Liverpool putting transfer budget aside for ‘risk’ Wirtz should please rival fans

Editor F365 12 Jun 2025 7:06 AM

Man Utd midfielder Juan Sebastian Veron takes on Liverpool player Steven Gerrard

Will Florian Wirtz be Liverpool's Juan Sebastian Veron?

One Man Utd fan is more than happy for Liverpool to spend a fortune on Florian Wirtz in a Juan Sebastian Veron and Faustino Asprilla-flavoured gamble.

Send your thoughts to theeditor@football365.com.

Florian Asprilla or Faustino Wirtz?
Hi guys

I think Niall makes some valid points. The only caveat I have is that Arne just won the league with a squad 99% created by Jurgen Klopp. I’m therefore confident that he’ll get it right with the players he wants to add to the squad.

That said, the injury to Bajetic, who I thought might be Gravenberch’s understudy this season, highlights what Niall is saying that we should perhaps be prioritising other positions. If Grav is injured, does that mean our midfield is Mac, Szobo and Wirtz? And do we then bench Frimpong, and play Bradley as the much more defensive right back?

If Kevin Keegan was our manager, I’d be emailing calling the Wirtz deal our Faustino Asprilla moment. As it is, in Arne we trust (but if he changes his mind, we trust then also).
Michael, LFC, in Hackney

There was an interesting take from Niall about whether we should be splashing out on Wirtz. Then noticed Football365 already (jokingly?) heating up the Wirtz Vs Cherki debate before its even started with the 10 transfers article.

All this during times when one the one hand its very exciting to be linked with a mega-money signing but there is also the worry about what happens if it all falls through…the worst possible thing… being mocked by rival fans.

I remember well the mocking and jeers at Caicedo chose Chelsea over us. At the time it was a bit depressing. Going to be honest not that sad about it now though.

I was kind of with Niall that maybe its too much and we shouldn’t be offering so much for one player, but then remembered that was exactly how I felt about Van Dijk, He was too expensive and we had embarrassed ourselves. That worked out pretty well. So I reckon we trust the Liverpool system now and realise they probably know what they are doing. They definitely know more than me about what is worth spending the money on.

Anyway making a team of Dan’s was way trickier than I thought it would be. I realised that Dani Pacheco is 34 now and his breakthrough season is coming.

GK Danny Ward
RB Danny Alves
CB Dan Burn
CB Danilo Luiz da Silva
LB Danny Rose

CM Danny Murphy against Man united or Daniele De Rossi otherwise
AM Dani Pacheco
LW Dani Olmo
RW Dan James

ST Daniel Sturridge

Don’t think its beating many teams sadly.

Some Subs: Daniel Agger, Dani Carvajal, Danilo(Other one), Danny Mills, Dani Ceballos, Danny Ings, Danny Welbeck
Dan T

Interesting to see Niall, Annapolis’ take on Liverpool’s move for Florian Wirtz this morning. I’m a United fan so I always have to parse my views on the Scousers’ business and avoid the “hope this goes to shit” lens that can distort my takes.

But even when (I think) I manage to do that, I don’t see this as anything other than an odd departure from Liverpool’s normal modus operandi. The Frimpong and Kerkez deals make perfect sense – signing sorted early in the window, decent value obtained, lots of potential upside and limited exposure.

But paying over £110m for one player, who maybe needs to be accommodated in a number 10 role which hasn’t been an orthodox part of Liverpool’s system for the past decade, looks laden with risk. Maybe this is the beginning of Slot shifting from Klopp’s system having had the good sense to not tear everything up when he first arrived. Maybe the balance between midfield and attack can be tweaked and refined. I wouldn’t assume to know the nuances of top level football well enough to categorically state one or the other.

But in the interests of speculating, it does feel a bit Veron-to-United, or maybe Asprilla-to-Newcastle. A high profile, high quality player being added while in a position of strength, but maybe an unnecessary move that creates a selection issue rather than complementing the existing squad.

To my eyes, that money would be better spent on a striker who gets closer to Firmino’s old levels than Nunez has since he joined.

I could obviously be proven spectacularly wrong. Wirtz might be the centrepiece of a grand plan and maybe they build successfully around him. But as a fan of what should be a rival club, I’m okay-ish with Liverpool planning to spend such a high % of their transfer funds on him. To put it in terms that fans of the other big teams might relate to: I’d feel infinitely more concerned if they were dangling that £110m+ in front of Newcastle and going heavy to get Isak.
Keith Reilly

Am I missing something?
At the bottom of many of the pages I read on this very fine website a poll is running, ‘Who will win the 2025/26 Premier League title?’ and the current results are shocking, they may have changed but at the time of writing it is as below:

Liverpool – 45%
Arsenal – 21%
Man City – 14%
Chelsea 5%
Newcastle – 5%
Other – 11%

I’m just going to rank these in the order I think the top 4 teams will actually finish next season:

1st. Man City – 14% – Huh?

How has Man City fallen this far in the eyes of the “informed” football public? This is a team that has won 6 out of the last 8 seasons, a team that has beaten record after record consistently since Pep took over, a team that had a manager who had quite a few personal problems to deal with this season and still finish 3rd after a meltdown and missing their best player, the lynch pin of the squad, being out for most of the season.

They started rebuilding in January and have just added more quality players, a lot of people forget how this team was built, to solve problems this City team just spends £50 million on a player, if it doesn’t work out, they buy another £50 million player in the same position, rinse and repeat, look at the saga of left back till Kyle Walker signed. They have been keeping their hand in their pocket for the last couple of seasons (probably due to a 115 reasons) but don’t get this team wrong, they are willing to spend and spend big to get back on their perch.

FFP means nothing to them until a punishment is given and by cementing themselves as too big to fail, the FA are more than likely to just roll over, charge them £100 million and dock them 40 points, they finish 8th – 6th on 60 points that season and then go back to winning ways getting another 3 titles until Pep buggers off and then the clone of Alex Ferguson takes over just to take the piss.

How quick people forget, barring Rodri suffering from PTSD due to his injury, this team will win the title next season, just look at the team. Erling will put his other scoring boots on and get the golden boot by December (its weird that a striker who got 31 goals in 44 appearances is seen as a poor season but he is that good), Rodri is one of only 2 defensive players to win the Ballon d’Or in recent memory (last 20 years), Phil Foden is still quite talented, Cherki and Reijnders are coming, they have a shed load of underage talent (not in the Epstein way) and Ederson is Ederson and always will be Ederson. They’ve even got Oscar Bobb, who you’ve never heard of but he has one premier league medal more than you.

This is Man Cities title to lose, the also rans will just have to wait till Pep goes through another divorce or for FFP to give a points deduction, which ever comes first.

2nd. Liverpool – 45% – Wait, what?

At the start of this season Liverpool people thought we were lucky to make it into the top four, let alone win the thing with 4 games to go. I think Liverpool were criminally underrated due to the unknown of Arnie Slot, the season before they had been trying to get the quady for Klopp and were very close (they still had a chance until the 17/03), the change of manager was the only major thing and for the first half of this season no team could touch them, Liverpool went from a team that was on default tactics on Pro Evo to the dick who spends 40 minutes setting up their team while everyone else sits around getting drunk.

They were more fun under Klopp but they are now scarier, Klopps team were headstrong running though walls, if the wall didn’t go down they would still run until they knocked themselves out, Slots team has learnt to move around the wall, apart from the PSG match which they lost but were incredible in, this team always looked like it could go to another level in a match but usually won without having to do it.

The transfers of Frimpong, Kerkez and Wirtz are statement signings, showing intent to be the next era of football, beating all in their path, sadly, like Klopps team when we bought Allison and Van Dyke, they are coming up against a juggernaut called Man City. A striker will help and Liverpool will push City all the way to the end but they will not beat them, this season wasn’t the start of Man Cities downfall, it was just a blip that happened under extraordinary bad luck, luck they have paid a lot of money to change.

I understand recency bias but nearly half the people who visit this website think Liverpool will win next season, I find that insane, we might be making the right noises but you can’t forget the past, it always bloody repeats itself.

3rd. Arsenal – 21% – Ha!

I don’t want to troll Arsenal fans, some of my best friends are Arsenal fans but 21% HA. This team is youngish, has unbelievable talent and can beat anyone on their day, they have an attack that a Saudi team would pay a billion for and a defence that would get £750 million, they have a lot more strength than a “usual” Arsenal team and have the options to bully or out pass a lot of teams, on football manager this is the team you would want as it’d take a few shrewd signings and some really good half time team talks to be a treble winner.

The problem I’ve found with this Arsenal team is the sense of entitlement, the manager and a vocal minority of the fan base, seem to have, they both have an excuse for every situation and seem to think that they deserve to win it just because they played well for 3 seasons. “If it wasn’t for a red card”, “If we hadn’t had injuries”, “If the wind had blown in a different direction”, “if the season had started at christmas…”, its just excuse after excuse.

When Liverpool were always the bridesmaid they didn’t complain anywhere near the amount as some of these youtube, voice of the fan, cockgobblers and Klopp didn’t whine as much as Arteta does, he’s a sexy man with a sexy wife with a sexy life, why does he always look like someone has pissed on his chips. (Might try and turn that last line into a song)

This unearned arrogance seems to have seeped into the mentality of the team, the strops the players have from time to time are apparent, a card goes against them, a VAR decision is DEFINITELY wrong or a tackle was a bit hard and they down tools, wanting to take the ball home because the beautiful game has been marred because its not the Arsenal way.

If this team got a new manager (hopefully Arteta just moves on when they come third next season so the board don’t look like bad guys when they fire him) they could go from strength to strength, if he hadn’t of managed Tottenham Ange would of been great as long as he wasn’t allowed near the tactics, his infectious personality and will to win while also admitting when they are shit was a breath of fresh air and if it had been at Arsenal you could see a completely different player mentality.

Another reason for my reaction is that they haven’t won anything, don’t bring up that bloody FA Cup, they are always near but in the final part of a season/cup they just fall away because they thought they’d already won it, this season would of been hilarious if Man City had got up to second, another “How does Arsenal come 3rd in a 2 horse race?” would of turned them into the new Spurs and who wouldn’t want Arsenal to turn into the new Spurs.

4th. Aston Villa – 0% (or 11% with other) – Why not?

Its not about Aston Villa being better, its about Aston Villa having less intense games to deal with, the Europa Cup, while fun, isn’t anywhere near as taxing as Champs League, Newcastle are still paper thin having a lot of the same back up players they had in the championship, Chelsea are still young and while they could become amazing, I can also see this becoming the norm around European match time, resting players for the wednesday, losing, playing on the wednesday, losing and then because the teams knackered they lose on the following Saturday, having 3 loses in a row which is a heavy hit to the mentality of a young team.

Man United are still rebuilding from the last rebuild, Tottenham are Tottenham and will forever be Tottenham, Forest may make an upset but its a long season, they will more than likely do what they did this season and sadly fall away. Brighton could get in there, they have a great squad which is constantly being pillaged by the bigger boys, if they can keep them this season and not having any European football its on the card (what a weird sentence, Brighton being a top four team)

Aston Villa has become a team to be reckoned with, we’ve seen what they can do with a competent manager and a team of battle hardened machines that know what they need to do, add a bit of flair into this team and this is a no brainer.

Sorry for how long the post was but you should use your vote better, bloody sheeple.
Rich Jennings, Hull (Soon to have a number one hit called Sexy Life)

Spurs’ injury crisis
Hi there,

I don’t have a dog in the fight over whether or not Ange should have been sacked, nor do I care a whit whether or not Spurs or Arsenal have had a more successful season, but I’m not sure that O Clark gets to use Spurs’ defensive injury crisis as an argument in defence of Postecoglu.

There’s a fairly solid evidence base that he bears some culpability for the repeated and identical injuries that their defenders have suffered, not merely in terms of the high line system that they play, but also in terms of his somewhat antediluvian training methods.

And that’s not even talking about how common it is for players to break down immediately on return from injury, which leads one to believe that he may be rushing them back too early from their rehabilitation.

I accept that a central defensive partnership of Archie Gray and Ben Davies is sub-optimal, but the fact that Gray and Davies are the only central defenders available to Postecoglu might be cause for condemnation rather than exoneration.
Dara O’Reilly, London

Trophies
To keep the conversation on trophies moving along.

I agree with a lot of what James (Gooner exiled in North East) says, but while not all trophies are created equal and aren’t the be all and end all, they are very important.

Look and Mourinho and Guardiola – they both took the league cup seriously (and won it the season they first won the league) because they wanted to instill a culture of winning trophies. Winning a cup (even a lesser one) is a big part of building a dominant team that is able to handle those biggest games.

If Arteta had won a trophy this season people wouldn’t suddenly say he was doing a good job (he is already, let’s be honest), but as a Liverpool fan I’d be very nervous that this Arsenal team had managed to get over that hurdle. Until that point, there will always be a question over the team taking that final step.
Tom, Andover

Ange was a good coach.

Winning cup trophies is not equal to league success or exhibit superiority over better teams that would usually beat cup winners in the league(see crystal palace vs city, arsenal vs city in the FA cup), however it does show the ability of the inferior team to beat opposition despite the clear disparity in terms of football skills and the potential to improve-building from their win.

Cup wins signify success. Tottenham won the Europa cup. Spurs were successful.

Football shall not remember arsenal finishing 2nd for the 3rd time rather it will tell the tale of the Australian guy who won that European cup and the victory by spurs over a supposedly bigger opponent. Cup wins are indeed a measure of a teams’ success even while experiencing failure at the league level.

Ange was a realist. He accepted the situation he was in, where the odds were stacked against him-the players ability (Son was the only world class talent), consistency, cohesion and motivation to win games,support from management was highly depleted-eventually leading him to the transparent conclusion that a league triumph was impossible but the euro cup was achievable. This gamble was made despite the consequences of league defeats to inferior opposition while playing with an (apparently) uninspiring style of football but the cup win was worth it(you could see the happiness of spurs fans despite enduring a bad league season and the subsequent drama in football it brought, like arsenal assuming the mantle of the ‘spursy’ team of the season).

Ange deserved another season-he delivered on his promises, achieved victory with limited resources and could have built from this(a better team), if given the opportunity.

Finally, all things considered I might be utterly wrong and Tottenham might win the league without ange, with a new more cohesive team built by their new coach.
Jamo, Nairobi

Refs out of context
If you want to see refs uncomfortably out of their natural habitat, take a look at Youtube at the terrible Chase-filler game show “Freeze Out.” Featuring the late great referee Uriah playing “Ice Judge Rennie”.

Still with more dead-pan humour than Mark “contenders, ready!” Clattenburg and not the most wooden thing on the show given it was presented by Mark Durden-Smith.

RIP big fella.
Ben

Alphabet XIs
Hi Ed

Continuing the recent trend of coming up with a team with the same alphabet, I present to you my Dream “C” XI:

Number 1 is Carraghers
Number 2 is Carragher
Number 3 is Carragher
Number 4 is Carragher….

(All together now) We all dream of a Team of Carraghers, a Team of Carraghers, a Team of Carraghers….

And so on…

I still fondly remember attending a Merseyside Derby back in 2007 (I think) where we started off the song, and managed to get to number 17 before someone told us to pipe down…

Anyways, have a good one.
Muntazir

I cannot believe Mr Pike missed the obvious punchline of having Cristiano Ronaldo at #7 in his team.

Yours,
Little Tripoli

Mailbox Florian Wirtz