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GWT: Champions League - Knockout Stage

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I do believe PSG had their best transfer year in their history.

João Neves
Khvicha Kvaratskhelia
Willian Pacho
Désiré Doué

Wow. All top footballer and young.
 
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Honestly not surprised by the PSG result. They've been playing their best football since the COVID season and they were dominant in the first leg. If anything, they were much closer to opening up a bigger lead in the first half of tonight's game than Liverpool was to scoring.

Well deserved win. Excellent performance. Should have an easier job next round vs Villa and then it's Atleti/RM/Arsenal. Tough road ahead, but if they play like this, they won't be second favorites to anyone.
 
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les Habs said:
He definitely doesn’t suck. Not sure why anyone would have said that. Still, he’s not the best manager in the game either.

He may be building a strong team, but PSG have spent a fortune getting those players and he shoud have a strong team with those players.

Time will tell, but it’s not as though he has an impressive string of results this season. For starters they play in L1 and anything less then a comfortable league win there is underachieving. It sounds as though they were impressive in this tie and they definitely look a good side that is getting better, but there’s still a long way to go.
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OK, I'll bite.

Starting XI from yesterday :
Donna free
Hakimi 68M
Marqui 31M
Pacho 40M
Mendes 38M
Neves 60M
Vitinha 40M
Ruiz 22M
Kvara 70M
Barcola 45M
Dembele 50M

Total : 464M

Starting XI for Liverpool :
Alisson 62M
TAA free
Konate 40M
VVD 85M
Robertson 9M
Gravenberch 40M
MacAllister 42M
Szo 70M
Diaz 53M
Salah 42M
Jota 45M

Total : 488M

I wonder, if Liverpool had been through would you post on and on about their money spending?

Just wondering.


And BTW PSG is unbeaten in L1. It's impressive no matter how you slice it. Only two teams scored at Anfield in this year's CL. Real? Bayer? Nope, Lille and PSG. So L1 might be worth a little look from you sometimes (like Monaco beating Barca earlier for example).

And no, there's no long way to go. PSG is playing some unreal football for two months and that's all we've been saying. Luis Enrique has built a team exactly like he wants to and got rid of the divas like he wanted.

maclean said:
Really? I thought they said before the shootout last night that Donna had won 4/5 (and Allison lost 4/7)
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They said so on french TV, but I have zero proof to back it up.
 
To be fair, any spend has to be considered with how recent. Sure, Liverpool have spent to build that side. But most of the buys were how long ago now? PSG just bought half that side. I think that’s discussion about PSG spending a ton. This is after pumping in all the cash on the past few rosters.

I don’t really care about the spend, but it’s a bit dishonest to suggest that they’re similar when other than the midfield trio, most of Liverpools players were acquired 4 or 5 seasons ago. They’re not really comparable. How much has PSG spent over the last 5? How much has Liverpool? That’s not even getting into wages.
 
was very surprised liverpool lost last night. Good for PSG. And they need to find a way to air these games on TV. I was at the bar they couldn't air the non-CBS Sports Network ones. f***ing
Paramount+ ass.
 
I’m not trying to take away from PSG at all. They’re a great side that is pretty magical to watch when it works. But it’s dishonest to say they’re playing with the same resources as Liverpool are attempting to play with. Liverpool have been smart with money they have. They live within their means. They’re no minnow, so don’t try and twist it. But they’re also not able to just plunk down 100-200 million plus in net spend each window if they want like PSG have. (Not including wages). Other than 19-20, their spend has always dwarfed Liverpools.

Money and spend isn’t why Liverpool lost. But spending more for Liverpool could have helped sure.
 
Chimaera said:
To be fair, any spend has to be considered with how recent. Sure, Liverpool have spent to build that side. But most of the buys were how long ago now? PSG just bought half that side. I think that’s discussion about PSG spending a ton. This is after pumping in all the cash on the past few rosters.

I don’t really care about the spend, but it’s a bit dishonest to suggest that they’re similar when other than the midfield trio, most of Liverpools players were acquired 4 or 5 seasons ago. They’re not really comparable. How much has PSG spent over the last 5? How much has Liverpool? That’s not even getting into wages.
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I think, and it is obvious now, PSG have been one of the top recruiting side in Europe the past 3 seasons. They overhaul their whole team at ridiculously low cost and moved away from their 'diva' era with Mbappé and Neymar out.

If I were to give one valid critic to PSG is how much financially dominant they are in their league and it's not even close. I once had a chat with a PSG supporter (co worker) who was legit angry that PSG only managed to win the league and the cup and not win the CL to me this is quite sad. Imagine being that dominant than just winning all available trophies in your league make you angry. I had to give him some perspective about how PSG used to be in the early 2000s and how grateful they should be about winning and how all other ligue 1 clubs would celebrate like no tomorrow if they had won 'only' the league. I miss the ligue 1 of the past, when every club and matches were not decided in advance. I think parity is good in sports, which is also the reason I switched a lot of my viewing to the premier league. I hate how officiated it is but every game has some parity at least.

Anyway, back on the topic, it's hard to argue about PSG spending what 450M in the past 3 season when you have EPL clubs like Chelsea or Man United spending way more and not being able to be that dominant and even Liverpool have made some terrible signing the past 3 seasons: Nunez is one of the worst purchase in club history for instance. I do not know FSG are thinking and what will come up next season if Salah, VVD, TAA all leave but believe me, if they could spend only 450M and build with it a team like PSG have right now they would be glorified.
 
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Chimaera said:
To be fair, any spend has to be considered with how recent. Sure, Liverpool have spent to build that side. But most of the buys were how long ago now? PSG just bought half that side. I think that’s discussion about PSG spending a ton. This is after pumping in all the cash on the past few rosters.

I don’t really care about the spend, but it’s a bit dishonest to suggest that they’re similar when other than the midfield trio, most of Liverpools players were acquired 4 or 5 seasons ago. They’re not really comparable. How much has PSG spent over the last 5? How much has Liverpool? That’s not even getting into wages.
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You're right, it's even worse. Prices go up and Liverpool spent that much money with deflated prices. If you factor in inflation, Pool has spent much more than PSG on that starting XI.

I think quite clearly the dishonesty is saying Luis Enrique is bound to succeed spending that much when he eliminated a team that spent more on their current starting XI and of course no mention of money in their case.
 
And yes Luis Campos is highly responsible for PSG recruiting smart. He didn't want the divas (that's Qatar for you) and wanted to buy young and world class potential. That's what he did at Monaco and Lille.

There are talks of him leaving (Saudis are offering 200M for his services). That's be a bad blow to PSG IMO.
 
Evilo said:
You're right, it's even worse. Prices go up and Liverpool spent that much money with deflated prices. If you factor in inflation, Pool has spent much more than PSG on that starting XI.

I think quite clearly the dishonesty is saying Luis Enrique is bound to succeed spending that much when he eliminated a team that spent more on their current starting XI and of course no mention of money in their case.
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You can spin it either way. You could easily say Liverpool bought once instead of having to buy four or five times and flog them off (which PSG has had to do).

I know you’re the chief apologist for anything PSG, but just admit they’ve spent more than Liverpool could hope to spend and move on. Nothing wrong with that. I don’t think anyone but John Henry gives a shit about FFP or anything like that.

Edit: it’s still also not giving credit to Enrique. He did a great job building this team. He got it right with obvious help. But having the resources he did definitely did not hurt. There are plenty of clubs who could have spent the same or more and have not been successful
 
I didn't spin it off. I actually pointed to the total hypocrisy of talking money only when it's PSG. When it's quite clear that the current team was bought with smartness and hardly boatloads of money.
But apparently, pointing this out is "being dishonest".

And again, that team was built with 450M which is cheap change in today's football among the richest teams.
I bet you can find at least 4 or 5 starting XI that are more costly (including Liverpool).

Trying to spin it by pointing to the Mbappe or Neymar signings (your point about PSG spending) IS being dishonest since I was responding to a post about Enrique building this team with huge money.
 
Neither team is poor. I think you look at those two teams yesterday and I think 9 PSG players that touched the field were brought in under Enrique (that cost over 400m total) compared to Zero that were brought in by Slot. And bringing on half fit Gakpo that couldn't run instead of Chiesa tells you all you need to know about how Slot thinks of the Italian.

I think my takeaway here is anyone that LFC is bringing in this summer, has to be good enough to have featured in that match. PSG is so good, so intelligent, so skilled and they have work rate. They have it all. Yes the bar for a LFC signing is high, but I do not care if that bar gets even higher. We saw two very strong teams and it was a shame one had to go out. But the one whose manager had a year head start into his team building compared to the other one; his team had much less weaknesses.

This match-up needs to prominently be on Richard Hughes mind when he is recruiting this summer
 
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450 is cheap and it’s not cheap. When Slot hasn’t spent a dime, it’s a lot.

I just think the whole money argument against Liverpool is dumb. They’ve spent sure. But comparably to other clubs in their range? They have not. They’ve bought relatively wisely and many of their top of the market buys are still here playing big minutes with significant impact. Darwin aside it’s been pretty good.
 
Chimaera said:
450 is cheap and it’s not cheap. When Slot hasn’t spent a dime, it’s a lot.

I just think the whole money argument against Liverpool is dumb. They’ve spent sure. But comparably to other clubs in their range? They have not. They’ve bought relatively wisely and many of their top of the market buys are still here playing big minutes with significant impact. Darwin aside it’s been pretty good.
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I still remember LFC being interested in João Neves and Pacho last summer. IMO they were more important than Kvaratshkelia was against LFC and would have filled huge needs on the team.

I was very dissapointed last summer by the lack of recruitement and it was even more so apparent the past few weeks when the LFC players are being overplayed and diping in form. Not to mention that our top recruitement last summer were Mamardashvili (who is loaned out and not better than Alisson) and Chiesa (who is not even playing). Overall that was an horrible year from FSG/ Hughes or whoever is in charge of recruitement at LFC. This is still pretty much still a Klopp team. I am very nervous about what is coming next summer if the 3 out of contract player move away. Slot got my trust, the recruitement team, not so much.
 
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I think it’s harder to sell players where there’s not clear game time. Both players likely would have been somewhat part time, and young players that good aren’t going to do a 60/40. The club is also not going to get in a bidding war.

This summer they will get players but getting starters has to be the goal. That might mean letting some others walk
 
Chimaera said:
I think it’s harder to sell players where there’s not clear game time. Both players likely would have been somewhat part time, and young players that good aren’t going to do a 60/40. The club is also not going to get in a bidding war.

This summer they will get players but getting starters has to be the goal. That might mean letting some others walk
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I am going to be very tired of hearing that excuse again when it comes up this summer. We haven’t bought a defender since 2025. It’s getting ridiculous. We need two starters at LB and ST (maybe 3 if they don’t think Conor Bradley can stay healthy) and we need at least another midfielder, winger, and center defender. And that doesn’t even account for if Virgil, Konate or Salah goes. Every other team has to over come selling people on playing time. It’s hard, but that’s what the front office’s job is.

Honestly I don’t even think we will get a striker. I think we might get a winger or AM and try to fudge it but there are not exactly any no doubter 9s out there
 
Chimaera said:
450 is cheap and it’s not cheap. When Slot hasn’t spent a dime, it’s a lot.

I just think the whole money argument against Liverpool is dumb. They’ve spent sure. But comparably to other clubs in their range? They have not. They’ve bought relatively wisely and many of their top of the market buys are still here playing big minutes with significant impact. Darwin aside it’s been pretty good.
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And I think someone saying Luis Enrique should dominate because he has a bunch of 20 year old beating Liverpool because of the money argument (which as I proved is very weak given the starting XI) is making a dumb argument. Over and over again in fact.

BTW, the two years before signing Messi, PSG reached the final and the semis. Went out in the first KO game the two years with him and reached the semis and for now the QF without him.

I'd hardly pin that down on Messi but rather the Qatar need for shiny new toys in spite of any ounce of logic. Good thing they saw the light under Enrique and Campos last summer.
 
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