Rumor: Scouting for European Downings - The Summer Transfer thread

Roundup for the day:
Andy Carroll is being watched by Milan.

Napoli are going to throw some of the 25m they received for Lavezzi at us in order to bring Mrtn Skrtl to their squad.

We're rumored to have made a bid for Slovenian midfielder Josip Ilicic.

 

If I was BR...The first Person on my Wishlist would be Kevin Prince Boateng...There are Rumblings that Milan could be Tempted to sell and He's Exactly the Leader Type We need in Midfield with the Captain not getting any Younger...Lucas and KPB would Beast in the Middle for Us...

Other Players We could Possibly get and Realistic Targets:

Andre Schurrle (Bayer Leverkusen)

Stevan Jovetic (Fiorentina)

Adam Johnson (Manchester City)

 

Melissa Satta, who Kevin-Prince has been dating for a while, described their sex life and attributed that to his niggles. Melissa Satta said: "The reason why he is always injured is because we have sex 7-10 times a week"

Who can blame him. I'd never want to get out of bed either.

 

Sigurdsson to Totenham complete.
LFC your move.

 

Well that was frustrating to watch.

 

If those guys don't have the money to run a real team then they're no good to us, or themselves. GTFO. I'm sure they don't want to languish in the mid table any more than we do. Couple of good buys would see us along, as will dumping some deadwood. The team structure is already there.

Souness is often 'credited' for ending the "golden years" with his short sighted way of bringing in players and dumping the heart of the team. Hope these guys can do better. They've hired a "team of Experts" that will cost more than players to help them along, one or two of them have a modicum of football experience the rest are business people.

Yes, saw the movie, entertaining fiction based on a book. The guy builds up a team of nobodies, has a good run (Newcastle) then fades back into obscurity without achieving his goal. But the M-buzword still lingers as if it means something good.

 

We're in a difficult position. We can't offer CL-type wages to CL-type players who could instantly impact our team. So quality players who can take us to the next level would have to refuse higher wages, which doesn't happen.

Our curent squad is not guaranteed to take us to the CL, but we're better off with the players we have and no additions than we would be with less of the players we have and no additions. If a few things go differently last season (injury to Lucas, clinical finishing, Suarez-gate) we would have been in the mix with the squad we currently have.

Considering that, this transfer season would be successful if:
(1) we don't lose any key players to teams higher on the food chain
(2) we spend money on youngsters (less than 18) to bolster our ranks for future seasons in case we continue to be in the position we're currently in. You'd have to think we have players like Reina, Skrtel, Agger, even Lucas, etc. until the next World Cup at the latest.
(3) we go Newcastle style and find talented players that everyone else overlooks for some reason (problem with this is players seem to attract more attention when Liverpool are interested than when Newcastle are interested)

 

Sadly, we pay CL-type wages to non CL-type players

True, and their fees and demands immediately rocket. Remember Michael Turner? Hull City wanted £12 million (and not a penny less) from us. He ended up at Sunderland for about £4million.

 

Sounds good to me.

PSG landed Lavezzi for 30 mil I just read.

 

There is no flaw to my argument. You've just have the mentality of a person supporting a mediocre team, which Liverpool is not. And yes, it is negativity. The most chance for success depends on what you do with the team. You assume that Liverpool will remain static through all the actual transfers. By that "logic" then no team would be able to leap from being a failure (such as real madrid a few years back) to being one of the strongest sides in the world.

How exactly is PSG ensuring Lavezzi more success than us when they have won their domestic league a grand total of two times, once in '86 and once in '94? Also, don't forget that the EPL's standard is much higher than that of France.

Now as far as the city fiasco, well, there's not that much you can do to stop them from acting the way they are, but it doesn't mean you shouldn't try to land top talent.

 

She's cute.

 

You are joking right?

I wish people would understand that moneyball is an extremely fluid concept. It simply refers to the process of evaluating talent objectively and seeking value where others are not. It avoids skills or traits that are over valued by the market in favor of those which others do not rate. Michael Lewis chose to write the book on Billy Beane because he was intrigued by the willingness to buck tradition and utilize innovative tactics. The m-buzzword lingers as if it means something good because it has become the dominant mode of doing business in baseball. Every team employs the methods that Beane and his mentor Sandy Alderson first used in Oakland.

Can you bring the same style of thought to football and seek out undervalued skills and traits to maximize return on a limited budget? It remains to be seen.

Are FSG employing this method in their acquisition of talent? Sure hasn't looked like that. They opened the checkbook for the second highest net expenditure in club history last season. To boot, they targeted British players. No trait in football is more over-valued than having been born on the British isle.

I would love for the posters speculating on who we should target to stop using moneyball as a crutch for their rationale. In the context it is being banded about, it means nothing.

 

the sad truth is that Liverpool is at the bottom of the top third of the EPL. maybe that's not mediocre, but it's dangerously close. to be desperately fighting for an CL qualifying slot, rather than being in the top two in the league is OK, i guess, but it's not what anyone wants.

right now, as i said before, the immediate goal is to qualify for a CL position, whether in qualifying rounds or being "set", but there are 6 or 7 teams contending for 4 places, and two of them are much better funded than LFC.

it's hard to predict whether Newcastle will be anywhere near as successful this season as last, but Spurs look like they've strengthened their squad, and Arsenal may have, tho' i'm not confident that Podolski and Giroud are locks to score as many goals together as RVP scored on his own.

the club has been severely set back by last season's particularly unsuccessful purchasing, and the thinness at the forward position is not going to be rectified by one player, unless Andy Carroll can regain the form he displayed for Maggies, and that's a big question.

to imagine that Liverpool could snatch up Edinson Cavani and a couple more key acquisitions would be beyond rational expectations, based on what the budget was predicted to be. that would mean disposing of the dross at good prices, much better than Kuijt at a lousy 1M.

i think we all want our pudding now, but we may have to face the prospect of a year or two of striving to scale a very sheer cliff. if that means that there's negativity involved, then, i guess that is the word for it, but sometimes a realistic perspective is more productive than pipedreams.

 

Agree with Stilton on this. Last year's bone-headed acquisitions, on top of the asset stripping period we went through have left the club severely weakened. It's going to take some time to re-set and re-build. My expectations for the next several years are pretty modest. Just hope we can avoid more major errors...

 

I've just seen the Rodgers interview on the ofal. Seems to me Rodgers walked away from teh Sigurdsson deal after the wage demands went up. I'm hoping that he knew what he was going get with the player and was ready to get him at that fee and those wages but once that altered, Rodgers had better options, cheaper at home or more expensive but significantly better from elsewhere.

 

Aquilani, Aquilani, Aquilani.
Or at least, that is my hope.

 

I'd say more Henderson and Shelvey, and maybe Pacheco, to be honest.

 

No. Or at least, I'm not convinced yet.

 

no.

on loan at Blackpool, he played very well, but he doesn't show me the kind of playmaking ability that a midfielder needs at the EPL level. i think he would be an absolute star in the Championship, but not in the EPL.

having said that, he is only 20 and one-half, so he does have some time to grow into that sort of player Liverpool needs. another loan out to a Championship side might be the best thing for him.

he's 21, 22 in January, and his loan spells haven't really produced much. every time i've seen him play, he looks promising, but he doesn't have the killer finish that would make him a first team player...not yet, anyway. also, his market value is pretty low. on contract till 2014, he would need to make good very soon or he's a lost asset.