Vesper

Saudi riches have backed Liverpool into a corner – as failed Caicedo bid shows The Saudi Pro League’s effect on the English game has played havoc with squad planning and the Merseyside club have felt it more than most https://www.telegraph.co.uk/football/2023/08/14/liverpool-caicedo-Chelsea-transfers-saudi-pro-league-deals/ It may be some time before Liverpool bid £111 million for a player again, although they will surely never take the decision to do so in as short a timeframe as they did this week when their attempt to hijack Moises Caicedo’s long-trailed transfer to Chelsea was launched. The move ignored most of the usual rules that governed the club’s careful transfer policy that helped build Jurgen Klopp’s Champions League and Premier League winning teams over the last eight years. The disruptive power of the Saudi Pro League’s effect on the English game was the prime mover. With Jordan Henderson – and most crucially Fabinho – gone so abruptly, suddenly Liverpool found themselves under pressure to sign a No 6 and to get the deal done urgently. When Liverpool began to negotiate with Brighton for Caicedo this week there had been no significant back channel contact with the player or his representatives. It left little room for success but the gamble was considered worth it and the club made all the usual efforts to convince Caicedo and his representatives to negotiate. Even in failure, it did at least have one advantage: the price paid to Brighton by Chelsea will be significantly higher. Behdad Eghbali, the Clearlake Capital representative in the consortium that owns Chelsea, personally oversaw the completion of the £115 million deal for the 21-year-old over the course of Saturday. Chelsea had got their man and once again they had broken the British transfer record for a midfielder. Liverpool’s late intervention, revealed by Telegraph Sport on Thursday, had ended in failure. The game waits to see whether Chelsea will also be able to sign Romeo Lavia ahead of Liverpool as well. Liverpool have had three bids rejected for the Southampton midfielder, and it was Chelsea’s £55 million offer for the Belgian that coincided this week with the decision by the Merseyside club to go for Caicedo. It remains to be seen whether Chelsea continue with the Lavia bid now. This was not how Liverpool had planned it. They began the summer with one key goal: to sign a pair of versatile No 8 midfielders. Alexis Mac Allister and Dominik Szoboszlai were signed relatively quickly for £35 million and £60 million respectively. Both fees were dictated by the release clauses at their clubs, Brighton and RB Leipzig, which made those deals easier to complete. Liverpool went up against Manchester United for Mac Allister and won. United turned their focus on Mason Mount, another who had interested Liverpool, who ultimately cost more. Earlier in the year, Liverpool’s long pursuit of Jude Bellingham came to an end when the player made clear that he would be joining Real Madrid over all other suitors. Until the intervention of the Saudi Pro League and the departure of Fabinho in particular, Liverpool had been satisfied with their trading. Now they find themselves forced to make decisions as swiftly as possible on deals bigger than ever before. There has been much change in the club’s recruitment department in the last two years with the architect of Klopp’s most successful teams, Michael Edwards, having departed and his anointed successor as technical director Julian Ward leaving just 12 months later. Others within the department have gone too. The most recent incumbent, Jorg Schmadtke, has been thrust in at a time when the club have been forced out of their usual rhythm. In their most successful years, Liverpool pursued their targets much more leisurely and often – in the case of Virgil van Dijk – came back in a subsequent window to close the deal. The Saudi deals have offered the chance to earn fees on players that were never projected to do so – but they have also played havoc with squad planning. “Do we go for quantity or quality?” Klopp asked rhetorically on Friday. “The only chance we really had was to go for quality and then we have to stretch things.” With the recent departures, much more responsibility will fall on the shoulders of Curtis Jones and Harvey Elliott and crucially that No 6 role will have to be filled. Their squad should have been all but complete by now, although as the last few weeks have demonstrated – nothing is certain.

7 month old article Arsenal has made contact with Real Madrid Arsenal are looking for an attacking reinforcement for the second half of the season. https://mediafoot.net/arsenal-a-pris-contact-avec-le-real-madrid-info-media-foot/ January 9, 2023, 11:30 a.m. The Mudrik file then gets the Gunners thinking of a certain… Eden Hazard! Mikel Arteta wants to finish the excellent job started this season. Premier League leaders Arsenal lead Manchester City by 5 points and are clearly aiming for a league title. For this, the Gunners would like to strengthen themselves with in particular an additional offensive asset. As Media Foot revealed exclusively, Arsenal were thinking of Mudrik , the Ukrainian Neymar . But the file seems complicated, turning to the advantage of Chelsea . Arsenal considering Hazard In plan B, Arsenal have identified an amazing profile. It leads to Real Madrid ! Indeed, our sources indicate that Arsenal are considering Eden Hazard . In distress in Madrid , the Belgian still has a good rating in England. Placed on the departure list, Eden Hazard has touches in MLS for the end of the year. But on the side of Arsenal, we imagine an operation to revive the Belgian. The leaders have even already contacted those of Real Madrid to find out the terms of an arrival in January…

here they are (you knew I could not resist the bait, LOLOLOLOL) SS/CF/RW/LW Jonathan David ambipedal AMF/RW/LW Mohammed Kudus left footed (can play SS and CF as well) Rayan Cherki ambipedal Youth Désiré Doué ambipedal Georgiy Sudakov ambipedal Arsen Zakharyan ambipedal Luis Guilherme (only 17 though) left footed Right Winger Leroy Sané Karim Adeyemi Michael Olise (injured) Bryan Mbeumo Nico Williams Nicolás González Marcus Edwards Viktor Tsygankov Bradley Barcola

that is MASSIVE for marketing she has hundreds of millions of global fans and followers biggest core Gen Z star on the planet atm, I would say rocking 1995 vintage Chanel at the White House 😍

Chelsea agree deal to sign midfielder Caicedo from Brighton - reports https://www.reuters.com/sports/soccer/Chelsea-agree-deal-sign-midfielder-caicedo-brighton-reports-2023-08-13/?rpc=401& LONDON, Aug 13 (Reuters) - Chelsea have agreed a deal to sign Ecuador midfielder Moises Caicedo from Brighton & Hove Albion, according to media reports on Sunday which said the fee would be a British record. Sky Sports reported that Chelsea will pay 115 million pounds ($145.98 million), eclipsing the previous mark set when they bought Enzo Fernandez from Benfica for 106.8 million in January. It added that Caicedo would sign an eight-year contract, with the Blues paying 100 million plus 15 million in add-ons. Chelsea had to increase their bid for Caicedo several times but eventually clinched a deal after Liverpool had also reached an agreement with Brighton reported at 111 million pounds. The 21-year-old Caicedo still had four years to run on his Brighton contract but told the club he wished to leave and made it clear he wanted to go to Stamford Bridge rather than Anfield. He signed for Brighton in February 2021 for a reported fee of 4.5 million pounds ($5.71 million) and was loaned to Belgian club Beerschot in August that year. He was recalled by Brighton in January 2022 after 14 appearances in Belgium. Under coach Roberto De Zerbi, Caicedo blossomed in midfield last season. Chelsea are also looking to strengthen their forward line under new boss Mauricio Pochettino after suffering injuries and key departures including Kai Havertz who signed for Arsenal and Christian Pulisic who left for Serie A side AC Milan. The club's new French striker Christopher Nkunku, brought in for around 60 million pounds ($76.16 million), will be out for a "prolonged period" after having surgery on a knee injury. Chelsea, who finished 12th last season, began their Premier League campaign with a 1-1 draw at home to Liverpool on Sunday.

wrong forum self delete

that is madness if true

only if we replace Nkunku with Kudus (or something similar, which there just are not that many out there atm)

yes! so not true

£50m for Gallagher so many non top 6 teams so need THIS (how he played today) Gallagher

I did not see that the whole point of Caicedo and Lavia (or if not Lavia another DMF) was to free Enzo up

Enzo SO needs to keep playing farther forward like today

you are way out over your skis on that prediction IMHO

way too much negativity here!!!! come on lads (and ladettes) look at how little of time thsi team has had to gel insane amount of new players and youth

talk to me after the window closes they will surely try and address the following: they are fucked worse than us at DMF and their fullbacks are so poor defensively plus their CBs have multiple errors in them even VVD, who has lost a step

losing him a fucking massive blow, he would have scored in this type of game

I am not convinced that Vlahovic will work well in this frenzy press system maybe maybe not

and Kudus cannot stress this enough

patience and get the big players in

?

Maatsen is NOT a viable winger we need a proper winger/AMF ASAP

UGO massive defensive deflection

KUDUS