Stottie

Pity it couldn't have been done three weeks ago. The same with Isak, since he went for the fee people said he would. We'd have more points on the board.

Edwards wound up some eScousers, so that's good by me.

Does that apply to Nunez, Trent, and Konate? They've been bailed out three times by Saudi and will be again next summer with Salah to Saudi. If we got 40M from Saudi for Willock and 20M for Targett, I'm sure we'd be more active in the market too.

Oh and Woltemade got "more expected assists (or something similar) than Wirtz" (see the article on Opta). So it means we now have someone to play #10 for everyone crying out for one.

Watkins is a fine player, but led "big chances missed" last year, despite not scoring that many. Relative to goals scored, DCL kills this stat, so I think its a meaningful one that matches the eye test. https://www.fotmob.com/en/leagues/47/stats/season/23685/players/big_chance_missed/premier-league From open play, Wissa was clinical than Isak in 24/25. His behaviour marks him out as only slightly less of a prick than Isak, which is a big shame, but I'll trust Eddie on that one. I don't like the prices, but Wissa and Woltemade is an upgrade on Wilson and Isak. We should have got more for PSR out of it, maybe 20M, and the club would be wise to sort the backroom people out. And the commercial revenue people. And the get-the-stadium-built people. They are locking out 10,000 plus every game. Two very good strikers in though means this is disaster averted and probably a very good window. Shame about the seven points that were there for the taking. And the Gordon suspension, and the Big Joe injury.

Yes, but those clubs were not in our PSR position. Its much harder to play hardball when we cannot pay anything like the same wages at Liverpool and are not allowed to put extra money in to buy players (e.g., a striker to play when Isak is on strike) were we to sacrifice any money by not selling the wantaway player. The system is set up to fuck us and clubs like us.

Isak did not deserve 200k a week until he started clearly outproducing the (declining) Callum Wilson. Eddie chose to not start Isak over Wilson in the Carabao final against Man U. That was only two years ago. It is speculation to suggest a player who has kicked up a summer 2025 level stink could have been placated with a still affordable wage (200k?) and a high release clause in summer 2024. Summer 2024 is when we sold Anderson and Minteh for PSR. Giving other players juicier contracts that cost more but might have our back and get us 10-20M more when they leave would not have been a priority. The Isak situation deteriorated publically most when it came out Ekitike was getting 250k. At that point, it was probably game over. SkySports on here (on a stick) and their comment was about Villa was a dismissive mention of them "having to get creative with PSR". Aside from selling desireable players to Sky 6 clubs, how do you "get creative" with PSR? Are Bournemouth supposed to find a Huijsen every year?

Yes, we have been anything but shrewd. fwiw, Kane is a significantly better footballer than Isak and proved it by breaking the Bundesliga record. 100M was not an overpay if you use him correctly, something Southgate struggled with.

Hopefully rusty and will get injured soon. If Eales or some non-Eddie spokesman is still around, it would be nice to wheel him out on Sky Sports and say Isak is going because we can't pay him 300k a week. PSR won't let us and we'd be docked points. If he could say the specifics of the wage negotiations with Isak, that would be great. He also could list off the other players who've been PSR sales at other clubs and use the word "unfair" at least twice. He should finish by saying PSR makes the Saudi's money irrelevant. It wouldn't change anything, but would make Sky Sports talk about PSR for two minutes to break up the Liverpool lovefest.

Like Isak, there's a good chance he'll be "not for sale" until he's sold. Brentford will have a list of targets to replace him, in December if not before. They do not have a CL qualfication to screw up by cashing in on an ageing striker at peak value.

fwiw, Isak will likely now be on near 300k plus bonuses. Liverpool's wage bill, in their accounts, is about 450M. Yes they have more merch and PR people and commercial operations people than us in their organization, but their first team squad is no bigger and will likely be on 50% per player more. It won't be "just one or two special ones" as their fans claim.

If we don't have a deal ready to go on a competent striker, who like Isak until an hour ago may be officially "not for sale", it's a disaster. Going into the season with Big Nick and Osula only would be throwing away the CL qualification.

Mostly agree with this, disagree in that Levy didn't have to worry about PSR when in a similar situation with Kane or Bale. Spurs previous financial issues have been due to lack of cash for a while after building the stadium. The rules now say our owners can't put money in. Our owners' companies can't do it due to generous sponsorships either.

There are holes in stats for sure. Gordon got off 10 shots in about 130 minutes as our CF against Villa and Liverpool. He was doing quite well (if not clinically) before that mad tackle. We were a bit FUBAR with that weird formation at Leeds this week on the wet pitch, but stick Gordon out wide again with a decent striker and I think the good times will roll again. Must buy a striker tomorrow.

Poor value? Injury record? It's hard to deny he's an arsehole after this summer.

Posting this image in case anyone accuses the above of being copium. Wilson was clearly not a team player and was barely involved in buildup, but Isak's numbers are no better. Isak dribbled past five or however many Everton players that time, but did it once in one game. He didn't dribble past very many in other games, or set others up, except when shots were coming back off the bar to Murphy.

We must get a striker in. I assume this Isak deal was agreed last week if not much earlier, and that we have another striker deal all ready to go as well, regardless of what the selling club's public stance about not selling may be. If we don't have a striker coming in, this is a disaster. My overall impression is that this is not far off Isak's fair value, there was a "good fit" type symbiosis where both club and player made each other look better than they are, but regardless of fee, we did not need to sell this summer and this has been brought about by being walked all over by the player and the buying club. The natural way for this to have happened would have been a bid that was much higher than fair value. Villa are floundering and Forest aren't doing too well either. Thanks to PSR, fly too close to the sun and this is what happens. Especially if your folk are too inept to build a fucking stadium or name a fucking training ground.

Given what Arsenal and Man City are like, we need another force in the league to liven it up. Pep probably bored or a bit lost now his missus has gone.

Same xG as us vs. Leeds which everyone admits was a "shittest game of the season" contender. Yes, Liverpool were shit too, but we know their limitations already from the game at SJP. LIverpool gave him nothing to work with, but Ekitike looks deceptively strong.

Fuck me Arsenal are shit. We get two goals with ten men against Liverpool, after Palace got two, and Brentford got two, and Arsenal can barely manage a shot. Fucking hopeless.

It seems like all players should get "promises" of new contracts in writing, and "promises" from clubs tapping them up in writing too.

Mega hypocritical of the media to not turn on Isak now Wissa has pulled the same move on Instagram. It's clearly bad for the game.

They might do if Carragher said "I do not want that cunt anywhere near our football club". Instead he hasnt, which means he condones it. It may even have been a Liverpool FC idea.

My first impression was that this was a mocked-up pisstake of Isak. Is it actually real? If so, the obvious conclusion is that he's copied Isak because there has been next to no actual condemnation of Isak in the biggest media. Yes, the odd person like Simon Jordan has called him out, but most of the folk people listen to, like Carragher, have not questioned why Liverpool are going after such a bad character of a player. So long as it is not Liverpool or another darling club on the receiving end, they don't care. In Wissa's case, the receiving end is plucky Brentford, who are a noble victim. We are a victim too with Isak, but that doesn't matter because the upside goes to Liverpool FC.

We don't have to accept any low bid. PIF can also do a double hit by tapping up Mo Salah and ensuring no Saudi club pays a big fee for him next summer. Get him to stay the second year and leave on a free if necessary. Liverpool do not hold all the cards.