You're talking about Van Dyke. Van Dyke may or may not have panned out, we'll never know due to the cock up. This is the Keita thread. I'm talking about Keita. The club has just had a £66 million bid rejected and some of you are suggesting the club isn't doing enough. Therefore, I ask you again, what would you like the club to do? Seriously, give us an answer. What would you like the club to do?
Who knew Chelsea and Manchester City were after Van Dijk? I didn't, I only came to know of their interest when news started leaking that he had chosen Liverpool over both those teams, and his heart was set only on that move.
Why would anyone leak this when not even a formal approach had been made? To bring the price down before any negotiations took place......setting your own market so to speak.
When it comes to Naby Keita, I personally do not know where to start. If he was the priority, then you make a move for him early. The last transfer RB Leipzig made was the 6th of last month, and players that were leaving, also left early. In short, they look like the sort of team that wanted to do and complete their work in the market extremely early.
Now, you could work smart, and achieve a lot i.e. working smart, and you could do a lot of work and achieve little i.e. minimal efficiency. If a Manager, Chief Executive, Sporting Director come out in public and say that a player is not for sale, and that is backed by the owner........if reports are right that they have not once considered selling the player, and that that has been their stance the entire summer, then why not have a suitable replacement, and make a move for them?
I do not mind missing out on players, even the biggest teams miss out on some of the players they desire they should get.
Real Madrid have missed out on players like Ribery, Cazorla, Neymar.
Barcelona have missed out on Marquinhos, Bellerin, Dybala, Paulinho.
City have missed out on Isco, Dani Alves, Agger.
Bayern and City were thinking of signing Sanchez, same as PSG, they all look like they will miss out on him.
Real Madrid, Arsenal, Liverpool and a whole host of other clubs are interested in Mbappe.....is the current sale at Madrid simply an exercise making room and generating cash to make a run for him? They may land him, they may not land him, regardless of outcome, there will be several teams missing out.
Missing out is normal in world football. Sometimes a player is comfortable, sometimes they prefer somewhere else, sometimes, a team is downright incompetent. Whatever the case, a team than plans for any eventuality always has a fall back plan.
Also remember this, that any team that is selling a starter who is one of their better players needs to replace. With every passing week, there is a smaller window that exists to do so because the teams they are likely to buy from may also want to have a replacement lined up before they make a move. So the question becomes ''are you willing to pay over the odds to make a team change its mind?''