TheBrownBottle

Yep. Empty waffle - standard stuff for the govt he represents.

Ornstein - per the title of the thread. If it hasn’t been, then mea culpa

The papers saying it’s acceptable is one thing - but the club rejecting it tells you that the hacks were wrong. I agree re what’s been going on all summer - the problem is that once again we’re bidding for players that the big six want, but we offer lower wages and lower prestige. Our support seems to think that if we say the word ‘project’ that top players will go ‘fair enough - I’ll sign up’. Yet what is the ‘project’? A new stadium? Man Utd are further ahead on that front. ‘In ten years we’ll be up there’? Great, but that means fuck all to a twenty-odd year old. ‘Look at what we’ve done for Isak’ - well, we’ve been paying him well below the market rate, won’t sell him to a top club and apparently reneged on a new contract. I wouldn’t blame Šeško for wanting to think about it.

I suspect too many on here have spent the last year or two convincing themselves that Man Utd are ‘finished’. They’re nothing of the sort and have far more draw than us. If they finish 17th for the next ten seasons, maybe the sheen will rub off. Maybe.

We had our bid rejected, so we aren’t willing to pay it - or haven’t been so far. Šeško has nothing to agree to if we can’t get a bid accepted.

If Leipzig rejected our bid then the ball’s in our side of the court, not theirs

I can forgive a player for wanting to hear what one of the biggest clubs on earth might offer

Hard to tell who to sympathise with - the cheating cunt of a manager stepping out of his technical area, or the cheating cunt of a player stealing several yards at a throw in …

How is he waiting for Man Utd, if the club has rejected our bid? If Leipzig accepted the offer and he was stalling, then that’s on the player.

That Liverpool lot, they’re slugs

Generally, yes, but not when the player has fucked the club as royally and as publicly as Isak

Fucking go on Eddie lad. Great stuff

I buy it on import here in Australia - a local Woolies sells it. It’s bloody lovely.

They’ll be back in, I reckon. Can’t see it not happening at this point.

Isak seems to have given up on it tbf

It goes from claiming his value is €120m, to saying we want €150m, to then claiming we want €200m from R Madrid

Rivalry suggests competition on an ongoing basis. Klopp never spoke about us like this again after that, most likely once he realised we weren’t the threat that he initially thought we were.

Triple time at Nissan today I take it?

He didn’t think we were rivals, he thought we were a threat - mostly because he understands football but appears to have known fuck all about FFP

I don’t disagree tbh - Liverpool have absolutely mugged us off. I’d much rather sell him abroad - but you need interest and money to do that, and there hasn’t been a squeak of interest. The problem is that due to PSR, to catch up we need to sell players for big money. We’re further behind the ‘big six’ financially than we were when the takeover happened - and I don’t think that relying on Howe nailing it season after season can be taken for granted. Those six English clubs make up six of the top ten richest clubs in the world - so if you’re selling a really top player, then there’s a better than even chance that it’s going to be to another English club.

Yep - in the long run it would be nice to be rivals with Man City and Liverpool. But I don’t consider Nottingham Forest to be our rivals, despite being above us for most of last season. Claiming that Liverpool are direct rivals at present seems borderline delusional to me. Nowt wrong with aiming to get there, but we aren’t there atm.

Fair enough I hope we face our rivals Bayern Munich and Real Madrid in the CL group stages, we want to be no.1 and they’re in our road

I think that doesn’t equate to £150m, so no

True, though they won nine major trophies - including twice being crowned champions of Europe - during that period. European Cups knock league titles into a cocked hat for me. Playing a team in a cup final doesn’t feel like competing with them other than on a one-off basis.

Liverpool, Chelsea, Arsenal, Man Utd, Man City and Spurs have all sold players between them in recent times - some more incendiary than others, but they’ve all done it. I can remember Barcelona selling their best player to Real Madrid (Figo). Liverpool have acted like complete cunts here, so I totally understand not wanting to sell to them on that basis (and they seem to have bid well below Isak’s value). But if Liverpool bid £150m+ I’d have zero fucks to give at this point - I’m happy to trust Howe to use that headroom wisely (though we’d have to remember how to actually sign players!). I always assumed that - due to PSR - most of the players signed in the last three years would be flipped for profit and weren’t here for the long haul.