Chelsea Transfers

[Vesper 31,052]

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.

[OneMoSalah 9,093]

£60m for Lavia? Southampton can get fucked. Let him go to Liverpool for that, be daft to even entertain paying that after spending £115m on Caicedo.

[lucio 5,418]

4 minutes ago, OneMoSalah said:

£60m for Lavia? Southampton can get fucked. Let him go to Liverpool for that, be daft to even entertain paying that after spending £115m on Caicedo.

thats just todays market , random teenagers who have never set foot in europe cost 20m. Getting another midfielders of lavias ability will cost around the same most likely anyway

[Fernando 6,723]

Yeah for 60 million I don't know. 

We should just let that go. They made us overpaid for Caicedo and we make them overpay for Lavia. 

[YorkshireBlue 3,341]

And extra 60 million gives us the best midfield in the league.......

[Gundalf 806]

As long as we dont break any FFP rules, we can spend all the money that is available, I dont care. 

[lucio 5,418]

having 2 physical beasts in midfield was important for Poch at spurs , so it will probably be money well spent

 

[Fernando 6,723]

2 minutes ago, YorkshireBlue said:

And extra 60 million gives us the best midfield in the league.......

Lavia is that good?

I wanted Caicedo badly and that's it, but is Lavia really that good that we can't get from anywhere else?

Where is @Vesper with the DM list of other top targets available? 

[Gundalf 806]

I know this name was mentioned here as well. I still dont know what makes people think that he ever was available. 

[YorkshireBlue 3,341]

10 minutes ago, Fernando said:

Lavia is that good?

I wanted Caicedo badly and that's it, but is Lavia really that good that we can't get from anywhere else?

Where is @Vesper with the DM list of other top targets available? 

Lavia is that good and he will only get better and better.

[lucio 5,418]

4 minutes ago, Fernando said:

Lavia is that good?

I wanted Caicedo badly and that's it, but is Lavia really that good that we can't get from anywhere else?

Where is @Vesper with the DM list of other top targets available? 

we could get manu kone or Thuram

but lavia probably has similar potential to them

Kone in particular looks exceptional. The gladbach owner says they want a big fee though

 

[ZAPHOD2319 4,942]

Felix has a tweet that the owners of Liverpool flew in to cry to the league in person about Chelsea's spending. Not sure I believe it. They would have lawyers cry for them.

[Altezzoso 13]

1 minute ago, ZAPHOD2319 said:

Felix has a tweet that the owners of Liverpool flew in to cry to the league in person about Chelsea's spending. Not sure I believe it. They would have lawyers cry for them.

Johnny H was at the match yesterday so it's not entirely implausible

[We Hate Scouse 10,352]

Lavia also homegrown which pushes his price up

[Gundalf 806]

6 minutes ago, ZAPHOD2319 said:

Felix has a tweet that the owners of Liverpool flew in to cry to the league in person about Chelsea's spending. Not sure I believe it. They would have lawyers cry for them.

Waste of CO²

[lucio 5,418]

8 minutes ago, ZAPHOD2319 said:

Felix has a tweet that the owners of Liverpool flew in to cry to the league in person about Chelsea's spending. Not sure I believe it. They would have lawyers cry for them.

not our fault they are poor. Poverty club

[Mhsc 1,139]

I think the argument for Lavia has to be that Caicedo is so good as an 8 that he's a little wasted as a DM (you know, the same argument about Enzo playing there), in which case a DM would unleash them both to play as 8s which would be quite a terrifying prospect for opponents.

If Caicedo is going to play as a DM and we're looking for another midfielder, I'd be more interested in K. Thuram than Lavia - a lovely Kovacic replacement who is conveniently 6ft4 and we could use the height for sure.

[OneMoSalah 9,093]

35 minutes ago, lucio said:

thats just todays market , random teenagers who have never set foot in europe cost 20m. Getting another midfielders of lavias ability will cost around the same most likely anyway

Is he really that good right now though? I get he had some good games for Southampton last season but I am still very skeptical of him and don’t think he’s even the player Liverpool need yet alone us. 

People are going for the potential as opposed to how he can play right now. And for £60m, when we are already getting Caicedo, have Enzo, Santos, Gallagher and the other player we signed from Rennes… wouldn’t a GK and CF not be more important and better spent?

One of Lavia or Caicedo I understand yes but not the two of them. Logically it doesn’t make sense because Enzo and Caicedo will play 90% of the games they are fit for. Then everyone sat raving about Santos in pre-season. Can’t have too many players in the same position even to spite Liverpool. 

Edited August 14, 2023 by OneMoSalah

[pmh1 23]

David Ornstein!

 

 

[ZAPHOD2319 4,942]

Just now, pmh1 said:

David Ornstein!

 

 

The Liverpool forum is probably not a safe place today. I have seen their fans ranting that whomever is handling transfers needs to be sacked,