"We've momentum and we can't afford to lose it tbh"- The '13-'14 summer transfer window thread for PL and beyond

Xp Well yeh, but tapping up never seems to have consequences.

Pool:Suarez::spurs:bale

Invest wisely and you're better off without than with.

Tbh a few more Coutinho-level signings and you'll be laughing

this is the question this year, if they can do that kind of business then all will be well, wouldn't rule out a few more clangers though.

The Aspas headbutt is well worth watching.

coutinho has only been there six months, it's too soon to say he is definitively a success (arshavin, jelavic, zaki, even pd cissé etc)

That's fair. Still, compared to Liverpool's recent transfer history Coutinho (and Studge too tbh) are both looking like great deals. Not saying that they'll be able to pick up the slack if Suarez leaves, anymore than whoever they snap up with £40 million could replace him. But Rodger's very recent track record in the transfer market is looking pretty good right now, I reckon he could spend that £40 mil without completely wasting it.

According to the Liverpool Echo, Aspas' buy-out clause drops to 7m Euro if Celta are relegated this coming weekend. Seems weird not to wait a week rather than shell out 2m extra.

The point of them moving now was to agree a deal with Celta before other bigger clubs get involved.

£15m for dembele looks a lot more sensible than £15m for allen

― A.R.R.Y. Kane (nakhchivan), Sunday, 16 September 2012 22:49 (8 months ago)

the worry about borini is that he doesn't really have a burst of pace or a trick up his sleeve, his qualities are more about anticipation and knowing-how-to-play, and the EPL isn't always friendly to players who know how to play football

― Unlike humans, dogs don't talk shit (Nilmar Honorato da Silva), Sunday, 2 September 2012 17:00 (8 months ago)

aiui shelling out the extra £2m means having the field to ourselves; next week a load of other clubs become interested if the price is £7m

The other clubs that were supposedly interested (from the same article) were Valencia and Swansea. "Bigger" doing a lot of work there.

borini will probably show a bit more next season and coutinho and sturridge will possibly regress a little more to the mean

on balance i guess his transfers are alright, aspas included (not huge peidgree but lowish risk)

i rate papadopoulous highly as an epl player but it's not an obvious transfer (leaving a cl club for liverpool, other richer parties interested)

Suarez and Madrid deserve each other tbh.

Isn't his manager Pep Guardiola's brother though? When at Ajax Suarez was always saying how playing for Barca was his big dream.

His family lives in Barca too iirc

By manager I meant his agent

The other clubs that were supposedly interested (from the same article) were Valencia and Swansea. "Bigger" doing a lot of work there.

that's not what i read last night but you know, continue your sleuthing.

borini will probably show a bit more next season and coutinho and sturridge will possibly regress a little more to the mean

on balance i guess his transfers are alright, aspas included (not huge peidgree but lowish risk)

i rate papadopoulous highly as an epl player but it's not an obvious transfer (leaving a cl club for liverpool, other richer parties interested)

― ghosts of erith spectral crackhouse slain rudeboy (Nilmar Honorato da Silva), Thursday, May 30, 2013 4:19 PM (5 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Well ye, by very recent I was basically referring to Coutinho and Sturridge. Not yet prepared to make a defence of Allen, Borini or Assaidi. I hope Rodgers has got his phase of buying old Swansea hands out of his system, for all the talk of Kyriakos Papadopoulous I can't help but remember that Ashley Williams' name keeps cropping up as well

http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/liverpool-fc-sign-spanish-striker-4028633

Athletico and Sevilla added since the c&p'd version I saw. Point still stands I guess unless you consider both of them to be bigger clubs than Liverpool.

Xpost

Paul Tomkins ‏@paul_tomkins 22 May
According to @BassTunedToRed, PL win rate with Suarez since arriving just 39%, but 62% without him. May not tell whole story, but surprising

cba checking but that is surprising, considering the goals and assists he seems to provide every time he plays. Does accommodating Suarez mess things up defensively (can't see any reason why it would)?

You'd have to look at opposition, competition, etc. behind those figures but it does like like Liverpool do ok without him and could possibly improve with £40m well spent.

Think it said Chelsea and Spurs in the one I read on Sky Sports, xpost.

athletico a bigger club tbh

Thanks, have just read that Sky Sports story and it says Reading were the main club who had asked about his availability (although does describe Chelsea and Spurs as "mooted" for which I read 'a rumour we just made up').

Rmde Liverpool haven't played enough games without Suarez for that stat to mean anything and for half that time he has been in the team he's been playing alongside Dalglish's trough of overpriced shite.

and making them wore

s

Thanks, have just read that Sky Sports story and it says Reading were the main club who had asked about his availability (although does describe Chelsea and Spurs as "mooted" for which I read 'a rumour we just made up').

seriously you need to get a life.

i mean do you ever look out the window? don't answer that.

I won't.

I mean, I could, but you'd just take it the wrong way.

coutinho and sturridge possibly the work of the new scouting team from man city? although there was also interest in sturridge in the summer during the carroll saga. assaidi was supposedly a product of the old scouting team. luis alberto from sevilla another one rumoured to be close to signing.

still very odd to me that Inter sold Coutinho at all let alone at that bargain bin price

Surly by this stage in the game the scouting networks of big EPL clubs are all equally competent and the differences in who finds bargains and who doesn't comes down to management team decisions/who the owner fancies, rather than who the head scout is.

not sure they are all equally competent. the last lot pissed £70m away on Carrol, Hendo, Adam and Downing.

the scouts arent supposed merely to say there is this interesting player called falcao

they have to give detailed reports and explicitly endorse players

a lot of english hacks still think it is an achievement just to notice a player like michu

was michu so obviously a good player? before his good season with rayo, he scored 14 goals in 4 seasons in the second division.

that's what i meant.....every scouting team will notice a midfielder scoring 15 goals in la liga, it takes a good scout to stake his reputation on it

Yeah tbf I always underestimate how difficult it must actually be to maintain your status as a top level scout. For every time I've ever made a call on a youngster that's turned out to be otm there've been at least half a dozen that I've got completely wrong. Maybe more. I never really think of it in those terms either, the accountability aspect never occurs to me (maybe I'm over-stating it and once the report is passed on the buck is somewhat passed to top brass?). But still, having to explain to an irate manager / chairman / board exactly why you thought jizzing £6 million smackeroonies away on Bosko Balaban was a good idea must be a hideous experience.

There's a thread idea in that - each find an under-20 somewhere to stake our reputation on, then follow his career Jenkstyle while our peers lol.

I suppose there's the child prodigies thread, but the stakes would be higher.

if i thought players were managed half right half the time maybe

I think we should get three each and drop one every season.

50 Shades Of Dench ‏@RalfyNine 28 May

Funniest Instagram account i follow has to be @sanchezwatt's. Some the pics he posts make my day xD
Retweeted by W A T T

I still believe in Rhain Davis

http://www.expressandstar.com/sport/wolverhampton-wanderers-fc/2013/05/31/wolves-offer-the-boss-job-to-kenny-jackett/

harrumph

http://i.imgur.com/sBDZKY0.png

Last week the law was looking for Bogarde, this time they want Michael Laudrup to appear in court in August. Laudrup supposedly 'earned' 3 million on his own 1997 transfer that he kept back from the IRS. Ajax paid the IRS but now wants the 3 million back from Laudrup.

The search add says Laudrup has 'no known address or location' lol

faith in arjan de zeeuw's detective skills was proving somewhat optimistic

http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2013/may/30/adrian-mutu-adopt-baby-sewage-pipe

Has this been posted elsewhere yet? Hadn't noticed it. <3 this guy so much, wish he was still around

nice to see he's off the charlie

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/BLmGhlDCAAELTVy.jpg:large

#prayforsuarez

andy carroll your time has come

Aw man, absolutely gutted. How are we going to find someone else that good & that much fun?