TRon

City were also able to happily spend money on top players in their 30's safe in the knowledge that their owners would bankroll it all. Winning was all that mattered, and I'd have happily seen our owners do the same thing if money was no object.

I hope he's starting and he scores on the way to a win.

It depends how strong the message was that he's not for sale. I've seen some suggestions that we won't sell unless we get a replacement and £150m. But that would be weak in my book. I'm hoping we've just told them "No chance, and don't bother picking up the phone again."

Thieving bastard genes runs through their veins.

If we bought a 29 year old Watkin it would probably mean we were losing a 25 year old Isak to one of our rivals. No thanks.

That was always a big part of it. We can't sell a vision of our project if we become feeder clubs for our rivals.

Isak himself was at least clever enough not to burn his bridges with the statements like "explore all options" being quite carefully worded. He's obviously had his head turned, but tbh if you can double your money that will happen with just about any player. We sent out the right message that we are not here to be a pedestal for Liverpool's glory. Fuck them. Fuck them all the way.

That said, I do think signing one of them for around £35m would be a good investment, and for that much you only get Wissa.

They were all under 25. Watkins and Wissa are closer to 30, that will be dead money in a couple of years time. We'd basically have to win the title to justify that outlay and offset the PSR shackles which would result.

In hindsight it looks like they signed Ekitike because they knew there was little chance of getting Isak. All this enticing of Isak and lowballing offers has been purely to unsettle the player and try to undermine a rival. I wish I could believe we would throw enough money at it to really make them shit their pants. It can be done.

Amen. This is what everyone needs, fans and players to get us back on board.

You can take risks like we did on Isak and Tino Livramento. The upside is massive and the downsides are low. We can't gamble with the clubs future, if we are going to plough big money into the squad, it has to be on potential rather than 29-30 year olds. Watkins would have been ideal in the days of Man City and Chelsea buying up every top player with no PSR handcuffs.

Never had much doubt about this tbh, even if it's only for another season.

I don't blame managers for thinking like this. They are in the results business and any two of Watkins/Wissa/Isak would be a formidable strike force and could get us CL again, possibly more. But in a couple of years we would be in real trouble, and the manager isn't going to bail you out then, if he's even there still. That's why you need the club to be directed properly from above.

Honestly, reading that tweet it does feel like that.

That's the type of thinking which Villa banked on last season and I said at the time it could backfire if they didn't get CL football. They didn't.

Watkins would be a terrible decision. I know we don't have a DOF at the moment, but someone needs to put a block on it if we are even considering it. Man U aren't daft they slapped down Amorin pretty damn quick when he started talking that shit.

We already made our decision. My take is that he had a go, hoped it might work, but will shrug his shoulders and accept playing another season like we always planned before he leaves. From our POV we need to double down on buying a class striker to play alongside him this season while working on bringing in another one for next season once he's finally sold.

It's a shit gameplan then.

We just need to go out there and do our stuff. Buy a quality striker and get it done. Fuck all Liverpool can do about it except come at us with Darwin Nunez and stringbean Ekitike.

I actually think that was the thinking....don't dignify them with a personal response. A press release with a curt no amounts to a go fuck yourself in reality.

Tail between their legs stuff.

At least he was smart enough not to make his desire to leave too toxic. He said he wanted to explore other options and had a thigh strain. Could have been a lot harder to come back if he'd outright said he wanted to move to Liverpool.

That should be a priority. It's already annoying how long it is taking, I just hope we haven't hung our hat on Wissa only to be told the get bent by Brentford a day before the window closes.