It's time for a January Window thread.
Going in a wild direction by kicking things off not with a player rumour, but with murmurings of Dan Ashworth to Manchester United as Director of Football.
It's time for a January Window thread.
Going in a wild direction by kicking things off not with a player rumour, but with murmurings of Dan Ashworth to Manchester United as Director of Football.
Lloris off to LAFC.
Now that Ferguson has gone to shit, any chance of a loan to the Championship in this window?
Conor Gallagher to Spurs for around £40m seems lol for all involved.
Terrible deal for Spurs, also a terrible deal for us as despite his various shortcomings he's the only person in the current team who shows any form of leadership or energy most of the time.
However as we know, FFP budgets for investing in Ligue 2 youth is the more important consideration than anything on the field.
Todd simply can't resist that pure profit. Presumably James, Colwill & Maatsen will be out the door in the summer.
Speaking of simply cant resist. Sir Jim has extended Lindleof another two years.
Lindelof is fine as a backup CB.
I think it's a number of things.
He's not as mobile as that role sometimes needs for Brighton, and I don't think he's been 100% fit much this season. He's only young so it could be a growing thing. Pedro has also been playing particularly well, but with both Mitoma and Adingra out for a while I would expect to see more of Ferguson.
Bin Bag wants to give Jonny Evans a new deal too
Those bastard Glazers at it again.
Jonny Evans is fine as a backup CB.
Gahahahahaha
We've recalled Fabio Carvalho and Owen Beck from their loans. Carvalho wasn't getting any game time in Leipzig. I suspect there's an attitude problem at play. He scored a very late winner against Newcastle for us and then vanished from match day squads. We sent him to Leipzig and then immediately activated Dirty Doms release clause, so they maybe a little salty over that, but I think attitude problem is more likely.
Owen Beck is a left back that has been apparently smashing it for Dundee. I suspect he'll play the cup games to rest Goe Jomez. Tsimikas is out for quite some time and Robertson has recently been ruled out of all of January.
Oh and #Mbappe2024 or something.
Yeah, he’s been the best full back in the league by a mile. The cunt.
Isn’t he related to Ian Rush?
I'm a twit
Likely with a sweetner fee for the annoyance.
What's that Scotch rightback Liverpool bought up to these days?
Robertson? He plays every week.
What happened to that other one. That Cafu one?
Neco Williams? He went to Forest.
Although I'm not sure on the Cafu comparison.
The Scouse Cafu was Jon Flanagan, who battered his Mrs and pled guilty to it in 2018. Club quickly shuffled him off to Rangers. Went to Belgium, then Denmark after but has retired citing persistent knee troubles.
Liverpool have ruined Carvalho, and it was obvious it was going to happen. Could have stayed with us and got first-team football consistently in the Premier League but has instead been left on the fringes, barely getting game time and being played out of position.
The smart ones avoid moves to big clubs too young. Very few footballers are smart, they/their agents just want the money right now, but look at Aaron Hickey going to Bologna and Brentford for game time, and fitness permitting he'll probably end up at a big club anyway and actually be ready.
Yeah, fucking idiot choosing Liverpool over the notoriously rich harvesting ground for youth talent that is Fulham FC.
Ryan Sessegnon did the same, of course. They just can't resist dooming their careers.
Maradona had 206 games in Argentina by the time he went to Europe.
Sterling and Elliott did it too to much more success whereas had they been plying their trade at their dogshit clubs instead, they'd have stalled their career a la Olise, MGW, etc. The jump to making it at top clubs is probably easier if you're already excelling as a teenager than if you want to earn that move in your 20s.
Yeah, Harvey Elliot has been really successful being a 5th choice midfielder behind Jones, Endo and even Slobz
He's what, 20 and regularly featuring for Liverpool? Not sure you can really put him in the total failure bin. Would probably be further ahead in his development without that bad injury he got as well. The idea that 19 and 20 year olds are going to be breezing in to clubs at elite level is daft. Yeah, fine, maybe at midtable failurefests like Chelsea or United, but at the sharp end those players are rare.
The success rate from such a move is probably 20%? These guys all believe they will be part of that 20%, because that self-belief is part of what's made them that good in the first place, but the reality is that most will fail and are better off staying at mid-tier clubs and playing regularly. Call it the tragedy of the elite, or something.
Tell you who's a wonderful example, actually: Mo Salah.
Like you say, the belief they'll succeed, plus presumably the financial side, plus the fact that there is no guarantee you get picked up in 2 years time after slogging it out wherever all make the decision a no brainer even if cold hard logic is against you.
Salah was good enough when he went to Chelsea first time around.
Reguillon has been sent back in shame to Spurs.
Your career could end/be fucked with one unfortunate injury. Why not take the big payday when you have the chance?
You could also argue at a bigger club you'd be training with better players who you could learn more from.
That was a pretty good Chelsea team, so being a great tricky winger in Le Tobleronoi doesn't mean much.
It was a classic example of going to a big club being the wrong move. Big club managers generally don't trust the youth. Even Klopp only does because it's cheaper for Fenway or because there are rules about squad lists and homegrown players. If it was down to Klopp he'd have all kinds of 28 year old German legends doing the running around instead of Harvey Elliott and Curtis Jones.
Haaland did it right. Odegaard wrong.
Last edited by Jimmy Floyd; 02-01-2024 at 04:34 PM.
Jude Bellingham is another cracking example of getting it right, although he may prove to be so good that he'd have got into any first team whatever his age.
Ole Gunnar Binman would have had him running around like a headless chicken covering Paulp Ogba or sitting on the bench because 'You know Scholesy didn't play every week until he was...'
On that point then there's Sir Gareth deciding that Bellingham needed to be tried on the left wing for fear of breaking up whatever pedestrian three were in favour with him in central midfield at the time.
Maybe there's a thread in that - one thing managers do that tells you they're not up to the job. Fuck it, more freds > less freds I'll post it.