If they chuck €90m on Dembele they're absolutely mental.
They really just need to do a dawn raid on Athletico but I guess their transfer ban has mucked a lot of stuff up this summer.
I'm quietly confident Coutinho will stay, but if they're going to be getting £100m+ for him then there's a case for letting him go. Just don't sign any fucking replacements. At least none from England.
£90 million on The Ox and Jesse Lingard.
Aye, it'll be £100m split between Lanzini and Chamberlain.
Sell Coutinho for £100, buy Ross Barkley and then you've still got £35m left for deadline day to spunk on whoever's had a good game for Southampton that week.
Oh shit, I'd completely forgotten about Barkley.
Although, the seethe a deadline day discount deal (ALLITERATION!) would generate would almost make it worthwhile.
RAWK
I'd go for Dybala if I was Real.
@Shindig Vernon Anita.
Someone on RAWK said they wouldn't entertain a swap of Messi for Coutinho earlier.Originally Posted by Spikey M
RAWK
According to this French (lol) article, PSG would be prepared to buy Mbappe and/Coutinho as well now, both which would cost around 100m Euro supposedly.
http://www.leparisien.fr/sports/foot...=AD-1481423553
However true that is, I just keep thinking about that thing Wenger saying about a country owning a club, it really is a big fuck-off problem that shouldn't be allowed in the first place (but, I realize, cannot be technically stopped).
Also, how is everyone just now completely mesmerized by Coutinho? He's brilliant a lot of the time, but he also disappears from games.
Coutinho will go up a level playing with better players. Won't happen mincing about with Moreno and Klavan.
Barca basically don't have any young talent there right now. All these FM wonderkids have been shown up to be Bojan mark II.
You need to be careful with barcelona. Fabregas upon his return was deemed not good enough and not worth to wear the shirt after three years despite his good 'numbers'. Coutinho will go up a level playing at barcelona. More goals and more assists.
Coutinho will suit playing in a midfield 3 in Spain (or France) where no one will bother to pressure him or make him work defensively, but I'd like to see him try it out for a year in England. Hopefully that's what Klopp/the brass have told him. Stick around for a year and go after the world cup next year if he still wants to. It's not like Barcelona aren't going to be interested then.
Coutinho would seem to be a perfectly serviceable Iniesta replacement for two years down the line. Liverpool are a second tier club where the market is concerned, but generally seem to get their extra season out of players moving on to first tier clubs. He'll be sold next summer. I'm not sure they could afford to sell him now, irrespective of the fee, given the incomings have been underwhelming and Lallana and Sturridge are both crocked already.
Coutinho as Iniesta replacement. Never thought I'd hear that one.
You should listen more, then. You may learn something.
He'd be insane to stay a year when there's the risk of getting injured and missing the payday.
Isn't he BFFs with Neymar though? I could see him going to PSG next season
I have no idea. I'm working to the still valid hypothesis that if you're 'Latin' and any good, you'll end up at one of the two of them.
Apart from all the tax he'd probably be able to dodge in Spain I think the payday is staying where he is (or going to PSG as suggested).
Speaking of which, Corporate Mourinho was putting his MIND GAMES on Madrid earlier over Bareth Gale in a lol way. I don't talk about players... But if he doesn't play tomorrow then they obviously don't want him.
Why on earth has it taken van Dijk until a week before the start of the season to hand in a transfer request? If he genuinely wanted to move "to play European football and further my career", then why not hand in a request on the 1st July.
All this fucking about just to potentially get an extra few quid from Southampton from the loyalty bonus? It's fucking stupid.
10% of a potential 70m is alot of cash.
Hate those social media posts which are quite obviously written by an agent.
Feel like something has changed recently though as the post mentioned top clubs and previously it's only been Liverpool mentioned.
Will be interesting how this one plays out now, the club wanted VvD to hand in a request so we don't look quite so bad. Now it's just a case of getting the maximum amount of money. 50m? 70m? Feel like any number is possible with the way the market has been this season.
I get that 7m is a lot, but he will also receive 4-5m signing on fee from the other side, I would have thought. At one point, you have to make a professional decision and sort this shit out. Hopefully Liverpool have faxed over a bid this morning and don't fuck about with this. If we lose him to another club it will be very annoying.
Who will Southampton be signing as his replacement? You fancy Sakho?
He's going to Everton, as has always been the case. Top club on the rise.
Keane and van Dijk
Haven't been following the newz but if that's the shit they're peddling then Barcelona really have no game plan.
Of the more well known players I'd say Coutinho is probably the closest you would get to getting an Iniesta replacement.
Surprised that coutinhio hasnt won a single trophy since he has been at liverpool.
He's half the player Iniesta is. Public opinion on him shifts every 6 months; he doesn't even have the same playing style as Iniesta. Eriksen's far more similar to Iniesta, although he too is obviously not nearly as good
You'll never replace Iniesta, just as they haven't replaced Xavi. Christ knows what happens when Messi comes to the end of the line. Mass mourning, I suppose.
Adam Lallana would be a better replacement for Iniesta than Coutinho and he wouldn't be a very good one.
If Neymar had stayed then the obvious solution would have been to have Lionel 'Leo' Messi drop into midfield and replace him. So that is another thing that transfer has ruined for them.
Have they put in an official bid for Leon Britton yet?
I'd like to see us try and sign Sakho but we wouldn't over pay so can't see it happening.
Hopefully we sign someone experienced to help develop Stephens.
Remember when Kevin Keegan wanted to bring Iniesta to Newcastle? Those were the days.
It's not like teams always replace players with exact replicas. But Iniesta's about as unique as they come so it is more difficult. Coutinho doesn't strike me as someone who can control a game against Real Madrid, Juventus etc. but perhaps I haven't seen him enough. He'd be a safer bet at left wing, I think.
Coutinho regularly goes missing, he's nowhere near top 4 clubs in the world level.
Coutinho is a 10 not an 8. It's as simple as that, doesn't move the ball on fast enough, slows down play etc. and that's ignoring his famous lack of consistency. It's not about replacing like for like, he just has a completely different skill set to the position required.
Barcelona have changed their style and system at least 5 times since messi came to town. Im sure they will have no problem changing their style again and becoming successful once iniesta calls it quits.
Since when has Barcelona changed their style?
I thought the style was all part of this Mes que un club bullshit and that essentially all they ever care about is passing the ball around for a million years, and that's how they will do it forever and ever.
They are (were) a lot more direct under Enrique than any of the tiki-taka mob previously.
The overwhelmingly obvious candidate to replace Iniesta is, of course, Alex Iwobi.
No because he is also a 10 and a not that great one at that. Hard getting basic player positions correct.
Wut
10 is not a position. The only attacking positions are right mid, left mid, centre mid and STRIKER.
Several times.
Remember the early days when eto'o, messi and ronaldinho had no interest in defending at all. They used to stand at the halfway line when barcelona were defending corners. Pedro came up and they played with all that high pressing. They moved messi central and played the 'false 9'. Saurez came and they played him central and moved messi back out wide. Those changes have all happened over the past 10 years.
Sir Henry Winter has just stormed back into the fray with a piece entitled 'Brighton will be a force for good'. I've missed him.
I'd never heard of a 'number 8' before Klopp started banging on about it in the aftermath of that goal Can scored against Watford. Is it really a thing then?
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