Every club in the league has broken their transfer records in the past few windows. The fact we have made smaller net investment in transfers than AFC Bournemouth over the past 5 years says a lot about how this is almost entirely dependent on sales though.
I never said the club generates enough revenue to match Manchester United. I did say it generated enough to spend more than the net investment we have made so far. And that it would be far easier to swallow that fact if only we were channelling funds to a larger wage bill. But that's not really the case either. I imagine none of our top earners are making anywhere near that of our competitors (and when I say competitors, I include the likes of Arsenal and Chelsea, that have similar-ish revenues).
Coutinho already wanted to leave in the summer, Klopp made him captain for a few matches. He was scoring at a greater rate than Firmino. That was hardly disruptive. The thing I question the most, however, is the argument of timing - made by Klopp himself, and many journalists close to the club. Reddy wrote an article of why LFC would be more willing to sell in January and it revolved around season planning and finding a replacement - it was difficult to do so in August, the argument said. If it's still difficult to do now, have we disregarded timing, and just sold him because of his potential attitude? But at the same time we're ok giving the armband to a German lad out of contract in the summer? Let's not kid ourselves here, he is gone because the sum involved was too good for the club to refuse.
I have a lot of faith in Klopp as a manager, however I do not believe he can work miracles. He set a target of winning the league in 4 years when appointed manager. So if we do not win the Premier League next season, by his own standards he'll have failed. And if we as a club do not invest more in transfers, then I think there's a very good chance of that happening. Hell, I'd take *any* trophy at this rate, but we just dropped out of the one competition we had a real chance of winning, just after disrupting the healthy attacking rotation we had with Coutinho, and now having to rely on the likes of Danny Ings off the bench.
Don't get me wrong, if we qualify for the Champions League, I'll think it has been a decent season. Regular participation in the UCL is absolutely vital at this stage, probably the most important thing for us at this point. I won't be calling for anyone's head even if we miss out. I just think we're making things harder for ourselves than they should be.
I don't really buy into the net investment argument, especially that most of the players bar Coutinho were sold because Klopp didn't want them and where deadwood. I look at how much we spent, and we spent a lot of money, this paints a different picture as all the money from the player sales have gone into recruiting other players. If that didn't happen I'll be the first one to question the owner's intentions, but it hasn't.
Our wage bill per turnover is the 3rd highest in the league (even more than Man City's), we pay a lot on wages but it always depends on how you manage those wages as you have to take into account how the club is structured financially and of course staff count. Sure we probably can pay 250k a week to get a top player but wages hasn't stopped Klopp from getting Salah, Mane & VVD. Also, we don't really work in club management, I really don't know what parameters or strategy Klopp, Edwards and Mike Gordon have implemented and neither anyone. All I know is that the money get from player sales + from revenues have been used on player transfers as it is evident in the signings we've made under Klopp, rather than the owners trying to balance the books. Furthermore, I believe that if the recruitment team pinpoint a player that Klopp agrees on the money will be there to recruit the player.
Coutinho wanted to leave, nothing we can do about it. He went on strike twice by feigning injuries. What do you think he would have done if Klopp said he won't sell him till the summer? Again it's very subjective, he might have done a Mahrez and missed training sessions or he would have been a professional, do you think Klopp wanted to take the risk? Do you really think FSG would have sanctioned the deal if Coutinho wanted to stay and Klopp was happy with him staying even if Barca bid with that amount? I find it very very unlikely.
No one is saying Klopp is a miracle worker, but so far and slowly he's proving to be the best manager we've had since Rafa in 2004 with consistent displays in the league and buying the right players to compliment his style of play. He's different than Rodgers because Rodgers sometimes didn't know what to play and how he wanted his team to play, he tried changing with signing players like Benteke and back fired. Klopp instead is sticking to his principles the same way Rafa did too and that is why they make really good managers. Why is there a good chance of not investing in the summer? So far Klopp used the money well and paid for good players, so he will do the same in the summer. We lost against WBA in the FA cup was because of our defense not really our attack.
It was a costly one off game that we improved upon against Huddersfield. Klopp said it himself it's not about Coutinho and I agree with him, Coutinho wouldn't have changed the game that much if we were making mistakes at the back. It's been a recurring theme for us this season with the way we are organizing the defense.
In the short term I care about consistency but long term I agree we want to win trophies. When was the last time we qualified two seasons in a row to the champions league? If he fails next season to win anything then yes he should be judged and questions should be asked. Hopefully it's not the case and with Keita coming in and maybe a top gk and another midfielder I think we will do even better next season.
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