Liverpool seem to have traded places with Brighton and Hove Albion of late with the club picking up the mantle the Reds have dropped both on and off the pitch.
The Seagulls’ recruitment has seen them land high-potential stars of the likes of Yves Bissouma and Marc Cucurella on the cheap before selling them on for sizeable checks down the line.
Moises Caicedo is the latest bit of smart business by the South Coast-based outfit, leaving the Merseysiders scratching their heads during internal discussions over their apparent mishap in the market.
“Clearly, he is a player destined to play at the top level,” Neil Jones wrote for GOAL.
“Liverpool are admirers, and there have been discussions internally at Anfield as to why the club were not all over him when he left Ecuador two years ago.
“Indeed, Caicedo looks as if he will have his pick of clubs in the summer, when he will have two years left on his contract and when Brighton will look to cash in as they have done successfully in the past with the likes of Bissouma, Ben White, Leandro Trossard and Marc Cucurella.”
With a valuation set at around the £100m mark, it’s an oversight that will no doubt cost Jurgen Klopp’s men a great deal to fix, which is far from being ideal given the expense that will accompany a move for Borussia Dortmund’s Jude Bellingham.
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Unless we’re either prepared to sell a top star or can get a new owner in before the summer window, it seems highly unlikely that we’ll be able to afford both the England international and Caicedo in the same window.
Whilst it’s positive to see Liverpool throwing their weight about in the market and committing the big bucks, as they say, to top talent, there was a time when the Michael Edwards-led recruitment team was responsible for snapping up rough diamonds on the cheap for Klopp to mould into world-beaters.
As ludicrous as the market can be at times, we find it hard to believe that similar deals to the £8m and £25m moves that took Andy Robertson and Gini Wijnaldum respectively to Anfield aren’t available at all.
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Is it not possible that Michael Edwards and his successor both left because they saw the writing on the wall with respect to FSG and transfers. For them both to leave within a year is strange after they’d had so much success with transfers.
Correct. It has become obvious that the wheels are coming off of our wagon for some time now. The loss of the transfer ‘gurus’, an extended amount of time without first team doctor, numerous long term injuries including merely in training, the uncertainty over new ownership, patent lack of investments or acknowledgment that we missed the boat in strengthening the squad right after we won the ChL and the Premiership, the saga with Salah’s renewal, on and on and on. It was obvious since second half of last year that many key players in the team are spent, physically and mentally. To have to rely as a starter on a 18 yo in the critical role of DM for a club like Liverpool cries out as mis-management of the highest order. To keep carrying players who for YEARS now have contributed NOTHING such as Ox, Jones, Tsimikas, Gomez, Keita is absolutely inexcusable. And then in the same breath we hear that we can’t bring in more players coz we have sufficient numbers! Really? Do these players who are perennially injured or out of form count as ‘solutions’ ? Finally for the last two months Ox has been healthy and yet Klopp doesn’t even bring him on as a sub as he finally (5 years in..) realized he has zero left to offer. Same with Jones, eternal hope.. same with Keita who barely played half a season all in all for us in about 5 years and is about to walk away for free. Same with Gomez.. and now onto starters! TAA has shown for ever that he simply can’t defend! And he is a RB! Only the amazing energy from our MF has covered his incompetence all these years but now he is badly exposed. When u are taken to the cleaners by a fresh faced £2.5 mil signing from Brighton, twice and have to be replaced, again, by a… 38 yo just to save the team, all in the hope that maybe once or twice a game u will put in a good cross in is inexcusable. It is common knowledge that every opposition Manager plan against us starts with targeting TAA! Everyone knows it and even Klopp now after smirking and berating us all for years started to accept it and not rely on him. That dude has still an incredible ‘market value’ why would we not exploit it together with selling Salah to PGS where the sheik loves him personally and therefore have basically half of our funds needed to rebuild?? TAA is not a starter, certainly as advanced as Liverpool
likes to sit on the field, Salah’s best days are well behind him. Fab cant even safely manage now 10 min on the field to protect Bajcetic, meanwhile we moan that we dont have money ?? why doesnt FSG at least have the decency to come out and tell us all that they will NOT invest any monies while the look to sell the club and therefore this year is written off completely?