Liverpool FC Team Talk, Gossip, Rumours 2024/25

When I say baffling in fairness I’m thinking of Fabinho. Fantastic player up until the start of this season that can’t even play simple passes anymore.

All I’m saying though really is I understand what they were going for. Bellingham would have sorted a key midfield position for years so probably thought he’s worth waiting for, while thinking that we should realistically still target a CL spot until we have an opportunity to sign him, with additions being handled after that was sorted(and with older players moved on). And that honestly should have been considered a realistic target.

A host of injuries and an ageing or non functioning midfield has meant the gamble didn’t pay off, so now we need to look at numbers instead of the most talent. It’s crap, but it’s where we are.

Everyone other than the players are at fault here really.

It's an atrocious lapse in judgement and management. One can only hope they have learned their lessons. There were rumours that that Klopp and Pep took over more responsibility of the transfers and this has had a knock on effect... hopefully this can be ironed out.

One other thing that comes to mind is that the existing players, ones that expect to compete for trophies, won't be happy if the adequate players are not signed. And they could easily start looking elsewhere.

Perhaps that's FSG's plan?

I don’t agree that FSG have been fooling people with the idea of sustainable football. Football, like any other industry, shouldn’t require huge amount of debt to be successful. And considering the state of the club when FSG took over you think more fans would appreciate that. Short memories I guess.

Exactly... it's not like FSG were out telling lies about sustainable football or something - they brought people into the club to run it sustainably, and the results showed that sustainable football can be successful. It's obviously harder, but ultimately it's the only approach that should be entertained since anything else is either a road to collapse, or the transformation of the club into something not worth supporting.

I've pretty much resigned myself that we'll be scrambling around for 4th/5th at best for the foreseeable. I don't think the owners have any great ambition to do any more than the bare minimum of keeping the club competitive for a sale in a few years time. And financially they can't compete with the nation state clubs anyway.

City, money no object and will probably get Bellingham. Newcastle, money no object and will surely push the boat out further again with CL football. United, money no object to them ever and even less so if the takeover happens. Will spend big. Chelsea, money no object but a basketcase at the moment but that probably won't last. Arsenal to be fair spent big even without CL football in recent years. Which is a big part of why they are where they are now. Spurs, who knows? In a similar position to ourselves. Can't compete financially and might lose Kane.

The football landscape has changed in England anyway. A difficult few years ahead most likely.

I was more looking at it going forward than what has happened this season. Don't think it even has to be mentioned the string of bad decisions from ownership to management that have led us to this place.

In order to compete with the state backed clubs you need to have an exceptional manager and an exceptional recruitment strategy, we have those things and did compete and beat those clubs for 5/6 years, it can happen again.

I know almost nothing about Bellingham, i've no idea if he's worth the reported 120m, you don't necessarily need to spend that money on one player to compete, we were the best team in world football and only had two record transfers in that team.

Well if you were to believe the rumours that Mount, Ward-Prowse and Gallagher are our 3 midfield targets to replace Bellingham then we will be blessed to finish 4th any time soon 🤣🤣🤣!!

People were saying they were going to look to sell once the Main Stand was built without competing. A lot of people are talking absolute crap at the moment because they are frustrated by our position at the moment. Mistakes has been made, but the a lot of the people that got us from 8th to 2nd in 3 seasons are still in place and we are in a better position with our squad than we were then.

Chelsea's goose is cooked I feel, they do not have a billionaire willing to throw away money at the problem. They will sell their way to profit but who will be their manager? They have been replaced though by Newcastle. But this is the same position we were in in 2015-16. 2 Clubs with unlimited budgets, Man United would hire the guarantee of success Mourinho who with their economic strength would dominate once more. Leicester with their sensible owners would build on their title winning season and be top 4 contenders for years. Tottenham had a up and coming coach and were perennial challengers. We were going to be also rans until FSG sold up once they had enough or built the Main Stand.

Will we be title challengers again next season? I don't know, but I can see the players are shattered. I want to see how they do after a proper pre-season and rest for the squad. We do need new faces in midfield, but we have rebuilt our forward line already. So basically, its not nice being a Liverpool fan at the moment and success is never guaranteed. I will also point out that I did not see a lot of dissent when we offered Salah his huge contract, or extensions for Van Dijk, TAA, Robertson or Henderson. In fact it was supposed to be the only choice. A few months later and times have changed. FSG will have us competitive, we will need some luck though to compete for the title again as we did before.

I think that this whole coordinated briefing by the club is, in part, designed to stop questions being put to Klopp, about a potential Bellingham transfer (to Liverpool).

Where area did we over invest in?

I think Liverpool will be used a test case in how not to handle the aftermath of success. FSG + klopp + transfer committee worked wonders in the early years and genuinely transformed the club. They barely put a foot wrong.

The issues came when we won the league. We, for all intents and purposes, rested on our laurels and told ourselves how great we were, our transfers, tactics and work rate etc couldn't be matched by anyone but a state backed superclub like city.

This hubris/unwillingness to spend money led to basically no real squad reinforcement, relying on aging players to continue to work miracles and defy ageing. The team got older and older together and we ended up with a squad full of "old" players and a few very young players thrown in. We've no one at their peak in this team in my opinion apart from Allison and konate is approaching his.

There were a few unknowables, no one could have predicted (the fall in form from fabinho) but as others have said basically everything else that's happened squad wise was very predictable. The medical side of things is staggeringly bad to have this number of long term injuries this season is bordering on negligent. I don't think anyone can argue it's all bad luck.

I think the fact the exodus from Liverpool at a leadership/backroom level points to some discontent behind the scenes but FSG and klopp have made a lot of mistakes this season and it's cost them and the team.

Let's see can they correct it this summer... The early signs are not good.

He'll be sold, if not he could sign for free in Jan 2025, a mere 15 months from now. He has to go, or sign a new long term contract, but that would be silly

I bet Sane agrees with you!

Not since the Craig Bellamy school of golf opened has there been so much open controversy.

I'd take him back in a heartbeat for the right cash.

I'd agree with that broad principle but I suppose a second consecutive season outside of the CL is the risk.

Who amongst Nunez, Gakpo and Mane would make the best fist of making sure we secure CL football next season? I'd say Mane easily.

All conjecture because it isn't going to happen but we've missed what he gave us terribly.

Why tho?

Like why even be a fan at that point? Excitedly anticipating getting to scoff at others' hypothetical opinions 4 months down the line.

TBH I don't share your confidence that he'd do an awful lot better than the two lads at this stage. But even if a decision was made to bring in another forward, rather than "take him back in a heartbeat for the right cash" I think we'd be better off looking elsewhere. He's been pretty poor this year, and still hasn't scored since he got back from his injury in February - and that's in the much-easier-to-score-in Bundesliga. I love the fella, but it would seem he's probably on the downswing of his career now.

He's got eleven goals and five assists in 20 odd starts.

I'd have thought he'd be available for similar amounts that we sold him for (or less).

It's obviously academic, and that's part of the fun, but I have no doubt, based on what we've seen empirically, he'd make a bigger impact than the other two.

I'd love to be wrong and they both score 20 each next season of course.

True.

But tbf Mane had been class for years and was central to the way we played for years.

He has been shocking since moving to Bayern

It's a good article. I hadn't really thought about it but he's right, this is the first time I don't trust the owners/management to do the right thing (and that's despite a few mistakes along the way)

Klopp's comments at the press conference were a case of you can like it or lump it. This is what it is.

And according to this tweet, he is not happy with some of the reporters.

Not sure how reliable this is.