WELL there you go. We’ve done it again. We talked about this on The Anfield Wrap Unwrapped (TAW player, fiver a month, it’s quality, give it a go if you haven’t already); Tony Barrett had said that the negotiations with Memphis Depay had stalled a week ago. No progress made. We talked about the fact that Eindhoven’s president had come out and said that there were two teams in this now. Liverpool and PSG. He’d intimated that Liverpool were leading the chase. We’d flown Memphis in. Private jet job. A very public private jet obviously as the entire sodding world knew about it. Memphis was in Liverpool. Memphis was coming to Liverpool.
What do we think then? We talked about it at some length. Fast, agile, a right-footed left winger cutting inside. Cracking shot on the lad. Could be perfect for our style. Exactly the profile of player that we should be signing. The table that we should be shopping at. A genuinely exciting prospect who could be about to break big. We were courting him, we were doing everything right.
Apart from the bit where we keep our bloody gobs shut about it.
Manchester United have — of course — agreed a £22m fee with Eindhoven for Memphis Depay. Eindhoven have announced it, the squad have been told. The club that wasn’t in the running has run the game again.
Meanwhile, we’re left look like Everton chasing Alan Shearer. ‘We WERE in the hunt lads, honest’. And we have no idea who’s briefing the media on our transfer targets. No idea if it’s the club, determined to be seen to be chasing big names, no idea if it’s the club knowing that they can’t get the target but wanting to seem as though they can or if it’s players’ agents pushing the price up by flagging up our involvement to start the auction knowing all along that they have no intention of letting their client move to L4.
They’re not using United to start the discussion though, are they? United are just walking in, putting the money on the table and getting the lad. Leaving us behind. Again.
Look at the names we nearly had. Look at the names we claimed we were in for: Mkhitaryan, Willian, Salah, Konoplyanka, Diego Costa, Alexis Sanchez…
None of them landed. Not a one. Ian Ayre out there somewhere — wherever ‘there’ actually is — not actually managing to land a deal at any point.
Add all the Spurs lads. Add Siggurdsson, add Eriksen, Lamela — were we in for Lamela? We must have been. Add Willian again — he chose Spurs over us before Jose jumped in.
There’s something very wrong in the way that we carry out our transfer dealings. It’s not in the way that we identify talent — we’re clearly identifying those lads and then all the other buggers are buying them, so you can only assume that it’s in the fact that WE KEEP BLOODY TALKING ABOUT WHO WE’RE GOING TO SIGN.
I don’t particularly like the idea of doffing my metaphorical cap to the Mancs but here you go. They said nothing, they went and spent the money. Again. We’re briefing the press and letting the world know everything we want and basically building other people’s shopping lists for them.
It’s not new. Benitez suffered from it. Supposedly in negotiations to sign Juan Mata before Chelsea got to him, negotiations flounder when somebody goes public with the fact. We don’t get Mata. All these players that we don’t get. Because we keep insisting on bloody talking about them.
The names then. The names that we’ve all seen already. The other lads that we’re in for. Whether we rate them or not.
Benteke. £30m for Benteke. Spurs want him, Arsenal want him, everyone wants him. Somebody’s going to go in with actual cash and their mouths shut and buy him. Ings. Liverpool want Ings, want him on a free. David Moyes looks up, goes ‘fancy a bit of Spanish sun, lad?’. We’re not even bothered about him and we might mot get him. Milner. Same thing. Someone keeps letting it slip that we’ve probably got Milner tied up. So we won’t have. Martin Montoya. Offer made. Go on then; Arsenal, Spurs, Southampton? Who’s going to jump in first?
Son from Leverkusen? Look at him on YouTube if you haven’t already. Looks smart. We’re linked.
I don’t want to be linked anymore. I don’t want any rumours. I want Liverpool to do what the Mancs have just done: I want Liverpool to announce that we’ve signed somebody.
I want the day that our kid rang me at work and said ‘Rush has just re-signed for us from Juve’. THAT’s what I want. Peace, quiet, no false building of my expectations so that they can be crushed yet again. I want to know about a signing when he’s on the back of the Echo holding a scarf and wearing a shirt. I want the old days.
Most of all, I want whoever it is at Liverpool that can’t help talking about who we’re about to sign, who we’re talking to, to just shut the fuck up and do their job.
[rpfc_recent_posts_from_category meta=”true”]
Pics: PA Images/David Rawcliffe-Propaganda-Photo
LISTEN: Reaction show – DEPAY OR NOT DEPAY
You could make a Premier League winning team out if the players we have missed out on. Sanchez, Costa, Willian, Depay, Mkhitatian ect. Why the fuck cant we sign anyone? Spend some fucking money you stingy Cunts FSG!!!
Can you not see, money isn’t the issue. It’s the negotiation process. It’s not like we don’t end up spending the money, we do.
This Depay scenario is an absolute piss take from the Mancs. They had him tapped up for months…Why were we wasting our time?
Maybe if we weren’t so desperate to believe every single story that came out it wouldn’t spread so much, or be in so many papers, or it wouldn’t hurt so much when it doesn’t work out. No one tells fans to get over-excited about targets, no matter how unlikely they are. No one tells blog writers to write about those targets either, spreading the stories even further. Look, at some point we just have to accept two things: First no one else is responsible for us, as fans, getting over-excited and then being disappointed. Second, Liverpool are going to miss out on lots of targets and that will never end. Sometimes we’re just going to be disappointed, and sometimes it will happen many times in a short space of time. One of those things we can control, the other is out of our hands. Maybe it’s worth taking responsibility for what we can and not getting so hung up on what we can’t. Take all these stories with a grain of salt, surely we’ve learned that by now. Depay looks a good player but he’s a United player. Might as well be Wayne Rooney we’re pining over. It’s done. Move on.
read this guys (if you haven’t already)
http://tomkinstimes.com/2015/05/listen-up-fuckwits/
And Adam, I agree with you. People can blame the club all they want but, and you can say I’m being cynical, but does noone think that the club may want to keep every element secret but every player has an agent, whose job it is to drive the price up. And how could he get more money from United for his client? Putting them under pressure with “Liverpool are very interested, you know”? And publicising details of the “impending” deal with LFC as a “press source” couldn’t be part of that scheme?
I agree with you (and Adam). It seems highly more likely that agents are the ones spreading these stories than anyone else.
Look — it is naive to think that, regardless of whatever money we threw at Depay, he would go anywhere other than United to join back up with van Gaal, especially once United and van Gaal came into the picture. It would not surprise me if that was Depay’s preferred destination, and that he had a word in his agent’s ear to use interest (real or otherwise) of whatever club’s he could to get Depay to United. And Liverpool being the fifth richest club in the country, there’s only so much they can do (especially with FFP restrictions) in terms of transfer fees and wages.
Come on now, don’t give (FSG, Brendan, Ayre) a hard time…to be fair they have just signed…..17yr old Paulinho!
What about the ‘stiff upper lip’ or ‘don’t let them see you bleed’ British attitude..
You morons and your blogs… Grow a effing brain and realise the truth… Liverpool is not a top 4 club and hasn’t got the resources to complete… Advertise your interest in a target or not we will get screwed.. Our only option buy cheap unproven talent in the bulk and hope we get lucky and get someone who is near world class (cause we will never get word class) and after he reaches that level we have to hope that he’ll want to stay with the grossly low salaries we can afford to pay.
Fans who have seen the once great Liverpool are now almost on their deathbeds still crying YNWA.. But what future generations will support the club without progress and victories (read trophies)
Oh and maybe once in a century you’ll get a new “Gerrad” and we will worship him only to see him depart…. Cycle repeat.
No trophies and no idols means no new supporters from future generations and that’s the real fear
LFC are not fighting to win anymore there fighting to survive and not be forgotten.
Tell you what, mate. Try to make your point without being an absolute bellend.
I am probably not one to talk, but “Hear, hear!”.
Very naive article. I know you’re frustrated lad, so are we. But i never heard a peep come out of the club regarding any target. In today’s world of agents, paparazzi, media it’s very difficult to keep things quiet. The guy wanted to play with Van Gaal and apparently he wants CL football. He’ll get his first wish. Now lets go spoil his second…
Mereyside reporters closest to the club reported the club were interested on more than once occasion. Agree it’s difficult to keep things quiet but the club can still have a policy to straight bat any transfer question and not to brief. They don’t.
I’m inclined to agree at this point. Deny, deny, deny in public regardless of what’s happening behind the scenes.
I want the day that our kid rang me at work and said ‘Rush has just re-signed for us from Juve’.
I remember that day jumping on my bed with excitement. The day when Robbie Fowler re-sign out of the blue was an amazing feeling.
It does feel like propaganda when the Liverpool Echo put all these premature transfers stories out there seemingly to try and cloud the topic matters which are of most concern now.
There does seem to be a sort of identity crises at the club now as Liverpool feel like they have one foot in the past with the other foot not knowing where to put its next future step…..a big summer lies ahead
shit happens
We don’t know exactly what’s occurred here so until we are privy to ALL the details then we can only speculate. And that is pointless.
Onwards.
What we do know is Liverpool have repeatedly targeted players and failed to sign them.
I just heard that Dutch journo marcel van der whatsit on (I know) talksport. He confirmed it was between us and PSG. Depay was (this kills me) flattered by LFC’s interest. PSG were prepared to pay him silly money to join (apparently they still need to do this to lure top grade signings), at which point the Mancs were alerted.
Depay was used as a reserve in the World Cup, so no one knew if the Van Gaal link would be a help or hindrance. Dirk had bigged up LFC to Depay, saying he’d play regularly & develop faster with us.
That’s all.
We have also signed plenty, including a few we shouldn’t have! Re reporters close to the club, I am sure there sources think they know what’s going on but maybe they only know a bit of the puzzle? My policy, which I have just broken for this article is not to follow any of these stories until they sign or not.Less disappointments that way. IMO the lad was always Man U bound wth LVG in charge. I do agree with the main thrust- say nothing, don’t even comment and just present the player if successful. How realistic that is in today’s world, not sure.
Honestly haven’t seen the lad play, so although I’m sure he’s a good player I can’t pretend to be too arsed. At least with Salah, I’d seen him play against Chelsea a couple of time. All these lads have grown up in a world where Liverpool aren’t the biggest club in the country and don’t win titles. It’s the same world I’ve inhibited and it’s shit and galling but it’s the reality.
I’m not disagreeing with the gist of your piece at all, Ian. I go through phases of our shortcomings bothering me, then become numb to it, then back again. The quality of the signings we’ve missed out on vs the signings we’ve actually made under the current setup at the club is the massive issue for me and the one that stops you from competing at the level we all want.
Is it possible Liverpool isn’t as big of a club as we think it is?
It sometimes feels like agents have figured out they can use LFC to achieve their end game. Maybe the agent and player know all along that LFC won’t offer the desired wages, but given the media attention and online buzz generated by the link, it only serves to generate more interest and therefore strengthen the agent’s bargaining position with other clubs. They dangle the carrot in front of LFC long enough to attract clubs that will pay the wages, then move on.
I have absolutely no idea what the club could do to avoid this, though. And who knows if it’s happening, because you’d never hear an agent admit something like that. Just a half-brained hypothesis, really.
All I want is to be not told that we can compete with anybody in the transfer target. Just a bit of fuckin honesty from the club owners and leadership. I want them to come out and say “We cannot sign top tier talent any more”. I want them to say “If one of the top four clubs come in for the same player, we cannot compete”.
Then lets the chips fall where they may. Either there will be mutiny from the fans, or we’ll shrug our shoulders and say “tell us something we don’t know”.
But please, for the love of god, no more from Ayre and Werner telling us we can compete with anybody.
Would this be happen with Klopp? Do we lack credibility? Has BR’s ego run ahead of his ability? Will we end up with a load of cheap damaged goods again?
It is all just so depressing…
Who believes tony propaganda barrett anyway? He is an FSG mouth piece. MD was never joining us with LVG at Manure.
Whilst I can’t agree with the Barrett nonsense, the rest is accurate. Evidenced by: http://www.express.co.uk/sport/football/572588/REVEALED-Man-Utd-Liverpool-Memphis-Depay-back-of-shirt and the book itself: http://i60.tinypic.com/ws5u93.jpg
It doesn’t matter if you think it is “Barrett nonsense”. He actually has a source (so therefore it isn’t).
Uhhm, I was referring to the ‘nonsense’ in the post by rowan above ;)
Sound.
Perhaps Depay has a TAW subscription, & has been listening to And Could He Play? Torres, the best CF in the world during his peak years with us. European & World champion with his country. LFC honours? Zero.
Players should want some combination of trophies & money. They probably enjoy playing with big name teammates. We pay less than most of our (erstwhile) competitors, aren’t exactly overstocked in the big name player department, & in 2005, Depay was 10.
That’s why this is so fucking depressing. Predictable, yes, but that makes it worse.
It’s probably not Ian Ayre’s fault.
I think its hard to take, moreso because its yet another one away but i don’t agree United pulled it out of nowhere. They’ve been heavily linker for a while and I’m sure if we followed Manchester press and twitter feeds it would look very different. They’ve have been good at this in the past, notably Andy Cole and Cantona but they spent years being rejected too by Ronaldinho, Robben, Bale, Ramsey, Vidal, Sneijder, all the way back to Shearer and Gascoigne, and this even when they were winning everything. The main issue is contingency plan. The chronology of those targets make for bizarre reading. Miss out on Mhiktariyan? Go for a big bustling centre forward in Costa? Nah sure will try for the Brazilian Milner in Willian. Same goes for Sanchez, to Remy to Balotelli. Its like going on a price comparison site and typing in ‘footballer’.
We’re just an agent bargaining tool nowadays, even PSV just used us to drive Man Utd’s bid up
The sad thing is we look like we have blown the 120 mil from last year which should’ve served as a backbone for our success in the next couple of years.
FSG has invested close to 300 million in the squad, without taking into account net spend. That’s a lot of money, and anyone that’s a little smarter and more astute could’ve done better with what we have in recent times
It’s unforgiveable that for a club that doesn’t have the pulling power we used to, to fail as much in the transfer market as we do. We can least afford to do it. There needs to be a major overhaul in the whole process, if the manager is culpable then he should bear the brunt as well.
A DoF model should be explored again, but not with a fraud like Comolli, someone with a proven track record
Guys…chill.
You were never going to get him, and neither would PSG.
Everybody here knows Depay thinks of van Gaal very, very highly.
Everybody here knows Depay will look what is best for him as a player, not the biggest bag of money when money will be astronomical anyway.
Here is an excerpt of an interview during the WC.
“Depay is enthusiastic: “Van Gaal invests in me as a person. He is genuinely interested in my background, my thoughts, my ambitions, what I like to do in my spare time. He can be tough and demanding on the pitch but I need a coach that’s on my back. Off the pitch I’d rather describe him as a sweet person.”
Knowing Depay, that is an absolute truth to him, not some public arsekissing.
Plus, hate to break it to you, ManU is regarded as a bigger club..
His agent has confirmed Liverpool pulled out. Carry on.
HA now the club’s telling us we were never interested
I understand why they wanna do that since they don’t wanna publicly admit we got beat by Man United, but man the amount of shite being fed to the fans this season have been amazing
The agent has confirmed – not publicly – that Liverpool decided they want to spend their dough elsewhere and pulled out last week. It looks like shite the way it’s being presented but have been told it defo isn’t (not from someone at the club!).
Cheers, although we probably wouldn’t have gotten him even if we followed through anyway, which is the sad state we’re in atm
8th richest club in the world and being treated like the last guy being picked in football 6 asides
Rodgers could have swerved the question about Depay quite easily, but no he makes himself and the Club look ridiculous. Even his poodle at the Echo James Pearce reported the Club’s interest. Jim Boardman talks a lot of sense.