midds

Also, not sure if anyone has mentioned it, if Isak is desperate to get away then the option of handing in a formal transfer request is always there. If he wants to be a cunt about it and cling on for every penny via a 'loyalty' bonus then he can't have any complaints if the club match his attitude and hold out for £Ridiculousm. The club just needs to hold firm and be strong, go about our business and strengthen the squad accordingly. The Isak situation will resolve itself soon enough

Doesn't matter, the answer is 'no'. Couldn't be a simpler strategy tbh

I wouldn't even pick up the phone until 7pm on deadline day. See what the number is, reject it immediately and wait until it gets big enough to be impossible to turn down. 3 years is a hell of a long time when you're in the prime of your career, if Isak's got any sense he'll be urging those cunts to get it done and that needs to be an astronomical number - they want him? Fucking pay through the nose for him

Nah, he hasn't gone yet and there's a tiny chance he can be convinced to stay maybe one more year. I'm just on about people sticking their heads in the sand and assuming the contract hadn't even been discussed with them and his agent. That part will almost be done already, 'tapping up' goes on, always has and always will and I've got no doubts we've been doing similar for decades

If you genuinely believe that Isak's agent hasn't already sorted out 95% of his Liverpool contract then I've got some magic beans for sale. Naïve to think otherwise

Next one who does it gets 2 weeks off

At some point we need to get at least 4 players into the club by September and to do that we're going to have to start matching some valuations even if w think they're a bit high. There's still the rest of this window, all of January and all of June in order to extract as much from Liverpool to balance the spending we need to do in the next few weeks. We know the money will come eventually so spend it now, so the best we can and the Isak situation will resolve itself in the next 11 months. It's a shit situation to be in and we've handled it really poorly and been shown up but there is a way to limit the damage and that means spending before September. They need to get a fucking wriggle on though, clock is ticking

'probably'? Bitch, please

Sincerely hope we set a huge price tag on him and increase it as each window opens. Offer him a contract of £300k a week and keep it on the table permanently so he's always got the option of signing on and doubling his money immediately. Set a deadline of next weekend to get it done this window for £160m. Crank it up to £170m in January, £180m next summer etc. If he wants to play then that's spot on. If he's refusing then he trains alone for the foreseeable, it's a bit of a cuntish thing to do but then again so is refusing to go on a pre-season tour so he can 'explore his options'. Can't run with the fox and hunt with the hounds, that contract works both ways and he'll be almost 29 by the time it runs out. Just need to match his energy, he wants to be a dick? Match it. He wants to be reasonable? Match it

Also think Eales deserves a bit of a pass on this shambles. Being diagnosed with blood cancer is abut as scary news as it's possible to get I'd imagine. Can 100% forgive him for not being as focused (who on earth could be?) and I'm surprised he didn't leave earlier, his only priority should have been his own health. That said the transition from Eales to his replacement has been shocking too. It's a key position in the club and there's been virtual radio silence about it all, I'm not after specific details about Eales, especially when it's health related, but some kind of outline and timeframe for getting the replacement sorted would have been canny. Sadly not

Wonder if Isak would be as desperate to move had we pushed the boat out and got 3 or 4 in early doors? Maybe showing a bit of ambition and intention early in the market would have convinced him (and others) that this club is moving in the right direction. 9 weeks since the Everton game and for all the talk of who we've targeted, player lists, PSR, not meeting valuations we've brought in 1 single player. It's pathetic and weak and bigger clubs can see it and now is the summer to pick our bones

Starting to think that PSR isn't the biggest hurdle we have to over come but it's our own incompetence off the field. It's been a humiliating couple of months and neutral fans are openly mocking us and taking the piss and it's fully warranted too. There is no excuse whatsoever for how we've failed so miserably this window, it's been a classic textbook tutorial of how not to operate. To patiently wait 3-4 windows while PSR allows us to spend again and proceed to end up losing key players AND squad players AND end up weaker than we finished last season AND have about 10 EXTRA fixtures to play over the course of the season is staggeringly bad. I'd say people should lose their jobs over this but there's no cunt around to fucking fire them. It's pitiful. It's been a complete omnishambles and I've got no time for any fucker trying to defend them

Thin Isak needs to be really careful how he proceeds with this tbh. Got no objection to him wanting a new contract and more money - he deserves it tbh. I also understand that he'd be pissed off if he was promised one and it never came. That said I'm really disappointed in the way he's gone on here and made it into such a big issue. He's gone public now about exploring his options - again, fair enough he wants cups, medals and trophies etc, I get it. However he's also under contract for the next 3 seasons and those should, statistically, be some of the best of his career. The way he's going on isn't endearing him to the people who own his registration and I think Yasir is the type of bloke to let him rot for a while just to make a point. He's asking for something but he's in no position to demand anything, contracts work both ways. Best outcome is he signs a new one here but that's looking very unlikely, but he's making a mistake if he thinks he can strongarm his way to the club of his own choosing. Any deal needs to be right for the CLUB first, last and foremost.

Recruitment team (stop laughing) have been shown up all summer. They've sat for 8 or 9 weeks after the season finished, watched Almiron, Kelly, Longstaff and Wilson all leave the club. They've been completely played by other clubs whilst seeing the prices for the players we do want go through the roof. Zero plan B, just one player brought into the squad and seen one of the best CFs in the world deliberately unsettled and probably leaving for less than he's worth as a result. The sky-high prices we've been quoted just got even bigger as other clubs take advantage of our desperation. Relentless incompetence from all concerned. 3 steps forward last season but 6 steps back in the last few months. Isak leaving sends a clear message to Tonali, Tino, Gordon and Bruno too. They're ambitious players and seeing Isak walk is huge. This summer was huge for us and they've completely 100% fucked it

Yeah it looks like they've stalled a bit too. But even a torrid West Ham season won't end up 18th or worse imo. I think Sunderland will make a decent fist of it but still come up short, losing all those players to the AFCON in January could wipe them out and they never recover and fall away as the season takes it's toll on the squad

They've spent £100m+ to move from about 95% certain to about 65% to go down. They've added some decent players and fair play for having a go but the gulf between what they have and what they're going to be up against every week is still huge. Wolves and Brentford look to be the most in danger is the other 17 but I'm sure they'll also add to their squads in the next 5-6 weeks

I'll take some of that back actually I was under the impression they were looking for 40+ but if they're actually willing to go for low 30s then it's not bad at all. Would be a very good signing for that amount

Tyre-kickers FC I'm all for agreeing a reasonable price but the bids need to be serious to begin with. Every chance we've just pissed them off enough to just ignore us in the future. We're a laughing stock this window

Sincerely hope he has a thoroughly fucking awful night, wherever he may be spending it. He's a piece of shit

Looks a really good appointment on the face of it, not sure exactly what his role actually entails but another body to the off-field team has to be a positive. Let's hope he's already got some names up his sleeve we can go for immediately

As we speak it does seem like a big ask. Ironically the only way we do manage it is if we sell the likes of Isak for huge money and invest every penny in finding another 4 Isaks and repeat until we are at the point Chelsea are at and have assembled a squad of players other clubs want and we can trade with. It's been a disappointing and very sobering summer so far but still feel we could and should have done more

Yeah, 3 more years is fine and a new contract, presumably with a large buy-out fee inserted, would probably benefit Isak and the club. But if I'm Isak I'm still not committing to anything until I see some signs. The club is a mess off the field and for the first time I'm questioning the competence of those running it. Under Ashley I always felt it was 'unwilling to invest rather than unable', with this lot I'm currently thinking it's the opposite and that's really disappointing

I just think about the vision and future of the club and how it was going to grow and challenge in the next 5-10 years while we were trying to get him here 3 years ago. I bet we sold him such a fantastic future he couldn't wait to put pen to paper, shiny new ground in the pipeline, new training facilities, bringing in more quality players (where possible) etc. I know I'm being a bit doom and gloom and there is still time to get the squad built up before September but right now it does feel like we're staring down the barrel a bit. Clubs aren't daft, the prices are only going one way as they've seen the state of the exec team and how they've watched other clubs come in and sign players from under our noses several times - selling clubs will make it even more difficult now, no one is going to do us any favours

If I'm Isak then I'm not signing anything until I see some tangible signs that the people running the club are matching my ambitions tbh. This was supposed to be the summer we went for it and built on the trophy and CL place. Result so far? 1 player in