The Midfield Conundrum

[justme]

Going back to Keita.. hes not got covid. and its a cold. Most players of the past would shrug that off and get on with playing..
In this modern day we are breading a bunch of babies. Hes always been a bit weak minded.. so it so easy for him to say im not feeling well i wont play.. (just my opinion)

[Insidious]

Its simply about money.. we have bodies in there and thats it.. we paid for Oxlade all that moneyyyyy and he has to stay.. if someone came in for him and offered what we wanted and what wages he wants. he'd be gone.

Money is unquestionably a big factor. In Ox's case he makes around £6.24m per year - we're not just going to bring a mid in and not register Ox in the squad when his annual salary is enough to pay someone else the £120k-per-week he makes or the compensation fee to buy a young talent. It sets a bad precedent. When he leaves his squad spot will be taken by someone else - one-in, one-out - staff at the club will never admit it but we will likely have been hoping that someone would come in and bid for him so we could swap him out sooner rather than later - no such bid has arrived and if we accept a bid on the final day of the window then we might be unable to replace him.

The financial regulations coming in to replace FFP (allegedly these will be enforced more strictly but only time will tell) are something to keep an eye on as well. To quote some of it -

"The biggest innovation in the new regulations will be the introduction of a squad cost rule to bring better cost control in relation to player wages and transfer costs. The regulation limits spending on wages, transfers, and agent fees to 70 per cent of club revenue. Assessments will be performed on a timely basis and breaches will result in pre-defined financial penalties and sporting measures. The new regulations will come into force in June 2022"

- the takeaway there for me is the "limit spending on wages, transfers and agent fees" when it comes to that 70% limit - our wages alone represent a BIG percentage of revenue - I think we are up at around 59% on that score but would need to check.

Gomez has a renewed deal, Salah a bumper new deal, Jota a wage increase - these will have topped things up a bit - all requiring money on agents as well - where we are known to spend more than most. The figures are less of a worry on transfers as although we have brought in Carvalho, Núñez, Ramsay and Diaz in recent times we have sold Mane, Minamino and Origi to help balance things. Those 4 signings will have have required agents though, which again is worth factoring in - I think we spent £120m in agent fees between 2017-2020 if anyone wants to guesstimate what we may be spending there at the moment.

The Anfield Road End has had £80m committed to it so we can increase our revenue. This will help us generate further revenue going forward to meet targets.

Any transfer fee/agent negotiation/wages for Bellingham(?) and any other lads that may arrive will further increase that percentage of revenue too - so it does make sense to allow certain lads to leave - Ox will be one, Milner likely another.

Lastly, we must remember we have a bonus-based payment structure - so far as I know there isn't a visible breakdown of how those bonuses work that's accessible to the public, but I am sure that reaching Finals (and winning two) gave the players a generous wage top-up, as I'm sure goals, assists and clean sheets do for the relevant players.

It's frustrating when we have become used to Man City circumnavigating the rules to financially dope their squad, but personally I wouldn't want to replicate them in any way - winning would feel so hollow. Whilst we might begrudge the current "missing piece of the jigsaw" that is an extra top-quality midfielder, I think a bit of perspective to see that the jigsaw is almost complete to begin with is a pretty good thing - plenty of squads out there have multiple pieces missing - we on the other hand are bloody close.

[justme]

Money is unquestionably a big factor. In Ox's case he makes around £6.24m per year - we're not just going to bring a mid in and not register Ox in the squad when his annual salary is enough to pay someone else the £120k-per-week he makes or the compensation fee to buy a young talent. It sets a bad precedent. When he leaves his squad spot will be taken by someone else - one-in, one-out - staff at the club will never admit it but we will likely have been hoping that someone would come in and bid for him so we could swap him out sooner rather than later - no such bid has arrived and if we accept a bid on the final day of the window then we might be unable to replace him.

The financial regulations coming in to replace FFP (allegedly these will be enforced more strictly but only time will tell) are something to keep an eye on as well. To quote some of it -

"The biggest innovation in the new regulations will be the introduction of a squad cost rule to bring better cost control in relation to player wages and transfer costs. The regulation limits spending on wages, transfers, and agent fees to 70 per cent of club revenue. Assessments will be performed on a timely basis and breaches will result in pre-defined financial penalties and sporting measures. The new regulations will come into force in June 2022"

- the takeaway there for me is the "limit spending on wages, transfers and agent fees" when it comes to that 70% limit - our wages alone represent a BIG percentage of revenue - I think we are up at around 59% on that score but would need to check.

Gomez has a renewed deal, Salah a bumper new deal, Jota a wage increase - these will have topped things up a bit - all requiring money on agents as well - where we are known to spend more than most. The figures are less of a worry on transfers as although we have brought in Carvalho, Núñez, Ramsay and Diaz in recent times we have sold Mane, Minamino and Origi to help balance things. Those 4 signings will have have required agents though, which again is worth factoring in - I think we spent £120m in agent fees between 2017-2020 if anyone wants to guesstimate what we may be spending there at the moment.

The Anfield Road End has had £80m committed to it so we can increase our revenue. This will help us generate further revenue going forward to meet targets.

Any transfer fee/agent negotiation/wages for Bellingham(?) and any other lads that may arrive will further increase that percentage of revenue too - so it does make sense to allow certain lads to leave - Ox will be one, Milner likely another.

Lastly, we must remember we have a bonus-based payment structure - so far as I know there isn't a visible breakdown of how those bonuses work that's accessible to the public, but I am sure that reaching Finals (and winning two) gave the players a generous wage top-up, as I'm sure goals, assists and clean sheets do for the relevant players.

It's frustrating when we have become used to Man City circumnavigating the rules to financially dope their squad, but personally I wouldn't want to replicate them in any way - winning would feel so hollow. Whilst we might begrudge the current "missing piece of the jigsaw" that is an extra top-quality midfielder, I think a bit of perspective to see that the jigsaw is almost complete to begin with is a pretty good thing - plenty of squads out there have multiple pieces missing - we on the other hand are bloody close.

After all this.. I wanna know where all our tv/ game/ winning trophies finishing second in the league and champions league and all our shirt and merchandise revenue is going too?
I was reading earlier how Henry had made nigh on a billion recently.. 990+ something million. a lot that money is generated by our club. Hes claiming it because he owns the club (with others).. and we appear to be allowed to spend 40 million a season with sales in return. by the looks of it.

[Crimson Dynasty]

After all this.. I wanna know where all our tv/ game/ winning trophies finishing second in the league and champions league and all our shirt and merchandise revenue is going too?
I was reading earlier how Henry had made nigh on a billion recently.. 990+ something million. a lot that money is generated by our club. Hes claiming it because he owns the club (with others).. and we appear to be allowed to spend 40 million a season with sales in return. by the looks of it.

He owns other sports franchises - some of which generate massively more revenue than LFC does.

And presumably a lot of the revenue the club is generating now is going into helping finance the Anfield Road End stadium expansion (that will in itself increase the club's day gate revenues once complete), as well as the transfer kitty that Klopp has been able to use to not only buy considerably expensive players in the last two transfer windows (Diaz and Nunez), but also to tie down and sign existing players into (not inexpensive) contract extensions.


We've spent more than 40 million this past year alone even accounting for the revenue generated by outgoing players.

Diaz and Nunez alone have cost the club 50 and 80 million respectively.
Have we had any player sales that have generated anything close to half that amount?

It would be disingenuous to suggest that Klopp hasn't been able to spend what he's needed or get the players he's wanted - certainly not in these two past transfer windows.

[LEGS]

Going back to Keita.. hes not got covid. and its a cold. Most players of the past would shrug that off and get on with playing..
In this modern day we are breading a bunch of babies. Hes always been a bit weak minded.. so it so easy for him to say im not feeling well i wont play.. (just my opinion)

He did train Friday and players years ago would play.

The thing is sports science and data picked up would say he isnt fit enough its kind of taken out the player/managers hands.

[Insidious]

After all this.. I wanna know where all our tv/ game/ winning trophies finishing second in the league and champions league and all our shirt and merchandise revenue is going too?

- Transfer fees
- Player wages
- Agent fees to negotiate wage increases
- Agent fees for transfers
- Main Stand (think this is paid off now though)
- £50m training centre
- £80m Anfield Road Development
- Wage bonuses based on high performances
- Wages of excellent staff in Data Analytics etc

It all stacks.

That aside, we have to bear in mind the Because of the financial disparity between us and the likes of Man City. Their financial doping going unpunished means have to be close to perfect in the transfer market. If our transfer success rate drops, we won't compete.

When Klopp arrives the bar for the standard we had to hit was much lower - we "only" needed lads to be good enough to get 4th spot.

Now we want players that can win us the Champion's League, go deep in Domestic Cups and get 90+ points in the Premier League - so the bar is much higher.

We have flaws in our midfield - Of for example. Yes, we could probably upgrade on Ox right now. However, each signing has a cost - not just financial. We might bring in a player who upgrades our 4th-6th best option for example, but that doesn't equate to them being I'd the standard we have now with the bar raised.

Once that money is spent, we have invested in the player and their contract - even though they likely aren't good enough for 90+ points finished or the Champion's League. That squad place is now gone and Klopp rarely boots a player out - Sakho aside.

So basically, we have to be incredibly careful/picky about who arrives here if we want to genuinely improve the first 11-16 or so group of players. Margin for error, risk v reward, potential "waste" of money when the funds could go towards a truly top asset - we may feel it's better to do nothing (or very little) rather than jeopardise the future. This stance is precisely why we went for Kabak and Davies when we couldn't get Konate at the time - if you commit to buying one, then we maybe can't buy Konate later - or we buy Konate but are forced to sell Matip or Gomez for less than what we'd like etc.

We wanted Tchouameni and we couldn't get him. We can't get Bellingham right now. There may be stop-gaps out there, but sub-optimally filling a squad place isn't a good move. Maybe a loan deal is possible for someone to ride us over until Bellingham (or alternative's) arrival occurs.

But if we want to compete at the absolute elite tier, we have to buy the best. If the best isn't available now (but you could jeopardise getting them later) then it's best to wait. If we buy someone it just throws another hurdle up for the likes of Elliott or Carvalho in terms of their minutes - it's a fine balance.

[reddownunder]

I still don't know why we signed Ox or Thiago given their injury histories with their previous clubs. Their unavailability has been entirely predictable. Keita seems to have turned to biscuits after joining.

And it is still baffling why Thiago was signed instead of extending Wijnaldums contract given that they're only 6 months apart in age

[Insidious]

And it is still baffling why Thiago was signed instead of extending Wijnaldums contract given that they're only 6 months apart in age

We wouldn't be matching the €916,000-per-month wages that PSG are giving him for starters.

Plus at the time there was a lot of talk about needing someone to help break sides down as we were monopolising possession now that sides knew not to give us any space anymore - and Wijnaldum wasn't really that player. Thiago was available at a cheaper rate than normal and could provide the "something different" that we felt we needed. People can weigh up how well (or poorly) they feel that it has worked out, but persisting with Fabinho/Henderson/Wijnaldum as a "three" likely would have made things get a bit stale.

[CCTV]

He did train Friday and players years ago would play.

The thing is sports science and data picked up would say he isnt fit enough its kind of taken out the player/managers hands.

Getting a cold in August as a mid-twenties professional athlete !!
What a joke

[CCTV]

Bodies, corpses make shit footballers.


We've 2 midfielders in Fab & Hendo.
Nearly a third with Thiago.
And 2 halves in Milner & Jones.

So that's nearly 4 midfielders for the season.