07 Aug 2023 04:08:46
Ed 002 are your club still interested in Lavia?
It seems Liverpool are planning a final offer but I’m hearing it will again be short of the £50m Saints are looking for? Interested in how much Chelsea interest there is, I don’t recall an offer from Chelsea, perhaps they need him less than Liverpool do because of squad depth?

{Ed002's Note - Southampton have approached Joe Shields about the interest of Chelsea and Manchetser City in respect of the £40M option they have for next summer. Chelsea have a preferred target and he would be on a list of options.}

1.) 07 Aug 2023
07 Aug 2023 12:22:03
Still think Lavia will sign this week even though I said last week.

2.) 07 Aug 2023
07 Aug 2023 11:58:07
Not ready yet, still got a bit more preparing to do. Jorg needs to get himself a nice comfy chair to send his emails in before he does a few stretches and warms himself up to click send on that extra £0.5 million.

3.) 07 Aug 2023
07 Aug 2023 13:50:31
From a comment I read previously from Ed002, it sounded like he was implying Southampton were looking for £50m either in total or with "achievable" add-ons. Perhaps the disagreement in price relates to the structure of payment and triggers of add-ons, so not quite as straightforward as "we're bidding below the asking price" - although given our history, that wouldn't surprise me either.

I fear a tongue-lashing from Ed002, so apologies if I picked that up wrong!

{Ed002's Note - Liverpool have not offered anywhere near a figure Southampton consider acceptable.}

4.) 07 Aug 2023
07 Aug 2023 13:57:50
Hi Ed02, Reading between the lines of your response, it appears Southampton are trying everything to get the top dollar they desire, obviously that’s their prerogative.

So maybe they are going to find out that the bird in the hand is more than the 2 in the bush.

{Ed002's Note - And in English?}

5.) 07 Aug 2023
07 Aug 2023 14:07:37
Hi Eds, do you how much is the estimation of liverpool transfer budget? I think the fans needs and have a right to know it because the club's revenue was driven and rely on the ticket's sale, merchandise etc. that they collected from the fans.

{Ed002's Note - The fans have no grasp of finances, nor it seems geography.}

6.) 07 Aug 2023
07 Aug 2023 15:15:06
Ed002 you are right in what you say and I think most of us fans don’t understand our finances mate and so let our frustration spill out when we see our nearest rivals bid 70-100M on players whilst we low ball our main targets which are at a lower figure. To me it seems our business model isn’t quite like perhaps both Manchester clubs as well as arsenals Chelsea’s and others as we can’t/ don’t/ won’t compete at the top end of the numbers required for the top players. This was meant to be our big rebuild year our reset to go again and push on. We’ve purchased 2 good players and I guess with the numbers that have gone out of the door we seem to be short on players to compete on 4 competitions both in defence and midfield. Having said this we have plenty of time to address and bring players in before our opening game a week today we are leaving it late. Let’s see what happens between now and Monday.

7.) 07 Aug 2023
07 Aug 2023 15:27:12
We have plenty of time to address means like another 30 years from 2019? Hahahahaha.

8.) 07 Aug 2023
07 Aug 2023 15:47:38
I cannot understand Southampton not wanting to drop their valuation, but in defense of the way we are managing it, I can't imagine that there were many on this group who would have been happy to pay £50m for Lavia a few months back.
He has obviously become our main target, but we can't just go throwing money about when it seems that we don't have much to go around. ideally we want to see him as well as another 2 players come in (might be tough now), but under the financial constraints, and as frustrating as it is, we've got to look after the pennies.
Personally I'd prefer this to go on another week and save a bit if it means we can get the other players in that we need.

9.) 07 Aug 2023
07 Aug 2023 16:30:15
The good news is that it seems like both Liverpool and Southampton value him at £40M. Unfortunately, Southampton need to pay City 20% so they need a team to pay £50M in order for them to get their £40M.
I'm no expert but I suspect the conversations are based around Liverpool being willing to pay slightly more but not willing to pay £10M more than what they see as his market value.
Southampton seem to basing it on the fact that they can keep him for another year and then sell hm back to City for £40M so why accept less now. That said, who knows whether City actually want to take them up on the £40M buy-back clause. An injury or an average season in the championship and his value might drop so Liverpool are offering them risk-free cash now (it's still a very good profit in just 12 months) vs slightly more potential cash next season.
I hope there is some middle ground where the 2 clubs can meet and get a deal done - if not it should have been identified and we should have moved on to other targets weeks ago.

10.) 07 Aug 2023
07 Aug 2023 16:31:02
Look I get it that Southampton want £50m but if LFC offered £41m surely they would take it.

1: City can have him for £40m next year
2: If no one offers £50m then a year in the championship will see his value plummet.
3: he could get injured / form dips.

11.) 07 Aug 2023
07 Aug 2023 16:41:36
I’ll openly admit that I know more about geography than I do about football finances and I know very little about geography.

These are multi-year, multi-million pound complex negotiations. They’re not £50 million and £40k p/ w wage written on a piece of A4 with a sign here box.

Football contracts are constructed by professionals in that industry. I have zero training in that industry so I just leave it to the professionals and don’t sweat the numbers.

FSG are not idiots. They would have to be idiots to allow their multi-billion dollar asset to dwindle over a small difference in transfer fees.

12.) 07 Aug 2023
07 Aug 2023 16:19:34
As a fan I’m not bothered about money side of things ( players wages transfer fees etc ) I just want see us win every game but more importantly see some entertainment along the way .
As for geography all I know is us theirs been more trophy’s won by the north west of England than anywhere else . Quite a few in the city of Liverpool to precise .

A lot of panic going on Wel be sound as a club and as fans we shouldn’t care about numbers does it mean Declan rice is a 3x as good as mac allister cos arsenal paid triple what we did (allegedly) no it just means arsenal where prepared to pay that for his services . I’d love us to sign 2 more quality midfielders and a defender but I couldn’t care less how much for and nor should any fan.

13.) 07 Aug 2023
07 Aug 2023 17:35:52
I think LFC will find that beggars can't be choosers.

14.) 07 Aug 2023
07 Aug 2023 17:35:25
Hi Ed, I would like to know why LFC is screwing around like this. Is it the money, incompetence or arrogance given the history it has with Southampton?

Surely there must be an explanation.

{Ed002's Note - sadly I don’t know but perhaps there is an expectation they will cave in whereas we have seen them accept the asking price for Livramento (knowing that half the money will be passed to another side), rejecting a low, but close, offer for James Ward Prowse, and holding on for the asking price for Lavia knowing that 20% of the profit will be handed to another club.}

15.) 07 Aug 2023
07 Aug 2023 17:40:41
I think the comment about geography refers to a few fans asking if Uefa rules applied in the KSA, lol. This seemed to p. a lot of people off. But I want to stand up for these poor maligned souls

I don't think anyone was confused about geography. This was just a misunderstanding. Fans were just curious as to how the legislation of different regions overlap.


With regards to finances, yes, we are all totally clueless!

16.) 07 Aug 2023
07 Aug 2023 17:56:58
For the fans that say we should just pay what Southampton want, would they have had the same attitude when Barcelona were pursuing Coutinho?
I seem to remember the overwhelming consensus was to pump Barcelona for everything they've got if they really wanted the player.
Swings and roundabouts.

17.) 07 Aug 2023
07 Aug 2023 18:18:01
The “Just pay the money” brigade should take a chill pill, relax and be allowed to nowhere near our finances. Also with the way many of our posters handle discussions about our finances, I would not want to know about our transfer budget or anything like that. The meltdown on here would be epic.

And no, I do not think fans should know a darn thing about our budget either cos we wouldn’t be able to handle the truth. Just my opinion.

18.) 07 Aug 2023
07 Aug 2023 18:18:15
Per Ed's note, signs point to Southampton being confident that City will eventually want to buy back Lavia, likely in 2024. This is also a good indicator of everyone's confidence in the player. So if you're Southampton, why would you ever sell a player, that will also certainly help them in their pursuit of returning to the PL (and getting all the revs that come with that) for anything less than what you're confident you'll get in a summer. Liverpool are getting close, and a note the other day indicated that Southampton would possibly take 48M, which to me signals Southampton have done the math on what they believe will be the impact of the time value of money on a future sale.

Get it done.

19.) 07 Aug 2023
07 Aug 2023 18:46:29
Its not purely a geographical issue though, Israel being an example.

20.) 07 Aug 2023
07 Aug 2023 19:08:28
The issue of 20% profit lost to another club is Southampton's problem to deal with. That's the deal they were happy to sign last summer with City so they can't act they're being shortchanged: it's part of the fee. We shouldn't have to overpay to compensate them for the sell-on fee they have to pay.

21.) 07 Aug 2023
07 Aug 2023 19:30:58
I understand your point Shipley and Southampton have the right to ‘price Lavia out of a move’ if they so wish, but as I have said before they seem to be basing their price on the buy back clause City have at £40m for next year.
I’m calling it right here and now, there is no way in the seven circles of hell Man City, one of the best teams in the world with one of the best FM’s in the world, are going to pay £40m for a player that has just completed a season in the championship. Absolutely not happening, no way, never, nada, zilch, denied, nope. Everyone knows it as do Southampton so they want as much as they can get for him now because in a years time he’ll be worth a bag of pork scratchings.
I for one would be walking away now if I was LFC. SFC have every right to price players how they want, but that doesn’t mean we have to be suckers and pay the price. He may be a good player and he might even be great, but let’s be honest he wasn’t good enough to keep them up was he? He wouldn’t cost £20m if it wasn’t for the buy back clause or that he will count as home grown so I say move on. People saying we are embarrassing because we don’t just pay a requested price, pft I think it’s embarrassing we are considering it.

22.) 07 Aug 2023
07 Aug 2023 20:15:02
Jevon with the curve ball ?.