Liverpool transfers in/out and rumours 22/23 + Contracts

[jozza800]

Yep I think we would all be glad to see him move on- I would happily drive him to Istanbul if needed.. BUT Sid raises a good point. We could be heading for a huge deficit in an area already heavily questioned.

Not an easy one. I don't see how it's fixed without a very good scouting team and plenty of money changing hands in the next 2 windows for youngish - ready to play talent.

This is the bit that concerns me. The long term planning for midfield is baffling. And it's going to take more than Jude Bellingham sized shoes to fix it.

Think we've done pretty well in freshening up the attack and the back four are well aged and 'reasonably' fit.

But assuming that -

A - we move on Milner, Ox and Naby (I cant see us giving him (or him agreeing a new contract)).
B - Hendo no longer has the legs to be first choice
C - Klopp isn't going to have a crop of fantastic youngsters waiting in the wings

We need to bring in at least 2 new midfielders as a start and then still thinki about eventually replacing Fab and Thiago.

Next season should be something like -

Thiago
Fab
New 1st choice MF
New 4th choice MF
Hendo
Elliot
Jones

[Kev0909]

Despite having largely been a fan of Keita's when he plays, I too would be in the "get rid" camp in an ideal World.

With that said, there is a possibility of us entering next season with -

- Keita gone
- Ox gone
- Milner gone
- Arthur gone
- Thiago turning 32 during the season
- Henderson turning 33 during the season

That would be up to SIX players that, sooner or later, we would be needing to find replacements for. There's absolutely no way we can do that all in one Summer in the current climate - and even doing it over two could be a stretch if we want to keep an eye on other positions.

I'm not sure we have the luxury of letting every lad in the £30m+ bracket go. Keita, unavailable as he often is, would at least be a 28-year old midfielder already at the club and not needing to be bought. If we have to bring in a big group of lads at £30m-£40m+ each in a short timeframe, it would cripple us. It may make (some) sense to extend his contract for 2-3 years just to be a body during a transitional spell, with the obvious caveat being that anyone coming in would need to have a much better fitness record, so we're less likely to find ourselves dependent on him being available - we could use him more sparingly and in rotation with someone. Also we could let him go at the end of his renewal so he doesn't end up here when he is 31-or-older....or indeed sell him to a willing buyer in Germany if he has a good season after his renewal - then reinvest that cash.

If we have lads in their 30s (Thiago, Henderson) then we will probably keep a couple of mid-to-late-20s lads (Keita? Fabinho?) to help with that
transitional process as we bring through younger lads already at the club (Jones? Elliott? Carvalho? Bajcetic? Morton?) and those who may yet come in (Bellingham? Manu?) to help produce the "next" Klopp team.

A pity that Tchouameni couldn't have come in, or us agreeing a Bellingham deal before Man City agreed a Haaland deal, but here we are - little use crying about it now.

Which is why we needed to sign a player or 2 in midfield THIS summer

if you got off your FSG-HIGH HORSE!!!!!

won't be surprised if we need 3 now big rebuild job will be needed thanks to these clowns

where's the money coming from?? who we selling ? we must be looking good on the FFP ??? over last few years, maybe fsg will spend spend spend

Haha good joke i know, been waiting for them to spend some money for years.

[justme]

Its ok Insidious we signed a 2-year-old last week. Hes got a hell of a left foot. he kicked his father in the goolies.
In 19 years, he can be sold for a minor profit.
We no doubt looked at players in the summer and we weren't willing to pay the price for them. that leaves us with nobody.. its a sad state of affairs we are offering Evel Knievel a new contract..

[teesred]

This is the bit that concerns me. The long term planning for midfield is baffling. And it's going to take more than Jude Bellingham sized shoes to fix it.

Think we've done pretty well in freshening up the attack and the back four are well aged and 'reasonably' fit.

But assuming that -

A - we move on Milner, Ox and Naby (I cant see us giving him (or him agreeing a new contract)).
B - Hendo no longer has the legs to be first choice
C - Klopp isn't going to have a crop of fantastic youngsters waiting in the wings

We need to bring in at least 2 new midfielders as a start and then still thinki about eventually replacing Fab and Thiago.

Next season should be something like -

Thiago
Fab
New 1st choice MF
New 4th choice MF
Hendo
Elliot
Jones

Long term planning that's come way too late. Like you say its a much bigger issue than signing Bellingham who in truth doesn't look likely if the rumours of 120m are true.
We need atleast 2 very good players to come in ASAP. January if possible, we 100% need one then for sure.

[LEGS]

I can only assume it is to retain some value in order to sell him or part ex him back to Germany.
He has been a complete flop and has done absolutely nothing to warrant a longer stay at the club.

That is what people keep saying about his value, I cant see anyone paying a fee for him.

[Insidious]

I've broken your post down into segments Kev so it's easier for me to reply to without it being a wall of text. Hope you don't mind.

Which is why we needed to sign a player or 2 in midfield THIS summer

I fully agree. We had terms agreed with Tchouameni and it's been reported we were happy to pay his fee. Why we then didn't pursue an alternative is anyone's guess - we could blame FSG, we could blame the transfer committee, we could blame Klopp - none of us know who (specifically) is to blame for us not going after another midfield target. Perhaps (sheer speculation!) we have something lined up for January and felt we could "muddle through" until then. Who knows? It's certainly been an error not to get someone in.

if you got off your FSG-HIGH HORSE!!!!!

I mean, let's be real here. If I suddenly did a U-turn on my FSG stance and started typing "the thieves, the filthy American thieves, curse them, they stole it from us, stupid wealthy Johnseses, we hates them!"........*Insidious took to gurgling in his throat, so they called him Gollum*......it wouldn't actually change anything about the running of the club now, would it? So let's not stress ourselves out needlessly. I (largely) support their overall policy. They are not without flaws of course.

won't be surprised if we need 3 now big rebuild job will be needed thanks to these clowns

Again, the Data analytics crowd and the transfer committee could be to blame here, or indeed FSG could have said "sorry, can't have a midfielder AND a forward" which would be a real shame. But we don't know.

where's the money coming from?? who we selling ?

It's a great question. We don't know. But we can speculate - soon the increased capacity will mean an extra £11m coming in per year which will help. Ox and Keita's combined minutes could likely be replaced by one player, rather than two. Their annual wages are a combined £12,600,000 or so and if a fee is paid off in instalments over a 5-year spell then there's definitely some money to be "found" that could be coming from that expenditure we're no longer allowing to go down the drain - due to their injury records. Then a lad like Milner who, whilst he has been a wonderful servant of the club, would also come off the wage bill - another "top-up" so-to-speak. The combined annual wages of those three players is about £18,000,000 and then the £11,000,000 extra per year due to come in from the bigger ground already gives us about £29,000,000 a year to play with - whether that would go on wages or transfer fees (or both) remains to be seen.

As for actively having to sell to buy - I don't foresee us selling anyone. I think we're more likely to continue to give relatively generous, incentivised wages and occasionally have to see lads go on a free as a result of our model rather than recoup cash.

we must be looking good on the FFP ???

FFP has been replaced by the "Financial Sustainability Regulations" now - but yes, in terms of being on a sound financial footing, we certainly are. I'd personally much rather that than what, let's say, Man United are doing - their net debt now stands at £514.9m, an increase of 23% from the £419.5m recorded for the same period last year. Maybe some folks think they will get a return on that in the end and that FSG could "roll the dice" a little more - you're very welcome to argue that case, free country and all that jazz. Wouldn't be how I'd want us to do things, but maybe the occasional little bit of extra risk could help us to be fair.

over last few years, maybe fsg will spend spend spend

Haha good joke i know, been waiting for them to spend some money for years.

Our spending is sustainable, at least. I too would probably welcome us getting away from entering each season like we're perhaps one player "short" but their overall policy largely sits well with me as you know. Getting Tchouameni and Darwin in one window would have silenced some critics for a while, but we'll never know now. In his open letter to fans in 2012 John Henry said that we would spend when we "need" to - and we do need that sooner rather than later if we don't want the midfield situation to get really messy - so January and Summer will be very intriguing indeed.

[Insidious]

This is the bit that concerns me. The long term planning for midfield is baffling. And it's going to take more than Jude Bellingham sized shoes to fix it.

Next season should be something like -

Thiago
Fab
New 1st choice MF
New 4th choice MF
Hendo
Elliot
Jones

In agreement with a lot of this. The (in)action this Summer puts our Champion's League qualification in more jeopardy than necessary, much as I very much back us to do it. Seems a needless risk - though the season started just 100 or so days after we came within a Hare's whisker of an unprecedented Quadruple, so I can understand the staff placing huge faith in this group.

Where I ( very slightly) disagree is your list. I think Henderson will be our 4th-choice mid, not our 5th - particularly if he is (theoretically) picking up less injuries from not having to play almost every single game.

Thiago
Fabinho
NEW TRANSFER
Henderson
Elliott
Carvalho - (his role still seems unclear, may end up a forward)
Jones
Morton
Bajcetic

There's 8-to-9 lads there if we only went for one midfield transfer. I think we should absolutely be going for at least two midfield transfers with focus on youth, energy and robustness so that we can send a lad like Bajcetic out on loan to Blackburn or whoever.

Two regularly available lads aged 19-25 of high quality solves an immediate problem AND buys us time for future windows when we need to think about succession planning for Henderson and Thiago - and eventually Fabinho - who will still be 29 at the start of NEXT season, so is hardly ready for the scrap heap just yet.

[Insidious]

Its ok Insidious we signed a 2-year-old last week. Hes got a hell of a left foot. he kicked his father in the goolies.
In 19 years, he can be sold for a minor profit.
We no doubt looked at players in the summer and we weren't willing to pay the price for them.

We (fans) are disgruntled when the owners can't/won't spend big.

We'd be just as disgruntled if we'd spent £7 million on a 22-year-old Luis Diaz, halfway through a season in Colombia where he'd scored 2 goals in 17 games and was linked with being bought by Cardiff.

Or if we'd spent £20m or so odd on a young Darwin Nunez after he scored 16 goals in 30 games in the Segunda División - Spain's answer to the Championship. The narrative would be about the "bargain bin" and little else.

We've almost never bought the very biggest players or the most glamorous stars, but we collectively have the same gripes each year To think if we had bought both lads that young before they developed, or if Jude Bellingham's parents had been willing to move house after our £9,000 offer for him at the age of 13 (or whatever it was) these conversations could well be redundant.

We'll never know.

[fagin]

Haaland supposedly suggesting to Bellingham to join him at ManCity,although i don't see how he would improve them

[Insidious]

Haaland supposedly suggesting to Bellingham to join him at ManCity,although i don't see how he would improve them

There will be more Bellingham articles than Mbappe articles I reckon and every possibility of the same conclusion - the player not coming here.

I'm finding myself trying not to type his name too much as my phone went through a spell of giving me endless notifications of "articles" (barely) which all amount to speculation about what he may or may not do in future.

Much too exhausting. I'd rather a season just starts and we find out what players we got in the Summer after the fact.