Liverpool are spending a whole lot of money but they do need centre-halves if they are to defend their title.
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Worried about Liverpool’s defence
1) What’s a 3 card trick? It’s a 5 card trick surely. Or is that the point… and I have missed it?
2) Liverpool actually worry me a little.
Liverpool buying attackers, attacking midfielders and attacking full backs looks lovely on paper..
Selling Quansah (the new Van Dijk for me – but seems Arne disagrees) Nat (head breeze blocks all day, love that lad) Philips and Konate looking to be off (what’s happened behind the scenes that Trent, Ibou and Diaz have all decided this is not the club for them? That worries me a little too) leave us with Virgil and Joe (Made from the bits of Darren Anderton that still work) Gomez and Rhys Williams, who hasn’t really managed to step up in the few chances he’s had
Titles are generally won based on a good defence and while we might score plenty this year, the defensive side really does concern me (unless the plan is to play Alli and Marmalade together and only 9 outfielders……)
I also totally agree that Darwin will score 30-40 goals this year, for someone, He just can’t be as unlucky (yes yes he was! stop laughing at the back) as he was last year. Part of me wants him to stay and become the cult legend that he should be.
I can’t see us signing Isak, this seems quite indecisive for us at the moment. Lots of actual strikers on the market unusually this year and people seems not to want them for some reason, Sesko, Gyokeres, Ekitike, Osimhen etc etc
If you really need a striker, they are there to be purchased, Why are we trying to buy one that isn’t (allegedly) for sale in Isak and risk getting no one?
Al – LFC Should be fun season for sure. Chelsea look good (though will be knackered?) and Arse may have a striker.. City are City all the boxes ticked for a title race.. but can we DEFEND it.. literally and metaphorically
Liverpool title is enough, actually
Two things can be true at once. Liverpool can be spending at an unprecedented level, for their history. And winning ‘just’ a Premier League will be more than good enough in the coming season.
The first point doesn’t need a lot of explaining. Anyone who’s ever spent much time in the mailbox knows there’ve been endless Liverpool net spend, salary spend, discussion since the mid 2000s at least. That’s because, for all of them being one of the biggest clubs in the world since Shankly did his thing, they’ve rarely spent like it. Hells, they’ve rarely had the ability to spend like it.
When we were linked to Wirtz, I didn’t believe it. And continued to not really believe until it was firmly established as happening. And this is after bidding a billion on Caicedo a couple of years ago. The idea we’d get one of the best and brightest in the world is just foreign to me. I’m used to them either being much younger (and bigger gambles) previously failed (and so not trusted) or just being a relative unknown.
Doing it once was crazy. Barely credible. We’d signed that level player two or three times since 2000. To do it twice in a window is madness. I’m giddy that it seems real. Wild.
And yet, winning the league is hard. Winning it twice in a row is even harder. As much as I’ll never let a City fan forget how much (alleged) cheating was involved putting that group together, it’s still an accomplishment to do what they did on the field.
Here’s the list of people who done it since WW2: Pep, Fergie (a lot), Jose (once), Paisley, Busby, Bob Jackson and Stan Cullis.
Dalgish didn’t. Wenger didn’t. Shankley didn’t. Clough didn’t. Revie didn’t.
Maybe if Slot wins another league, I’d be thinking differently. The hedonic treadmill is real. But right now, if you said “win the league but embarrassing lose in every other cup competition”, I’d bite your hand off.
Of course I would. It’s the league. What are you talking about?
Andrew M. London
PS. The same holds true for the Champions League. Win, but somehow finish 7th? Don’t care, sold
Could anybody do a worse job than Ratcliffe?
I am 42 years old today.
That means as a Man United fan all of my formative years and a lot of my adult life we just won all the time. Maybe not all the trophies we actually should have but we went in to every game against anybody either reasonably expecting to win or to have a better than even chance.
I can tell you honestly that never made me personally entitled. I have always found the specific moments and the experiences bigger than the actual trophy presentations. Hard to explain but Macheda scoring against Villa is a much bigger memory for me at OT than any of the title presentations. Raw emotion. Same recently with Maguire against Lyon watching it on TV. Not winning Europa in the end was disappointing obviously, but that moment was very special.
For me as well, Henry and Bergkamp were two of the most special players to ever play the game. I can see a bit beyond blind loyalty. So with all this said just wanted to say that hand on heart, I cannot believe in a sports, business, hobby or even a fantasy gaming environment that anyone could do a worse job of running a football club than Sir Jim Radcliffe. We are extremely lucky that football really is not “life or death”.
It would take me in my professional life between 1 to 2 hours to agree an internal budget for any asset on Earth and then a workshop lasting maybe 2 to 3 hours to negotiate that sale.
Some of you need to think how long a drunk conversation takes in a pub to come up with a list of players you could realistically sign for your club and how much they would cost and then translate that in to ultra high value individuals backed by legal council doing it. It is a disgrace that an institution like Manchester United can ever have been brought to this. Please feel free to laugh at us but at some point, it would be good to worry about if it can happen to us who is next? Because we were rich as a business without oil and successful as a team with players no one else rated and they still ruined us because they could.
Two months to fail to sign a Brentford one-season wonder. MUFC.
Dave
READ: Only West Ham more miserable than Man Utd in Premier League mood rankings
Man City are a ruthless club
City fan here, happy for Cole Palmer and Chelsea to beat the best team in the world. It’s a shame that I know that Palmer probably wouldn’t have been the player he is today, if he stayed with us.
Truth be told, Manchester City are not an academy product team like Barcelona. All our best players since the Abu Dhabi era like Kompany, Aguero, Kevin, Rodri, Haaland etc were all bought, not developed. Barcelona seem to actively push their academy players in the playing 11, our academy seems to be a sort of profit machine i.e. A mini Benfica or Dortmund.
It’s a bit sad to see these players like James McAtee come to the realisation, that after so many years at the academy, it’s next to impossible to get in the playing 11. I feel that Foden could burn the PL if he played for United or Tottenham, where he would probably be the biggest star. Here it will be difficult for a mercurial no 10, simply because it will be his responsibility to feed the best striker in the world. If he doesn’t do that properly enough, Cherki and Reijnders are just waiting for that spot.
Ultimately, No point whining about these problems, the team does its main job quite professionally i.e actually winning things (never mind last season). The reality that we may sell Grealish makes me realise that this is a ruthless club, which does cater to fans but up to a point. Farewell Jack, I don’t care about the 100 million, the treble season was worth every pound.
Victor MCFC (Will there ever be a season when all 6 teams of the big 6 can be title contenders)
Know your Villa…
Re Dave Tickner and the Premier League Mood Ranking
…allows Villa to continue for now looking to a positive future without having to do anything as unpleasant as sell some players like Newcastle did last year, the damn fools.
Sorry what? Douglas Luiz, Diaby and Duran were all sold.
Our net spend since the start of the 21/22 season is less than £100m. Newcastle’s is over £370m.
Our revenue is a massive problem and not having an oil state give us favourable sponsorship will keep causing us problems. We speculated to accumulate and just fell short in the league and are dealing with the consequences.
Don’t let facts get in the way of a good story though.
Paul O’Sullivan
(At no point does Dave write that Aston Villa did not make any sales last season; what he writes is that Villa have avoided having to sell – like Newcastle did last summer with Elliot Anderson – for PSR purposes this particular summer (which is what is relevant for the mid-summer moods ranking). Not really sure where all that anger is coming from – Ed)
So bad, it’s good
One of the reasons I keep coming back to F365 is the quality of the writing. Even when you’re bad, you’re good. I mean, there are mixed metaphors and then there’s, well, this:
‘And since then, with United still scraping together coppers from down the back of Sir Jim’s sofa and none of the decks cleared of the various highly-paid members of the unwanted bomb squad, their transfer window is at an impasse.’
Er, what? But sort of glorious. How do you do it?
Matt Pitt
…F365: “The last Premier League winner signed by every club – you genuinely won’t guess Liverpool…”
[Posts picture of Alex Manninger in Liverpool kit right above headline]
Bravo.
Matt D, London
Where’s the Palace deep dive?
I’m genuinely incredibly disappointed with F365. A constant deluge of articles on the low hanging fruit that is the CWC the last few months. The constant updates about Alexander Isak and repackaging of Fabrizio Romano tweets. Holier than thou misery from Johnny Nic.
The quality of your content has fallen off the cliff. I’m a Palace fan and I expected at least some sort of semi-informed article about the shit show that is Textor’s club structures and damage he’s done not just to us but to Lyon.
Never mind the fact Textor’s done more favours for Marianakis who actively wants to keep us out of the Europa leagues.
Barely a peep because apparently we all want more articles about Isak. I’m sure the metrics confirm this depressingly.
Aidan
(Genuine apology for this but it is largely down to staffing levels. We never had the right staff at the right time to adequately cover the Palace issue in any detail. We are a small editorial team and not all editorial staff have the same skill-set – Ed)
Ernie Wise was no stooge
I’ve read some god-awful shite on these pages in the last 20 years. Kevin Villa’s suggestion that Ernie was just there to make up the numbers in Morecambe & Wise might be the worst piece of shite I’ve read on these pages. Put some respect on his name and the timeless sketches what he wrote
Kevin, not Villa
Great Mailbox, though
It was indeed a top-drawer mailbox on Wednesday. Thanks to all.
Really helps add to just gossip & transfers between the European and FA cup finals and the Community Shield .
Peter, Andalucia
