You should have seen the size of the one that got away… Newcastle United transfer targets (and other clubs)

I have to laugh about the coverage of Moises Caicedo and his transfer saga.

On Friday it was a coup for Liverpool and wasn’t their CEO Billy Hogan so clever for having worked quietly in the background to land the deal.

Clippety announced the offer being accepted at his pre-game press conference. It’s a bit of a shame that no one had bothered to check with the player where he wanted to go. Chelsea with a £115 million offer and instead London bound.

The lessons to be learned from this are many and varied.

 

The club stance of total radio silence on Newcastle United transfer targets until the deal is completely done, may be something that Liverpool might want to consider.

Walking away from deals where the selling club, agent or player is possibly playing the buying club, is potentially a skill that Liverpool may need to build on.

It’s a bit embarrassing for Liverpool, that after their announcement, Caicedo came out and said that he would prefer a move to Chelsea.

Checking the level of buy in from the player involved is essential.

Newcastle United  have been linked to a number of players since the takeover where nothing has come of this interest. How much of this is related to a lack of buy in or commitment, is something we will never know, but we played against at least two former Newcastle United transfer targets on Saturday evening and I think we’re doing just fine without them.

 

Newcastle United have often been accused of amateurism since the takeover, but the departure of most of Liverpool’s ageing midfield, can surely not have come as a great surprise. Perhaps their fans need to be asking why this has been allowed to happen without replacements being lined up.

I don’t see similar accusations flying around in the media about Liverpool’s lack of professionalism.

As for Chelsea and their seemingly endless ability to avoid the constraints of FFP, the media remain strangely silent on this subject.

Treating Chelsea like a fantasy football team hasn’t worked that well until now but they say that if you throw enough money at a problem you can eventually find a solution. Only time will tell.

Having watched the first episode of the Amazon documentary I found it an interesting insight into how NUFC wants itself to be perceived by the outside world: Ambitious but working within a fairly strict financial regime which may or may not be linked to FFP.

However, it’s an interesting contrast to the ‘facts’ that a certain prominent Liverpool employee was bandying about earlier this year.

 

Interestingly in fact, on Friday he conceded that his previous comments from 2016, when he said he could never envisage spending £100m on a player, are no longer valid. Well I suppose he had yo given the fact that he’d just announced the Caicedo offer…

“Everything changed. Do I like it? No. Did I realise I was wrong? Yes, definitely. That’s the way it goes, it will not go the other way again. Saudi Arabia will not help with that – I’m not blaming anybody, it’s just another market with a lot of money. We as a club have to try to make sure that, for us, with our resources, we get the best possible team together.”

Liverpool, having spent some of their most successful years being financed by a gambling company, were themselves responsible for pushing transfer fees and wages: they obviously have a short and selective collective memory.

 

They frequently cry wolf about clubs with unlimited financial backing pushing up the cost of player transfers. Yet they are happy to enter into a bidding war with the most free spending club in EPL history: Chelsea.

Meanwhile Todd Boehly is rumoured to be setting up a direct debit with Brighton.

Who says you can’t make money out of running a football club!