Nabil Fekir (Lyon)

I still see an Oxlade-Chamberlain type late deal. We need (want) the line breaking creativity so whether it’s Nabil or another I still see us picking someone up.......

There's always a chance, but seems to be getting more unlikely.

Haven't seen any smoke on this one for some time?

Cant hide the fact that I'm a tad disappointed with Fekir 'possibly' not coming (although we got close to 3 weeks), "we" fans have GOT TO BE satisfied with the ruthless approach Edwards and Jürgen adopted this summer to address the glaring deficiencies we had in our squad.

"we need a GK", "we need a DM" .. were probably the most used words all of last season !! and guess what we got 2 Samba boys who are one of the best in their respective roles.

If Edwards & Jürgen believe we got to wait, we wait. If the boss believes we are good, we ARE good!

This.

Just mad to think that on file is his interview saying how happy he is to be at the club etc and pics of him in a Liverpool shirt, yet “we” pulled the plug on all that.

This is a messed up and disappointing situation.

Depth

Yes but that's a nice to have not an essential requirement, as a new GK was. I think we are much much stronger in depth now, although I too would have liked one more out and out attacking player.

Just mad to think that on file is his interview saying how happy he is to be at the club etc and pics of him in a Liverpool shirt, yet “we” pulled the plug on all that.

This is a messed up and disappointing situation.

You'd rather the club went against medical advise and signed him anyway, and then 5 games in he gets injured for the whole season??

You'd rather the club went against medical advise and signed him anyway, and then 5 games in he gets injured for the whole season??

Wow, if ever there was a twisting of words, this post is it!!

For what it’s worth, that can happen to any player, just look at Mendy at City...

Wow, if ever there was a twisting of words, this post is it!!

Apologies but what exactly did you mean then when you said "we" pulled the plug and that it was "messed up" and "disappointing"?

Apologies but what exactly did you mean then when you said "we" pulled the plug and that it was "messed up" and "disappointing"?

“We”.... because according to the journos it was us, despite everything being in place and there being nothing confirming this.

Messed up and disappointing because it seems to be dragging on so long in limbo and because if this deal really is dead, there appears to be no alternative and still without a Coutinho replacement, apparently the main thing Klopp wanted.

Just mad to think that on file is his interview saying how happy he is to be at the club etc and pics of him in a Liverpool shirt, yet “we” pulled the plug on all that.

This is a messed up and disappointing situation.

Agree there must have been a breakdown in communication for that PR stuff to be done before the word from medical types that there was a problem. But all signs point to a real problem in fekir's medical and the club haven't said squat about it so, seems evident he is not coming. I notice the vids for Allison and shaquiri showed medicals. Coincidence?

But I agree with those who say a player of this type would be a valuable addition.
So....the question becomes has Jürgen identified somebody else ( I don't agree shaquiri is a replacement for Fekir.) If he has, we probably won't know until the deal is done.

I have a feeling that if Fekir had been signed instead of Shaqiri, the transfer discussions would be all but finished bar who's leaving.
If we do still end up signing Fekir, this will be one of the best windows an English team has ever had.

You'd rather the club went against medical advise and signed him anyway, and then 5 games in he gets injured for the whole season??

I'd like to add that in France they are saying that we tried to use the knee, to either renogiate the deal or lower the fee. Thinking that wc is two day away, maybe lyon will take it.
that pisses off Lyon and they stopped it.
So basically he did pass the medical, and everything was good to go but we tried to be clever in the end.

Now believe whomever you want to.

I'd like to add that in France they are saying that we tried to use the knee, to either renogiate the deal or lower the fee. Thinking that wc is two day away, maybe lyon will take it.
that pisses off Lyon and they stopped it.
So basically he did pass the medical, and everything was good to go but we tried to be clever in the end.

Now believe whomever you want to.

I know that narrative is out there, but Aulas has said since then that he is willing to talk about it so that doesn't seem to fit. Plus, as others have said, if his knee has too many questions, 10 or 25 million are still not smart business for us  maybe there will be somebody else.

I have a feeling that if Fekir had been signed instead of Shaqiri, the transfer discussions would be all but finished bar who's leaving.
If we do still end up signing Fekir, this will be one of the best windows an English team has ever had.

Are you sure he is going to use shaq as an attacking mid? Think he is much more likely to be cover at forward.

I'd like to add that in France they are saying that we tried to use the knee, to either renogiate the deal or lower the fee. Thinking that wc is two day away, maybe lyon will take it.
that pisses off Lyon and they stopped it.
So basically he did pass the medical, and everything was good to go but we tried to be clever in the end.

Now believe whomever you want to.

I sensed that Lyon was the party that tried to be smart and wanted to use the WC as a shopping window to get the most out of Fekir. They bet on Fekir playing the main role in winning the WC for France but it turned out he came as a subs only, a cameo role. Those cameos hardly increased his values, France won the WC regardless of him. Then afterwards, Lyon was trying to get us back into negotiation, by saying that the door is still open, however we didn't move, at least we, the fans, are led to believe that the club didn't come back to this deal anyway.

Judging from how we spent on Naby, Van Dijk and then Alisson, I have no doubt that if we think it is a right move, we will spend big. 

I'd like to add that in France they are saying that we tried to use the knee, to either renogiate the deal or lower the fee. Thinking that wc is two day away, maybe lyon will take it.
that pisses off Lyon and they stopped it.
So basically he did pass the medical, and everything was good to go but we tried to be clever in the end.

Now believe whomever you want to.

I'll believe my club rather than the French any F***ing day of the year, who you decide to trust is entirely up to you. If they found that there were issues with the knee and then decided to stagger payments to reflect that then I applaud them for it, that is good and clever business, the fact that Lyon weren't interested can only mean they know his knee is dodgy. I honestly think we dodged a bullet here, there are other players out there but right now our team look extremely good and well balanced.

Are you sure he is going to use shaq as an attacking mid? Think he is much more likely to be cover at forward.

I don't think he'll start every game, most likely be used in rotation and as a sub for one of the front three. He can used attacking midfield behind the attackers when we need to go for a game.

Just mad to think that on file is his interview saying how happy he is to be at the club etc and pics of him in a Liverpool shirt, yet “we” pulled the plug on all that.

This is a messed up and disappointing situation.

It’s not ideal how it panned out however we’ve put so much into this chase of him.
The World Cup was untimely for the negotiations. I really can see this having legs and negotiations to resume again soon.
Fekir was a very wanted man by the boss and I don’t think that has changed.

I see the deal happen in Jan for financial reasons.

Not happening,  time to move on

I'll believe my club rather than the French any f**king day of the year, who you decide to trust is entirely up to you. If they found that there were issues with the knee and then decided to stagger payments to reflect that then I applaud them for it, that is good and clever business, the fact that Lyon weren't interested can only mean they know his knee is dodgy. I honestly think we dodged a bullet here, there are other players out there but right now our team look extremely good and well balanced.

Such a load of bull crap in one post. It's like watching a trump rally on TV.
first of all, you believe in your own club? Our club hasn't said anything about the fekir deal directly. It's the British Media who said that he failed the medical and then the French media said we tried to be clever.

You mentioned better player then name one better cam.

And team being balanced? That just proves exactly that you don't have a clue. Because after ox, we are lacking in the depth in creative area. We have already had this discussion. Remember? When you named all the teams that score goals "without" creative players? The dumb thing is that all the players you mentioned had at least one dedicated playmaker in their team.

It's like talking to a wall. I swear to God this forum gets dumber by the day.

Such a load of bull crap in one post. It's like watching a trump rally on TV.
first of all, you believe in your own club? Our club hasn't said anything about the fekir deal directly. It's the British Media who said that he failed the medical and then the French media said we tried to be clever.

You mentioned better player then name one better cam.

And team being balanced? That just proves exactly that you don't have a clue. Because after ox, we are lacking in the depth in creative area. We have already had this discussion. Remember? When you named all the teams that score goals "without" creative players? The dumb thing is that all the players you mentioned had at least one dedicated playmaker in their team.

It's like talking to a wall. I swear to God this forum gets dumber by the day.

Are you being serious right now or just trying to prove your own assertion about dumbing down the forum?
Are you genuinely claiming that we lack creativity in the team, after the arrival of Keita and Shaquiri. Even without those additions how do you explain the second half of the season and the CL run where we were creating and scoring for fun.
As for best CAM, Fekir really really isnt, for a start Coutinho is better, then I'd put de Bruyne, Erikson, hell even Pogba was preferred by France.
Final point knock off the cheap insults, they do you no favours.

I'd just like to highlight some PL fixtures from the second half of last year:

1-0 Loss vs Swansea (A)
0-0 Draw vs Everton (A)
2-2 Draw vs West Brom (A)
0-0 Draw vs Stoke City (H)

4 games against lesser opposition where we predictably dominated possession yet came away with only 3 from 12 points.

2-1 Loss vs Man Utd (A)
1-0 Loss vs Chelsea (A)

2 games against competitive rivals where we also dominated possession yet came away with 0 from 6 points.

Look, we had a great season last year. We can genuinely believe and say that as fans, while still being fairly critical of elements of our game and/or squad.

There were Karius issues. There were Lovren issues. Both have been "discussed" at length throughout the forum, but the main (not only) reason we dropped 15 out of those 18 points in the second half of the season was because we couldn't translate dominance against defensive teams into a plethora of clear cut chances (and goals).

Now, did Coutinho play in some of the games in the first half of the season where we also dropped some points against lesser and competitive teams we dominated? Sure. Were we considerably more fragile defensively during that period too? Yep.

Nonetheless, having an exceptionally creative #10 doesn't guarantee those teams are overcome. It just improves our chances. Just like having VVD in defence for the second half didn't guarantee those teams would be overcome either. It also just improves our chances.

Right now, we have a better first team and squad than we finished last season. We all pretty much agree on that. But while the inclusion of Alisson, Fabinho, Keita, and Shaqiri are great, many of us should still feel allowed to respectfully express their doubt whether that is enough added creativity to break down those teams we struggled against last year, who've had another preseason to prepare themselves against our play.

Personally, I don't. Admittedly, however, as I've expressed around the forum previously, part of that doubt would be alleviated if Klopp transitioned to a 4-2-3-1 with high WBs against teams who totally park the bus whom we can't break down. With a truly fluid front four, we could probably break such teams down with current personnel.

But if we persist with sluggish side to side in a 4-3-3 against 10 defenders, the inclusion of Keita and Shaqiri is unlikely to win us most of those 15 dropped PL points in the second half of last season (not including the relatively acceptable 2 points dropped in 2-2 draw vs Tottenham).

Let's please not forget that we finished 25 points behind a PL winner that is not a Chelsea. They are not just going to come back to the pack this year because they're complacent after winning a title. With a Pep team, there's every chance they'll match or exceed those performances.

So despite having had a great season, we still have a lot to catch up on. And since we don't have our own De Bruyne or Silva (in all respect to Keita), we could do with at least one player of that kind of creative calibre to improve our chances of not dropping points.