Liverpool FC Thread 2011-2012

Lads back in training today:























No Lucas or Suarez of course. No Dirk either or Henderson. Gerrard was there. Shame Poulsen and Konchesky were there.

Interesting that Andy Carroll's target is also on his chest, and not on his head...

Does Kenny have downs syndrome?

SSN got their yellow ticker going saying youve bid £15m for Downing...hardly surprising but there you go.

Delightful.

"Lucas completed 83% of his 1794 passes last season and came out with the ball 81.08% of his tackles, thats world class, and otherwise he wouldn't have been voted for Liverpool's pfa player of the year, would he?"

More of him please:

Adam and Henderson signed. Downing possibly to follow (hopefully not for a ridiculous fee being reported)

Midfield = sorted.

Now to concentrate on the defence and get a left back + possibly a centre back in.

Luis wrote:Adam and Henderson signed. Downing possibly to follow (hopefully not for a ridiculous fee being reported)

Midfield = sorted.

Now to concentrate on the defence and get a left back + possibly a centre back in.

I agree, £15m is ridiculous in current market. He's as important as Young was to Villa. A year older (means slightly less resale value) but with a year longer contract (means higher value now). Therefore £18-20m, minimum.

debaser wrote:

Luis wrote:Adam and Henderson signed. Downing possibly to follow (hopefully not for a ridiculous fee being reported)

Midfield = sorted.

Now to concentrate on the defence and get a left back + possibly a centre back in.

I agree, £15m is ridiculous in current market. He's as important as Young was to Villa. A year older (means slightly less resale value) but with a year longer contract (means higher value now). Therefore £18-20m, minimum.

You bought him for £12 million, he's now a few years older and has never been spectacular. To expect much more than you payed is silly.

If you hadn't have bummed the Mancs by selling them Young so easily you'd have easily accepted £15 mil for Downing, simple as that.

Good player who I'd pay £12 plus Ngog for or just simply £15 mil. Any higher and we've been mugged for the second time this summer.

2 years older, 2 years more experienced. Prices have gone up in general in the last 2 years, thanks to Man City/general inflation (yourselves are not helping with this!). Also he had a broken ankle and was freshly relegated when we signed him...now he is back on the fringes of England team & was our player of the season last year. Why should we not expect a profit? I think he was better last season than he had been for several years before.

Young was not sold easily, the deal was going on for weeks. But when there's only a year left on contract & player wants to go, it was in everyone's interests to sort it out early in the summer. Got a fair price, given the contract situation & current going rates.

Prices have gone up in general in the last 2 years, thanks to Man City/general inflation (yourselves are not helping with this!).

Agreed, but what we payed for Caroll was simply money we got for Torres. Henderson was bonkers but hopefully a one off.

Also he had a broken ankle and was freshly relegated when we signed him...now he is back on the fringes of England team & was our player of the season last year. Why should we not expect a profit? I think he was better last season than he had been for several years before.

No offence but being your player of the season isn't too much of a great honour in a shambolic campaign. It could only of been between him, Young and Bent and IMO Young had one of his worst ever seasons last season.

As for England, players like SWP and Barry have been on the fringes in recent years, means squat all.

Stuart Downing is worth at most £15 million, if we pay that it's a good deal for both parties. Demanding £18-20 is foolish IMO because if we walk away I don't believe any other club are willing to pay that and I don't believe you'd ever get another offer higher than £15 mil again plus you'd be stuck with a player who wants out.

They don't want to sell Luis, that's pretty much the only factor that matters in this negotiation, hence the price being driven higher than his true value

We should just walk away and look for better value but we'll probably see this one through to an £18-£20m end

COTR wrote:They don't want to sell Luis, that's pretty much the only factor that matters in this negotiation, hence the price being driven higher than his true value

We should just walk away and look for better value but we'll probably see this one through to an £18-£20m end

I understand that, but still stick to my claim that paying £18-20 would be a 'ridiculous fee' for a player of his standard. Adam has more to his game IMO and we only paid £8 mil and he's the same age.

Luis wrote:Stuart Downing is worth at most £15 million, if we pay that it's a good deal for both parties. Demanding £18-20 is foolish IMO because if we walk away I don't believe any other club are willing to pay that and I don't believe you'd ever get another offer higher than £15 mil again plus you'd be stuck with a player who wants out.

Why is it a 15m a good deal for us if it's possible you'll pay more? A good deal for us is getting the absolute most someone is willing to pay, and the only way we're going to do that is to ask for more than they offer and see what they do. We don't have a great deal to lose in doing so - if you back off, we keep our player for another year (and most likely sell him for 12-15m next summer); if you pay, we've got as much as we could reasonably hope for.

It's very much like the Barry situation. We held out for a higher price - that time you chose not to pay. This was not foolish on our part - despite getting a (slightly) lower price from Man City than you'd bid the previous summer, it meant we kept one of our best players for another year (and he still performed much as he always had), meaning we didn't have to run out and get a replacement and it also showed we don't cave in easily. This had positive knock-on effects, e.g. helped get maximum price for Milner & helped keep vultures away from Young until his contract was almost up.

Not convinced Adam has more to his game to be honest..better short/creative passer thats about it.

our new left back http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/14051813.stm

debaser wrote:

Luis wrote:Stuart Downing is worth at most £15 million, if we pay that it's a good deal for both parties. Demanding £18-20 is foolish IMO because if we walk away I don't believe any other club are willing to pay that and I don't believe you'd ever get another offer higher than £15 mil again plus you'd be stuck with a player who wants out.

Why is it a 15m a good deal for us if it's possible you'll pay more? A good deal for us is getting the absolute most someone is willing to pay, and the only way we're going to do that is to ask for more than they offer and see what they do. We don't have a great deal to lose in doing so - if you back off, we keep our player for another year (and most likely sell him for 12-15m next summer); if you pay, we've got as much as we could reasonably hope for.

It's very much like the Barry situation. We held out for a higher price - that time you chose not to pay. This was not foolish on our part - despite getting a (slightly) lower price from Man City than you'd bid the previous summer, it meant we kept one of our best players for another year (and he still performed much as he always had), meaning we didn't have to run out and get a replacement and it also showed we don't cave in easily. This had positive knock-on effects, e.g. helped get maximum price for Milner & helped keep vultures away from Young until his contract was almost up.

Villa are right to turn it down, with the market as it is at the moment (henderson, jones, cahill, dann etc although i know theyre a bit younger) they should be able to get a few more mill from Liverpool seen as Young went for £18m.

voulez vous deja vu avec moi ce sour? this reminds me of the Barry situation

you might remember that ended badly when Janine pushed him off a cliff on the Scottish moors.

let's hope the same doesn't happen to Downing

The team arrived in China today.

Pre season fixtures:

Guangdong Wednesday 13th July A
Malaysia X1 16th July A
Hull 23rd July A
Galatasary 28th July A
Valerenga 1st Aug A
Valencia 6th Aug H

No official list given as to who has travelled to China but the players that definitely haven't include: Gerrard, Johnson, Henderson, Reina and obviously Suarez and Lucas.

Meireles has travelled even though there were rumours that he wouldn't. Charlie Adam has travelled also.

who's the guy in the #19 shirt? The brown gentleman. I don't recognise him - I want to say Nathan Eccleston but I don't remember Nathan Eccleston having such a deep tan.

Jordan Glenderson wrote:who's the guy in the #19 shirt? The brown gentleman. I don't recognise him - I want to say Nathan Eccleston but I don't remember Nathan Eccleston having such a deep tan.

Wisdom

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/14121136.stm

Liverpool: Gulacsi, Flanagan, Kelly, Carragher, Wilson, Poulsen, Spearing, Shelvey, Cole, Pacheco, Ngog.

Subs: Jones, Hansen, Agger, Kyrgiakos, Robinson, Wisdom, Adam, Aquilani, Coady, Kuyt, Carroll.

Played quite well in the first half.

2-1 up, Poulsen and Ngog with the goals.

Ngog and Joe Cole were our best players in the half.

Hope to see Adam get some game time.

Lots of changes at half time:

Agger, Adam, Kuyt, Wisdom all on and a few more

Not a bad team at all we have on now; Carroll up top with Maxi, Aquilani and Dirk supporting, Adam and COady holding.

Wisdom, Agger, Soto and Robinson at the back

Adam's been impressive both in his short and long range passing so far. Carroll and Kuyt look completely unfit but expected at this stage of pre-season.

3-1, great finish from Connor Coady, great through ball by Carroll.