Mohamed Salah

[DeanoUK]

I'm pretty sure we've heard of this 'low-balling' of ours before. Is this a typical tactic of Ayre which repeatedly back fires?

[RichC]

I'm astounded by the number of insiders we have on the site/twitter than seem to know the in's & outs of our transfer business, how it's conducted and how much is involved with multi million pound deals and how they're structured

Football insiders

[Fredo]

I'm pretty sure we've heard of this 'low-balling' of ours before. Is this a typical tactic of Ayre which repeatedly back fires?

What do we know? It's all rumours and hearsay at this stage. If he was so incompetent, I'm sure he wouldn't still be working there.

[RichC]

What do we know? It's all rumours and hearsay at this stage. If he was so incompetent, I'm sure he wouldn't still be working there.

Precisely!

[Norbs]

Been here before

[wiw]

Is there much we can do if we scout and negotiate for months, then once we put in a bid, a club that's been asked to be kept in the loop get wind of our bid, match or raise the bid and blow us out of the water? This is happening over and over again. We are doing the leg work, while richer clubs just ask to be kept informed just in case anyone goes in for him. It's such a sickener.

[Lecter]

Well if thats the case, then there is not much else we could have done. He was rated nearer to a £10m player at the start of Jan. Better value out there.

Timing is everything with transfers

The longer you take to put together an agreement the more you run the risk of being outbid by our competitors

However that has to be balanced by not over-paying for players

At times its incredibly frustrating to see our dealings (but its been that way for a long time now)

Football has changed we are no longer the powerhouse we once were and the competition for the top players is even greater than it has been at any time previously

Yet at times is does look (from the outside looking in) like we dont do ourselves any favours at times

Over the years we have lost out on many players for one reason or another

Its quite a list when you look at it and shows how far we have fallen

[Lecter]

Is there much we can do if we scout and negotiate for months, then once we put in a bid, a club that's been asked to be kept in the loop get wind of our bid, match or raise the bid and blow us out of the water? This is happening over and over again. We are doing the leg work, while richer clubs just ask to be kept informed just in case anyone goes in for him. It's such a sickener.

Depends on the timings doesnt it??

We dont know that Chelsea and or others asked to be kept informed, we dont know how quick negotiations were, we dont know when we even put the bid in (was this before or after Chelseas?)

Thing is a few weeks ago a lot of people didnt give two bobs whether we signed him or not, now hes going to Chelsea some of those people are up in arms

They cant have it both ways

From the outside looking in is does look at times that we drag our heels and try to barter too much, but thats a laymans view without knowing any of the real facts behind what is going on.

All transfers are difficult and far from simple transaction but the perception is that we seem to over-complicate and take too much time on many of our dealings

[Daniel 7]

The only impact this is going to have on me as a fan of Liverpool is if he scores a hat trick against Liverpool the next time we play them.

Other than that, its of no consequence really. Who's to say he would have fitted in? He might turn out to be another Assaidi or Aspas - I really don't watch enough Chelsea games to look on in envy at their squad players.

[Bender]

end of the day MONEY IS THE WINNER

[Daniel 7]

It certainly helps.

[Lecter]

end of the day MONEY IS THE WINNER

Of course it is and thats why we have to be smarter, quicker and more efficient in our dealings than our money-laden competitors

If we arent then we will lose out on more targets

It does seem a shame regarding Salah because it appears Rodgers really rated him

“To be fair, the club’s been working hard on a number of targets. Mohamed Salah’s a good player, we were tracking him for a while.

“Salah to Chelsea isn’t completed yet though, but if the deal can’t be done, it can’t be done.

“We need players who can come in now and help us. Salah’s a talent, but we need to have several targets lined up.

“January is a difficult market. Philippe Coutinho and Daniel Sturridge last January were brilliant for us. We’ve improved, so it’s hard to improve team.

“I’d rather use young players at the club and wait than bring in squad players for the sake of it.

“It’s clear Mata wasn’t in Chelsea’s plan, so if they can get a good deal for him, they’ll do that. Chelsea are incredibly strong.”

[wiw]

Depends on the timings doesnt it??

We dont know that Chelsea and or others asked to be kept informed, we dont know how quick negotiations were, we dont know when we even put the bid in (was this before or after Chelseas?)

Thing is a few weeks ago a lot of people didnt give two bobs whether we signed him or not, now hes going to Chelsea some of those people are up in arms

They cant have it both ways

From the outside looking in is does look at times that we drag our heels and try to barter too much, but thats a laymans view without knowing any of the real facts behind what is going on.

All transfers are difficult and far from simple transaction but the perception is that we seem to over-complicate and take too much time on many of our dealings

Re the timings - yes of course. The noises from supposed ITK's (who probably know **** all) indicated that Chelsea were asked to be kept informed. It's seems likely to me that this is something clubs commonly do, I mean why not? It saves you acting until you have to knowing full well that if you're competing with a club like us you can offer more without a problem.

I think the frustration is purely down to missing another target to another club, it's clearly made worse by the fact that it's Chelsea

I'm all for us trying to haggle with clubs, and I think people are far too quick to suggest "paying the extra few million quid" but it is still millions of pounds we are talking about. Millions of pounds when we are already making losses, losses which are more important than ever given the FFP

If you're competing over the fee then you are also competing over the wages offered to the player. We never as fans really take wages into consideration, but when you think in terms of the actual charge in terms of accounting then the transfer fee will be written off annually along with the wages as they are paid. Say the player is £15m and the wages are £80k a week on a 5 year contract, which is surely the calibre of player we are looking for - that's a total cost in the accounts over 5 years of £36m, £7m a year. One ONE player. Can we really afford that? People are talking about getting 2 or 3 players of this calibre in - that's £21m a year. We're already making losses. I know you have to take into consideration the potential fee clawed back but there's no guarantee in this regard, it's entirely uncertain.

I'm not sure what my point is Basically we're screwed. It's a nightmare. *slits wrist*

[Lecter]

I think Chelsea have only started looking at him when they decided to sell Mata

Thats been the catalyst behind the deal, yeah they may have said "keep us informed" but the trigger was Mata going

I personally think we could have gotten Salah if we had managed to tie up an agreement before the Mata ball started rolling

Thats just my view of it, I dont have anything to back it up with

We seemed to have a head-start on the deal there was loads of reporting it and it wasnt till a few days later that we started to hear of interest from other parties, Chelsea to me came late to the party

[Pablo]

I think Chelsea have only started looking at him when they decided to sell Mata

Thats been the catalyst behind the deal, yeah they may have said "keep us informed" but the trigger was Mata going

I personally think we could have gotten Salah if we had managed to tie up an agreement before the Mata ball started rolling

Thats just my view of it, I dont have anything to back it up with

We seemed to have a head-start on the deal there was loads of reporting it and it wasnt till a few days later that we started to hear of interest from other parties, Chelsea to me came late to the party

I agree but only if we were willing to pay a couple of million more, which it seems we were not. Whether that was the right decision or not we'll find out over the course of the season.