Liverpool’s returning stars can make a huge difference

Jurgen Klopp churned out the dreaded quote earlier this summer about Liverpool’s stars who are returning from injury can be like new signings for the club.

Much of the LFC fanbase seemed to go into meltdown on social media. Fans were calling for FSG’s heads, claiming the club is in the best financial state it’s ever been in and, therefore, need to be splashing the cash to keep pace with Premier League champions Manchester City.

Well, what if Klopp is right? What if, just for a few minutes, we take a step back and consider what he was saying and who he was saying it about? Continue reading

Big season ahead for Leicester’s James Maddison

Leicester City’s James Maddison has a very, very bright future ahead of him.

Now 22, Maddison has a season of Premier League experience under his belt at the King Power Stadium and will be looking to build on that with Brendan Rodgers’ guidance in the next couple of years.

Maddison joined Leicester City last July from Norwich City for around €25 million. The creative midfielder had impressed at Carrow Road in the Championship and Leicester’s then-manager Claude Puel felt Maddison was ready for the step up to English football’s top tier. Continue reading

Busy week for Everton in the transfer market

While things have been suspiciously quiet at Anfield this summer, the blue half of Merseyside has been getting down to business in recent days.

Everton look to have secured the signing of Juventus’ young striker Moise Kean while the club’s impressive midfielder Idrissa Gueye has departed for Ligue 1 giants Paris Saint Germain.

Gueye, 29, completed his medical in Paris earlier this week and leaves Everton after three years at Goodison Park. He had formed a successful partnership at the base of the midfield with Andre Gomes for The Toffees last season.

Everton signed Gomes on a permanent deal already this summer but the Portuguese player will now have to work in tandem with another midfielder in Gueye’s absence. Continue reading

Nedved coy on transfer market, Ronaldo hopeful on Champions League

Juventus vice president Pavel Nedved took part to the schedule presentation yesterday evening and commented about the transfer market to Tuttomercatoweb: “Since we have won eight titles in a row, we feel like we already have a strong squad. Obviously, we are looking to further bolster it window is open. Romelu Lukaku? I do not want into details and I do not want to discuss any single players, let’s say that we are working.”

On Paulo Dybala: “There have been some proposals, some preliminary talks, but we are waiting for concrete stuff and we will take our time in making a decision.” Continue reading

AC Milan rumour round-up: Two signings close as Cutrone departs

Another week has pasted and AC Milan remain very active on the transfer market. While two players are set to depart, at least two are expected to join the Rossoneri in the coming days. 

Wolves close deal for Cutrone; Andre Silva to move as well

On Friday, Cutrone left AC Milan’s training camp in Boston to fly back to Milan, ready to complete his move to Premier League and Wolves. An agreement has been reached between the clubs at €18m plus bonuses, while the striker will earn around €2m per year, which is double of what he earns now. Continue reading

Will Man Utd just about snap up a centre-back this summer?

Manchester United have had an impressive pre-season at a personal level, beating the likes of Perth Glory, Leeds United, Inter Milan and Tottenham Hotspur whilst playing good possession-based football with a high pressing style. Majority of the Old Trafford faithful will be hoping that this continues into the new campaign, as the previous season was as awful one to simply forget.

Not only that, the two signings in Aaron-Wan Bissaka and Daniel James has received the required game time and the calm consultation from the rest of the squad, in order for their respective careers to get going. Since the duo have arrived, the club now have a right-back that is one of the best in the league and a natural winger that is really fast, both footed and is able to play on either of the flanks.

However, focusing on if United are going to complete anymore transfers or not, they still desperately in need of two to three additions before the season eventually begins. The main position just happens to be the centre-back area, where they are clearly lacking a vocal leader and someone to consistently pair up with Victor Lindelof, who is currently regarded as the side’s best defender.

With Eric Bailly, Marcos Rojo and Phil Jones constantly being injury prone and unavailable for when the side need them the most, the options that manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer has are limited straightaway. Meanwhile, Axel Tuanzebe has quite the potential, but it is uncertain if he plays regularly or goes out on loan again, whilst Chris Smalling has been fairly good but has failed to reach the prospects he showed during his early days as a Fulham player and in his first season at United.

Although the club have recently been linked with the likes of Harry Maguire, Kalidou Koulibaly and Toby Alderweireld, there has not been enough closure from the English papers or the club’s media press to show they intend on making a third signing. There is a huge difference in the final outcome of the season if it is to happen or not, from finishing in the Europa League spots again to a top four finish and potential silverware.

After conceding over 50 league goals and keeping only a few clean sheets last season, the Red Devil supporters were seriously hoping that the people in charge and Ed Woodward himself would have seen the defence as the side’s main weakness. Given that Liverpool have Virgil van Dijk and Manchester City have Aymeric Laporte, two of the best centre-backs within England and Europe, United are yet to have someone of that calibre to lead them to a title challenge and make them defensively sound.

Had the hierarchy provided Jose Mourinho with a centre back last summer as per his request, a lot of things would have been different by now, with the club’s chances of finishing in the top four being increased instantly and also their odds in the domestic cups. Furthermore, the club’s planning for the transfer window has been below-par and absolutely atrocious, spending just under £150million and bringing in only five new additions together this summer and last summer, leaving many holes to still fill.

Overall, Manchester United will honestly not be competing with both Liverpool and Manchester City in the league anytime soon, especially when you see the difference in quality that both rival clubs have on and off the pitch. Though, if the club were to somehow bring in a centre-back within the next ten days, it would allow them to bring pure stability and protection to a dreadful defence whilst help them to a good term.

Serie A Weekly Tranfer Market Recap

A pretty quiet week, as it is usual in the final one of July and the trend will likely continue in the first one of August as well. The biggest acquisition was made by Napoli, which signed Eljif Elmas from Fenerbahce to add another talented youngster to their midfield.

Inter parted ways with Joao Miranda, who was solid for a pair of seasons, but faded once they brought in Stefan De Vrij last season and would have been further buried in the depth chart because of Diego Godin joining, so he opted to move to Jiangsu Suning. The Beneamata has Andrea Ranocchia as back-up and could decide to keep Alessandro Bastoni, who showed decently at Parma last season. Continue reading

Why does it feel like Pep Guardiola still doesn’t trust Leroy Sane?

He is considered one of the best young wide attackers in the European game. Indeed, Leroy Sane has become a star during his time at Manchester City, winning back-to-back Premier League titles and a domestic Treble last season. The German has more justified his place at the Etihad Stadium.

And yet there is still a lingering sense that Sane is not fully trusted by Pep Guardiola. There have been suspicions of friction between the pair and this had led to suggestions that the German international could leave Man City this summer as he seeks a club where he will be guaranteed of a starting spot.

Bayern Munich have been very open in their pursuit of the 23-year-old, with Niko Kovac publicly describing him as their “dream player.” Bavaria would be a good place for Sane to end up with the Bundesliga champions currently looking for wingers following the departure of Frank Ribery and Arjen Robben at the end of last season.

Guardiola insists that he wants to keep Sane. “I like him a lot, I think he has an incredible chance to be better, incredible in terms of being connected in the game,” he said. “I think I said two times or three times, we want to keep him. We want him to stay, that’s the reason why for more than one year he has an offer waiting to talk with his agent to extend the contract.

“It’s not in our hands or in my hands. He has to decide if he wants to stay and if our agreement is good. If he’s going to leave we will be sad, but what can we do? Hopefully he stays.”

This isn’t the first time that the Catalan coach has made the case for Sane to stay, but when it comes to the big games Guardiola often omits the German. There remains a feeling that the Man City boss doesn’t fully trust Sane and that could result in the 23-year-old leaving the Etihad Stadium sooner rather than later.

From the outside, such a stance makes little sense. Sane gives City a different dimension to the likes of Riyad Mahrez who prefers to cut inside and make things more compact in the centre of the pitch. Bernardo Silva had an excellent season last term, but he does the same. Sane surely deserves to be shown a little more faith.

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Liverpool’s transfer strategy has served them well and they must stick with it

Liverpool have become accustomed to spending big in recent years. 18 months ago, they made Virgil Van Dijk the most expensive defender in the history of the game, spending £75 million on the Dutchman. Last summer, Alisson Becker arrived as the club’s new goalkeeper for a hefty £67 million.

This summer, however, has been rather more subdued at Anfield. The European champions have made just one signing teenager Sepp Van den Berg for just £1.3 million and the lack of transfer speculation suggests there will be not much more spent before the start of the 2019/20 season.

Jurgen Klopp

In contrast, Manchester City have spent a club record fee of £62.8 million on Rodri with Angelino returning from PSV Eindhoven for £6 million. Manchester United have spent £55 million on Aaron Wan-Bissaka and £20 million on Daniel James, while Tottenham Hotspur have broken their club transfer record to sign Tanguy Ndombele for around £60 million and a further £80 million is expected to be splurged on Giovani Lo Celso and Ryan Sessegnon.

“This year is not the end of Liverpool FC,” said Jurgen Klopp when asked to explain his club’s lack of activity in the transfer market this summer. “Next year there will be another transfer window. This team is really good and we have invested a lot in it. Now we have to work with that.

“I can’t say anything about what other teams are doing. I don’t know how they do it. We have to pay bills. Sorry. Everybody has to pay bills; we have to pay bills. We invested money in this team. Now it looks like we are not. But we are not in this fantasia land where you just get whatever you want. You cannot do it constantly.”

Liverpool will spend money when the right target becomes available, though. They did it with Van Dijk and Alisson and they would have done it this summer. The right target hasn’t come to the fore, though. Liverpool’s recent transfer strategy has turned them into one of the best teams in England and Europe and they are right to stand by it.

They must resist the urge to make a big money signing for the sake of it. That’s what rivals Man Utd have been guilty of doing in recent years. Liverpool have proven themselves to be smarter than that. It might look like they are standing still, but the wrong signing can take a team backwards.

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