Criminally Negligent: The Liverpool Transfers Thread (2025)

Just give the man his raise, he has earned it! Plus we avoid too many changes to a title winning team.

 

Earlier in the transfer season I heard Diaz was on 55k . I guess it's on some site that reports wages. Recently a journalist close to the team was told he was on 140k/wk.

 

Yep. Refreshing the squad is great but it an be overdone, a fine line.

edit: stick to your guns, guys!

https://www.sport.es/es/noticias/barca/barca-cerca-tirar-toalla-luis-119589785

Barcelona on the verge of giving up on the Diaz signing. Liverpool are sticking to their €82m valuation which is influenced by the scarcity of proper replacements.

 

Yes! I am even open to getting Darwin a finishing and decision making coach. He's got everything else, just needs repitition.

 

Agreed , that's the situation in a nutshell . Luis is a good player but not necessarily worth extending his deal into his thirties..

 

Remember that Thiago was roughly the same age as Fermin is today, while Fabregas was just past his mid-career apex when Barça brought him back home.

And while I agree with you that Iniesta and Xavi were unlikely to be unseated at that point, Thiago was competing with Fabregas for minutes in that midfield at that time. They were both used more as #10s.

Pep's brother was Thiago's agent at that time, and inserted a clause that reduced Thiago's release clause from the standard €1BB, to something that Bayern could afford, if he didn't play a set number of minutes. Thiago didn't hit his minutes quota (because of the existence of Fabregas in the roster), and so Thiago got away from his boyhood club.



TL/DR: Fermin/Olmo is a pretty close carbon copy of Thiago/Fabregas. Barça royally fvkced up when they brought Olmo back, and the entire footballing world knows this. Someone is gonna get a top player off Barça.

Again.

 

I'd add to this, he's not worth the (reported) asking price at his age. (No potential for any buying club to have the potential for resale, and as you said, any buying club having to contract a player at high wages past his age 30 season.)

Its best for POOl to keep him, and for Barça to stay the F away from buying and signing an aging player. For Bayern, because they wet the bed on Wirtz, they may be more amenable to overpaying.



My guess has been that Diaz stays, even before the Jota tragedy. I've seen nothing that would change that in any material way.

 

I think if a large bid came in from a Saudi club he could go .

 

Good point.

Money has no meaning to those clubs, when thyley can just dig more of it out of the sand under their feet.

I would hope that Diaz would want to delay him cashing in until he's a bit older.

 

Still stand by this - if he wants an extra 25k/wk to extend a year and get his move next summer, so be it.
I'm fine with keeping him through his year 31 season - this whole hullabaloo about "players in their 30s" is kinda BS. If he's 32 and wants a 3 year contract? Yeah, it gives me pause. But a contract to get him through his year 31 season? Puhlease.

We preserve value (so we can sell him for 40m next summer), keep him happy in the short term, avoid too much disruption to a title winning squad, and get on with our business.

 

I would actually tell him he can likely go to Barca next summer. That way we get to have teh stability we want to bed Wirtz into, and can try for AG next year.

 

Yes. For every Fabinho and Tommy Brolin (not the guitarist) there are 500 opposites and two James Milners....

 

Don't turn up yer nose so much - all knowledge in the Western world has its genesis in Greece... except the actual Genesis bit of course ......

 

Whichever god forsaken club Ronaldo plays for has Juve-signed him for 4 hundred and eleventy billion at age 40.

 

I normally wouldn't care about Diaz leaving.

BUT, if he does, we're only carrying Salah and Gakpo over in our front line. We'd be adding two new faces.
Plus Wirtz behind them.
That's a lot of change in a short amount of time for a side that breezed to a title.

Have any title winners gone out and made this many signings in a single summer in the last 20 years?
Chelsea made a raft of signings and then won the title. But I can't think of anybody that did this from a position of winning.

From FSG's perspective:
Make a huge investment this summer, things continue to go well (ie, we are qualifying for CL), we won't really have to have a positive transfer spend for two years.

Summer 26
We buy:
CB
Attacker
Offset by selling Diaz, youth.

Summer 27
We buy:
CB
LB - replacing Robertson for good,
Attacker to replace Mo.
Offset by selling Alison and youth, Mo and VvD contracts coming off the books.
.

 

Trust the guys running the club. Edwards , Hughes etc , they're not dummies ,tips , as shown by our business so far.

 

Liverpool have gone big in the summer window, breaking their transfer record on Florian Wirtz while also signing Jeremie Frimpong, Milos Kerkez and Freddie Woodman.

Darwin Nunez is expected to leave Merseyside and this will open the door for a new striker to join Arne Slot’s squad.

Ekitike is emerging as a leading contender to become Liverpool’s new No 9. According to TBR, Liverpool recruitment chiefs have been deeply ‘impressed’ by Ekitike after he bagged 22 goals in 48 matches for Frankfurt last term.

Frankfurt are bracing themselves for Liverpool to make an offer for the Frenchman and have prepared for his exit by signing a replacement, Jonathan Burkardt. He was signed from Mainz for €23million (£20m / $27m).

The report also names two key factors in Liverpool’s pursuit of Ekitike. The first is his price, as Liverpool do not want to match Frankfurt’s lofty €100m (£86.5m / $117m) valuation.

Liverpool ‘believe Frankfurt will eventually reduce their asking price’, which will in turn allow talks for the 23-year-old to ramp up.

Secondly, Liverpool will swoop for Ekitike if they are unable to land ‘dream target’ Alexander Isak from Newcastle United.

Fabrizio Romano revealed last week that ‘discussions’ are underway for Liverpool to bring Ekitike to the Premier League.

“Liverpool are working on this deal. Liverpool are discussing the possibility of adding Hugo Ekitike to their squad,” he said. “The idea of Liverpool is to have one more striker, and they are waiting to understand what happens with Darwin Nunez, with conversations ongoing with Napoli.”

 

I’d rather keep Darwin.

 

same here.

he'll prob score 25-30 goals in Serie A (if he goes)

as I pointed out a couple of times before - most of those much-hyped misses aren;t really misses..... 75% of those are random bad-luck. Added to a couple of dubious moments of lost concentration.... leading to not playing

all of which could just as easily mean its possible he becomes a very high % scorer of opportunities

 

In a different squad or a different league, he might start scoring more frequently, but I don't remember most of those misses being bad luck. He often made bad decisions, bad execution, and couldn't stay onside. Klopp loved him, Slot tried hard to make him effective, but in the end, he was unable to perform at the level necessary to be in this team.

 

Every striker goes through a bad patch and they find a way out of it - usually by scoring a lucky goal, or maybe a great goal. Darwin is the ultimate emotion player and simply couldn't shake himself out of the slump he got into and it killed all his confidence, even though he did in fact score some superb / vital goals in that stretch.

Throughout it all the Kop gave him a ton of support.

Shame it didn't work out but he needs a change of scene and we need a change of striker.

 

Putting aside the tragedy of it, we now have a Jota sized hole in our front line. If we sell Darwin we’re now short two attacking options. If we buy a replacement we’re now bedding in 40% of our starting lineup.

And factoring in the tragedy, the club is going to need to come together and lean on each other. The human side of it favors keeping a person you know as opposed to bringing in another who will feel apart from the group.

Diogo’s death changes the dynamic in a really unpredictable way. Prior to the accident? Yeah, Darwin leaving is probably best for all parties. Now? Not so sure.

 

it's a very tough situation. part of me thinks the club might decide to put a Nunez move on hold until January, to let things settle down in the dressing room while giving Darwin one last chance at finding his mojo - it could be that a Wirtz + Darwin combo works wonderfully.

as always, glad I'm not asked to make these decisions.