tajjuk

It would be quite staggering to sell a player for £75 million.

I reckon Gabbi will have a very good season if we sort out the supply, just seems like a very natural goalscorer to me and easily capable of 20 goals. Also Gallagher coming into the team gives us a target man which we didn't really have last year.

Will Hughes for £8 million seems a very solid signing to me.

Bit cheeky of Juventus if they think they can sell a full back for £61 million then buy ours at £15 million. If sandro is £60 million and VVD is around £60 million then Cedric has to be at least £25 million in the current market.

I'd imagine work permit issues contribute, it's difficult for an English club just to pick up some relatively unknown talent from South America or Africa. You are then left competing for people like Gabriel Jesus and paying £30 million. Not many of the South American talents that come to Europe seem to come to England first. Was in that article above - So yeh, obvious why he left West Ham out.

£25 million seems optimistic if, as it looks that Wenger is having a clear out and doesn't want him. Plus I'd presume (hope) we have a sell on clause in there that would make him effectively cheaper for us. He is also supposedly on £65,000 a week, so I'd presume we'd be able to offer that if not more like £75k. I don't think he is one of these players that would expecting nor commanding £150k a week. He needs to get his career on track and get regular game time. I see him closer, though more high profile, to the likes of Bertrand and Romeu coming here.

Have to agree, not sure we had this sort of stuff around Puel, though there was stuff from Thierry Henry, reminds me more about when we got Poch in.

Interestingly in that Van Dijk article talking about Oxlade-Chamberlain only having one year left on his contract,we should be all over that, tell him he needs first team football and he won't get that at Liverpool when they have Lallana, Mane, Salah, Coutinho, Firminho etc.

Was thinking about this the other day, but there really does seem to be a bit of a dearth of goal scoring central midfielders about these days. Delle Ali, Countinho, Sigurdsson..... Not many guys around in the top leagues who score goals from a centre-mid position.

That Samuel article is drivel, just like the stuff he usually writes. There is a reason he writes for the Mail, i.e that no decent newspaper would have him. He doesn't understand the club at all and clearly doesn't like us, I don't see similar critical articles on other mid table clubs. What we did 20 years ago (just like what Liverpool and Man Utd did) is irrelevant, it's our progress since the take over that is important. He knows, just like everyone else that the reality of football today is money and clubs of our size cannot possibly hold onto our best players. Yet in this article and others like it he completely ignores that fact. He consistently claims that we are selling club (every club bar like Real Madrid and Barca) are selling clubs, Man Utd couldn't stop Ronaldo going to Real, Liverpool couldn't stop Suarez, Torres or Sterling going either, just like we couldn't stop our players wanting to leave when the big clubs flashed their money at them. What exactly does he expect from us? Cos he's basically asking for magic, if Liverpool and Man Utd can't hold onto their best players, how does he expect us to? That clear fact he has to ignore because it's destroys his whole point and his whole article is basically an attack on the club, has no real basis in reality. We sold players because we were essentially forced to, because that is football. And I'm also not sure how taking a club from League 1 to top 6 in the Premier League is not success? What have West Brom done over that period aside bored everyone to death? Have they produced any players, have they challenged for top 6, have they finished above Liverpool. Apparently though they have been successful because they went nowhere and bought no players that big clubs want to steal, great success! The guy is basically a moron.

And? Do you actually have a point? No thought not. That was one tiny section of what I said, there is still the huge difference in CVs, learn to form an actual argument. Sammy Lee has worked with some of the best payers around, been part of successful set ups and obviously impressed enough to get to stay at Liverpool despite multiple manager changes and get into the England set up on two occasions. Whereas Black has bounced around a load of crap clubs barely keeping his job and has been around those clubs when they've had terrible results. So it's a bit stupid for people to be asking questions why people might prefer Sammy Lee to Eric Black, when it's so obvious that Lee is clearly a better coach.

Well his goals scoring record was not stellar but tough to do well in such a poor team seeing as they went down. And the market is crazy at the moment, fairly average strikers from the Championship seem to cost like £15 million, so getting him to sign a new deal puts value back on him as he's wanted by 3/4 clubs at least.

We don't have a particularly good record for signing £5-6 million centre backs, Gardos and Forren being an example, but the guy is young, I doubt he's being bought for first team straight away and the club generally does their research on these players. Also if you wrote of a player based on him having a poor summer tournament, then you'd basically have to say that pretty much every England player of the last 15-20 years is crap.

The only player there I think we sold too cheaply was Mane. Cork and Puncheon weren't wanted and were basically back ups. £8 million for a 32 year old is good business, as is whatever we got for 30 year old Pelle (and it was more than £10 million) and Clyne/Wanyama were in the last years of their contract. Not to mention that Morgan, Shaw, Lallana, Lovren, based on what they've done since we got way more than what they were worth at the time.

Sammy Lee, coach at Bolton, Liverpool for a very long period including being kept on by 3 different managers and Benitez brought him back as well and also been appointed as an England coach TWICE. Generally seems well liked and respected by a lot of people and players, experience at international and champions league level. Black with coaching credentials at such clubs as Motherwell, Coventry, Sunderland, Blackburn, Blackpool, Rotherham and Villa. Named in curroption scandal, supposedly disliked by players here and around during some pretty poor times for those clubs (like Villa) Seems pretty obvious to me.

So by the sounds of it Pellegrino unless there is a dramatic change of heat from a German, possibly Tuchel?

It's talking 35 -40 million Euros for Semedo who is being kept out of the national team by Cedric, are Juve likely to pay a similar price? Cos I can't see us selling for much less than £30-35 million considering the market. We are going to need a whole new defence at this rate.

I'm not sure about Ake to be honest but Kurt Zouma would be worth taking IMO, £50 million plus Zouma would be a very good deal and I've seen reports that Zouma is surplus to requirements, when personally I think he's better than Cahill. Just needs game time. I'd push for that, way better than him going to Liverpool and Zouma is better than Sakho IMHO. Chelsea have a whole host of talented young players that they don't play and probably never will that would totally suit us I reckon. Would be like getting loads of Romeus

Liverpool are only where they are now because of money, they've splashed an obscene amount of the last 10 years for relatively little return. They are no different to Man City at all, they throw big wages and big transfer fees around just like City, no player really goes to Liverpool cos they won titles 30 years ago. They have also barely developed a player since Gerrard, have very few English/British players like they used to. Whatever identity the likes of Man Utd and Liverpool had has dissapeared in reality and is only clung onto by their fans. Now they both try to buy titles (and have largely failed) and care more about their fanbase in China and how much merchandising they can sell more than the Scousers living around Anfield. They go because Liverpool pay them £150k a week. If Liverpool fans think they are 'bigger' than Man City they are deluded. Simple fact is Man City have more money, have a bigger and newer stadium, have won stuff more recently, pay more wages and more likely to win stuff in the near future = bigger club. Players want money, to win trophies, play in the champions league and probably live in a nice area. None of them really care how big the stadium or the fanbase is (look at Monaco for example) or how many titles the club won 20 years ago, that is all fan banter stuff. Liverpool are a 2nd tier club these days, and VVD IMO should be playing for a top top club.

Still don't really get why he is apparently so set on going to Liverpool. Chelsea and Man City will pay him as much if not more, London is way more preferable to live in than Liverpool, he'll slot into either of those teams as pretty much first choice so no worries there, Conte and Guardiola are at the least as good managers as Klopp, if not better to be honest and those two clubs are far far more likely to win something than Liverpool over the next few years. I mean pool only scraped into the Champions league because they played zero European football last year and still didn't do great in the cups, with the pressure of Europe and potential injuries they are no guarantee for a top 4 spot next year. Hardly like they are a team brimming with world class talent, without Mane they looked pretty ordinary. Those other two squads have world class players and are likely to buy more. Plus he could end up at a Barca, Real Madrid or Juve, again clubs much more likely to be successful than Liverpool.

I'd reckon the quoted fee has probably something to do with a sell on clause I reckon. It's in reality probably £15 million, but has to be £20 million so Arsenal get that amount and would also put us in the driving seat in signing him because we'd get the money whoever Arsenal sold to. £15 million for Chambers seems a bit steep, but then we are talking £50-60 million for centre-backs at the moment, we paid £12 million for Shane Long two years ago. I'd have him back because - 1. He's versatile, technically very accomplished, decent pace, strength and size so could easily play centre-back, right back, or centre-mid. 2. He's young and showed good promise when he was here, plus his early period at Arsenal was good as well, so hopefully he can get his career back on track and hit that potential. 3. He's English so that will always add a premium. 4. He's one of our own and the failure at a big club might make him a bit more grounded and more likely to stay long term. if we should be going for any Arsenal player is should be the Ox, £20 - 25 million for him would be a great signing IMO. But papers are saying today £15 million and Everton and Newcastle interested so it looks unlikely to me.

£10 million for Wimmer would be a decent signing I think, £15 million for Sakho, depending on his injury.

This basically, £20-30 million for a player (Sakho) that doesn't want to be at Liverpool and they don't want him is stupid. As it is for Wimmer, who has 14 times for Spurs in two seasons. it would be like us asking for £20 million for Stephens, just stupid. Or £30 million for Yoshida......

He's not really right though either, it's a typical tabloid trash article that twists the facts to fit an agenga and is written as if his opinion is what is actually happened. Pretty much typical Samuel, a mouthpiece who thinks his opinion is gospel. He completely ignores the fact that the likes of Mane, lallana, Lovren, Shcniederlin, Wanyama all had massive tantrums and wanted to leave despite getting big contract offers from the club. Several of them were very clearly tapped up as well and had their heads turned by under hand tactics by the likes of Liverpool etc. I see he doesn't mention that one bit, I'm sure he's done articles on those moves and the underhand tactics of Liverpool probably claiming that it's just football and little clubs like Southampton should just accept it, but when it suits him it's a rod to beat the club with, very convenient. The way he has written that is that the club wanted to sell the best players, which they didn't. The club was basically forced into a corner by the players throwing the tantrums and not wanting to lose those players for cut down prices or for free. If Man Utd, Arsenal, Liverpool etc. had been forced to sell players to say real madrid over and over would he have written about them the same way? I have my doubts. Also It wasn't claimed, no goals is a simple fact, we were very low scorers and failed to score at home for like 7 games. Football is an entertainment industry, I hope he's also criticising the West Brom fans who are moaning about Pulis and the terrible spectacle West Brom serve up to their paying customers. What is he basing this on?, where has anything been said that Puel was sacked because he didn't get into Europe? where is their an expectation that we are expecting this from our new manager? Again just making crap up. No **** Samuel, who'd have thought a club would expect a manager to win games, entertain the crowd and not fall out with players? That is like football management 101 for most clubs. Fair play to him for getting paid for that sort of drivel, but that article is just tripe IMO.

Many would argue that these restrictions allow us to keep progressing solidly even though managers/players come and go, it means a manager can't come in and completely screw the club over. You only have to look at the multiple signings out there clubs are lumbered with because a certain manager wanted them and then he fcks up leaving them lumbered with a donkey, to see why clubs generally don't let one person make signings or control the club from top to bottom anymore. Even the likes of Conte doesn't have full control over signings.