Manchester United and Chelsea battle over Michael Edwards

charlenefan

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They all went from being good (to very good) players to being world class, or top 10 in the world. It's hard to talk down those deals.
LVG wanted Mane
Pep wanted VVD

Well done to Liverpool for convincing the players to join them but no they weren't players plucked from obscurity who have turned into WC players
 

Bastian

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LVG wanted Mane
Pep wanted VVD

Well done to Liverpool for convincing the players to join them but no they weren't players plucked from obscurity who have turned into WC players
I think Liverpool wanted Virgil for quite a long time before actually buying him, so they laid the groundwork. Likely also with Mane, given Southampton was their feeder club. LVG wanted everyone, like Wenger, it seems. As for Salah, you acknowledge that was an inspired transfer? We could say the same with Alisson. If we're talking outrageous value for money, Robertson comes to mind as well.
 

Chairman Steve

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I’m not sure whether his work at Liverpool is a little overstated because Klopp is a genius manager.

Don’t forget he was involved in their transfers when they were buying Balotelli, Benteke, Markovic and Lovren. Even with Klopp, they still bought Minamino and Naby Keita… the latter who if Liverpool weren’t so successful, would have a lot of scrutiny on and be deemed a sizeable flop for the money spent.
 
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Adnan

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If Edwards is brought in then he would be head of recruitment with Murtough as the director overseeing the whole football operations. He wouldn't be replacing him. The way I see it is the Glazers are sick of wasting money on players, there's pressure coming from them and also Richard Arnold who doesn't want to repeat Woodward's mistakes.

Interesting that we're also interested in that Brentford guy. Brentford are a club that rely heavily on analytics and United just recently appointed Dominic Jordan as the head of data science. I reckon there will be more changes coming. Our whole scouting department is going through a transition.
Edwards won't be coming and in the same piece by Kajumba and Mokbel, they Say that Edwards wants to take a break before jumping into another longterm job.

Lee Dykes at Brentford is someone I've mentioned on here months back as someone we should consider bringing to the club as a replacement for Bout and Lawlor. He's the current director of recruitment at Brentford and works closely with the club's data analytics department. He's only 36 years old, and if I'm not mistaken he's also from Manchester and attended Salford University.
 

Adnan

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I think Liverpool wanted Virgil for quite a long time before actually buying him, so they laid the groundwork. Likely also with Mane, given Southampton was their feeder club. LVG wanted everyone, like Wenger, it seems. As for Salah, you acknowledge that was an inspired transfer? We could say the same with Alisson. If we're talking outrageous value for money, Robertson comes to mind as well.
Van Dijk was wanted by Rodgers but was vetoed by Edwards and the transfer committee according to Duncan Castles. Liverpool's data analytics department also didn't believe Sadio Mane was goog enough and it was Klopp who over-ruled them due to him following the player for 4 years according to the BBC.
 

Bastian

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Van Dijk was wanted by Rodgers but was vetoed by Edwards and the transfer committee according to Duncan Castles. Liverpool's data analytics department also didn't believe Sadio Mane was goog enough and it was Klopp who over-ruled them due to him following the player for 4 years according to the BBC.
What? That's incredible. I knew it was the other way around with Salah, but what about Robertson and Alisson?

Now, that's valid criticism.
 

charlenefan

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I think Liverpool wanted Virgil for quite a long time before actually buying him, so they laid the groundwork. Likely also with Mane, given Southampton was their feeder club. LVG wanted everyone, like Wenger, it seems. As for Salah, you acknowledge that was an inspired transfer? We could say the same with Alisson. If we're talking outrageous value for money, Robertson comes to mind as well.
You obviously want to give Liverpool undue credit including paying just short of a record fee for a GK in Alisson

I'll give them that Salah turned out better than expected and Robertson (though he wasn't mentioned in the OP which is what I was responding to)
 

Tom Van Persie

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Edwards won't be coming and in the same piece by Kajumba and Mokbel, they Say that Edwards wants to take a break before jumping into another longterm job.

Lee Dykes at Brentford is someone I've mentioned on here months back as someone we should consider bringing to the club as a replacement for Bout and Lawlor. He's the current director of recruitment at Brentford and works closely with the club's data analytics department. He's only 36 years old, and if I'm not mistaken he's also from Manchester and attended Salford University.
Yeah I know mate I'm just saying that he wouldn't be replacing Murtough if he did come.

Dykes sounds like he would be an excellent addition.
 

Bastian

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You obviously want to give Liverpool undue credit including paying just short of a record fee for a GK in Alisson

I'll give them that Salah turned out better than expected and Robertson (though he wasn't mentioned in the OP which is what I was responding to)
Well, Adnan has just added value to your point here. I was under the impression that it was all Edwards and the recruitment team. Turns out, it wasn't. But those deals, even the most pricey ones, are still great deals. You could easily argue all of those players doubled their value within a couple of years of signing (in some cases much much more than that). There's a difference in buying a very good defender from a non-top club for 75m who turns out the best in the world, and buying a good defender from a non-top club for 80m who probably loses half his value within that same time frame.

I'm not wishing for someone who is going to buy the next Mbappe for 5m, that would be great and all, but if we can have the competency of spending big money on players who actually justify those prices then we have completely turned a corner as we haven't done that since SAF retired.
 

Adnan

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What? That's incredible. I knew it was the other way around with Salah, but what about Robertson and Alisson?

Now, that's valid criticism.
I've posted all the references in the forum. Brendan Rodgers actually spoke about how he wanted Van Dijk from Celtic but was turned down. But he also made big mistakes and his unwillingness to work with the football department was a big problem.

Not sure about Robertson or Alisson but Klopp has been a big influence on changing the fortunes at Liverpool or else the likes of Edwards was gonna be hounded out by the gullible Liverpool fans who wanted him out.
 

Paxi

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This is comical to be honest. Apart from Andy Robertson, (@golden_blunder already did it) whom did he unearth?

We wanted Mane and we should have signed Salah without question - anyone could tell you that. We also wanted VVD.

Our problem is that we’re are very haphazard in our approach and have been for years in terms of transfers.
 

Adnan

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Yeah I know mate I'm just saying that he wouldn't be replacing Murtough if he did come.

Dykes sounds like he would be an excellent addition.
Lee Dykes is the one we should try and poach from Brentford, mate. For a 36 year old, he's already amassed alot of experience in multiple departments on the football side, both at the scouting and data analytics level, and I believe he's a mancunian too, which might help us lure him away from Brentford.
 

Adnan

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@Bastian Below is the hit piece from Duncan Castles from 2014, where he ravages both Rodgers and Michael Edwards.


Duncan Castles: "When Rodgers, a scout or an agent suggested Liverpool sign a particular player, Edwards would have the player's numbers run through the Graham model. If the computer said no, the deal was off."

"When Red Bull Salzburg were looking for a buyer for Sadio Mane in the summer, Liverpool were one of the clubs approached. Graham's analysis indicated the Senegal international wasn't good enough, so Mane ended up at Southampton instead (paid for with a fraction of the money Rodgers channelled to the South Coast club for Adam Lallana, Dejan Lovren and Lambert)."
 

R'hllor

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When LvG wanted Mane, this whole place was laughing and mocking him for it.
 

Flying high

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So pleased that we're looking into the possibility of getting in someone who might be able to start looking at potential new transfers.

Exciting times.
 

Bastian

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@Bastian Below is the hit piece from Duncan Castles from 2014, where he ravages both Rodgers and Michael Edwards.


Duncan Castles: "When Rodgers, a scout or an agent suggested Liverpool sign a particular player, Edwards would have the player's numbers run through the Graham model. If the computer said no, the deal was off."

"When Red Bull Salzburg were looking for a buyer for Sadio Mane in the summer, Liverpool were one of the clubs approached. Graham's analysis indicated the Senegal international wasn't good enough, so Mane ended up at Southampton instead (paid for with a fraction of the money Rodgers channelled to the South Coast club for Adam Lallana, Dejan Lovren and Lambert)."
Yeah, that's scathing. I'll admit my opinion was based on surface level crumbs that I put together and got a pretty flawed conclusion.
 

Adnan

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Yeah, that's scathing. I'll admit my opinion was based on surface level crumbs that I put together and got a pretty flawed conclusion.
No worries mate, you're one of the sensible posters who can be reasoned with, whether we agree or disagree.

But it just goes to show that the narrative around Michael Edward could've been very different right now and it's important to understand how things work on the structural side of football clubs. It took Liverpool time to become as effective as they're, but their football department became very effective compared to many other big club in Europe. And I think we're going to try and replicate something similar, now that Murtough has brought in Dominic Jordan to head a separate team of data scientists who will aid the recruitment staff and player performance. Hopefully we can nab someone like Lee Dykes or someone of a similar capability to head the recruitment department.
 

The Corinthian

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The main benefit is we might actually be able to sell some our surplus players for decent sums.
 

Ali Dia

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I’ve a feeling we are just being tentatively linked with him just so we can all feel bad when he inevitably goes to Chelsea and the press can tell us how terrible and unattractive we are yet again because they know it sells. They literally sell our misery back to us.
 
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croadyman

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I’ve a feeling we are just being tentatively linked with him just so we can all feel bad when he inevitably goes to Chelsea and the press can tell us we how are terrible and unattractive we are yet again because they know it sells.
Yeah another snub story to be wrote
 

roonster09

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0 chance of hiring him, maybe we need to hire Klopp also along with him.
 

yumtum

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When LvG wanted Mane, this whole place was laughing and mocking him for it.
Funny, because I remember being vocal about signing Mane when I was in the newbs, guess I remember wrong if the whole place was laughing.
 

Teja

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Lee Dykes at Brentford is someone I've mentioned on here months back as someone we should consider bringing to the club as a replacement for Bout and Lawlor. He's the current director of recruitment at Brentford and works closely with the club's data analytics department. He's only 36 years old, and if I'm not mistaken he's also from Manchester and attended Salford University.
Nice call!

I'm very much a fan of how Brentford do things, they've sort of been my 2nd team in the PL since the beginning of last season. Don't know a lot about the guy but you can't argue against the success they've had.
 

Mainoldo

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When LvG wanted Mane, this whole place was laughing and mocking him for it.
Are you telling fibs???

I remember being in that forum and everyone being excited about how he ripped apart John Terry.

Maybe it was just you :lol: