Some of those players left because they were not good enough for Liverpool -- Brewster, Hoever, and perhaps Carvalho. The ones that irk me are guys like Trent, Fernando Torres, Owen, and Coutinho who all left because Liverpool wasn't a "big" enough club or some nonsense like that. Emre Can did win two titles at Juventus, but then was loaned to Borussia Dortmund. He left Liverpool on a free, but I don't remember the circumstances anymore.
Emre Can was a failure at Juventus if I recall. He hardly played there. Liverpool felt justified in not giving him the contract he wanted. He went on to have a decent career, but got nowhere near being the star I once thought he would be.
In retrospect, Torres leaving was a master stroke. He was patently not the same player after his injury and we got top, top dollar for him. He would have been a complete bust for us. The reason he was so crap at Chelsea wasn’t the post-Liverpool syndrome such as Coutinho, but because he just wasn’t the same player that had free scored with us.
Basically the same as TAA. He wouldn't agree a new contract and let it expire so he could move on a free transfer. I remember at the time being a bit upset, but I don't think he was viewed quite as integral as either Coutinho or TAA were. More like Wynaldum - solid player that you'd like to see stick around. But if not, well "lock and reload."
Lost in the stress and anxiety today - is that Swansea came back from 2 goals down and beat Forest 3-2
We need some of the Academy players to do well so people keep paying top prices for them. Van den Berg is doing well. Milner and Lallana have done well given their ages.
Baj (assuming he can get fit in the next couple of months) might be useful as an extra back-up body in midfield for when the going gets heavy this year.... Good deputy for Gravenberch IMO
I feel similarly about McConnell. Still think he's one to keep an eye on and see how he progresses with Ajax.
With McConnell my concern is the speed. otherwise - he's big, strong and has a lot of time in the ball.
me too but not "secret" I think we've already seen he can be a great player. if he recovers his health and can replicate the skills we've already seen from him, we'd be absolutely out of our minds to move him on.
We all have hopes for Bajcetic, but he’s had one purple patch in a dysfunctional midfield and two mediocre loans. Yea the injuries but that’s also a concern. I’m glad Arne decided to keep him so he can see what he has. I’m certainly rooting for him.
I've seen that a number of times and consider it nonsense. if he did extremely well alongside "dysfunctional" teammates, how good is he? (by that logic we'd have never have signed Robbo) likewise, he played in poor teams in Spain.
That’s the point - we don’t know. Easy to look good in a poor midfield without legs but equally easy to look poor in a poor team. We have no idea what we have as yet. Just looking at the last 2 years, there’s less room for optimism.
So much time away from the game at a crucial developmental period is tough. When you're 14/15, ok, you can make that leap. To recover physically and get back to that level is difficult in and of itself. But to also have lost all that match and training time and all the nuances of the game and tactics...that may be even more difficult.
I’ve strangely lost touch with a few former teammates/Arsenal fans. The FA Cup(?) at theirs in Jurgen’s last year turned a few too many screws.
Chelsea keeper Sanchez was sent off in the 5th minute against United for a wild challenge on Mbeumo. It would be hilarious if United were to lose.
It would .... But we need them to take 1 pt at least. Hurts Chelski more. Edit - as a note - after spending over 1B pounds in two seasons - how does Chelski not have a keeper?? (I had to edit that to specify Chelski because it could have been applicable to Manu too )