Liverpool questions and mistakes worth well over £200m
Liverpool and big numbers mean click, click, clicks. Or at least that’s what we hope with that headline…
He’s alive!
Mediawatch is no Data Journalist so we will leave it to others to decide if Maram AlBaharna is right in suggesting that ‘Manchester United are asking Harry Maguire to be something he’s not’ on The Athletic; we are trying to resist the urge to reply ‘yes, an £80m defender’.
We are amused, though, by this paragraph:
‘One of a player’s best qualities is availability. This is definitely one of Maguire’s. While he has had his defensive shortcomings this season, he has played more minutes than any other player since he has arrived at Manchester United. With no adequate rest or rotation options, any player would struggle to put their best foot forward.’
It sounds a lot like praise to a man for, well, existing.
Closing in
The Sun, Monday February 7: Liverpool are ‘closing in on an unprecedented Quadruple after safely negotiating their way through to the last 16 of the FA Cup.’
The Sun, Thursday February 10: ‘PEP GUARDIOLA saw his City slickers go 12 points clear of Liverpool…his side have already hit an amazing 60 POINTS.’
It’s almost like Liverpool weren’t closing in on an unprecedented Quadruple after all.
Oh and Liverpool have bettered that ‘amazing’ points total after 24 games in two of the last three seasons.
Snub station
Speaking of Liverpool, our friends at Mirror Football are hoovering up the clicks with this cracker…
‘Sadio Mane snubs Senegal president’s handshake in honour of Liverpool teammate’
And here’s the bloody massive story:
‘Sadio Mane was caught on camera ignoring a handshake offer from Senegal president Macky Sall after receiving a medal from the high-ranking politician along with the rest of his national teammates.
‘The 29-year-old didn’t appear to do it intentionally, instead simply taking the opportunity to copy a celebration most commonly used by his Liverpool teammate Roberto Firmino.’
So, ‘man accidentally turns away before handshake’ then. In honour of, well, just getting with the celebrations really.
One question: Why the f*** is it not on the back page of the actual Mirror instead of all that silly actual football?
Broken Laptop guru
Those Liverpool clicks are super delicious, though, so they cannot resist another cheeky run-around with a red hoover for this:
‘Liverpool miss out on millions in bonus money after transfer plan backfires’
Because that’s what happens if you work for the Mirror and you spot that Xherdan Shaqiri has left Lyon after just a few months, leaving Liverpool potentially £4.2m short on their possible transfer fee.
Maybe Michael Edwards really isn’t all that.
Mistaken identity
But that £4.2m is pennies compared to the ‘£154m mistake’ detailed by the Liverpool Echo. It makes you wonder why Edwards is so lauded when there are plans backfiring and mistakes being made all over the bloody place. Maybe the Reds will be well rid.
The piece is ostensibly about Naby Keita, who was bought for £52.75m, so we can rule him out straight away as the ‘£154m mistake’ mentioned in the ‘Liverpool can’t repeat £154m mistake as Naby Keita forces transfer re-think’ headline.
So what is this ‘£154m mistake’? Well it takes us 30 paragraphs of meandering through the Liverpool career of Keita and the dilemma of whether to award him a new contract or sell for an undoubted loss before we get to the figure that grabbed us so much in the headline. Some small congratulations are due here, because this might well be a record.
‘Under Klopp’s watch Mario Balotelli, Jose Enrique, Lazar Markovic, Emre Can, Daniel Sturridge, Alberto Moreno, Nathaniel Clyne, Adam Lallana and Gini Wijnaldum have all left the club on free transfers, which Divock Origi and Loris Karius look set to join them in the summer.
‘While you can’t dispute the departure of most of these players, Liverpool spent £154m when signing them and banked nothing when they left. Such an approach can not continue.’
That’s not a ‘£154m mistake’, guys. Certainly not in the singular. That’s nine players – eight of whom were signed by a previous manager – bought and released by the club over the period of a decade.
They literally ‘can’t repeat’ that mistake unless they have another ten years and they for some reason bring back Brendan Rodgers and then hand him £120m to spend on tat.
Hey big numbers…
There are clicks in big numbers so elsewhere on the Liverpool Echo website, we hear that ‘Mohamed Salah contract leaves Liverpool with £70m Nike question‘. Well, at least that should offset the £154m mistake a little.
And if you are wondering what the thought process could possibly be here then pay attention because…Mo Salah contract…shirt sales…Nike…£70m. Does Salah make £70m for Liverpool from shirt sales? God no. Could Salah make £70m for Liverpool from shirt sales? Absolutely not.
But Salah is ‘among the top five in terms of player shirts sold in the world over the past 12 months, something that acts as a boost to the incentivised nature of Liverpool’s kit deal with Nike, one that is worth a guaranteed £30m per season but that holds its true value in the 20 per cent that the Reds receive on the sale of Nike/Liverpool merchandise globally. That is something that could make the deal worth as much as £70m per year to the Reds.’
So the whole Nike deal could be worth as much as £70m to the Reds and Salah sells quite a lot of shirts so bingo, we have ourselves a massive number for a headline! Just don’t mention that two-thirds of the Liverpool shirts sold are not Salah shirts, and a good proportion of the Salah sales would just be transferred to other Liverpool players, and there is a guaranteed £30m anyway, so actually ‘Mohamed Salah contract leaves Liverpool with £10m Nike question there or thereabouts‘.
Still clicking?