KopTalk.com Forums Football Liverpool FC Forum Transfer window reflections.

I don’t usually start threads on Koptalk, I merely tend to contribute now and again to the threads I find most interesting, but it’s difficult to say everything I feel is going largely unsaid in a short comment. And that being said, I’d like to give my thoughts on how certain events did or did not transpire over the summer, I admit that these are my own half-baked theories but they’re much more grounded and based on evidence, unlike the absolute bollox I’ve hearing/reading in the last few weeks. So without further ado:

Virgil Van Dijk.

Klopp illegally met with Virgil Van Dijk and (for want of a better expression) sold his ‘vision’ of Liverpool FC to the player, promising Champion’s League football, perhaps future captaincy, title challenges, trophies, fame and glory and all the rest of it etc. And as we all know, Van Dijk well and truly bought into it, spurning the likes of Chelsea and Man City in the hope of eventually moving to Liverpool.

Unfortunately, somebody at Liverpool leaked information regarding the meeting and Southampton reported Liverpool to the FA over tapping up in what they considered an ‘illegal approach’, this could have lead to Liverpool receiving major penalties from the FA, such as a monetary penalty but also including a temporary transfer embargo as we’ve seen with other clubs, particularly high profile clubs in Spain. In order to avoid such sanctions, Liverpool agreed to end all interest in the player, unless Southampton indicated a willingness to sell, by either approaching Liverpool or accepting a bid from another club, and in addition a public apology was made, as a result Southampton did not pursue the matter further and informed the FA they were happy with this outcome.

At this stage Liverpool’s hands were pretty much tied, although Van Dijk continued to attempt to force through a deal by handing in a transfer request as well as making a public statement (both may well have been at Liverpool’s insistence to force Southampton’s hand) but unfortunately to no avail.

Bids from other clubs that we all thought would eventually materialise, never did and I believe this is because the likes of Man City and Chelsea knew this would only allow Liverpool to enter the negotiations with Southampton and get the player, who let’s not forget, had already more or less agreed terms with Liverpool.

I keep hearing fans lamenting the fact that despite all the transfer talk, we never actually made a concrete bid for VvD and I believe that the reasons I’ve discussed explain this.

The other issue I have with what I’ve been hearing/reading from other Liverpool fans, is that people keep insisting that it’s either FSG’s fault (which I think is unfounded) or it’s Klopp’s fault (which is at least pointing the finger in the right direction) for not identifying and securing a second-choice target. Now bearing in mind, we’ve seen how Klopp interacts with players, high-fiving and hugging them after big results, putting an arm of consolation around them when we lose or perform poorly etc., he basically acts like he’s ‘one of the lads’ and let’s face it, so far we’ve loved his pantomime theatrics. It’s his connection with the players and his ability to inspire them that has made him such a successful manager and we’ve already witnessed his influence in enticing players to join Liverpool. Considering all of that, I simply cannot see Klopp meeting with a player and persuading him to join Liverpool, so much so that the player hands in a transfer request (perhaps at Liverpool’s insistence), damaging his relationship with his current club and fans, not to mention damaging his reputation as a player, all that for Klopp to simply leave VvD high and dry in order to go off and buy a second-choice target. It just doesn’t seem the type of man that Klopp is and as I said, I just I cannot see him doing that.

I don’t suppose that ‘explanation’ is going to appease everyone or even anyone, some will say that no matter what, Klopp should have had a second-choice centre back secured by the end of the window and that’s fair enough, the club comes first and I understand that mentality. Though I’m deflated at not strengthening the defence adequately, I’m also glad that Klopp is sticking by his guns by holding out for his ‘plan A’, his long-term solution to Liverpool’s defensive woes, it could be said he's planning a much more long term solution rather than a stopgap, which in it’s own way is kind of commendable.

Coutinho.

I’ll keep this brief as the VvD thing went on much further than originally intended.

Coutinho wants to play for Barcelona, that is to say, he’d rather play for Barcelona than Liverpool. May I ask, which player in their right mind (other than the likes of perhaps John Flanagan) wouldn’t? So why on Earth is he getting slated left right and centre?

Coutinho has handed in a transfer request, big whoop! He's not the first and he won't be the last. He has openly admitted that he wants to play for the biggest club in the world and everyone’s acting like they’ve been cheated on by their girlfriends.

There’s talk of Coutinho ‘faking’ a back injury in order to be unavailable for Liverpool, that’s nonsense! The club are keeping Coutinho out of the side for two reasons:

#1 – The club have taken a strong stance on not wanting to sell, once Coutinho handed in a transfer request, an inevitable fan backlash was on the horizon. Keeping Coutinho out of the side means the fans cannot verbally attack the player, booing him etc, further escalating the situation and weakening the club’s stance as well as strengthening Barcelona’s position. Imagine if Coutinho played during the Barcelona interest, he’s already frustrated because he’s not getting the transfer he wants, the fans are booing him due to the transfer request, he does something stupid like puts two fingers up at the section of the fans booing him or goes in two footed on an opposition player and gets sent off, Liverpool eventually lose the game. The fans would crucify Coutinho and the club’s stance on not selling would be greatly weakened.

#2 – In case they are forced into selling due to receiving a bid big enough that they simply cannot reject it, they want to keep him injury free.

Whilst number one is a bit farfetched and fanciful (as well as it sounding like my 'Leave Britney Alone!' moment - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lVQOLX1wDAc), it’s just an example of a possibility and when these deals are in the region of £150,000,000 – there’s no way Liverpool or any other club would take that risk.

All this talk of sulking and being ‘filled with great sadness’ (nice one Neymar you twatt) is bollox being printed by Catalan press in order to unsettle the player and shift the fans perception of the situation (which give them their due, it’s working).

Before I finish I want to return to the transfer request and discuss the timing of it, which I agree is completely unacceptable and fairly unforgivable. Coutinho must accept responsibility for that and make a statement of apology either personally or through the club. But the idea that Coutinho is going to return to Liverpool as Draco Malfoy (that evil little blonde twerp from the Harry Potter movies) and poison the dressing room because he didn’t get his dream move to Barcelona is simply ludicrous. He’s a professional footballer with his own aspirations of playing for Brazil in the world cup next summer, he’ll get ripped to shreds by the other Liverpool players when he returns to training, they’ll all have a laugh about it, give it two weeks and he’ll be fine, business as usual.

I wouldn't blame people for not bothering to read this, I know I wouldn't. Either way, let's just look forward to the new season, we'll score and concede a shitload of goals, so at the very least, it's going to be exciting. Just these stupid internationals in the way...

Fair point about LFC maybe telling VVD to hand in a transfer request and then not wanting to leave him out to dry. I'd not thought of that.

but I'm still mad - klopp/FSG/whoever, I don't care, shouldn't have made that sort of commitment to him and then 'felt bad', stopping them for going after other options.


As for Coutinho I agree, fully.

So klopps loyalty to vvd after a complete one off meeting, became so strong, that for the chance of perhaps signing him in the future, he jeopardised our whole season and the chances of any success with it.

If this really did turn out to be the case, sack him immediately. Replace him with Kevin Keegan, the style of footy won't change, we will score huge amounts and concede a ludicrous amount, and actually, fsg would save a few million more as I'm sure Keegan could be roped in for next to nothing.

Bollox to the whole van dick saga. Klopp was 100% unprofessional and so was at fault, we apologised publicly to the small south coast club and that was that,it should of finished there, don't understand this unhealthy crush he has on the player. He ended up wasting the transfer window worrying about van dicks feelings as opposed to prioritising the clubs needs. He now has 4 months to instruct the scouts to go out and find an obtainable centre half for us, I can't believe he's stupid enough to start up this van dick nonsense again in January.

City and Chelsea also reportedly met him. The problem was telling the press he only wanted to join us.

After that the problem was not getting a proper CB. This could prove massively costly over the course of the season.

Klopp does seem too stubborn, in the last window it almost cost us CL qualification, we'll see how it goes this time

Everyone does it. Southampton knew we met him and that wasn't the problem. Once the press story was out there was when they reported us. Who that was down to is anybody's guess but as we'd met him they could report us.

You'd think only a few very senior people at lfc would know that we are meeting Vvd, so it's rediculous the details got out, I bet Klopp was furious.

I think what really annoyed Southampton is that it came out vvd had said he would join us, so it stopped any bidding war. Rather than issuing the apology, we should have issued our top bid of £70 million and said its that or our interest is over, at least we had a shot of signing him then and it was over either way ending our interest.

If Liverpool submitted a bid in place of an apology & promising to drop interest in the player, Southampton wouldn't have withdrawn their complaint to the FA, which likely could have resulted in Liverpool receiving a transfer ban. This was clearly a very realistic possibility, otherwise why would Liverpool have backed off and made a public apology?

But if we would have bid the amount Southampton wanted, the complaint would have been dropped as the deal would have been done, what seemed to annoy them is that he said he wanted to join us, so avoiding a bidding war with Chelsea and city.

Seems we really must have messed up this deal by not speaking with Southampton first to see if they could be tempted to sell. You'd think with all the deals we have done with Southampton recently, we'd have a decent relationship with them to have an informal chat before proceeding.