13 Aug 2024 16:39:24
People need to calm down, you can tell its silly season and the fifa fans are on holidays by all the new random usernames, who sound like a baby who has dropped his rattle because someone rejected us. Boo hoo ?.
Anyway 2 things I've heard.
Zumbimendi wanted to come but rejected us because the club wanted him to pay the buyout clause. He wouldn't do that due to his loyalty to the club. That to me leaves anyone involved in the deal blameless. There is nothing that can be done there and fair play to the lad. Loyalty is rare thing nowadays. With that and the "we won't be looking at alternative" rumour. For me, I don't see any of the other DM's we are being linked with, of that level or of that skill set. So why would we settle for less. This also doesn't mean we won't sign anyone else as other positions who be looked at.
Secondly, both Virgil and Trent will sign contract extensions before the end of the window.
This is just something I have been told and I'm just passing it on.
13 Aug 2024 16:50:29
When the club hasn't signed a single player for 11 and a half months, I can see why some have kicked off. Anyway, still time to pull a rabbit or two out of Hughes' hat.
13 Aug 2024 17:10:34
Not signing someone for 11.5 months sounds kinda terrible until you realise that for 8.5 of those months, the transfer window was shut and we couldn't have signed anyone anyway ;)
13 Aug 2024 17:11:22
I do agree, in the sense, that there’s no point in getting wound up and emotional at transfers, as it doesn’t change anything.
But, equally, I do see some of the points being made as valid. Liverpool haven’t come across great this transfer window. It’s looking like a bit of a disasterclass, It’s all been left very late, and there’s a lot of uncertainty about, especially involving VVD, TAA and even to some degree, Salah. Let alone Diaz, Gomez, Robertson, and Sepp VBD, Doaks, Philips, Bajcetic, Williams and Kelleher etc. We’ve even had interest or bids for Gravenberch, Endo and Nunez didn’t look at all interested the other day, which could be concerning. I can’t remember a time where we had no idea about the futures of so many players going into a season, virtually half the squad.
And in what’s a highly competitive League, it doesn’t take much to fall outside of those Top 4 places. We have previous when acting desperately late in the market, so again, I do get the concern that the club may make rash decisions now. People are unhappy about the Gordon links (I’m actually excited about those), and now names like Rabiot are being thrown about.
Personally I’d be happy with the contract renewals being sorted, and dependant on who leaves, maybe Gordon and a CB coming in. I’d wait for DM and RW until at least January as the names being handed about now would (IMO) be very underwhelming signings, and in some cases ridiculously expensive too.
13 Aug 2024 17:13:27
Hopefully not a Rabbiot he pulls out!
13 Aug 2024 17:14:46
I hope they pull a Rabiot out the hat just so I can see the over reaction on here.
13 Aug 2024 17:09:29
FSGenius. This is a new era, new people at the club in key positions. Last season to me is irrelevant. Granted we have not bought anyone yet, there is still time tho. I also don't lay the blame souly at Hughes feet, if Slot doesn't want to sign anyone. Do you want him to go behind his back as sign someone? That would cause way too many issues haha.
13 Aug 2024 17:41:42
Thefields - I'm not kicking off; but I can understand why people are. Time will tell, but from the outside owners seem content to fall behind Arsenal; I'd argue LFC should be ambitious to seriously challenge for EPL/ UCL. Let's hope that this external perception isn't really what's going on, and the masterplan comes good.
13 Aug 2024 17:54:37
I understand that there truly are few available, and not majorly overpriced players that can improve our first 11, and also that waiting for the right ones is better than the CFC scattergun approach.
Is the Palace CB 50m better than SVDB, for example?
If Ederson and Varella are not suitable because of personal preferences/ price/ availability, what can we do but wait and use what we have.
Players like Jones, Grav and Nyoni have a great opportunity, and this is how stars can be born .
13 Aug 2024 17:57:47
More chance of pulling a hare out of his hole. jokes aside, i still believe the club are looking at other 6s.
13 Aug 2024 18:06:31
The fields, " if slot doesn't want to sign anyone " the man literally said last week he expects a few signings. Most people don't expect buying for the sake of it. We want the areas addressed that need addressing. Even our captain vvd is saying we need to strengthening. Letting 3 months go buy to try get business done in the last 3 weeks is not looking very bright at this time. Hopefully it gets rectified in the next 3 weeks .
13 Aug 2024 18:08:08
I really don't think people need to calm down, our approach in the transfer window has left us in a bottle neck and any transfers now will ne pure panic and whatever we can get and not actually the right players like the manager and recruitment team keep telling us they are waiting for. Not only have all the teams we are in direct completion improved thier squads we have actively lost players we used last season.
I would be surprised if any of the players needing renewals actually signed up as why would they if this is the clubs attitude.
We are in a woefully poor possition and in my opinion have no chance of competi g in any competition this season. I hope I am wrong and i hope the club have been working on some good signings and plan b signings in the background because if not we will not be in Europe next season and it will only become more difficult from there.
If you think we are fine with the squad we have you are in for a shock.
13 Aug 2024 18:14:02
Hughes has three weeks to prove his worth in my opinion.
You say Trent and Virg will sign contracts by the end of the transfer season. Fine . I look forward to it.
My faith in Hughes is low I won't lie. Certainly not a guy who strikes with speed and precision. I'm not even talking about Zubimendi. That can happen.
We certainly need a six to improve the first 11. So I hoping that was just a little joke to throw others off our targets.
We should in my opinion have Trents contract sorted by now. Let's see.
Rabiot is not what we need. We have players like him.
Didn't like Hughes when he spoke in his first press conference either.
The man has a big three weeks ahead of him. If his ask of Slot is to deliver more than one of our greatest ever managers with a similar squad then I'd sack him on September 1st.
Personal opinion, it strikes me that he is in over his head.
13 Aug 2024 18:19:53
The problem is SolidState77, spending the season blooding newcomers isn't going to win you games. and Jones has had plenty of time, and whilst decent, isn't going to be a world beater (unless his performances change a lot) .
players like nyoni etc should be out on loan.
13 Aug 2024 18:21:03
Personally I'd rather Trent and VVD sign new contracts than get in another signing. They are the top priority.
I might be absolutely mad but I honestly don't think we need to buy anyone.
We have so many options in CM right now, many of whom will massively improve with game time and coaching from Slot for his system.
We also have a load of CBs and very good cover for every single position except natural RW cover. Jota is excellent there and if Doak stays, I'm more than happy to see him progress.
It's a marathon not a sprint, missing out on trophies this season may result in 3 the following season if players like Bajcetic, Nyoni, Doak etc get game time and become the stars for the future.
13 Aug 2024 18:39:28
Skezza, Trent and both signing should be a given and should have happened months ago. The club’s ineptitude leading to you even thinking that would be a successful window shows how badly we have got it wrong.
I just can’t grasp that they cannot sort the contracts while also looking at players and making offers. Wish I could get paid millions to do one thing at a time and not even do that very well.
13 Aug 2024 19:04:45
I’ll be honest Trent, Vvd and Salah all signing new contracts would please me right now along with Alisson committing for a few more seasons.
Last season whilst Mo might not have been at his blistering best he still out scored and assisted everyone else.
If you look at his stats from the last 3 seasons and don’t put a name or age next to them then we would be vying to sign said player.
13 Aug 2024 20:00:23
Hughes is way out of his depth. We are acting like Man Utd.
13 Aug 2024 20:51:26
I think there’s two sides. One is that we waited until August due to a completely new coaching and back room staff and they wanted to fully assess the squad and the gaps. that's fine.
On the other side, the contracts should’ve been sorted ages ago. Trent has to stay that’s a given. The other two I wouldn’t be surprised if they only offered short term deals or let them run down. But if they do that, they should be signing replacements now, so we are ready to go when they leave.
On new signings, a left footed centre back and a DM are such glaring holes. Robertson isn’t what he once was and will only decline, plus Slot plays one attacking and one defensive fullback. He doesn’t really fit in. Virg is in his last few years. Clearly we've been scouting that sort of player as well. And this rubbish that we can’t find a better DM than what we’ve got. Did no one watch last season? We were consistently run through in midfield and 1-0 down 17 times in the league alone.
We always kick our transfer work down the road and since 2020 have been reactive, rather than proactive like the best teams. We’ve won one league title in 34 years and we can’t find anyone to improve the first XI? We don’t need loads and have a great squad, but just a few top class signings would’ve put us bang in the mix.
{Ed001's Note - did you watch last season? We weren't run through in midfield, teams bypassed it and hit the space where the full-backs should have been. That was not the fault of any DM, but down to tactics.}
13 Aug 2024 20:55:34
Genuine question and based on you saying this more than once in the last few days - how are we ‘acting like Man Utd’? I honestly don’t understand what you mean.
13 Aug 2024 22:12:03
WDW, I think people just say a whole new bunch of stuff without actually checking with reality confirmation.
14 Aug 2024 00:50:17
Thought by now people understood that in Spain it is the player or a representative of the player who pays the release clause. The money, of course, comes from the buying club but is paid over to La Liga by the player. Sorry, if this was said already, just responding to the OP.
14 Aug 2024 01:39:29
I think we owe Real Betis a lesson in how to play footy the next time we play them.
14 Aug 2024 06:05:10
I’ll be more worried if new people come into important positions within the club management and immediately start signing left right center. They just need abit of time to access wat we already hv.
14 Aug 2024 07:11:36
Honestly, I have a problem with the Zubimendi explanation.
What kind of agents do these guys have? Are they pre-school kids who play with unicorns and eat candy floss all day?
This is his career, you get one shot at your football career. The idea that he doesn’t want to leave RS because he doesn’t want to pay the release clause is fanciful.
I mean who agreed to the release clause being in there? Surely the agent and Zubimendi agreed to the original contract? Why not leave the release clause out if he had no intention of ever using it.
Release clause is a damage limitation exercise by the club to save face.
Just be honest, he didn’t want to come.
{Ed001's Note - release clauses are required by law in Spain Ron.}