General Premier League Thread 2023-24 Mod Note in op 27/6/23 And 21/05/24

The Brighton of today was not the Brighton of back then. Before Burn moved to Newcastle, there was an 11 point gap between the clubs and Newcastle were in the relegation zone.

After Burn went to Newcastle, Brighton went on a run of 1 win, 1 draw & 6 losses in 8 games. In the same run of games, Newcastle hit a good run of form and after 32 games played, both Newcastle and Brighton sat level in 12th and 13th on 37 points.

When Chris Wood joined Newcastle, Burnley were 5 points clear of Newcastle. The ended up being relegated, after being beaten by Newcastle on the last day of the season.

He was signed for a vastly inflated fee and he was approaching the last year of his contract.

And personally I think that Liverpool would rather have Fabinho playing for them this season rather than the unproven Endo, who nobody had heard of before 2 weeks ago. I'd also rather have Henderson than have €14m in this current transfer climate (partly caused by Newcastle) as that will barely sign you a 15 year old at this rate when guys with 10 PL sub appearances are are going for close to €50m. Those departures were unexpected and threw a spanner in the works for Liverpool's summer recruitment. Gone was the need to sign a CB and possibly a CM and instead the need to sign a DM first and the one more after that. It took 5 weeks to rectify.

The EPL sold their souls many years ago, even in modern times the floating of Manchester United in the NYSE years ago opened up money to them not previously available, and continued through good old Roman's time at Chelsea, the City sportswashing project and now to PIF. Nothing new, but it is getting more brash and brazen. It's not ruining the game now though, it has indirectly ruined many of the European Leagues over the last 25 years, with even the big leagues like Serie A, LA Liga and the Bundesliga trailing financially in the wake of EPLs smallest clubs like Bournemouth, Burnley and Forest. Probably only Real, PSG, and maybe Bayern can compete with the EPL teams for any given player.

I don't like what the Saudis are doing, but it's not much different to what the EPL teams have been doing with the rest of Europe for years, only the motivation is somewhat different.

MacAllister and Szoboszlai were signed 4 weeks before Fabinho & Henderson were sold. Keita, Ox, Milner had already left and that's who they replaced. So those 2 purchases are in no way related to Saudi transfers.

Endo & Gravenberch replaced the 2 guys who were sold. I'd take a guess that Endo will be moved on again next summer again, it's purely a stopgap. Gravenberch I have reservations about but he is young and can be coached into a higher level hopefully.

I reckon that the plan (on July 1st) was to have Lavia come in and rotate with Fabinho as the DM. Learn from the master while not having too much pressure on the kid's shoulders with having to play every game. Have MacAllister & Jones as the LCM and then Szoboszlai & Hendo as the RCM with Thiago as a floater across all positions to deal with injuries etc. I think Fabinho could have had a decent season with legs in front of him. He had a decent finish to last season with the system change. Henderson on reduced minutes in a Milner type role is better too. They are not required to start every game on tired legs and so become better assets. Liverpool could then look to bring in a LCB as a succession planning player for VVD. Rotate this year with a view to take it on long term. 4 major signings, and the rebuild is complete for this year. Maybe an other if it suited.

Until then Fabinho was sold and so was Hendo after a few weeks of dragged out transfers and various different blockages. They have completed their transfers on July 31st. There was now a desperation for Liverpool to buy a DM as the 2 already at the club had left. Lavia didn't / couldn't come in as the only DM so Endo, the stopgap, was signed. It took 5 weeks to sort it out and resulted in no CB being signed. 5 weeks of dithering really. It was very poorly handled by Liverpool, who have no permanent DOF and there are rumours that the CEO Billy Hogan stepped in because if how poorly the recruitment had been handled this summer (the MacAllister transfer had been pre-arranged before Julian Ward left the club and Schmake joined).

And in hindsight, the money wasn't great, considering how the fees have gone this summer. Realistically, what is €14m gonna get you in the market for a midfielder? Nothing viable for a title challenge. I'd also rather still have Fabinho than have Endo. The club could have refused to sell alright but Klopp is a people's person, he is loyal to his players and respects how they feel. If a player asks to go because they have been tempted by whatever reason, he lets them leave. Sometimes to the detriment of the squad but it's a contributing factor to why so many players work tirelessly for him.