Raheem Sterling (Liverpool -> Man City)

Our owners are on a journey and they employed people who were responsible for signing Carrol Downing and Adam, these people have now been sacked, so you could say they are learning as they go. I have to say I am optimistic re our current squad and If Sterling does decide to leave ( its his choice not ours ) with Ibe and Markovic we have sufficient cover in that area.

In another of you threads you asked who we need to take us forward, well we have more than enough cover in Raheem position so I really am not worried about it.

We went for the expensive options when Carroll came it didnt work and i can understand out owners being a little cautious, we also snubbed Falcaos wage demands was that a mistake??? i think not. WE also got outbid for Salah again where is he now, our owners are getting there.

Like I said mate I'll be convinced by them when I actually see the starting 11 improved and we hit the ground running from the first game to the last.  I'd actually like to see us win another title before I die, so they aint got long to start getting it right.

Yes, the final decision on the cheap options he's offered!

Again can we spend more than we have spent if so how much? lets be clear this year is the first of many we have made a small profit. So come on who are these big money players we should of signed and hows it to be funded,?

Again can we spend more than we have spent if so how much? lets be clear this year is the first of many we have made a small profit. So come on who are these big money players we should of signed and hows it to be funded,?

We spent £10 million on Origi (for next season) £16 million on Mario, and 4 million on Lambert! That's £40 million! Are you telling me we couldn't have got a decent Striker for that?

Again can we spend more than we have spent if so how much? lets be clear this year is the first of many we have made a small profit. So come on who are these big money players we should of signed and hows it to be funded,?

You just don't get it do you mate?  It's not about how much in total that's been spent, it's the quality of the players bought with it that's wrong. 

You just don't get it do you mate?  It's not about how much in total that's been spent, it's the quality of the players bought with it that's wrong.

No I do get it, but we went for Sanchez he chose London, same with Willian, so who should we have bid for? I'm struggling to see who, this is not FIFA football game people also need to want to come.

No I do get it, but we went for Sanchez he chose London, same with Willian, so who should we have bid for? I'm struggling to see who, this is not FIFA football game people also need to want to come.

I'd rather have had nobody than waste money on players who don't fit.

You just don't get it do you mate?  It's not about how much in total that's been spent, it's the quality of the players bought with it that's wrong. 

They are using a shotgun approach in terms of a transfer strategy. From a business standpoint I get it, you lessen your risk by spreading out the risk.

The good side is you will always be competitive and a well run club, the bad news is you will need a lot of luck to to be in a position to win it all (ala last season)

You can't have consistant success without taking risk, goes for everything we do in life.

FSG are attempting to catch lightning in a bottle and recreate it year in and year out and that is not possible.

I'd rather have had nobody than waste money on players who don't fit.

So who of the transfers of the summer do not fit for you?

So who of the transfers of the summer do not fit for you?

If all you ever do is buy promise, and hope that they:

#1 Mature and become class players
#2 Stay with the club and not move on to greener pastures

Then you will always be chasing a dream and if by some chance you do win it all it will be out of sheer luck.

Our bench was atrocious last year and Brendan had very little upon which to call upon.

I am hoping that some of those issues have been addressed, and we would not have to spend money on a Lambert/Balotelli/Manquillo/Origi and just get one player that could change the dynamics of our season.

If all you ever do is buy promise, and hope that they:

#1 Mature and become class players
#2 Stay with the club and not move on to greener pastures

This is more or less how FSG seem to want to operate AZ.

But what may happen is that when the young players with potential reach that potential, or show they are reaching it, they may not want to pay the money to stop them seeking pastures new.

So who of the transfers of the summer do not fit for you?

Have you not watched us this season? Mario, Lambert, Lovren have taken us backwards in terms of squad quality. Origi didn't fit since he's not even here ffs! Maniquillo and Moreno are not much improvement on what we already had.

They are using a shotgun approach in terms of a transfer strategy. From a business standpoint I get it, you lessen your risk by spreading out the risk.

The good side is you will always be competitive and a well run club, the bad news is you will need a lot of luck to to be in a position to win it all (ala last season)

You can't have consistant success without taking risk, goes for everything we do in life.

FSG are attempting to catch lightning in a bottle and recreate it year in and year out and that is not possible.

I think they're using players as commodities in the hope they can turn a profit after Brendan has rearranged everything to get the best out of them.  It's no surprise that those who he can't make "fit" are moved on pretty quickly, either on loan or sold.

I feel our transfer policy is more of a sideline to improve our revenue than to actually improve the squad.

Some great PR work tonight!

I think they're using players as commodities in the hope they can turn a profit after Brendan has rearranged everything to get the best out of them.  It's no surprise that those who he can't make "fit" are moved on pretty quickly, either on loan or sold.

I feel our transfer policy is more of a sideline to improve our revenue than to actually improve the squad.

I don't know Deb, I still think it is flawed thinking moreso than an actual policy of building revenue at least I hope that is the case. You are not building sustainable revenue by flipping players.

I don't deny that they are looking to make money and someday sell, I don't think anybody is naive enough to thing otherwise. That being said making profit from the club means.

1. Increasing match day revenue
2. Increasing commercial revenue

The match day revenues are pretty much capped, when they finish everything all the tickets will sell and it will go up, that is a no-brainer.

Commercial revenue and all other revenue is created by winning...that is the easiest way to make money; the more you win the more you can make.

We will see in the end

Time will revel all.

Have you not watched us this season? Mario, Lambert, Lovren have taken us backwards in terms of squad quality. Origi didn't fit since he's not even here ffs! Maniquillo and Moreno are not much improvement on what we already had.

Disagree with Moreno he is going to be a great buy, funny you only mention the more experienced players rather than the youth we signed.

So who of the transfers of the summer do not fit for you?

It's not just last summer but off the top of my head Balo, Aspas, Alberto, Ilori, Assaidi, Lovren, that's £60m that could have been saved or put to better use.  Jesus that's a third of the new F***ing stand that we wouldn't have had to borrow off them.

They aint F***ing daft mate, let's spend all the money we generate on some sh*te players that never play or play sh*te when they do so they can lend us some money they can claim against there income for tax purposes.

There's more than one way to make money out of the Club than just selling for a profit and seeing as they don't take a dividend as income from the Club they're making damn sure there are other ways they can  benefit from being our owners.

I don't know how anyone can come out and defend our transfer record under FSG? They've done a lot of good things but getting transfers right more often then they get it wrong has not been one of them. Last Summer we spent £111 million gross/£36 million net on players and we've gone from title favourites to outsiders for getting a top four place and lost our best player in the process. There's no getting around it, we bought poorly. Neither Markovic, Balotelli, Lovren, Manquillo, Moreno or Lambert have made the cut this season yet we spent a collective £72 million on those players.

Hindsight may be twenty twenty but any fool could have pointed to Balotelli and said he didn't fit our system, to Lovren and say he's a form player, to Moreno and say he can't defend, to Lambert and say he was too old. So if we remove Markovic from the equation and put that down to a player just not working out, that still leaves £52 million and can anyone seriously say we couldn't have spent that £52 million better than we did? And if we had spent it better, would we have had such a poor start to the season? And if hadn't had such a poor start to the season, would Sterling have been as influential as he has this season? And if he hadn't been one of our more influential players, would he be demanding £150,000 a week from the club? Everything boils down to a poor record in the transfer market under our current owners.

I don't know how anyone can come out and defend our transfer record under FSG? They've done a lot of good things but getting transfers right more often then they get it wrong has not been one of them. Last Summer we spent £114 million gross/£36 million net on players and we've gone from title favourites to outsiders for getting a top four place and lost our best player in the process. There's no getting around it, we bought poorly. Neither Markovic, Balotelli, Lovren, Manquillo, Moreno or Lambert have made the cut this season yet we spent a collective £72 million on those players.

Hindsight may be twenty twenty but any fool could have pointed to Balotelli and said he didn't fit our system, to Lovren and say he's a form player, to Moreno and say he can't defend, to Lambert and say he was too old. So if we remove Markovic from the equation and put that down to a player just not working out, that still leaves £52 million and can anyone seriously say we couldn't have spent that £52 million better than we did? And if we had spent it better, would we have had such a poor start to the season? And if hadn't had such a poor start to the season, would Sterling have been as influential as he has this season? And if he hadn't been one of our more influential players, would he be demanding £150,000 a week from the club? Everything boils down to a poor record in the transfer market under our current owners.

They have been gun shy since Andy Carroll and have not let it go.

Disagree with Moreno he is going to be a great buy, funny you only mention the more experienced players rather than the youth we signed.

The trouble with signing players for the future, is that you won't get the best out of them until further down the line, and that's IF they come good.
Sterling HAS come good, and you're saying you wouldn't be worried about losing him. Kind of defeats the (supposed) purpose if we let them go once they've matured! Unless money is more important.

They have been gun shy since Andy Carroll and have not let it go.

Yeah but Andy Carroll was basically free.

I don't know Deb, I still think it is flawed thinking moreso than an actual policy of building revenue at least I hope that is the case.

Time will tell.

I loved the fact that we've been buying the best young talent around as well as developing our own until this sh*t with Raheem mate.  It just doesn't make sense to me, if we're genuinely trying to build a model that allows us to compete without risking the business, what's the point if we're going to get rid as soon as they become an integral part of those plans.

It's no surprise that those who he can't make "fit" are moved on pretty quickly, either on loan or sold.

Isn't this part in particular inadvertently good though? The sooner you cut your losses the better, right? (Obviously, better scouting would help to prevent this from happening.)

I loved the fact that we've been buying the best young talent around as well as developing our own until this sh*t with Raheem mate.  It just doesn't make sense to me, if we're genuinely trying to build a model that allows us to compete without risking the business, what's the point if we're going to get rid as soon as they become an integral part of those plans.

That is OK Deb and I see what you are saying..but this conversation has been had many times already, is there no price to high to keep him?

I don't know if there is a right or wrong answer to be honest Deb, some will say pay him no matter what others will have a limit; needless to say the club has a price of what they will be willing to pay and they will stick to.