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The Summer Transfer Window POST MORTEM THREAD

ToDarrenIsToDo

Well-Known Member
Aug 22, 2017
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The €180m (***) that Liverpool have spent this year are all “jury still out”.

Otherwise we have ...

Successes

Van Dijk* - we can’t afford a player for that much
Salah*
Robertson
Mane*
Wijnaldum
Firmino*
Gomez
Milner


Jury still out

Ox
Clyne

Failures

Karius
Klaven
Benteke*
Ings
Grujic
Bogdan


Liverpool do have a really good hit rate - particularly with expensive signings. Benteke is the only failure.

* The stars represent signings that are more expensive than our record. There are 8 of them over the past 3 seasons. That highlights the fact they are in a different league financially to us (with the rest of the top 6). Remove the starred players and their record looks like ours!

Props to Liverpool who have the best record in the league with signings - very astute. But they have spent a huge amount on 8 occasions which is something we simply cannot afford to do!
Comparing our transfers with Liverpools is unfair as you highlight. They are financially in a different world to us. We have to play a game in the window one notch lower
 

gibbospurs

SC Supporter
Aug 28, 2010
4,978
6,576
I’ve only read a few posts in this thread tbf, but how the hell are you lot up to 52pages? We didn’t do any business. What the hell are you all posting about? Season has started. Get over it. Anyone who think Levy is spending 70m on Zaha clearly needs a smoke and a pancake.
 

ToDarrenIsToDo

Well-Known Member
Aug 22, 2017
1,665
6,291
We can be proud of how far we've come whilst also criticizing the transfer strategy, the two aren't mutually exclusive.

£135.9m spent on Nkoudou, Wanyama, Sissoko, Janssen, Moura, Aurier & Llorente. The only real quality signings talent wise I think have been Foyth & Sanchez and Juan is still to get going with us. I stand corrected, it has been pretty shit over the past 3 years, none of them 7 mentioned that take up the bulk of our money spent over the past 3 years get anywhere near our first XI when everyone's on song & fully fit IMO.

I retract my comment. Astonishing that we are still where we are when you look at that. Not many out of those 7 we'd realistically get our money back on as well :s
 

allatsea

Well-Known Member
Aug 31, 2012
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Liverpool so wonderful with their signings apparently yet they consistently finish below us in the table. How is that possible ?
 

Chris Flynn

Well-Known Member
Aug 3, 2012
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3,988
Comparing our transfers with Liverpools is unfair as you highlight. They are financially in a different world to us. We have to play a game in the window one notch lower
plus liverpool gave up on a new stadium and went down the short term 'make one stand a bit bigger' route
 

pablo73

Well-Known Member
Dec 6, 2006
3,978
13,596
We've finished 3rd, 2nd & 3rd whilst trying to facilitate a new stadium build mate. What's your point?

As I think you've since acknowledged that is mostly in spite of rather than because of the signings we have made over the past couple of years. Only a couple of them are even regularly challenging the first team and the majority we are struggling to shift without making a significant loss on. People talk about our transfer policy helping to get us to where we are and that is true but you have to go back three years to find a decent transfer window that really improved the squad. What has happened in the meantime has been very poor however you gauge it.
 

pablo73

Well-Known Member
Dec 6, 2006
3,978
13,596
Liverpool so wonderful with their signings apparently yet they consistently finish below us in the table. How is that possible ?

Overall I'd say that we did better than them in terms of transfers up until 2-3 years ago. Since then it's clear to anyone who doesn't have their head buried in the sand that they have significantly improved their squad while we have not. If we finish above them again this season massive credit will go to Poch and the players but it will be in spite of our transfer business since 2015, not because of it.
 

Japhet

Well-Known Member
Aug 30, 2010
19,232
57,386
Comparing our transfers with Liverpools is unfair as you highlight. They are financially in a different world to us. We have to play a game in the window one notch lower


My neighbour has a brand new Merc and my car is 12 years old. He has new stuff delivered on a daily basis and we are 'financially in different worlds'. The thing is though, all my stuff is bought and paid for and all his stuff is on credit. If for any reason he stops earning, he'll lose the lot whereas I could manage just fine for a while. Liverpool have chosen to splurge cash on players whereas we have spent heavily on infrastructure. The other thing is that fans and players want trophies and titles whereas owners, the Board and shareholders want sustained growth and would go nuts if Levy gambled too heavily on transfers.
 

Tit&Ham

Well-Known Member
Aug 19, 2012
809
1,699
Just a different pov (i have no clue): with the large investment in the stadium we could either:
Buy one average player at 30-40 mill a year,
Or
Take on year off the transfer mania and Get a huge profit.

If we get top 4 this year, we could potentially be very Secure financially and start buying players again...

(Im not sure I believe this myself)
 

thelak

Well-Known Member
Aug 31, 2012
2,166
6,950
Why do we keep playing Gkn in ore season - he then impresss/score some goals and then never gets anywhere near the first team thereafter
 

spud

Well-Known Member
Sep 2, 2003
5,850
8,794
Why do we keep playing Gkn in ore season - he then impresss/score some goals and then never gets anywhere near the first team thereafter
This pre-season it was probably because, with all of the players returning late after the World Cup, if we didn't play him and other 'deadwood' we would have had to limit ourselves to five-a-side competitions.
 

ToDarrenIsToDo

Well-Known Member
Aug 22, 2017
1,665
6,291
Just a different pov (i have no clue): with the large investment in the stadium we could either:
Buy one average player at 30-40 mill a year,
Or
Take on year off the transfer mania and Get a huge profit.

If we get top 4 this year, we could potentially be very Secure financially and start buying players again...

(Im not sure I believe this myself)

Good theory but if we don't get top 4 this year not many of our assets we'd be willing to part with will be worth very much meaning we'll have to sell a fair few in order to get money to buy higher quality. Think of our least desired 14-15 players and how much they will be worth in 12 months time. Not securing Champions League football will possibly put a big dent in funds and money back from player sales in 10 months time
 

Japhet

Well-Known Member
Aug 30, 2010
19,232
57,386
Just a different pov (i have no clue): with the large investment in the stadium we could either:
Buy one average player at 30-40 mill a year,
Or
Take on year off the transfer mania and Get a huge profit.

If we get top 4 this year, we could potentially be very Secure financially and start buying players again...

(Im not sure I believe this myself)


I'm not sure if Levy is gambling on the transfer fees bubble bursting at some point. No sign of that happening so far but the plain fact is that 20m buys next to nothing in the transfer window but still buys more or less what it did a fair while back in stadium construction. With the stadium price spiralling I think this could be a factor in our lack of transfer activity.
 

allatsea

Well-Known Member
Aug 31, 2012
8,865
16,053
I'm not sure if Levy is gambling on the transfer fees bubble bursting at some point. No sign of that happening so far but the plain fact is that 20m buys next to nothing in the transfer window but still buys more or less what it did a fair while back in stadium construction. With the stadium price spiralling I think this could be a factor in our lack of transfer activity.

Seems to me that some of the bigger (richer ?) PL clubs are making something of a stand against the spiralling transfer fees. Man U wouldn't pay what we wanted for Toby, Man City got the fee down for Mahrez before buying, and lost out on Jorginho because of the fee. We have obviously refused to do deals that weren't considered fair value. Arsenal shopped in the relative bargain basement and so on.
 
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