Summer of 2014: Part 2

Art Morte wrote:Wow, Agger has actually returned to Brondby. Talk about underwhelming. But I can only imagine this move has made him happy and felt right to him. Still, cannot help feeling that his career fizzled out quite regrettably.

I'm really, really, REALLY sad. He deserved way better.

iftikhar wrote:

Art Morte wrote:Wow, Agger has actually returned to Brondby. Talk about underwhelming. But I can only imagine this move has made him happy and felt right to him. Still, cannot help feeling that his career fizzled out quite regrettably.

I'm really, really, REALLY sad. He deserved way better.

Deserved better? We respected his wishes and accepted well below his market value in order to allow him to return to his boyhood club... I don't think that's treating him badly.

I'm sad to see him go, too. However, he wanted to play regularly and with Lovren and Sakho ahead of him, he simply wasn't going to get the minutes he wanted. This is the best outcome for him. If he can't play for LFC, he only wanted to play for Brondby. Because he had been so loyal and such a good servant, the club obliged. It's sad that he's leaving, but  it's certainly not some egregious act. Unfortunately, this is sport, the ultimate meritocracy. If you cannot maintain your level, you will be moved on. Very few get the fairy-tale ending that players like Hyypia, Carragher, and eventually Gerrard receive. All too often, the end comes as it has for Agger and Kuyt, or even Fowler, Rush, and Keegan before them.

I know it's rather cynical, but the sooner you can accept that most sporting relationships end in tears, the sooner you can dial down the drama of each transfer window and player retirement. Feel free to argue the tactical merits all you want, but always remember that this is the chosen career  for these players/staffers and moves like this are part of the life. My advice is to learn to appreciate their contributions and time at the club without holding onto the sentimentality of it. With very few exceptions, we should always employ players for what they can do for the club in the present and in the future. The past should merely be remembered, not paid a weekly wage.

Yeah, I don't think we treated Agger badly. I'm sure he could have joined a club in the bigger leagues, but maybe there were no top offers and he then preferred to go back to Brondby. It's a bit strange decision by Agger himself, but he wasn't done wrong by Liverpool.

Deserved better? We respected his wishes and accepted well below his market value in order to allow him to return to his boyhood club... I don't think that's treating him badly.

Thanks DTOR. I didn't view it this way, my mistake. I didn't mean that we treated him badly though. I thought even weaker clubs weren't interested (or were offering scandalous fee & wage) so he was forced to go to a club that's even lower.

In light of what you wrote, I think it's really an honorable solution for him and us sacrificing any amount of fees to facilitate his wish is a great way to acknowledge his services.

Farewell Dagger, wish you all the best...always.

Nishy wrote:Stewart looked like a headless chicken in pre season,

Won't look out of place tbh.

Sign Lovren for 20m, sell Agger for 3. Granted Agger wanting to go nowhere but to Brondby and we had to get him off the wage bill, but ffs.

Hyypia and Agger both missed having a testimonial with the club by one year.  Have to be with the club for 10 years to qualify for it.

But in a way Agger's testimonial was his last appearance in Copenhagen with us against Brondby. Fitting end for him. And he did score in his last competitive match for us

Sunderland are still after Borini:

Gus Poyet wrote: “Yes (I still want him). I know Fabio and I’m a big believer that when you know the players, you know what you are going to get.

“You are convinced that he’s the right player with the right mentality.

“I know how people think, but unfortunately we cannot give the true information over why he’s not with us.

“From the outside, it looks like he doesn’t want to come to Sunderland.

“But I can promise you it’s not like that.

“I keep it open because he’s still a Liverpool player and then maybe he can be a Sunderland player.”

http://www.sunderlandecho.com/sport/sunderland-afc/poyet-still-hoping-for-last-day-borini-deal-1-6814917

Inter Milan in for Borini according to the Times.



Tony Barrett also saying we're considering going in for Victor Valdes. We really don't learn ffs. Valdes will only come for first team, and Mignolet isn't the problem at the back ffs.

Yeah, it would be problematic to sign Valdes. Cannot expect neither him or Mignolet be happy on the bench. Then again, Chelsea, rather insanely, actually, have both Courtois and Cech

Chelsea's wage bill is also double ours and actually improved on what they needed upon.

best window since Barnes and Beardsley my memory is too bad btw.

BBC reporting QPR have tabled a loan and/or permanent offer for Borini, £13m quoted to be the permanent offer. I'll be annoyed with Borini if he just refuses to go anywhere.

Art Morte wrote:BBC reporting QPR have tabled a loan and/or permanent offer for Borini, £13m quoted to be the permanent offer. I'll be annoyed with Borini if he just refuses to go anywhere.

What happened to the Inter rumors? For the sake of Borini, I want him to go to some decent club.

iftikhar wrote:

Art Morte wrote:BBC reporting QPR have tabled a loan and/or permanent offer for Borini, £13m quoted to be the permanent offer. I'll be annoyed with Borini if he just refuses to go anywhere.

What happened to the Inter rumors? For the sake of Borini, I want him to go to some decent club.

Joining QPR isn't necessarily a great idea as they might easily be relegated, but I think Sunderland will stay up and refusing to join them is / was a bit silly.

If Inter were genuinely interested, joining them would have been a good choice, too. I don't know what Borini hopes to achieve by not even making the bench at Liverpool at most matches.

Red Alert wrote:Chelsea's wage bill is also double ours and actually improved on what they needed upon.

Are you implying that we haven't improved on what we needed?

iftikhar wrote:

Art Morte wrote:BBC reporting QPR have tabled a loan and/or permanent offer for Borini, £13m quoted to be the permanent offer. I'll be annoyed with Borini if he just refuses to go anywhere.

What happened to the Inter rumors? For the sake of Borini, I want him to go to some decent club.

He actually has to be decent for decent clubs to be coming in for him.

Don't call me James wrote:

Red Alert wrote:Chelsea's wage bill is also double ours and actually improved on what they needed upon.

Are you implying that we haven't improved on what we needed?

Did you see his post on GD . He actually doesn't think Rodgers has made us an amazing team. The pace in which we pass and play football is frightening. Hell, have a look at our match thread on RedCafe from yesterday

"this LVG team when it clicks "

so Assaidi off to Stoke on loan.

Borini hanging on as the 4th striker

I suspect Borini simply wants out of England altogether if he's to leave LFC, so he was holding out hoping that the Inter interest would seriously materialise or that another Italian/foreign club will come back for him in January.

As a silver lining this does mean that even if one of our strikers picks up an injury we can properly rotate in cup matches while they're out.

We know that neither Assaidi nor Borini are on huge wages with us (both on relatively low wages if previous reports are accurate) so it's a bit odd that they'd be demanding huge weekly wages in moves just because they felt like it. Given both are young you'd think they'd be willing to accept comparable wages and regular playing time over what we're paying them and basically no playing time.

Despite the deadline passing, it’s still possible there could be one more addition to the squad between now and January.

The Reds boss is interested in former Barcelona goalkeeper Victor Valdes, who is a free agent after his contract at the Camp Nou expired.

The Spain international is still recovering from the cruciate ligament injury he suffered back in March and isn’t expected to be fit until December.

However, as he’s a free agent he can sign for a club outside of the transfer window.

Liverpool will assess the 32-year-old’s fitness in October before deciding whether to offer him a contract.

http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/liverpool-left-frustrated-attempts-sell-7704487

Meh.

Gotta say I'm disappointed with Borini. He's doing his own career no good by sitting on the bench / playing for the reserves at Liverpool and denied us a £13m-14m transfer fee...

I'm also a little surprised Suso stayed with us. Assaidi back at Stoke on loan, that £7m permanent move would have been sweeter, though. Coates going to Sunderland on loan is a very interesting one, though, I didn't think he had a future in English football. Hopefully he'll challenge Brown and O'Shea for a starting spot.

Don't call me James wrote:

Red Alert wrote:Chelsea's wage bill is also double ours and actually improved on what they needed upon.

Are you implying that we haven't improved on what we needed?

Yes and no.

We probably just did enough to finish top 4.

Our defence is still a mess.

Lovren is no better than Agger, and we spent 17m net to get him in. Agger was deemed not good enough so we had to improve instead regressed.
We didn't get anyone better than Skrtel and Johnson. Manquillo is doing no better than Flanagan atm, and at the end of the day he wasn't deemed good enough. Although to his advantage, it's early days in a new league/country at a young age. Still expect GJ to come back into it as soon as he's fit.

Moreno was always going to be an upgrade from last season due to Enrique's lack of appearances and Cissokho/Flanno playing left full back last season. If he can play as well as he did against Spurs he can be quite good. Look's very similar to Riise imo. Just hoping he's consistent. 12m is fine though, just happy it's not at the 20m figure at once rumoured.  

We still have a 34 year old Gerrard shielding the defence...
Coutinho is still the only real "playmaker" in the squad.
Can can add some physicality I guess, Lallana is good but he's not great. Not 25m great.  
Markovic has looked good early, but again another "for the future".
Balotelli was our best signing, but will need time to settle. He'll be huge though. Definitely won't replace Suarez influence though.  

All in all, it was a "decent" window. Not exactly great, but we really didn't get value for money in regards to half of our transfers. Losing our best player in Suarez didn't help the cause either.

Natalie Portman wrote:

Don't call me James wrote:

Red Alert wrote:Chelsea's wage bill is also double ours and actually improved on what they needed upon.

Are you implying that we haven't improved on what we needed?

Did you see his post on GD . He actually doesn't think Rodgers has made us an amazing team. The pace in which we pass and play football is frightening. Hell, have a look at our match thread on RedCafe from yesterday

"this LVG team when it clicks "

They have Falcao, Di Maria, Rooney, Mata and one of the best managers in the world.

As soon as LVG gets rid of the 3 at the back (how we were playing earlier last season), they're going to go on a roll.  

They're going to have a strong finish with nothing to worry about Europe this season too. We need to make a safe distance from now and until they find their feet.

Also, RedCafe? What?

Do you really want me to go back quoting your posts again? Or are you going to go back and hide into your "I was trolling shell" (which by my understand is actually bannable, no?)

Art Morte wrote:Gotta say I'm disappointed with Borini. He's doing his own career no good by sitting on the bench / playing for the reserves at Liverpool and denied us a £13m-14m transfer fee...

Did you say the same about Hendo when we offered him out for Dempsey from all people?

Players want to prove their worth. I for one am all for it.

Also, happy for Coates. Really reminds of me of a young Sami. Definitely won't reach Hyypia's level, but I'm glad he has a chance to stay around in Europe. Has massive potential does Coates.

Too pessimistic imo.

RA you'd be absolutely livid if you were a Man U supporter. They spent stupid money to add quality to the (very rare) spots on the pitch they don't need it. If our window was a 6, I can't fathom what theirs was when they're going into this season without quality anywhere in defense, DM or CM.