Liverpool Rumours Member Posts

• Login
• Register

Batsonio's Profile

Batsonio's Posts and Other Poster's Replies To Batsonio's Posts

To Batsonio's last 5 banter posts

Batsonio has no Rumours Posts

Batsonio's banter posts with other poster's replies to Batsonio's banter posts

07 Jun 2014 23:24:38
Eds,

Do you know what Liverpool's intentions are with the following up on the reported Shaqiri interest and where, if the interest is real he stands in the pecking order of desired targets, is he seen as an alternative to Lallana and if so have we moved on from Lallana?

I just hope we aren't stuck in limbo between the two (or more) not really making any inroads with alternatives alongside refusing to meet the valuation of a player.

I personally would like both as I see them as different player types, if we got them, Moreno a new CB and kept suarez I think this would have been the besy transfer window for years!

{Ed002's Note - There is interest in Shaqiri but I cannot say where he is on some list or other.}

05 Jun 2014 08:43:25
Eds,

Firstly excellent site!

I would be interested in your opinion about the way we conduct our business / the way our transfer links are splashed seemingly more so than other clubs (this may be my biased Liverpool weighted media viewing).

Seemingly over the past few transfer windows including this one we are linked strongly with a player only for it to drag on and on more often resulting with another team beating / dealing with the selling club better than us resulting in losing the signature after a hugely drawn out process.

Is it over active journalists trying to sell papers making stories up which creates links which were never there, inept / unprofessional negotiations i.e. rubbing people / clubs up the wrong way (people buy from people etc.) or does the valuation model (setting a price then refusing to increase the offer) cause the majority of the issue?

For the record I believe in the valuation model entirely, but it lends itself to a more scatter gun approach - sounds rash but with surely multiple targets per desired position trying to deal on our terms alone with one target at a time seems high risk, as we just seem to fail to move on quickly enough.

My personal opinion is we appear to be arrogant in our negotiations, we want very limited targets putting our eggs into one basket at a time but refuse to meet valuations of players, almost and this is the arrogant bit refusing to move on quickly enough believing "because we are Liverpool" something will give in the end which doesn't seem to work effectively.

I could of course be completely wide of the mark only having access to public media, we could be verbally bidding left right and centre across multiple targets at the same time trying to fill our requirements?

I would be interested in your views.

{Ed002's Note - (1) I have explained before my thoughts on how Liverpool has gone about the transfer business, but if it helps, and to finally clear up those previous transfers: Firstly, I don't know Ian Ayre at all so I will try and stick to what I know to be correct rather than drop in to conjecture and supposition.

However, I can answer for each of the players you mention: (a) Liverpool were accused of tapping up Clint Dempsey which is why Mr Werner and Mr Ayre issued apologies to Fulham in order to have them withdraw their complaint to the FA. A transfer was not going to happen. (b) Mkhitaryan was never going to happen due to the price being too high and Shakhtar wanting a single payment. It would have been dependent on the sale of Suarez. (c) As for Salah, the club's valuation of the player was miles away from what Basal would consider acceptable - hence there being no negotiation. This was made worse by Brendan Rodgers saying that they were not sure if the player was good enough for England and that is why they would not offer anything like a reasonable amount of money on such a high-risk purchase. The player and his club both, quite rightly, found this offensive. (d) The Dnipro owner was always likely to want to keep Konoplyanka - you cannot blame Mr Ayre for not being able to resolve that.

I am pretty sure that I explained all of these at the time.

You can add to that: (e) Willian was a player Liverpool were interested in, but they did not offer enough money to buy him. (f) Costa was not going to happen without selling Suarez - because of the money and because he was seen as his replacement. (g) Sigurdsson decided to sign for Spurs instead of Liverpool because he felt they had a better chance of giving him Champions League football - he was wrong - but how many still lust after him?

And don't forget the players he has done the deals for since Brendan Rodgers arrived: Daniel Sturridge, Kolo Touré, Tiago Ilori, Joe Allen, Fabio Borini, Mamadou Sakho, Luis Alberto, Iago Aspas, Simon Mignolet, Coutinho, Oussama Assaidi, Samed Yesil and the loans of Victor Moses, Nuri Sahin and Aly Cissokho. I appreciate many of these players are not favourites of the fans, but you cannot blame Ian Ayre for that - he doesn't pick the players but he did get the transfers done.

You are right about the seeming indecision in going in with a very low offer and not following it up - it will not help anyone and it can make it difficult to negotiate sensibly later. You mention Chelsea and typically they are very good - perhaps assisted by their chief negotiator being many fold better looking than Ian Ayres. However, they too have had notable failures over prolonged negotiations for players - Falcao, Cavani, Isco and Reus spring to mind.

As for how selling clubs feel about low bids, generally they see it as simply wasting their time and it makes it more difficult to do business between the clubs in the future. I am also aware that a number of senior personnel within EPL clubs found what John Henry said about an Arsenal bid in public last year to be very disrespectful.

Liverpool perhaps need to become a little more humble in the way they do their transfer business. (2) The media will always have more "targets" for the more popular clubs - and this is true in each country. The slightest hint of a player being watched will be quickly turned by blogs, web sites etc. in to confirmed interest and then perhaps a paper with the "Daily Liverpool" column will pick it up and it will spread to others. The "Herpes Paradigm". (3) Liverpool, like most clubs, don't want to over-pay for players but perhaps need to understand better when clubs have a fixed-price in mind they won't budge from. Some clubs have different prices for sales to England than they have to other countries - Lyon for example. If Liverpool want a player bad enough (e.g. Lallana), then pay the asking price and move on. It doesn't send out any useful message to screw around. (4) In most cases journalists will want to provide good information that is accurate. In some cases they will provide what they believe to be plausible. It drops away after that. (5) As I said, be more humble in negotiation. (6) Verbal bids will happen but it will not be the norm for Liverpool - they serve the purpose to see if an offer will be well wide of the mark or not. Southampton say they had a verbal bid for Lovren as an example.}

Batsonio has no Rumour Replies

Batsonio has no Banter Replies