Transfer Rumours 2017

[LFCMadLad]

Apparently Barcelona have now made an approach for Coutinho and are willing to offer Ivan Rakitic as a sweetener 

[SirBalon]

Just now, LFCMadLad said:

Apparently Barcelona have now made an approach for Coutinho and are willing to offer Ivan Rakitic as a sweetener 

Don't believe the Rakitić part of it mate and switch that to Arda Turan.  It's no secret Barcelona have been courting Coutinho for a while now.

[LFCMadLad]

2 minutes ago, SirBalon said:

Don't believe the Rakitić part of it mate and switch that to Arda Turan.  It's no secret Barcelona have been courting Coutinho for a while now.

Well Turan is a Liverpool fan by all accounts and would jump at the chance so that probably makes more sense. 

And i wouldn't say 'courting' is the right word. I'd say it's more blatant tapping up on scale with what they did with Fabregas. They do it all the time and get away with it because hey... they are Barcelona. 

Coutinho will be their player this summer without a doubt... I just hope we absolutely rinse them in transfer fees. 

[SirBalon]

1 minute ago, LFCMadLad said:

Well Turan is a Liverpool fan by all accounts and would jump at the chance so that probably makes more sense. 

There's no way Barça will let go of Rakitić mate!  Plus he wouldn't want to leave Spain as his wife is Spanish and he is very valued at Barcelona.  Whoever took that story on got mixed up for sure.

Arda doesn't want to leave but he does want to play and be a protagonist.  He isn't getting enough game time at Barça and would do brilliant at Liverpool with Klopp's style of play in my view.

[LFCMadLad]

2 minutes ago, SirBalon said:

There's no way Barça will let go of Rakitić mate!  Plus he wouldn't want to leave Spain as his wife is Spanish and he is very valued at Barcelona.  Whoever took that story on got mixed up for sure.

Arda doesn't want to leave but he does want to play and be a protagonist.  He isn't getting enough game time at Barça and would do brilliant at Liverpool with Klopp's style of play in my view.

As I said above (after editing), I just hope we absolutely rinse them in transfer fees. That or flat out refuse to sell. 

[6666]

3 hours ago, LFCMadLad said:

As I said above (after editing), I just hope we absolutely rinse them in transfer fees. That or flat out refuse to sell. 

If they're serious about getting him they'll wheel out their "football angel" assholes to talk about him and unsettle him and if the transfer fee is too high they'll resort to doing some borderline dodgy shit to make it happen and then they'll help him evade his taxes before returning to preach their cringeworthy, holier than thou "more than a club" bullshit. Fuck me, I hate these cunts.

[SirBalon]

3 hours ago, LFCMadLad said:

As I said above (after editing), I just hope we absolutely rinse them in transfer fees. That or flat out refuse to sell. 

They'll do more or less what FourSix has said.  They'll tell Coutinho that they're serious about signing him and that he will have to do his bit by forcing the move so as to keep the fee as low as possible.  What's for sure is that Barça won't go mental on this signing as his position isn't the most needed.  Infact I'd be surprised if they go serious on this one...

[Spike]

And 'tapping up' is meant to be illegal. Barcelona have to the worst club for that nonsense.

 

Ceeeesc is suffering - Chavi

[SirBalon]

4 minutes ago, Spike said:

And 'tapping up' is meant to be illegal. Barcelona have to the worst club for that nonsense.

 

Ceeeesc is suffering - Chavi

It isn't nice, I agree and I didn't like what was happening when Cesc eventually left Arsenal.

But a player leaves because he wants to leave.  A player signs for another club because he's decided to go and that may include various reasons.  You can't blame a player for wanting to go to Barça when they come knocking on your door.

[LFCMadLad]

Barcelona are becoming the most hated club in the world without a doubt. 

It used to be Real but Barca are catching them up if not overtaking them. 

[Guest Cannabis]

18 minutes ago, LFCMadLad said:

Barcelona are becoming the most hated club in the world without a doubt. 

It used to be Real but Barca are catching them up if not overtaking them. 

On the basis of what exactly?

Barcelona are a very well supported club, evidence of that was the footballing world coming together to celebrate their success against PSG, if they were hated people would have moaned rather than cheered.

This is unless you personally hate them for having an interest in Coutinho?

[Dan+]

I don't agree with that to be honest I think given the nature of the game it was always going to be celebrated. Granted if it was Real Madrid it would've probably had more question marks over it.

[Cicero]

Barca are scum but Real are on a whole other pedestal 

[LFCMadLad]

2 minutes ago, Cannabis said:

On the basis of what exactly?

Barcelona are a very well supported club, evidence of that was the footballing world coming together to celebrate their success against PSG, if they were hated people would have moaned rather than cheered.

This is unless you personally hate them for having an interest in Coutinho?

Read the posts above. It's not just me. 

Barcelona were once loved by most, but slowly but surely they are becoming classed in the same boat as Real Madrid. In fact when it comes to tapping up players, they are probably worse. 

I wouldn't expect you to understand though mate as you aren't used to clubs like Barcelona coming after your players. 

[Burning Gold]

39 minutes ago, LFCMadLad said:

Barcelona are becoming the most hated club in the world without a doubt. 

It used to be Real but Barca are catching them up if not overtaking them. 

What I can't understand is how it's taken as long as it has. They've been horrible, self-righteous shithouses for years now.

15 minutes ago, Dan said:

I don't agree with that to be honest I think given the nature of the game it was always going to be celebrated. Granted if it was Real Madrid it would've probably had more question marks over it.

The fact it was against PSG probably helped a lot too.

[SirBalon]

A lot of it has to do with the Spanish sports media who know how to ask questions and how to trick players into answering them for then to headline something that is totally out of context. It's not like it hasn't been seen before.

Put it this way... Arsenal FC are hated club amongst many Barça fans in Spain because of how they seem to have scouts pestering around like flies on dog excrement with their youth players. Some of you may think that's far fetched but if you look at the stats, it isn't and even though in my personal opinion that's a part of football (legitimate, and that's my argument to them), that's how they feel and that's how I felt about the blatant tapping of Cesc Fábregas before he moved to the Camp Nou. Apart from that I haven't seen anything of the like again.

What they do do and it's also legitimate, they tell the agent to put pressure on the club the player is at so as to get leverage where price and certainty of pushing for the signing. They don't always do it unless they really want that player. That's not tapping!

At the end of the day, it's the player who wants to leave like Barça have had before in their history with famous cases like Ronaldo (the real one) to Inter and Luis Figo to Real Madrid. 

[Dan+]

7 minutes ago, Burning Gold said:

What I can't understand is how it's taken as long as it has. They've been horrible, self-righteous shithouses for years now.

The fact it was against PSG probably helped a lot too.

Again I'm unsure. I don't think average Joe really has any particular disliking for PSG. I see a lot of people refer to them as a European giant and I'd dispute that heavily.

[Burning Gold]

1 minute ago, Dan said:

Again I'm unsure. I don't think average Joe really has any particular disliking for PSG. I see a lot of people refer to them as a European giant and I'd dispute that heavily.

Fair enough. I see a lot of comments about them being a 'synthetic' oil club but I suppose most of them come from people who are more invested in football than normal.

Personally, while I'd never say I like the club, it does please me that there's a competitive team representing one of Europe's great cities.

[Cicero]

Come home Cesc. 

 

Fuck me that whole saga was cringe

[SirBalon]

The latest from the Daily Mirror (reflected this morning on some Spanish sports papers) is that if Philippe Coutinho should leave Liverpool then the replacement could be Real Madrid's Colombian star James Rodríguez.  He is a very talented player but has character issues which has seem him in conflicts with his coaches at Real.

[Burning Gold]

He's a good footballer but if he's too much of a twat for Real Madrid I'd have to pass.

[Guest Cannabis]

James would be a massive coup for Liverpool, he has the quality to play at a much higher level and I can see him going to PSG to replace Verrati if he himself goes to Barcelona.

That said, will Madrid let him leave at all if Isco goes? I'm not too sure.

[SirBalon]

26 minutes ago, Cannabis said:

James would be a massive coup for Liverpool, he has the quality to play at a much higher level and I can see him going to PSG to replace Verrati if he himself goes to Barcelona.

That said, will Madrid let him leave at all if Isco goes? I'm not too sure.

Rumours that Florentino Pérez in his desperation for Isco not to run down his contract and bypass the clause that doesn't let him go to Barça and for free has made the Real Madrid president offer a mega contract at Real only slightly bettered by Cristiano Ronaldo's.

James is good but he seems to cause friction in the dressing room with teammates and his relationship with coaches is very bad indeed.  He's no replacement for Verratti though mate. Play in two completely different midfield roles. 

[LFCMadLad]

1 hour ago, Cannabis said:

James would be a massive coup for Liverpool, he has the quality to play at a much higher level and I can see him going to PSG to replace Verrati if he himself goes to Barcelona.

That said, will Madrid let him leave at all if Isco goes? I'm not too sure.

Would it? By all accounts he's an absolute knob. If he can prance around like a massive diva at a club like Real then what would he be like coming to a club like us? He wouldn't last 2 minutes under Klopp, just as Sakho didn't. 

Nah they can keep him. If we are going to replace Coutinho on the left side of our front 3 then I'd rather us look for a sort of clone of Mane. A speed merchant with strength and trickery who chips in with plenty of goals and assists and who generally causes panic to the opposition whenever he gets the ball (what a signing Mane has been by the way). 

Then id be looking for a young player for Klopp to really develop, who can cover all 3 front positions to a high standard but one who predominantly is good at hitting the back of the net. Someone like Dembele at Celtic for example. 

In fact thinking about it I'd be looking for those type of players even if Coutinho stays. It may help his consistency having a bit of competition. I still can't quite believe the Barcelona interest has genuine legs to be honest because although Coutinho is basically unplayable on his day, I'd have thought he's far too inconsistent to tempt Barcelona into dipping into the coffers. And dip into the coffers deep they are going to have to do because without a release clause we can charge what we want and one of Liverpools and Brazil's more popular poster boys isn't going to come cheap. 

[Dave]

14 hours ago, Cannabis said:

On the basis of what exactly?

Barcelona are a very well supported club, evidence of that was the footballing world coming together to celebrate their success against PSG, if they were hated people would have moaned rather than cheered.

So am I the only one who thought there diving was embarrassing and some of the decisions were dodgy as fuck? Anybody else in Europe wouldn't have been allowed to get away with it. Not the first time it's happened in The Champions League too.