Liverpool FC Premier League Champions 24/25 - Talk /Gossip/Rumours

Under FSG's ownership Liverpool have been very good at identifying talented young players.

In January 2014, Chelsea outbid Liverpool to sign 21 year old Mo Salah from FC Basel but we got him eventually.

Alisson was identified before he moved to Europe but the club decided against signing him because he wouldn't have qualified for a work permit at the time.

Raphinha was scouted while he was playing in Brazil and he was linked with strong interest from Liverpool before he moved to Rennes and later to Leeds. In 2022 he was reported to be the club's replacement for Mane until Barcelona declared their interest.

Waiting until the player is on the cusp of being ready to play for the first team is more costly and carries the degree of risk in losing out. Developing a partnership with another club could improve the development prospects of talented young players, developing a multi-club ownership model would also help acquiring the talented players sooner.

That's beautifully written. Heartfelt.

Shows the strength of of the premier league when two teams just above relegation breeze in to the Europa league final

It's more that CL teams no longer drop into the Europa, so the quality is far poorer in the new format

It's not relegation and promotion though… a quarter of all teams used to drop down in the middle of the competition, whereas only 1 team gets to rise up at the end of the competition. Think it's quite fair enough that the team that wins the secondary trophy gets to gain access to the primary trophy for the following year — it's a reward. You beat this level, so you get to try the next level.

It is pretty nuts that two team fearing relegation all season, are now going to contest a final for CL spot.

It was the Intertoto Cup that English teams didn't take seriously. The incentive of the tournament was that the finalists qualified for the UEFA Cup.

In the mid 1990s UEFA added the competition and the English clubs refused to participate because they felt it would disrupt their pre-season schedule. As a compromise UEFA changed the entry requirements from automatic entry based upon league position to an application basis. At the end of the season any club from the top division of a European domestic league could apply to enter the competition, England had a quota of three places in the competition but never filled them.

The Premier League teams took the piss with the competition by fielding under age teams and in the case of Wimbledon fielding players that weren't even registered with the club. In response UEFA penalised the league by reducing the number of allocated slots for the UEFA Cup hoping that it would make teams take the Intertoto competition more seriously. The following season only one English team applied to enter the tournament, Crystal Palace and they had been relegated.

The competiton was abolished by Platini when he was UEFA President as part of his vision for the new format for the UEFA competitions. The Intertoto Cup, Cup Winners Cup and UEFA Cup became the Europa League, the winner of which would qualify for the Champions League.

Thanks for the summary!

Won't be able to watch until later, appreciate it 🙂

I'm happy with 82pts 🤣

But I agree. Hopefully some fringe players get some minutes to prepare for next season, or to show they deserve to be here next season

Absolutely lovely read by Ali there, Becker had just scored his header when I got the call about my own dad hours from passing, I resonate with all he said. What a man and have the highest regard for him and how he performed during that period.

Yeah, that's definitely fair enough

I've said before, but I'm choosing to be excited by the obvious deficiencies in our squad. There's the potential to improve a title winning team, by quite margin. Not often you can say that

Obviously it remains to be seen if we do, but I'm hopeful

https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/37799156

Anyone else remember when Ryan Gravenberch's brother used to play in England?

Nicknamed Gravenbeast 🤣

What are the quality of the links ?

He looks a terrific player and I’ve really enjoyed watching him and Villa playing this season. He’d be very costly though and I’d be very surprised if Villa were willing to sell.

I'd have Gakpo ahead of Kvaratskhelia as he delivers consistently. Kvaratskhelia is not a consistent goal threat nor does he make up for it by creating chances. He is a tricky speed merchant though so he can always be a potential threat.

Diaz extension coming ..?

https://www.skysports.com/football/news/11669/13360039/luis-diaz-liverpool-forward-to-open-contract-extension-talks-at-end-of-season