Liverpool FC Forum

If we don't finish in the top 4 we are going to have a hell of a job on our hands trying to convince a Lemar or someone of that ilk to join us in the summer. The top players just aren't interested in playing on a Thursday night on Channel 5 against some team with no vowels in their name.
We spent years trying to get into the top 4 so we could attract the top players and now we are in the CL with a £140m burning a hole in our pocket we decide to wait till the summer when me might not be in the CL? It just doesn't make sense. It's almost as if the owners are planning on selling us or something.

Make no mistake it is nowhere near a given that we will finish in the top 4, without reinforcements we are going to have to rely on players like Lallana and Chamberlain who are inconsistent and have terrible injury records. Spurs are only 3 points behind us as well, they have finished above us in 7 of the last 8 seasons and they wiped the floor with us at Wembley in our last head to head meeting. They got through a CL group that included Real Madrid and Dortmund while we made heavy weather of a p[iss] easy group mainly because our comical defence kept gifting the opposition cheap goals. Our group went down to the last game.
We moved ahead of Spurs mainly because we went on a great run (inspired by Coutinho) and they had a lot of injuries to key players like Wanyama, Vertonghen and Alderweired, those players have started to drift back though and their form has picked up, they are starting to put 4 and 5 past teams again.

I hope the club knows what it is doing, this could turn sour pretty quickly, it doesn't take much for our fan base to turn on a manager, heck they even turned on Kenny who went to 96 funerals and lifted this city off its knee's twice.

Yakka, even with a fully committed Coutinho a top four finish was never a given, and I agree it's not going to be any easier without him.

BUT

Consider,  Coutinho wanted to go last summer, this time around he put up nine million £ of his own money with another two and a half million to follow to make this move happen now and ask yourself

What would have been his re-action if we'd have said "Sorry Phil, you're staying"  ?

I know he's turned in a decent shift since his failed move in the last window, (possibly to keep Barca's interest alive ?) but i'm of the opinion given his determination to leave if we'd blocked it this time around he'd have spit his dummy big time.

Sorry to lose a player of his calibre, especially right now, but I honestly think we were left with little choice.

Why has the Coutinho thread been closed?

RBG AND Eds throw a load of abuse at the lad and there is no opportunity to respond. I don’t quite understand why anybody feels the need to have a go at him. He’s given some of his best years to a club that has done very little to convince him that we will be challenging for major honours. Taking the sale of Coutinho and the purchase of VVD into account we have shown a profit in the transfer market of approximately £35m net over the last two seasons. On the other hand United have spent £240m and City have spent £260m. Morinho recently moaned that United haven’t spent enough !!

I can fully understand Couts desire for success. The lads had enough of waiting. Liverpool made the transfer difficult. £142m is a lot of money well all said and done. Very easy for people with zero business acumen to criticise Liverpool for taking the money when the reality was that they had virtually no choice.

Good luck Couts and thanks for the memories.

I have no problem with Coutinho leaving, he's been brilliant for the club and he just wants to win trophies. I'm upset at the fact the club bought VVD to put us on a high..to actually make us fans believe we were going places and being ambitious only to then sell our best player in the same week.

devaney » Mon Jan 08, 2018 5:50 pm wrote:Why has the Coutinho thread been closed?

RBG AND Eds throw a load of abuse at the lad and there is no opportunity to respond. I don’t quite understand why anybody feels the need to have a go at him. He’s given some of his best years to a club that has done very little to convince him that we will be challenging for major honours. Taking the sale of Coutinho and the purchase of VVD into account we have shown a profit in the transfer market of approximately £35m net over the last two seasons. On the other hand United have spent £240m and City have spent £260m. Morinho recently moaned that United haven’t spent enough !!

I can fully understand Couts desire for success. The lads had enough of waiting. Liverpool made the transfer difficult. £142m is a lot of money well all said and done. Very easy for people with zero business acumen to criticise Liverpool for taking the money when the reality was that they had virtually no choice.

Good luck Couts and thanks for the memories.

I'm sure future generations of Liverpool fans will feel their hearts swell with pride when they look back on our balance sheet mate.

woof woof ! » Mon Jan 08, 2018 4:44 pm wrote:Yakka, even with a fully committed Coutinho a top four finish was never a given, and I agree it's not going to be any easier without him.

BUT

Consider,  Coutinho wanted to go last summer, this time around he put up nine million £ of his own money with another two and a half million to follow to make this move happen now and ask yourself

What would have been his re-action if we'd have said "Sorry Phil, you're staying"  ?

I know he's turned in a decent shift since his failed move in the last window, (possibly to keep Barca's interest alive ?) but i'm of the opinion given his determination to leave if we'd blocked it this time around he'd have spit his dummy big time.

Sorry to lose a player of his calibre, especially right now, but I honestly think we were left with little choice.

That's not what I'm saying mate, I'm saying where is his replacement? According to the likes of Joyce and Bascombe etc the club is seriously considering going with what we've got. Are you confident that the likes of Lallana, Hendo, Chamberlain etc have enough to take us to a top 4 finish?

Get fecking Mahrez in .. before someone else does ..

Apparantley klopp isnt interested, why would they contact a club to tell them they werent interested ?? is that normal or am i missing something here ?

devaney » Mon Jan 08, 2018 5:50 pm wrote:Why has the Coutinho thread been closed?

RBG AND Eds throw a load of abuse at the lad and there is no opportunity to respond. I don’t quite understand why anybody feels the need to have a go at him. He’s given some of his best years to a club that has done very little to convince him that we will be challenging for major honours. Taking the sale of Coutinho and the purchase of VVD into account we have shown a profit in the transfer market of approximately £35m net over the last two seasons. On the other hand United have spent £240m and City have spent £260m. Morinho recently moaned that United haven’t spent enough !!

I can fully understand Couts desire for success. The lads had enough of waiting. Liverpool made the transfer difficult. £142m is a lot of money well all said and done. Very easy for people with zero business acumen to criticise Liverpool for taking the money when the reality was that they had virtually no choice.

Good luck Couts and thanks for the memories.

Thanks for your response Dev,however I doubt your sentimental gushing would have made a jot of difference to how some supporters are feeling slightly shortchanged by his actions leading up to the transfer,not least his steadfast refusal to sit out the next 5 months and not ensure he left us with at least a tilt at 2 cups. No reds fan would have begrudged him his move in the summer if he had given the fans a second f*cking thought ,what I'm most vexed about is how what seemed like a level headed kid and one who was quoted on many occasions how he thanked God for the opportunity to play in front of these fans and to live in a City he loved ,only for his brain along with his so called devotion  turn to f*cking candy floss when Barcelona came calling. At the end of the day football is football and fans will always despise players that slither under the Anfield gates rather than walk through with their heads held high and that's the last utterance I will proffer on him or his disgraceful behavior in prostituting himself to the biggest ***** in world football.

ycsatbjywtbiastkamb » Mon Jan 08, 2018 6:01 pm wrote:

woof woof ! » Mon Jan 08, 2018 4:44 pm wrote:Yakka, even with a fully committed Coutinho a top four finish was never a given, and I agree it's not going to be any easier without him.

BUT

Consider,  Coutinho wanted to go last summer, this time around he put up nine million £ of his own money with another two and a half million to follow to make this move happen now and ask yourself

What would have been his re-action if we'd have said "Sorry Phil, you're staying"  ?

I know he's turned in a decent shift since his failed move in the last window, (possibly to keep Barca's interest alive ?) but i'm of the opinion given his determination to leave if we'd blocked it this time around he'd have spit his dummy big time.

Sorry to lose a player of his calibre, especially right now, but I honestly think we were left with little choice.

That's not what I'm saying mate, I'm saying where is his replacement? According to the likes of Joyce and Bascombe etc the club is seriously considering going with what we've got. Are you confident that the likes of Lallana, Hendo, Chamberlain etc have enough to take us to a top 4 finish?

Yakka, re read my post.

Think I said

  even with a fully committed Coutinho a top four finish was never a given, and I agree it's not going to be any easier without him.

To answer your question more directly

1, I don't know where the fk we find a "replacement" for Coutinho, maybe we just try to "adjust" ?
2, I was never confident that "the likes of Hendo and the OX" formed part of a top four team BUT imo Lallana deffo does.

Finally, despite the loss of Coutinho I'm optomistic that there are times when along with Aristotle I believe that "The Whole Can Be Greater Than The Sum Of It's Parts"   

WALK ON 

Ye, I also found it strange that we told everybody that we're NOT interested in Mahrez. Since when do clubs do that? Isn't it a good thing to have rumours going around in order to conceal our primary target?

As for Mahrez, he would have been a good signing. A proven, experienced premiership player, currently in his prime, that wouldn't have cost us the price of a small Championship club to sign. It would have calmed the fans down at least.

We've just been drawn against West Brom (at Anfield) in the Cup.

damjan193 » Mon Jan 08, 2018 6:54 pm wrote:Ye, I also found it strange that we told everybody that we're NOT interested in Mahrez. Since when do clubs do that? Isn't it a good thing to have rumours going around in order to conceal our primary target?

As for Mahrez, he would have been a good signing. A proven, experienced premiership player, currently in his prime, that wouldn't have cost us the price of a small Championship club to sign. It would have calmed the fans down at least.

Following the Southampton f**k up in the summer, I'm not surprised they've told LCFC that we're not interested.

Mahez is a decent player, but think Klopp has others in mind.

Linked heavily with Kevin Strootman today from Roma. I remember him being a huge prospect and even being linked with United for a few years.. but not heard much from him since that serious knee injury 3/4 years ago.

Anyone seen what his forms been like these last few years?

Mahrez is decent but not a player we should be looking to sign now imo. We have plenty of options for the wings and I think we need to replace the creativity we just lost. If that player isn't available now then a decent striker will allow Bobby to drop back and fill the void till we do.
Aubameyang would be a top signing 

Aubameyang would be a amazing signing but it looks like he's off to China. I think he'd prefer a move to the prem but no one seems to want him .. so looks like Dortmund are gonna cash in.