Weird transfer window this. ours obviously has been crap. City seem to have done decent business. As it stands Spurs have weakened their defense and replaced Dembele. United might have a good one in Wan Bissaka, but have also essentially turned into mid nineies liverpool and bought the new Phil Babb in Slabhead there. And arsenal.....David Luiz to solve your CB issues

Anyway, feck it, onward. Season starts tomorrow and by sundown the rest of the league will be playing catchup to us. Top from start to finish anyone?

Also, RIp Watford Bob. Died after contracting lethal stupidity from morespunk.

Watford Bob >>>>

Klopp giving everton a wee dig in the ribs:

"If you have something else to do, go do it. You should go to Everton, they look busy. We will not make signings just for the sake of signing somebody. That makes no sense."

I love the assumptions that signings = improvement.

Its taken fab and keita a year to settle. Our transfer history especially after finishing second is littered with flops.. Or players who come in to only be constantly injured..

When rodgers finished second who thinks he was glad he could sell suarez and buy a load of new players? Reckon he would give his shiny teeth and slimmer waistline to go back in time and keep the squad together for the following season..

Rafa too, houllier before him, and sourness admits his overhaul was a mistake.

Fergie was the master of a couple of decent signings and slow player replacements to keep the team together, he overhauled his squad 3/4 times is all, the rest was year on year high quality and value purchases.

We went big last year, some of those players are still adjusting..

Can anyone show one squad, the year after finishing second that was stronger? New signings dont mean you have improved, they are an unknown quantity. The bigger task this season was avoiding our best players being poached.

comment by Watford Fred (U3979)
posted 1 hour, 26 minutes ago
Apparently this thread has flagged our IT checks as it updates all day and I leave it running in the background.

Oops
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When rodgers finished second who thinks he was glad he could sell suarez and buy a load of new players?

more options esp that of quality you can rely on to rest/rotate key players would be an improvement, dno how anyone can argue otherwise.

Jurgen Klopp says Sadio Mane could be involved in the game against Norwich on Friday despite missing most of pre-season.

"He looks fit. Yesterday was the first session with the team. He looks absolutely OK. Yes, he's an option.

"We have a lot of options, a lot of different line ups - no player gave me a reason to leave him out, so we have hard decisions on a squad. We have to stay as the team that nobody wants to play against.

So we have ALOT of options, however none of them looked good enough to replace a no preseason mane alright then

yeah mane salah firmino will be getting overplayed again until they inevitably break.

we cant be city, we have to rely on the best 11 players staying fit, thats what we are betting on.

not sheite, but itll be the ones trying to defend it now who will be most butthurt when it comes back to haunt us later on, not the ones who are raising the issue now.

£25m for Rojo, Jesus wept

The bitters really do love spunking money up the wall don’t they, properly hilarious.

mainly because they have higher expectations i guess, i wont be pinning hopes on being as fortunate as we was last season with injuries to key players.

comment by Neo- European Champions (U9135)
posted less than a minute ago
£25m for Rojo, Jesus wept

The bitters really do love spunking money up the wall don’t they, properly hilarious.
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yeh all they do is sell their stars to Utd and then buy their rejects

comment by Inbefore (U20589)
posted 1 minute ago
more options esp that of quality you can rely on to rest/rotate key players would be an improvement, dno how anyone can argue otherwise.
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Because its not that simple, if it were the league would be a foregone conclusion every year because the richest clubs would just buy up guaranteed class players.

Some signings flop, some upset the team cohesion (balotelli), some just dont suit the way you play (Benteke) and their presence lessens you, many take time to settle (keita), others are riddled with injuries and cant fulfil their role (Aquilani) many dont develop as expected (Marko)

People make out its simple addition and it isn't, klopp has decided there is noone worth the gamble and has decided to go again with his known quantities, with a great squad vibe, full of improving players and vibrant exciting youngsters.

Yet you would think on here we have sold salah and mane with the way everyone is whinging.

obviously thats the risk with every purchase, however its still better to have those options :/ you can't just use that as an excuse to not buy anyone because one time it didnt work out. Its also hard to keep them happy as you see with Sane at City but i'd rather have them on the bench moaning than not have them, especially if we get a few injuries.

Thats the only way we can pretty much improve is adding the next vvd signing etc even if it means theyre on the bench. Just because its hard to pull off or expensive shouldnt be stopping us trying unless we're all content fighting for top 4 again coming to a halt possibly going backwards on last season. Obviously if the targets arent available its better to not buy for the sake of buying.

Looks like everyone at the clubs happy so its down to them to prove why. However if or when it all goes gail platts baps up i dont wna hear excuses from them, they better be taking responsibility. At the end of it if theyre happy im happy but i dont agree with it as it stands and if it goes wrong i dnt wna hear Klopp spouting bs excuses about fixture congestion (which hes already done pre season) injuries, competition have better options etc.

comment by Inbefore (U20589)
posted 8 minutes ago
obviously thats the risk with every purchase, however its still better to have those options :/ you can't just use that as an excuse to not buy anyone because one time it didnt work out. Its also hard to keep them happy as you see with Sane at City but i'd rather have them on the bench moaning than not have them, especially if we get a few injuries.

Thats the only way we can pretty much improve is adding the next vvd signing etc even if it means theyre on the bench. Just because its hard to pull off or expensive shouldnt be stopping us trying unless we're all content fighting for top 4 again coming to a halt possibly going backwards on last season. Obviously if the targets arent available its better to not buy for the sake of buying.

Looks like everyone at the clubs happy so its down to them to prove why. However if or when it all goes gail platts baps up i dont wna hear excuses from them, they better be taking responsibility. At the end of it if theyre happy im happy but i dont agree with it as it stands and if it goes wrong i dnt wna hear Klopp spouting bs excuses about fixture congestion (which hes already done pre season) injuries, competition have better options etc.
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Your entire second paragraph is based around the idea we wont do as well as last season..

City are losing Sane ffs, will they do as well? Will they have a lesser drop than us? We havent lost anyone of importance.

they have better options to bring on for any injury to their attacking players than we have, perhaps kornmayer can guarantee they wont get injured

looks like sane will be staying at city anyway

City are losing Sane ffs
———————

Are they? Nothing indicating that.

well it was always gna be hard to better last season even with improvements and keeping the front 3 fit playing as many minutes as they managed last, whilst having more games already this season coming off the back of interrupted pre season due to acon n copa ec. So yeah the idea of us not doing as well as last season is reasonable i'd say.

comment by Insert random username (U10647)
posted 31 minutes ago
I love the assumptions that signings = improvement.

Its taken fab and keita a year to settle. Our transfer history especially after finishing second is littered with flops.. Or players who come in to only be constantly injured..

When rodgers finished second who thinks he was glad he could sell suarez and buy a load of new players? Reckon he would give his shiny teeth and slimmer waistline to go back in time and keep the squad together for the following season..

Rafa too, houllier before him, and sourness admits his overhaul was a mistake.

Fergie was the master of a couple of decent signings and slow player replacements to keep the team together, he overhauled his squad 3/4 times is all, the rest was year on year high quality and value purchases.

We went big last year, some of those players are still adjusting..

Can anyone show one squad, the year after finishing second that was stronger? New signings dont mean you have improved, they are an unknown quantity. The bigger task this season was avoiding our best players being poached.
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I don't think anyone is arguing that new signings automatically mean you've improved.

But it certainly fair to say that no new signings, plus some squad players leaving, is less likely to strengthen the squad, than adding some fresh faces, even if they are just squad players.

Bringing in quality is surely better than not.

Comment deleted by Site Moderator

comment by Adam 'The interview' Lallana (U20650)
posted about a minute ago
they have better options to bring on for any injury to their attacking players than we have, perhaps kornmayer can guarantee they wont get injured

looks like sane will be staying at city anyway
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Due to an ACL injury, either way he wont be having the same influence this season.

Nor will Kompany, both their captain and the man that saved their title with an absolute thunderbolt last season.

Who is to say their replacements are anywhere near the same quality, let alone improvements as seems to be the prevailing thought on this thread,

I listed earlier 8 ways or so that new signings often disappoint, if it were as simple as every signing improved you we would always have won the league the year after we finished second and splurged on squad players.

comment by Neo- European Champions (U9135)
posted 3 minutes ago
City are losing Sane ffs
———————

Are they? Nothing indicating that.
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Done his ACL. Not likely to be skipping up and down the wing for them any time soon.