Pandamninator

Needs to be a hell of a signing to make sense - for both positions.

Yep. 100% captain hindsight here (and I defended it at the time due to Gordon's 23/24 season so can't hold a grudge) - but selling Gordon for 60 million and keeping Anderson would've been a good move.

Unsure why selling earlier would've changed anything. Us selling Isak 6 weeks ago wouldn't have changed the Sesko outcome or suddenly softened Brentfords stance re: Wissa.

He seems to be the clubs chosen pet... full credit to him since 2 years ago was completely out in the cold with no contacts once Bruce left.

Pain. The only way this makes sense is if there is either a breakthrough on the Wolves lad or Isak's actuslly got my grandfathers arthritic knee and only we know about it.

That's not how this works anymore, the powers that be turned this into one big accountancy exercise, and those are the rules you need to play by now. Hence the reason why there is now a 22 year old from our academy who just made the England squad... playing for Nottingham Forest. And you're mental if you are feeling smug about us going into a 60 game season with an unproven striker from the Bundesliga as our sole option up front (who is not a lone forward to begin). All it takes is one stray boot from some relegation fodder clogger and we're fucked.

Ornstein has had a mare this whole saga, starting off with his little meltdown when people were throwing his May statements about Isak not wanting to leave until next year back in his face.

We haven't doubled our money at all - especially if Wissa is the replacement who will ultimately be a 50-60 million PSR loss at the end of it all since there is zero chance he will be anywhere near is book value when we get rid.

We've already seen this movie a decade ago when Cabaye sat out the opening weeks due to Arsenal's piss taking bid. Just like than, fans will forget. Basically it all depends on Wolves. Wissa at 65 million in the PSR world means we effectively make no money from the Isak sale.

Why would we stick him on the bench? As with every single other transfer saga Isak will come back straight back into the fold once the window shuts. There is no example of any player of note actually downing tools past that point, no matter how toxic it had gotten. As much as people in this thread are trying to claim it is, this whole thing is really not unprecedented.

They aren't even doing that. The "official bid" was about 5 million under the Wirtz price wasn't it? It's only the "unofficial" bid they have waiting for when we invite them in the door that (barely) exceeds the Wirtz fee.

I mean... no shit? Every single player in world football is for sale if an offer matches the valuation. Prime Messi in 2011 would've been driven to the Airport by Guardiola himself if an astronomical enough number came in. The issue is Liverpool aren't anywhere near that figure - which the club mouth pieces have been consistent on.

Woltemade played as part of a striker pair in Stuttgart - and Howe has been flirting with a two striker formation for a while now. You are also dying on a hill here that you expect the Saudis to gladly get fucked over on the transfer fee of their most valuable asset.

Even without the Isak circus another striker was always going to be a summer priority due to Wilson turning into a 55 year old seemingly overnight, the new Champions League format and Isak burning out towards the end of the year again. Woltemade just gets us back to par on striker depth. Isak going needs at least one, probably two more striker signings - and the Scousers are leaking they don't want to stump up the cash to enable that.

That'll teach him - give him exactly what he wanted the whole time and reward Liverpool for encouraging it by giving them a discount. Bet they'll feel like right twats. Nor will there be any consequences whenever someone else covets one of our star players.

You sure seem desperate for us to get bent over by Liverpool.

How toxic must he be behind the scenes for this to happen 2 games into the season - generally a team getting picked apart like that in the transfer market buys a manager some leeway

According to some on here it's actually a 4D chess move since we won't have time to negotiate or think about it... so our nation state overlords who manage assets in the hundreds of billions will capitulate in a blind panic.

Very un-Liverpool like behaviour as well to position themselves as the victim in a situation.

Maybe a Catalan giant with a 37 year old leading the line? Maybe a Parisian Oil Club who's only weakness is the lack of a talisman Number 9. How about a German Powerhouse who's star striker is approaching his mid 30s. Nah, better go begging to Liverpool for the privilege of them choosing one of our players.

If Isak scores a brace against Sunderland or Barcelona there'll be 53k lining up to suck him off. I'd probably fly over from Australia and join the queue to be honest.

The other clubs for players have been fine mainly because they stood their ground. Liverpool doubled the Coutinho and Suarez prices by forcing the players to wait at least 1 more window. Tottenham got two more seasons and another years worth of Champions League money by holding firm on Kane. Still got 9 figures from Bayern in the end as well. Even the "selling" clubs like Leipzig rinse every club that decides to poach from their production line. Liverpool had to eat shit and gave in to every single demand (not a penny less than the release clause, and the whole thing paid up front) for Szoboszlai.

Totally. Messi, Rooney, Kane, Suarez, Ronaldo. Careers never recovered after they went on strike and caused a stink to try and get a move. How many times did Anelka turn the situation he was into full on Chernobyl and still waltz onto the next big club?

Would you have said Isak would do this 6 months ago? They will, even if they don't go full scorched earth, once we roll over the precedent is set and the playbook will be repeated.

Yeah - nothing more scary than Newcastle fans. Just look at how they hounded out Mike Ashley (after 14 years) and Steve Bruce (after 3 years and an 8 million pound pay off).