Summer Transfer Window 2020/21 - Rumours & Signings *please quote sources*

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Man of Honour
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They do look good. If I was a Liverpool fan, I’d be worried that we were resting on our laurels too much.

I am indeed. I understand the logic of not buying players for the sake of buying them or because of financial issues, but imo you have to make your transfer market deals whilst your appeal to players is high and Liverpools is sky high at the moment. I do wonder if the appeal will be as high this time next year.
 
Don
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I doubt it's simply a case of not offering Wijnaldum a contract. He's at a difficult age to renew - he's going to want a 4 or 5 year deal on big money and while I'm sure the club have no issue paying a 29-31 year old Wijnaldum big money, they dont want to commit to paying a 33 or 34 year old Wijnaldum big money.

There is also a small side issue we have with the age of our midfield and attack. If you look at the first choice front 6 from last season of Fabinho, Wijnaldum, Henderson, Mane, Salah and Firmino, with the exception of Fabinho, they're all aged between 28 and 30. You don't want too many players getting old at the same time and if there is any truth in the Thiago stories then you could end up with 6 big earners and key players all in that age bracket. Whatever happens I just hope he stays this (summer unless a big offer comes in) and maybe that's the best for all concerned - we get another peak year out of him on relatively low wages and he gets his pay day in the summer.

As for the Chelsea chat above. They've signed some good players and very promising players but a little perspective is needed. Neither Havertz or Werner start for Liverpool or City and Chilwell isn't getting in our side ahead of Robertson either and they still have a pretty poor back line and terrible keeper.
 
Caporegime
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Its being reported in some circles that Liverpool are not going to offer Gini Wijnaldum a new contract. That sucks.

Id be very surprised if thats true but then would explain Thiago links
Gini may want to potentially link up with Koeman at Barca so has perhaps asked Liverpool not to offer a contract or advised them that he wants to go next summer and won’t sign whatever they put in front of him. Barca would rather wait until next summer and get him in a free as any bid for him this season will still attract the extra £100m ‘penalty’ that was part of the Coutinho transfer.
 
Don
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That penalty clause was just a bit of pr from us. It was completely unenforceable and impractical. Imagine if Barca offered £40m for Origi, we're not going to turn around and say you've got to pay an additional €100m or we won't sell. Equally if a Salah makes his mind up that he wants out, we'd negotiate the best possible price and that would be that. It wouldn't be a case of agreeing £150m and then saying you have to pay the extra €100m on top.
 
Don
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Klopp doesn't want to disrupt a winning team. So maybe is unsure what transfer need/to make.
It's not the winning part that concerns him. If the right players were available at the right price then Klopp would sign them if he believed they would improve the side. What he doesn't want and has said as much several times, is a big squad. A quote from him when asked about signing players to cover possible injuries:
People tell you here’s a player, there’s a player, go buy them. But you cannot because after three weeks you have another problem because the other boys come back.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/47041871

Arguably Klopp's biggest strength is his man management and the way I interpret the quote above is that he doesn't believe he can get the same buy-in from players if he's got a massive squad and having to leave players out so often. I certainly cannot imagine Mane or Salah accepting not playing 25% of games because we've got to find game time for x.

Klopp's also very selective over who he'll buy which is very much at odds with your average supporter. A large section of football supporters will happily sign any player and be so sure their side will be better off as a result. I've lost count of the amount of times, either on here or twitter, that supporters of every club have either got way too excited with a signing or lost their **** at missing out on a player that's turned out to be useless. I know last summer Liverpool supporters on twitter were fuming that we didn't sign Pepe and given what I said about keeping players happy, we could have very easily spent £70m and ended up being a worse team because we were having to give Pepe game time over Mane/Salah.
 
Caporegime
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Klopp and his scouting team as well as the analytics team identify players to improve the squad and if those players aren't available then Klopp will generally look at the shortlist they have and make a decision to wait until the player they want is available. They waited on VVD as Klopp wanted him and no one else. They eventually got their man, even though it cost them.
 
Associate
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In regards of Utd I don't want them to buy players just for the sake of buying. We have seen how that haven't worked well in the recent seasons. United need to get a structure of how they want to play and how they want the team to be structured and then work out transfers after that. Scouting definitely need to be improved as well to be able to find the promising players instead of having to buy them expensively from other clubs.
 
Caporegime
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In regards of Utd I don't want them to buy players just for the sake of buying. We have seen how that haven't worked well in the recent seasons. United need to get a structure of how they want to play and how they want the team to be structured and then work out transfers after that. Scouting definitely need to be improved as well to be able to find the promising players instead of having to buy them expensively from other clubs.

Huh? Both Marcus Rashford and Mason Greenwood have broken into the team as decent players as well as many squad members. I don't think there is an issue with scouts. Our recent buys have been decent. The main issue now is the board and the owners.
 
Associate
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Huh? Both Marcus Rashford and Mason Greenwood have broken into the team as decent players as well as many squad members. I don't think there is an issue with scouts. Our recent buys have been decent. The main issue now is the board and the owners.

But didn't both Rashford and Greenwood come to United at a very young age? I'm more thinking about scouting in regards of late teens, the ones that possible will have massive breakthroughs at other clubs and United will then buy for silly money. The recent buys in last summer (Wan-Bissaka at least, Maguire could been better) and in january (Fernandes) have been great. But the seasons before that have been a bit iffy..
 

fez

fez

Caporegime
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The problem that we (United) have is that we have overpaid for players for long enough that our wage structure is a bit **** and we have a lot of good but not great players. The sort that you need to spend a fair bit of money to replace with better but who are getting paid more than they should be for their talent. Those players are hard to shift and we need to add quality in 3-4 positions.

Still need to sort out what is happening with Pogba as well.

Chelsea have bought well and could have a very good side next season. At best I think we will be competing for top 6 currently and I don't fancy our chances with Ole at the helm unless some of our players have absolute blinders of a season.
 
Caporegime
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But didn't both Rashford and Greenwood come to United at a very young age? I'm more thinking about scouting in regards of late teens, the ones that possible will have massive breakthroughs at other clubs and United will then buy for silly money. The recent buys in last summer (Wan-Bissaka at least, Maguire could been better) and in january (Fernandes) have been great. But the seasons before that have been a bit iffy..

We've invested heavily in young players in the last few years. Mejbri, Hoogewerf, Puigmal. Now this season we've signed Jurado from Barca and this left back from Madrid is about to join and the Serbian kid I can't remember his name. The senior squad reinforcement is concerning but the youth team recruitment has been absolutely excellent since Ole joined. I presume it's preparing for the Brexit changes.

Badiashile looks like he could be good but he's still one for the future it seems. The lack of even rumours this summer is surprising.
 
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Leeds have got another promising youngster in, Sam Greenwood from Arsenal. Still awaiting Koch from Freiberg and now rumours of Luiz Felipe from Lazio.
 
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