Author Topic: The Men in Suits behind the scenes  (Read 705183 times)

Offline PhaseOfPlay

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Re: Michael Edwards set to become Liverpool's sporting director
« Reply #160 on: May 29, 2018, 01:45:03 am »
There is nothing to suggest that the actual setup is any different than what it was under Rodgers. Now we have the personnel to make it work. Klopp is happy to work with Edwards because he doesn't second guess his own abilities and has one of the best qualities in a leader, which is to surround themselves with people that know much more about different domains than they do. It is often said within leadership seminars and such that one has to surround themselves with people smarter than themselves. Klopp does that and Rodgers struggled to at Liverpool.

Apart from all the things that suggest that everything is different than it was under Brendan. Such as Ian Ayre not having any input, for a start. And there not being two transfer lists - one for the manager and one for the scouts - over which compromises and deals are made
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Re: Michael Edwards set to become Liverpool's sporting director
« Reply #161 on: May 29, 2018, 01:47:35 am »
There is nothing to suggest that the actual setup is any different than what it was under Rodgers. Now we have the personnel to make it work. Klopp is happy to work with Edwards because he doesn't second guess his own abilities and has one of the best qualities in a leader, which is to surround themselves with people that know much more about different domains than they do. It is often said within leadership seminars and such that one has to surround themselves with people smarter than themselves. Klopp does that and Rodgers struggled to at Liverpool.

there is, and surely the biggest difference is having a manager who knows how to and wants to work with a sporting director.

Offline PhaseOfPlay

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Re: Michael Edwards set to become Liverpool's sporting director
« Reply #162 on: May 29, 2018, 01:50:58 am »
I like Brendan, and still follow him at Celtic, but the Benteke signing was a desperate last throw of the dice. In fairness, he may claim he was trying to be more flexible with tactics but that signing was a far cry from the original blueprint he sold at his unveiling in 2012.

You're both wrong, though. Benteke was perfectly in keeping with Rodgers original model of play - a mobile strong centre forward who could finish off the possession phases in a number of different ways. The problem for Rodgers was that Benteke was physically shot after his injury and had none of his previous pace.

From Swansea, through Benteke, via the possibility of Dempsey, to Dembele and Edouard up at Celtic, the positional model of play for Rodgers is pretty standard. It only changed with Suarez and Sturridge because he adapted to what was working and made it work more. But as with all managers, he'll always go back to his idealized vision - 4-2-3-1, defensive possession, pressure on the ball, strong target man who can move, three dribblers/link men behind, a runner and a technical controller in front of a ball-playing back four shielding a ball-playing goalkeeper. If he'd only surrendered the transfers to the "committee" and worked with what they gave him (apart from Balotelli), he'd have been better off in 2014/15. Although Barrett has said that his list and the scouts list were vastly different. And therein lay the problem - a problem we don't have now, because the scouts list is also Klopp's list.
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Offline jooneyisdagod

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Re: Michael Edwards set to become Liverpool's sporting director
« Reply #163 on: May 29, 2018, 02:15:49 am »
Apart from all the things that suggest that everything is different than it was under Brendan. Such as Ian Ayre not having any input, for a start. And there not being two transfer lists - one for the manager and one for the scouts - over which compromises and deals are made

Replace Ian Ayre with Mike Gordon now. Yes, Mike Gordon who smoothed it out with Southampton's board and get VVD in without the involvement of either Edwards or Klopp. What's really the difference there? Ultimately the money guys need to have an input as to whether or not the deal is doable financially. Clearly, Gordon provides that input now.

What else is different? No meetings or committees? Well, I'm willing to bet that they have the same meetings now except it is not called a Transfer Committee meeting and is instead a catch up in the meeting room with the recruitment team to discuss targets. In one of Melissa Reddy's recent articles, she mentions how Klopp and Edwards have a great relationship based on an open door policy that they both operate where they feel comfortable just sitting down and having a chat whenever possible about targets. That comes from being comfortable and self-assured in their own abilities. The self-assurance is beginning to be seen in the team also. That's clearly coming from Klopp. With Rodgers, there was insecurity. Which is why the same set up looked like a dog's breakfast.
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Offline jooneyisdagod

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Re: Michael Edwards set to become Liverpool's sporting director
« Reply #164 on: May 29, 2018, 02:16:43 am »
there is, and surely the biggest difference is having a manager who knows how to and wants to work with a sporting director.

That's my point. The club hasn't changed its structure as such but brought in a manager that as you put it knows how to and wants to work with a sporting director.
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Re: Michael Edwards set to become Liverpool's sporting director
« Reply #165 on: May 29, 2018, 02:25:49 am »
That's my point. The club hasn't changed its structure as such but brought in a manager that as you put it knows how to and wants to work with a sporting director.

They have though, Rodgers wouldn't work with an actual sporting director would he? Did I imagine that, wan't that where the whole mad transfer committee come from - some compromise? 

But yes, ultimately you are right, it comes down to people.  It does help that Jürgen Klopp is very comfortable working in this way. But he has always been very involved with transfers, but his role has evolved hugely, from being at Mainz spending countless hours on the phone convincing players to join his club despite the low wages, to going on scouting missions to Poland on the insistance of his bosses at Dortmund. To where he's at how, gladly taking a back seat to the work of scouts and director he clearly trusts implicitly, but still having the final say, and of course putting the work in regards talking to and meeting the players they want.  But one common thread throughout - he always worked with a sporting director.

I don't know what Rodgers issues where with working with a sporting director, but I would guess it was just suspicion from not having done it before. More teams are doing it now though, so I guess a lot of coaches will have to adapt in the future.

Offline PhaseOfPlay

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Re: Michael Edwards set to become Liverpool's sporting director
« Reply #166 on: May 29, 2018, 02:54:36 am »
Replace Ian Ayre with Mike Gordon now. Yes, Mike Gordon who smoothed it out with Southampton's board and get VVD in without the involvement of either Edwards or Klopp. What's really the difference there? Ultimately the money guys need to have an input as to whether or not the deal is doable financially. Clearly, Gordon provides that input now.

What else is different? No meetings or committees? Well, I'm willing to bet that they have the same meetings now except it is not called a Transfer Committee meeting and is instead a catch up in the meeting room with the recruitment team to discuss targets. In one of Melissa Reddy's recent articles, she mentions how Klopp and Edwards have a great relationship based on an open door policy that they both operate where they feel comfortable just sitting down and having a chat whenever possible about targets. That comes from being comfortable and self-assured in their own abilities. The self-assurance is beginning to be seen in the team also. That's clearly coming from Klopp. With Rodgers, there was insecurity. Which is why the same set up looked like a dog's breakfast.

Okay - let's go over it again.

When Rodgers was the manager, he had his targets, and the others had their targets, and then others had theirs as well. They weren't on the same page, but they all had equal say. Hence, Firmino for the scouts and Benteke for Brendan.

Now, the scouts and Edwards all meet, they do their work, then Edwards presents the list to Klopp, Klopp says yay or nay, and then they get back down to business sorting the transfer end.

Those are two different structures. The club said so themselves when they "promoted" Edwards to "Sporting Director", a NEW ROLE they created for him:

Quote
Michael Edwards has today been appointed as Liverpool Football Club's sporting director. The 37-year-old is being promoted into a newly-created role as part of a restructuring of the football operations. Edwards will now lead the club’s overall football development, including player identification, acquisitions, sales and retention, as well as taking primary responsibility for reviewing and implementing improvements to the training ground environment and infrastructure.

Now if that's not an indication of a change of policy, then I don't know what to tell you. But it's different. The model is not the same as it was.
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Offline rowan_d

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Re: Michael Edwards set to become Liverpool's sporting director
« Reply #167 on: May 29, 2018, 07:50:34 am »
Aside from whatever fuckwit greenlit the brief boasting about Van Dijk wanting to join us, we seem very well-oiled in the recruitment department these days. Even the Keita deal which didn't happen exactly as we'd have liked, we got it done when Leipzig refused to sell and the fear was that we'd be gazzumped while waiting for the release clause to activate.

I kinda like how I have no idea who Edwards is or what he looks like.
« Last Edit: May 29, 2018, 07:52:32 am by rowan_d »

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Re: Michael Edwards set to become Liverpool's sporting director
« Reply #168 on: May 29, 2018, 08:34:36 am »
The massive difference for me is the whole recruitment strategy. Gone are the days of stockpiling young talent, buying 3 or 4 players in their late teens or early 20's. Players that may be good enough to allow you to compete at the highest level in two or three seasons time.

For me we were too risk averse with the Suarez money being the key example. That has changed under Klopp. We now spend bigger money on individual players, slightly older players but crucially ones like Mane, Salah, VVD and now Fabinho who have the best years ahead of them but crucially improve us massively in the here and now.

Hopefully it means our best players don't leave because they aren't constantly being asked to wait around in the hope that the likes of an Origi, Can, Markovic, Moreno et al might turn out to be good enough to allow us to compete.

The crux of the issue for me is that it has taken so long for us to actually start acting like the 7th or 8th richest club on the planet. The reality is that we are in a great place to the moment but it has come about not because we are football visionaries and that Edwards is some genius but because we have gone back to the basics and brought in a World class manager who has the charisma and and track record to attract top players who allow us to compete in the here and now. Gone are the days of getting Gerrard to cold call prospective recruits.

« Last Edit: May 29, 2018, 10:20:31 am by Al 555 »
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Offline El Lobo

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Re: Michael Edwards set to become Liverpool's sporting director
« Reply #169 on: May 29, 2018, 08:35:48 am »
To be fair I don't even think there was much wrong with the players we were signing with the previous system, just the actual process was bonkers.
If he's being asked to head the ball too frequently - which isn't exactly his specialty - it could affect his ear and cause an infection. Especially if the ball hits him on the ear directly.

Offline Alan B'Stard

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Re: Michael Edwards set to become Liverpool's sporting director
« Reply #170 on: May 29, 2018, 08:40:09 am »
You're both wrong, though. Benteke was perfectly in keeping with Rodgers original model of play - a mobile strong centre forward who could finish off the possession phases in a number of different ways. The problem for Rodgers was that Benteke was physically shot after his injury and had none of his previous pace.

From Swansea, through Benteke, via the possibility of Dempsey, to Dembele and Edouard up at Celtic, the positional model of play for Rodgers is pretty standard. It only changed with Suarez and Sturridge because he adapted to what was working and made it work more. But as with all managers, he'll always go back to his idealized vision - 4-2-3-1, defensive possession, pressure on the ball, strong target man who can move, three dribblers/link men behind, a runner and a technical controller in front of a ball-playing back four shielding a ball-playing goalkeeper. If he'd only surrendered the transfers to the "committee" and worked with what they gave him (apart from Balotelli), he'd have been better off in 2014/15. Although Barrett has said that his list and the scouts list were vastly different. And therein lay the problem - a problem we don't have now, because the scouts list is also Klopp's list.
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Re: Michael Edwards set to become Liverpool's sporting director
« Reply #171 on: May 29, 2018, 08:52:05 am »
To be fair I don't even think there was much wrong with the players we were signing with the previous system, just the actual process was bonkers.

We sold Suarez for £65m and brought in 5 attackers in Balotelli, Origi, Lambert, Markovic and Lallana for £75m. Initially they all struggled with only Lallana turning out to be a good buy. Compare that to the Coutinho money were we have gone for quality over quantity. Since we sold Coutinho we have brought in VVD, Keita and now Fabinho.
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Re: Michael Edwards set to become Liverpool's sporting director
« Reply #172 on: May 29, 2018, 09:16:23 am »
you want to have a discussion about these people and you can't even be bothered to find out their names? Fantastic.

Yeah, I'm disgusted by that. It's Achtenburg ffs.
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Re: Michael Edwards set to become Liverpool's sporting director
« Reply #173 on: May 29, 2018, 09:22:13 am »
You're both wrong, though. Benteke was perfectly in keeping with Rodgers original model of play - a mobile strong centre forward who could finish off the possession phases in a number of different ways. The problem for Rodgers was that Benteke was physically shot after his injury and had none of his previous pace.

From Swansea, through Benteke, via the possibility of Dempsey, to Dembele and Edouard up at Celtic, the positional model of play for Rodgers is pretty standard. It only changed with Suarez and Sturridge because he adapted to what was working and made it work more. But as with all managers, he'll always go back to his idealized vision - 4-2-3-1, defensive possession, pressure on the ball, strong target man who can move, three dribblers/link men behind, a runner and a technical controller in front of a ball-playing back four shielding a ball-playing goalkeeper. If he'd only surrendered the transfers to the "committee" and worked with what they gave him (apart from Balotelli), he'd have been better off in 2014/15. Although Barrett has said that his list and the scouts list were vastly different. And therein lay the problem - a problem we don't have now, because the scouts list is also Klopp's list.
A ball playing goalkeeper? Why did he sell Reina and replaced him with Mignolet then?

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Re: Michael Edwards set to become Liverpool's sporting director
« Reply #174 on: May 29, 2018, 09:24:11 am »
The massive difference for me is the whole recruitment strategy. Gone are the days of stockpiling young talent, buying 3 or 4 players in their late teens or early 20's. Players that may be good enough to allow you to compete at the highest level in two or three seasons time.

For me we were too risk averse with the Suarez money being the key example. That has changed under Klopp. We know spend bigger money on individual players, slightly older players but crucially ones like Mane, Salah, VVD and now Fabinho who have the best years ahead of them but crucially improve us massively in the here and now.

Hopefully it means out best players don't leave because they aren't constantly being asked to wait around in the hope that the likes of an Origi, Can, Markovic, Moreno et al might turn out to be good enough to allow us to compete.

The crux of the issue for me is that it has taken so long for us to actually start acting like the 7th or 8th richest club on the planet. The reality is that we are in a great place to the moment but it has come about not because we are football visionaries and that Edwards is some genius but because we have gone back to the basics and brought in a World class manager who has the charisma and and track record to attract top players who allow us to compete in the here and now. Gone are the days of getting Gerrard to cold call prospective recruits.


Yes Al, well said.

Offline El Lobo

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Re: Michael Edwards set to become Liverpool's sporting director
« Reply #175 on: May 29, 2018, 09:27:54 am »
We sold Suarez for £65m and brought in 5 attackers in Balotelli, Origi, Lambert, Markovic and Lallana for £75m. Initially they all struggled with only Lallana turning out to be a good buy. Compare that to the Coutinho money were we have gone for quality over quantity. Since we sold Coutinho we have brought in VVD, Keita and now Fabinho.

A lot of them didn't turn out to be good buys, but again I think that was more down to the process. Aspas and Alberto were both shit buys but clearly both are good players.
If he's being asked to head the ball too frequently - which isn't exactly his specialty - it could affect his ear and cause an infection. Especially if the ball hits him on the ear directly.

Offline xbugawugax

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Re: Michael Edwards set to become Liverpool's sporting director
« Reply #176 on: May 29, 2018, 09:40:33 am »
I like Brendan, and still follow him at Celtic, but the Benteke signing was a desperate last throw of the dice. In fairness, he may claim he was trying to be more flexible with tactics but that signing was a far cry from the original blueprint he sold at his unveiling in 2012.

eh. benteke was part of his blueprint. If you followed him from his swansea days, he always plays with a targetman. Only difference was it was Danny Graham at swansea and he tried it with Benteke here.

The front 3 which got us so so close was just a chance that he took due to the personnel available to him. Fair play to Rodgers, he got us playing some brilliant stuff that season.

http://www.empireofthekop.com/2017/06/08/fsg-demand-explanation-from-michael-edwards-for-embarrassing-van-dijk-saga/

manage to dig out this article. heh.

Brilliant start to the transfer season, to get a deal wrapped up so quickly. No haggling over fees, wages, bonus and monitoring for weeks and losing out on a target.

Offline jooneyisdagod

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Re: Michael Edwards set to become Liverpool's sporting director
« Reply #177 on: May 29, 2018, 09:48:03 am »
Okay - let's go over it again.

When Rodgers was the manager, he had his targets, and the others had their targets, and then others had theirs as well. They weren't on the same page, but they all had equal say. Hence, Firmino for the scouts and Benteke for Brendan.

Now, the scouts and Edwards all meet, they do their work, then Edwards presents the list to Klopp, Klopp says yay or nay, and then they get back down to business sorting the transfer end.

Those are two different structures. The club said so themselves when they "promoted" Edwards to "Sporting Director", a NEW ROLE they created for him:

Now if that's not an indication of a change of policy, then I don't know what to tell you. But it's different. The model is not the same as it was.

Not exactly. Under Brendan, we had Edwards and the recruitment team on the scouting side. The original idea was to bring in a Sporting Director with Edwards earmarked for the role but that was shelved when Brendan refused to play ball and instead the "committee" was created, which was Edwards and the recruitment team (represented by Dave Fallows from memory), Rodgers and Ayre as the money guy to work out the finances. The idea of it was that Rodgers would say that he needed a striker and the recruitment team (Edwards and Fallows) would find a list, and Brendan could pick the ones he liked out of that. Brendan, of course, didn't like the recommendations of Edwards and Fallows very often and therefore we ended up with a scenario where a Firmino would get the okay from Brendan in exchange for Benteke being okayed by Edwards and Fallows. Ayre seemingly had little input in player ID and only came in at a later stage when negotiations were required and that's a whole different story.

Now, we have Edwards given the authority of being a sporting director since Klopp has no issues with working with one and he finds a list of players that suits Klopp's requirements. They sit together and identify a couple that might be the best fit and Edwards starts negotiating with input from the financial guys. On the odd occasion where it is a really massive deal (VVD), Mike Gordon steps in directly and negotiates it himself.

The key here is the difference in the attitude of the manager to working with a recruitment team. I mean, how many players did Brendan even recommend from outside the British leagues? I remember the embarrassing stories of Steven Gerrard having to send text messages to players asking if they might be interested in playing for Rodgers while in the most recent case of Fabinho, we've beaten a couple of big clubs to his signing because by all accounts he spoke to Bobby and to Klopp, and thought "I like Klopp" and this is where I want to play. VvD is a similar scenario, Keita is similar and hopefully Fekir will be next. It's not that Rodgers was a bad person to talk to but it's clear he never trusted his colleagues and as a result could never sell his visions to anyone he didn't trust their ability as players and they didn't trust his ability as a manager.

Moreover, this probably led to a scenario where they were constantly negotiating internally within the TC because Rodgers didn't trust the recruitment team's recommendations before actually engaging in the real transfer talk with agents and the like. This was probably why we "monitored" players for ages before ultimately losing out on the deal as we didn't move quickly enough. The difference now is night and day where we decide to sign a player and suddenly he is leaning in Melwood wearing Red. Of course some of the processes have been streamlined but they've been streamlined because the head of the footballing side at the club is willing to work with other personnel without insecurity. You can't talk process without addressing the elephant in the room, which is that one of the key component of the decision making process had certain demands, which were putting us in that scenario in the first place.
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Offline wige

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Re: Michael Edwards set to become Liverpool's sporting director
« Reply #178 on: May 29, 2018, 10:00:05 am »
The massive difference for me is the whole recruitment strategy. Gone are the days of stockpiling young talent, buying 3 or 4 players in their late teens or early 20's. Players that may be good enough to allow you to compete at the highest level in two or three seasons time.

For me we were too risk averse with the Suarez money being the key example. That has changed under Klopp. We know spend bigger money on individual players, slightly older players but crucially ones like Mane, Salah, VVD and now Fabinho who have the best years ahead of them but crucially improve us massively in the here and now.

Hopefully it means out best players don't leave because they aren't constantly being asked to wait around in the hope that the likes of an Origi, Can, Markovic, Moreno et al might turn out to be good enough to allow us to compete.

The crux of the issue for me is that it has taken so long for us to actually start acting like the 7th or 8th richest club on the planet. The reality is that we are in a great place to the moment but it has come about not because we are football visionaries and that Edwards is some genius but because we have gone back to the basics and brought in a World class manager who has the charisma and and track record to attract top players who allow us to compete in the here and now. Gone are the days of getting Gerrard to cold call prospective recruits.



Can't be dismissed that it's coincided with us delivering back to back Champions League qualification, and a Champions League final appearance. That also being the third final of Klopp's reign.

Point is, you can be the 7th or 8th richest, but quality, driven, hungry players wanna play for teams that can win. We're in a position where they see us as a realistic proposition.

Don't think it can be underestimated how good the job has been that Klopp's done. Developing what he had, recruiting people that next to Noone on here was advocating and playing a style of football that has me wondering how I'm gonna cope without it for the next 3 months.

Offline Charlie Adams fried egg

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Re: Michael Edwards set to become Liverpool's sporting director
« Reply #179 on: May 29, 2018, 10:04:54 am »
You're both wrong, though. Benteke was perfectly in keeping with Rodgers original model of play - a mobile strong centre forward who could finish off the possession phases in a number of different ways. The problem for Rodgers was that Benteke was physically shot after his injury and had none of his previous pace.

From Swansea, through Benteke, via the possibility of Dempsey, to Dembele and Edouard up at Celtic, the positional model of play for Rodgers is pretty standard. It only changed with Suarez and Sturridge because he adapted to what was working and made it work more. But as with all managers, he'll always go back to his idealized vision - 4-2-3-1, defensive possession, pressure on the ball, strong target man who can move, three dribblers/link men behind, a runner and a technical controller in front of a ball-playing back four shielding a ball-playing goalkeeper. If he'd only surrendered the transfers to the "committee" and worked with what they gave him (apart from Balotelli), he'd have been better off in 2014/15. Although Barrett has said that his list and the scouts list were vastly different. And therein lay the problem - a problem we don't have now, because the scouts list is also Klopp's list.

This illustrates one of the issues that I had with that whole set up.
Where was the process where Rodgers says what he wants and why, and he's then challenged on it? Because that process in itself can save money, time and prevent expensive mistakes.
I really struggle with the concept that a club can chuck £30m  on a flawed assumption - we were very lucky to get our money back on that one.
Maybe that's one of the things that did for Ayre, because if there's 2 factions not working well together then you'd expect the senior guy to be knocking some heads together.

Offline Charlie Adams fried egg

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Re: Michael Edwards set to become Liverpool's sporting director
« Reply #180 on: May 29, 2018, 10:10:48 am »
The massive difference for me is the whole recruitment strategy. Gone are the days of stockpiling young talent, buying 3 or 4 players in their late teens or early 20's. Players that may be good enough to allow you to compete at the highest level in two or three seasons time.

For me we were too risk averse with the Suarez money being the key example. That has changed under Klopp. We know spend bigger money on individual players, slightly older players but crucially ones like Mane, Salah, VVD and now Fabinho who have the best years ahead of them but crucially improve us massively in the here and now.

Hopefully it means out best players don't leave because they aren't constantly being asked to wait around in the hope that the likes of an Origi, Can, Markovic, Moreno et al might turn out to be good enough to allow us to compete.

The crux of the issue for me is that it has taken so long for us to actually start acting like the 7th or 8th richest club on the planet. The reality is that we are in a great place to the moment but it has come about not because we are football visionaries and that Edwards is some genius but because we have gone back to the basics and brought in a World class manager who has the charisma and and track record to attract top players who allow us to compete in the here and now. Gone are the days of getting Gerrard to cold call prospective recruits.
Agree with a lot of this, but this willingness to go slightly older I think will help us. Not only as you say with less waiting around, but also the fact that because they are coming to us older their first contract with us is covering their peak years. Obviously its not a cast iron guarantee that they will stay, but it's a step in the right direction. Also the fact that we have Klopp, have made good signings previously, have raised our profile with on the pitch success, means that we can now compete for the top 24/25 year old talent.

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Re: Michael Edwards set to become Liverpool's sporting director
« Reply #181 on: May 29, 2018, 10:36:28 am »
The first time in my lifetime that there is complete unity at the club from top to bottom, Klopp and Edwards have really made a great team.

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Re: Michael Edwards set to become Liverpool's sporting director
« Reply #182 on: May 29, 2018, 10:40:22 am »
I kinda like how I have no idea who Edwards is or what he looks like.
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Re: Michael Edwards set to become Liverpool's sporting director
« Reply #183 on: May 29, 2018, 10:41:22 am »
This illustrates one of the issues that I had with that whole set up.
Where was the process where Rodgers says what he wants and why, and he's then challenged on it? Because that process in itself can save money, time and prevent expensive mistakes.
I really struggle with the concept that a club can chuck £30m  on a flawed assumption - we were very lucky to get our money back on that one.
Maybe that's one of the things that did for Ayre, because if there's 2 factions not working well together then you'd expect the senior guy to be knocking some heads together.
You're right - it needed someone higher up the chain to have a quiet word with Rodgers. After the 2nd place, John Henry recognised that Rodgers felt empowered to enter a power game with the transfer committee and JH took the decision that it was best to indulge him. It was a bad call, if understandable.

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Re: Michael Edwards set to become Liverpool's sporting director
« Reply #184 on: May 29, 2018, 10:42:54 am »
"This is the ideal male body. You may not like it, but this is what peak performance looks like."



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Re: Michael Edwards set to become Liverpool's sporting director
« Reply #185 on: May 29, 2018, 11:04:07 am »
Needs a better tailor or learn how to wear a jacket properly.  ::)

It looks like an unstructured sports jacket that's the trend these days. It give a more business casual look. Get the with the trend. Our Micheal is a pioneer in signing players, fashion and anything else that he damn well pleases.
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Re: Michael Edwards set to become Liverpool's sporting director
« Reply #186 on: May 29, 2018, 11:05:55 am »
A ball playing goalkeeper? Why did he sell Reina and replaced him with Mignolet then?

A) He didn't sell Reina, Reina went on loan

B) Rodgers wanted Vorm. He got Mignolet.
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Re: Michael Edwards set to become Liverpool's sporting director
« Reply #187 on: May 29, 2018, 11:20:32 am »
You can't underestimate Edwards' role in this as Klopp simply doesn't have time to watch European football and study players. The key is Klopp trusting Edwards as evidenced by how glad Jurgen initially was that Edwards accepted the promotion, he clearly rates Edwards' football acumen which is something their succesful relationship couldn't work without. Right now there don't seem to be much qualitative difference between Klopp's relationship with Zorc or Edwards.

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Re: Michael Edwards set to become Liverpool's sporting director
« Reply #188 on: May 29, 2018, 11:29:15 am »
To be fair I don't even think there was much wrong with the players we were signing with the previous system, just the actual process was bonkers.

From what I recall back then, there were litterally two lists of players. The committee list and the Brendan list. The committee list tended to be younger, foreign, under the radar emerging talent. And Brendan’s list was of PL players, British players, or players with Vhampionship experience. The comittee targets reflected a response to the poor decisions made buying aged premier league players under Roy and then Kenny (Joe Cole, Chalrlie Adams). Rodgers seemed to have a taste for players that had performed well against us (Bogdan, Benteke) or who played under him in the past, or who played for Southampton.

The process today is much different. Manager, management and scouts seem to be on the same page. And ther actually is a page provided by Klopp to be on. Breandan went back to the drawing board a few times.
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Re: Michael Edwards set to become Liverpool's sporting director
« Reply #189 on: May 29, 2018, 11:54:47 am »
From what I recall back then, there were litterally two lists of players. The committee list and the Brendan list. The committee list tended to be younger, foreign, under the radar emerging talent. And Brendan’s list was of PL players, British players, or players with Vhampionship experience. The comittee targets reflected a response to the poor decisions made buying aged premier league players under Roy and then Kenny (Joe Cole, Chalrlie Adams). Rodgers seemed to have a taste for players that had performed well against us (Bogdan, Benteke) or who played under him in the past, or who played for Southampton.

The process today is much different. Manager, management and scouts seem to be on the same page. And ther actually is a page provided by Klopp to be on. Breandan went back to the drawing board a few times.

Depends who you believe, you tend to see the 'shit' buys on Rodgers list and the 'good' buys on the committees. Which I'm sure isn't true.

But yeah the process was absolutely insane, I cant even begin to understand how that was signed off in the first place. Or that we didn't bin it after the very first time we signed someone who the manager just didn't fancy.
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Re: Michael Edwards set to become Liverpool's sporting director
« Reply #190 on: May 29, 2018, 12:10:24 pm »
whatever we're doing right now seems to be working and long may it continue

a good recruitment team + excellent management is only going to yield fantastic results no matter what business you're in. We're in the business of creating a successful football team and we can't let up at any point now. This is the time to go all in.....love the start to this transfer window and hopefully by the end of it we'll be ready.

Next 2 seasons are massive for this current set up.
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Re: Michael Edwards set to become Liverpool's sporting director
« Reply #191 on: May 29, 2018, 12:14:14 pm »
Depends who you believe, you tend to see the 'shit' buys on Rodgers list and the 'good' buys on the committees. Which I'm sure isn't true.

But yeah the process was absolutely insane, I cant even begin to understand how that was signed off in the first place. Or that we didn't bin it after the very first time we signed someone who the manager just didn't fancy.

Ballotelli seems to be equally shared by both. :)

The craziest thing was getting players in that Rodgers didn’t want to work with and seemed to go straight into the doghouse. 
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Re: Michael Edwards set to become Liverpool's sporting director
« Reply #192 on: May 29, 2018, 12:15:22 pm »
Ballotelli seems to be equally shared by both. :)

The craziest thing was getting players in that Rodgers didn’t want to work with and seemed to go straight into the doghouse.

You would think both sides would have come out and said "It wasn't me!" :D
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Re: Michael Edwards set to become Liverpool's sporting director
« Reply #193 on: May 29, 2018, 12:23:18 pm »
You would think both sides would have come out and said "It wasn't me!" :D

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Re: Michael Edwards set to become Liverpool's sporting director
« Reply #194 on: May 29, 2018, 12:27:17 pm »
A ball playing goalkeeper? Why did he sell Reina and replaced him with Mignolet then?

That wasn't his call.

Rodgers wanted Michel Vorm from Swansea, the club gave him Mignolet.

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Re: Michael Edwards set to become Liverpool's sporting director
« Reply #195 on: May 29, 2018, 02:40:30 pm »
Vorm isn't exactly Ederson, regardless

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Re: Michael Edwards set to become Liverpool's sporting director
« Reply #196 on: May 29, 2018, 02:54:29 pm »
I'd say yesterday was a good day for laptops and air conditioning......

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Re: Michael Edwards set to become Liverpool's sporting director
« Reply #197 on: June 7, 2018, 10:55:02 pm »
We've come a long way from Comolli, haven't we?
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Re: Michael Edwards set to become Liverpool's sporting director
« Reply #198 on: June 7, 2018, 10:57:55 pm »
We've come a long way from Comolli, haven't we?

Definitely.

Good job so far. If we keep up the current levels for scouting, analytics and business transactions I see no reason to doubt that a certain trophy will come after almost a third of a century.

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Re: Michael Edwards set to become Liverpool's sporting director
« Reply #199 on: June 7, 2018, 11:01:31 pm »
and for those who called for a big name... look at monchi at roma, sold salah for peanuts.

 Also the guy who was at Leicester and then failed at everton.