Summer transfer joy and happiness

[I am invisible]

Nope, It's a fact that he has a good engine. Take a look at the distance covered stats and there's your proof. He spends the whole match running around the pitch like a headless chicken and he still has enough reserves in his tank to make those sprints into the box in the last 15 minutes when most of the other players are tired.

If only he had a brain to go with that engine...

It does feel like we lining up with half of the cast of The Wizard of Oz at times.

But, yeah, when most people talk about a player having an 'engine', they're generally talking about stamina and non-stop running for 90 minutes.

[I am invisible]

Aye, agree with this. I think Ramsey is one player who will profit from Emery’s high press system.

I think his ability to effectively double-up as a 3rd midfielder or an extra forward without the need for any on-field changes is what Emery will find most attractive - providing he can keep up with the constant back-and-forth (which is kind of his playing style anyway) then it could be like having a 12th man at times.

[Power n Glory]

We've barely spent anything either (before Emery signed those players) because we had 40 million left from last summers sales, yes we spent a bit more for Aubameyang but not a lot, so in theory we should have just as much as Liverpool.

I agree with Blink though, it's a false economy buying mid range players a lot of the time as illustrated by the 70 million wasted on Mustafi and Xhaka, with that we could have signed a top class player who would probably be worth even more now and more importantly would make the team better. Liverpool have sold players for multiple times what they bought them 4, they seem to find top class players left right and centre, which makes me think that Klopp has a real eye for talent as well.

Klopp can't be attributed with what you've said in bold for Liverpool. Under his management, they sold Countinho for a massive amount but he didn't sign Countinho in the first place.

Also, we can't forget the blunders Liverpool have made in recent years. They've made loses on sales after overspending on players like Andy Carol, Stewart Downing, Benteke, Joe Allen, Baloteli...I'm not going to pretend that they've had a desirable transfer policy. They've done great business with Saurez, Sterling and Countinho but that's about it. I'd love for us to be able negotiate that sort of transfer fee for our players but wouldn't go as far as saying they can spot talent.

Klopp has an eye for talent and it's been proven. It definitely is a false economy spending £70m on players like Mustafi and Xhaka but as said with the Oblak situation, that's a result of one club slapping a massive price tag on their star man. It raises the tide. If someone pays that amount for him, we'll start seeing other clubs slap £40m-£50m price tags on keepers that good mid range players. That's how we've been caught out with Xhaka and Mustafi.

Saying that, Klopp paid £75m for Van Dijk, £40m for Mane from Southampton. £25m for Wijnaldum from Newcastle. You're lying if you tell me you'd be happy with us spending that amount on Premier League players that weren't in the World Class conversation before Liverpool. They'd be greeted with the same skepticism as Mustafi and Xhaka. The key thing with Klopp is that he's willing to pay whatever it takes for the player he wants that he knows he needs for his system. If these players would have flopped, he ends up with egg on his face and would probably lose his job. That's a huge amount of faith and conviction he has. With what he's done at Dortmund and so far with Liverpool, he's earned faith back from the Board. Emery hasn't earned that over here with the Board or fans just yet. He needs time.

Last point, seeing how nuts things have gone with transfer valuations in such a short space of time, wouldn't it be wise to identify what it is that clubs like Liverpool, Spurs, Atletico and Dortmund are doing to be able to find £10m - £20m player and sell him on for a ridiculous fee if we're forced to sell? Oblak cost Atletico under £20m, Liverpool paid around £12m for Countinho. Wouldn't it be wise to try and get ahead of curve instead of always playing catch up? This is why I'm excited about Sven, Raul and Emery here at Arsenal. There is a clear strategy we're going for here. I think we're going to see a mix of big spending but also exciting new prospects.

[SMatthews]

They've signed Shaquiri for 13million, Fabinho for 45 million and Keita for 54 million so with Allison you're looking at closer to 200 million. You might argue that the Keita funds were set aside from last summers kitty, but that touches back upon my view that there's no reason not to view windows in 2's and combine budgets.

Admittedly it doesn't help us that we have been horrible in recent years at selling for big fees or as Selassie points out, spending positively significant sums on chumps like Mustafi and Xhaka who nobody would pay near the price we paid for them now. More reason not to hedge medium/high range sums on players we aren't absolutely sure about.

I’m not sure why, but seeing a £62 million bid for a goalkeeper made me feel queasy yesterday.

I know we’ve spent £50m on attacking players and there are players being sold for nearly £200m, maybe I justified those amounts because they are attacking players, I don’t know. Can’t quite place my finger on why, but that amount seems even more ludicrous for a keeper. Buffon went for about £40m back in 2001 I think, so the inflation is very low in that sense, but bloody hell. I’m just trying to ignore the transfer merry-go-round as much as possible so I can just concentrate on the actual games and try to forget the absurdity of the modern market.

[Özim]

Klopp can't be attributed with what you've said in bold for Liverpool. Under his management, they sold Countinho for a massive amount but he didn't sign Countinho in the first place.

Also, we can't forget the blunders Liverpool have made in recent years. They've made loses on sales after overspending on players like Andy Carol, Stewart Downing, Benteke, Joe Allen, Baloteli...I'm not going to pretend that they've had a desirable transfer policy. They've done great business with Saurez, Sterling and Countinho but that's about it. I'd love for us to be able negotiate that sort of transfer fee for our players but wouldn't go as far as saying they can spot talent.

Klopp has an eye for talent and it's been proven. It definitely is a false economy spending £70m on players like Mustafi and Xhaka but as said with the Oblak situation, that's a result of one club slapping a massive price tag on their star man. It raises the tide. If someone pays that amount for him, we'll start seeing other clubs slap £40m-£50m price tags on keepers that good mid range players. That's how we've been caught out with Xhaka and Mustafi.

Saying that, Klopp paid £75m for Van Dijk, £40m for Mane from Southampton. £25m for Wijnaldum from Newcastle. You're lying if you tell me you'd be happy with us spending that amount on Premier League players that weren't in the World Class conversation before Liverpool. They'd be greeted with the same skepticism as Mustafi and Xhaka. The key thing with Klopp is that he's willing to pay whatever it takes for the player he wants that he knows he needs for his system. If these players would have flopped, he ends up with egg on his face and would probably lose his job. That's a huge amount of faith and conviction he has. With what he's done at Dortmund and so far with Liverpool, he's earned faith back from the Board. Emery hasn't earned that over here with the Board or fans just yet. He needs time.

Last point, seeing how nuts things have gone with transfer valuations in such a short space of time, wouldn't it be wise to identify what it is that clubs like Liverpool, Spurs, Atletico and Dortmund are doing to be able to find £10m - £20m player and sell him on for a ridiculous fee if we're forced to sell? Oblak cost Atletico under £20m, Liverpool paid around £12m for Countinho. Wouldn't it be wise to try and get ahead of curve instead of always playing catch up? This is why I'm excited about Sven, Raul and Emery here at Arsenal. There is a clear strategy we're going for here. I think we're going to see a mix of big spending but also exciting new prospects.

Liverpool have agreed a deal for Alisson apparently £66.8 million

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/44874142


Why can't he be attributed, he did it at Dortmund and now it's happening at Liverpool as well, it didn't happen before he arrived so much, Liverpool are a differerent team to the one they were before he arrived, both in terms of quality of play and quality of personnel and this can definitely be attributed to him, he's the guy that wasn't there before this change.

You mention blunders, but if anything this shows how much Liverpool have been willing to spend, all this without CL football, so the argument we can't spend 60 million on a keeper surely can't be right if we've had a much greater income than them? Besides we're talking about since Klopp came in and it seems to me that he's largely got it right so far with the transfer policy.

I don't agree about the Liverpool signings, Van Dijk was touted as a top notch talent, would have been happy to sign him, Mane was already very highly rated from his performances in England, you argued earlier that a striker cost megabucks and yet Liverpool signed Salah for a decent amount and have repeatedly found top strikers for what wouldn't be deemed as megamoney.

I do agree about the faith, Klopp arrived with a great reputation from Dortmund, but Liverpool have backed him 100% and he's repaid their faith IMO, Emery of course doesn't come with the same reputation but that doesn't mean the board can't see a good signing when they see one and Oblak is top notch, just like De Gea is, top keepers ted to remain top keepers until they get older, the cost per year would be relatively little, just as it has been with all the younger players who got signed for big money at the time, Rio Ferdinand seem to be a huge amount at 30 million at the time, but in terms of value for money he turned out great as he was top class for Man U for years, I think age of a plyer and how many years you'll get out of him plays a big part (which is why I guess signing Aubameyang despite his undoubted qualities was probably stranger, he'll probably only be at the top for a few more years, so per year would have cost a lot).

Yes of course it would be wise, but most of these clubs also spend big on players when they need someone in a certain position, they don't wait for someone woth 10-20 million to come good, whether we discover those players remains to be seen, you'd hope so but there's certainly no guarantee, so far we haven't signed many younger players so right now it seems unlikely.

[Özim]

I’m not sure why, but seeing a £62 million bid for a goalkeeper made me feel queasy yesterday.

I know we’ve spent £50m on attacking players and there are players being sold for nearly £200m, maybe I justified those amounts because they are attacking players, I don’t know. Can’t quite place my finger on why, but that amount seems even more ludicrous for a keeper. Buffon went for about £40m back in 2001 I think, so the inflation is very low in that sense, but bloody hell. I’m just trying to ignore the transfer merry-go-round as much as possible so I can just concentrate on the actual games and try to forget the absurdity of the modern market.

Aubameyang is 29, which means he doesn't have a lot of years left at the top realistically, so if anything spending that much on someone of that age makes even less sense, they have no resale value and you probably won't get many years out of them.

Personally think if you're going to pay 50-60 million for a players he needs to be in his early to mid 20s like Lacazette was.

[Power n Glory]

Liverpool have agreed a deal for Alisson apparently £66.8 million

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/44874142


Why can't he be attributed, he did it at Dortmund and now it's happening at Liverpool as well, it didn't happen before he arrived so much, Liverpool are a differerent team to the one they were before he arrived, both in terms of quality of play and quality of personnel and this can definitely be attributed to him, he's the guy that wasn't there before this change.

You mention blunders, but if anything this shows how much Liverpool have been willing to spend, all this without CL football, so the argument we can't spend 60 million on a keeper surely can't be right if we've had a much greater income than them? Besides we're talking about since Klopp came in and it seems to me that he's largely got it right so far with the transfer policy.

I don't agree about the Liverpool signings, Van Dijk was touted as a top notch talent, would have been happy to sign him, Mane was already very highly rated from his performances in England, you argued earlier that a striker cost megabucks and yet Liverpool signed Salah for a decent amount and have repeatedly found top strikers for what wouldn't be deemed as megamoney.

I do agree about the faith, Klopp arrived with a great reputation from Dortmund, but Liverpool have backed him 100% and he's repaid their faith IMO, Emery of course doesn't come with the same reputation but that doesn't mean the board can't see a good signing when they see one and Oblak is top notch, just like De Gea is, top keepers ted to remain top keepers until they get older, the cost per year would be relatively little, just as it has been with all the younger players who got signed for big money at the time, Rio Ferdinand seem to be a huge amount at 30 million at the time, but in terms of value for money he turned out great as he was top class for Man U for years, I think age of a plyer and how many years you'll get out of him plays a big part (which is why I guess signing Aubameyang despite his undoubted qualities was probably stranger, he'll probably only be at the top for a few more years, so per year would have cost a lot).

Yes of course it would be wise, but most of these clubs also spend big on players when they need someone in a certain position, they don't wait for someone woth 10-20 million to come good, whether we discover those players remains to be seen, you'd hope so but there's certainly no guarantee, so far we haven't signed many younger players so right now it seems unlikely.

Liverpool have agreed a deal for Alisson apparently £66.8 million

Oblak is rated as the best keeper in the world right now. It's between him and Neuer and De Gea. Why have Liverpool gone elsewhere?

Why can't he be attributed, he did it at Dortmund and now it's happening at Liverpool as well, it didn't happen before he arrived so much

Because he didn't sign Countinho, that's why. Common sense, man. Talk about Klopp's record at Dortmund if you must but don't give him all the credit him for finding Countinho and selling him on for a huge fee. That's what that entire sentence from your post was about. Helping to develop talent, yes, give him credit for that but not for identifying undervalued players in the market and selling them on when he hasn't done that for Liverpool yet.

You mention blunders, but if anything this shows how much Liverpool have been willing to spend, all this without CL football, so the argument we can't spend 60 million on a keeper surely can't be right if we've had a much greater income than them? Besides we're talking about since Klopp came in and it seems to me that he's largely got it right so far with the transfer policy.

So what's the difference between Liverpool spending that amount on flops and us spending that amount on Xhaka and Mustafi? It comes down back to the coaches. My argument has never been that we haven't got £60m to spend, it's always been to spend wisely and see what Emery is capable of before we trust him with a massive amount. How do you rate Emery? What was your first impression when he was announced. Do you rate him as highly as Klopp? If we'd have spent 13m on Shaqiri, what would your reaction be? In fact, is there a Premier League defender with a mid table team you'd be happy to spend £75m on? It's all well and good talking after their a success. Name the players with mid table clubs you think it would be worth spending £40m to £75m on.

Also, just so we're on the same page, what do you think our transfer budget should be this year and how many players need replacing? I recall conversations about sweeping changes across the team. If we should be spending £70m on a goalkeeper, where else do you think we should be spending money? It also comes back to how much faith you have in Emery when it comes to spending. As for the Board, shouldn't it be obvious why we've appointed the guys from Dortmund and Barca to head up are scouting and recruitment?

[Blink 1nce Quince 2wice]

I’m not sure why, but seeing a £62 million bid for a goalkeeper made me feel queasy yesterday.

I know we’ve spent £50m on attacking players and there are players being sold for nearly £200m, maybe I justified those amounts because they are attacking players, I don’t know. Can’t quite place my finger on why, but that amount seems even more ludicrous for a keeper. Buffon went for about £40m back in 2001 I think, so the inflation is very low in that sense, but bloody hell. I’m just trying to ignore the transfer merry-go-round as much as possible so I can just concentrate on the actual games and try to forget the absurdity of the modern market.

Neymar went for 200 million to a club basically owned by a state with limitless wealth and it is the mere prospect of 62 million for a top keeper keeping you up at night? Get some sleep me old fruit...we don't even know it's true 100%.

Goalkeepers have been undervalued since the dawn of the game. It is increasingly primitive in context of the modern game. The blood hounds have already inflated the market.....we should simply recalibrate the value we place on goalkeepers within the context.

I don't know Allison as well but I rate Oblak as probably the second best keeper on the planet and he plays in one of the positions in which we can make the most improvement.

[Blink 1nce Quince 2wice]

As an aside, Neuer is firmly behind De Gea and Oblak and has been for some time now imo.

[Bumble]

Lets not forget that Liverpool are the 2nd biggest club in the country behind United, so they do have a huge worldwide fan base and are a bigger brand than we are. But why do we care so much about how much a player costs. It should only become an issue if things go the way like Portsmouth, Leeds, Villa etc.

But we bought a player for £100m it would not bankrupt the club. The fee probably would be paid over the length of the contract as well so not necessarily be going out of the bank straight away.

He is a good keeper, so if Liverpool want him then pay what Roma want to get him. Liverpool can afford it.