Liverpool are the ‘horny bull’, not Newcastle. And their inability to pull Alexander Isak could be offset by a potential position change at centre-half.
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No need to ask
Dave LFC, that’s a lovely story and perfectly sums up the foolishness of Liverpool’s pursuit of Isak. Newcastle aren’t the young bull. Liverpool are. Lets just ignore that your horny bull analogy bears no resemblance to the point you’re trying to make.
They’ve fallen for a very pretty Isak, convinced themselves they were meant to be together and pursued him without success. They could have bought as many forwards as they wanted to but chose to chase the impossible one.
To put it in the same vein as your dating history, let’s set the scene. Newcastle and Isak are dating. They’ve even made a legal commitment to each other so they’re married in fact. Young lothario Liverpool spies Isak from across the smokey bar and thinks “I fancy a bit of that”. Somewhere a silky sax starts to play. Liverpool, noticing that Newcastle has nipped to the toilets, picks up his pint and slimes over, inquiring what it would take to make him leave that horrible geordie guy. “Well you can start by buying me a gin and tonic…”. Bongos now join the sultry saxophone eliciting a romantic jazz aura. “Sorry”, said the young bull, “I can stretch to a gin but you’ll have to get your own tonic”. Cue Sade’s Smooth Operator.
Bottom line is Newcastle have an asking price, Liverpool failed to meet it and then skulked off to convince themselves that it’s them, not us.
SC, Belfast (But I want iiiiiiiit. Daaaady, I waaaaant iiiiiiiit)
Hi, City fan here. The analogy between Isak/Newcastle and getting an out of league girl from Dave LFC was actually fun and entertaining. Though he seems to have missed a point that If I am already in a relationship with this 10/10 girl, then I would definitely try my best to discourage her from fawning over the class star boy/top athlete. Oh, and he may have won the top athlete in the university but I kicked his ass in annual (albeit smaller)competition final. And if she does want to leave, I will tell her to wait one year and get enamored with the top boys of the Spanish University in the next town. Losing her to my rival in my university is rubbing salt on my face.
While I do agree about city letting go the players who want to leave(eg Alvarez) , I am not so sure whether this applies to their most important asset. I fully expect City to tell Real and Barcelona to go f**k themselves when they inevitably try to get Erling Haaland through getting in his head or something. Hence, Newcastle are hesitant. Still nowadays it’s good to see that it’s City, Chelsea and Newcastle against the red cartel, Instead of just us vs the red boys.
Victor MCFC
I want for Isak to have his wish before he pollute the dressing room this season…
Michael Whea Mardeh, Newcastle Fan, from Liberia West Africa
Double standards
Can’t wait to read the comments from famously level headed RHT/TS and other mailboxers when they read about a Newcastle fan wishing for Anfield to be burnt down because Liverpool have had the temerity to attempt to do what all clubs do and sign a player contracted to another club. If anyone wants to explain how this transfer saga differs from any other, I’m all ears.
Liverpool fans booed (lifelong Liverpool fan who’d preached about his dream to captain the club) TAA on one occasion for running down his contract whilst stringing the club and fans along about signing a new one. In the mailbox world they’re ‘disgusting’ and ‘ridiculous’ and should ‘hang their heads in shame’.
It’ll be interesting to read the backlash from non-Liverpool fans about Chris C from DC.
James Outram
Football food chains
The big teams in a certain league is not peculiar to England. Every league has dominant teams. Germany has one, Spain has two, even Italy and Holland has one before they are dethroned. English football has six but the league is currently share by two teams.
Real Madrid is the apex on the top of food chains, Liverpool has lost a homegrown player to them, and functional clubs must know their level in the food chains and known how to take advantage of the level above and under its position.
The bottom line is no football fans want to lose their best players especially to a rival team, it is painful but that is the setting.
(13 days to the real football, and VAR criticising Holliday will be over)
Mudashiru Ibadan
Grav error
I have seen a lot of comments suggesting we stop wasting money on attackers and buy defenders instead. It reminds of the time we bought Cody Gakpo and people were like ‘why are you buying attackers when it’s midfielders you need’ but things did work out eventually, didn’t it?
Besides Slot doesn’t really seem to fancy CBs that much. One of his favorite things to do last season was removing a CB usually Konate for a fullback or midfielders with varying degrees of success. The game away to Forrest was a good example. At the time I remember thinking it was a bad idea given the physical nature of our opponents and our height disadvantage but alas, the goal came literally seconds after the change.
Gravenberch was a revelation last season in that deeper role but I must say I was more impressed by the few occasions he was forced to play even deeper alongside VVD. The only weakness the kid has is he can’t score, having managed none last season. Given the questions about how we fit Wirtz into the team, there is a tantalizing wildcard option where Flo takes the 10 role, Szobo plays deeper alongside Macca and Ryan partners VVD in defense especially against the weaker teams. What could possibly go wrong?
I still think we’ll buy a center back, we can’t afford to tempt fate like the last time which ended up with an abnormal center back crisis.
Also am sorry but Nunez will almost certainly not ‘explode’ this season. Get rid.
Philip Correa
Great expectations
As pre-season clicks though, and transfers are completed, I figured its time to look forward. So, here’s my guess on what a selection of clubs’ fans will be expecting or be happy with next season. Completely finger in the air stuff. To be clear, not a prediction on actual finishing places.
City – #1 – how can their fans and indeed their manager and owner bear the thought of lower expectations than top? Of course there could be 130 knocks on the door, but no one seriously expects (just hopes) this to happen once the season has begun.
Liverpool – #2 – while they should expect to be competitive again, I think they’d be happy with second and keeping it tight at the top. Reality might prove different, of course. But Champions to 3rd or below seems unconscionable. Who knows though; a Dutch manager after an overachieving first season then stumbles? It’s happened before…
Arsenal – #2 – yes, also second. While reality again may be different, they’ve now added their biggest missing part and *surely* they can’t be happy with a backwards step. Could Arteta and his process survive 3rd? Can they actually take a step forward? I know what I think.
Chelsea – #4 – complete guesswork of course but I would think they’d be happy with fourth. Would the owners? As ever who knows. But I don’t think they are ready for a title challenge yet, and sitting comfortable outside the top three but above the rest is a nice place to aim.
Newcastle – #6 – going to be a big season for them. More pressure, risk of losing vital players especially if the fail. If they’re sensible, they should be happy with 6th, considering rivals.
Villa – #6 – similar to Newcastle, they need to maintain their upward journey, and retain players on the back of that. Otherwise the clutching claws below will be dragging them back.
United – #6 – I think, while no one seriously expects anything above 6th after last year’s calamity, anything below that should probably see a new manager. Expectations may have been lowered but let’s not forget this side finished 3rd just a couple of years ago. Amorim has to do better than Ten Hag’s worst or INEOS have a lot of pie on their face. Also, no Europe to worry about.
Spurs – #7 – if we’re being realistic, considering the changes there and how last season panned out, plus the other teams involved being more developed, 7th is a reasonable ambition.
That’s 8 teams into 7 places. 3 in the top 2. At least one manager is going to be feeling the heat come Christmas. And this doesn’t even include teams like Forest (albeit a club that might struggle to recapture last season), Brighton and this year’s surprise package.
This is going to be an interesting season. Anyone want to get their excuses in early?
Badwolf
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