the Marmaduke deal hasn't happened, and may not according to this? With Valencia set to begin their La Liga season against Barcelona on Saturday, manager Ruben Baraja has been asked to clear up whether Mamardashvili will be playing. “It’s very simple. As long as there is nothing, I am not going to value it,” the former Spain international says via Marca. “I’m not talking about hypotheses. “He has a contract with Valencia and, as long as there is no different situation, he is our player. He is ready to participate in tomorrow’s game. He’s ready to compete. When things happen we’ll talk when they happen.”
We really aren't starting the new Hughes/Ward/Edwards era off very well are we? We clearly like Marmaduke - A LOT. Yet we seem to be ********ing around and not getting the deal done. About the only saving grace here is that apparently Marmaduke only wants to come to Liverpool** **probably a reason our dumbass front office think we hold the advantage (allegedly Valencia are in major financial distress and need to sell)
Keith Wyness has suggested that £30million would be a “fair offer” for Trent Alexander-Arnold in the last year of his contract, and he feels a “move will be made” soon. Richard Hughes faces a busy few weeks with the Liverpool executive trying to offload Sepp van den Berg, Nat Phillips, Rhys Williams, Owen Beck, and Tyler Morton. Sporting Club de Portugal manager Rúben Amorim has refused to rule out the chance of Gonçalo Inácio joining Liverpool and understands why they’d be interested in him. According to football journalist Jacque Talbot (via FooballTransfer), Crystal Palace have put a £100 million valuation on Adam Wharton amid Liverpool’s interest. Liverpool youngster Luca Stephenson has sealed a season-long loan with Dundee United having featured sporadically during pre-season under Arne Slot. Liverpool look set for disappointment if they try to land Wolves defender Rayan Ait-Nouri as the Molineux outfit ‘consider him not for sale.’ According to a report from Graeme Bailey on HITC, a number of Premier League clubs, including Liverpool, Fulham, and Tottenham, are keeping tabs on Jens Hjerto-Dahl, and it will be interesting to see where he ends up eventually. A former Celtic star has backed possible Hoops advances for Liverpool midfielder Wataru Endo.
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
never heard of him. but I'd say offering 3 cents for his football insight would be a "fair offer". for the humour value that is.
My view is that it would b if we had glaring deficiencies, but if we are going to be doing a two midfielder - deep swapping fulcrum, the we don;t actually have glaring squad deficiencies. I would take the Spaniard if he chooses to come, but I con;t think we absolutely need him. let's hope for a relatively injury free season and see what we can have a tilt at.
What he has got is a damn good squad. One that 7 games out people thought could/would win the Premier League and Europa League double last year I think too many are forgetting this. What if Quansah didn;t do his brain-fart yoot thing at Old Shatford last year and our forwards were awake first half - and we had won that game as handily as was possible last season. Do we then drop point to Everton and Palace? If we hadn't would we have slipped in the final 4 games, having gotten that close. I tend to strongly doubt it.... We'll never know, but with a similar squad, this season might give further reasonable inducement to the view...
Agree 100% with your first paragraph Zaq - we already have a damn good squad... Who knows what would've/coul've happened if...
What we have is a squad that ran out of gas. And they're looking to sell on more of them! To further thin things out and limit possible options. I'm all for Arne doing his evaluations, but if you're losing people and you're not replacing them... I mean, we've seen this play out before. It can pile up on you and bite back in a way that you might not anticipate. This is a precarious time for LFC and the prem, and they need to bring in at least one or two guys.
It’s like everyone forgot that the team completely shot its bolt when it didn’t beat City at home, and played worse than a mid table side the rest of the way because they were physically and emotionally gassed. You win titles with deep, balanced squads and with all respect to the players, they don’t have that right now.
we'd been going full-out for 4 trophies most of last season. this year I'm hoping that: a) Slot's setup relies less on balls-to-the-wall footie (almost a certrainty from what we've seen/read) and b) he plays as many yoots in the domestic cups as he can possibly get away with. for as long as he can. plus of course a "standard" injury record would help. not our standard of course ....
I wouldn't quite say "need" But I take your point - it could run that way - but no-one (Salah excepted) in this squad is in any danger of running out of legs, ala this gang GW/Milner/Hendo/Firmino/Fabinho. Very different stack-ups, I would wager. I also tend to see Sepp VDB and even Gravenberch and Jones as virtually new blood (compared to what we had of them for the majority of last year).
One thing that would help would be for Dom and Mac to not always be playing, so that one of themis always available as an advanced playmaker. With Jones and Grav fit to play behind this should be a distinct possibility. if we can work that way for a large chunk of the season, I predict good things......
I think that's what happened last year, especially with Dom. He played great in the beginning of the season and played and played and played until he no longer had the same effect. The way you win the league and are able to win 4 trophies is to have a strong and deep bench. Any injury issues and we'll be using a lot of the youts.
very much the exception to the rule. If every other good team underachieves by an order of magnitude then yes, I suppose you can get away with not being deep, but is that a plan this club should be rolling with? They’re seemingly letting perfect be the enemy of good and it’s not like a one off.
Yeah, I admit you make some good points here. I'm interested to see Grav evolve in this role under Slot, and see how the CBs are organized for the first couple months.
Joe Gomez looking at transfer options before end of the month. He didn’t travel with Liverpool for game at Ipswich Town. ✍️ @_pauljoyce