Manchester United and Chelsea battle over Michael Edwards

[Robertd0803]

Is that really true? Granted I was not a member then, but I remember my United supporting friends being annoyed that Liverpool got Van Djik. The ridicule was mainly based on the price tag, which seemed excessive back then.

Mane was heavily linked with us, wasn't he? I was under the impression that a lot of fans were positive, but Mkhitaryan was even more favored. Ahhh, what could have been...

Yeah a lot of the Van Dijk ridicule was because of Liverpools carry on tapping him up and the (at the time) crazy high fee. Think most people knew that he was going to be a major success.

Mane was heavily linked with us under LVG yeah, and think the two schools of thought generally were excited at his potential or ridiculing the idea because he only played for Southampton and wasnt good enough for us.

 

[mu4c_20le]

So what did Michael Guru Edwards do then? he was the one who negotiated the transfers?

Bet he just followed Hunter and Fallows around running FM on his laptop

 

[Adnan]

So what did Michael Guru Edwards do then? he was the one who negotiated the transfers?

His job was to negotiate transfers and become the bridge between the head coach, scouts and the board. And negotiating transfers and contracts was his job but he didn't identify players to recruit because that was the job of the recruitment department which was led by Dave Fallows and Barry Hunter. That's their field and speciality.

There was a time at Liverpool when some Liverpool fans had started a petition to remove Edwards from his role due to a lack of experience. And that was brought on by the poor way he had handled the Van Dijk deal reportedly, where Soton ended up reporting Liverpool to the FA. And the deal broke down and wasn't resurrected until a future transfer window and some public apologies.

Without Klopp the narrative around Edwards would've been very different right now because before Klopp's arrival, Edwards and his team was a laughing stock among many of their fans.

A structural setup on the football side of the club is very simple. And Liverpool brought in a head coach who had a defined way of playing the game and he took on a hands on approach to both coaching and helping himself by aligning the recruitment process towards helping him succeed on the pitch. This is something that Mourinho and Solskjaer didn't do. So it's not about having contacts, but actually signing players who fit with the way the head coach wants to build and evolve the team going forward on the pitch. So basically they started working together which was a big change from Brendan Rodgers who was said to be constantly at loggerheads with the then transfer committee.

So Liverpool and Michael Edwards went from signing Ricky Lambert, Lallana, Lovren, Markovic etc to signing Mane, Salah, Van Dijk, Robertson. The difference was Klopp had arrived and he had made his mark both on the playing field and the structural side of the football club.

 

[mav_9me]

Like my sister in law, a grown adult with three children, who every year in the Secret Santa group asks for "a surprise". Okay then. Here's a cordless angle grinder. Now feck off.

 

[BerryBerryShrew]

We should probably be targeting whoever is in charge of transfers at Napoli. Signing Kvaradona, the class Korean CB, and recognising that Anguissa had talent when everyone thought he was a Championship level footballer is seriously impressive going.

 

[tenpoless]

His job was to negotiate transfers and become the bridge between the head coach, scouts and the board. And negotiating transfers and contracts was his job but he didn't identify players to recruit because that was the job of the recruitment department which was led by Dave Fallows and Barry Hunter. That's their field and speciality.

There was a time at Liverpool when some Liverpool fans had started a petition to remove Edwards from his role due to a lack of experience. And that was brought on by the poor way he had handled the Van Dijk deal reportedly, where Soton ended up reporting Liverpool to the FA. And the deal broke down and wasn't resurrected until a future transfer window and some public apologies.

Without Klopp the narrative around Edwards would've been very different right now because before Klopp's arrival, Edwards and his team was a laughing stock among many of their fans.

A structural setup on the football side of the club is very simple. And Liverpool brought in a head coach who had a defined way of playing the game and he took on a hands on approach to both coaching and helping himself by aligning the recruitment process towards helping him succeed on the pitch. This is something that Mourinho and Solskjaer didn't do. So it's not about having contacts, but actually signing players who fit with the way the head coach wants to build and evolve the team going forward on the pitch. So basically they started working together which was a big change from Brendan Rodgers who was said to be constantly at loggerheads with the then transfer committee.

So Liverpool and Michael Edwards went from signing Ricky Lambert, Lallana, Lovren, Markovic etc to signing Mane, Salah, Van Dijk, Robertson. The difference was Klopp had arrived and he had made his mark both on the playing field and the structural side of the football club.

Thanks. So it was Klopp who made the difference as I expected. So I dont get the excitement caused by this rumour.

 

[croadyman]

Thanks. So it was Klopp who made the difference as I expected. So I dont get the excitement caused by this rumour.

So in other words waste of time

 

[Irrational.]

The thing about "obvious signings" is that they look a lot more obvious in hindsight when they've worked out and a lot less obvious when they haven't.

Nobody should know that better than us, who have seen god knows how many supposedly obvious buys flop over the last few years. We didn't squander those millions by chasing unknowns. Getting the obvious buys right would go a long way.

And that's without getting into their more bargain buys over the years.

Exactly. Depay was an “obvious signing” for us, whilst Liverpool went for Firmino and Mane.

 

[Adnan]

Thanks. So it was Klopp who made the difference as I expected. So I dont get the excitement caused by this rumour.

I'd be happy if Edwards joined United, but at Liverpool prior to Klopp's arrival, there was a disconnect between the first team manager and Liverpool's football department. Brendan Rodgers took on the Liverpool job on the condition that he wanted the final say on all transfers and didn't want to work with a Sporting director. So the transfer committee was born, and when Suarez was sold, the funds from his sale were used on Rickie Lambert, Ballotelli, Moreno and Lazar Markovic.

And when Klopp arrived he not only worked on the playing side of the club he also worked on Liverpool's structure, where he first took charge of the incomings in the summer of 2016, and the majority of signings were either associated with the German Bundesliga or the Austrian Bundesliga. And then by the following summer, Liverpool's recruitment setup had grasped Klopp's blueprint and were prepared to follow the methods and a failing football structure started to excel and thrive because everyone was singing from the same hymn sheet.

It's why I'm a firm believer in allowing the footballing department to select the head coach, and having the head coach work directly with them without boardroom interference.

 

[RedDevil@84]

So is he a scout or negotiator?

 

[Chief123]

Why is it everyone time we’re linked with someone who’s actually got proven pedigree they get shot down as being nothing special at their job?

If all the signings Edwards made were “obvious” signings, then I’m happy to have him at Utd making “obvious“ signings because we’ve been obviously getting it wrong for far too long.

Weren’t Sanchez, Di Maria, Sancho, AWB, Maguire, Schneiderlin, Telles, Lindelof all obvious signings when we signed them?

 

[ShinjiNinja26]

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That’s the end of that then.

 

[davidmichael]

https://www.skysports.com/share/12729986

Wasn’t Edwards role at Liverpool as head of negotiations or something to that effect ? He wasn’t the one in charge of scouting or recruitment or even identifying players for Liverpool and simply handled the negotiations ? If so then he’s no big loss as it’s someone who identifies players that we need rather than handling negotiations.

 

[LordSpud]

Back to the VdS thread!!

 

[Judas]

He's shit anyway.

 

[ZolaWasMagic]

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That’s the end of that then.

I think we will get him in the summer. This Jan window will be run by the hirings coming in over the next few weeks [not including Laurence Stewart] alongside Boehly again; and Edwards will take a role in the summer.

 

[WeePat]

Isn’t this the clown pushing De Jong to Chelsea for all of last summer?

To be fair, he wasn’t ‘pushing’ FDJ to Chelsea. The only thing he kept insisting was that in the eventuality that he leaves Barca, then Chelsea was his preferred destination, but he used to always stress that staying was by far his number one choice.

And anyway, yeah he’s kind of a Chelsea ITK so whatever info he has is coming from Chelsea and unlikely to be from anyone close to Edwards himself.