ECHO Comment: "Fears of Witch-hunt Against Liverpool FC" part 3

[Kurt.]

Sky sports making it sound like Liverpool have had a blinding transfer window ... best ever... these are very clever signings...

They talk absolute guff

 

[flibbyflob]

See a few pundits on sky telling me they watched Ben Davis alot(yeah sure you have) and he clearly the stand out player of the championship.
The amount of rubbish they come up with is unreal

No way have they watched him and if he was any good he'd have been snapped up by a big club long ago.

 

[catcherintherye]

I think the fee is £18 mill going on reports on Twitter, not 100% sure on that though. Maybe it’s 18 plus add ons.

Schalke are in a very bad way financially yes, they where anyway, and now lack of revenue because of Covid is killing them.

Why they let him go, I would guess that yes, the loan fee will help, but also they will hope that it will be worth it long term for the investment in the summer if they buy. Also, he is pretty unhappy there I think, maybe they just think it’s better for them as a team and him as a player to seperate now.

The Athletic (who tend to understimate their fees) have said 27m who are quite trusted really mate. I mean, if there's no obligation, they can just negotiate it down.

Re Schalke, have they made decisions different to other German teams? Do they have higher debt? Did sponsors pull out? Wage bill too high? From the outside they always seemed a well run club, much like yourselves and like msot German teams. Decent youth academy etc. Was surprised they spiralled. Were they gambling on CL?

 

[LouReedwalkonthewildside]

Bit odd signing a 20 year old centre back on loan isn't it? Signing 2 would suggest matip is out for a long time...

RS mate reckons Klopp has been keeping an eye on the lad for a while now and was always looking to bring him in to have a proper look, so with their injuries at the back now was the right time to do it. I called BS and it was down to them being skint.

 

[catcherintherye]

Sky sports making it sound like Liverpool have had a blinding transfer window ... best ever... these are very clever signings...

They talk absolute guff

I mean they haven't committed a lot up front. Thats about the best I can say on those signings. 1 is a championship level CB, one has made Ashley Williams look like Maldini in the Bundesliga. You do wonder how many of the Sky ners actually watch the Bundesliga, or bother to even have a look at the league table.

 

[catcherintherye]

RS mate reckons Klopp has been keeping an eye on the lad for a while now and was always looking to bring him in to have a proper look, so with their injuries at the back now was the right time to do it. I called BS and it was down to them being skint.

He's been keeping an eye on him, but decided to take the plunge when Schalke were bottom of the league having won 1 game in over half a season, and got hammered regularly from anywhere from 4-8 goals conceded in games. Yes that makes sense.

Schalke have binned him off as they saw Mustafi as a better option.

 

[Borussin]

The Athletic (who tend to understimate their fees) have said 27m who are quite trusted really mate. I mean, if there's no obligation, they can just negotiate it down.

Re Schalke, have they made decisions different to other German teams? Do they have higher debt? Did sponsors pull out? Wage bill too high? From the outside they always seemed a well run club, much like yourselves and like msot German teams. Decent youth academy etc. Was surprised they spiralled. Were they gambling on CL?

Schalke are one of just a few German clubs not to separate the football side of operations from the other sporting clubs under their name. Most German teams have their football club ran as a sperate entity from rest of sporting clubs, which allows them to get far bigger sponsorship deals. So that means Schalke do not get as good sponsorship deals as pretty much all oither top league clubs (Mainz and Freiburg I think are the only other 2 Bundesliga clubs who also have not seperated the football club away from the rest of the sporting clubs). So yes, Schalke are in worse way than a lot of other teams now. Plus some poor contract management over the years meant they have lost a lot of great players for not great money.

It was Dotrmund who gambled on CL about 20 years ago and showed what a horrible mess that is, I am sure most other clubs are now not doing it in Germany due to what almost happened to Dortmund!

 

[number4.]

I think the fee is £18 mill going on reports on Twitter, not 100% sure on that though. Maybe it’s 18 plus add ons.

Schalke are in a very bad way financially yes, they where anyway, and now lack of revenue because of Covid is killing them.

Why they let him go, I would guess that yes, the loan fee will help, but also they will hope that it will be worth it long term for the investment in the summer if they buy. Also, he is pretty unhappy there I think, maybe they just think it’s better for them as a team and him as a player to seperate now.

£18m +£1m reported by the times, which will be source of it. No idea if he is any good at all, but clear his team's performances suggest averageness at best

 

[number4.]

The Athletic (who tend to understimate their fees) have said 27m who are quite trusted really mate. I mean, if there's no obligation, they can just negotiate it down.

Re Schalke, have they made decisions different to other German teams? Do they have higher debt? Did sponsors pull out? Wage bill too high? From the outside they always seemed a well run club, much like yourselves and like msot German teams. Decent youth academy etc. Was surprised they spiralled. Were they gambling on CL?

the athletic reporting 18m

 

[daza_1973]

Sky sports making it sound like Liverpool have had a blinding transfer window ... best ever... these are very clever signings...

They talk absolute guff

Best signings in the werld tho...

 

[gazzaa2]

1 million loan fee for the Schalke kid and 2 million fee for the Preston defender with only half a million up front.

FSG must have been dragged kicking and screaming into coughing that money up.

 

[number4.]

The Athletic (who tend to understimate their fees) have said 27m who are quite trusted really mate. I mean, if there's no obligation, they can just negotiate it down.

Re Schalke, have they made decisions different to other German teams? Do they have higher debt? Did sponsors pull out? Wage bill too high? From the outside they always seemed a well run club, much like yourselves and like msot German teams. Decent youth academy etc. Was surprised they spiralled. Were they gambling on CL?

Re your second question Catcher - my understanding is they have basically "done a leeds", backing their managers very very heavily with a view to chasing champions league, once they sacked one they seem to have backed the next and so one, culminating in Dave Wagner spending alot of money before getting sacked.

Over leveraged + covid is obviously a recipe for disaster, we are very very fortunate with our ownership. By the looks of it, Liverpool seem to have done a job on schalke, they released their accounts a few days ago, are goosed in every way & it appears Liverpool have bullied them into loaning to remove a wage from an already relegated team

Time will tell if he is any good of course, you would have to wonder if he is given the results, but it seems very low risk

 

[davek]

Ha Ha. His defence is that he knows they're all Norwegian.

 

[gazzaa2]

Bit odd signing a 20 year old centre back on loan isn't it? Signing 2 would suggest matip is out for a long time...

They've gone for a young defender because their non-homegrown quota is full and under 21s don't need to be registered. A loan is all they can afford.

 

[Tipp blue]

One red texted me to say September. I find it hard to believe as he kept playing for a period.

Signing 2, suggests to me that there is no good news on Gomes, Van Dijk or Matip though.

Having 3 players out for 6 months brings a lot of risks. See Oxlade Chamberlain, Bolasie, Gbamin etc.

For their sake, I hope Kabak and Davies the manc aren't the replacements.

VVD is the wrong side of 30, he's a big man so more weight on his knee and has had one of the worst injuries a footballer can get.
He's not coming back anywhere near as good as he was, he'll be off next January (when they realize he can't cope physically anymore) to Ajax or another good team in a poor league, that will be his level upon return.