General transfer thread, (not just LFC)

[Taksin]

Real beat City once and Chelsea once and beat us -

Leicester beat us too.

I think we were the better team by a distance but we were tired and a bit unlucky on the day.

Nothing 'laughable' about that claim

Either way, our squad was very close to being better than theirs and everyone else's player for player. It's not difficult to make the case. And that reflects our steady squad building over a number of years, which is why I bring it up. The armchair complaining is a bit tiresome

[Steveo]

I actually think, passing thought here, that given the reasonable number of users on here, that it would be nice to place some sort of collective bet on the forum.

Something modest. People hedge their bet for the season (even if it's like £5) to a particular thing - like Núñez outscoring Haaland or something.

If we pooled it all, then if we "win" as such, the pooled money goes to a Liverpool food bank. Lose and it could go to a Manchester food bank - some things are bigger than football.

I'm a bit of a technophobe or I'd look at setting it all up myself. But there's plenty of time ahead. Anyone techy up to something like that?

Just a passing idea!

This is a brilliant idea. We should defo do it.

[Nineteenx]

Leicester beat us too.

I think we were the better team by a distance but we were tired and a bit unlucky on the day.

Nothing 'laughable' about that claim

Either way, our squad was very close to being better than theirs and everyone else's player for player. It's not difficult to make the case. And that reflects our steady squad building over a number of years, which is why I bring it up. The armchair complaining is a bit tiresome

A few other teams have far better strength in depth in the quality of it to us, especially in midfield, we have nothing approaching the best squad in world football

It's hardly steady squad building in the way you try and paint it, a lot of the players who played a huge part in our domestic cup competition are players who were bought for the first team, but who ultimately aren't good enough for the first team in the Prem and Champions League and Jurgen doesn't like to move players on when they're surplus to requirements, he likes to keep the group together

And we also included some first teamers who would not usually feature in cup competitions

Oxlade, Minamino, Origi, Jones, Elliott, Gomez, Bradley that's pretty much our second string outside of our defence and the excellent Kelleher, our best 11 has fallen below its previous higher levels, and is far from its once devastating best, these players making up the resto f the squad doesn't give us anything like 'the best squad in the world'

[Nineteenx]

"Liverpool are willing to make Uruguayan striker Darwin Nuñez the most expensive signing in the club's history, and have offered €100M (£85M) to Benfica.

Nuñez has already told Benfica that he intends to play at Anfield."

[@Record_Portugal]

Diaz and Núñez within a 6-month spell would be so exciting.

That's the stuff, exactly what he needs to do, tell Benfica to accept our offer and that he is coming to Anfield and has no intention of joining the filthy, sounds like Nunez and his agent are putting their foot down and are not going to let Benfica trying to initiate a bidding war involving bids from a club he doesn't want to join price him out of the move he wants

[Taksin]

A few other teams have far better strength in depth in the quality of it to us, especially in midfield, we have nothing approaching the best squad in world football

This is again an assertion - doesn't make it true no matter confident you are

The midfield is our weaker area, although we have a lot of them and they function well.

Tell me a team with a better defence than ours
Tell me a team with better attacking options than ours

I will probably disagree with you

[Nineteenx]

Now Ward has to close this Nunez deal very quickly, book him in for a medical, get it done, then we can move on to Ramsay and then other targets for midfield and maybe another forward

[miller0863]

I admire your optimism 19 mate.

If we sign Nunez having brought forward the purchase of Diaz from this window, we are not spending any more without significant movement out of the squad.

[Insidious]

If we sign Nunez having brought forward the purchase of Diaz from this window, we are not spending any more without significant movement out of the squad.

Indeed.

Have to think about squad places / Home Quota stuff, whilst also factoring in outgoing wages and possible incoming funds from sales.

We do look set to be in a pretty healthy spot once the window is done, though it is early days yet.

Adrian - wages depart if doesn't get renewed.
Origi - wages are off the books.
Karius - wages are off the books.

Ojo - possible fee and shifted wages.
Woodburn - possible fee and shifted wages.
Taki - possible fee and shifted wages.
Ox - possible fee and shifted wages.
Williams - possible fee and shifted wages.
Philips - possible fee and shifted wages.
Davies - possible fee and shifted wages.
Mane - possible fee and shifted wages.

Between the fees/wages of the above (or as much business as we can possibly conduct of it) plus our "normal" allocated fund amount, revenue streams, prize money - bodes well for when we do need to make more acquisitions, but we should absolutely "trim the fat" where we can.

[Nineteenx]

I admire your optimism 19 mate.

If we sign Nunez having brought forward the purchase of Diaz from this window, we are not spending any more without significant movement out of the squad.

Well, there needs to be plenty of movement out of the 'best in the world according to Taksin' squad - Neco, Phillips, Keita, Minamino, Davies, Woodburn, Van Den Berg, Mane will be going when Bayern get serious with the offers they're making and stump up 40m plus add ons

Not having the DIaz was brought forward, playing the fucking poor card excuse

In 19/20 on the back of winning the Champions League we spent 13m including Elliott's tribunal fee
We recouped 46.2m

in 20/21 we spent 34m so we didn't spend any money in total on the back of winning the Champions League and Premier League

People will talk about wages, but we let quite a few go over that period that significantly reduced the wage bill also Lovren, Lallana, Clyne, Wijnaldum, Ings, Mignolet, Moreno, Sturridge, Shaqiri - That's a pretty fucking substantial wedge of wages off the books

Last season just gone we spent 34m net signing Konate and Diaz

So, since winning the Champions League in 18-19 we have a total net spend of 34m on players, people talk about renewing contracts and wage increases, but we also got a shit load of wages off our books too

When you look at how much our club earns a year compared to other top clubs, unlike many of them, we aren't loaded with a lot of players on wages well above their pay grade and have about 2 thirds of our squad and our second string on pretty low wages, it just doesn't add up that we are poor and can't afford to bring in players top build Jurgen's next team and rebuild our forward line and midfield so we can compete for the top trophies and all trophies

Look at what we make a year, we've been being run very much on a we only spend what we recoup in the transfer market basis since 18-19, despite winning a Champions League, a Premier League (which would and should have been 3 fucking Prem titles but for officials being paid off) we made a profit in transfers the season we signed Virgil, Mo and Ox too, so we made 3 Champions League finals in 5 seasons too

But we are poor because of FFP and can't sign the players necessary for the needed rebuild, it's fucking bullshit, they are trousering millions in dividends

[Nineteenx]

That's the crux of it, the simplest explanation of how FSG have been running our transfer policy, there's no money for transfers ever, or hasn't been for 5 seasons, the only money available for transfers is any money the club generates from player sales, it HAS to change, we're one of THE top earning clubs in world football