Look, I'm pretty sure everyone is a Liverpool fan here through and through. So if we miss out on our first choice targets, I'm pretty sure that the "apologists" you refer to will also be disappointed with that fact.
Honestly, you'd think that.
But last summer was genuinely baffling. By August you had people swearing blind Wijnaldum wasn't a third choice. He absolutely was, yet instead of 'disappointment' at missing out on Klopp's first couple of targets we had a surprisingly common selective amnesia. It wasn't just with Wijnaldum, but it was an interesting example. Like when the Zielinksi deal collapsed - which it did - people were basically saying it was never on because it was an easier narrative to handle compared to the truth.
Now, my argument then (and still is) if Klopp wanted Dahoud and Zielinski and he ends up with his third choice it had shown that there was still an atmosphere of settling for lesser targets. At this stage I expect someone to say it's okay because Wijnaldum has been good, which he has but I honestly don't think you can continue to paint over failures to get 'top' targets. People will point to Mane over Gotze to say it isn't all bad... but again collective amnesia strikes!
We clearly went in heavily for Dembele who rejected us! It's been far too often this club has been dropping down the list of targets and who knows what that has cost us. We went in for Pulisic, Draxler, Brandt and now Salah since last summer. So to my mind, if you can't get Salah over the line - as we clearly need a wide forward with pace - you'd be talking about arguably 4-6th choice. As long as this is the norm, is it any wonder we under perform on what the fans crave?
Funny you say that the "apologists" have crawled back into their caves, and will flood back in when August hits, whilst on the other hand you yourself rarely ever post here.
Two things on this:
1. I started on this forum as a student and I lived in the UK, neither of those is still the case and that impacts my time available to post on here. Is that okay with you? I must say though, I enjoyed getting a dressing down from a poster I don't think I have never even noticed before!
2. Something which impacts my willingness to post is that if I do post anything that isn't group-think approved I piss people off. And if I have the temerity to post in threads in January about how I argued all summer we hadn't done enough... then you piss people off.
Take Mags post about me below. He'd be calling me a pr**k if I 'point out' I was right and if I don't post and 'point out' I was right then when I finally return you insinuate that my absence is somehow suspicious... the only way you can win is to agree with the crowd and then go with the crowd to incredulous when we turn out to not have the squad many thought. Honestly, the number of people pissing and moaning in matchday threads about the lack of squad, who last summer were acting holier than thou was fantastic! Yet apparently I am the one who grandstands!? For the record, if I wanted to be a pr**k I could have posted plenty of those replies I received last summer calling the squad fine and strong and then crying about the losses. But I am not interested in 'purely' point scoring. I'm interested to showing people the massive faults in our transfer strategy. I'd rather just continue to have my own opinion and not be pressured into total silence. I don't mind if you don't agree with me on transfers, I just found it interesting reading the same posters who had a pop all summer then agree entirely when the sh*t hit the fan! Let's be honest, it's not like saying the squad was thin was a genius thought only I had. It was pretty F***ing obvious to plenty on here.
As for the "average guy better than Naby Keita", you do know that its not all buyer's fault if the player doesn't come here. Perhaps they just don't want to sell him, or perhaps just like he himself has said that he would only discuss his future when he comes back from his holiday. For example, you must be knowing about Real Madrid? The one who signs players left, right and center. Remind me as to what took them so long to sign David f**king De Gea? which they still haven't. Or is it that the club won't sell to them, just like we did with Suarez in 2013. And why would "apologists" call the "average guy" better, if he is really average literally? Explain that logic to me, please.
I need you to clarify this, I don't follow what you actually want me to explain. Other than to say if there were one or two examples of us not getting our man and settling then I'd agree.
But the list of public transfers sagas ending in disappointment are too many and the explanations briefed are too clear to pretend there isn't a patter... either that or we are the unluckiest team ever.
Willian
Salah
Mhkytarian
Costa
Konoplyanka
Dahoud
I can't be arsed to reargue these, maybe you think we just gosh darn it lucked out. But I just don't buy into the idea Liverpool are repeatedly encountering clubs who 'wont' sell under any circumstances! Those clubs would sell, but we just won't make them... like when teams make us sell when they come for our big boys!
The problem with owners who don't know football is they can't have any vision. It's been obvious for years that wages and transfer inflation in England compared to the rest would mean if you want top players then there are no "bargains" left.
You could see it in the talk of "biggest summer ever" in the press. "Liverpool to spend 150m" talk was clearly briefed, it came from numerous sources in a short space of time.
Our owners think we will all be impressed by 150m spend, but its clear as day anyone we can to compete with will go close or higher!
Thats now the norm not the exception. So 12m for Pulisic isn't savvy, it's stupid.
Its 15 June, 2.5 months still left before the window f**king closes, 15 days till the window actually opens. Why not take a chill pill, and let things actually happen before making assumptions about what will happen in the future?
Again, every FSG summer... the same thing.
"Don't worry it's only May"
"Don't worry it's only June"
"Don't worry it's only July"
"Don't worry it's only August"
"Theres always January!"
I really hoped this summer was gonna be different. I was finally going to believe in the press briefings, this year would maybe be different!!
Then the club tried to be too clever on Van Dijk and were publicly humiliated by a midtable club. It showed they really haven't learned a f**king thing about this quest for "value" that ends up being counter productive if you continually end up never getting your top choice.
The owners of this club are adequate.
They are okay, they do some stuff well and some stuff badly. Saving us from administration, finally building the Main Stand and improving the commercial aspects of the club aren't some achievements to be placed on a pedestal, they are exactly what any non fraudulent owner would have done. I'm not saying FSG are awful, but they quite clearly dragged their feet after realising what it would actually take to have us compete.
For any off the field successes, as well as considerable PR failures, they have presided over a extremely barren period for this club, trying numerous different ways of coming up with a magic rabbit from the hat. We simply have not been adequately competitive since they bought us over, at this stage if you can't see the problem is systemic then I really don't know how it make it clear.
The fact is the lack the resources to make us compete with the oligarch clubs, most people realise that now. But what people still don't realise is that this the resource restrictions placed on the club and various versions of the transfer strategy are not 'all' Liverpool can be doing to compete.
If the penny really has dropped regarding the club and wages & transfers, the Van Dijk fiasco looked remarkably like a blast from the penny pinching past. This anemic version of Liverpool is less than the best we can be, I think the reason so many get defensive about FSG is because deep down they know this but don't want to deal with the truth.
