Liverpool ‘narrative’ spin fooling nobody on Quansah as Man Utd fans blamed
Liverpool are painting themselves as geniuses but are they wasting money by replacing Jarell Quansah? And are Man Utd fans to blame or their woes?
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Summer lovin’
Isn’t it refreshing to not have to read countless and pointless comments from the pedants about how their team got screwed by VAR!
Adidasmufc
(Only to be replaced by countless and pointless comments about who ones team should buy)
A man for all seasons
Mike D, in terms of my own vernacular last season finished at the final whistle in the Champions League Final. Next season starts with kickoff of the first Premier League game. In between these dates we have the off season and pre-season.
Summer tournaments have always been international based so exist seperately though we do have post-season tournaments now and the CWC abomination but these are best ignored. This is all subjective though. If you’re supporting a lower league club then your dates would be different.
If you’re suporting a Norwegian club your dates would be different.
Dave, Manchester
Man Utd need to ignore their fans
I’ll try not to pick on United fans here because I don’t think this is unique to them but this idea that your club gets taxed because of who they are isn’t entirely true.
When Roman rolled in at Chelsea suddenly all transfers and salaries to Chelsea were inflated; this happened for years until they learned that overpaying leads to more overpaying. Then weirdly unlearned that in the last 2 years and started doing it again.
Under two separate City owners they too have been wildly overcharged for average players.
The thing these teams have in common is success. Their bigger bank balance is linked to this. The outlier is Arsenal who get fleeced all the despite crying poverty every year AND not achieving anything. If anyone gets taxed it’s them.
United and their fans spent literally my entire lifespan as a football fan (89 in case you were curious) bleating about how rich they were. Then complain about how everyone rips you off.
Firstly any team that succeeds gets inflation because the selling team knows that you see value in their player and you have money in your pocket from your success. It literally happens to everyone. Not just United. Liverpool with Allison and VVD who were obvious bargains now but at the time everyone thought we’d over paid. City with Robinho, Mangala, Grealish. Chelsea have about 600 of them. Arsenal with Pepe and a few others.
This idea poor little underdog united get picked on is nonsense. You don’t have to agree to buy those players. And most of the time these signings and decisions are ones which the majority of the fanbase are clamouring for. Maguire? Lukaku? Jose as manager? Ole? No fan base gets what they ask for more than United fans. If anything execs at United need to start ignoring what the fans ask for because they repeatedly ask for things which don’t work out.
Lee
Man Utd still have an advantage, even with their ‘tax’
I’m surprised that more comparisons haven’t been made between the Everton of 5 years ago and the current Man Utd situation. The Everton story is well known – whilst trying to break into the top 4 we ended up overpaying for players and giving them long contracts on high wages. Then one of our most effective players got suspended over sexual allegations, results on the pitch didn’t go our way, and we ended up getting through managers quite quickly.
Years of financial problems then followed because we had a load of deadwood in the squad that we couldn’t offload because of their high wages…….so quite a similar story to the Man United of recent years.
But things are not equal. The lure of playing for Manchester United is still greater than playing for the other 14. Thanks to their loyal support base Man U’s revenue is so great that they can afford to pay the Man U tax and even make duff transfers.
Fortunately, Everton managed to stay in the top flight and we’ve ended up with a fantastic new stadium, a manager that knows how to succeed in the Premier League, and a squad with a realistic wage structure. Everton have sorted out their problems and the future is looking bright – in my view this puts them years ahead of Man Utd. But players will still choose to play for Man United if given the choice. That is the reality right now and it will continue to be so unless Man United continue to make mistakes in the transfer market and when selecting first team coaches.
The Logical Dictator (a temporarily optimistic Everton fan)
Howe Newcastle are a bit f***ed
I like the cut of James, Leeds’ jib. His suggested targets make real PSR sense, and he really captures my growing transfer dread.
A couple of weeks ago, when Bryan Mbeumo was suddenly no longer interested, I wrote in about how the supporters still mostly seem to trust Eddie, the Board, and the owners to be good managers of the club, especially as regards transfers. You quite rightly declined to publish it, because I started to regret it before it was even clear you’d binned it, as my confidence began to unravel.
Mbeumo was clearly a transfer that had to be accomplished fast. If we wanted to sign him — and his fbRef page shows why he could be incredible for us — we should have offered Brentford their asking price on day one of the window and figured out a way of working him into the wage structure.
Lowballing them made it a public spectacle and got Manchester United and Spurs involved, costing us what my nephew (the most informed supporter I personally know in the US) called “the perfect player for us, for Howe.” But at least we didn’t over-pay.
And is James Trafford being treated as our highest priority? He’s a welcome addition who will nonetheless require either Dubravka or Pope to exit, probably without any significant profit. But I’ve never heard anybody say they’d be excited to welcome him. He’s a long-term solution to a problem we don’t have yet. We should find long-term solutions to the problems we do have at RW, CB, and ST.
Thus, the desultory bid for Elanga had me pulling my hair in frustration. Forest know they won’t keep him, but they have no reason to accept the first offer that comes along. It’s asinine of us.
I have never understood that Eddie Howe had anything other than targeting and veto powers when it comes to transfers, in which case, I would blame the Mitchell/Ashworth/Eales disasters for the vision vacuum. James, however, suggests that Eddie and his son are in charge and emphatically the problem, and if he’s right in his facts, he’s right in his opinion. The board would be/are mad to put him in charge of such decisions and the strategies that they require.
But Howe may hold more cards than I thought. Besides the Cup and two UCL spots, the only other person between the Board and the squad is General Manager Jamie Reuben, hardly a man used to swimming these waters. Howe’s probably swinging more weight right now than he ever will, unless he manages England.
The Board is evidently difficult to work with, having driven off Ghodoussi and Stavely (still revered by many NUFC supporters), then Ashworth and Mitchell. Mitchell may have had beef with Howe, but it was the Board’s responsibility to manage that. Darren Eales reportedly stepped down as CEO — he’s still technically in office until a replacement is named — after a leukemia diagnosis, which can hardly be blamed on the Board. But his effective absence is fast becoming a disaster. If Eddie and his boy are the only people left standing, we may be effed for this summer.
We need an excellent Sporting Director/Manager of Football type, stat. More, even, than we need players. Whatever issues the Board is facing, it’s clear they need to be resolved. Jamie Reuben is a nepo baby, even a bit of a twit, but I somehow doubt he’s the problem there.
Chris C, Toon Army DC
READ: Newcastle beaten again to underline place in transfer food chain behind Man Utd but ahead of Spurs
Liverpool controlling the narrative
Not sure if there’s anything in this but a few things I’ve noticed on all the transfer talk recently has got me to thinking Liverpool are controlling the narrative in places to try to bend things in their favour. I know this sort of thing isn’t new but this just seems quite subtle compared to coming out and stating an over inflated price….
Darwin Nunez, for the last few years, his transfer has generally been spoken about as £64m + potential add ons. Now a few of those add ons have probably been activated (but I see no signs of an imminent ballon D’or for young Darwin). Yet whenever I see him discussed now there seems to be a shift with the £84m being used as his cost to Liverpool.
This just has me wondering if this is a deliberate action that is being propagated by Liverpool in some way to subtly influence potential suitors when it comes to negotiating on price I.e. he seems more of a bargain?
Now the Harvey Elliott news from yesterday, I think realistically he’s worth £40m max, obvs high ceiling but pretty unproven and with bad injury record. I also suspect this is what Liverpool think, but I also think Liverpool don’t massively want to sell him and are desperate for a buy back as they really believe he will kick on over the next few years. I just wonder if this £50m without a buyback is again a bit of a narrative spin to make the £40ish million with a buy back more achievable.
🤔
Mark LFC
READ: Liverpool master the buy-back clause to engineer £75m worst-case scenario and stunning dream outcome
Liverpool need players now though
While I enjoyed your piece showering Liverpool with praise for apparently inventing buy-back clauses, I feel there is a vital component here that you have completely missed: Liverpool must spend money to replace these players they are selling.
If we take Quansah as an example, he made 34 appearances last season, and performed brilliantly in almost all of them. Liverpool are going to have to spend money buying a replacement for Quansah. Let’s say Liverpool buy Guehi (who many would debate is not as good as Quansah) as a replacement for 60 million pounds, and give him a five year contract worth 150k a week.
If Guehi doesn’t work out, and Liverpool find themselves having to re-sign Quansah next season, it would actually turn out to be an incredibly expensive mistake. Liverpool will have spent 60m on Quansah’s replacement, and then lose 25 million (the buy back fee minus the original transfer fee received by Liverpool) bringing him back. That’s already 85 million pounds wasted, before you take into account the 150k a week salary they are lumbered with for the next five years.
In total, replacing Quansah with Guehi and the then buying Quansah back would cost Liverpool up to 121 million pounds. Not to mention Liverpool would have lost out on his services while he was out in Germany performing brilliantly for Leverkusen. Is that incredibly smart business? I’m really not sure it is.
Lets explore the alternative, which is keeping the academy product who performed so well in 34 games last season at the club, and allowing him to flourish and grow in a squad full of world class talent. Do you know how much that would have cost Liverpool? Nothing.
Kind Regards,
Keith B
Arsenal and wages
I have been following the transfer window in general with particular eyes on Arsenal as an Arsenal fan and somewhat surprised that long time Arsenal fans are complaining about how long we are taking to sign players.
Arsenal usually don’t sign players in June maybe because of paying those wages earlier on.
However, still talking about wages I see many Arsenal fans moaning about how much players earn with us. And I am wondering if that wasn’t the reason we moved to the Emirates in the first place.
Have we forgotten in such a a hurry Nasri, Sagna, Clichy, Cole and RvP left us because we weren’t paying enough.
If we don’t pay them enough, other clubs would easily pay them as much or isn’t that the case?
I guess haters are still gonna hate and potatoes would still potate.
Francis Redheart
READ: FAO Arsenal and Liverpool: the biggest signings take longer because of secret clauses and Zaha
