01 May 2022 19:05:10
Hi Ed’s1
Hope your settling into your new home.
Is it possible to do an article on Michael Edwards. With him leaving it would be nice to get some find out his best deals and any stories that mite be interesting.

{Ed001's Note - I will certainly have a look for you and see if I can put something together. Not sure how much there will about him as he has not really been a public figure but I will give it a go for you. I would be interested to do so as I am not as convinced by him as everyone else seems to be.}

02 May 2022 05:31:37
What do you mean by not as convinced by him? Do you mean that the deals wasn't just all down to his negotiation skills?

{Ed001's Note - and were the deals really all that special too?}

02 May 2022 08:12:15
Any examples Ed001?

{Ed001's Note - not off the top of my head mate. I just don't see what he did that was so special, he wasn't choosing the targets to sign, he wasn't choosing which players to extend contracts with etc. So I just don't see how he has done so well, not to the level Liverpool fans seem to think.}

02 May 2022 09:03:48
Just us not being privy to information, Ed. We see player sales the club has made during Edwards’ tenure that suggest Liverpool have perhaps got the better end of the deal (Solanke, Sakho, Coutinho to name a few), combined with buying top players for an ostensibly bargain fee (Mané, Salah etc) .
Quite how such deals took place, 99.9% of us will never know. We just look at the figures quoted and decide, rightly or wrongly, who won the negotiation. Such ‘victories’ have been attributed to Michael Edwards over the past few years.

{Ed001's Note - yes but I look at it and see us buying players for the price the other team was asking or, in the case of van Dijk, paying a £10m premium to stop them complaining about tapping up. Is that good negotiating to pay the asking price? I mean yes, all of those players (with the exception of Keita) are bargains, but still that was the asking price at the time. So is that him being skilful or is it that Klopp has made the prices seem low by turning those players into megastars?}

02 May 2022 09:37:11
Without question Klopp’s management has made most of those players look like bargains.
That said, as fans we have little information about the asking price of selling clubs other than what we can read on Twitter or other media outlets, a lot of which will just be absolutely fictional.
In fact, that you mentioned we paid the asking price for our players is news to me and, I’d imagine, a lot of other followers of this site.

{Ed001's Note - yeah sorry I forget that. It does explain why we view things so differently.}

02 May 2022 10:37:11
Really interesting points, Ed01.

{Ed001's Note - I thought of something I should have also mentioned, in regard to him usually paying what was in essence the full asking price. A lot of that is down to the fact we are paying using terms that are not favourable to the selling club ie small amounts up front and spreading payments over time. So that does hamstring his ability to negotiate.}

02 May 2022 11:48:24
Another idea for an article Ed (if time ever allows) . I think it would be really interesting to know a little more about the process of identifying targets. Does the club use its own scouts or outside advisors, how involved the coaching staff are etc. I'm sure it's been said on here that Salah wasn't Klopps choice, would be nice to know who's chose it was. Great in sites in your articles by the way. Always really enjoy them.

{Ed001's Note - thank you mate, I might even integrate that into the Michael Edwards piece, as that does overlap to a large degree. And yes it has been pointed out on here, and since confirmed by Klopp in interviews, that he had to be persuaded to sign Salah. If I remember correctly he wanted Brandt at the time and we nearly got him instead.}

02 May 2022 15:03:18
I think the transfer committee is still going at Liverpool, just some different people on it now than was the case initially?

02 May 2022 15:22:21
Thanks for your response, Ed. Btw, what's the cuisine like out where you're at, mate?

02 May 2022 16:46:05
I remember the days of the transfer committee hysteria! It's funny how they had such a turnaround in fortunes after Klopp replaced Rodgers. It's almost as if the person who had the final say on transfers made the difference and it wasn't completely all their fault.

02 May 2022 18:36:14
Rodgers sought to blame the TC when things didn't work out. Klopp has worked together as a team to find solutions. Clearly the TC was not the issue.

03 May 2022 08:00:14
Hi Ed I maybe wrong here and I'm sorry if I am but I think one of the other Eds said that Pulisic was the top target over Salah. But I think I've read that Salah was third choice so maybe it was Pulisic and Brandt ahead of him.

{Ed001's Note - Pulisic was certainly a target at one time, but I thought that was before then.}