Transfer Window Or Groundhog Day?

There are few things will earn journalists clicks on their website quite as much as talking about Liverpool Football Club and potential transfers. There are scores of people out there that are desperate to read about the Reds, either because they support the club or they actively don’t and are simply rage-reading. Either way, if you talk about Liverpool and transfers then there’s a good chance that you’re going to drive traffic to your site even when you’ve got nothing to say. It’s little wonder, then, that a Google search for the term ‘Liverpool transfer news’ throws up more than one hundred and eight million hits. The problem is, there’s often very little to actually say, such is the extent to which the Reds now keep their business under wraps until the last moment. No one knew that Trent Alexander-Arnold was renewing his contract until he did, for example.

Gone are the days when news from Liverpool leaked as much as the Titanic after it had struck the iceberg. This, of course, leaves a vacuum that is ready to be filled. Instead of actual news, all that newspapers, bloggers and try-hards can do is fill their pages with gossip and pure speculation. They will write about any link that they can think of, regardless of how spurious it is. The reason they do so is because there is an audience out there ready to lap it up, desperate to believe anything and everything that they’ve read online and then being disappointed with the club when they transfer doesn’t happen. For sensible supporters, it is madness that makes us want to tear our hair out (if we have any left) and soon those that wish to criticise the club begin to grow in number. Every transfer window it is the same, begging the question: will we ever learn?

Windows Are Open Until They Shut

It seems like such a simplistic thing to say, but there are definitely a fair few people that need to hear it: transfer windows remain open until they ‘slam shut’. Consequently, Michael Edwards, Jürgen Klopp and Liverpool’s transfer team can sell and buy players right up until the moment that the option is no longer available to them. To put it another way, there’s no point in judging a transfer window until it is over. Right now, I’d be the first to admit that I’d be slightly underwhelmed if our only transfer business ended up being the arrival of Ibrahima Konaté. That is especially true when you consider that we’ve allowed Gini Wijnaldum to leave and not replaced his minutes. Yet throwing my toys out of the pram before our possible transfer activity is concluded would make me look slightly silly if we ended up adding another couple of names to the list in time for the rest of the Premier League campaign. Not that some people care about looking silly, of course.

There are plenty out there that will happily use a lack of transfer activity as a stick with which to beat Fenway Sports Group, determined as they are to attack the owners at every possible opportunity. If we end up signing a midfielder and a forward in the coming weeks, it will be ‘too late’ as far as they’re concerned, whilst some will declare it to be ‘not enough’. They will point to the likely signings of Jack Grealish and Harry Kane by Manchester City as ‘proof’ that we’re not doing enough, in spite of the fact that Kane is injury prone and wouldn’t suit our style of play and £100 million is far too rich for anyone’s blood; unless you’re backed by the financial power of an entire country, of course. There is no point in getting stressed about a lack of transfers until the window has closed, especially when you consider that there is no room in our squad for any more players as things stand, to say nothing of the trouble of home grown players. Patience is always a virtue.

No One Knows Anything

Local journalists are very good at what they do. Whether it be Paul Joyce, James Pierce or Melissa Reddy, they unquestionably have contacts within the club and can be trusted with what they report. The problem is, they’re also reliable journalists that won’t just print any old nonsense that they get told by the man on the street. Consequently, the information that they’re provided with by their sources within the club will only be what those at Liverpool want to get into the public domain. Let’s not forget that all of them spent last summer saying that any links with Thiago Alcantara were false and that we had no plans to sign him. They were also the ones banging the drum that said that we’d withdrawn all interest in Virgil van Dijk and that we were going to give Danny Ward a go in goal rather than sign Alisson Becker. What they say isn’t gospel and will doubtless be being used by the club to get messages into the pubic and to other clubs that they want to get out there.

The people that talk all the time on social media are absolute blag merchants. All they want to do is get retweets and clicks, so they’ll tell you what you want to hear. The only people that can truly be trusted when it comes to Liverpool’s transfer moves are Jürgen Klopp and Michael Edwards and I’m fairly certain that the two of them are keeping their cards close to their chests. Every transfer window the same nonsense happens, with blaggers claiming inside information that they don’t have and the #FSGOUT crew wetting their pants over a lack of action that might or might not mean anything. Let’s not forget that we didn’t sign a single player of note the summer before we went on to win the league, so it’s not as if the manager desperately needs signings to win stuff. He’s got the basis of an excellent team at his disposal, with other players like Harvey Elliott and Kostas Tsimikas more than able deputies. I think we’ll strengthen, but I’ll keep my powder dry until I know for sure.

2 Comments
  1. August 2, 2021
  2. August 2, 2021

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