Liverpool FC Team Talk, Gossip, Rumours 2024/25

paulie21

In fairness, Fabinho has a decent record from the spot and he should get the chance if Mo is taken off them.

Riesen_Meal

I am hearing it's just the opening offer, glad we getting stuff done so early 😋

https://twitter.com/DaveOCKOP/status/1645758283196637184?s=20

DaveOKop deleted his Tweet

Said we put our first bid in on Jude... 👀

McFly85

We won’t get Bellingham, and at this point I’m not sure he’s what we should be going for.

He is one of the most hyped players in world football, he will be extremely expensive and will essentially be expected to fix our dysfunctional midfield. Any injury and we’re back to where we are now.

I would much prefer to get 2 midfielders in(3 if possible but unrealistic).

Electric Nitwit

I really don't want to be a tinfoil-hatted conspiracy nut, but the reporting of the incident with Robbo and the linesman has taken a very biased turn, hasn't it?

BBC - The assistant referee involved in an incident with Liverpool's Andy Robertson has been punished "enough", says the head of a referees' charity.

Times - At Anfield on Sunday, Constantine Hatzidakis snapped. It had to happen, sooner or later. How often must they feel like doing it? How many of Hatzidakis’s colleagues were sitting at home, thinking: 'Go on, Constantine, son. Now stick the boot in.'

Mail (I know, sorry) - Constantine Hatzidakis did NOT 'snap' at Andy Robertson and his actions do not warrant a ban from officiating

I can't help but feel that the fact it was Robbo, the fact it was us, is driving the narrative away from "what the hell was he doing?"

For what it's worth, I obviously think he was wrong but I think a few games out of the spotlight in the lower leagues is all that's called for. But it has to be called out as wrong

That said, I also believe that refs need more protection and respect in general and that he shouldn't have been in that position. Robbo didn't do anything particularly bad, and certainly not unusual, but I do think the fact that it's commonplace is wrong

Summitatem

We definitely need two starting midfielders for next season. Fabinho and Henderson can't both be practically guaranteed starting spots when "fit" going forward.

Both can contribute but they can't be expected to be the engine room any longer.

Fitz*

Southampton might be in a bit of trouble financially, irrespective of their league status. Romeo Lavia might be worth looking at their. I'm not sure of his official HG status but he has played in England since 2020 and is only 19.

Given Chelsea's FFP struggles too, Mount is the obvious one to look at there too. Especially when he has his contract empasse.

Both could be picked up for under £65m combined I would think.

Brining in those 2, in addition to Jude, would be a massive midfield overall. All young, hungry, dynamic players who seem to be robust and have great experience for their ages.

Luxembourgo

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120466050#Comment_120466050

Latvia will be back to City to replace Phillips

mosstin

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120465318#Comment_120465318

Would be worried that he'd lose interest during his run up based on this season's form.

Riesen_Meal

https://twitter.com/JanAageFjortoft/status/1645856234279522314?s=20

Nice to be in the race I suppose

Here's 20p and I'll trade you 2 sheep and a cow Dortmund

antimatterx

...

antimatterx

https://twitter.com/ivan_schwakoff/status/1645865262300778498?s=46&t=zdElaPjHqcB2gzssa9R_hw

Hey Jude

TitianGerm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120466583#Comment_120466583

Is that lad not a massive spoofer?

antimatterx

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120466595#Comment_120466595

I want to believe

giveitholly

These lads throw enough mud and eventually some of it sticks

Osmosis Jones

He'll be leaning by midnight

Utopia Parkway

Joyce has just torpedoed the Bellingham talk.

Went from we've put in a bid to it being all over in about an hour.

Liverpool are drawing up a list of alternative targets to Jude Bellingham after deciding that the scale of their summer rebuild precludes a move for the England midfielder.

The merits of spending far in excess of £100 million on a single player have been widely debated at Anfield as Jürgen Klopp looks to revive the fortunes of his side after an underwhelming campaign that has left them adrift of the Premier League’s top four.

Klopp has never disguised his admiration for Bellingham and talked the player up last summer, while the Borussia Dortmund star was understood to be enamoured by Liverpool’s long-standing interest in him as he considers his future.

Fitz*

Joyce (and others) also torpedoed the Alisson and Thiago transfers.

A few well connected journos have come out with the same story at the same time. It's clearly a briefed story from the club, or someone close to the club.

At this moment in time, I'm chosing to believe that it might be a negotiation tactic, or trying to keep Liverpool's name out of the talk of a transfer. Dortmund are in a title race, they don't want the transfer status of their main man in the public eye every week. Keep him, and Dortmund happy by not being invovled in that public transfer stuff. Negotiate in private when the time is right.

Osmosis Jones

It'll be a summer of smoke and mirrors

Electric Nitwit

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120466792#Comment_120466792

Add Pearce to that...

https://twitter.com/JamesPearceLFC/status/1645882180558626819?t=uxDPlex_ZdCIDICiAzdNSw&s=19

TitianGerm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120466912#Comment_120466912

Or Liverpool made an offer and Dortmund said the asking price is €175m (or something else ridiculous) and Liverpool have just said no.

If they don't get him this summer then they've made an absolute balls of our midfield on a pipe dream.

jones

This Bellingham thing is bonkers in an hour it went from submitting a bid to we've moved on. What did they think it would cost he's one of the most sought after young players in the world. This season just looks more and more like a huge error.

It might not even be the worst thing not getting him and the money it would take but we've leveraged this season on signing him in the summer and torpedoed our top 4 chances in the meantime. Mental stuff

Osmosis Jones

To me it just looks like we had an initial bid rejected and then had our usual PR guys put out a statement that we didn't want him anyway.

Whether we get him or not I'm 100% sure Liverpool have not actually withdrawn all interest.

giveitholly

........

https://twitter.com/SamMcGuire90/status/1645880824418516992?t=fCMfVSNQ7Q-0--TREL7rTQ&s=19

It is a Dunne Deal

Liverpool have moved on from Jude Bellingham in much the same way as I have moved on from Ariana Grande.

ratracer

I don’t know if JB is the right player, right now, ( as it kills the rest of the transfer budget and we kinda need more than one player) but I kinda expect his signing to be announced as soon as the Bundesliga finishes!!!

Damien360

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120467136#Comment_120467136

Don't think she would die for you or want to be stuck with U.

......I'll get me coat.

giveitholly

Thank god we got Konate and not Upcamecano

Riesen_Meal

https://twitter.com/CalvesLikeShaq/status/1645896145590165504?s=20

Haunted by that at the weekend... 😬

robwen

James Pearce Athletic article

Liverpool have pulled out of the race to sign Borussia Dortmund midfielder Jude Bellingham this summer.

The England international had been the club’s top transfer target as manager Jurgen Klopp prepares to overhaul his squad after a disappointing season.

However, given the scale of the rebuild required, Liverpool have now decided to channel their resources elsewhere.

The cost of the deal was deemed prohibitive with Dortmund demanding a transfer fee of around £130million with wages and agents fees on top.

That would have taken up a considerable chunk of Klopp’s transfer kitty in a summer when Liverpool, who look set to miss out on the financial windfall of qualifying for the Champions League, need to effectively sign an entire new midfield and strengthen their backline.

Senior Anfield sources have indicated that following lengthy discussions, the deal “stopped making sense” and they felt they couldn’t afford to put all their eggs in one basket, especially with no guarantees that Bellingham will even leave Dortmund this summer or pick Anfield as his destination of choice.

The Athletic revealed last month that Liverpool signing Bellingham was looking increasingly unlikely, with them reluctant to get involved in a bidding war. Real Madrid and Manchester City have also been heavily linked with buying him.

Speaking about Bellingham in December, Klopp said: “I don’t like to talk about money when you talk about a player like him.

“Everyone can see he is just exceptional. If you mention to someone who has no clue about football or who knows about football and has not watched it for a while ‘how old do you think Jude Bellingham is?’ I don’t think anyone would get even close to his age. They would say 28 or 29 because he plays so mature. He played an exceptional World Cup. Absolutely exceptional.”

Liverpool will now focus their attention on other targets including Chelsea’s Mason Mount, who is set to leave Stamford Bridge this summer. Brighton duo Moises Caicedo and Alexis Mac Allister, along with Bayern Munich’s Ryan Gravenberch, are also admired by the club’s recruitment staff

noodler

It's the right call. We need three midfielders, not one, I just done know who they are.

Ottoman_1000

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120467283#Comment_120467283

Barella right mid, Mikel Merino left and Khéphren Thuram as a defense midfielder would improve us significantly...Barella and Merino could be had for decent value as Inter and Athletico are up to their t*ts in depth and it's been widely reported they will be looking to cash in on both!

Bellingham made no sense in our current predicament.

Had zero hope of him coming tbh. Surprised it was even still a story.

BorneTobyWilde

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mD40ZUZGecM

Involved in literally everything we achieved or almost achieved, how do you rate this '' midfield display''..

Summitatem

No taking Jude to Blackpool so...

brevity

This Twitter thread sums it up perfectly

https://twitter.com/dmlynch/status/1645902572392431617?s=20

martyos121

I’m still quite confident we’ll sign Jude, whether it’s good value or not is another story.

We’ve been here before, multiple times.

If we ended our interest in Bellingham, there’s zero chance the club would feed that info to the likes of Joyce because it would weaken our position in negotiating for other midfielders.

This is just the club’s way of keeping the negotiations with Dortmund out of the spotlight, which suits both clubs and the player.

Summitatem

I admire folks who reckon the club are shrewd as fooook these days. I fear we are in danger of becoming a joke on and off the pitch.

Ye reckon the club are feeding to journalists we are still interested but write articles to say we aren't? Or the club knows journalists will write this crap anyway without inside nudges?

Lefty2Guns

If Klopp was told that he had a specific amount of money to spend and JB was taking up 75% of that fund, I understand why they are walking away from it. We need a minimum of 3 proven midfielders in the team.

jones

I don't buy this is all some transfer game at all. Dortmund will have no end of suitors for Bellingham, Liverpool have no leverage in this at all so why pretend that it's over. All that would do would encourage City/Madrid or whoever to step up their offers.

Made an absolutely **** of this season and it appears to be for no reason at all now. Real questions need to be asked of Liverpool management and owners. Massive summer ahead

The White Wolf

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120467552#Comment_120467552

You'd swear "the scale of the rebuild" wasn't staring them in the face for years.

This will be the new smokescreen for lack of investment. The club now acknowledges multiple midfielders are needed, but we'll end up with 1 decent CM and 1 kid if we're lucky. That's all they'll be able to muster in a "tough" transfer market.

I can't see the club investing €200m plus in one window which is what we need.

McFly85

Thing is now, FSG will likely have to do the thing they’ve been very reluctant to: overpay.

The world and it’s mother knows the situation liverpools midfield are in, so unless they can unearth a couple of gems with reasonable release clauses then selling clubs will have all of the leverage. Makes it more unrealistic to think that we can get Bellingham and others.

While it’s clear now that another midfielder should have been brought in last year I’m not totally blaming ownership for where we are now. The previous season we were able to compete on all fronts and I don’t think anyone saw Fabinho have the drop off to the scale that he did, and we’ve had another shocker with injuries.

But the summer is massive and will really show the ambition that the owners have to get the club fighting at the top again.

ben.schlomo

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120467375#Comment_120467375

Who are Athletico and what have they to do with either player you mention?

jebidiah

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120467755#Comment_120467755

As people said previously re Thiago and Alisson, it's all shite talk until someone is photographed with a jersey on.

Some journalists might have some information but I highly doubt the club is telling anyone about their transfer business.

It's all hearsay and rumours until you see someone in a kit. Getting bent out of shape because x player was our top target and we didn't get him is pointless. We have no idea what is going on behind the scenes.

The White Wolf

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120467951#Comment_120467951

The ironic thing is that by targeting 3-4 players for 40m (and I'm not saying I'd be unhappy if we got 4 players) instead of just going all in on proven talent, there's still a risk of overpaying anyway.

Look at our track record in that area recently - Jota, Diaz and Gakpo all came with drawbacks, be it injury or form. It's a fine line between a buy being shrewd and a gamble when purposefully targeting players in this price range. Especially when you look at their return as a whole rather than individually.

rob316

I mean its no surprising and makes sense but I'm annoyed. Not because we aren't signing JB but because the whole last year the club were briefing that JB was the target and why we didn't sign another midfielder. As a result this season has been a right off when it shouldn't have been if we signed someone else last summer for midfield.

jones

Exactly the dog on the street knew Bellingham would go for big money. This pretend shock he's a 100 million pound player so we're no longer interested is like a long con. We missed out on critical midfield players both last summer and in the january transfer windows as we were holding out for "the right player".

Like i said earlier i dont think Bellingham is the answer to all our issues and maybe its no harm us not getting him if we invest serious money wisely but to not even be in the conversation for him at the middle of april after pinning the clubs future on him as the right player and not re-enforcing the team is crazy.

We have now missed out on champions league money this season, will we get into top 4 next season? Not with the squad as it is now. Its also a bit of a perfect storm with Newcastle suddenly a top 4 team with limitless resources to join City and to a lesser extent United. Chelsea also spending a lot and you'd have to assume they'll get it right at some stage. We really needed that champions league money and if 3 of the 4 spots are taking up by state backed super clubs and united who spend like a state backed club (and could be one soon) we really are facing an uphill battle to get back to the big table. We've gone from competing with the juggernaut that is City for 5/6 years to also-rans this season and honestly i'm not sure i see a way back. Last summer could cost us very dearly indeed.

Think of it this way if City are going all in on champions league (which i think they'll win finally) and arsenal end up wining the league Arteta will have the same number of PL titles as klopp.

/rant

GiftofGab

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120467951#Comment_120467951

Ownership is 100% to blame for our midfield. The major red flag was when we played Chelsea in Jan 2022. Firstly we needed to start an aging James Milner in a big game. However, our strikers did their job and put us 2-0 after 30 mins. Then the midfield couldn't even hold Chelsea out till half time. It's the midfields job to control the game and protect the back 4 but it was blatantly obvious that we lost the midfield battle and that they no longer had the legs to compete in big games.

That game was a turning point for our midfield. We could last till the end of the season but we needed additional midfielders in the summer. Perhaps even a £30-40 million player. Then another in January and another this coming summer. That would have secured our Champions League spot and provide us funds for Bellingham this summer. Instead we are left with the mess that we're currently in. No champions league revenue, no midfield, overpaying for new recruits and squad moral at its lowest point.

McFly85

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120468494#Comment_120468494

Not saying they handled it perfectly, obviously an ageing Milner isn’t ideal, but that team won 2 trophies and was 2 games away from winning everything. The gamble was obviously that this team could at least compete for a CL spot this season with some of the younger lads coming through if it meant getting their number one target when he’d be available the following season.

You can see the logic in it, and I don’t recall anyone thinking anything except that we might not be in a position to win the league. Nobody predicted that we’d have such a massive drop off, and why would they?

It hasn’t worked out, and you can definitely argue that something should have been done in January to get us through the rest of the season, but I wouldn’t be going so far as to call them negligent. We have owners that are at least trying to run us sustainably. We’re not Man City, we won’t be successful taking a punt on players that we can just sell off if they don’t work out and get someone else in.

We had a phenomenal hit rate with players for a good few years but a combination of injuries, age and baffling loss of form has put us where we are.

This summer they have no excuses though.

Ottoman_1000

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120468015#Comment_120468015

My bad, I'm going to blame baby brain for that late night message, I had originally included Marcos Llorente as a midfield option (potentiality can cover RB too) and could be got on the cheap from Athletico Madrid due to financial troubles and changed my mind to Merino as been a better option then.

awec

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120468628#Comment_120468628

It's not a baffling loss of form though, that's the thing. There have been signs for years now, chinks in our armour. We went on some amazing runs of form to cover it up, Klopp managed to pull rabbits out of the hat, but we've kicked the can so far down the road that it's too heavy to kick it any further now.

If you go back through this thread over the years you'll find loads of posts from people concerned about the lack of investment in the squad. Things were not kept fresh. Even successful teams need to constantly invest in their squad, we didn't do this, and tended to focus on acquiring cheap squad players instead.

I don't know if this was down to too much loyalty to players by Klopp, not wanting to replace some of his men in the starting 11, or the club being unwilling to spend.

Either way, I don't think they get to feign surprise at the situation. It's been coming.