Konoplyanka (a tiny bit NSFW, sorry)

[Sheik Yerbouti]

Kono, Konoplyanka,
Not signing my heart's stabbed by a dagger
Oh Kono, Konoplyanka
Bowl headed shitcunt, your boss is a wanker
Oh Oh Kono, you massive meh.

 

[Leo]

Hope we have the option to recall Borini.
A few more injuries and our squad will be down to the bare bones.

 

[Sheik Yerbouti]

On the flip side, players coming back will be like new signings.

 

[gene hughes]

The squad will get really depressed without this boost. I can see tears at Melwood.

 

[Jack D Rips]

So what did we do?
Say 'Go on, we'll be your best friends!'

Did we really just spend 3 days negotiating with a player whos club said they werent going to sell?
Were fucking clown shoes.

Apparently that was the correct way to go about it.

 

[737Max]

Meanwhile on the LFC Facebook page they post a story 9 minutes ago quoting Rodgers is happy with the squad he has. Fucking amateur bellends the lot of them. It's like ok we're not getting Kono so we'll stick up a story saying he's happy with what he's got

 

[gene hughes]

The deal collapsed when Ayre took out a backpack with the lira we got for Souness back in 84. It's not his fault. The owner had mumps and couldn't concentrate.

 

[barrymac20]

But what I don't get is why the owner let us give him a medical it's bull shit.

maybe we did the medical without their permission. Then the owner found out and told us to fuck off. Why the fuck would we be out there if they had no intention of selling. Something had to have occurred to piss them off. Most likely we wouldn't agree to their terns on time....

 

[peterhague]

Genuinely gutted, can see that he wasn't an absolute priority (our back up in those positions is absolutely bollocks, mind you) but first I would've loved to see us sign him, have been a huge fan since he played at Wembley a couple of years ago, and second because this is our 5th failed attempt to sign a player in that attacking position alongside Suarez and Sturridge. Mkhitaryan, Costa, Willian, Salah, and now this.

It's depressing.

 

[737Max]

Meanwhile in a hotel room in Kiev

 

[Red Bird]

Tin hat time.

Did the chav owner primed his friend to prevent us from getting this chap?

 

[Piedro]

If there is one thing that people should take from this, it's that twitter is balls.

Follow Father Woland for all you need to know about life

 

[King Binny]

[article=http://www.theguardian.com/football/2014/feb/01/liverpool-ukraine-yevhen-konoplyanka-dnipro-16m]Liverpool's transfer frustrations intensified on deadline day when they missed out on the £16m signing of the Ukraine international forward Yevhen Konoplyanka.

The 24-year-old was in line to become Brendan Rodgers' only addition of the January window following days of complex negotiations between Anfield officials and the player's club, Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk. Konoplyanka had agreed the terms of his move to the Premier League and members of Liverpool's medical team travelled to Ukraine to help facilitate the deadline day move.

But, despite Liverpool meeting the buy-out clause in Konoplyanka's contract, Dnipro's president, Ihor Kolomoyskyi, refused to sanction the player's release and Rodgers was left empty-handed in his attempts to bolster his team's Champions League pursuit. Liverpool continued to pursue the deal up to the 11pm deadline but Kolomoyskyi, who had been in negotiations with the Anfield club's managing director, Ian Ayre, since Wednesday, would not sign the necessary paperwork.

Kolomoyskyi's stance had prompted Rodgers to concede the deal was "complicated" just hours before the window closed. Oliver Cabrera, owner of Konoplyanka's representatives, OML Sports and Marketing, also said: "We have a very good relationship with the president Kolomoyskyi and he doesn't want to sell the player. Yehven and his father respect that, so a move is very unlikely."

Liverpool were the only club to hold direct discussions with Dnipro over Konoplyanka, who rose to prominence at Euro 2012 and also scored in a stand-out performance against England at Wembley in the 2014 World Cup qualifying campaign. Tottenham Hotspur had made an inquiry but did not follow up their interest.

The Liverpool manager claimed on Friday that he "would be happy to go with what we've got" if a deal for the Ukrainian was not completed but Konoplyanka is the latest in a series of transfer disappointments for the club. Liverpool were unable to land Henrikh Mkhitaryan, Diego Costa and Willian last summer and were gazumped by Chelsea in this transfer window over the Basel winger Mohamed Salah.

Rodgers had wanted only signings who could improve the first team this month, having stated the squad had enough "support players", with Liverpool currently on target for Champions League qualification.

Speaking after the collapse of the Konoplyanka deal, Rodgers said: "It certainly hasn't been because of a lack of work by the football club. There are lots of people who have worked tirelessly to identify and find the right types of players. A lot of those players haven't been able to become available for us.

"Of course, as a manager you would like to have strengthened – but I'm very optimistic with the group of players I still have available here. If we can keep those players fit, and maximise the availability for the rest of the season, we can have a great chance to have a really good finish."[/article]

 

[Molbystwin]

We dont actually need him. Troo fact.

 

[localny]

Seriously lads can we stop all this handbag stuff. We've a good side we didn't need to strengthen in this area and we may even pick him up more cheaply down the road. It's just a pr disappointment which is the best kind - in other words forgotten in a few days and after another great win this weekend it'll be in with the Clint Dempsey fiasco. Hardly season ending. In fact I'll bet he gets injured next week and is out for 6 months.

I'm going back to cloud 9 having beaten Everton 4-0 at Anfield.

Who's coming with me? Too many good things going on with the club right now to focus on this

 

[Gary25]

Whether we needed him or isn't really the issue though. The issue is we've once again missed out on a transfer target, someone the Manager wanted.

People can dress it up whatever way they want but the whole transfer dealings at LFC needs serious examining.

 

[localny]

Whether we needed him or isn't really the issue though. The issue is we've once again missed out on a transfer target, someone the Manager wanted.

People can dress it up whatever way they want but the whole transfer dealings at LFC needs serious examining.

With owners who count pennies, and without CL revenues, it's always going to be this way. Unless you'd rather overpay for everyone like Kenny and Commoli did? If you want to conclude negotiations quickly, you could go that route, but it's half arsed to ignore the reality of our situation.

 

[rurikbird]

Seriously lads can we stop all this handbag stuff. We've a good side we didn't need to strengthen in this area

Yeah, sure. If any of our first-choice front 4 get injured, our best option is Victor Moses. And we have almost no competition among the attacking players, because the current front 4 players are so much better than any of the understudies. You really expect us to compete with Mac City and Chelsea like that?

We needed an attacker much more than we needed a DM.

 

[Whirly]

Yeah, sure. If any of our first-choice front 4 get injured, our best option is Victor Moses. And we have almost no competition among the attacking players, because the current front 4 players are so much better than any of the understudies. You expect us to compete with Mac City and Chelsea like that?

My biggest concern is what happens when Sterling's form drops, as it's inevitably going to. Moses is a decent option, he has shown flashes, but it's very uncertain at best.

 

[Red Mullet]

Yeah, sure. If any of our first-choice front 4 get injured, our best option is Victor Moses. And we have almost no competition among the attacking players, because the current front 4 players are so much better than any of the understudies. You really expect us to compete with Mac City and Chelsea like that?

We needed an attacker much more than we needed a DM.

Wait, any of the first-choice front four? So we've never played without Suarez or Sturridge or Coutinho or Stirling this season and won?

 

[localny]

Yeah, sure. If any of our first-choice front 4 get injured, our best option is Victor Moses. And we have almost no competition among the attacking players, because the current front 4 players are so much better than any of the understudies. You really expect us to compete with Mac City and Chelsea like that?

We needed an attacker much more than we needed a DM.

Right, and this lad wasn't going to make a difference, either way.

For some perspective, Earlier Manchester City's move for the Porto pair Eliaquim Mangala and Fernando broke down over the combined £46m asking price

Arsenal, who had been in negotiations to sign Julian Draxler from Schalke, failed and got some B player on loan from Moscow who's mum lives in gotburg

United flopped in August bug time.

It would have been great to sign 3/4 players, but FSG were never going to sanction it. I accepted this ages ago. It was one player, and that player wouldn't have made a difference either way. So we move on

 

[Farkmaster]

People need to be honest with themselves regarding their consumerism. Oooh, a new player, lets see what he does.

Now, if we end up with some significant injuries, especially to Suarez *knock on wood vigorously*, or we were still in Europe, perhaps its the case that this player would have fit right in and made a difference, but in our current circumstances, I struggle to see how it would be a massive one. They would play about as much as Moses plays. Now Moses has been fairly shit, but were he not shit, he'd have to be really not shit to keep out Suarez, Sterling, Coutinho, or even Sterling on current form. And if he did keep Sterling out, what does that do for his development and ambitions? And what about some of our other youth, who we purchased recently at significant cost precisely with a view to developing their talent to save us money long term?

Don't get me wrong, options are good, but there are positions we don't have any options in right now.

Now, if you know this player and think we've missed some massive opportunity, that's another thing. But I haven't heard anyone say shit about him till a few days ago, and I haven't a fucking clue, because Liverpool is often the only football I watch. If we don't make top 4 I tend to think it will be because we didn't strengthen in other areas, or because of what levels we perform at, rather than it hinging on this. Why can Chelsea wrap things up and we can't? Well, probably for the same reason that I just learned Justin fucking Bieber has an airplane for police to search in the first place.

 

[localny]

Exactly Farky. I would have been more upset spending 16m on a second choice player we didn't really need. Why do we always do this? It's like Noah's ark in 3's? Alberto, Aspas, Allen, Borini - the next purchases have to be slam dunk 25m plus.

This was a bullet dodged and it means we've more dough this summer.

The more I post the happier I am about this!

 

[rurikbird]

My biggest concern is what happens when Sterling's form drops, as it's inevitably going to. Moses is a decent option, he has shown flashes, but it's very uncertain at best.

Well, we will probably go back to 4-3-3 then, provided there are no more injuries in midfield. These problems are solvable, but the lack of depth in the squad really increases the risk of a bad patch happening, which could well cost us the CL spot.

If we do make the CL, we will need a much larger and deeper squad and it would be a smart move to buy some of these players in January so they have more time to bed in and acclimatize here. If we make the CL, we will have to buy a shitload of new players in the summer and will very likely suffer from lack of cohesion in the first half of the season. So this failure to strengthen and cover at least some of the holes in January does damage not only to the remainder of our season, but possibly to the next season as well.

 

[Red Mullet]

Well, we will probably go back to 4-3-3 then, provided there are no more injuries in midfield. These problems are solvable, but the lack of depth in the squad really increases the risk of a bad patch happening, which could well cost us the CL spot.

If we do make the CL, we will need a much larger and deeper squad and it would be a smart move to buy some of these players in January so they have more time to bed in and acclimatize here. If we make the CL, we will have to buy a shitload of new players in the summer and will very likely suffer from lack of cohesion in the first half of the season. So this failure to strengthen and cover at least some of the holes in January does damage not only to the remainder of our season, but possibly to the next season as well.

A lack of depth increases the risk of a bad patch happening, say what?

 

[rurikbird]

Right, and this lad wasn't going to make a difference, either way.

Huh? How would having another quality attacking player (whether it's Salah or Konoplyanka or somebody else) not make a difference?

For some perspective, Earlier Manchester City's move for the Porto pair Eliaquim Mangala and Fernando broke down over the combined £46m asking price

The asking price of £35M for a young and largely unproven CB is a daylight robbery, even for a club like City. £16M for the best Ukrainian player since Shevchenko was a good deal. The Porto example doesn't add any useful perspective to our failure to strengthen. Besides, City already have the best squad in the country. We don't.

Arsenal, who had been in negotiations to sign Julian Draxler from Schalke, failed and got some B player on loan from Moscow who's mum lives in gotburg

United flopped in August bug time.

And then signed Mata a few days ago.

It would have been great to sign 3/4 players, but FSG were never going to sanction it. I accepted this ages ago. It was one player, and that player wouldn't have made a difference either way. So we move on

3-4 in January is unrealistic, but not signing even 1 or 2 is criminal.

 

[Whirly]

Right, and this lad wasn't going to make a difference, either way.

For some perspective, Earlier Manchester City's move for the Porto pair Eliaquim Mangala and Fernando broke down over the combined £46m asking price

Arsenal, who had been in negotiations to sign Julian Draxler from Schalke, failed and got some B player on loan from Moscow who's mum lives in gotburg

United flopped in August bug time.

It would have been great to sign 3/4 players, but FSG were never going to sanction it. I accepted this ages ago. It was one player, and that player wouldn't have made a difference either way. So we move on

Manchester City have significantly more depth than us, and I highly doubt those links were anywhere near as serious as they were made out to be. I don't know if either would make any serious improvement to their first team either, Mangala is not quite polished, and Fernando much the same.

Arsenal were willing to stump up the cash for Draxler, shockingly enough, but Wenger apparently turned down the move. Either way, they've got crazy depth at the same role Draxler would play, it would've done them very little good in the short term.

United spent the entire window chasing the wrong players. Vidal, Marchisio, Fabregas, Thiago, etc etc, they were never going to get any of those players even if they paid market value, which they've shown they're capable of doing in signing a realistic target like Mata.

We're going after realistic targets at reasonable prices, and we badly need the depth.

We never needed to sign 3-4 players, but another attacking option would be very useful considering we really only have two first team wingers, with one being woefully off form and the other being so young. Our MO for the rest of the season is likely going to be to outscore the opposition, and if one of main four attackers takes another injury, we may not be able to paper over the cracks as well as we have been, considering how our MF/Defense has regressed in the last month or so. Sure we could theoretically be okay without another attacking option, but I don't see how we're in a position to say we're better off without a Salah/Konoplyanka.

If we don't get top four this season, the club is going to struggle to get back in at any point in the future. United will invest heavily in the summer to bring in more talent, Arsenal have shown willingness to spend on quality targets as well, and Chelsea/City are going to keep spending. Conveniently,we now have a scapegoat if we miss out, but that isn't going to do us much good long term.

 

[rurikbird]

A lack of depth increases the risk of a bad patch happening, say what?

Of course it does. Whenever a team goes through a bad patch of form, it's often due to injuries to important players. Having more quality and depth in the squad allows you to navigate through injuries better. That's why you need a good squad, not just a "first 11."

 

[Dreambeliever]

We don't need him this window.

We are not going to beat City this year and we are definitely getting top 4.

 

[Whirly]

Exactly Farky. I would have been more upset spending 16m on a second choice player we didn't really need. Why do we always do this? It's like Noah's ark in 3's? Alberto, Aspas, Allen, Borini - the next purchases have to be slam dunk 25m plus.

This was a bullet dodged and it means we've more dough this summer.

The more I post the happier I am about this!

I would only spend 25M on a MF or a Striker to be honest, that sort of money doesn't need to be doled out for any other position, especially for a club of our resources. 10-15M is the sweet spot for CB's and Wingers, with 5-10M being the ideal spend on GK/FB.

How many wingers are out there in the 25M bracket who could be available? Maybe Pedro of Barca, or El Shaarawy, but 25M seems a bit steep on the latter.