Summer Transfers 2025 Missed Opportunities and Regrets

[HCZ_Reborn]

I wouldn’t mind nothing I’m saying is controversial. It’s just one of football’s ironies. The team that we finished runners up with in 2023/2024 were arguably stronger than the team that won the title in 97/98, just like the Liverpool team that finished runners up in 2009 and 2012 was far superior to the one that finished champions in 2025.

It seems people are enraged because I won’t acknowledge how good this Liverpool team is, I don’t think it is that good. It did what it needed to do last season but I won’t have it demanded to me that it’s capable of so much more because I don’t believe it is, and people need to wind their fucking necks in a bit.

If we play to the level we are capable of, I think we finish above them. That’s something I can’t say about City, I think we could perform to our absolute best and still finish runners up behind them if Rodri is still the player he was before he was injured.

So don’t scream hypotheticals at me for expressing a view that really isn’t that hard to understand. If you don’t agree that this Liverpool side reached their ceiling at 84 points fine, I think it accurately reflects their capabilities and you only have hypotheticals of what you insist must be the case to refute that

[Letters]

Between March and April they lost three games, the PSG game, the Newcastle game and home to Fulham. If you want to selectively edit these games out of existence that’s fine

You are the one cherry picking. I was talking about league form. It's not exactly a revelation that form can vary between competitions.
Spurs literally finished as low as you can without going down last year and won the Europa League, for example.
No-one gives a shit about the League Cup so I don't think one can infer anything much from them losing in that competition. In the CL they lost narrowly to the eventual winners but they beat them in one of the games, which is more than we did - it was very much smash and grab, but they won - and then only lost narrowly on penalties in the end. I'm not editing them out, I was just focusing on league form. The Fulham game is the L1 I mentioned above and yes, that was a result you wouldn't expect but it's very unusual for teams to go through an entire season without any bum notes.

You're just making silly excuses about how they only just won some games. So what? In the seasons Arsenal won titles we've all seen games we've scraped through or won without really deserving to. That's one of the things that makes you champions. What it all adds up to is with 4 games to go their points per game ratio was such that they were on course for 91.6 points. They had the same points after 34 games as The Invincibles.
They did have some tough games in those last 4 but to suggest that had they not already been crowned champions they'd have only got 2 points from those 4 games is just too silly to take seriously.

I wouldn't say that was one of the great title winning sides, and I agree the one horse race was because of our and City's failings but to suggest that 84 points is their ceiling is nonsense given where they were after 34 games.

City couldn’t cope with the loss of Rodri (something I also predicted would happen but you were dismissive of)

Yes, I didn't think City would be as bad as they were last season. Long may it last. But stop pretending you have 20:20 foresight because you got that right. Your predictions on here are mostly hopeless. I'm not claiming mine are any better, but at least I admit it.

Are they capable of retaining the title, well yes but as I say they don’t concern me.

As they didn't last year

[HCZ_Reborn]

You keep insisting this, but you’ve nothing to back it up with

Liverpool haven’t won at Chelsea in five years, they hadn’t beaten us at Anfield the two previous seasons nor Crystal Palace and they failed to win at Brighton the two previous seasons

Where exactly is this assertion that they’d have got more than two points from these fixtures coming from?, the last time Liverpool got a win from any of those fixtures was three years ago.

Frankly it’s your absolutely sense of certainty that they would have got more that is absurd. And in fact I’ll take a leaf out of your book, and refuse to take it seriously.

[Letters]

You keep insisting this, but you’ve nothing to back it up with

Yes yes, you were very very right about Liverpool last season. They weren't a threat last year so I'm sure they won't be this either.
Embarrassing.

[HCZ_Reborn]

Yes yes, you were very very right about Liverpool last season. They weren't a threat last year so I'm sure they won't be this either.
Embarrassing.

I said I wasn’t worried about Liverpool, is that really so embarrassing. Because if we don’t sort out our problems than they become an academic issue because we won’t be competing for the title anyhow. And if we do sort out our problems I’m confident that we will finish above them. I don’t have that confidence with Man City

I was wrong that Liverpool couldn’t win the title, but I’m not saying they can’t win the title. If we nor City get our act together they will most likely will retain the title. If we and City sort out the problems we had last season, I think they will finish third.

So embarassing of me


Like with previous arguments, would it make you feel better if I told you that I rate them highly and think they are capable of doing miles better than last season. It’s not what I feel…but I’m sure as a Christian you are more than used to insincere repentance

[Letters]

would it make you feel better if I told you that I rate them highly and think they are capable of doing miles better than last season.

It would make you look less ridiculous if you stopped peddling the "84 points is their ceiling" bullshit. They had 82 points with 4 games left, it's a points/games ratio which would see them on over 91 points if maintained.
And you're suggesting they'd only have got 2 points from the remaining 4 games because reasons. Everyone on here at the time was acknowledging that they were on the beach after they'd clinched the title, now you are randomly claiming that it was the best they could do. It's just bollocks.

First you said they were flagging towards the end of the season - as I said, they won 7 out of 8 in the run up to them clinching the title. I also gave the stats for the longer run in 2025 after their mini-wobble at the start of the year. Both runs are entirely consistent with a title winning side. You love to go on about how they didn't win more than 4 games in a row. They also never went more than 2 games in a row without winning. They had back to back draws in early December and again in early January, but that's it. And they'd only lost 2 league games before the last 4. So to suggest that having already clinched the title had no affect on their results is just nonsensical.

You say I have "nothing to back it up with" - which is a bit rich considering you said they'd have folded had they been put under pressure, you have nothing to back that up with. I have given a load of stats which demonstrate that their results in the last 4 games were very much an outlier in the season.

I'll ignore the under the belt dig - you're better than that...

[HCZ_Reborn]

I’ll tell you what I will say though.

At this moment in time I’d expect Liverpool to finish above us, but it’s got nothing to do with Liverpool

Even though we are stronger in terms of squad depth, I think we are arguably weaker than last season

A lot of players have gone backwards - Odegaard, Havertz, Martinelli, Saka, Saliba, Raya.

The insistence on playing Lewis Skelly as inverted full back even though he lacks the awareness to play in midfield. That Norgaard even though he’s a squad option looks utterly pathetic, that Zubimendi doesn’t look cut out for the premier league. That we are trying to play a long ball game to combat the low block, but the problem isn’t really the style of play it’s the style of players. I can’t think of a less gifted team technically in my lifetime, it’s a team full of guile, physicality and I’d say mental resilience but no great dribblers or ball passers…and this is demonstrated by the fact that senior players are shown up by a 15 year old academy player.

It’s easy to be wise with hindsight but we should really have spent the money we used on Zubimendi, Mosquera and Norgaard (about 85 million collectively) on a top creative player.

[HCZ_Reborn]

It would make you look less ridiculous if you stopped peddling the "84 points is their ceiling" bullshit. They had 82 points with 4 games left, it's a points/games ratio which would see them on over 91 points if maintained.
And you're suggesting they'd only have got 2 points from the remaining 4 games because reasons. Everyone on here at the time was acknowledging that they were on the beach after they'd clinched the title, now you are randomly claiming that it was the best they could do. It's just bollocks.

First you said they were flagging towards the end of the season - as I said, they won 7 out of 8 in the run up to them clinching the title. I also gave the stats for the longer run in 2025 after their mini-wobble at the start of the year. Both runs are entirely consistent with a title winning side. You love to go on about how they didn't win more than 4 games in a row. They also never went more than 2 games in a row without winning. They had back to back draws in early December and again in early January, but that's it. And they'd only lost 2 league games before the last 4. So to suggest that having already clinched the title had no affect on their results is just nonsensical.

You say I have "nothing to back it up with" - which is a bit rich considering you said they'd have folded had they been put under pressure, you have nothing to back that up with. I have given a load of stats which demonstrate that their results in the last 4 games were very much an outlier in the season.

I'll ignore the under the belt dig - you're better than that...

They dropped 15 points from 24 games (before the last 4 games), if you think a fully at the races City would not have punished that, I really don’t know what to tell you.

They were lagging in March and April, trying to pretend there’s zero overlap between the premier league and other competitions is nonsense. In the autumn and Xmas period when they were dominating in the league they also won their first six Champions League games.

They lost to Fulham around the same time they lost to Newcastle in the league cup final and knocked out of Europe by PSG.
Salah wasn’t getting the goals he had earlier on in the season and therefore they couldn’t just have him knock in a few to get them through games.

I say 84 points is about their ceiling because that Liverpool side was no different in terms of personnel to the one that finished with 82 points the previous season. The performances were largely the same, with two things being different a) Salah wasn’t getting as many goals and B) City and Arsenal were altogether different beasts.

I say it because those four fixtures would have been tricky fixtures for Liverpool at any time of the season, that they just happened to be at the end of the season is neither here nor there. If they had been played in March/April time…whilst neither us or City were in a place to capitalise on it, I think the title race would have still been going in May.


The seven out of eight thing ignores that the teams in that run in they played were relegated Southampton and Leicester (and they struggled to beat both of them) and West Ham and Everton (who they struggled to beat as well).


They did well to get past obstacles like Brentford, Bournemouth, Villa and City (ten points from those four games) but we are talking about four fixtures post title win where they won none of those games in the two previous seasons


Chelsea (A) - D in 2022/2023, D in 2023/2024

Arsenal (H) - D in 2022/2023, D in 2023/2024

Brighton (A) - L in 2022/2023, D in 2023/2024

Palace (H) - D in 2022/2023, L in 2023/2024


And no that comment is not beneath me, because you’re pissing me off because you’re implying I’m arguing dishonestly

[Letters]

you’re pissing me off because you’re implying I’m arguing dishonestly

You're being stubborn, not dishonest. Let's leave the personal digs, shall we?

For 34 games Liverpool had a points per game average of just over 2.4. They lost 2 games in that first 34 and they never went more than 2 games without a win.
You're suggesting that in the last 4 they would have randomly got a points per game average of 0.5, lost as many games as they had in the first 34 in that last 4 and gone more than 2 games without a win for the first time all season. It's just not credible.
Your only basis for this seems to be they'd not won those particular fixtures in the previous 2 seasons. That's a vaguely interesting stat, but a completely meaningless one.
You do love meaningless stats. I do too, actually, but I just find them interesting rather that trying to attribute meaning to them to back up a point which has no merit.

The clear event that happened which marked the change in results was they'd clinched the title. Everyone on here acknowledged after that happened that they had the flip flops on. And there are clear examples of teams previously wrapping up the title and then easing off.

Again, I do not think that was a great Liverpool side. Their procession to the title does say a lot more about us and City than them. But it's just not credible to think that them wrapping up the title and those last 4 results are not connected and that had they needed more points they'd have got them.

[Marc Overmars]

I think the fact Slot buggered off to Ibiza after the title was confirmed kind of set the tone for those last 4 games.