I read a stat saying Minamino was our 10th most expensive winter signing - 6th in the last in decade - which really surprised me initially considering he 'only' cost £7.25m.
Also, following Minamino's signing, I thought I'd do a little analysis on our transfer business ever since Klopp took over. This will be a bit of a longish read but for those interested in how far we've come in the transfer market, read along.
I don't want to go too far back as I could write a whole novel of how bad we were in dealings about a decade ago. Lets just say there was a time when Ian Ayre would ride his Harley Davidson all the way to Kyiev only to get mugged off by Ihor Surkis over a deal for Konoplyanka, or fail to sign £7m Dempsey because of a £3m disagreement. Or the other time when Sir Alex Ferguson said Charlie Adam's left foot alone was worth £10m and so Damien Comolli scrambled to the south coast to get a deal done, or when he sanctioned £20m for Stewart Downing who played a full 38 game season and ended with exactly 0 goals and assists. The less said about the Hodgson era signings, the better. I still have nightmares of the Jovanovic, Poulsen and Konchesky triple threat.
Going from Ayre and Comolli to Klopp and Edwards has literally been the on pitch equivalent of us upgrading from Skrtel to VVD, from Mignolet to Alisson, from Aly Cissokho to Robertson, from Ibe to Mane - the list goes on.
Starting from Klopp's first full season (16/17)(in the winter before he had signed Grujic (£6m) and Caulker on loan), his first summer signing was Matip on a free (a deal that had been agreed at the tail end of the previous season), then Mane (£30m), Gini (£25m), Karius and Klavan (£4.5 each)and Manninger (free). He also promoted TAA to the first team.
However, more impressive were the players he let go. Benteke (£32m), Ibe (£16m), Allen (£14m), Skrtel (£5m), Tiago LLori, Luis Alberto, Brad Smith (£3.5m), Sakho (loan), Texeira, Toure, Balotelli, Wisdom, Flanagan, Bogdan, Ward, Markovic and a few other academy fringe players. Most of these were on huge wages, were sold at fantastic prices and, other than Luis Alberto perhaps, haven't amounted to anything since their departures. So not only were his incomings superb (Matip, Gini and Mane notably), he also cleaned out a lot of the excess baggage, making a net profit of £6m.
Second season continued the trend of signing a few quality players and trimming out the 'trash'. The summer only saw 3 signings of note - Salah (£35m), Ox (£35m) and Robertson (£8m).The winter window then saw the arrival of VVD (£75m). On the flip side he sold Coutinho (£150m), Sakho (£26m), Lucas and Kev Stewart (£8m), making another profit of £20m.
18/19 was the big one. Starting with a pre-arranged deal for Keita (£54m), getting Fabinho out of the blue (£40m), Alisson (Transfermarkt lists this as £56m but Im sure it was closer to £70m) and Shaq (£13m).He then sold Solanke (£20m lol), Ward (£12m) and Kalvan (£2m) as well as letting Can, Markovic and Flanno leave on a free.
Last summer he signed no one of note (Sepp VDB for the academy) and he sold Ings (£20m lol), Kent and Mignolet (£7m) as well as further loans for Karius, Wilson, Grujic, Ejaria, Woodburn and Ojo. Alberto and Studge left on a free. The signature of Minamino for the winter window means this season's profit is at £30m.
There's so much to admire about how Klopp and Edwards have gone about the business - when you look at how swiftly we seem to pull off some of the deals these days with minimum fuss (Fabinho and Minamino), how stubborn we are with moving on/ making sure we get our targets even if it means waiting (Keita and VVD), how many value for money signings we make (pretty much all of them) and how much money we get from our players ( we sold Solanke, Ings, Ibe and Benteke for £86m lol). Anyways, Minamino looks like another we'll be adding to the value for money column. This club is currently in fantastic hands.
TL;DR - Klopp and Edwards are basically boss at transfers.
Anyone else ridiculously excited about signing him? It's not like he would get into main 11 but the thought of adding another big talent to this squad is the Christmas present I would never have expected
I remember asking about him after the first game. He absolutely destroyed us and thought he would be such an exciting addition. The fact we actually have him now has me hyped.
Hopefully another Robertson. Cheap energetic player who just explodes out of nowhere. Massive step up in terms of teams, so hopefully he’s ready for everything. The fact most of the team went to Klopp and said they want him says the most to me.
Yup. This was his heat map in their last game vs us. Its only approriate he's getting the number 18 lol (Kuyt's number)
Also, following Minamino's signing, I thought I'd do a little analysis on our transfer business ever since Klopp took over. This will be a bit of a longish read but for those interested in how far we've come in the transfer market, read along.
I don't want to go too far back as I could write a whole novel of how bad we were in dealings about a decade ago. Lets just say there was a time when Ian Ayre would ride his Harley Davidson all the way to Kyiev only to get mugged off by Ihor Surkis over a deal for Konoplyanka, or fail to sign £7m Dempsey because of a £3m disagreement. Or the other time when Sir Alex Ferguson said Charlie Adam's left foot alone was worth £10m and so Damien Comolli scrambled to the south coast to get a deal done, or when he sanctioned £20m for Stewart Downing who played a full 38 game season and ended with exactly 0 goals and assists. The less said about the Hodgson era signings, the better. I still have nightmares of the Jovanovic, Poulsen and Konchesky triple threat.
Going from Ayre and Comolli to Klopp and Edwards has literally been the on pitch equivalent of us upgrading from Skrtel to VVD, from Mignolet to Alisson, from Aly Cissokho to Robertson, from Ibe to Mane - the list goes on.
Starting from Klopp's first full season (16/17)(in the winter before he had signed Grujic (£6m) and Caulker on loan), his first summer signing was Matip on a free (a deal that had been agreed at the tail end of the previous season), then Mane (£30m), Gini (£25m), Karius and Klavan (£4.5 each)and Manninger (free). He also promoted TAA to the first team.
However, more impressive were the players he let go. Benteke (£32m), Ibe (£16m), Allen (£14m), Skrtel (£5m), Tiago LLori, Luis Alberto, Brad Smith (£3.5m), Sakho (loan), Texeira, Toure, Balotelli, Wisdom, Flanagan, Bogdan, Ward, Markovic and a few other academy fringe players. Most of these were on huge wages, were sold at fantastic prices and, other than Luis Alberto perhaps, haven't amounted to anything since their departures. So not only were his incomings superb (Matip, Gini and Mane notably), he also cleaned out a lot of the excess baggage, making a net profit of £6m.
Second season continued the trend of signing a few quality players and trimming out the 'trash'. The summer only saw 3 signings of note - Salah (£35m), Ox (£35m) and Robertson (£8m).The winter window then saw the arrival of VVD (£75m). On the flip side he sold Coutinho (£150m), Sakho (£26m), Lucas and Kev Stewart (£8m), making another profit of £20m.
18/19 was the big one. Starting with a pre-arranged deal for Keita (£54m), getting Fabinho out of the blue (£40m), Alisson (Transfermarkt lists this as £56m but Im sure it was closer to £70m) and Shaq (£13m).He then sold Solanke (£20m lol), Ward (£12m) and Kalvan (£2m) as well as letting Can, Markovic and Flanno leave on a free.
Last summer he signed no one of note (Sepp VDB for the academy) and he sold Ings (£20m lol), Kent and Mignolet (£7m) as well as further loans for Karius, Wilson, Grujic, Ejaria, Woodburn and Ojo. Alberto and Studge left on a free. The signature of Minamino for the winter window means this season's profit is at £30m.
There's so much to admire about how Klopp and Edwards have gone about the business - when you look at how swiftly we seem to pull off some of the deals these days with minimum fuss (Fabinho and Minamino), how stubborn we are with moving on/ making sure we get our targets even if it means waiting (Keita and VVD), how many value for money signings we make (pretty much all of them) and how much money we get from our players ( we sold Solanke, Ings, Ibe and Benteke for £86m lol). Anyways, Minamino looks like another we'll be adding to the value for money column. This club is currently in fantastic hands.
TL;DR - Klopp and Edwards are basically boss at transfers.
Also, following Minamino's signing, I thought I'd do a little analysis on our transfer business ever since Klopp took over. This will be a bit of a longish read but for those interested in how far we've come in the transfer market, read along.
I don't want to go too far back as I could write a whole novel of how bad we were in dealings about a decade ago. Lets just say there was a time when Ian Ayre would ride his Harley Davidson all the way to Kyiev only to get mugged off by Ihor Surkis over a deal for Konoplyanka, or fail to sign £7m Dempsey because of a £3m disagreement. Or the other time when Sir Alex Ferguson said Charlie Adam's left foot alone was worth £10m and so Damien Comolli scrambled to the south coast to get a deal done, or when he sanctioned £20m for Stewart Downing who played a full 38 game season and ended with exactly 0 goals and assists. The less said about the Hodgson era signings, the better. I still have nightmares of the Jovanovic, Poulsen and Konchesky triple threat.
Going from Ayre and Comolli to Klopp and Edwards has literally been the on pitch equivalent of us upgrading from Skrtel to VVD, from Mignolet to Alisson, from Aly Cissokho to Robertson, from Ibe to Mane - the list goes on.
Starting from Klopp's first full season (16/17)(in the winter before he had signed Grujic (£6m) and Caulker on loan), his first summer signing was Matip on a free (a deal that had been agreed at the tail end of the previous season), then Mane (£30m), Gini (£25m), Karius and Klavan (£4.5 each)and Manninger (free). He also promoted TAA to the first team.
However, more impressive were the players he let go. Benteke (£32m), Ibe (£16m), Allen (£14m), Skrtel (£5m), Tiago LLori, Luis Alberto, Brad Smith (£3.5m), Sakho (loan), Texeira, Toure, Balotelli, Wisdom, Flanagan, Bogdan, Ward, Markovic and a few other academy fringe players. Most of these were on huge wages, were sold at fantastic prices and, other than Luis Alberto perhaps, haven't amounted to anything since their departures. So not only were his incomings superb (Matip, Gini and Mane notably), he also cleaned out a lot of the excess baggage, making a net profit of £6m.
Second season continued the trend of signing a few quality players and trimming out the 'trash'. The summer only saw 3 signings of note - Salah (£35m), Ox (£35m) and Robertson (£8m).The winter window then saw the arrival of VVD (£75m). On the flip side he sold Coutinho (£150m), Sakho (£26m), Lucas and Kev Stewart (£8m), making another profit of £20m.
18/19 was the big one. Starting with a pre-arranged deal for Keita (£54m), getting Fabinho out of the blue (£40m), Alisson (Transfermarkt lists this as £56m but Im sure it was closer to £70m) and Shaq (£13m).He then sold Solanke (£20m lol), Ward (£12m) and Kalvan (£2m) as well as letting Can, Markovic and Flanno leave on a free.
Last summer he signed no one of note (Sepp VDB for the academy) and he sold Ings (£20m lol), Kent and Mignolet (£7m) as well as further loans for Karius, Wilson, Grujic, Ejaria, Woodburn and Ojo. Alberto and Studge left on a free. The signature of Minamino for the winter window means this season's profit is at £30m.
There's so much to admire about how Klopp and Edwards have gone about the business - when you look at how swiftly we seem to pull off some of the deals these days with minimum fuss (Fabinho and Minamino), how stubborn we are with moving on/ making sure we get our targets even if it means waiting (Keita and VVD), how many value for money signings we make (pretty much all of them) and how much money we get from our players ( we sold Solanke, Ings, Ibe and Benteke for £86m lol). Anyways, Minamino looks like another we'll be adding to the value for money column. This club is currently in fantastic hands.
TL;DR - Klopp and Edwards are basically boss at transfers.
Small correction: Adrian was a signing of note, even though he was just a back up GK. Turned out to be a brilliant move which covered us well for the Alisson injury. The man won us the Super Cup
Also, whilst he may not be a Klopp signing, Klopp certainly saw something special in Firmino and reinvented him as a false 9. He was signed in the summer of 2015/16, and Rodgers had no clue what to do with him, playing him as a RW, mostly, and even as a wing back a couple of times, most notably against United, a game we lost 3-1. Klopp came in mid-season and instantly put him down the middle, either as the 10 in a 4231 with Origi or Sturridge leading the line, or the 9 in a 433. By the 2016/17 season, Firmino’s transition to a unique false 9 was complete, with Mane coming in as the RW and Coutinho used as the LW.
Also, following Minamino's signing, I thought I'd do a little analysis on our transfer business ever since Klopp took over. This will be a bit of a longish read but for those interested in how far we've come in the transfer market, read along.
I don't want to go too far back as I could write a whole novel of how bad we were in dealings about a decade ago. Lets just say there was a time when Ian Ayre would ride his Harley Davidson all the way to Kyiev only to get mugged off by Ihor Surkis over a deal for Konoplyanka, or fail to sign £7m Dempsey because of a £3m disagreement. Or the other time when Sir Alex Ferguson said Charlie Adam's left foot alone was worth £10m and so Damien Comolli scrambled to the south coast to get a deal done, or when he sanctioned £20m for Stewart Downing who played a full 38 game season and ended with exactly 0 goals and assists. The less said about the Hodgson era signings, the better. I still have nightmares of the Jovanovic, Poulsen and Konchesky triple threat.
Going from Ayre and Comolli to Klopp and Edwards has literally been the on pitch equivalent of us upgrading from Skrtel to VVD, from Mignolet to Alisson, from Aly Cissokho to Robertson, from Ibe to Mane - the list goes on.
Starting from Klopp's first full season (16/17)(in the winter before he had signed Grujic (£6m) and Caulker on loan), his first summer signing was Matip on a free (a deal that had been agreed at the tail end of the previous season), then Mane (£30m), Gini (£25m), Karius and Klavan (£4.5 each)and Manninger (free). He also promoted TAA to the first team.
However, more impressive were the players he let go. Benteke (£32m), Ibe (£16m), Allen (£14m), Skrtel (£5m), Tiago LLori, Luis Alberto, Brad Smith (£3.5m), Sakho (loan), Texeira, Toure, Balotelli, Wisdom, Flanagan, Bogdan, Ward, Markovic and a few other academy fringe players. Most of these were on huge wages, were sold at fantastic prices and, other than Luis Alberto perhaps, haven't amounted to anything since their departures. So not only were his incomings superb (Matip, Gini and Mane notably), he also cleaned out a lot of the excess baggage, making a net profit of £6m.
Second season continued the trend of signing a few quality players and trimming out the 'trash'. The summer only saw 3 signings of note - Salah (£35m), Ox (£35m) and Robertson (£8m).The winter window then saw the arrival of VVD (£75m). On the flip side he sold Coutinho (£150m), Sakho (£26m), Lucas and Kev Stewart (£8m), making another profit of £20m.
18/19 was the big one. Starting with a pre-arranged deal for Keita (£54m), getting Fabinho out of the blue (£40m), Alisson (Transfermarkt lists this as £56m but Im sure it was closer to £70m) and Shaq (£13m).He then sold Solanke (£20m lol), Ward (£12m) and Kalvan (£2m) as well as letting Can, Markovic and Flanno leave on a free.
Last summer he signed no one of note (Sepp VDB for the academy) and he sold Ings (£20m lol), Kent and Mignolet (£7m) as well as further loans for Karius, Wilson, Grujic, Ejaria, Woodburn and Ojo. Alberto and Studge left on a free. The signature of Minamino for the winter window means this season's profit is at £30m.
There's so much to admire about how Klopp and Edwards have gone about the business - when you look at how swiftly we seem to pull off some of the deals these days with minimum fuss (Fabinho and Minamino), how stubborn we are with moving on/ making sure we get our targets even if it means waiting (Keita and VVD), how many value for money signings we make (pretty much all of them) and how much money we get from our players ( we sold Solanke, Ings, Ibe and Benteke for £86m lol). Anyways, Minamino looks like another we'll be adding to the value for money column. This club is currently in fantastic hands.
TL;DR - Klopp and Edwards are basically boss at transfers.
Small correction: Adrian was a signing of note, even though he was just a back up GK. Turned out to be a brilliant move which covered us well for the Alisson injury. The man won us the Super Cup
Oh I genuinely just forgot about Adrian lol. Yea he’s definitely another one of Klopps best signings considering he came on a free.
Also, whilst he may not be a Klopp signing, Klopp certainly saw something special in Firmino and reinvented him as a false 9. He was signed in the summer of 2015/16, and Rodgers had no clue what to do with him, playing him as a RW, mostly, and even as a wing back a couple of times, most notably against United, a game we lost 3-1. Klopp came in mid-season and instantly put him down the middle, either as the 10 in a 4231 with Origi or Sturridge leading the line, or the 9 in a 433. By the 2016/17 season, Firmino’s transition to a unique false 9 was complete, with Mane coming in as the RW and Coutinho used as the LW.
I almost count him as a Klopp signing, tbh.
Yea, that would be a whole other analysis on how Klopp has taken most of these players up a couple levels. In fact it’s the main reason why they’re all considered to be fantastic signings. Truth be told, at the time not many considered Mane to be a £30m player for example but he’s easily worth 5x that now (which could be said about pretty much all of our players) and the fact that our squad value is now 1.1bn (3rd highest in the world) compared to ~500m when FSG came in says it all.
Also, whilst he may not be a Klopp signing, Klopp certainly saw something special in Firmino and reinvented him as a false 9. He was signed in the summer of 2015/16, and Rodgers had no clue what to do with him, playing him as a RW, mostly, and even as a wing back a couple of times, most notably against United, a game we lost 3-1. Klopp came in mid-season and instantly put him down the middle, either as the 10 in a 4231 with Origi or Sturridge leading the line, or the 9 in a 433. By the 2016/17 season, Firmino’s transition to a unique false 9 was complete, with Mane coming in as the RW and Coutinho used as the LW.
I almost count him as a Klopp signing, tbh.
Yea, that would be a whole other analysis on how Klopp has taken most of these players up a couple levels. In fact it’s the main reason why they’re all considered to be fantastic signings. Truth be told, at the time not many considered Mane to be a £30m player for example but he’s easily worth 5x that now (which could be said about pretty much all of our players) and the fact that our squad value is now 1.1bn (3rd highest in the world) compared to ~500m when FSG came in says it all.
I vividly remember the Mane deal, because it was the same summer that United signed Mkhitaryan, for slightly less money and United fans everywhere were ripping into us gleefully about how they got the best deal, by far. My United supporting friend was insufferable, so it is especially satisfying for me that the Mkhitaryan move flopped whilst Mane is now a Ballon d‘Or contender.
Firmino and Sturridge’s linkup in Klopps first season was beautiful. Loved them together.
Klopp really does get the best out of players somehow, had Lallana looking unreal for 6 months till he fell off a cliff. Hendo has come on ten fold, he actually had people rating Joe Allen for a while early on.
Also, whilst he may not be a Klopp signing, Klopp certainly saw something special in Firmino and reinvented him as a false 9. He was signed in the summer of 2015/16, and Rodgers had no clue what to do with him, playing him as a RW, mostly, and even as a wing back a couple of times, most notably against United, a game we lost 3-1. Klopp came in mid-season and instantly put him down the middle, either as the 10 in a 4231 with Origi or Sturridge leading the line, or the 9 in a 433. By the 2016/17 season, Firmino’s transition to a unique false 9 was complete, with Mane coming in as the RW and Coutinho used as the LW.
I almost count him as a Klopp signing, tbh.
Yea, that would be a whole other analysis on how Klopp has taken most of these players up a couple levels. In fact it’s the main reason why they’re all considered to be fantastic signings. Truth be told, at the time not many considered Mane to be a £30m player for example but he’s easily worth 5x that now (which could be said about pretty much all of our players) and the fact that our squad value is now 1.1bn (3rd highest in the world) compared to ~500m when FSG came in says it all.
I vividly remember the Mane deal, because it was the same summer that United signed Mkhitaryan, for slightly less money and United fans everywhere were ripping into us gleefully about how they got the best deal, by far. My United supporting friend was insufferable, so it is especially satisfying for me that the Mkhitaryan move flopped whilst Mane is now a Ballon d‘Or contender.
Yea. Tbh I think the Klopp factor plays a huge part. You look at players like Salah and you wonder if it would’ve turned out the same if it was another manager. Would he really be on 120 goals+assists in 127 games? You look at the improvement from the likes of Firmino, Lallana and even Lovren - they were all looking like a massive waste of money before Klopp came in. Someone like VVD who came in and we all accepted he was good but I don’t think anyone thought he’d be just missing out on the ballon dor by the odd vote when he signed. Klopps been working wonders with the squad and the fact that he got to back to back CL finals with predominantly a midfield of Henderson Gini and Milner is some feat by itself.
Firmino and Sturridge’s linkup in Klopps first season was beautiful. Loved them together.
Klopp really does get the best out of players somehow, had Lallana looking unreal for 6 months till he fell off a cliff. Hendo has come on ten fold, he actually had people rating Joe Allen for a while early on.
For me, he’s a modern take on Sir Alex Ferguson. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a manager resemble SAF as closely as Klopp does.
SAF always knew how to get the maximum potential/ability out of his players and Klopp seems to be the same. And like Fergie, Klopp seems to know how to harness a generational talent (TAA) and he also knows how to get the players to fight as hard as possible for the team, like Fergie used to as well.
Even the way we are playing and winning games resembles a peak SAF Manchester United. The late winners and the relentless use of the wings. The way everyone accuses us of having the refs on our side. It’s almost uncanny.
SAF took over United in very similar circumstances as Klopp took over Liverpool. A team struggling a bit in the League, in need of being put back on their perch.
It took SAF 6 years to win his first League title, and 12 or 13 years to win his first CL. Klopp is on course to win a PL in his 4th full season, and has already won a CL title, which is crazy impressive.
SAF was younger when he joined United though, and won their first League title when he was 52. Klopp is currently 52 as well. Spooky stuff.
Rated E For Everyone.
Comments
Did some research and found the list:
1. VVD - £75m
2. Carroll - £35m
3. Suarez - £22m
4. DJ Heskey - £14m
5. Based Studge - £13m
6. Coutinho - £9m
7. Skrtel - £8m
8. Morientes - £8m
9. Agger - £8m
10. Minamino - £7m
Looking at that, other than Carroll, the rest turned out to be really good value for money signings. Can't see it being any different with Minamino.
I don't want to go too far back as I could write a whole novel of how bad we were in dealings about a decade ago. Lets just say there was a time when Ian Ayre would ride his Harley Davidson all the way to Kyiev only to get mugged off by Ihor Surkis over a deal for Konoplyanka, or fail to sign £7m Dempsey because of a £3m disagreement. Or the other time when Sir Alex Ferguson said Charlie Adam's left foot alone was worth £10m and so Damien Comolli scrambled to the south coast to get a deal done, or when he sanctioned £20m for Stewart Downing who played a full 38 game season and ended with exactly 0 goals and assists. The less said about the Hodgson era signings, the better. I still have nightmares of the Jovanovic, Poulsen and Konchesky triple threat.
Going from Ayre and Comolli to Klopp and Edwards has literally been the on pitch equivalent of us upgrading from Skrtel to VVD, from Mignolet to Alisson, from Aly Cissokho to Robertson, from Ibe to Mane - the list goes on.
Starting from Klopp's first full season (16/17)(in the winter before he had signed Grujic (£6m) and Caulker on loan), his first summer signing was Matip on a free (a deal that had been agreed at the tail end of the previous season), then Mane (£30m), Gini (£25m), Karius and Klavan (£4.5 each)and Manninger (free). He also promoted TAA to the first team.
However, more impressive were the players he let go. Benteke (£32m), Ibe (£16m), Allen (£14m), Skrtel (£5m), Tiago LLori, Luis Alberto, Brad Smith (£3.5m), Sakho (loan), Texeira, Toure, Balotelli, Wisdom, Flanagan, Bogdan, Ward, Markovic and a few other academy fringe players. Most of these were on huge wages, were sold at fantastic prices and, other than Luis Alberto perhaps, haven't amounted to anything since their departures. So not only were his incomings superb (Matip, Gini and Mane notably), he also cleaned out a lot of the excess baggage, making a net profit of £6m.
Second season continued the trend of signing a few quality players and trimming out the 'trash'. The summer only saw 3 signings of note - Salah (£35m), Ox (£35m) and Robertson (£8m).The winter window then saw the arrival of VVD (£75m). On the flip side he sold Coutinho (£150m), Sakho (£26m), Lucas and Kev Stewart (£8m), making another profit of £20m.
18/19 was the big one. Starting with a pre-arranged deal for Keita (£54m), getting Fabinho out of the blue (£40m), Alisson (Transfermarkt lists this as £56m but Im sure it was closer to £70m) and Shaq (£13m).He then sold Solanke (£20m lol), Ward (£12m) and Kalvan (£2m) as well as letting Can, Markovic and Flanno leave on a free.
Last summer he signed no one of note (Sepp VDB for the academy) and he sold Ings (£20m lol), Kent and Mignolet (£7m) as well as further loans for Karius, Wilson, Grujic, Ejaria, Woodburn and Ojo. Alberto and Studge left on a free. The signature of Minamino for the winter window means this season's profit is at £30m.
There's so much to admire about how Klopp and Edwards have gone about the business - when you look at how swiftly we seem to pull off some of the deals these days with minimum fuss (Fabinho and Minamino), how stubborn we are with moving on/ making sure we get our targets even if it means waiting (Keita and VVD), how many value for money signings we make (pretty much all of them) and how much money we get from our players ( we sold Solanke, Ings, Ibe and Benteke for £86m lol). Anyways, Minamino looks like another we'll be adding to the value for money column. This club is currently in fantastic hands.
TL;DR - Klopp and Edwards are basically boss at transfers.
Yup. This was his heat map in their last game vs us. Its only approriate he's getting the number 18 lol (Kuyt's number)
Spot on! Best run club in the world.
Small correction: Adrian was a signing of note, even though he was just a back up GK. Turned out to be a brilliant move which covered us well for the Alisson injury. The man won us the Super Cup
Nice way to be
I almost count him as a Klopp signing, tbh.
Oh I genuinely just forgot about Adrian lol. Yea he’s definitely another one of Klopps best signings considering he came on a free.
Yea, that would be a whole other analysis on how Klopp has taken most of these players up a couple levels. In fact it’s the main reason why they’re all considered to be fantastic signings. Truth be told, at the time not many considered Mane to be a £30m player for example but he’s easily worth 5x that now (which could be said about pretty much all of our players) and the fact that our squad value is now 1.1bn (3rd highest in the world) compared to ~500m when FSG came in says it all.
I vividly remember the Mane deal, because it was the same summer that United signed Mkhitaryan, for slightly less money and United fans everywhere were ripping into us gleefully about how they got the best deal, by far. My United supporting friend was insufferable, so it is especially satisfying for me that the Mkhitaryan move flopped whilst Mane is now a Ballon d‘Or contender.
Klopp really does get the best out of players somehow, had Lallana looking unreal for 6 months till he fell off a cliff. Hendo has come on ten fold, he actually had people rating Joe Allen for a while early on.
Yea. Tbh I think the Klopp factor plays a huge part. You look at players like Salah and you wonder if it would’ve turned out the same if it was another manager. Would he really be on 120 goals+assists in 127 games? You look at the improvement from the likes of Firmino, Lallana and even Lovren - they were all looking like a massive waste of money before Klopp came in. Someone like VVD who came in and we all accepted he was good but I don’t think anyone thought he’d be just missing out on the ballon dor by the odd vote when he signed. Klopps been working wonders with the squad and the fact that he got to back to back CL finals with predominantly a midfield of Henderson Gini and Milner is some feat by itself.
For me, he’s a modern take on Sir Alex Ferguson. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a manager resemble SAF as closely as Klopp does.
SAF always knew how to get the maximum potential/ability out of his players and Klopp seems to be the same. And like Fergie, Klopp seems to know how to harness a generational talent (TAA) and he also knows how to get the players to fight as hard as possible for the team, like Fergie used to as well.
Even the way we are playing and winning games resembles a peak SAF Manchester United. The late winners and the relentless use of the wings. The way everyone accuses us of having the refs on our side. It’s almost uncanny.
SAF took over United in very similar circumstances as Klopp took over Liverpool. A team struggling a bit in the League, in need of being put back on their perch.
It took SAF 6 years to win his first League title, and 12 or 13 years to win his first CL. Klopp is on course to win a PL in his 4th full season, and has already won a CL title, which is crazy impressive.
SAF was younger when he joined United though, and won their first League title when he was 52. Klopp is currently 52 as well. Spooky stuff.
Good read! Pretty crazy to think about but it's true.
Could you post the transcript? Bit of an effort to sign up lol.
That's weird, it let me read the whole thing the first time I opened it, but now I can see that you need to sign up to access it
When fit, is Naby Keita our best CM?
Wenger loves us.
Not sure yet since he hasn't been fit for a long enough streak yet imo. Hopefully that changes now.
No. Fabinho is. Or do you mean based on form this season?