Summer transfer joy and happiness

[Özim]

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?



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.



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?

Not too sure, maybe because they came up against Roma and saw first hand how good he was?

Fair enough about Coutinho, but I was really referring to other signings and how he's developed Liverpool into the force they're becoming, he's also quick to identify weaknesses and isn't scared to spend big to fix them rather than wait around for a bargain.

I think we've had more flops than Liverpool to be fair, and spend more on them, for me you're always going to sign a few players that don't work out, the question is whether you can balance those with top quality players you sign as well, we haven't really, we don't really have any players we could sell for any decent amount.

As mentioned the difference is a) they probably don't spend as much on flops and b) they find gems as well. As for Emery, you don't have to trust a manager to be able to spot a top player, anyone that knows anything about football can see Oblak is top class, so this doesn't require trust at all, it just requires you to decide if it's a sound investment.

Leno we have signed made the most mistakes of Bundesligue keepers last season, why is that a better bet than someone totally proven to be top class, sure it's a fraction of the price but if he flops and you replace him you won't be far off the cost of the best option. Now it's possible Leno will work out and that wil be great, I doubt he's going to be amongst the best around however based on his career so far.

As far as money is concerned, I'd have spent on a DM (tick) a CB (maybe not Sokratis, maybe someone a little younger), a winger and a keeper (tick again I wouldnt' have spent on Leno myself), hard to say with Emery, but it's not hard to spot top class players, so if we spent 60 million on someone clearly top class I wouldn't have a problem with it.

As for the new guys, yes we're looking for them to recruit, time will tell if this works out well or not.

[Özim]

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.

Good point about the fee, it's not for us to worry about, if we signed 3 players for 60 million that were top notch, I wouldn't be worrying about the money that's for sure.

Historically Liverpool are big, though I'm not sure they are quite as appealing as they were 20 years ago as they're glory days are a long time ago now, financially though we dwarf them so we should be able to outspend easily, especially considering the fact we've had CL football for years and they haven't.

[The Emirates Gallactico]

Is Allison really that good to justify all this?

Granted my only experience of watching Roma is them getting demolished by Liverpool in the CL but he never really stood out much during it. At any rate I agree with PnG, I think a competent GK behind an organised defence is far more important than spunking your entire budget on a possible worldie and then placing him in front of clowns.

[Özim]

I think people underestimate the importance of the keeper, he keeps goals out, gives the defence confidence and organises them at set pieces and can also start attacks, a top keeper is worth his weight in gold and will win you matches and win you extra points.

Knowing your keeper isn't going to save you if someone gets past you probably leads to more fouls/penalties. Our best defence also had a great keeper behind them, consequently they could grind out results and they condeded few goals, now sure you can outscore teams if your team is good enough going forward, but I'd suggest keeping goals out is better in the long term, especially when the team has off days.

[Letters]

Is Allison really that good to justify all this?

Granted my only experience of watching Roma is them getting demolished by Liverpool in the CL but he never really stood out much during it. At any rate I agree with PnG, I think a competent GK behind an organised defence is far more important than spunking your entire budget on a possible worldie and then placing him in front of clowns.

I think if you place your keeper in front of your defence then I agree you've wasted your money.

[Power n Glory]

Not too sure, maybe because they came up against Roma and saw first hand how good he was?

Fair enough about Coutinho, but I was really referring to other signings and how he's developed Liverpool into the force they're becoming, he's also quick to identify weaknesses and isn't scared to spend big to fix them rather than wait around for a bargain.

I think we've had more flops than Liverpool to be fair, and spend more on them, for me you're always going to sign a few players that don't work out, the question is whether you can balance those with top quality players you sign as well, we haven't really, we don't really have any players we could sell for any decent amount.

As mentioned the difference is a) they probably don't spend as much on flops and b) they find gems as well. As for Emery, you don't have to trust a manager to be able to spot a top player, anyone that knows anything about football can see Oblak is top class, so this doesn't require trust at all, it just requires you to decide if it's a sound investment.

Leno we have signed made the most mistakes of Bundesligue keepers last season, why is that a better bet than someone totally proven to be top class, sure it's a fraction of the price but if he flops and you replace him you won't be far off the cost of the best option. Now it's possible Leno will work out and that wil be great, I doubt he's going to be amongst the best around however based on his career so far.

As far as money is concerned, I'd have spent on a DM (tick) a CB (maybe not Sokratis, maybe someone a little younger), a winger and a keeper (tick again I wouldnt' have spent on Leno myself), hard to say with Emery, but it's not hard to spot top class players, so if we spent 60 million on someone clearly top class I wouldn't have a problem with it.

As for the new guys, yes we're looking for them to recruit, time will tell if this works out well or not.

Liverpool have gotten things right over the last couple of seasons but they've signed more flops than us over the last 10 years or so. Without question. Also, let's put things into perspective. They haven't won anything. They've only won the League Cup in the last 10 years and have twice missed the mark in European finals. I like their style of play, I like Klopp but let's not go overboard. If the shoe were on the other foot, we'd be talking about 10 years of failure and missing the mark despite having World Class players like Torres, Saurez and Countinho.

You've missed a few questions.

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.

what do you think our transfer budget should be this year

[Letters]

I think people underestimate the importance of the keeper, he keeps goals out, gives the defence confidence and organises them at set pieces and can also start attacks, a top keeper is worth his weight in gold.

Joke's on you. Alisson is 91kg

http://www.espnfc.com/player/196876/alisson

And 1kg of gold is currently around £30,000

https://www.bullionbypost.co.uk/gold...rice-per-kilo/

So according to his transfer fee he is worth approximately 24.5 times his weight in gold.

[Power n Glory]

I think people underestimate the importance of the keeper, he keeps goals out, gives the defence confidence and organises them at set pieces and can also start attacks, a top keeper is worth his weight in gold and will win you matches and win you extra points.

Knowing your keeper isn't going to save you if someone gets past you probably leads to more fouls/penalties. Our best defence also had a great keeper behind them, consequently they could grind out results and they condeded few goals, now sure you can outscore teams if your team is good enough going forward, but I'd suggest keeping goals out is better in the long term, especially when the team has off days.

Some of the best keepers are with clubs that haven't won league titles in ages. It's an important position but I'd treat it like the final piece to the puzzle once you've seen the bigger picture. Pay whatever it takes if that's the final piece to the puzzle but don't start off that way.

[SMatthews]

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.

As I mentioned, I think I justified those figures by thinking “they’re attacking players, it’s normal to pay stupid money.” Whether that’s the right or wrong way to think about it, I don’t know. Seeing that figure thrown around for a keeper just seemed even more absurd. My logic probably isn’t completely together on this, I know. More of a gut reaction. We’ll be onto £100m for a goalkeeper soon. I never thought fees would bother me, but looks like I was wrong. Roll on the season is all I can say.

[SMatthews]

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.

Contracts and fees are always amortised, so in accounting terms the payment is spread over the length of the contract for the club.

I think any concern about fees is just feeling uneasy at watching these sums increase exponentially all over a sport. In reality, it shouldn’t matter that much, but it’s part of a wider distance that affects some sections of fans.