KopTalk.com Forums Football Liverpool FC Forum Is CL football key to our transfer success this summer?

Will Liverpool be refocused and rejuvenated for the break? The fact that both Manchester clubs and Arsenal will not be playing league games allows the club a chance to set the benchmark. Depending on Spurs' ability to recover from a game tonight by Sunday, Liverpool could sit second in the table, at best, only 8 points behind Chelsea should Swansea spring a surprise at Stamford Bridge.

Either way, these last 13 games are crucial to how we perceive this season. A grave disappointment if we fail to make the top 4, a missed opportunity if we finish a few points adrift of the eventual champions, a missed opportunity anyway because of our cup runs?

Is it going to prove costly in the transfer window? I am sure a fair amount of pessimistic fans will point out that with less money to spend and less pulling power than the consistent top four hopefuls, the very best targets are unlikely to have a chance of joining anyway.

Truth is though, that while Klopp has been seen to be targeting a number of driven, talented and inexperienced potential prodigee wonderkids, he has not been averse to spending bigger on top talent in his most recent and only summer transfer window.

Both Wijnaldum and Mane have proved valuable assets to the team this year, irrespective of the value which you place on them individually. It would be surprising if similar investment wasn't provided to strengthen the quality in our first team of 17-18. While questions are still pressing about the areas that might be invested in, it has been heavily reported that the squad requires a number of players without major departures, so it would be surprising if the value of spending this summer doesn't stretch to the levels Rodgers enjoyed at times under FSG, so long as we make the Champions League.

The only negative, is the pressure that will be placed on incomings. They will be expected to improve and contribute very quickly, with games coming thick and fast. Liverpool, whether in the Champions League or not, would likely still manage 8 European games, 38 league games, and at least 6 cup games (we've managed 10 and 9 in recent seasons). That puts great emphasis on pre-season and settling players to be able to compete going into September.

With all this in mind, which European competition we enter could prove the most influential for the club in the next few years. Miss out, and we might miss out on a few players unwilling to take a years sabatical from the top european competition to work with Klopp.

Without meaning to sound like the pessimist I described earlier, I really feel that the only way to feel that next season will be prosperous will be with a first season back in the Champions League Group Stage. How can the team learn to handle the pressure to compete for a title, if they aren't doing so on a weekly basis.

Playing away at a Romanian team, for example, would prove such a tough and foreign test that it might make the team understand the value of putting games against the leagues lesser teams to the sword.

All this is speculative, most forums are, but Liverpool cannot afford to miss out on extra money, extra impetus and an extra competition. Even at this point in the season, pressure needs to be put on them to succeed. I expected nothing less than fourth, and predicted third. My aspirations haven't changed. Bring on Leicester, and let's make every second this season count. Believing in the impossible dream is something we're firmly used to, i'm hoping its disguised foresight.

I had a conversation about our transfer targets and CL qualification with a few friends the other night. I don't see any connection between us needing CL football in order to get the top players.
Top players 'want top wages' (thinly disguised as a desire for CL football). Even if we won the league this year and automatically qualified for the CL, we still wouldn't offer the kind of contracts that the best players want. We either stump up the necessary cash, or we hope that Klopp can develop our players sufficiently in to title winners. Clearly that isn't going to happen with the likes of ejaria, stewart, alexander-arnold so the expectancy will be on the next crop of youngsters - ones that have been picked by the Klopp regime.

No matter which way you look at it, we won't be purchasing the kind of players we REALLY need! If we don't make CL that excuse will be OVER used and if we do it'll be that clubs wanted too much!
We are bidding in the same pool talent as clubs with more ambition..THAT IS THE FACT OF THE MATTER!
I did a thread on here not so long ago about our scouting network being non-existent...that Flash Gordon crunches numbers and passes the list on to whomever is Manager for them to decide what players from the list they want. Every Manager under FSG is pigeon holed to whomever FLASH picks.
If we want to be successful we have to pay more or to become more dynamic by having feet on the ground scouts looking at all corners of the globe. I can't ever remember our last acquisition straight from South America for instance, which says to me that we have nobody scouting for us there!

I think Sebastián Coates was our last signing from South America, direct from Nacional in Uruguay. But you're right, we rarely buy direct from South America/Africa, those players tend to go straight to Spain/Italy as the Latin leagues tend to suit them compared to English language/weather, then they sell them on for 10 times the cost they paid !!! the odd one is Holland, for some reason they get allot of players from South America, Suarez & Ronaldo went straight to the Dutch league

As for CL, I think it is important to attract the better players unless you pay them huge wages to join like Man Ure do and we never will. I know they want top pay, but they get that at most clubs, CL also brings the funds in to recruit/pay them. Also, FSG will only increase the squad size if we have CL football, it was very telling when Klopp said the squad was big enough at the end of the Window last summer, that was judged on PL & Cup games, if we had CL on top, I think we would have bought 3 or 4 more first team players, the money from CL/TV/Sponsors would have paid for that.

We will never get the top talents, well not where we are at the moment. But there is still good players out that would improve us. I am so fed up with the same [oops] every season. January this season don't even get me started on that disaster.

Progress though is it too much to ask for? We have not progressed since FSG have taken over. I am hoping that Klopp will progress us but he is not a magican, this league is a lot harder than the German league

I reckon you have summed it all up there paul66. Agree 100%

Is it though? If you put our top team against theirs, our 2nd place team against their 2nd placed team etc etc...there would be a lot more German victories than English. The same goes for the Spanish league. The British often say foreign leagues are weaker, but team for team, they would spank us. If our teams are good as we think, they would do a lot better in Europe.

The EPL is exciting and incredibly wealthy, but it's pretty weak in reality. Just because we waste huge sums on transfers and wages, it doesn't mean we are better for it. Other clubs know we have more money than sense so all we are doing is paying well over the market rate for players (ahem paul pogba)!


The extra TV money is being squandered, and making foreign teams stronger. THEY are the real beneficiaries of the EPL's wealth.

When Klopp won the league there was only 1 other team challenging for the league. In England you have Spurs, Arsenal, Utd, Chelsea, Chelsea who all could win it. Then you also had the Leicester city win.

But what he did at Dortmund was pretty amazing

We couldn't compete in the CL with our 11 man squad even if we did qualify.

It would be another embarrassment to go with BR's campaign in Europe.

We would need at least 200million worth of players to compete in the CL and can you see FSG funding that.