The College Dropout

We play 3 central midfielders and had 4 senior central midfielders in the squad post January. And we often started all 4. 2 injuries and we would’ve been playing an untested 19 yo and someone that’s not a CM at CM. That was a gigantic risk.

They let him down in January and got away with it. I’m not overly worried but we’ve been left thin before.

You’re mad. Bramble by himself had all the physical and technical attributes to be a great defender and could pull a top performance out the bag.

FFP is awful.

He’s at Real.

If they get Diaby, I like the look of Villa: quality and depth. They would be sending Anderson out on loan

Needs a break mentally

Athletes feel like they are targets for false rape charges.

Aye. So is Barnes. But Barnes is arguably an elite finisher. Johnson is not.

I never like a CB who is often beaten in thr air.

They are both done though. That's a major reason for their decline last season. Get in some lads that can still press.

Nah. They are done. Jones is a player. Szob. MacAllister. They’ll add another 2 class players.

And they won’t sell Salah unless he kicks up a huge fuss. They would’ve liked to have gotten rid of Fabinho and replaced him. But they assumed there would be no buyers. But here comes PIF. Them buying all this dead wood from rivals hurts.

It’s also that Lavia might not want a return. Why re-sign an unhappy player? PIF signing 3 aging Liverpool midfielders would hurt. They’ll replace them with utter class.

Do we have a sell-on? Sure we do? £70m PIF please

That’s the thing. Imo I think Botman, Bruno and Isak have the potential to reach the top of the game. City, Man U, Barca, Madrid, Juve, Bayern etc. if all goes well I can see it. Potentially top quality players. I assume Tonali is in this group. Pope, Trippier, just great value for money. Gordon and to a lesser extent Barnes. Sure they lift the quality of the squad / first team. But the ceiling is lower (imo). Because of FFP I thought we would prioritise value for money. But Gordon, Tonali and possible Barnes deal are all premium transfers.

What point are you making? Im talking about resale value here. Isak has looked a success but even him because we paid a premium I think we would struggle to turn a 40% profit if we sold him. I like Barnes, I think he goes straight into the XI and adds value to the team. But I think his ceiling is limited. And I wouldn’t expect to make a significant profit on him when he’s sold.

Leicester finished 5th twice and won the FA Cup with him in the side. He has been linked to Liverpool in the past. there's always a Forest or Saudi so maybe. But his West Ham ceiling is £45m ish give it take football inflation. Ultimately I think that’s his level imo

I don’t see us making 40%+ profit on the likes of Gordon, Barnes, Pope… maybe even Isak. The likes of Botman and Bruno, easier to double your money. For FFP actual transfer profit doesn’t matter that much. Holding value can be powerful.

And that’s the thing about our recent transfers… we’re paying a premium. That’s because competition is so high. Chelsea in particular.

I don’t see anyone ever paying £55/60m for the lad.

At 35m to 40m it’s not much of a bargain but a fair price. The likelihood of making An actual profit is low though.

The Man City model wasn’t FFP complaint. They’ve only started selling well in the last 3 seasons. In large part down to signing young players and moving them in their peak which we can do (Sterling, Zinchenko, Jesus). And a decades worth of investment in the youth setup. That will take us a decade too. Aye.

Coutinho went to Barcelona at 25 turning 26. He was at his peak. Suarez at 27 - his peak. Suarez was only at Liverpool for 3.5 years.

I’ve said it before elsewhere and will say it again. If we are going to fully comply with FFP and not get a bunch of doped sponsors from KSA we will need to sell well. It’s either going to be loads of promising but not elite youngsters (and you may make mistakes) or top players like Bruno or Isak. I have no problem with that as it will mean we can spend 2-4x the fee received because of FFP. I’ve said it before but Liverpool sold Torres and bought Suarez and later Coutinho with the money. They sold Coutinho and bought Allison and VVD with the money. Heck we sold Cole and bought Ferdinand with the money. If selling at the right time, at the right place and using our elevated position to sign better younger players I don’t see the problem. I was hoping we would sign more players 18-22 in that Dortmund or RB mould. We might have to sell 1 or 2 wonder kids. But as our revenues and quality increase we can keep the best and sell off those not at the highest level which those clubs don’t do.