So Liverpool’s season ended with 2 domestic cup wins. An incredible achievement. My first ever Cup Final experience was Arsenal vs Sheffield Wednesday when we won the cup double in 1993. Klopp and his team of heroes stand tall with the heroes of that era that set the standard we now see today.
It’s tough for Liverpool, they are getting bantered off the internet today, people have been keeping receipts, waiting for their moment to strike.
… and it’s been brutal.
My man is starving https://t.co/z27gs5cesw
— ksi (@KSI) May 28, 2022
Michael Owen was insistent that Liverpool were still the best team in Europe despite not being able to win a cup final in open player or score a goal in 5 hours worth of finals.
When it comes down to it, sport is won in the margins, you can be legendary or a fraud on the flip of a coin. Right now, everyone is poking holes at Klopp complaining about Madrid’s keeper being too good. All the psychoanalysts peddling ‘hugs, kisses, and planning’ being the difference in the FA Cup are struggling to work out how a 10-a-day manager accused of being too casual at Bayern and lacking tactical rigor could roll into Saint-Denis and shithouse a supposedly much better Liverpool side.
Liverpool go from QUADRUPLE LEGENDS to the team that blew the easy run to the Champions League final.
They go from indestructible heroes to looking like a group that might be about to look decline in the face.
The average age of their starting 11 is about 29. Injuries have been kind to them. It is going to be very difficult for them to replace with the quality they need.
Sadio Mane is already signaling he wants out. Mo Salah still hasn’t signed a deal. The best sporting director on the planet has quit, likely because he knows Klopp wants to control the rebuilt now he’s king.
The dip might not come next season, but I’ve no doubt the Arsenal team are looking at where our squad is now, hoping that when Liverpool drop, we are there to move on them.
What I did hate last night was the disgraceful treatment of English fans. The behaviour merchants are out in force, but there is simply far too much evidence from actual media people with cameras to put this one on the fans. The French police are brutal, they don’t even save it just for the English, they aren’t good to French away fans in general. But the idea that you can have a ticket, turn up to the ground on time, and be told to just fuck off, then get pepper-sprayed should be a scandal of the highest order. It was absolutely horrendous to hear that gangs were picking off fans after and stealing their phones and money. If that happened in England, it would be a global news story, but when it happens in France, it gets brushed under the carpet until the next big event when they do the same thing again.
Dortmund has signed 6 players already.
Why are they so good at getting players in the door early?
Drives me up the wall.
Arsenal needs to shift players this summer regardless of the clear bank of cash that has been made available.
- Lucas Torreira
- Nico Pepe
- Bernd Leno
- Bob Holding
- Hector Bellerin
- Reiss Nelson
- Pablo Mari
- Daniel Ballard
- Alex Runarrson
I would have put Ainsley there, but for me, he should be offered the chance to be our right back again next season. He has the mobility, the power, the technique… he just lacks the right attitude sometimes. He also needs to be given the opportunity to be right back after he refused. Part of good leadership is to always give people a way back if they change.
Benfica is apparently in for Bernd Leno but they are swerving at the £8.5m fee we’re looking for. That is a keeper that cost us £25m, has been a German international and is definitely Premier League standard. Edu really needs to start shifting bodies for actual money this season. The Mavropanos fee was pitiful considering the talent as was agreeing to sell Guendouzi before we saw how good he’d be at Marseille.
Every penny counts, let’s not have a summer of giving away players for nothing.
Still, at least there’s a structure in place at Arsenal and our recruitment, in the main, is about 1000x better than it has been. Everything is mapped to a footballing philosophy and a profile.
United? They hired in Ralf Rangnick, who tanked on the coaching side, but the fear was he’d be allowed to rebuild them… and rebuilding clubs is what he’s good at. Well, he’s out the door. He came in, saw that it was a shitshow, said as much, and that’s that. He’d prefer to manage Austria. United, by far the most reactionary club in the world, has said goodbye.
Like, what are they thinking? I swear their biggest issue has been catering to the Twitter accounts with the little numbers and the Paul Pogba avatars. Who picks up the recruitment? Are they putting it on Ten Haag? Are they bringing Marc Overmars out of his scandalous cancellation? Or are they just going to expensively wing it again?
Whatever their plan is… it doesn’t seem like it’s in place as of now, so that is another challenge they’ll have to overcome.
Bigger issue for them is what they do with Cristiano and Fernandes who don’t really seem like ideal candidates to play the sort of football Ten Haag has been known for.
ANYWAY, why don’t you jump into some content below and sign up for Patreon because we are doing some EXCLUSIVE Patreon content tomorrow about transfers and things.
- We’ll be bringing back Famous Shirt Numbers
- We’ll be going deep on ins and outs
- We’ll be doing a winners and losers
- We’ll also be talking about our rivals
Should be cracker. Thank you to those that have signed up already. You are all amazingly generous. x
Bankz is here for the tr4phy again
Let’s do this!!!
1st
DM and groovey, come out!
Doh
(((BOOOOOM))))
Lol.
That was easy.
Come on Forest! Would like to see them back in the Prem.
Lol @ “when Liverpool drops, we’re there to move on them”. Pedro, we’re too unambitious and lack a good manager to move on anyone. We’ve comfortably become a Europa/midtable team and that status quo isn’t changing anytime soon. In 2024, we’d have gone 20 whole years without a shot at the premier league. For us to be great again, the entire structure of the club has to be torn down and definitely not getting led by a rookie manager in Arteta. Take a look at city(not making comparison), the structure they’ve put in place from players ethics to signing players… Read more »
“when Liverpool drops, we’re there to move on them”
Haha. Quality banter!
Why are we getting rid of Holding just to buy in another 4th choice CB? Seems like a waste of time and resources if we don’t get a massive fee for him. Sure if he was going to be 3rd choice again I’d be worried but if Saliba comes in and actually gets a fair shake that’s likely to be Whites position by the end of the season if not earlier. AMN is trash, feed him to the dogs already ffs. People still acting like he’s some talented youngster just waiting to break out, he’s 25 in August and has… Read more »
I honestly think Liverpool are terribly unlucky , just like many of the tennis players when they had to play Nadal on clay , they had to face City in league. City with Pep in the league are the definition of world class consistency . They are adding Haaland now , on paper a very terrifying prospect and I dont think anyone can catch them next season .
Pedro…
One thing… The “gangs” and the large majority of roving criminals in France….
Are not French.
And everyone knows it.
Good job Pedro answering the over mentioned big chance created stat that is overplayed here by people who want to diminish Øde.
Instead of relying on stats, they should try observing the actual matches to appreciate some of our guys.
Ødegaard deserves 2 more forwards to work with.
Jon Moss’s last match in charge as a referee, and naturally there’s controversy. Glad some things never change.
Pedro has long blasted the standard of officiating in the Prem…and rightfully so…but next season will bring one without Mike Dean, Jon Moss, and Martin Atkinson. Interested to see who gets promoted to the big time. Before Oliver and Taylor there was Webb and Clattenburg…maybe next year’s crop will bring a good one.
Nigel, the official PL stats for big chances created show that the top six are: 1. Kane 2. TAA 3. Salah 4. KDB 5. Fernandes =6. Foden =6 Maddison =6 Moura =9 Raphina =9 Mount =9 Son =9 Fornals =9 Toney Now tell me that this doesn’t pass the eye test? Pretty much who you’d expect to see with regards to chance creation. The reason we create ‘chances’ and have a high number of shots are all those row Z efforts from the likes of Partey, Tavares, Cedric and others. Sure we shoot a lot, but often from distance and… Read more »
Genuine question, as a paying member can you get banned from Patreon?
Well Liverpool aren’t the best team in europe. Man City are the best purist “footballing” side in europe. Seems a bit harsh to imply that Real Madrid shithoused their win last night. In truth Liverpool weren’t that good on the night despite some good saves from Courtois and one absolutely world class save from him. This obssession with age in a squad is getting absolutely crazy. All people should care about is that your club does it’s utmost at their disposal to obtain the best available players and that those players will be coached and managed to success. This mania… Read more »
last night was tough on liverpool but big impression i got from the game was their midfield is in dire need of a refresh. as the game wore on, they were increasingly outthought and outfought by modric, kroos and casemiro (combined age 98) and looked completely spent heading into the late stages of the game. madrid showed the rest of us the way to deal with their relentless pressing and constant tactical fouling – move the ball quickly and stand up to them phsyically (hats off to another great european reffing performance putting english refs to shame btw). if i… Read more »
lol here it is again.
Liverpool ageing means Arsenal will catch up.
Come on it’s about how good Arteta is and how good the club is in it’s recruitment not age of players.
Same goes for Liverpool in the future but we all know how good Klopp is anyway.
@Ishola70 i think age matters when you play a relentless pressing game like klopp or poch like to. poch burned his players out over 3 seasons. klopp is doing the same. if you want to play that style of football you need to keep refreshing the squad with younger willing runners. frankly, i don’t think it’s a sustainable style of football and glad that is not the kind of game arteta seems to want to play. you have to hand it to madrid and ancelotti – a team full of aging warriors who use their heads to conserve energy and… Read more »
@ishola70 – arsenal’s “youth policy” under arteta is more about trying to find value and develop talent than the style of football. we don’t have any other option in the absence of unlimited funds or a massive sale like liverpool had with coutinho. having said that, i would not be averse to seeing us bring in 2 or 3 quality experienced pros to supplement the very youthful squad we now have. it’s called “a process” for a reason you know.
Andy Liverpool have just been involved in a quadruple effort until the last takes of the season. I don’t think they are in dire straits as you imply. Yes they fell at the final hurdle and I didn’t think they played that well last night but to get to that scenario in the first place suggests they still have petrol in the tank. And as said before it’s about Liverpool’s recruitment in the future but that’s the same for all clubs including Arsenal. The advantages that Liverpool still have over Arsenal are obvious. They still have Klopp a world class… Read more »
Andy thank you for shedding some much-needed light on the “big chances created” narrative that has been purposefully manipulated by those with an obvious agenda…the very fact that some lesser lights on here have actually tried to use the “eye test” to flatter our clearly negative and naïve tactics, speaks volumes about just how far into the Arteta “rabbit hole” these individuals have descended…simply put, so long as Xhaka and Ode wear the kit and start regularly we will never adopt a 4-3-3, unless we won’t to get overrun by our opponents, which means more of the same until we… Read more »
Pedro took into account shots on target though.. not Sambi, Partey moon shots.
@ishola70 i didn’t say they were in dire straits – just that klopp has a job of work to do to sustain the kind of success they have had in recent years and they are limited financially so it will be interesting to see if he has the energy and drive for a rebuild over coming seasons. yes, they over-extended themselves fighting on four fronts but the fact they played 330+ minutes of cup final football without managing to score a single goal at the business end of the season is very telling for me. teams are figuring out how… Read more »
The most sustainable type of game that can be kept at the top level for 2 decades or so was created by Ferguson. Quick one touch passing near opponents box. Good mux of crossing and passing and no unnecessary pressing. And of course weeding out players that were soft.
Nigel, Pedro claims that ‘big chances created’ is nonsense, my point being that the names at the top of the list clearly show that it IS reflective of who the biggest chance creators are. I mean, are we going to write to the PL and tell them that they don’t know WTF they are talking about? I mean, it’s hardly revolutionary to suggest that some chances are good chances and some are not even half chances. Sadly I think (and this is from what I saw watching games this season) that our lack of goals is a combination of poor… Read more »
Yes, Liverpool lost.
Courtois was outstanding.
Thiago was not fit and probably shouldn’t have played.
It was written in the stars that RM would win.
If RM played in such a high intensity domestic league, they would not have been anywhere near reaching a CL final and would not have won so many CL’s in recent years.
If Ancelotti had been made Arsenal manager after Emery left, we would have been in a far better place. Oh yeah, he wanted Arsenal, not Everton.
Well done Nottingham Forest!
Well done Forest thanks for the 6 points next season
Pedro
I thought it was weird that despite us having the 4th highest XG and shots at goal, we ve only created the 17th lowest big chances. I m not sure where that stat came from but it doesn’t particularly correlate with the idea that only City, Pool and Chelsea have attacked the opposition’s goal than us this season.
Shouldn’t our big chances be like 6th or higher ? The stats doesn’t match lol.
Andy I do agree with your sentiments regarding how it will be difficult for Klopp to duplicate the last 3 years over the next 3 or 4, but I think that’s the nature of the beast nowadays, due to a variety of footballing and non-footballing reasons…that said, I wouldn’t put it past this particular manager, as he’s on the modern day Mount Rushmore, maybe even all-time, if he continues down this present course…all I wish is that we tried to marry our supposed aspirations with a healthy dose of realism, as even if we thought we were going to reinvent… Read more »
Perhaps Arteta is setting some new trend. The other day, I saw a poster on Redcafe call Arsenal under Arteta an enigma. He might be on to something.
@The Real Vieira Lynn sure. bringing Arteta in to oversee this is a risk given his complete lack of head coaching experience. but the reality seems to be he is the one with the big vision for where the club can go in coming years – would any of the coaches you mention have brought that to the club? the backoffice/board have been sorely lacking for many years now but Arteta, as well as doing a very difficult but increasingly effective job at gutting and rebuilding a very broken first team squad, seems to be key in driving this modernisation… Read more »
Andy
What happens if Arteta doesn’t get top four next season let alone a challenge for the title the following season?
Rafael Nadal is the greatest warrior in sports. Unbelievable how he finds another gear in him when confronted with difficult challenges. Produced a masterclass in the 5th set against FAA to fix up a meeting with Novak in QF. Alcaraz in the same draw too. Going to be an amazing French Open this one.
FROM LAST POST
Anyone who prefers Odegard to Fernandes is being disingenuous. I can count 4 playmakers in non top-4 teams that can give us better. And it’s a lie that we underate out players, Cazorla came in and won us all over in a matter of weeks. We’ve watched Odegard for 18 months and nobody knows what he’s really spectacular at.
Even Ancelloti is giving Ceballos minutes even though we all derided him. He never even bothered to waste time on Odegard. That must mean something,
AMN is done at this club. Let him go out and play. And get in a decent fee for him. I would keep Brooke Norton Cuffy behind Cedric and see what he is all about. Fullbacks typically break in to the first team early from the last few years that we have seen. Holding needs to be kept this summer. We have a lot to do to be changing a 4th choice CB. May be next summer but not now. We have to get at least LB, CM, ST, GK (Turner is done apparently), RW/LW as necessities. That is 5… Read more »
Jesus the shitty takes on Odegaard keep on rolling.
@Ishola70 > What happens if Arteta doesn’t get top four next season let alone a challenge for the title the following season? if he fails at top four next season then he will have missed his objective so will have questions to answer. but it depends on how it plays out whether that means him getting the boot or not. i would imagine top four next season will be more difficult than this, which is why our inability to close it out this season when we were in the driving seat with a few games to go is so frustrating.… Read more »
Andy1886, I forgot to say that the list you gave of big chance creators is interesting. If we think our lack of numbers in that stat is important, then we have to admit that not just Øde, but Saka and Martinelli and the fullbacks have to share quite a bit of blame. I think all of those guys underperforming says even more about the knock on effect of having 2 aging strikers who fell off a cliff the past 2 seasons. This has probably put pressure on our youngsters to try and do too much on their own. My hope… Read more »
If he doesn’t get top 4 next season then he needs to go. After three and a half years, top 4 is a realistic expectation. That is the bare minimum for him to stay on. He needs to get Champions League football at all costs. Either that or we need to find a new manager who can.
AMN couldnt break into the Roma team – there’s no way he’s good enough for us even as a backup. Think Mikel blew it turning down the 25 million Wolves offered a few years back. He has declined immensely.
@Habesha Gooner
he could finish 5th or 6th and win the europa league to qualify for CL. would that be enough for you? hard objectives without any context or nuance before the summer transfer merry-go-round has even started tells me you are just willing him to fail. maybe you can explain why you dislike him so much and who would be a better option in our circumstances? i’m pretty sure all your answers will be wrong.
If he misses out on top 4 next season, then he should be history ffs…. Not just “have questions to answer”
How low will the arteta fan club lower the bar to keep their god as manager?
Andy I would strongly suspect that players under contract and those within the managerial and administrative offices at clubs like Ajax and Atalanta would have spoken with nothing but the utmost admiration about their former and current manager, some of which would be honestly held views, while others not so much so, due to the fear that should they deviate from the company line they would be summarily relieved of their respective duties regardless, choosing someone with experience at the very thing you’re aspiring to achieve has got to give you a decided edge over bringing someone in who hasn’t… Read more »
Andy I am not willing him to fail. I don’t care which way he gets champions league football. He can win the Europa league or get top 4. The objective is clear though. Champions league football is the minimum expectation for next season. I will be delighted if we win the Europa league. Because I love trophies and that’s a great way to get CL.. But if he is way off in the table from 4th, it will not bode well for the next level that we will expect of him. But he can stay in the job a year… Read more »
@Real Vieira Lynn – who are you talking about with regards to Ajax/Atalanta? I dont understand your point
Andy
And I don’t like that you insinuated that it is to do with whether I like him or not. This is all about the football and results. He needs to deliver. How long are we supposed to wait till we have some expectations? He is managing Arsenal FFS not Burnley. 3 and a half seasons is enough time to expect CL football as a minimum.
@The Real Vieira Lynn i liked emery and thought he was treated poorly by the senior players, the fanbase and the backoffice. but the reality was he landed in a very messy situation he was woefully unprepared for and didn’t receive the support from the backoffice (dodgy sanllehi was the boss at that point, don’t forget) to take on the troublemakers in the squad who were happy to achieve the bare minimum every season as long as they got a big fat paycheque. he bottled too many decisions and pandered to the senior pros in the squad who were more… Read more »
Nigel, Saka was equal nineteenth with eight big chances created, Ode was equal fortieth with six. To a certain extent it’s difficult to create a big chance if you have next to zero presence in the box which was the case when Laca was doing his false nine impersonation last season. But I have to say that the idea that we were fourth most creative in the league doesn’t tally with what I watched. Certainly if we get a decent striker we’ll see a clearer picture. Unfortunately there will be a lot of competition for the more obvious names and… Read more »
Venga
I was referencing an earlier conversation about ten Hag and Gasperini, who are examples of those who’ve embarked on similar organizational reinventions with considerable success, even though they had substantially less financial wherewithal and an exceedingly less desirable location, from a recruitment standpoint
The real Vieira Lynn More than Arteta himself, the Guardiola effect is why Arteta was given the job. He had a reputation for improving players, he’s a former player/captain, former LA masia academy graduate, but most importantly Guardiola’s assistant. The whole “learning on the job” thing was something that became more and more obvious as we dove deeper into his tenure. Lots of fans thought he was going to come in with all this tiki-taka football. If only they knew how pragmatic he is. With hindsight, if the Arsenal hierarchy and fans knew that he was going to be giving… Read more »
What Gasperini has done with Atalanta is more notable than ten Hag. Ajax have the history behind them plus being one of the big two in Holland along with Feyenoord whereas Atalanta were always just a midtable club in Italy and not seen as notable in their past history. And what Gasperini did with Atalanta was ultimately down to himself as a manager and coach. I have said before if you are not in the market for the real top bracket of player that is ready made to go then the onus on the coach himself becomes absolute paramount. People… Read more »
This is why all this talk of project youth is a red herring.
We can talk about players all day.
In Arsenal’s situation it’s really about Arteta in whether Arsenal succeed.
Football is full of half baked opinions because most opinion givers are biased one way or another. Man City has been the best team in the Prem under Guardiola, so the fact Pool took them all the way to the wire, and on a ridiculously high points total again, is a credit to Klopp and his team. Losing CL final stings I’m sure, but again, they lost to the hottest and most decorated club in Europe having outplayed them over 90 minutes. As for their failure to score in three consecutive finals……..well , two of those were against Chelsea who… Read more »
I70
I would agree with your Gasperini over ten Hag assessment if it weren’t for the fact that the latter had his squad playing THEIR brand of offensively-minded football against the big boys in Europe, with notable results no less, which is quite an accomplishment considering what we had on offer the last time we were in Europe, even though we were in the second tier competition…keeping in mind that I’m a huge fan of both, which is why I brought them into the conversation
Vieira Lynn
Ajax have had that brand of football in place for decades even if the players available to carry it out diminished in quality. That can help.
ten Hag had the blueprint ready made for him at Ajax. It was pre-written whereas Gasperini wrote his own blueprint for Atalanta.
But you obviously have respect for Gasperini which is the main thing.
Naija this whole underling/sidekick narrative was oversold at the time of his hiring, for obvious reasons, as anyone with half a brain would be deeply concerned that we were hiring such a novice option, considering the arduous and complicated task at hand, so anything with even a modicum of plausibility was thrown into the explanation hopper…if you look a little deeper you will discover that being Pep’s lead-hand, cones or otherwise, isn’t a pathway to managerial success…after all, Pep, like Wenger, is a micromanager, so I very much doubt they want to offer up all their trade “secrets” to someone… Read more »
I would actually say that Ajax could win Eredivisie continously and it could be seen as more about their playing brand that has been installed over many decades along with a certain calibre of player over who is coaching and managing them at that time and that can translate to them giving a good account of themselves in the CL. They can obviously tail off at some periods but it is always their that brand of theirs to rekindle . It’s just in place. That’s not to say that ten Hag is not a good coach and manager. This is… Read more »
I70 on the most pertinent issues we are in basic agreement, but Ajax hasn’t mattered in Europe for quite some time, especially not as an offensive “juggernaut” of sorts…for me, if we really cared about adopting a more progressive organizational approach, while remaining financially responsible, we would have mimicked either the Dortmund model, then accepted that some of our best and brightest would likely be sold within a 3 year window, or opted for one of these more successful hybrid models, like Ajax and Atalanta, where there’s a very good blend of young and more experienced players, which relies on… Read more »
@The Real Vieira Lynn I’m really not sure where your assessment of Ten Hag is coming from. He got to CL semi in his first full season after bringing experienced premier league quality players like Blind and Tadic in and inheriting a squad full of top young talent, many of whom have since been sold. After that, his record in europe has been poor. Yes, Ajax under him have done well in the league but, like Bayern in Germany, winning the league every season is the bare minimum for Ajax considering the combined value of their squad is worth twice… Read more »
Ronaldo has been a big problem for Man United and his ex team mates who are now pundits like Roy Keane and Neville of course won’t admit to it out of some sense of loyalty to the player. They just point at his individual stats for the season and say this is proof enough that Ronaldo is not the problem. But they don’t delve deeper and think of the problems a player can cause if he becomes the absolute fulcrum of the side. The team becomes about just one player and this in turn can affect the rest of the… Read more »
‘’ at.Even Ancelloti is giving Ceballos minutes even though we all derided him. He never even bothered to waste time on Odegard. That must mean something,‘’
Means fuck all.. pretty obvious whose had the better time at Arsenal
Andy bang up assessment you clueless rube…it’s clear that the nuanced nature of this conversation is way above your pay grade…so according to you ten Hag is a hack and Gasperini has no chance whatsoever in implementing a similarly constructed organizational approach anywhere on the continent outside of Italy…the point was to examine those particular managers who might best provide sustainable success at a bigger club, with considerably more resources, while still maintaining the principles of the self-sustaining model, and who likewise play an attractive brand of football…in your world, anyone who would heap praise on these particular managerial options… Read more »
My hunch is Liverpool will start declining next season. They’ll probably still finish second or third but they won’t be pushing City until the final day of the season.
Huge respect to them. They’ve made the PL look like a competitive league instead of what it is in reality – a one-horse race.
Lovesausage
Especially if Mane leaves like its been speculated. If Mane leaves they won’t be anywhere near the title.
Pedro,
I don’t think Kroenkephobe was officially banned by you.
The fact that he’s changed his name to come back secretly shows that even he knew his reputation and behaviour were horrible.
Still has the same opinions and disgusting tendencies.
Naija,
Wouldn’t surprise me if he left. He’s on only 100k/week and his next contract will be his last big contract. He’ll probably want to maximise his earnings and there will be plenty of options.
Not sure the transfer window is open yet. But no need for anxiety. The likelihood is that most of the comings and goings are pretty much settled.
LOL
Rangnick proving once and for all that he’s not cut out for this level
5 mins at Utd of abject failure and lots of moaning and then off to manage Austria. That’s ambition and quality for you
The weirdest part of the rangnick story is why people are so forgiving of his failures Didn’t ole manage the same group of players the last couple of seasons and do better? Last season they came second and were seen a contender to come second again and close the gap a little this season with Ronaldo and sancho etc. ole tanked the start of the season and was rightly sacked – but for some strange reason Rangnick’s awful performances got exclusively blamed on the players. Why sack ole if it’s all the players fault? And how did Ole get such… Read more »
Englandsbest I’ll believe we already have all our main targets wrapped up when I see it.
Never in the past 15 years have we had our main targets wrapped by by late May. Not sure where that confidence comes from
There is no way Mane is still on 100k per week surely. Andrei Arshavin was on 100k per week way back in 2009. 13 years later and one of the best forwards in the world is making that amount ?
Maybe we should go for him then since he’s so cheap. He’s only 30,
Englandsbest, We may have identified the players we prefer early… but it will be more a case of … if a big team does this,, then maybe we can do that…. We might have had a little more control if we didn’t choke at the end of the season and miss out on CL. I think Jesus and Tielemans would have been sure things, for example. Now we’ll be lucky if we can land them at all. In the days of Wenger and short cash, we always hung around till the end of the window for a player or a… Read more »
Looks like we have a few come to Jesus moments here” Nigel Tufnel “My hope (rose coloured glasses) is that the addition of …” Nigel confessing he is wearing rose coloured glasses and not looking at reality, a shocker :lol:. Pedro “The Mavropanos fee was pitiful considering the talent as was agreeing to sell Guendouzi before we saw how good he’d be at Marseille.” Looks like Pedro is agreeing with what many here have been saying for awhile our Deal Making Dunce and Bumteta are really bad at spotting talent. Watch this space for the summer TW business, may have… Read more »
Is it worth us all declaring our wishlist for the summer so there is no massaging of opinions retrospectively? My pragmatic approach is:
Jesus
Tielemans
Gnabry (if we can, if not, Gakpo)
Hickey
Ndicka
+Dear Willy Saliba
I feel that should be enough to get Top 4, and then next summer, go for 4 elite talents to replace the four weakest links. In this scenario, we would have a squad to compete.
I think part of the problem with our sales is we’ve built up this reputation of giving players away for a pittance or free that no one believes us when we say we’re asking for the market rate now 8m for bellerin? Betis are suddenly unable to find such a measly sum apparently? Torreira for 12m? Sorry despite selling Vlahovic they only have sub 10m to spend! Thankfully looks like saliba is staying but if he was sold you could see it being just for 25m despite a CB of that stature and potential being worth double that on the… Read more »
China I do concur with your thoughts regarding our absolutely egregious asset mismanagement, which has been a rather glaring concern for quite some time now….surprisingly, or not, things have actually gotten worse since the events of the 2017-18 season, which saw us make a player swap for Sanchez, then give that player away for functionally nothing shortly thereafter, allow Ramsey to leave on a free and vastly overpay Ozil to overcompensate for the aforementioned cock-ups…as such, there’s no doubt that other clubs have tried to take full advantage of our amateur hour business practices when it comes to all things… Read more »
two words ED…Boston Celtics
Siddeeq then why did we pay 55m for white?
If 55m was a fair price for white, juve should offer at least 65 for Gabriel
China1
I don’t think we should be selling Gabriel; unless Gabriel wants to go. Even with Saliba coming in.
Saliba coming in means potentially, we don’t need to get a backup RB since White can play right as well.
There is likely going to be minutes to be handed around. I mean Cedric clocked a lot of mileage and that was without Europa
I wouldn’t sell him either. But if we’re on the topic of sales and offers, if juve want to lowball us they should be told to shove it
Like whilst I also wouldn’t want to sell Gabriel. If a club put 60+m on the table that’s at least the market rate and it could be looked at Promote Saliba in his place and spend that 60m elsewhere. Not saying it’s the absolute best choice but it would at least be worth considering But whenever juve are after a player they run the poverty line and unsettle the player until they force through a move at an acceptable discount. I’d tell them to fuck right off if they wanna play those games with us. Put proper money on the… Read more »
It was payback for what the English fans did in France during Euro 2016 so stop your whining you English pricks.
G
at.Even Ancelloti is giving Ceballos minutes even though we all derided him. He never even bothered to waste time on Odegard. That must mean something,‘’Means fuck all.. pretty obvious whose had the better time at Arsenal
Means a lot actually. We watched Ceballos and he was tosh. But even a terrible Ceballos is getting minutes in Madrid that Odegard didn’t have.
Or you’re going to tell me Arteta is this great judge of talent and Ancelloti is just missing the point?
Thorough
Basically your point is that Ceballos is actually a very good player, far better than Odegard, just chronically mismanaged by Arteta who criminally gave him away for a very expensive Odegard.
The evidence is Ceballos coming on for a few minutes in the CL final ensuring Real Madrid glorious finish and win.
Seriously man.
Samuel, you should probably head on to a Liverpool site if you want to wind up as much people as possible.
Read in this morning’s papers that Jesus is sharing a room with our two Gabriels on Brazil duty- coincidence? I hope not.
Samuel
It was payback for what the English fans did in France during Euro 2016 so stop your whining you English pricks.
I doubt anyone on here has any love ,respect or sympathy with Liverpool supporter but what we witnessed and what they were subjected to on Saturday can’t be justified in any way shape or form.
A strange post Pedro. Not quite sure what the gist of it is. Liverpool have been tremendous, they have a culture we can only dream about. When the transfer window really kicks in who do you think will come out of it the better? You can put money on it not being us.
Payback? To quote Masai of the Riffs
“Who are the Bindippers? There must be some word! I want them all! I want ALL the Bindippers! I want them alive, if possible. If not, wasted! But I want them. Send the word!” 😂
Liverpoo are just one club in our cross hairs Sammy old son.
Must be me but I haven’t heard any Pool fans talking up winning the qadruple. Man United still remain the most delusional fans on face of the planet.
I don’t hate Liverpool or their fans. I grew up in the era where I watched Ian rush, Kenny Daglish, John Barnes, Sammy Lee etc and they were a very entertaining team to watch. PL would of been a bore seeing City just smash the league on their own.
Same song I have had plenty pool fans taking about the quadruple at least 10 that I can think of at the top of my head.
Personally I find as a group the most obnoxious fans to be
1) Liverpool
2) ManUtd
3) Chelsea
Of course every clubs have genuinely nice fans and morons, but as soon they are in group fans of those clubs tend to behave like spoilt, entitled prats.
The few times I had the misfortune to meet them I also found that Millwall and Rangers fans are in a league of their in the racist/bigoted deluded fans.
BTW that narrative of Kane overachieving in term of goals that Pedro is now trying to convince everyone ready to listen does not tie with any statistical data. In fact Kane played less than before and in term of non-penalty G-xG is the second worst striker in the premiership. According to his xG he should have scored 4.1 more goals. In comparison Lacazette was 4th with a non-penalty G-xG of -3.6. This is Kane worst non-penalty G-xG return in the premiership. So if next season he plays more minutes in the premiership while reverting to his usual conversion ratio, it… Read more »
Andy, The reality of what’s in front of us is what you’re not seeing. We don’t have a clear identity after almost 3 years. We don’t score enough goals or create enough quality chances. We are producing Europa Level results on a Champions League budget. None of those things are untrue, so what’s unrealistic about that outlook? The coaches who were pipped to be elite earlier had done something remarkable by the same stage of their career that Arteta is in. Klopp had secured Mainz’ ever first promotion to the Bundesliga. Ferguson had won a Division title with lowly St.… Read more »
Personally, I think the worse type of fans are the ones who turn on their own manager , who had won 3 league titles , 7 fa cups and qualified for champions league football for 2 decades , a manager who was 5 minutes away from being champions of europe, had ten runners up in different comps in his time at the club and had Arsenal playing the most wonderful , pure , exciting and entertaining football that you’d wish to see. Yes, the Wenger out brigade (WOBS) , also known as the KNOBS are /were the most entitled, ignorant… Read more »
I forgot we still have gunnarson in the squad. Lmao, back when we tried to be too clever for our own good.