Liverpool banter 6

12 Aug 2026 12:15:45
My ideal ending to the Barcola saga is it doesn't happen... we end up with Rayan and Mbaye instead - Rayan off the right, Isak through the middle and Rio off the left is such an exciting profile.

12 Aug 2026 13:29:08
I suspect it would be too late to switch to Rayan now. They would have no time to get a replacement in.

12 Aug 2026 13:35:54
Totally agree - that's just been my dream signing since I saw him play in the league. Couldn't believe a Brazilian winger with a physique so suited to the Prem - think even at 100m it would look a steal in a few years' time.

12 Aug 2026 13:37:03
Rio's not ready to be our go-to on the left.
Although he looks a promising talent, we haven't seen anything from his style that suggests he'd be ideal for providing service to Isak.
We need a senior LW and RW, not 2x RWs. We already have 2 backup wingers who are capable of playing either side.

12 Aug 2026 13:45:41
Defo won't be getting Rayan, guy has a 130m release clause and he only joined Bournemouth 6 months ago. They won't be in a rush to sell unless of course that release clause gets hit, which we all know it won't.

12 Aug 2026 13:49:10
Actually, Chewy, what we really need is a right back and a solid defensive midfield player. What we seem to be doing instead is chasing attacking glory rather than having anything solid to play behind them.

12 Aug 2026 14:07:41
Johnny, I agree, mate, but I was purely talking about wingers. Yes, we do need a RB at the moment, desperately imo. Last season's situation was disastrous, and entering this season without a proper resolution could prove to be an unbelievable oversight. I've said before that a senior RB and CB would be ideal, but it seems Araujo may be seen as a stop-gap solution until next summer.



When it comes to a proper DM, I lost all hope as soon as Grav got that new contract a few months back. I see lots calling for a proper DM, but where would one fit in a mid 3 of Wirtz, Dom, and Grav if the club is confident Grav is their man? I can only see us bringing in someone like Wharton or similar if Macca goes.

12 Aug 2026 16:20:23
Rayan's clause isn't active until next year. Doesn't mean he'll be any cheaper now, mind!

12 Aug 2026 16:25:46
Lsred, you think Rayan is just gonna run to us in a pinch after watching us relentlessly court other wingers like Mbaye and Barcola in public?

Not sure if this is how you court someone you would like to either sign as a club. Or be with in a relationship.

12 Aug 2026 11:35:28
Is it me or is one of the biggest mistakes we made last summer was letting Tyler Morton go, with no buy back clause included? He's looked brilliant playing in France and last night's game particularly highlighted that.

With Curtis Jones looking like he's about to leave for Inter and the club listening to offers for Endo, I can't help but think he would have been a solid squad option for this season.

12 Aug 2026 13:18:53
No! He's found his level, that's all. Was never good enough for Liverpool, so you can put this one to bed in my opinion.

12 Aug 2026 13:17:34
I was wondering about Morton just yesterday, Parky. And I do agree, no buyback was a miss here as I do think he is a great squad option with development to go.

I think Ed001 said a few months/years ago that the most sensible option, if you have invested in an academy, is to use those players to fill holes and provide cover.

If we have, say, 16-18 first team ready players with our first 11 being internationals/world class, then the remaining 7-9 places should be academy grads, instead of £20-£30m 'stocking fillers' (sorry for the analogy!).

We do not have a buy back, but we do have a 20% sell on clause so we effectively have a 20% discount on brining him back, but that would likely be a fee of at least €40m+ given his progress in the last year.

12 Aug 2026 13:38:09
That and Kelleher, 2 poor decisions by the club, I felt at the time.

12 Aug 2026 14:41:26
Kelleher wanted to leave and I can't blame him. He's good enough to be first choice at another PL club, but if he stays with us, he'd forever be a no2 behind Allison.

Not sure if we have a buy back clause, though, but if we don't, then I agree that it's a huge mistake on our part.

12 Aug 2026 14:45:21
Chewy, I'm not so sure on Kelleher anymore.

I would agree with Klopp that he was the world's best No 2 keeper.

However, if Iraola is going to play a similar way to Klopp, I haven't seen Kelleher push on enough with his distribution - something we also criticise Mamar for.



I would say that between Jaros and Pecsi we could grow our next Alisson, but the one who is head and shoulders ahead of everyone else is Diogo Costa - he's our man if we can get him!

12 Aug 2026 15:50:57
Dracred, I think Kelleher could have been convinced had we not brought in Giorgi. As we know, Alisson does tend to miss an awful lot of game time with injuries, and Kelleher had plenty of game time because of it.

Zed, Kelleher's distribution is better than Giorgi's in my opinion; he's significantly better with the ball at his feet and less prone to error in dangerous situations; it just comes off more composed and well-rounded to me, but that was for us.

Admittedly, I haven't seen enough of him since he left to comment on how he's playing at the moment.

12 Aug 2026 15:51:46
Really? I always thought Kelleher was good with his feet. Not a lot of top goalies out there.

12 Aug 2026 16:21:14
Yeah, no debate that he's better than Mamar, but Alisson has massive shoes to fill, and I'm not 100% that Kelleher is the man to fill them.

12 Aug 2026 19:52:26
Whatever keeper is our number 1 when Ali goes won't be at his level. We have to get used to the idea of that. The only direction to go from him is down.
Hopefully we'll get someone half as good as Ali has been and we'll still have a world class keeper.

12 Aug 2026 20:14:51
Ali will take some replacing, but great keepers are scarce at the moment.

Be better to pay millions to the best doctors and surgeons to keep him going for longer, and offer him a new contract.

12 Aug 2026 11:13:21
A lot of talk naturally about Barcola and the hokey cokey of if it's done or not. I'm sure Barcola will happen so just concerned that we haven't replaced Robbo and haven't addressed the obvious RB problem yet.

The Greek is nowhere near good enough (the reason why he went to Roma, they didn't want him and shipped him back) and Kerkez was a mixed bag last season.

I know Araujo can cover RB but we need him to play CB, unless the club feels that Jacquet will be fit and ready to start the prem.

Hopefully things are happening behind the scenes but growing concerned, with less than two weeks to go until the prem, that we're spending so much time on Barcola but haven't sorted full backs.

Would be very risky not to sort it.

12 Aug 2026 13:34:23
Can't see any fullbacks coming in to be honest. Tsimi will be backup to Kerkez and we just brought in a CB who can cover RB alongside Frimpong whilst Bradley recovers. There is no room in the squad for more fullbacks.

12 Aug 2026 14:00:00
Only my humble opinion, but Tsimi isn't anywhere near good enough.

He needs to be moved on and a replacement found if there's no room in the squad for full backs.

Admittedly, I haven't seen Araujo play at RB, but let's hope he's mustard, as Frimpong isn't good enough at RB in the prem, which is why we played other players out of position at RB instead of him.

12 Aug 2026 14:14:22
Agree with Hansen, Araujo seems to be the temporary solution for the right side/centre back issue, and whilst Tsimi isn't a great player, he has filled in relatively adequately for us before, so I can't see the club being concerned with LB, at least not until next summer.

Kerkez was seen as the best up-and-coming LB in the league in '24 and now with Iraola at the table, I'm sure the club has complete confidence in the lad.

None of it's ideal, but I think the club is more concerned with scoring goals atm, and plans to address conceding them next year!

12 Aug 2026 12:17:53
Hi eds1.
Apologies if you've answered this before. Do you see wirtz becoming the player we all dreamed of this season under Iraola?

{Ed001's Note - maybe next season, but this season the sudden step up in physical demands required will mean it is mostly going to be about getting up to speed. He needs the rest of the team to be reading his passes before he does them and that is going to take time too. At least we should see that understanding growing this season, as they will actually be doing some training!}

12 Aug 2026
New image uploaded to the
Liverpool Player Sightings page entitled, Barcola at Anfield

Click picture for larger image

12 Aug 2026 10:54:26
£1.19?
That's a good Mbaye.

12 Aug 2026 10:56:02
Hughes has done it again!

12 Aug 2026 10:56:19
Wow, he's bigger than I thought.

12 Aug 2026 11:04:41
That's what she said last night, KE. 😉

12 Aug 2026 11:13:15
What is between "L" & "FC" on the stands? The forbidden initials.

12 Aug 2026 11:15:54
Seems like all spark and no fizzle to me.

12 Aug 2026 11:17:14
Might be as close as we get.

12 Aug 2026 11:32:16
She was talking about your belly, Barry. 😜

12 Aug 2026 12:08:07
Barr Cola has a great bit of fizz in his game.

12 Aug 2026 12:25:45
Well, I would like to have agreed with you, @Barry, but unfortunately I'm still waiting for those exact words, 34 years and counting.

12 Aug 2026 12:45:32
Ke same as brother, same as. 👍

12 Aug 2026 13:35:37
Don't lie to yourself, Barry, you've been waiting far longer than 34 years to hear those words 😉 I've only heard it once in 41 years... but choosers can't be beggars or whatever the saying is.

12 Aug 2026 13:58:40
I cannot lie, MB.

12 Aug 2026 10:22:06
Hopefully AI and Hughes can go and find some more reinforcements on the QT like Munoz and Araujo, so we are better prepared for AI ball in a couple of weeks time.
Between Diomande and now Barcola, it really is getting frustrating and so dragged out.

So here's hoping the club continues to have other transfer activities, both in's and outs going on in the background like they did with Munoz and Araujo.

12 Aug 2026 12:30:32
He looks great in red.

12 Aug 2026 10:54:06
I don't claim deep knowledge here, but Munoz looks like he will be some player. He doesn't strike me as the type to dilly dally on the ball. If we keep Gakpo, who I don't think is awful at all, we have enough on the left with Rio there too and Ekitike hopefully coming in the new year.
The bigger problem is right wing. If Munoz can cover part of that, great, but ideally we go for someone quick with the skill to beat defenders.

I haven't seen much of Rayan, but if Ed01 rates him, I will trust that. Don't get me wrong, I would love Barcola to join, but I would quietly prefer we didn't spend the quoted amount on one player and instead invested in quality where it is most needed.

12 Aug 2026 09:52:14
Bit of a theory I'd like people's thoughts on - does anyone feel like we've set a dangerous precedent with the Ekitike / Isak fiasco last summer? Was great fun for us at the time of course, but have Liverpool now given themselves an image of "we'll take your ideal replacement, and then STILL take your player"?
By all accounts, it seems like PSG aren't willing to let the Barcola deal go through until they have their replacements boxed off (especially seeing as we were also apparently sniffing round Akliouche and Torres ourselves).



In a similar vein, you'd think we'd have learned from the Guehi situation last year too that we can't always wait for the selling club to get their replacement sorted.

12 Aug 2026 10:30:12
Any player who comes in now will have less than 10 days to bed in until the season starts.

A new manager is trying to instil his philosophy and playing style onto a new group, and anyone late to the party will be behind the curve.

12 Aug 2026 10:49:10
Maybe to a certain degree, but to be one of the big boys you have to make big boy decisions. The club wanted both Isak and Ekitike and were unconcerned about Newcastle's feelings.

Real Madrid, PSG, Man City are pretty unforgiving in the market.

They puff out their chests and do what needs to be done.

Of course, you want to be as diplomatic as possible to not sour relations with all clubs, but essentially all is fair in love and war.

12 Aug 2026 10:54:43
I agree with that, JK, but the club can't be thinking short term like that and sign the wrong players at the wrong price just so we can get them through the door early.

Any player coming in has to be the right player regardless of timings.

You sign a player for the long term success of the club and they might not be up to speed in the first couple of months, but, long term, they will integrate and hopefully improve the team.

12 Aug 2026 10:56:41
It's not just about Liverpool.
Ekitike and Isak chose Liverpool over Newcastle, and PSG will be doing what's best for PSG.

12 Aug 2026 11:01:26
Agreed, get the right player a coupla weeks later than the wrong one.

12 Aug 2026 11:33:00
No, targets are targets, despite the rumours, we didn't only pursue Ekitike just because Newcastle were, he was a genuine target. Barcola, Godts, Torres, Akliouche, they're all players of genuine interest. Top teams will always compete for signings, and attempt to leverage interest to their gain, that's the game, it's always been that way and always will.

Yes, I agree, we should have learnt from the Guehi deal, especially with a new manager and during a World Cup year, the aim should have been to get business done ASAP.

Looks like things will go down to the wire and we'll end up bringing in players who will get no pre-season, Isak 2.0 essentially. I've been advocating for Godts (particularly) and Torres, we could have had both for less than the cost of Barcola. But what can you do? We just have to hope the Barcola business gets done and that he does the business.

12 Aug 2026 11:37:26
Rios & Florian fully agree on the right player.

Not sure if my comment insinuated getting any player for the sake of it, as that wasn't the intention.

More, we've seen how important pre-season was last year. Any player coming in now doesn't get a pre-season with the team.

The fortunate thing is, the World Cup has more or less disrupted the majority of clubs' pre-seasons.

12 Aug 2026 11:37:50
Preseason this time around is not effective because of the extended World Cup imo. Macca just returned not too long back, so he wouldn't have had time to get up to speed with Iraola's football, too. Our other first teamers, too, wouldn't have had much time with Iraola, and those who did are seemingly on the way out.

So I'm not too concerned about getting targets in early now, since I feel that we are going to struggle in the first few games regardless.

12 Aug 2026 12:44:22
They'll only have to get onto the first half stuff and rinse repeat because no one wants the 2nd half showings so far!

12 Aug 2026 12:49:30
It's not that simple, @chewy. Just because PSG are signing them doesn't mean they would have signed for us if we tried.

A lot of players would rather go where they can compete for trophies and the team who's won the Champions League two years in a row is a much better choice than the one who is gonna spend a season or two bedding in a new system, manager and players who will probably compete for top4 but nothing else.

12 Aug 2026 12:52:01
Yeah, JK, I know you weren't insinuating that, mate. I was just blurting out my thoughts as usual.

Preseason is important, but I do think you have to remember the situation at the start of last season to put it in its proper context.

Firstly, most of our squad (and the manager) checked out as soon as we won the league in 2025, which was April 27th. So they had May and June without doing any serious training. Then the Jota tragedy happened on 3rd July, and I believe the players were due to report back to preseason training on 5th July. That was obviously put back due to the players mourning and attending Diogo's funeral etc.

Like we've seen a few of the players say, the last thing they wanted to do after coming back was to play football, so you could imagine that preseason wasn't as intense as it should've been at least for the first few weeks.



So that gives the players the best part of 3 months without doing any intense training. It's very easy to lose your fitness in that amount of time, and then it's very difficult to get it back.

Plus there was a lot of player turnover with the likes of Isak (no preseason) and Wirtz walking into a dressing room that was mourning a team mate. That will affect different players to different degrees but neither really got going at all.

This season is different purely due to the shorter time the players have had off, and they would've returned to preseason at full intensity. I don't expect us to have the same fitness issues as we did last season once we get going.

12 Aug 2026 13:02:26
Rios, no worries, mate.

With you on that. Fingers crossed, Iraola can get his stamp on this squad. I just feel he needs more, and the sooner he gets them the better for him. But I know it's not as simple as that.

Got just over 2 weeks left of the window, so let's hope it proves to be a successful one.

12 Aug 2026 13:27:37
Amen to that JK.

I actually don't feel the squad is as far off as some seem to think on here.

All teams have issues with their squads that they need to address. Arsenal, for example, need pretty much an entirely new attack. Saka is probably the only decent attacker they have and they've done zilch to address that so far.

If refs start clamping down on set pieces, they are bang in trouble.

I'm hoping we get Barcola over the line as a do feel we need more pace in the team.

If we then play Grav in his best position at the 6 then the midfield is a title winning midfield. Get Jaquet and Leoni fit along with Bradley and that sorts the defence. VVD does need to step up. He was poor last season, but at least we'll have the players to enable Iraola to pull him out if he needs it.

I actually think Ali's fitness is key because if we have to rely on Marma for any length of time it'll cost us dearly.

12 Aug 2026 13:59:06
Rios, good to see you so confident, mate, but unfortunately I don’t hold the same confidence as you.

Keeping Ali & Bradley fit is easier said than done. Jacquet and Leoni will be returning from 7 and 12 month lay offs, and are unknown quantities. Macca & Grav need huge improvements on last season, Wirtz and Isak also. Ekitike is coming back from probably one of the worst injuries a professional athlete can get, and I fully agree on the Marma comment.

Some of Elliot, Endo, Chiesa, Munoz & Araujo could all have decent seasons and contributions, but could just as likely fall flat on their faces.



In regards to Arsenal, they out scored us last season as a team, so they seem to work. Certainly will be interesting to see if refs do clamp down on them, but I’m not gonna lie, I watched them 3 times last season and that was against us twice and CL final, so I don’t really have a clue.

Despite what probably seems like a moan and groan, Im fairly confident that the club will compete for top 5 again, and it will be far better football to watch.

Actually can’t wait for the season to start now.

12 Aug 2026 09:07:04
If you're using a colander to watch the eclipse, be careful — you might strain your eyes

12 Aug 2026 09:14:24
That's blindingly obvious.

12 Aug 2026 09:32:04
🥁🥁
Excellent work guys. 👏

12 Aug 2026 09:47:30
More posts like this, less Barcola posts.

12 Aug 2026 10:02:47
That's a great description of Liverpool's defence over the last few seasons - full of holes!

12 Aug 2026 12:44:49
Love it crazy!

12 Aug 2026 08:23:53
Do any of the Eds or ITK's know if we looked again at Angelo Stiller? Only 25 and according to ITKspace on a fairly recent post he was looking to get a move to the Premier League and was disappointed that no one has moved for him yet.

Not really seen much of him but it sounds like he wouldn't be hugely expensive? Apparently the release clause is around £42 Million.

Chelsea had him as a possible replacement should Enzo go and united were looking at him.

All opinions welcome.

12 Aug 2026 08:52:39
He seems to get linked with the PL every transfer window, especially with Utd, but nothing ever comes of it.

12 Aug 2026 09:06:55
Why Him? (One for film buffs)

12 Aug 2026 09:08:02
I've seen him play a few times, and though he does seem like a very good player, it's hard to judge anyone in the Bundesliga right now. It's never been so weak. Other than Bayern, every other side is an absolute shambles. Even Bayern are miles off the levels they've reached in previous years, and they basically just rely on outscoring their opposition in an end to end basketball match.

Look at how easily Villa rolled over Freiburg in the Europa League final. In the Champions League, we battered Frankfurt 5-1 in one of our worst periods of form in the last 60 years. Leverkusen and Dortmund came 16th and 17th in last season's Champions League Group stage. Frankfurt were 33rd.

After Bayern, the rest of the league is pretty much the same level as the Portuguese league or the Eredivisie now, in my opinion.

We really saw the stark contrast in level through the medium of Wirtz, Frimpong and Ekitike. It took them all half a season to be able to last more than 60 minutes at the intensity of the Premier League. Wirtz and Frimpong still hadn't really got to grips with the pace and physicality of the league by the time the season ended, talented as they may be.

Personally, I'd be steering well clear of Bundesliga players. Luis Diaz and Harry Kane have gone over there and nigh on trebled their goal outputs. We should learn our lesson. The players are overpriced and overrated. We're just lucky Wirtz is only 22 and has time to adapt to a proper standard of football.

12 Aug 2026 09:30:43
That's why I don't rate Olise. He wasn't anything special in the PL, but pulling up trees in the Bundesliga like Serge Gnabry, Jaden Sancho.

12 Aug 2026 09:33:49
Wirtz?

12 Aug 2026 09:37:22
Great film, Rome! First thing I watched with Bryan Cranston after Breaking Bad!

12 Aug 2026 09:40:18
Haaland did ok in Germany and has struggled in England.

Hardly ever touches the ball that lad.

12 Aug 2026 09:43:21
I detect you're a film buff, Mr. Craine.

Every other league is like that bar a team or two in each league. France bar PSG (we also hammered Marseille away), the whole Italian, Dutch and Portuguese leagues. Spain bar the big two. The only way you can be sure you're getting players ready for the Premier League is by buying from the Premier League. And even that's not foolproof, and can obviously be very expensive.

12 Aug 2026 10:18:59
Olise was brilliant in last couple of seasons at Palace, and he consistently did it in the Champions League too. World class player, no doubt about that.

12 Aug 2026 10:29:34
JK23, Haaland left Germany 4 years ago. That's a long time in football and completely irrelevant to the current state of the Bundesliga. There will always be exceptions to the rule, anyway.

I stand by my views; Bundesliga signings are a risk right now. They burned us last summer and we now have a £100-116m attacking midfielder who so far many would consider a flop, and a £30m right back who most of our own fans already want to replace.

Not to mention the £79m striker who suffered a potentially career altering soft tissue injury, which could arguably be attributed to struggling to cope with the physical demands of a long Premier League season. What part of that £225m investment makes you want to go back and shop there? I hope my post doesn't come off wrong, as I'm genuinely asking what makes you believe the league is still strong.

12 Aug 2026 10:30:08
Kane has trebled his output? Which Kane did you watch in the Premier League? Properly does my head in how underrated he is.

12 Aug 2026 10:43:56
There are so few guarantees with transfer business, it's probably important to focus as much on the player as it is the place they come from.

Watched a piece on sporting greats recently, like Pele and Gretzky. Conclusion was analytics and metrics can be really flawed, and should be a smallish part of any assessment, and things like academy programmes are too structured to allow lots of players to reach their full potential.

What they all had in common was work ethic even on days off, focus on self improvement almost to the point of obsession, creativity on the pitch or court, nurturing coaches when they were younger, players had usually played multiple sports before focusing on one, and ability to see the whole picture when they were playing.



Not every player we buy needs to be a great, but at least if they have some of the right characteristics it's a good start. Got me thinking, Munoz seems like a good example of someone we could develop even though he came from a modest club in Spain, whereas someone like Barcola I'm not sure about despite the profile.

12 Aug 2026 10:49:15
Every signing is a risk.

12 Aug 2026 11:00:47
Kloppthelot, I mean, obviously it was a throw away comment and I hadn't actually looked up the exact ratios! I apologise, though, for my tongue in cheek comment. I was not meaning to imply that Kane or Diaz are bad players.

I thought I'd have a look, though, to see the actual increases are off the back of your comment. Diaz went from averaging 7 league goals a season at Liverpool over 4 seasons to scoring 15 last season in Germany (over 2x as many as his average in the Prem).



Kane, if you take his last 5 seasons in the Prem, he was averaging 21 league goals a season. In the Bundesliga, over the last 3 seasons, he's averaged 33 league goals (over 1.5x his average in the Prem despite being well into his twilight years now).

In case you were interested.

12 Aug 2026 11:03:40
Kane got 30 Premier League goals in his last season at Spurs. Got 36 league goals for Bayern this season.

12 Aug 2026 11:23:35
In fairness on Diaz also, one of them four seasons he only joined in January and in another he was missing for months after getting injured vs Arsenal and only played 17 times. Only played 30 league games in the first two of them four seasons, less than the 32 he played for Bayern in one season alone in 25/26.

So it's more like 29 goals in 3 seasons worth of games as opposed to 4, which would average out at about 10. He got, as you say, 15 for Bayern last year. He was always going to score more playing in a weaker league for the most dominant team by far. But in the grand scheme of things it's not that much more.

12 Aug 2026 11:23:44
Florian, he also had 17, 18, 23 and 17 league goals in the other 4 of his last 5 seasons in the Prem. In the Bundesliga he's done 36, 26 and 36 league goals in the last 3 years. It's pretty obvious there that his output has increased. The peak output is up, the minimum output is up, and the average is up.

All that despite being 30-33 years old for his 3 seasons in the Bundesliga.

If you want us to shop in the Bundesliga again, that's your prerogative, but I think I'm well within my rights to be skeptical.

12 Aug 2026 11:40:16
Handy that you stopped at Kane's last 5 years when, in the two before that, he got 30 and 29 league goals, after having got 25 the year before that. 😂 Look, MK, the Bundesliga bar Bayern is obviously much weaker than the Prem.

But it's no weaker compared to England than France, Spain and Italy are, barring one, and in Spain's case two teams in each of them leagues.

12 Aug 2026 11:54:32
Flo, how far do you want me to go back? I thought 5 seasons was a good sample size! If I go back all the way, he only got 3 in his first season. Also, if you do go back before 2018, the Premier League was also weak back when Kane had those 29 and 30 goal seasons you mentioned. Leicester won the league one of those years and Chelsea won it the next with Alonso and Moses in their starting XI.

That was a very bad period, with very few Prem teams competing on a European front. Liverpool, Arsenal, City and United were all in a lull, which left Spurs, Leicester and Chelsea to mop up.

Even if you include his whole Prem career, his peak, minimum and average are all still higher though, so it's a moot point really.

12 Aug 2026 11:55:43
Mk, aren't you a big advocate for Barcola, though, who by all means is in a weaker league.

Doesn't the scepticism come across for this potentially record breaking transfer or is it only Bundesliga specific.

12 Aug 2026 12:12:54
Our best buys of the last decade or so have been Mo and Ali from Italian clubs, VVD Southampton, and Diaz, probably next best from Port.

12 Aug 2026 12:43:02
JK23, I don't think the French league is anywhere near as weak as the Bundesliga, but it is of course subjective.

French sides just seem to be much stronger right now, and the players who've come over to the Prem from the French league have consistently been performing for about 5 or 6 years now. Even last season with Cherki and Kroupi Jr being prime examples. The pace and intensity in Ligue 1 is the closest to the Premier League in Europe, in my opinion. The closest match in terms of quality is still La Liga though.

Italian football lacks pace and quality right now, whilst German football is lacking in physicality and intensity.

French football has surpassed them both in my opinion and is now somewhere close to the standards of La Liga. The Premier League still seems to be well clear overall. I'd really rather be shopping in France or Spain because it's much easier to gauge the ability of a player if he is playing against good opposition most weeks.

You could even argue that my views are reflected on the International stage, with Germany and Italy being complete non-entities now for nearly 10 years.

12 Aug 2026 11:43:28
Mk no worries your post didn't come across any way bad mate.

I didn't say the Bundesliga was strong. It's quite obvious to even Stevie Wonder that the PL is the most competitive in the world because it has the most money to spend. I just don't think that the other leagues are farmers leagues with farmers playing in them.

Roughly 70% of the Premier League is made up of these players who were once in a farmers league so they can't be that bad or high of a risk.

With 30% of the league I'd actually argue that English players are more or a risk because they're certainly in the minority.

12 Aug 2026 12:53:36
Mk, I did send another friendlier reply, mate, but it's not been posted.

Truth is, 70% of the league is made up of non English footballers, so I'd argue that all these players contribute to making the PL what it is, whilst weakening the leagues they leave.

12 Aug 2026 13:00:18
Genuine question, MK - where would you like us to buy from?

Plenty of players come from Spain and fail in Prem.

Same for Germany, Italy, France, Netherlands, Brazil.

You can't say you wouldn't buy from league X because it's a weaker league when every single league is weaker.

You're essentially saying we should only buy from the Prem. Even that's not bullet proof because a player might do well for a club that builds around him and then terrible when he moves to a different club (the never ending stream of duds we've bought from Southampton is a good example).

12 Aug 2026 13:02:46
Surely, if you're going to compare Kane's output, playing for Spurs vs Bayern has to be taken into account as well?

12 Aug 2026 13:53:31
I'm not saying that at all, Nevada, so apologies if that's how it's coming across.

What I'm trying to say is that right now I think it is going to take longer for players from the Bundesliga or Italy to adapt (in general, not in every case). In the modern game, where patience is a rare thing, I think we'll see a lot of players from Serie A and the Bundesliga getting bombed out the league back to mainland Europe because they didn't hit the ground running.

I also think it's much harder to assess how good a player is when they're playing in Italy or Germany, where they're not challenged as much by the level of opposition. Thus, I think it will be more likely teams make mistakes when signing players from those leagues, as the leagues still carry a "top 5" reputation despite being significantly weaker (in my opinion) than England, Spain and France.



Nowhere in this thread have I said we shouldn't sign any players from Germany or Italy because they won't cut it. All I've said is that I'd prefer we shop in France or Spain (because it's harder to accurately assess players in Italy and Germany), and then attempted to justify why I have that preference at this current point in time. 10 years ago, I probably would've said that France was the weakest of the 5 and we should be more diligent and cautious when signing players from there, but the dynamic seems to have shifted. Again, only my opinion. It's very hard to compare entire leagues to one another.