have escaped your attention but 'in his prime' was a million miles away from the reality of Torres situation when we sold him. He scored 70 odd of those 81 goals in his first 110 games, had been dogged by knee problems and generally looked a shadow of the player in his last 1.5 seasons. That trend didn't exactly change at Chelsea did it? He scored about 10 league goals in three seasons and spent the last two years of his contract on loan with the paying his £200k per week wages.

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  67. Gomez joined Liverpool for financial reasons. Charlton wanted him to stay and develop by playing in the first team but he refused. He did EXACTLY what Sterling is trying to do.

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  68. Actually since Brendan Rodgers has taken over we have finished 7th 2nd and 6th, which averages our league finish to 5th, that correlates with the fact that we operate with fifth highest wage structure which in turn mean that our average premier league finish should be in fact fifth.

    To claim that weve taken massive backwards steps in last years is inaccurate.

    What we have actually done is (in my view) folllowing:

    We have new owners who are attempting to build a financially stable enviroment to Liverpool as we are hopelessly fallen out of ranking as one of richest clubs in premier league, we cannot anymore compete in purely financial sense with City, United nor with Chelsea. In my view our biggest years of underperformance was in 90's when we were among united paying most money to players without titles to show for it.

    We are trying the Arsenal model, which heavily bases in having a coach that developes young talent (not yet sure if BR is the right coach for it), and finding young talent to develope. it on occasion will end us with developing players like Nasri, Sterling, who will run for the biggest money, so what? atleast we get big money.

    We are finally increasing stadium capacity for more revenue!!

    our first team is young and very decent, we also have young manager, our Club has shown ruthlessness with managers, but also that they will allow time if they feel the manager is right one to take us forward (again not sure of that, but BR hasnt underachieved greatly)


    i am trying to look it objectively and trying to stay positive, and i do not dislike the new model of business. if we are smart with transfers and player developement, i can see us snatching title every once in a while. Yes i can see it.

    what i do not greatly trust is our scouting system and ability to spot the "first team talent" cause we end up paying very high fees for players who are good, but not good value for money. We also continually probe the wrong market, mainly premier league.

    As Liverpool Fans we are setting standards for performance very high each season, and expecting to overachieve while assuming our expectations are valid and realistic. Each season i go into it thinking this is our year, and we end up in battle for the fourth place finish instead of battle for the title. Due to our financial limit our average finish in span of decade is fifth, so we shouldnt be too down if fifth is what we achieve.


    my two cents....

    i didnt read trough what i just wrote, i hope it makes sense.

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  69. He'll get 800-900 pw according to Ward

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  70. not exactly no. he didnt fish out move. make public plea to other clubs for transfer while rejecting new contract offers, but curiously not issuing a transfer request while at it, trying to pocket as much as he can.


    we went in, triggered his buy out, and he decided to join Liverpool, i like to think our junior coaching superior to Charlton, it atleast should be. perhaps he simply sees this as opportunity to develope as footballer, even break in first team. ofcourse he will also pocket more money here. but to claim he did what sterling has done is silly

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  71. Well you arguing something a little different here...You are quite right to concede that it's perfectly obvious Chelsea knowingly overpaid for Torres because they wanted to get their man straight away..and you are quite right that does not oblige us to do the same thing. But we made a decision it was more important to get the player Kenny wanted straight away than bank the money and risk us being left short up front in the interim. Your comment about Kuyt doesn't stack up....he ended up on wing because he was so poor in front of goal. Carroll was due to be fit by mid Feb for the record but suffered a setback in training (something that we now know would continue to dog him)

    You are also forgetting the pressures of instant success that dominate football I think and there would have been a massive fan backlash had we not gone out and spent the money straight away.

    If you are arguing that we erred in not maximising our PROFIT from Chelsea's willingness to overpay, from a purely business sense there is some truth in that, but football is not just a business and you need to invest in the team especially up top. But equally if you are looking at this in a purely business sense we made a £10m profit on these assets in terms of fees (even excluding Suarez)

    My issue is with the notion that we were somehow duped into believing he was worth £35m million and that we wasted the fans hard earned ticket money to pay for him. That's not true. We made a very sober, eyes open decision to overpay for Carroll, knowing that we were doing so and that there was no detriment to the club's coffers as we were simply picking Mr Abramovichs money up and passing it to Newcastle to get the player Kenny most wanted.

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  72. No its not silly. Why would he give up first team opportunity at Charlton for Liverpool's youth squad? Makes no sense. And when exactly Sterling made a public plea to other clubs? All he said was that he is flattered by the kind of interest shown in him which is a very basic and general statement. Sterling rejected a new offer because he wants to move to a bigger club where he can have more chance of winning something. He is ready to compromise his regular first-team status to win trophies or play at a bigger club. I think Gomez did the exact same thing.

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  73. Said the other day, pointless signing when we have Skrtel, Lovren, Toure, Sakho and most likely Can again as our CB's. When will Gomez ever get a chance?


    Lloyd Jones? Why not promote him? Players in the academy probably looking at the situation and shaking their heads.


    Ilori? Why waste money on another CB?!?!?!.

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  74. Yes, very impressive.
    Perhaps next time he can ask when Mignolet will get to play AM.
    All the rage this biting satire. So difficult to think of too, it's not like that was yet another variation on a worn, overplayed old joke that wasn't funny in the first place, was it?

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  75. So why do clubs hire managers? Just pay highest wages and win the league.

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  76. Are we going to make money on the likes of Alberto, Markovic and even Origi if things go tits up with them?


    If we had to sell Markovic now then we definitely will not get what we paid and same goes for Alberto. We still need to see what is going to happen to Origi but I am assuming he will go on loan.


    Chelsea also sign many young players and move them on for 3 times or more what they originally paid. They would have never paid £20m for Markovic. It simply does not make sense the way we do business in the transfer market.


    If Gomez does not impress when he goes out on loan then comes back to the club, hangs around for another two seasons in the reserves and then disappears.

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  77. The whole team?
    Those 5 don't have a season's worth of starts between them.....

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  78. I assume Tuomas is speaking in terms of average expectations as you surely can remember that it was only a year ago that we almost clinched the title, but ended up with disappointing second place. I suppose the point was that with this model we cannot expect consistent overachieving if we mirror our performance to our financial capacity compared to other clubs.

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  79. He also made the unauthorized tv interview that he isnt a "moneygrabber" and its about winning titles, which was basically a come and get me plea.

    dont kill me mate, but you are getting as dogmatic as Logan sometimes is with arguing points.

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  80. You want to talk about wage bills? Southampton pay out less in wages than QPR who were relegated who had the 12th highest wage bill in the EPL. Southampton are nowhere near our wage structure and finished in 7th, 2 points behind us. They are only ranked 11th in the EPL when it comes to their bill.


    Newcastle 7th highest wage bill, finished 15th. UTD highest wage bill, more than Chelsea (3rd) and UTD were dire for majority of the season.

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  81. Valid point and we need to take a notice when signing young talents. We need to cultivate their loyalty which is a rarity in today's footballing world. That is something that we have seemingly failed to do with Sterling (JK may have some point with his constant criticism of "gross over-praise" of youngsters).

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  82. I agree Mike. I keep banging on about this but there are very good reasons for our trials last season and the main ones were out of BR's hands. I keep banging on about this but if Barca sold Messi tomorrow they would struggle to adjust for half a season minimum, not because theyv don't have other excellent players, but because he is so good he has become the attacking fulcrum of the team. It's the same for us, and this was compounded by us losing the the number one support player. No coach could cope with the loss of 60% of goals and 40% of assists and there born be a massive adjustment period. Klopp, Ancelotti whoever would have had a struggle. The fact is we turned it round second half of the season but left ourselves too much to do, but again these things hinge on small details. Gerrards moment of madness against ManU might have been a decisive moment in that result etc.

    Where he is culpable is for the failure of the support strikers to make up more of the deficit, assuming that he did pick the players, which is less than clear IMO. Also the last two games, the players had nothing to play for and were deflated after coming close to clawing back a CL place from way down the league. He should have found a way to get them up for it and didn't....he is young in managers terms and makes mistakes but fixture list has given him the opportunity to put that right straight away.

    Like I said the other day no manager has EVER moved a team from 7th to two points from the title. He did that and got Suarez, Sturridge, coutinho Henderson playing better than any of the more established managerial names had previously. A lot of people made light of that in the press citing the big advantage of no Europe etc. Well if that was such a factor why has no one else done it. Van Gaal had the same conditions this season and spent about £150m not than Rodgers had, and he could only go from 7th to 4th. De Gea saved them big time last season as well and he will be off and not easy to replace

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  83. No...that logic is flawed. It assumes that higher wages = higher calibre of player and better team which is not always true. A consistently performing club is the one which has a well settled team and a system throughout the club (eg: Swansea and Southampton). Chelsea and Arsenal are also a well settled team now but City and United are in a decline despite high wages. We had a golden chance to cement our top four position last season but we failed and are coming with this stupid wage logic.

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  84. You have no valid points. You are just criticizing Sterling for his ambitions and praising Gomez for doing the same.

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  85. Happy with this deal myself and not having a dig Jamie but how do we know how 'limited' the Clubs transfer funds are, it's a fair assumption that we don't have another £100million plus to spend but is a few million spent on a very promising young player really going to prevent us buying that super-tent we all want, can't see it myself.
    Obviously there's dissapointment that the likes of Thiago have seemingly fallen by the wayside but IMO that shouldn't be a reason to terminate all further 'players for the future' signings; many people question why we appear to pay over the odds to Soton et al for the already established great British hopes but now we buy a potential one of our own and that is questioned too - can't do right for doing wrong sometimes.

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  86. it is not actual science but it seems to correlate quite accurately in span of 10 years. ofcourse there are other factors

    man utd for instance 4th 7th (last two seasons) three times second and five times first.

    they average 3rd finish with that. but its twisted by cataclysmic change that has happened with mancs during last few years, and they are in "transition". its been fun to watch, but it will not last. they wil be challenging again very soon i am affraid. im sorry Logan, its not foolproof method, but its very accurate one to predict league finish.

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  87. this is a no use argument. i fold

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  88. By no means we were ready to consolidate a top 4 status after last year????? Really?? There haven't been a better time. I fold too mate.

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  89. If QPR doesn't bounce back to EPL quickly, they will cut their wage bill after a few years. That happened also the last time they dropped out of EPL. In the case of Southampton, their wage bill will increase in the coming years if they start to achieve these high finishes on consistent basis.


    Newcastle is a bit oddball since the owner is actually trying to make cash cow out of the club. They do not want to achieve more than secure mid-table finish with minimal cost. So, as long as they are not in the contention for relegation, they will aim to cut their wage bill to more reasonable level. The current level is actually burden from their earlier strategy to actually try to succeed as a football club.

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  90. Agree with your sentiment Darovar and untill recently I was firmly in the 'do all we can to keep Raheem' camp but having reconsidered his actions - albeit they were probably born from bad advice on his agents part, I'm now seeing him as somewhat of a bad egg.
    At the end of the day he is (to be fair as Jamie has pointed out many, many, many times) old enough to be responsible for his own actions and also to stand up to his agent and tell him to do one if he doesn't like what he's hearing.
    His on pitch peformances did not, unfortunatly, live up to the hype and to be honest keeping him almost against his will, may make a point that we will not be bullied, but at what cost - can't be good for team morale and I really think we need to get back some of that tightly knit group stuff we apeared to have in abundance during the 2013/14 season.
    Apreciate the fact we have to pay QPR a small fortune though which is not ideal but if City are going to offer £50million then IMO let's bite their hand off - not in a Suarez stylee though, that would be taking things too far.

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  91. What it suggests is that no disrespect, smaller than than us are punching above their weight because they do smart business.


    If we spend less on players who are nowhere worth £25m, £20m etc then we can offer more in wages?


    UTD have the highest wage bill but nowhere near the best squad. Chelsea have the best squad but not the highest wage bill.


    We cannot offer the same wages as UTD as they are a money making machine. If we go about our business in a smarter way then maybe things will change for us.


    Unfortunately we do not have anyone in management from top to bottom with a footballing brain. Until this changes then thing will either continue as they are or get worse.

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  92. Because Gomez is potentially better than all of them according to our TC. I read this brilliant comment from someone the other day..goes like this....

    "Centre-halves are so hard to find. You look at some teams and they have ageing centre-halves because it is a struggle to get a really good one. We were fortunate in that two became available, one that we had been tracking for a year in Tiago Ilori, a young talent but who can be a big talent.”

    The manager concluded: “We had a chance to…protect the club for maybe the next 10 years and that is what we have done.”

    I generally don't slate the manager but what a clown! Next 10 years? Then why didn't you give Ilori a chance? And then he proceeds by buying Lovren for 20mil pounds? And now Joe Gomez? What an absolute joke of a man. Trying to protect the club's for the next 20 years then eh Rodgers? Winter is coming so better stock up on all the defenders in advance!

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  93. thats a bit sad thing, about Newcastle. Ive allways liked Newcastle, a traditional English footballing institution which has had bunch of glory and great players in past. they should challenge for more than they currently are.

    and with Newcastle, you can throw that wage logic to trash, it does not work with them

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  94. You are actually arguing on a bit different issues: Tuomas is discussing about long term average expectations, while Chirag is talking about short term success.


    With long term statistical record keeping we can actually win the league the next year, but the expectation is that we will not continue to do so in the following years unless we can recruit players to correlate with that. This all still fits well in to the correlation of league table performance and wage bill structure in the long term (~10 years or so).

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  95. Nobody is going to sell Markovic, and Alberto was a low cost punt £6m or £7m on a talented youngster who may yet come good. Nice to see you are righting Origi off before he has kicked a ball but for the record was one of the most scouted strikers at youth level since he was about 11.

    And if Chelsea weren't going to pay that kind of money for Markovic why did they purchase first option on him (which would have kicked in this window had he stayed at Benfica) but we jumped in a year early and Chelsea got Cuadrado for £28m instead who is older and worse with less prospect for development.

    Markovic is 20 and needed a period to adapt, he is also one of the highest rated young players in the league and Sterling leaving will give him an opportunity in a proper attacking role.

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  96. Based on the strong rumours I'd love it we could start the season with this squad (2 players for each position with a youngster as extra backup):-

    GK: Mignolet, Bogdan, Ward
    RB: *CLYNE*, Flanagan, McLaughlin
    LB: Moreno, *DIGNE*, Smith
    RCB: Skrtel, Toure, Gomez
    LCB: Sakho, Lovren, Illori
    DM: *ILLARRAMENDI*, Lucas, Rossiter
    RCM: Henderson, Milner, Branagan
    LCM: *KOVACIC*, Can, Williams
    AM: Coutinho, Lallana, Teixeira
    STR: *LACAZETTE or FIRMINO*, Ings, Sinclair
    STR: Sturridge, Origi, Kent
    WINGERS: Markovic, Ibe, Ojo/Wilson

    As you can see there are 11 positions (442 diamond) plus extra wingers allowing for a few different systems. Obviously the players missing and not required are Manquillo, Enrique, Wisdom, Allen, Sterling,  Borini,  Lambert and Balotelli. From that though I don't reckon replacing Sterling is essential. If Lucas goes we should keep Allen

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  97. I think even in the long-term, wages alone wouldn't dictate the league standing. Clubs management and structure along with wages should be considered.

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  98. I agree we need to do better with transfers. a lot better.

    basically what that wage method as a tool of prediction suggests, is that with a certain wage structure you will be able to draw certain caliber of players that in turn basically guarantees certain finish.

    the trick to do better is to have better people spotting better talent which falls within your wage structure, which is currently something we are not doing.

    we are declining. we are standing comfortably still.

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  99. Unfortunately, clubs need to do what the owner says :( And I don't think the wage logic is completely off with Newcastle in the long run. They are still adjusting their strategy to be a mid-table club and thus the wage structure does not correlate with that.

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  100. You Markovic apologists, eh... If 'twas up to me I'd make you watch QPR every week. Just because Markovic hasn't been given a chance to settle in the team and showcase his obvious talents doesn't mean we shouldn't write him off prematurely.

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  101. sir! you and i shall agree to disagree, atleast on this thread. untill next time!

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  102. thank you mate for making the point i was trying to make =)

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  103. Also statistics can be bias. For eg: Suppose if Southampton wins the league with their current low wage structure. They will obviously earn more in prize money and sponsorship. So they will pay higher wages and get better players and every year they win...this cycle will be repeated. I think the same thing happened to Man United. They won so much that they now earn ridiculous amount of money. However, the point is that they are paying higher wages BECAUSE they have been successful...while what you are suggesting is that they are successful BECAUSE they pay higher wages (not true)....getting my point????

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  104. Only "average inexperience manager would have struggled to this extent after losing a player of Suarez .
    At. Madrid lose Torres why didn't them struggle like us??
    Lose Aguero why didn't them struggle??
    Lose falcao why they didn't struggle??
    Lose Costa (almost 50% of the team ) why they didn't struggle??
    Arsenal lost van Persie why they didn't fall from 4th to 10th??
    Bullshit

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  105. You are kinda right with that. The point is that wage structure serves as a rather good proximation for a clubs average performance in a longer run (note that long run is fuzzy, undefined term in these discussions). However, when we increase time period in examination, the wage structure will alter also. Teams that play it smart consistently and acquire good players cheaply will end up higher places in the league that their wage structure would theoretically warrant. However, the success has its price: the wage bill will either increase to find an equilibrium in terms of better league performance (remember that successful players will always demand more money).

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  106. Add Konoplyanka and, ahem, Ilkay Gundogan and I wouldn't be too unhappy.

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  107. I agree with much of your argument, but I feel it is my civic duty to point out that manure's eruption of success coincided with a rather large injection of TV money in the early 1990s, which may or may not have saved Fergie's gluteus maximus from certain chopping.

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  108. You see, the reason why I believe the wage bill is not a way to calculate our league position is because we cannot even attract quality players.


    We offer Milner a massive contract, what difference will that make to our league position?


    Even if we had to increase all our current players wages then what difference will it make?


    Unless we can get someone in either a manager who is adept or a DOF with a proper plan then it really does not matter how much we spend on wages as the quality players the fans crave simply will not come to us at this point.

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  109. Fair point but IMO that only works if you have near to/or, the most money in your respective league and we're just don't.

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  110. I have read that Konoplyanka is demanding 100k a week and so no clubs are really interested.

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  111. and midfielders!

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  112. Wasn't TV money available to all the clubs? ;-)

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  113. Works out for us; Ii we can pay Milner 150k a week and offer Sterling 100k then we shouldn't really baulk at that figure for someone as good as him.

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  114. Well we'll find out next year when he plays up top.


    His armband proved he was a red - Mignolet, Mignolet
    You'll never walk alone it said - Mignolet, Mignolet
    We bought the lad from sunny Sunderland
    He gets the ball he scores again


    Steven Mignolet Liverpool's number nine!

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  115. Similarly the emergence of sugar-daddies have played the circumstances in favor of Chelsea and Man City. Now, if the financial fair-play (FFP) rules are really enforced, the things may turn out interesting in the future and there may be the break for LFC. Unfortunately, I'm not too confident for LFC because (1) I doubt the effectivity of the FFP rules and (2) even if the FFP rule enforcement succeeds, the clubs benefiting most are clubs based in attractive cities with large existing fanbase (i.e. Arsenal and Chelsea).

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  116. "What difference will that make?"


    Ideally, that will help to at least keep us in the top 6.


    What we need now is to bring in the difference maker that will propel us to 4th.

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  117. if who we are linked with is actual transfer targets then i am worried.

    cause we will start season with midfield packed with, Coutinho, Can, Lucas, Milner, Lallana, Markovich, Ibe, Allen, Illarramendi, Kovacic. there might be few too many.

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  118. Other players in the team (Coutinho/Henderson) might have some issues with that and its also a big risk if Konoplyanka fails to adapt in EPL.

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  119. That money was (and probably will never be) shared completely equally among EPL clubs. It's not winner takes it all, but winner takes the most.

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  120. Well bring the difference maker then? Who, how and when? Ings? :-o

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  121. And the fact that FFP came in just *after* City and Chelski had already spent several boat loads of money and now prevents other Clubs from doing the same and bridging the gap.

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  122. Too right. I agree that even if FFP is implemented successfully it still favours the clubs already at or near the top, who merely have to consolidate their positions. Case makes a good point, too.

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  123. we would propel upwards quite a bit if clubs suddenly would be allowed to sell their own TV rights. we still hold one of largest international fanbases.

    then we could compete with Oil money clubs

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  124. Again....you earn more money IF you are successful.!!! Man Utd had to WIN first to get that money.

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  125. I saw FFP as a reaction to clubs like City and Chelsea, but ironically it actually plays in their favor to certain extent at least.

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  126. I'm not saying it will happen. But it is what we need.


    Primarily a striker not named Ings or Origi (or for that matter, Benteke).


    It's a shame we're supposedly after Llorente now... should have gone for him 4 years ago.


    I would like Higuain. It would have been nice to get Jackson Martinez but he went to Italy.


    In my opinion, Tevez would be ideal and shouldn't cost a fortune. He's mercurial, but we're not expecting him to be here for more than 2 or 3 years.

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  127. maybe after the market actually opens! i get why you are pessimistic, especially with our recent track record. but i wait untill the summer is over untill i crucify our scouts and BR and Ayre, and then i wait a little bit more to see how the new signings (Ings for instance does) before decididng if they should remain hanging there on their crosses, or are they allowed to be taken down

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  128. Allen will be our 'false 9' with 6 other midfielders running around him.

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  129. Withholding judgment on BR until after the summer?!?!?


    Apologist! :)

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  130. Chelsea didn't win before Abramovich, City didn't win before their sheik...

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  131. bah, my colours are out and open for all to see!

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  132. Hey Case, I think the actual difference between Liverpool and top 4 clubs is not the money but the management and the operating structure as a whole. We have had instability within the club for so many years and it cost us dearly.

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  133. I think you are right and that was the older route to sucess (IMO exactly how it should be) but now I feel that has been surplanted by the 'spend a sh*t ton of money, go directly to the the top and stay there' method (which IMO is completly wrong, should be outlawed immediatly and all prior cases relegated to league one)

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  134. How dare you give a rational reasoned response to withhold judgment!


    The window hasn't even opened yet? Don't you know that we are Liverpool and it's our birthright to win the league every year?!?

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  135. Sugar-daddies are outliers. However, I would still say that those clubs have underachieved considering their transfer spending. They make wage logic even more flawed tbh.

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  136. Do you want to know the difference between the top 4 clubs and Liverpool?



    It's primarily one of or a combination of the following:


    1. Stadium Revenue
    2. Billionaire Owners who built their teams prior to FFP

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  137. Old route of success is still possible under right management (Atletico, Dortmund) but unfortunately we don't have a good management. ;-(

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  138. i do not know what took over me. it must have been some sort of blood circulation malfunction, some sort of weird Transient ischaemic attack. i obviously didnt know what i was typing.

    Sir i apologise for my herecy!

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  139. Tevez not coming, nor is Higuain.

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  140. True, although I think you'll find the paper I'm about to share interesting (link in next post, so it may or may not appear, ever). :-(

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  141. http://www.london.edu/faculty-and-research/lbsr/why-is-manchester-united-so-successful#.VYgUfUb2mM4

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  142. Not to mention if we plan to sell Sterling, that might give us a little wiggle room to take a risk on guys like Gomez and Ings. Obviously neither will be starters so there will be no pressure to play them in bad forn, and Sterling's fee will be able to cover the larger transfers we might be after.

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  143. i will get downright angry if we do not sell him. i like that we are playing hardball with city, and with the player. but 40 mil shouldve been plenty enough even for playing hardball.

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  144. Lacazette, Firmino, Bacca?

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  145. Too bad for Henderson, who reportedly earns 100k a week, but Coutinho might put his hand up for a raise when he finds consistency. I wish City had said that about Yaya Toure! :-)

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  146. Agree old route is still possible and it will be mighty satisfying when we do it :)

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  147. It will be a long time before UTD cannot spend what they have been for many, many years now.


    3rd Richest club in the world, and only getting richer, not to far behind Madrid who are the richest.

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  148. i think we are a year late for Lacazette. we identified him last year when he had not had this stormer but there was signs.

    we did this with Jackson Martinez, linked with him when he was still with Pumas (i think), we didnt move for him and he went to FCP for pittance and we all know how that has worked out for them.

    we are playing it too safe.

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  149. For me 40M was the minimum. City are desperate for youth and for homegrown players. Sterling is both, and they can easily afford any tag we plop on him. The higher we get them to go, the better. It was reported that we rejected they're "last and final offer" of 40M, but now there're reports that they'll go up to 50M for us. We caught their bluff pretty well I'd say...

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  150. The f'd up thing with the wage logic is that it changes dynamically. Sugar-daddies didn't make wage logic anymore "flawed" than it was. It just changed the game by allowing sudden cash infusion and thus granting a "free-riding" to the top.


    Also, you need to remember that the wage logic is just an approximation and we cannot make accurate predictions on yearly basis. We can only predict an expected performance.

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  151. i think we can get Bacca if we want to. but he has not played in BPL, so we wont go for him.

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  152. i think if we do flog him off to city for 50million £. it will be the shrewdest piece of business ever and i will call to queen and ask Ian Ayre to be knighted.

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  153. Totally agree that over a very long period we have poorly utilised what resources we have had, perhaps though some of that has been born out of not having the same finances and having to really throw the dice a bit and too many times our gambles haven't paid off.
    Also I'm with you that good management and scouting can make your money go a lot further and it's an area we desperatly need to start improving in, I do think though, that over time a Clubs spending power will largly dictate it's standing in the league.

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  154. There's no point in these long statement, whether you're doing it to get upvotes i don't know.
    Last season, these are games that worth watching and paying... Chelsea capital one cup (H&A) ,Man City (H), and maybe Swansea (H) (Although they deserve something if not their errors )
    other than that the team performed below average throughout the season (relegation form ), never look like scoring, cannot even comfortably beat QPR everyone one thrashed. In other words, your point is absolutely invalid... I don't judge a team where they finished, i judge from what i see live.(performance ).. Meanwhile, we don't deserve to be sixth., Swansea and soton were more deserving and I watch their games too.

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  155. Atleti actually is by far third richest club in Spain, have been for ages. Sevilla and Valencia quite far from them. its expected that if they do well in market and have good season, they will every once in a while win the title.

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  156. Both of those teams have also very good foundation in terms of success. Dortmund sells approximately 55.000 season tickets per year (!) and if my memory serves me right it has been estimated that there is actually more Atletico Madrid fans than Real Madrid fans in Madrid.


    However, it is yet to be seen how long these clubs can still continue their success. Dortmund just lost Klopp (after a bad season partly resulting with losses of key players such as Götze and Lewandowski). I just wonder how long Simeone will last at Atleti, because there sure are a lots of (bigger) clubs offering more money for him.

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  157. Very good comment mate!!!

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  158. I think there was very much a 'point' in Tuomas' post, I enjoyed reading it and thought it explained our current situation to a tee.

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  159. thats exactly why i decided to dedicate fifteen minutes of my day writing that. to get upvotes, not to express oppinnion and positivity when i see tons of negative posts.

    please upvote the post while you are at it!

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  160. But the question is why we are not interested?.IIn my opinion he's a better player then Sturridge and he can play as forward or on the wings. On the world Cup Germany did not concede a lot of goals. One who scored against them was AA, an explosive finish.

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  161. You are very right. ManU is such an international powerhouse financially that it is difficult to see them really failing at this. My point was to refer to more nuanced differences that they now have some overpaid players (e.g. Nani, Young) and I expect them to cut these loose sooner rather than later. Depending on how they will recruit, they might drop behind Chelsea and City in the wage bill, but I do not expect them to go below that.

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  162. I bet even if you give 500mn to BR and TC...we still wouldn't compete consistently...difference is wasteful management

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  163. Who do you think we could get that would make a difference?


    I'm asking for your opinion.

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  164. BR clealy stated last summer that LFC would NOT go the same way as Spurs and blow the Bale money.

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  165. So much for that

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  166. I agree, regrettably I don't see us getting Lacazette, although I remain hopeful. One of the other two does seem a realistic proposistion though.

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  167. Id gamble on Volland and Mitrovic. if i had the money

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  168. You can't say that it wouldn't work just as I can't say that it would. They're not getting 500m, but history has proven that when teams spend big, they are typically successful in the short term. They struggle in the long term because they can't run viable business without steady cashflow.

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  169. Averages are very dangerous in any business .!

    Take 2 teams made up of 2 players each .
    1player value 90 + 1player value 10= ave 50
    1player value 50 + 1 player value 50 = ave 50 .

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  170. I believe they are now the 2nd richest with only Real above them, however it is expected for Utd to become No 1 within the next 2 years and is presuming they finish within the top 4 and get past the group stages of the CL.


    Apparently safe guards have now been put in place to ensure that they can continue spending on transfers + wages as they have been doing for 3 years without CL football.

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  171. Sorry mate but Liverpool fell behind financially long before many of the billionaires appeared.


    Whilst other clubs realised the potential of the Premiership being formed and the the money to be made in other countries Moores had his head up his arse.


    Teams were travelling to Asia whilst we were playing friendlies at Prenton Park.

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  172. Crikey, £6 million? How/why is it that much?

    I was ok with pumping £3.5 million into a future prospect, but £6 million is in the realm of Coates and Ilori, meaning neither of those have a future with us?

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  173. They were a struggling side already when Torres left and he was still el Nino, the boy captain but hardly the dominant player that a peak Suarez was. He scored 1 goal in 3 the season that he left. Bad comparison.

    Aguero, Falcao and Costa were all prolific goalscorers but not as creative as Suarez. However I concede important players and the answer is that in the first two cases they didn't struggle overall because the year Aguero left they signed Falcao and when he left they already had Diego Costa so if you can find players like that (basically that represented a year on year improvement as Aguero was not yet the player he developed into at City) then that's fine.

    When Costa left they DID struggle going from champions to 3rd and scoring 25 less points or wouldn't you call that an effect?

    And none of those players were in Suarez bracket. People were correctly talking about home in terms of Ronaldo and Messi on the form he exhibited. Who was the Suarez replacement we should have signed? What was his name? Did you find him on Football Manager??

    And it wasn't all about Suarez, the loss of Sturridge in concert with that was what really crippled us in terms of goals.

    It's not me who's talking bullshit old son....

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  174. We started falling behind before the billionaires appeared...


    Once the billionaires appeared, that's when the gap grew exponentially.


    As you alluded to, the long term strategy was not there. FSG are implementing it now and even then, fans are impatient with it because it hasn't yielded the results they'd like.

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  175. Mate, I have said a number of times that I think FSG are doing a hell of a job on the financial sides.


    They are by far the best owners we have had in 30 odd years.


    They just need to hire somebody who knows about football now

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  176. Have no issues with this deal, clubs always have to secure young talent, it's up to the management to then help them reach their potential.


    Sometimes players just don't have it in them (Adam Morgan, Dani Pacheco etc...)


    I was thinking as well...we've lost both Gerrard, Jones and Johnson who are all home grown, so may the reason the 1st 4 signings are all homegrown is due to this quota that the club has to abide by?


    City are struggling with this, hence why they are willing to pay big bucks for Sterling, Patrick Roberts and Wilshere.


    Maybe now we can focus on our main targets, I like us being linked with Firmino, Bacca and Rondon but doubt any of these signings will happen.


    At the same it's important not to buy too many players at once as they can affect the team as it did last season.


    Now we just need to sell some deadwood (Lambortelli to begin with)

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  177. I am not saying we are any good at.. just saying that this is the norm now.

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  178. Haha, there's love for you...and love for each and every one of the best fanbase in the world...

    ...but there will never be any love for the Clown Prince...at least not while he is earning a kings ransom to mis-manage our beloved club.

    Seriously, if I saw him in a pub, I wouldn't know whether to headbutt him, kick him in the nadgers, or punch his precious Hollywood teeth down his throat... ; )

    That said, I wish him all the success and happiness in the world...
    ...as long as he's making some other club a laughing stock.

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  179. It's funny, one would think that Liverpool would have been a really attractive club for billionaires to buy, like why didn't Abu Dhabi chose City instead of Liverpool?


    At the same time, I'm happy we're not them. But even with all that money Rodgers would have still gone for Allen.

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  180. Yes they both look very good but definitely gambles as you say and maybe with Origi and now Ings we've already filled our quota of gambles for the upcoming season but as it's summer (apparently) why not treat ourselves to say Volland, - would be my choice of the two you mention and also Firmino - would be my choice of the players I mentioned, although I'd take Lacazette over the all of them but don't see it happening.
    Volland and Mitrovic seem exactly the sort of players the likes of Soton will/do sign and then we all question how we missed them, would they consistently produce the goods in our league though, that's the question, as was the case with Pelle, you have to wonder.

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  181. Not quite, we're still a more attractive place to come to than, er, well, er, West Bromich Albion?

    Don't quote me on that... ; )

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  182. We/BR wouldn't have struggled if we'd signed Sanchez, some attribute the blame of that failing to BR, others don't, but to ignore it completely seems unfair.

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  183. no mystery mate, it's only because he signed a new deal last year. FSG like money more than they like success, been suspecting this for a while now and keeping BR cements this in my mind at least (my tiny, confused, befuddled mind).

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  184. ...that BR is gone before, or during that opening strecth of 14 games.

    FSG scare me.

    I worry that they are more into it for the money and are happy to sit top ten and milk the LFC cash cow.

    Lot of evidence to suggest they might do that.

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  185. Great comment, good man!

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  186. It just seems to me Rodgers doesn't have a clue, he persists in wasting resources on players we don't need. We have Sakho, Lovren, Toure, Llori, Skrtel and Wisdom and now Gomez! His priorities are and always have been signing a prolific striker and a proven RB and a DM first and foremost... His whole approach is seriously flawed and I find it worrying what he will do next with the resources he's given as his track record in the transfer market still leaves a lot to be desired. Ings and Milner are not bad players and should prove useful but they wont take us any nearer to the top 4.

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  187. Success = money though :)
    I reckon NeutralRed has a point, no word from anyone about anything, Marsh and legs eleven gone, BR enjoying life on a beach somewhere whilst transfers continue unabated, Jamie disappearing on Sundays and we're all none the wiser, it definitely bears all the hallmarks of a good old 'mystery'

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  188. Silly kid, Cans going in goal next year... ; )

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  189. I should have clarified... when I referenced "fans are impatient", I wasn't referring to you specifically.
    It was a generalization, but I understand why you might think I referring to you (as I responding directly to your comment).


    Apologies for the confusion.

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  190. Shamefully, I agree with you... especially the Allen part... how could anyone turn down the Welsh Xavi?

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  191. Success?

    Sorry bud, you're gonna have to explain to me what that word means.

    I recall hearing it a lot under Kenny and Rafa et al, but just can't quite put my finger on what it actually is...?

    Is it finishing 6th in the league, is that success?

    Or is it making the semi of a coupke of cups?

    But, in all seriousness, there is no mystery whatsoever...

    We are owner by foreigners who nothing about football...ergo making bad hires and bad decisions.

    I've said it before and as a rabid, passionate fan of LFC, I'll continue to say it...

    I worry that FSG see LFC as a cash cow and will be happy for us to sit in the top ten, raking in ooodles of tv money, observing brand growth, while all the while barely making an appearance here...or giving any indication that they aren't focused on the Red Sox.

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  192. I feel the same I am struggling to find anything to be optimistic about as it stands. The board in my opinion have made a fatal error in not sacking Rodgers and I can't foresee him proving me wrong. Unless he signs the quality players needed then a top four finish will prove way beyond our reach and even that alone might prove not even enough with Rodgers at the helm

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  193. Err, he was talking about Sakho being one for now and Ilori being one for development.

    Sakho played every game he has been available for and Ilori will develop. You do understand that part of developing young players is sending them out on loan for first team experience. Did you not see what happened to Ibe?

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  194. It does appear as though FSG are reducing his "power"/authority...

    ...sacking subordinates like that is shady.

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