Haggling in isolation makes sense, but one thing that football experience has taught us is that their is always an exception to the rule, and the intuition to determine that exception is a skill in itself, one which seems extremely hard to grasp, especially for FSG. Their stubbornness to treat every transfer business with the same criteria leaves a void of footballing knowledge so frustratingly obvious for the common LFC fan.
To be fair it's easy to lament these "what if" deals in hindsight , but To think that arsene would have bought Suarez off LFC if he payed an extra 10million, or how we missed out on salah initially in 13/14 over 5million, compare this to the shrewd business of Sir Alex Ferguson, buying Rooney, Van Persie, Rio Ferdinand all for large fees yet these signings created a large fear factor not to mention that extra bit of quality to take the his team forward for a decade, Ferguson also did this through the nineties , buying the best forwards in the league , even trying to get shearer, he was ruthless in understanding the value beyond finances.
It may not be all FSG's fault, they have been burnt before , with the likes of C.Adam, Downing, Carroll, Benteke, also considering the length at which the Moreno deal took to finalise, one would've thought that LFC scouts had more than enough time to determined a solid player, little did we know that the Moreno transfer saga that dragged on would eventually lead to such a poor all-round LB, is this a problem with the scouting department?
whatever the issue is with LFC it definitely seems as if FSG have delved a bit too much into football, it's one thing to have owners that aren't football savvy, but to then begin appointing a large backroom staff of non-footballing minds and expect everything to just fall in place is plain naive , LFC have computer gizmo's and prior computer game executives with large leverage on the clubs direction, not to mention having Ian Ayre leading the transfer negotiation frontline for a couple years , this is probably the most worrying of all of FSG's issues, their hand is far too deep in the cookie jar.
These people appointed to run many of LFC's important transfer negotiations are like a bunch of wannabe dancers gate-crashing a party making a complete fool of themselves , along with creating a bad business rapore for future transactions.
the truth that has surfaced over the past couple transfer windows is that LFC are questionable at best when dealing with football related business transfer or otherwise -
The way the club handled the Sakho-ban in the tail end of LFC's Europa league campaign saw Sakho free to play in the final yet the club withdrew him completely, had he played maybe we'd be singing to a different tune, the odd behaviour in the methods of transfers, often seemingly having an air of maligned arrogance only making the transfee process unpleasant for other teams transfer negotiators,
making transfers all the more harder,
Maybe this is ok in isolation , but now with Jurgen Klopp fans all hoping the significance of champions league qualification signified a change , a change that would run throughout LFC. Yet now where top transfer targets are being listed, it seems their naive transfer tactics may result in losing our targets once again, but this time the stakes are higher hence the loss greater,
maybe in terms of the salah deal it won't have as large an impact should we miss out, but I truly believe FSG are handling the Virgil Van Dijk deal extremely carelessly, considering the impact and fear factor getting such a player would cause.
Not only is it obvious VvD is Klopp's top target, but this player seems to be the man destined for the armband in the future , the fact that getting this player amid Chelsea and Man city interest affects the dynamic of how LFC is perceived also, maybe even cause a trend to start where other top targets follow in VvD's footsteps to anfield, the buzz and fear factor a player of this calibre would be a major psychological edge in LFC's favour , it may help the club believe they are worth being up there competing with the big boys , as it stands despite the everlasting fan mentality that LFC are a big club, it definitely seems the players have psychological issues when it comes to taking that next step into greatness, this has slowly crept in the dressing room over the last couple years, first starting at the day Gerrard slipped, then further reinforced the week later in the karma of comebacks : Crystanbul. Liverpool 3-0 up tried to push for an increased goal difference in hope they can win the title still, but one thing they forgot to remember is that goal difference is based on scoring AND NOT conceding , eventually they couldn't plug the gaps , the following year the loss of Suarez's leadership on and off the field affected the club to its core , I just wonder if in hindsight FSG would've still sold him, did they realise the scale of significance Suarez had on LFC and the void that was now created? that 14/15 season was extremely tame, embarrassing the club in Europe and bottling the FA-cup semifinal against west ham , to cap off the disappointment , gerrards last home and away matches in an LFC shirt were ones to forget, losing at home to crystal palace , then last game of the season , thrashed by Stoke 6-1, as leaders in Gerrard, carragher, reina and Suarez all gone , the teams dressing room is in need of leaders , luckily for FSG , despite the poor start of 15/16 we got a miracle , KloppForTheKop!!!
Klopp chose LFC , liverpool were revitalised as Klopp filled the void of leadership that the players and Brendan lacked, and was able to reinvigorate the whole club , it's been a upward trajectory in whole , the final against Sevilla was disappointing but shouldn't take away from their great performances leading up to the final and some memorable games in the EPL in particular the 5-4 Norwich game.
Which leads us to this season , ended overall on a high , LFC with a chance to prove themselves on the elite European stage with Klopp at the helm, amid all the joy that comes with this, it's easy to forget the tame performances throughout January and February, if anything fourth spot was a minimum in December , yet our ability to crumble as a tream has unfortunately still lingered on like an unwanted gene-trait, it has shown that despite klopp's leadership , their is still something missing on the pitch ,
We saw with Klopp as coach , the significance of a coach to not only be a tactician, but also have the capacity to lead the team through inspiration , this holds true for transfer targets too
This is where the significance of a player can go beyond their price tag,
step in VvD, this player will not only fill fans with excitement , create fear in opposing fans, but also be the player to lead from the backline, a world class centreback which will create and restore some of the "belief" back in the dressing room that was lost after Suarez and then Gerrard both departured , that belief in the dressing room is far more significant in liverpool's case at this moment, than any other time, it's the kind of leadership the may propel the surrounding squad to belief we can win titles, it's a kind of signing Sir Alex would make straight away , just like he did with Cantona to propel his team further,
It's not just in VvD's case, but any player that you feel can have a significant impact on the squad in the dressing room can allow that little bit of extra drive to make a team create a winning mentality. Buying VvD goes far beyond the price tag and his actual ability.
the fear is that FSG and their naive wannabe non-footballing background staff ,are completely unaware of this significance in VvD , to them it's just another overly priced player, and so they begin their usual haggling, to make matters worse they are trying to offload Sakho to Southampton in the process, let's just remember that Southampton are a club who have grown more frustrated with LFC taking their players , so the last thing they want is an injured player that they don't even want, plus a significantly less amount of money , especially considering they would be expecting more from a bidding war from Chelsea & Man city.
As it stands VvD's comments that he wants an Anfield switch has seemed to work against FSG, they took this as a form of leverage and are trying to push their luck with this leverage , if they are not careful they may allow the negotiations to stall long enough for VvD to reconsider his value to LFC and be pursuaded by man city who may be preparing an offer that Southampton are hoping for.
As it stands VvD does want an Anfield switch but FSG's lack of ruthlessness may cause this deal deal to fall through, leaving fans and LFC players alike to wonder what could have been as they see VvD lifting the EPL title with Man city,
This is one LFC outta get over the line, it's significance is beyond the price tag, let's hope so we can get him!
