General LFC Transfer rumours/gossip thread

Lukaku not signing a new contract at Everton: http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/39273691

Should LFC consider him?

He will be looking for a big pay day and/or the chance of glory. Should he want the lad, would Jürgen be able to convince Lukaku that this is the place for him?

Chances are that we will, most definitely, posture for players of this caliber but...

Are we more likely to hear fans say:  a) "Yes, nice one; we got him" or "We only want players who want to be here anyhow..."?

I know which one the smart money will be on. 🙄

Bayern Munich are said to be in 'advanced talks' to take Brandt from Leverkusen.

Bayern Munich are said to be in 'advanced talks' to take Brandt from Leverkusen.

Which was a bit of a nap!!

Bayern Munich are said to be in 'advanced talks' to take Brandt from Leverkusen.

But... but... don't they know; he was to come to us, for a reduced price, in the summer so that just can't be true. 😆

This thread should be fun over the next 5 months or so....   

As usual, I don't care who we sign, how young/old they are, what league they come from, what position they play, or how much they cost -- all that matters is that Klopp gets players that he wants and who he trusts to do the work he asks them to do.  He has a knack for finding rough diamonds and turning them into stars -- Lewandowski, Sahin, Piszcek, Hummels, etc.  If he can clear out some of the players he seemingly doesn't want/trust (Sakho, Moreno, Studge, Markovic, and possibly Lucas / Ings) and replace them with players of similar quality to Matip, Gini, and Mane then we will be genuine contenders for major honors next season!! 

But... but... don't they know; he was to come to us, for a reduced price, in the summer so that just can't be true. 😆

It's so tragic it's almost funny mate.

Then you've got Harry saying in the post above (as if it's something new) that he cares not about cost etc, only that Jürgen gets the players HE wants. That's all any of us want. But given he fairly clearly wanted Brandt and appears likely to not get him, we should adapt it to "all the players HE wants (out of the ones which are left over when the bigger clubs have bought his first choices)".   

So what do we think we need then?

CB LB CM ST?

It's so tragic it's almost funny mate.

Then you've got Harry saying in the post above (as if it's something new) that he cares not about cost etc, only that Jürgen gets the players HE wants. That's all any of us want. But given he fairly clearly wanted Brandt and appears likely to not get him, we should adapt it to "all the players HE wants (out of the ones which are left over when the bigger clubs have bought his first choices)".   

He can want Messi, but still refrain from getting upset if we can't get him.  Same applies to Brandt.  Personally, I would be disappointed in Jürgen if he doesn't have a list of targets that he's interested in -- that way if a certain player is beyond our reach (for whatever reason) he has alternative options that he can turn to.  If the 3rd choice is still a player Jürgen wants and is happy to have, then I'm happy if we sign the 3rd choice. 

You can't get everything you want in life, and sometimes you just have to make the most of what you've got.  I trust Jürgen to do exactly that.  It's not always about the team with the best 11 players -- it's about the 11 players who can work together to form the best unit. 

He can want Messi, but still refrain from getting upset if we can't get him.  Same applies to Brandt.  Personally, I would be disappointed in Jürgen if he doesn't have a list of targets that he's interested in -- that way if a certain player is beyond our reach (for whatever reason) he has alternative options that he can turn to.  If the 3rd choice is still a player Jürgen wants and is happy to have, then I'm happy if we sign the 3rd choice. 

You can't get everything you want in life, and sometimes you just have to make the most of what you've got.  I trust Jürgen to do exactly that.  It's not always about the team with the best 11 players -- it's about the 11 players who can work together to form the best unit. 

Fair play Aitch! 

Fair play Aitch! 

Honest questions Mick: 

If we offered the same fee wages as Munich, do you think he'd come here? 

If not, how much would we have to offer to entice him? 

If we had to double his wages to get him to sign, should we do it so that Jürgen can have his first choice target? 

Is there a point where the associated costs for a certain player become more than he is worth and it is better to move onto the 2nd or 3rd choice target?

If yes to the last question, where do you draw that line?  If no, do you think we should adopt the City model and blow through $1B in 5 years cycling through players until we finally find a winning team?

Right on queue, here come the mental gymnastics.

"He was a smokescreen anyway"
"Our second choice is better"
"I'm not sure he was the top target anyway"
"Don't rate him so it doesn't matter"

And it's only March... how fun!

Honest questions Mick: 

If we offered the same fee wages as Munich, do you think he'd come here? 

If not, how much would we have to offer to entice him? 

If we had to double his wages to get him to sign, should we do it so that Jürgen can have his first choice target? 

Is there a point where the associated costs for a certain player become more than he is worth and it is better to move onto the 2nd or 3rd choice target?

If yes to the last question, where do you draw that line?  If no, do you think we should adopt the City model and blow through $1B in 5 years cycling through players until we finally find a winning team?

In order.


No.

Don't know.

Yes if Jürgen really wants him, for all I know he's on 25K a week or some other relative pittannce.

Yes. If he demands to become our highest paid player when we've just given new deals to Lallana and Coutinho I'd say that is unreasonable. He won't tho.

See above answer.


Hope that clears it up.

Right on queue, here come the mental gymnastics.

"He was a smokescreen anyway"
"Our second choice is better"
"I'm not sure he was the top target anyway"
"Don't rate him so it doesn't matter"

And it's only March... how fun!

No, it's actually quite simple.  It doesn't matter if a player is our 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th.... choice target.  If Jürgen wants a player and believes that player will improve us, then it is a good move for the club regardless of where he falls on the priority list.  We can't possibly and most certainly will not sign every player Jürgen likes, but as long as we are consistently signing some players that he likes and continuously improving the quality and depth of the playing side, then it really doesn't matter who the player is or whether they were 1st or 5th choice....

No, it's actually quite simple.  It doesn't matter if a player is our 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th.... choice target.  If Jürgen wants a player and believes that player will improve us, then it is a good move for the club regardless of where he falls on the priority list.  We can't possibly and most certainly will not sign every player Jürgen likes, but as long as we are consistently signing some players that he likes and continuously improving the quality and depth of the playing side, then it really doesn't matter who the player is or whether they were 1st or 5th choice....

No, it actually is pretty simple. Obviously if Jürgen has a list and he gets #4 on the list, he didn't get his #1 (if we are talking about a list of players ordered by priority) and as such, we shouldn't be as happy as if he'd have got his #1 priority. It's not a good move for the club if we are constantly getting third and fourth choices even if they are Jürgen's third and fourth choices. To improve, we need to be bringing in the guys that he has at the top of his list.

No, it actually is pretty simple. Obviously if Jürgen has a list and he gets #4 on the list, he didn't get his #1 (if we are talking about a list of players ordered by priority) and as such, we shouldn't be as happy as if he'd have got his #1 priority. It's not a good move for the club if we are constantly getting third and fourth choices even if they are Jürgen's third and fourth choices. To improve, we need to be bringing in the guys that he has at the top of his list.

No.  To improve we need to bring in players who are better than the ones they replace.  It doesn't matter if they are 5th choice, as long as they are an improvement on what we currently have. 

No.  To improve we need to bring in players who are better than the ones they replace.  It doesn't matter if they are 5th choice, as long as they are an improvement on what we currently have. 

You are moving the goalposts harry. Your point was about Jürgen's choice, not comparing players to what we currently have. You just said you are happy with who we buy if it's who Jürgen wants, what if who Jürgen wants isn't better than what we have?

Let's stick to one narrative, and if that narrative is that we should be happy if Jürgen gets his 3rd or 4th choice then I respectfully disagree.

You are moving the goalposts harry. Your point was about Jürgen's choice, not comparing players to what we currently have. You just said you are happy with who we buy if it's who Jürgen wants, what if who Jürgen wants isn't better than what we have?

Let's stick to one narrative, and if that narrative is that we should be happy if Jürgen gets his 3rd or 4th choice then I respectfully disagree.

Harry's point is valid enough if Jürgen thinks the 3rd/4th choices are better than what he has.

I agree FL in an ideal world we get all our first choice targets but if the second or third are still significant upgrades and players the manager likes then we will still improve.

Harry's point is valid enough if Jürgen thinks the 3rd/4th choices are better than what he has.

I agree FL in an ideal world we get all our first choice targets but if the second or third are still significant upgrades and players the manager likes then we will still improve.

But I would have serious concerns if we are constantly having to settle for our 3rd or 4th choices. That's a fundamental problem that needs addressed.

But I would have serious concerns if we are constantly having to settle for our 3rd or 4th choices. That's a fundamental problem that needs addressed.

Agree.

But I would have serious concerns if we are constantly having to settle for our 3rd or 4th choices. That's a fundamental problem that needs addressed.

The problem is that LFC no longer has the pulling power that it once did.  We are being forced to compete with Bayern for a German national -- the only chances we have of getting him are if he really wants to play for Klopp, or if we offer significantly higher wages.  If Brandt prefers Bayern, then we either bend over and shell out silly wages (which can cause discontent among the other players already here) or we move onto the next one.  As long as "the next one" is still a player Jürgen wants and is an improvement over what we've currently got, then I'm happy -- even if it means we end up with 4th or 5th choice. 

And to be fair, I don't think any of the players we signed last summer were 3rd or 4th choice.  You could make a case for one of Mane or Gini being 2nd choice behind Gotze, but even then there were suggestions that the Gotze deal had no impact on the moves for the other 2....

And to be fair, I don't think any of the players we signed last summer were 3rd or 4th choice.  You could make a case for one of Mane or Gini being 2nd choice behind Gotze, but even then there were suggestions that the Gotze deal had no impact on the moves for the other 2....

That's rewriting history quite a bit.

Gotze
Mane

Dahoud
Zielinski
Wijnaldum

Dahoud
Zielinski
Wijnaldum

A lot of the talk last Summer focusing on Zielinski was nothing more than smoke while Wijnaldum got finished and was played up ad nausea by his agent looking for a move.

We did not miss out on a £15 million player while trying to go cheap and spend and spend £25 million on his substitute.

You can believe it or not...but to think that the club does not use agents/players as smokescreens to their advantage while chasing real targets is naive.

Now if you want to say Grujic was second choice to Zielinski then I would buy that as being more than possible seeing as the age and make up of the players are similar.

That's rewriting history quite a bit.

Gotze
Mane

Dahoud
Zielinski
Wijnaldum

A fair point about Dahoud -- I forgot about him -- but I wouldn't say Zielinski was ahead of Gini.  We seemingly inquired about him and registered interest, but we never made an offer and opted for Wijnaldum instead.

So, we got "stuck" with a pair of 2nd choice options because one of the first choice options preferred another club and the other one's current club didn't want to sell.  The 2nd choice players we got have been among our best and most consistent performers this season.  If we get a few more like them, I'll be happy