The transfer window isn’t officially open but the daggers are already out for Liverpool owners Fenway Sports Group. Three weeks. That’s all it took for the mood to go from euphoric after a fourth placed finish in the Premier League meant the club were just two positive results away from a place in the Champions League group stages.
There was a bit of relief thrown in there for good measure after it looked as though the Reds may come undone in the second half on the season and miss out in Europe’s elite competition. The final feeling after the 3-0 win over Middlesbrough on the final day of the season was hope. Hope that a Jurgen Klopp led Liverpool side with Champions League football in tow would be enough to convince some of the best in the world to join the German managers revolution at Anfield.
Three weeks, as cliche as it sounds, is a long time in football.
Once the seed of doubt is planted it’s hard to stop it flourishing – just ask Anakin Skywalker. The bitterness is all consuming, and all powerful.
It stems from FSG implying that money would not be no object this summer. Yet here we are, just into the second week of June, and the reports are already claiming the Reds are ‘baulking’ at rumoured fees.
Paul Joyce claimed Klopp will look to spend big in the summer and the Reds boss will have the ‘largest transfer kitty in the club’s history’ to spend. The Liverpool Echo backed these reports up by revealing the club could spend as much as £200 million in the summer transfer window.
New chief executive officer Peter Moore attempted to temper the expectations of the fanbase recently by basically saying just because our rivals will spend big doesn’t mean we will. It’s about wise investment. He’s right, of course, but it’s hard to forget about reports suggesting Klopp had a £200 million warchest.
For Liverpool fans it once again feels like a bad case of deja vu. As hard as it is try to ignore the Virgil van Dijk debacle for a moment. If reports are to be believed the club have shown an interest in Sporting Lisbon’s Gelson Martins, started negotiations with Roma for the signature of Mohamed Salah and bid for Lazio centre-back Stefan De Vrij.
In all three transfer situations Liverpool have tried to ‘lowball’ the selling party. Which isn’t the smartest idea when,
for the most part, it’s a sellers market.
The selling club can name whatever fee they desire and if the buying club wants the player they have to pay it. If the buying club think there’s a better value for money alternative out there then they risk getting an inferior player. After all, if he was better he would have been first on the list, right?
It’s not like going shopping for say, a TV. If you want a 42 inch tv then you can just go shopping and find the best deal. At the end of the day a 42 inch tv is a 42 inch tv no matter where or who you buy it from.
However, if you’re into gaming or watching films then you want a tv with better specs. It’s no longer just a 42 inch tv. You need the screen size and the requirements to ensure you get the best picture for your needs. There’s always layers to it and the more specifics you put in the more your options become limited.
There’s genuinely no other market in the world like the football one, there’s so many layers to player identification. It literally comes down to the finer details. You have to take into account the personality of the player, the home life situation of a player, the impact you think he would have on the squad both on and off the pitch. If he’s top of your wish list then it’s for a reason and you should be prepared to pay the going rate in what’s quickly becoming an inflated market.
Martins has a €50 million release clause and Portuguese clubs are notoriously difficult to haggle meaning, if you’re showing an interest in the winger, you must be prepared to pay the release clause. However, reports suggest Liverpool don’t even want to part with €40 million for him.
The Salah situation isn’t quite as clear. Different outlets are reporting different valuations but the one constant is Liverpool won’t pay what Roma want for the attacker. The Serie A side don’t have to sell the Egyptian either, they have other assets they can cash in on. It’s the second time the Reds have refused to go all in on the winger having tried to negotiate his signing back in 2014 but missing out to Chelsea after dithering.
Liverpool aren’t in the same category as Manchester United when it comes to spending but how can they spend more on Ivan Perisic than we’re reportedly prepared to spend on Salah?
According to Sky Italia, Lazio rejected a £17 million bid from Liverpool with the Serie A side valuing the Dutch centre-back at closer to £30 million. The Reds are basically going in 50% under his valuation. He’s been named as an alternative to van Dijk, who would have cost us anywhere between £40-60 million. If he’s second on the list after the Southampton captain then he must be rated fairly highly. A bid of £17 million seems offensive when you look at it like that.
The owners take the flack for the recruitment team they hired for not acting like a big club. It’s those in charge of the purse strings who ultimately make the decisions on player transfers. If they feel a player isn’t worth the quoted fee then they aren’t going to pay it. It’s as simple as that.
From a business point of view they may have a point, but from a fan point of view it’s the club yet again failing to walk the walk having talked the talk. The owners promised to back the manager but it appears anything over £35 million makes them feel a little light headed.
Klopp delivered and now it’s time for FSG to as well.
Virgil, Salah, Martins, de Vrij are all cover stories to pacify the fans. The actual signings will probably be Demarai Gray, Danny Shittu, Akinfenwa & LuaLua, who has a release clause of 2 Maltesers packets in his contract. We are offering one Maltesers packet and that too with Salmonella in it.
To my perspective liverpool owners have no money to spend that why they pulling out from buying players identified by the manager,knowing mind that American are economists so therefore don’t aim at marquee buy of player my funs of liverpool.just imagine,how long has salah’s issue now?so Therefore we are going up signing players of 10m and 20 plus or loan players
Its paining,bse serious clubs are almost buying their Targets,why is liverpool. My dear funs when you club is manage by Americans who are group like ours,you are finito.what i want to tell funs is Americans are profit maxima.so don’t fume on lack of transfer activities,just wait from them.
The ‘pressure’ is only from so called supporters who should know better. One question to them all 😕 When you go shopping, do you intend to spend as much as possible, pay more than items are worth, just to try and look big ? I doubt it. It’s easy to sit on the internet trying to spend other people’s money but you woildnt be so stupid with your own. Hypocrites who don’t understood either football or business
Salah takes so long because his club has over priced him. There is hardly a queue of clubs waiting to be ripped off is there. If he wants to come then he will, at the right price.
i just curse the day FSG decided and bought LFC.ever since they purchased this club nothing seems to have gone right….from coach signings to player signings…..they waste money on inferior players and hope they come good one day…..i’ve always commented on every platform relating to LFC that i find myself we are turning into a modern day arsenal…..the best solution is FSG out
I totally agree with everything you said there. FSG are an embarrassment to LFC and insult fans that pay to watch the team every week. I can’t wait for them to sell the club to owners that care about winning trophies rather than lining their own pockets.
I am quite happy with our club not being held ransom by some selling clubs. The fees some of the ask for are so insane. Some clubs obviously raise their asking price once an English club comes in. Thanks to Man City, the other club from that city and Chelsea, they think that every English club is willing to pay any price. Prices the selling club would never receive if said player would move to e.g. Germany (apart from Bayern and maybe Dortmund).
It is quite puzzling how willing to overspend some fellow Reds are. It is your money, too. We pay for these absolutely silly fees (70m for van Dijk, yeah, sure), too. Merchandise, tickets, TV fees and so on.
And they’ve expanded the stadium with that no money, right?
FSG is another hicks n gillet..
They simply squeeze whatever they can get from our club..
They have no intention of buying quality players unless they sell one of our star players..
Sell it for 75 and bring two for 50..thats what their policy is all about..
I can see you are a spoke person for them
Because they haven’t sold coutinho..they don’t know how to balance the books..i see us going for gray,gibson/keane tadic instead of Salah van dijk and Douglas Costa
Phil – The analogy of buying players with shopping is flawed and simplistic. The market forces are not the same. Demand is high, supply is low. If you want to succeed, pay the price.
Don’t forget that this was a transfer window that was meant to be our biggest ever. Therefore Virgil for £50m, Keita £40m, Salah £35m and Robertson £7m is £132m and with sales that figure is reduced to say £100m. That is actually not a lot of money in modern day football.
So Phil, before you start calling people hypocrites, first look at whether your arguments have a sound basis.
As the owner of the business, what do you go for??Quality at affordable price.Minimize cost, have quality players and reap profits.Furthermore, history is replete with a lot of facts;expensive purchases don’t guarantee success.Look at Coutinho’s purchase price and his magical at Anfield. So let LFC go for quality not price as player purchase judging criteria
what you’ve failed to understand is that quality comes at a high cost….we always use Coutinho as an example….how many games did Coutinho play at inter milan…now come to think of it,how much do you think he would have been worth now….how many of our players would move into any of the top teams in europe say Barcelona bayern madrid clubs and be regular starters,not even the Coutinho you are referring to….what we are saying is that we need upgrades in these crop of current players….look at our bench the last time in one of our matches this season,the oldest and experienced player was moreno,the commentators referred to it as “Liverpool’s kindergarten”how embarrassing