Liverpool FC Forum

Just Ian Graham trying to flog his book.

How the hell have we allowed ourselves to get into a situation where Trent, Mo and VVD are all in the last year of their contract?

All 3 will soon be able to talk to other clubs and walk for free.

It’s debatable if all of them deserve big contract extensions, but at least one of them should have been moved on.

At this rate, £100 - 150m  worth of players will walk out of the door for free next summer

I thought we were selling Mo for £200 million?

We should have sold Mo last year! When I hear players say “I’m only thinking about this year” (Mo and Virgil) then you know they are planning to wind down their contract.

Like I've said, count all 3 as gone. Classic bullcrap comments. If you haven't signed a contract now, the likelyhood that you will is slim to none.

kazza » Fri Aug 30, 2024 6:14 pm wrote:We should have sold Mo last year! When I hear players say “I’m only thinking about this year” (Mo and Virgil) then you know they are planning to wind down their contract.

Always easy to blame the players Kazza. They haven't been offered new ones yet imo. Virgil said he hadn't a few weeks ago and the other day said nothing had changed. They have done this multiple times over the years and just keep repeating it.

Classic FSG move is getting them to extend next summer and then saying that's our business done. No one else out there who can improve us which tbh they say already!! 

I think FSG blew it when they chose not to build from a position of strength when we were regularly getting to CL finals and pushing that 100 points mark in the league. Granted it wouldnt have been that easy to strengthen us back then because we were so good but if you remember a lot of the biggest names in the game like Mbappe etc were casting admiring glances our way. One big Van Dijk/Alisson bringing-in-proven-quality type signing a year would have done it, quality over quantity.
Instead we barely made a signing of note and chose to sit on our hands and run the team we had into the ground.

If the big 3 go in the summer I wouldn't be surprised if they already see Bradley as trents replacement and Cheisa as Salah.

Sure there must've been another DM out there. We've "apparently", still got that caicedo 100m locked away.

Klopp squeezed every ounce out of the squad and slot will do the same.

ycsatbjywtbiastkamb » Sat Aug 31, 2024 11:37 am wrote:I think FSG blew it when they chose not to build from a position of strength when we were regularly getting to CL finals and pushing that 100 points mark in the league. Granted it wouldnt have been that easy to strengthen us back then because we were so good but if you remember a lot of the biggest names in the game like Mbappe etc were casting admiring glances our way. One big Van Dijk/Alisson bringing-in-proven-quality type signing a year would have done it, quality over quantity.
Instead we barely made a signing of note and chose to sit on our hands and run the team we had into the ground.

Not sure about the reference to Mbappe, he was never gonna come to LFC BUT have to agree with the general thrust of Yakka's post .
We've sat on our hands and done fk all about attempts to seriously improve the squad. Zubermendi would have been a great capture , I'm not sure enough was done to drag his signing over the line, I got a kind of "look what we're trying to do" feeling about that negotiation , but felt the powers that be were always gonna stop short of making an offer the player couldn't refuse.

Hate to say it BUT with  some "star" players still in their last year of an unresolved contract and no significant quality added to the squad I feel we might be just treading water here.

A few weeks ago without getting carried away I thought maybe a domestic trophy and a top 4 finish was on, I have to say now I'm not so sure   

We just have to trust Slot can keep what we have fit but again it just shows they have a lax view when it comes to backing the manager.

What I don't get is they turned down a bid for Nat Phillips and loaned him to Derby instead . What was the point of that as he's out of contract in June!! 

Just waiting for the PR now to say we are going to have a major spend next year so that's why we were being (miserable) opportunistic this window!!

ycsatbjywtbiastkamb » Sat Aug 31, 2024 6:37 pm wrote:I think FSG blew it when they chose not to build from a position of strength when we were regularly getting to CL finals and pushing that 100 points mark in the league. Granted it wouldnt have been that easy to strengthen us back then because we were so good but if you remember a lot of the biggest names in the game like Mbappe etc were casting admiring glances our way. One big Van Dijk/Alisson bringing-in-proven-quality type signing a year would have done it, quality over quantity.
Instead we barely made a signing of note and chose to sit on our hands and run the team we had into the ground.

Bear in mind covid affected everyones finances and we had a new main stand to pay for without any fans at the games.

ycsatbjywtbiastkamb » Sat Aug 31, 2024 10:37 am wrote:I think FSG blew it when they chose not to build from a position of strength when we were regularly getting to CL finals and pushing that 100 points mark in the league. Granted it wouldnt have been that easy to strengthen us back then because we were so good but if you remember a lot of the biggest names in the game like Mbappe etc were casting admiring glances our way. One big Van Dijk/Alisson bringing-in-proven-quality type signing a year would have done it, quality over quantity.
Instead we barely made a signing of note and chose to sit on our hands and run the team we had into the ground.

It’s worth mentioning Yakka that we had such a tight knit unit with no superstars, additions could have as easily disrupted as they could have enhanced. Finding better players than what we had would have been hard enough, finding better players that would have fit in made it harder.

Personally, I’ve criticised FSG for not doing enough in the transfer market when we won the Premiership and the Champions League and I still stand by that assessment. Let’s face it as fans we are extremely greedy and fickle. More always wants more. Virtually everybody including my self expected last season to be extremely lack lustre after a mediocre summer transfer window. The season actually turned out to be extremely impressive with us fighting on all fronts for trophies and being somewhat unfortunate to only come away with the league cup. Would we have been more successful if the club had been more ambitious in the transfer market? It would be very easy to assume that that would’ve been the case however just take a look at what Manchester United have spent over the last 10 years (over £1.2b) and you very quickly realise that there are absolutely no guarantees that spending huge sums of money on players will bring success. Chelsea and Arsenal to a lesser extent are further evidence of this.

Last year most attacked the owners and as you said, wrote the season off. We thought that losing Hendo, Milner and Fabinho was going to be a problem. We were a little weaker defensively but actually as it happened we looked much better. If not for poor finishing (and shameful refereeing) we could have won at a canter. Jurgen 2.0 was just last year, it’s ok to wait and see how the players gel. Considering how good Gravenberch looks at 6, my only grumble would be the the Mo, Trent and VVD situation.

I certainly like what I see from the manager, so far I think they have done well to recruit him. We keep panicking about the owners and second guessing them but they keep making the right choices, so far 

Sigh, Almost EVERYONE would agree that not spending any money last season was the biggest reason for our collapse.
Just pathetic as always trying to defend FSG....