I'll be amazed if there's not another target. We know Werner wanted to come and we know Klopp likes him so it doesn't seem realistic that we wouldn't push the boat out unless we thought there was better value elsewhere. That's not me saying a cheaper option by the way,better value could mean more money for a bigger impact.
James Pearce has linked to an article he wrote 2 weeks ago on the issue of our transfer business this summer. I don't have an Athletic subscription so I can't read it. If anybody would like to copy and paste it or even read it and give us the gist of it I'd be greatful.
It was never going to be a busy summer for Liverpool in the transfer market. With Jurgen Klopp’s side on the brink of adding the Premier League title to the Champions League, UEFA Super Cup and FIFA Club World Cup they had won over the previous 12 months, only fine-tuning rather than a major shopping spree was anticipated. The vast majority of the club’s key personnel are yet to reach their peak and, with the notable exception of midfielder Georginio Wijnaldum, they are all tied down to long-term deals. Klopp had penned his own contract extension back in December, enthused by the belief that everything was in place to keep the good times rolling at Anfield. As thoughts turned to planning for the 2020-21 season prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, discussions with sporting director Michael Edwards and the club’s recruitment staff centred on bolstering their attacking options. High-calibre back-up for the established front three of Mohamed Salah, Sadio Mane and Roberto Firmino was on the agenda. That need was intensified by the announcement that the Africa Cup of Nations in Cameroon would be moved from June to January next year. A fuming Klopp labelled that decision “a catastrophe” for Liverpool as he pondered the grim prospect of losing Salah, Mane and midfielder Naby Keita for up to six weeks at a crucial period of the campaign. Shortly before the shutdown, it appeared that Liverpool were closing in on the perfect solution. Timo Werner ticked all the boxes — quick, direct and prolific. An established Germany international, he had scored 21 goals and provided seven assists in 25 Bundesliga matches in 2019-20. He had been on Liverpool’s radar since his days at Stuttgart in 2015 and was viewed as an ideal fit stylistically. Publicly, as the speculation increased, the RB Leipzig frontman spoke about his pride at being linked with a move to Anfield and labelled Klopp “the best coach in the world”. Privately, he made it clear that despite interest from Barcelona, Manchester United and Chelsea, Liverpool was his destination of choice. He wasn’t put off by the fact that there would be no guarantees about his place in the pecking order. The pulling power of Klopp was a big factor. With a release clause of €60 million (£53.7 million), which can be triggered in June, it looked like a no-brainer for Liverpool — a shrewd investment and the kind of deal that made sense for all parties. However, that was before all the upheaval caused by COVID-19. Now the landscape has been transformed. Uncertainty reigns. Werner’s future is in the balance. Senior Anfield sources insist Liverpool are unlikely to make any major signings this summer. They point to the huge financial impact of the crisis and the fact that as things stand they don’t even know either when the transfer window will open or when next season will start. “Our revenues have been shut off yet our outgoings remain,” wrote chief executive Peter Moore in an open letter to fans after Liverpool reversed their decision to furlough hundreds of staff last month. He also warned about the prospect of “unprecedented operating losses” for a club whose annual wage bill stands at £310 million. Owners Fenway Sports Group don’t take money out of the club but they expect it to live within its means. Their success has been based on sustained growth across all areas. That has been halted by circumstances beyond their control. A massive drop in cash coming in inevitably means that less can be reinvested. Although their latest accounts showed a pre-tax profit of £42 million and record revenues of £533 million, club officials point to the fact that those figures are already a year old and only provide a snapshot. The full cost of the current crisis remains unclear but it’s escalating by the week. Match-day revenue is currently worth £84 million to Liverpool per season but there’s a fear that matches will have to be played behind closed doors well into 2021. Liverpool will refund fans with tickets for their remaining games this season and they have placed their season ticket renewal process on hold. Every home game played without fans will leave a shortfall in excess of £3 million. Media revenue, which stood at £261 million for Liverpool in 2018-19, will be severely hit by the rebates being demanded by domestic and international broadcasters. And then you have got the commercial revenue, which had leaped by 22 per cent to £188 million for 2018-19 under the guidance of managing director Billy Hogan. Liverpool’s club shops would have expected record sales in the wake of being crowned Premier League champions. Instead, they have been locked up for the past two months. One of the big attractions of the new five-year kit deal signed with Nike, which officially starts next month, was that its value would keep rising. Liverpool accepted a relatively low base fee of £30 million per season (the current deal with New Balance is worth £40 million) on the basis that they would also bank 20 per cent of all net sales of merchandise. Nike have vowed to get LFC goods into around 6,000 stores globally — roughly double the current number. But Liverpool are reliant on people feeling safe enough to go shopping again over the coming months as well as having the disposable income to do so in a tough economic climate. Doubts also surround instalments due to be paid by the club’s army of global sponsors given that in the absence of football Liverpool have been unable to fulfil their side of the bargain in terms of exposure. As for pre-season, the continued absence of supporters from stadiums will cost the club millions of pounds. Before the pandemic, Liverpool had decided to stay in Europe for the first time in a decade and play a series of lucrative matches across the continent against elite opposition. However, those plans have since been torn up. Moore and Hogan were among more than a dozen executive club staff who voluntarily took a 25 per cent pay cut early on in the crisis. Work on the new training complex at Kirkby has now fully restarted after being shut down for six weeks by contractors McLaughlin & Harvey due to social distancing guidelines. The £50 million cost is being spread across three financial years. The £60 million redevelopment of the Anfield Road stand was recently placed on hold for 12 months and won’t now be completed until at least the summer of 2023. This is the backdrop to all the talk about Werner and the club’s transfer activity this summer. Another factor to consider is the impact of COVID-19 on potential outgoings from Klopp’s squad. Liverpool had slapped a €30 million (£26.7 million) price tag on Xherdan Shaqiri, having turned down loan interest from Sevilla and Roma back in January. That valuation looked optimistic at the time given the Swiss attacker’s injury woes and now it appears fanciful. Bumper offers were expected for winger Harry Wilson and midfielder Marko Grujic, currently on loan at Bournemouth and Hertha Berlin respectively. Pocketing £40 million for the pair would have realistic before the shutdown but not any more. Liverpool must decide whether to accept lower fees for those on the fringes or keep hold of them until the market recovers somewhat. Loris Karius is for sale after cancelling his loan contract with Besiktas and Liverpool will attempt to find a new club for him before pre-season begins. Adam Lallana and Nathaniel Clyne will both leave as free agents but talented youngsters Curtis Jones and Neco Williams are rated highly and tipped to step up in their absence. The lack of natural cover for left-back Andy Robertson is often flagged as a weakness in the squad but vice-captain James Milner can deputise there and academy graduates Adam Lewis and Yasser Larouci are also options. So what about Werner? As The Athletic revealed last weekend, he wants to either join Liverpool this summer or stay at Leipzig and revisit the matter in 2021. Much will hinge on what happens with the Premier League’s “Project Restart” and what kind of outlay the Anfield hierarchy believe can be justified when things are clearer regarding next season. Will Leipzig be prepared to compromise and accept less than €60 million in the knowledge that Werner’s release clause drops to €40 million next June? Relations between the two clubs are good following the transfer of Keita. Back in the summer of 2017, Edwards saw off competition for the Guinea international’s signature by agreeing a deal 12 months in advance, which saw Liverpool pay a premium on top of his release clause. Waiting a season for Werner in a similar fashion would certainly be deemed more palatable if January’s Africa Cup of Nations is called off and Liverpool don’t have to battle on without Salah and Mane mid-season. That’s a distinct possibility, with four rounds of qualifiers for the tournament still to be played due to all the postponements. Klopp does have options with his front line. More will be expected from Takumi Minamino after a tricky period of adaptation following his £7.25 million move from Salzburg in January. Divock Origi will hope to kick on and Shaqiri may even decide to stick around. The Liverpool manager has high hopes for teenager Harvey Elliott, who has enjoyed an excellent debut season at the club after signing from Fulham. Jones is another gifted attacker and Rhian Brewster has impressed on loan at Swansea City. Klopp’s pursuit of Virgil van Dijk showed he’s prepared to bide his time to get his man rather than shift to a Plan B. Some Premier League clubs may decide to gamble in this summer’s transfer market regardless but Liverpool won’t be one of them. They aren’t one of those playing catch-up. Too much is up in the air for them to commit to anything. Werner will have to wait until there’s some clarity. (Photo: Jan Woitas/Pool via Getty Images)
Cheers pal. I'd like to revise the comment where I said I'd be amazed if we haven't moved onto a new target.
FSG will be keeping things tight until they are sure of what the future holds. Can't blame them really.
As disappointed as i am we should all have learned to trust the club by now. Post Fekir i know i have. I'm sure heads are falling off all over social media but nothing some sensible words from the gaffer won't settle. I wouldn't be holding it against the player for his choice of club. He did what he could I suppose. Just hope we don't see Hazard levels and we're left kicking ourselves.
To be honest im gutted we've missed out on Werner especially to a PL rival and especially due to what appears to be old style fsg penny pinching. It looks like we were deciding for lebzig what their player was worth not the market, cant blame them for selling to Chavs if thats the case. If we end up wit no big signing especially in the forward line we will have missed a trick pl champions players top class players should be beating down our door but i cant help but feel we be in for a summer of disappointment in the transfer window. At least no19 will keep us occupied for a while over the next few weeks.
Heads are most definitely falling off. The favoured soundbite being used is that we've only spent 8m since Alison so where has all the money gone? Pearce explains things well and what is commonly ignored is how much our wage bill has grown and that a wage structure that's bonus heavy wil get even higher when we're being succesful. Nothing's changed in terms of how the club is run,all the money generated stays in the club,we'll keep being responsible and you can't spend money you don't have. Ironically if we'd followed the advice of many of those who'll be angry now over the last however many years,we'd be in a much worse situation now. Clubs carrying massive debt are in for a really tough time,Spurs had to take out an emergency 175m pound loan this week that isn't allowed to be spent on transfers so I'm pretty confident their days of CL football are gone for the foreseeable future. And to think there's Spurs fans who were desperate for null and void,fuckin idiots. I'll be dissapointed if we don't strengthen this summer and I'm still not ruling it out but we didn't really strenghten last summer and went on to break all kinds of records. What we can and can't get away with won't be clear for a while and how covid19 has impacted our rivals isn't clear yet either so I won't be panicking.
I used to get annoyed by missed transfers probably more so as I was desperate for us to improve, although I'd have liked Werner and am surprised we haven't went in for him but we're about to win the league, the twitter FSG out mob don't deserve what we have
I thought it made sense last summer. By far the best chance Barca had of raising the value of him was arranging a loan deal to the club where he was comfortable and where he'd become the player they bought. Instead they send him off to another new culture,set up etc. and to a club who were never going to make the deal permanent and his value drops even further. With hindsight I'm glad it didn't happen but I wouldn't be against it even if I think theres no chance.
Will be interesting to see what happens over the next while. Werner at that price does look particularly good value and could probably be paid for by selling Wilson, Shaqiri and Gruijic. We can have no complaints about the way the club is being run. We have a brilliant squad. The one area I would think there's a big drop off in quality is if there's an injury to the front 3. I'm hoping we sign a top player in that area and would be happy enough if that's our summer business done, unless Lovren leaves and needs to be replaced. We definitely don't need any midfielders.
I'll be disappointed if we miss out on Werner but I trust the board and, especially, Klopp. The problem for any forward who may sign will be to see if they can be picked ahead of the front 3. If they are not going to be a first choice pick, they may not be willing to join or FSG wont pay 50m for a 4th choice forward. Even if FSG would pay the fee for Havertz, would he crack the front 3? And would he join if he wasn't given a guarantee on being a first choice which I cant see Klopp giving any player?
Not necessarily Hasn't been 100% confirmed for January as still some qualifiers still to take part before it's decided upon the make up of the tournament
I'm not happy about what's happened here, with losing out on Werner, but I'm not actually very surprised tbh. No doubt that he was wanted, and that he wanted to come, but I think the club had been giving off vibes for a while, that we won't be spending much this summer. That's why I found myself thinking about potential frees, what youth players we have etc. Not bringing in a player who is better than Origi, to provide cover for the front three and in particular, for when the Africam Cup of Nations is being played, is a risk, but not the first one we've taken, in recent years. I think this will be a summer of spending little more than we bring in on player sales. Not ideal, probably a bit more cautious than is necessary, but that's my read of the situation.