Transfer Talk: Klopp’s Keeper Crisis Solved, Pogba on the Move, Richarlison for £50m?


Transfer Talk: Klopp’s Keeper Crisis Solved, Pogba on the Move, Richarlison for £50m?
 The painfully long summer between the end of last season and the start of the new one is so desolate and devoid of any football action that football fans cling to anything that may resemble even the faintest glimmer of excitement or activity. The void is usually filled by endless discussion of inconceivable transfer rumours, made up by meddling agents who then sit back and watch Sky Sports analyse these false rumours for hours on end, only for the player in question to sign a new five-year contract a week later.

However, there has been no such footballing hiatus this summer, with the World Cup occupying the footballing world for an entire month. As brilliant as the World Cup may have been, it has left very little time for any meaningless chatter about transfers, meaning the agents have had to concentrate all their lies and dodgy tip-offs that their client is on the move into just three weeks, when they previously had over two months to stir things up. This has led to a flurry of transfer activity as clubs realise they now only have a couple of weeks to sort out their business before the transfer window slams shut.

Jurgen Klopp has easily been the busiest of the premier league managers so far, snapping up Roma goalkeeper Alisson for a world-record fee for a goalkeeper. At £67 million, the Brazilian comes with a hefty price tag, but the fact he was able to keep Man City’s Ederson, arguably the signing of last season, out of the Brazil side for the entirety of the World Cup is a positive early sign for Reds fans.

Paul Pogba’s seemingly irreparable relationship with Jose Mourinho shows no sign of improving, even after the Frenchman’s dazzling display at the World Cup which saw him lead France to their first overall win in 20 years. With the Man United manager beginning to get tired of the midfielder’s inconsistency, Pogba may be on his way out before the new season even begins, and there is no shortage of suitors should Pogba decide to leave. Barcelona have been the favourites to land the £89 million man’s signature for the past two years now, but following the transfer of Ronaldo to Juventus, The Old Lady has become a more attractive prospect, with Pogba enjoying four successful years in Turin before his record move to Manchester. Despite not living up to expectations at Old Trafford, the creative midfielder is still valued at about £100 million, which could price both clubs out of a move having already made big-money signings, with Barca spending £140 million on Phillipe Coutinho in January.

Following Sky and BT agreeing to give the Premier League over £4bn for the PL TV rights, the transfer market has gone a bit bonkers, with average players going for ridiculous sums of money that could have bought you a world-class striker a few seasons ago. Watford are the latest club to exploit this crazy new market, valuing Brazilian winger Richarlison at £50 million after the 21-year-old scored just 5 goals last season. The tactic seems to be to randomly choose a number between £30-100 million and hope that there is some deluded club willing to massively over- pay for a half-decent player. Luckily for Watford, Everton specialise in wasting money on unproven players, and seem eager to continue this trend with Richarlison after spending a similar amount of money on Icelandic flop Gylfi Sigurdsson last summer.
Transfer Window closes in: 18 Days

Done Deals:
Danny Ward – Goalkeeper –Liverpool to Leicester -£12.5m – Transfer Rating – 5/10 – Way down the pecking order at Liverpool, will be understudy to Kasper Schmeichel unless Danish international moves on

Alisson – Goalkeeper – Roma to Liverpool - £66.8m – 9/10 – Necessary signing to replace Karius, a bit pricey but worth the money

Daley Blind – Defender – Man Utd to Ajax - £14m – 6/10 – Never really settled at United but will be a welcome addition to an inexperienced Ajax squad

Felipe Anderson – Winger – Lazio to West Ham – £41m – 7/10 – A lot of money but shows West Ham mean business, could either be a world-beater or a flop

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

In or Out? Why the Referendum on Pogba Needs to Stop

Image
Paul Pogba is quite possibly the most divisive player in the Premier League, both in the media and in the Manchester United dressing room, as Jose Mourinho knows all too well and Ole Gunnar Solksjaer is beginning to discover. The Frenchman polarises opinion, with some lambasting his showboating antics both on and off the field and accusing him of a lack of commitment, while others point to his vital part in France’s World Cup triumph, during which a video emerged of Pogba giving a rallying speech to his team-mates moments before the final against Croatia. The midfielder’s statistics for Man United can also be interpreted to prove Pogba is both a goal scoring genius and a mere penalty merchant, as although his 13 league goals may appear impressive on paper, 8 of these goals have come from the spot while another was a rebound from a saved penalty. While I am by no means saying consistently converting spot-kicks is easy, it hardly makes Pogba unique or worthy of a place in the PFA Team ...
Read more

Unused Substitute: The Best Wasted Talents in Europe

Anyone who follows football is aware of how inflated transfer prices have become in recent years, with European super-clubs paying well over the odds for up-and-coming stars. However, over the past year a new trend has developed, which has seen clubs stockpile talent for extortionate prices only to then restrict such talent to the substitutes bench for most or all of the season. Here are some examples of this worrying new development which could see some of Europe's best players regressing to such an extent that their careers cannot recover. Mariano Diaz A product of the Real Madrid academy, Diaz rejoined the Spanish giants in 2018 having been offloaded only a year previously to Lyon, where he scored 18 goals in 37 games. Arriving with a £22m price tag and the Number 7 on his back, which had only just been vacated by a Juventus-bound Ronaldo, few expected Diaz to be CR7's successor but most will have hoped for more than just 4 league goals in his 2 years back at Madrid. With...
Read more

UEFA Europa League: United forced to progress from the spot in frustrating night for Solksjaer

Image
On a night where Manchester United could have done with a fairly pedestrian 90 minutes with potentially their two biggest games of the season to come in the next ten days, Ole Gunnar Solksjaer's men were frustrated by a resilient and at times dangerous FC Copenhagen side across an energy-sapping 120 minutes of Europa League football.  Mason Greenwood thought he had given United the lead on the stroke of half-time with a stereotypically clinical finish off the inside of the left post after a half of constant but hardly threatening pressure from the English side, only for VAR to intervene and correctly rule the 18-year-old was a yard offside. Greenwood was to also have a starring role in the next moment of drama in the second half, as his marginally less accurate shot from just inside the box in the 57th minute cannoned off the right post into the path of Marcus Rashford, who did not have to wait for VAR to rule out his tap-in after the linesman raised his flag for offside. T...
Read more