Kooiman

I'd echo the first bit (don't understand much after that). Solid reporter, clearly some good sources, a tad sensationalist with a skew to being more comfortable in hit piece territory over something more flowery and positive like Caulkin.

Ha, that 'update' screams Burnley briefing Ornstein. Man City don't care about 'edging us' to him, they've got the player. Instead Burnley want their fans to think they got the best deal possible because they've waited until three weeks before the season starts to sell their starting goalkeeper. Petty, but that's the game I guess.

I mean possibly. I've said previously I'm surprised we aren't looking more on the continent, but I have to trust the club on that one for now.

Another one where I can’t blame the club here. Brentford are flip flopping on their stance and if he’s to be believed, have broken a promise too. Clubs keeping thinking there’s a Saudi tax they can bully us for but they’ll soon realize it’s pointless. Burnley tried similar and had Man City not swooped in we’d have got Trafford.

Legal grey area. Man City's bother partially stems from payments to Bobby Mancini. It's alleged he signed a deal with Al Jazira (owned by Sheikh Mansour) which would pay him £1.75million annually for a minimum of four days' work per year. I can bet my life savings that if we suddenly made Isak an 'ambassador for Aramco' the Premier League clubs would be meeting to vote on why it's illegal.

Respectfully Tron, is that not heavy speculation that we aren't likely to be in the CL spots regularly? Two of the last three seasons we've been in it. I'm not willing to put my mortgage on us doing it this season, but I think we have to be mindful that we don't start treating an ocean wave like a tsunami. We've got water up our nose right now, granted, but Eddie showed tremendous ability to course correct us last season and look what that delivered. His mindset of seeking constant improvement should help us, and if Isak does leave, he's doing so for a British record fee. Between that deal and the players we've signed (and the ones we've missed out on) we should feel confident the club can spot a player. If we can raise the level of those striking the deals then puzzle pieces start to slot in. There's likely some cultural adjustment required from the Saudi side, which I think Amanda was privy to hence why we were often decisive when agreeing a fee but maybe not as concerned with the bottom line. She knew we didn't have the time to fuck about. We can't be so careless going forward which is why we're now moving at a glacial pace. It gets under-reported but we've seen a rise in commercial revenue. PIF/Yaser/whoever will see where things need to get better, and to that end, we're staring at the fundamental difference between Mike Ashley and now. This club will seek to get better, it will seek to challenge. They might not always get it right first time, but I can appreciate not every call will be right, given the types of experiences we've already had in such a short space of time.

Every football fan should see the special in their club, but the second you start pushing that as your 'brand' or 'identity' you slip into dangerous territory. They may no longer be living on past glories, but anyone that's been to Anfield knows the volume button doesn't always work.

Liverpool fans advocating playing funny buggars with a contract to get a player? Well slap my arse and call me Trent, I never thought they'd stoop so low.

I think you've answered your own question with this bit. The club's transfers had been a roaring success. Even Chris Wood, who didn't quite get the goals, did enough to keep us up and then returned a solid resale fee. You can debate whether the spending kept up with revenue and that strategy element, but this wasn't like Chelsea under Abramovich where they were flogging Crespo and Mutu after a season or too. Even if we presume he was asked a loaded question (which I don't doubt he might have been). How hard is it to simply say, 'I've been fortunate to work both at home and abroad. It's too early to get into specifics on what might change, but I'm excited to work with Eddie and the team'. If he was feeling generous he could even have thrown a passive acknowledgement of their work to date. Instead, he came in with hindsight analysis and an undertone of 'its a fucking joke here'. He was a fireman with a truck full of petrol.

So here's the funny thing. Maybe this says more to who I am, but Mitchell wasn't wrong, he was just an arsehole. When you come in somewhere new I'm a firm believer it's better to ask more questions than you try to bring answers for. If there are burning issues that's fine, but you need to understand dynamics and process before you try to apply improvements. It's the difference between dragging a horse to water and leading it, an undercurrent of trust. Last summer was a sensitive time. We'd missed out on Europe, the books needed to be balanced, and that meant some hard decisions were always likely to be made. At the same time, we'd completed a journey from the relegation zone to the Champions League places via a cup final. To imply any part of the process was 'not fit for purpose' publicly was always going to feel like a side swipe at players and staff. Does that mean he was wrong? Absolutely not, the fact we had to do the Elliot Anderson and Minteh deals while signing one player was evidence of how unfit for purpose it was. The same decisions that preceded those events secured us two outstanding fullbacks. Take the rough with the smooth. It's also become clear Mitchell was brought in without Eddie Howe's awareness. I'm certainly not advocating we run everything by Howe, but a general awareness is helpful. If someone was brought in above me at work and publicly described part of what I'd been working on as not fit for purpose, it would get my back up. That was Mitchell's glaring mistake (and by extension Darren Eales too). He needed to come in and show a bit of humility, if not only because he'd not exactly left Monaco full of glowing reviews. I think if he'd done that and lead with a line of 'Eddie and the team have done a tremendous job, and I'm excited to help build together on that with my expertise. There'll be tough calls, we might not always see eye to eye, but I know we want the best for this football club' he'd have acknowledged the potential tension in an authentic way. You could even cut the bit about seeing eye to eye if you want to play it very safe. From there, you can talk to Isak about his contract and move forward. Instead, he was a bull in a china shop that pissed off our star striker and left our manager feeling slighted. Fast forward to now and he's had to fuck off, meaning we've lost several good targets and may still lose our striker. None of that changes his initial assessment that things weren't fit for purpose, but it's increasingly clear neither was he.

The only big picture positive is that this summer is undoubtedly highlighting where we need to get better off the pitch. The PIF lot will have loved that trophy this season, and they're seeing first hand what's needed to make sure that isn't an isolated incident.

Very kind mate. Just spouting off here to save the wife getting more bored of me.

A nice hot take. I think George Caulkin's piece does us a disservice as a fan base. It reaffirms this notion that we're emotionally over-invested and can't think rationally. We haven't expected Isak to stay here forever, nor do we think he's wrong for wanting more money. We're disappointed he's downed tools, weakening the club's position while being annoyed at the club for not handling this more efficiently.

There was a cloak of humility that slowly fell during Klopp's tenure and they became successful again. He was great at that stuff. I still remember his 'only two clubs have no ceiling' patter the other year, which now seems laughable given Liverpool are on course to spend over 300m on 3 attackers. No doubt we'll see similar briefings this year on the genius of Arne Slot and the plucky underdogs that are Liverpool. To your point, I get it, I wouldn't demand we cancel a deal if Sesko suddenly downed tools, but I'm not sure I'd laud it with glee either or encourage him to do it.

I have to say through all this I've seen a particularly obnoxious side to Liverpool fans. The same ones who burned shirts for Trent now gleefully posting the exchange between Van Dijk and Isak at the cup final and citing as laying the ground work. Odious.

Only when Ederson was injured. There's no guarantee that happens again this season. If he's lucky he'll probably play the cups, but that's not going to improve him. He had a lot of momentum after last season, that will be slowed by this move in the short term. EDIT: On the topic of our disorganized negotiating, I'm somewhat curious to understand the chain of command with bidding etc. I know someone who is involved in football in Saudi, and on several occasions has bemoaned how slow the country moves when it comes to business. It makes me wonder if we're witnessing a culture clash, whereby Saudi are used to things progressing quickly because they pay over the sticker price, but as a club we're forced to try and haggle it down. That combination of slow progress and deal making forcing us to miss out on targets.

I’m starting to see a pattern…

There we go then. Sounds like they were hoping to use us to raise the price, realized it wouldn’t happen so had to accept our bid. Our only hope here was to make a bid City wouldn’t match which is probably what Burnley wanted. I’d argue he’s taken a big risk to sit on the bench for 12 months, but so be it. We’ll see in a few years how wrong we were to not bid 40m.

Bayern Munich for one. I think everyone is a little skeptical of the club right now and I understand why but it seems like we've identified a raw talent that can now be polished. We're going to have be left field if we want to bridge the gap. Maybe we take a few fliers that don't pan out, but Yankubah Minteh was a great example of us spotting a talent, taking a punt, and forcing Brighton to pay 33m on what was a 6m investment. This lad might be Minteh, he might be Haris Vukic. We'll need payers that make it to the first team, we'll need players we buy to sell. I'm happy to welcome and encourage him with a tinge of optimism given he's not our only signing or even a first-team signing. I think we have to be willing to give the club a chance to establish something here. Meeting them with pessimism at every opportunity does nothing to improve us.

Interesting info. Do we have a player liaison to help with such matters?

Made this point elsewhere. If we tried to flog a flop to Saudi for a minor loss it would never be ratified.

The more this digests the more I feel confident his agent has been briefing from minute one. I think Liverpool made a clear call when singing Ekitike and are likely watching on to see if he becomes available for a price they can afford. Signing both was never previously discussed by Liverpool. Ekitike was the domino to them getting Isak. It's telling that Craig Hope's piece describes him as a good lad, and yet he's downed tools, walked out of training, and asked to skip part of preseason without a formal bid on the table. I get it, folk need to put themselves first, Eddie Howe said as much with his 'short career' remark, but when you're trying to spin that behavior as that of a 'good lad' it tells me who's feeding you the story. Isak pays his agent to advise and make these calls, so I don't even put much blame on the player. It's more that I don't think anything we could have done this summer would have worked. He hasn't put a transfer request in because he forgoes money to do so.

Perhaps you're younger than me but that sounds like a glacial pace. Even the top clubs ability to sell academy talent is built upon their ability to hoover up talent from lesser clubs. Liverpool made 10m+ from Bobby Clark. They already have the advantages, PSR is just another one.

We basically need 23 goals and 6 assists from our two strikers next season to match output this season.

FWIW, Eales rubbed up some people in MLS the wrong way with his antics. He was very keen to have a public face there. Often announcing and teasing transfers.