Danny Ward - Leicester Sign Liverpool Keeper for £12.5m

[Dan+]

3 minutes ago, Dr. Gonzo said:

An Aberdeen fan has told some of us we’re mental for paying that much for Allison and Ward is top notch. I’d take that with more than a pinch of salt. Maybe a handful. But that’s probably encouraging.

I’ve heard mixed things on his time at Huddersfield - like he was either great sometimes and shite sometimes, and some who think he’s great and wish they’d signed him. So I have no idea what that means. Some good games and some bad games sounds fairly fucking standard and you’d probably want a keeper that’s better.

He was good enough for Klopp to not want to sell last season, instead he wanted a loan. That’s also a good sign. But not good enough apparently in training to merit starting over Migs or Karius, which could be concerning to you. But Karius’s form before the final after his return to the side wasn’t bad - you normally don’t see a keeper dropped in that kind of form.

I do think people are a bit harsh on Klopp regarding Karius. The consensus before that Champions League final was that it looked like Karius had finally clicked for you. Of course it all goes horribly wrong at the worst possible time to the point it's going to be hard for him to ever return. I expect he'll likely end up back in Germany, or maybe just stays at Liverpool for the cups etc...

I don't know about Ward. I'll give him a chance absolutely but it seems a really unnecessary move from us. Like Rando just said there, he's too expensive to be back-up yet not really the calibre we'd go for to replace Schmeichel - consider we've got a net spend of -£15mil this summer and would likely get at the absolute least £20mil for Schmeichel as well. It just doesn't really make sense to me.

[Dr. Gonzo]

56 minutes ago, RandoEFC said:

Seems unlikely that Leicester are spending that money unless Schmeichel is on his way out. Not sure though, you'd also expect if they were preempting Schmeichels departure by getting a replacement in that they'd be shopping higher up in the market. This is a weird one between what you'd say is a definite number two and a replacement number one.

I honestly don’t know what Leicester’s recruitment team or however they bring players in would know if Ward is ready to be a starting top flight keeper. He might be, he might not be. We don’t have enough evidence.

I imagine he was signed to be the #2. It’s a mild upgrade in his place in a side, it’s better than being 3rd or 4th choice. And then Leicester’s coaching staff can actually work with him and see how good he actually is.

But if there was a time to sell Schmeichel it’d be now while his stock is high from that penalty shootout. But if that’s the case... why Ward? That’s not very safe at all.

[Dr. Gonzo]

7 minutes ago, Dan said:

I do think people are a bit harsh on Klopp regarding Karius. The consensus before that Champions League final was that it looked like Karius had finally clicked for you. Of course it all goes horribly wrong at the worst possible time to the point it's going to be hard for him to ever return. I expect he'll likely end up back in Germany, or maybe just stays at Liverpool for the cups etc...

I don't know about Ward. I'll give him a chance absolutely but it seems a really unnecessary move from us. Like Rando just said there, he's too expensive to be back-up yet not really the calibre we'd go for to replace Schmeichel - consider we've got a net spend of -£15mil this summer and would likely get at the absolute least £20mil for Schmeichel as well. It just doesn't really make sense to me.

It’s crazy to me we are getting more for Ward than we spent for Andy Robertson.

[Dan+]

1 hour ago, Dr. Gonzo said:

I honestly don’t know what Leicester’s recruitment team or however they bring players in would know if Ward is ready to be a starting top flight keeper. He might be, he might not be. We don’t have enough evidence.

I imagine he was signed to be the #2. It’s a mild upgrade in his place in a side, it’s better than being 3rd or 4th choice. And then Leicester’s coaching staff can actually work with him and see how good he actually is.

But if there was a time to sell Schmeichel it’d be now while his stock is high from that penalty shootout. But if that’s the case... why Ward? That’s not very safe at all.

The safest bet for us is sell Schmeichel and sign Butland, and I've little doubt he'd come here as well - no-one bigger is coming in for him now and lets just say a year ago Ben Gibson was ahead of Harry Maguire in the England pecking order.

But then again how good actually is Butland? He's better than Ward I'm sure but what's his actual level?

Schmeichel as I've stated I'm worried is a problem, and part of a group that are now holding us back rather than helping us progress.

[Harry]

7 hours ago, Dr. Gonzo said:

I honestly have no idea how good Ward is. Just last week Klopp said he was being considered as our new no.1, then he didn't play him in a friendly & is now being sold to you... so that's unusual. But he got rave reviews in Scotland and was considered alright by Huddersfield fans, until promotion playoffs when he played out of his skin. Wagner wanted to bring him on loan or sign him for their first season up... so that is an encouraging sign about his quality.

He's the same age as Karius and Allison... but with a lot less experience.

But if you are going to sell Schmeichel because he's causing problems in the dressing room re: how he feels about the manager & because there's clubs that have money to spend on a keeper (Roma and Chelsea are now the 2 most obvious candidates here, as you just said) - if you can get a big fee, I think selling him might be worth it. Between the Mahrez money and the money you'd get from him you could make some serious improvements to the side. And Ward is a big gamble, but his price in this market is essentially the new £3-5m range like Shaqiri was - ultimately not that big of a risk when the market is as ridiculous as it is right now. I think a bigger risk would be selling him before bringing in some new players though - you don't want selling clubs seeing you've had 2 massive transfers and trying to price gouge you. That's happened a lot to us until pretty recently tbh, whereas now FSG are more in the mindset of "this is a top target? okay pay the insane fee."

I don't mind that they've done this provided we're managing the accounts ok. We're not chasing a big name we are choosing players more surgically than that an being prepared to pay top dollar for top talent changes perception of us being a selling club. 

 

[LFCMike]

 

[Stan]

Happy with the signing given it's not that much outlay in this day and age.

Won't be too happy if he's our actual number one and there's actually plans to get rid of Kasper. Come round to the idea though that if we get ridiculous money for Kasper, then so be it. Apparently Kasper doesn't get on with Puel, according to some ITKs. We shall see.

 

[Dr. Gonzo]

You know I hadn't thought about it until it was mentioned in the Zaha thread, but the fee was probably inflated because of the sell on fee and us being like "well if you want him, we want to make this much but there's a sell on fee." That or someone at Leicester is from Wrexham and wants them to buy their stadium.

[Burning Gold]

3 minutes ago, Dr. Gonzo said:

You know I hadn't thought about it until it was mentioned in the Zaha thread, but the fee was probably inflated because of the sell on fee and us being like "well if you want him, we want to make this much but there's a sell on fee." That or someone at Leicester is from Wrexham and wants them to buy their stadium.

That logic works for Zaha, because Palace don't want to sell him and will the money need to replace him. For Danny Ward, we clearly wanted to sell him and don't desperately need the money to replace him, so I don't think it's quite the same situation.

[Dan+]

Bizarre signing. Don't get it. But good luck to him.

[Cicero]

Reports saying we will be using Morata as part of the Donnarumma deal. Do I agree with it? No. 

[Dan+]

1 hour ago, Dr. Gonzo said:

You know I hadn't thought about it until it was mentioned in the Zaha thread, but the fee was probably inflated because of the sell on fee and us being like "well if you want him, we want to make this much but there's a sell on fee." That or someone at Leicester is from Wrexham and wants them to buy their stadium.

That's no justification for us over-paying though. As a seller I'd try and bleed every penny from the buyer regardless.

[Stan]

35 minutes ago, Cicero said:

Reports saying we will be using Morata as part of the Donnarumma deal. Do I agree with it? No. 

is it part of the Danny Ward deal?

[Burning Gold]

We've got a 20% sell-on clause in there as well. Probably won't turn into to a massive amount of money, but it's nice to have.

[Dave]

Given the fee I can't imagine this being a replacement for Ben Hamer. There seems to be some forn of plan and a strategy here to mould him in to a first choice Goalkeeper.

I really rated him at Huddersfield, had he of played regular football last season I have absolutely no doubt ground have replaced Hennessey as the Welsh number one. Im not sure what we went on, but for Huddersfield not to get him for another season given the way he played seemed an odd decision, even though they ended up with a good replacement anyway.

If I was Leicester I would seriously consider a loan move if Kasper is staying. Im not sure if he would be happy with that but playing regularly for a team like Swansea for a season looking to get back in to the Premier League would be fantastic for his development.

[LFCMike]

4 minutes ago, The Palace Fan said:

Given the fee I can't imagine this being a replacement for Ben Hamer. There seems to be some forn of plan and a strategy here to mould him in to a first choice Goalkeeper.

I really rated him at Huddersfield, had he of played regular football last season I have absolutely no doubt ground have replaced Hennessey as the Welsh number one. Im not sure what we went on, but for Huddersfield not to get him for another season given the way he played seemed an odd decision, even though they ended up with a good replacement anyway.

If I was Leicester I would seriously consider a loan move if Kasper is staying. Im not sure if he would be happy with that but playing regularly for a team like Swansea for a season looking to get back in to the Premier League would be fantastic for his development.

I think Huddersfield wanted him but Liverpool didn't want to send him out on loan again. Think he only played in one League Cup game so last season was a bit of a waste from Ward's point of view!

[Dan+]

Huddersfield fans from what I read rate Lossl above him.

I'm still very meh about this one in all honesty.

[Harry]

3 hours ago, Dan said:

Huddersfield fans from what I read rate Lossl above him.

I'm still very meh about this one in all honesty.

I think he's probably a better keeper than either of our other two goalies but after the low key and unsuccessful appointments of migs and karius i don't think he'd have been given a fair go from the fans. 

[Burning Gold]

12 hours ago, Harry said:

I think he's probably a better keeper than either of our other two goalies but after the low key and unsuccessful appointments of migs and karius i don't think he'd have been given a fair go from the fans. 

I doubt it, mate. Obviously we don't know a great deal about him, but at the end of the day, there's a reason he didn't get a look in over either of them.

When Klopp took over at Liverpool, he prematurely terminated Ward's successful loan spell at Aberdeen first chance he got. Presumably the idea was that he'd challenge Mignolet for the number one spot, but he didn't play a single game in league or cup until April when we stopped giving a shit about the league and Klopp rested everyone possible for Europa League matches. Even then he only played two games for us that season. That tells me there's a problem with his attitude or ability as Mignolet was hardly setting the world alight at the time.

[Dan+]

I can't help but feel this whole "Liverpool fans wanted to see him given a go" is more a blight on Mignolet and Karius rather than praise for Danny Ward.

[LFCMike]

34 minutes ago, Dan said:

I can't help but feel this whole "Liverpool fans wanted to see him given a go" is more a blight on Mignolet and Karius rather than praise for Danny Ward.

Yes, before we were in for Alisson, the story was Klopp was apparently going to let Danny Ward have a chance at proving himself as number 1. I think for a lot of people that was preferable to going with one of the other two purely because we don't know how good Ward is and how bad the other two were.

[Dave]

From what Puel has said it sounds like Kasper is staying for another season. Whilst I'm sure the competition will benefit him, this could be another year wasted for Ward at a time he should be playing as much as possible.

[Burning Gold]

1 hour ago, LFCMike said:

Yes, before we were in for Alisson, the story was Klopp was apparently going to let Danny Ward have a chance at proving himself as number 1. I think for a lot of people that was preferable to going with one of the other two purely because we don't know how good Ward is and how bad the other two were.

There has to be a name for this. You see it all the time when fans overrate a player who's not getting a game because they don't like a player who is or they don't like the manager. Lazar Markovic springs to mind as an example, and I think it's absolutely the case with Danny Ward as well. Klopp has dropped both Mignolet and Karius for poor performance, and he would absolutely have put Ward in at some point if he thought he was good enough.

[Dan+]

1 hour ago, The Palace Fan said:

From what Puel has said it sounds like Kasper is staying for another season. Whilst I'm sure the competition will benefit him, this could be another year wasted for Ward at a time he should be playing as much as possible.

Several ITK's of ours reckon that there is genuine interest for him from higher clubs and he wants to go as he doesn't get on with Puel. Puel wouldn't admit he's going as it would lower Schmeichel's value. I actually expect Schmeichel goes this window.

[LFCMike]

Just now, Burning Gold said:

There has to be a name for this. You see it all the time when fans overrate a player who's not getting a game because they don't like a player who is or they don't like the manager. Lazar Markovic springs to mind as an example, and I think it's absolutely the case with Danny Ward as well. Klopp has dropped both Mignolet and Karius for poor performance, and he would absolutely have put Ward in at some point if he thought he was good enough.

I'm not sure it was a case of people overrating Ward to be honest. No one had seen enough of him to form an opinion. I don't think we could have gone into the season with either of the other two as number 1 though and Ward was the only one who would be starting with a clean slate. It would have been far from ideal going into the season with Ward though because as you said if Klopp thought he was good enough he'd have got a chance a while a go. I'm glad we managed to get the Alisson deal done!