BACK in the early 2000’s, there was a short period when I became convinced that every time we made a tentative approach to sign a player Manchester United were just loitering suspiciously around the corner, waiting to pounce. We’d make a move for a player and if things weren’t wrapped up quickly enough, we’d wake up one morning to news that Ferguson had gone and gazumped Liverpool to sign the player they were after right under their noses. This occurred, most notably, in the cases of Mikael Silvestre and Cristiano Ronaldo.
You may not remember but there was a time when Liverpool were heavily linked with Ronaldo – long before United even knew who he was – and after Liverpool showed a little uncertainty, United swept in and offered double what we had. The rest is history, of course, but it showed that Ferguson has always shown little originality in the transfer market.
What I’ve noticed in the past month though is that Tottenham now seem to have taken over this mantle. I’d had my suspicions that it was always Redknapp that was the problem whilst he was Tottenham manager, he was always very fond of Liverpool players and any players we showed an interest in. But despite having been sacked by Spurs recently, things haven’t changed in the slightest.
As the transfer rumour-mill got into full swing during the Euros, the Reds were tentatively linked with Salomon Rondon, the Malaga striker. Later in the tournament – as always – with Spain doing well, Pepe Reina was being heavily linked with move back to Spain, with Hugo Lloris widely thought to be the main man to replace him. Barely a day had passed before Tottenham declared an interest in both these players, with Lloris still being strongly linked with Spurs, even now.
Then came the Sigurdsson saga; a long, tedious, drawn-out process which saw all the bookies cut the odds on the Icelander joining Liverpool to the point where it was all done, and we were just awaiting the fat lady signalling that it was done. Then Tottenham declared an interest and within days he’d signed for them, with Liverpool supposedly having baulked at what Tottenham were prepared to pay the player.
At this point some may just accuse me of paranoia. If you read certain, unnamed football sites these days, that is the popular consensus about Liverpool fans anyway, so it would make little difference. But there comes a point when you have to say to yourself, ‘just because I’m paranoid, doesn’t mean they’re not out to get me’ and that point came mid-week when, seemingly out of nowhere, Tottenham suddenly decided that they really, seriously needed to get Joe Allen to sign up with them.
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I’m sure there’s perhaps one or two others that I’ve missed but that make four targets in the space of a few weeks that Liverpool have been strongly linked with, that Tottenham have then attempted to gazump them to. And even succeeding on one count. Of course, they’re more than entitled to chase whoever they want but there comes a point when their activities just leave a sour taste in your mouth and you start to wonder whether they even have a scouting system of their own.
Whilst I admit I was particularly bothered by the idea of losing out on the other three players, the case of Allen has really irked me. Here is a young player in whom Liverpool have shown a lot of interest in recent weeks, despite already being overburdened in the centre of midfield. Negotiations have supposedly been ongoing and the fees differ daily. Then you have Tottenham, who have known since last summer that Modric would be moving on this year and yet, until last week they had never shown the slightest interest in the young Welsh maestro. It’s almost as if, as Liverpool’s own desire for the player increases, it piques an interest in Tottenham that wasn’t there before.
With Gaston Ramirez’s agent seemingly deep into discussions with representatives of the Reds over this weekend, it shouldn’t be too long before Spurs send somebody up to try and hijack their cars on the way back to the airport. I can just see Daniel Levi hanging out the side of a blacked out, CIA-style SUV, waving a cheque for twice the amount Liverpool have offered, still not entirely sure who it is he’s trying to sign.
Perhaps I am just being paranoid, and perhaps Tottenham had had a long-held interest behind the scenes in all of these players that I never knew about but it still all just strikes me as a bit unsavoury. The hope is that we’ll have both Allen and Ramirez wrapped up before this time next week, but until that time I’ll still be living in fear of the same thing happening again.
It is partly our own fault, of course, as I mentioned a few weeks ago, we’re still slightly guilty of dragging our heels when it comes to wrapping things up in the transfer market as quickly as possible. To ensure the same thing doesn’t happen as it did in the case of Sigurdsson, we’ll have to move much more quickly, if only to ensure that Tottenham don’t sneak in ahead of us again.
You’re retarded for even thinking this. Of course not.
Spurs and Liverpool are similarly placed clubs with similar budgets and, to some extent, similar requirements in terms of position.
You’re also both obviously targeting younger players who we can make a return on.
Therefore, similar players are linked.
Liverpool fans continue to think they’re centre of the universe
We are. Now jog on.
Tottenham who???!! Who are they, when did they last win the league or even a European Trophy!! This no-mark team suddenly think they are world-beaters!! Can’t wait for you to be calling for your managers head!! ha ha!!
Ron you are right, we are the centre of the universe. A trophy draught for us is 6 years. How long ago did Spurs won anything at all?
We can play similiar stlye or have similiar budget, but are the scouts at Spurs such retard that they can’t identify their on targets?
The Siggurdson saga is a classic example. e would not be blackmail and the only way Spurs can prise a player from us is with money. We on the other hand refuse to pay over the odds. The last guy that did that was shown the door. Yes you KD.
However LFC fans should not be so surprise, we are talking about Spurs with no class at all. Their last manager can barely write (by his own confession) and yet hope to manage England while their current manager can barely manage.
Spurs last won silverware 4 years ago. It was ‘only’ the carling cup so bang goes the s**t you spouted in your first paragraph!
Sigurdsson played very well against Spurs last term and knowing of his availability and low price tag, they were naturally going to enquire.
Offering more than Liverpool to sign him is just business!
And who is to say that we are not interested in these players before you anyway?
The scouts at Spurs appear to have done a pretty good job when you look at the state of our squad compared to yours.
And just because the Papers (most unreliable sources of football news!) say that we are interested in the same players, doesn’t mean we really are!
I think after the Sigurdsson saga, they are creating bulls**t transfer stories between the 2 clubs to try and raise tensions.
Rant over now, but i’ll leave you with one last comment … You are without doubt the most deluded fans anywhere in football!
@ Barry, so before that League Cup what other titles does Spurs have?
I am sure its no mere delusion that we still have 18 leagues titles and still carry the title of MOST successfull club in Europe, even better than Manure despite our lack of transfer budget (comparatively) and our cowboys fiasco.
I do not mean to deride less successful clubs such as Spurs but looking at recent developements you haver got to admit a revamp of your scouting dept is necessary. Go get your own target, simple as that Barry.
nah yes maybe spurs are tracking us but we need to be fast and decisive in our dealings if we dealy,spurs will buy the players.remember the players will be in an open market and anybody including spurs can buy them .watch out if we delay on joe allen and ramirez haggling over a difference of 3m pounds then spurs will come in and buy and who do u blame,your own manager brendan rodgers for not being decisive and quick.
Remember that Downing, Adam, Carroll, Suarez was linked to Spurs before Liverpool…
stay classy ron
Rodgers and crew simply need to continue to do their business ‘the Liverpool Way’. I’m sure press attention to names being bantied about can draw other teams into the mix and it wouldn’t surprise anyone to find out that teams do this on purpose to drive their opponents to make rash decisions and spend more than they should.
Sacked from Spurs was he? get your facts right, and Fergie didnt know about Ronaldo before your pathetic club? and where do you get this from? utter garbage stopped reading..and anyone copying your transfer targets needs to give a head a wobble…henderson,downing and carroll to name a few recent world beaters
Why don’t you go to a MUFC site and leave your idiotic comments on there. Your not welcome here, YNWA JFT96!
Your pathetic club is half a billion pounds in the red. Enjoy while you can, those days would end soon. Ha ha.
I like it Chan 🙂 – you even managed a sentence on here without mentioning KD – progress! 😉
I would try to be positive and take that as a compliment. At least you know how i feel about that twit who set us back for years in a single season.
Yes, Ronaldo. Also forgot to mention Karol Poborsky 😉
Now jog on back to Salford….or Chiswick.
The funny thing is that Taggart has made some awful signings himself over the last 20 years…….Poborsky, Kleberson, Anderson, Taibi, Djemba-Djemba, Veron, Sally Gunnel, Blomquist, Berbatov…… That said he has also made some great signings too……Keane, Cantona, Cole, Vidic, Ronaldo etc…..so the point is every manager makes bad signings….you could create a list like that for every club in the PL…….Hendo will come good, Downing will def improve and the big fella will prob get sold back to the toon…….you mancs must have some seriously boring websites if you gotta come on here and comment about us and spurs!
Yep your as para as you can get me old china, lol
Spurs are not after your players because you havent signed them as yet!
There is only a few decent players that have and can be signed so the same clubs will always be linked with the same players.
LFC have a bigger wage budget than Spurs so you would have to be favourite to sign players before us, we dont make major loses, we only spend what our little club makes even though we are hindered by our small capacity with 25/30000 waiting list to get season tickets.
wE WERE LINKED TO dOWNING FOR YEARS BUT YOU NABBED HIM, LOL thank goowd.
You cant sign Allen this year, we can for £12m you can next season for £15m, I doubt he would get near our reserves so not to sure why the press would link him to us, we need strikers, but because Levy has major personal problems in America it will have to wait until his family problems are sorted.
stop being para, you dont need loads of new players, just a bit of lady luck.
Good, ask your scouts to identify their own targets then
Chan you’re a child (and a tool!)
Same line Barry, stop mirroring our move and all is good between us.
The problem with Spur us that they doesn’t believe in themselves so they chose to follow Liverpool.
Maybe AVB will also tell his players to play tiki taka style of football.
Thay is the style of football AVB plays you moron! also how do you know spurs wasn’t in for them before you?. Or if we are even after them afterall it is just media Speculation!
Did you watch us last season by any chance, I know i my be biased but come on FFS we were the best to watch for most of the season, even my Gooner chums say that.
LFC will come good, we like playing you and have a good bit a banter when your at the lane, but some of your fans are off there small mined…….
see ya at the lane guys for another great game.
Paul healthy competition and banter is welcome but you have got to admit, your club is stalking our targets.
with the exception of Sigurdsson the rest is paper talk,you could say the same about chelski,man shity and the goooners….i think the scouser’s have finaly lost the plot…COYS
Hilarious. Lloris was our target well before Liverpool, so was Rondon. Gylfi was a BR target for Swansea and a lot of other clubs were in for him. Why would Spurs target Liverpool targets? You spend way over the odds for average players. look at your squad FFS, Henderson, Downing, Spearing, Shelvey, Lucas, Adam. the list is endless, utter rubbish. Dream on Liverpool
Agreed, Henderson, Downing, Adam all rubbish.That is why the clown that signed them are given the boot.
But Lucas rubbish? What drugs are you on?
Errr Suarez, Liverpool nabbed him because Rednapp dithered FACT!
Downing, we were in for him for years, LFC came in and nabbed him, thanks btw
Bellamy you nabbed him off us to!
Joe cole, you paid him zillions to go to yours, we couldnt afford him at that money FACT.
I could go on but I wont….
I think you are being paranoid.
Liverpool should be in the market for Spurs cast offs rather than going head to head as their will only be one winner and unfortunately for Liverpool it will not be them.
Right now Liverpool need to try and get into the top 6 and consolidate before trying to challenge clubs like Spurs.
Slow steady steps is what is required.
Nope. They are not stalking LFC,neither is LFC the centre of the universe.
It’s actually quite clear for all to see, that instead of having their own scouting teams, all they need to do is just ride on LFC scouts. Since they save on the expenses, this can then be ploughed back as better wages for the new signings. Lol.
“that make four targets in the space of a few weeks that Liverpool have been strongly linked with, that Tottenham have then attempted to gazump them to” Wow.Seems the writer is reading the wrapper his chips come in!! Still.It’s great to see that some “mature” people actually believe that what hacks scribble to fill their columns is true. Yep, the old adage still rings true. There’s definately ONE born every minute. Might I suggest The Brothers Grimm as follow up reading material. P.S i can supply a local address where, there are fairies at the bottom of the garden.apparently,
are you serious, carrol henderson, downing and you think we would target all the players you are in for i do not know what drugs you are on but you should stop taking them
I been a spurs fan since I was born as my family been spurs fans and alot of the time it is Liverpool winning out on tottenham targets in last 5-6 years (Bellamy, cole, downing, Adam, Suarez) but now it is good to see tottenham become a top 4 English club as we always were mid-table average at BEST so I’m enjoying us winning out on clubs like Liverpool for the talents as Liverpool in recent years have had a major fall from grace!.
Spurs a top4 club they enter the CL once and they think they’r a big club got a long way to go know jog on yng man
Spurs finished 4th. Liverpool finished where? COYS!
Liverpool 18
Tottenham ??? No one really cares!!!
Spurs have 3 ok seasons for the first time in over 30 years and all of a sudden the Spurs fans think they are top Sh!t. Dream on Spurs, in our worst eara we are still winning trophies and reaching cup finals. Our squad is not as bad as it looks as if you saw any of our games you would know we dominated most of them, just need a few additions but thats our problem, so why don’t you Spurs fans go to your own web pages and comment. We are bigger than Spurs, and will always be bigger than Spurs, so 3 season of finishing above us does not make you a top club in uk let alone europe, we will see. Spurs will do what they normally do and fade away for another 20 years.
“our squad is not as bad as it looks” – Lfc.
By the sounds of your comment, Lfc, I would say The Reds didn’t need Sigurdsson as much as we thought. What is the problem then? You say your squad isn’t bad and yet you complain that you didn’t show more intent to get Sigurdsson. Apparently there were both clubs’ offers on the table and Sigurdsson chose us over you. We were in alternate places when Suarez first came on the scene. We wanted him, you wanted him, he went to you. You don’t hear US moaning about it weeks after.
Oh hang on, it’s just because it is Spurs getting one over on you that you’re annoyed…again. Sorry, should’ve realised. Sigurdsson thought we had a better vision for the future and opted to join Spurs. What do you want us to do – terminate his contract and sell him to you a few weeks after signing it…? Do tell…
Better vision for the future and you get AVB??? Hillarious!!!
Oh please.. AVB was just unhappy that liverpool did not sign him as manager so he is getting his revenge on liverpool. Its so obvious and yet all you spurs fans are still yapping about all the rubbish of the past. The pre-season match btwn lpool and spurs, sigurdsson was nowhere near being a threat to liverpool. We are not moaning about losing players to spurs, right now the topic is why spurs just cant get over liverpool being better than them. In recent ranks, yes spurs have been higher up the table compared to liverpool. But hey liverpool have cabinets full of trophies, and spurs? cabinets full of dust i suppose! YNWA
Your lot cling onto your history as much as we do! It’s what deflects the stick you get from United about titles and the like.
Glass houses my friend.
‘Better vision for the future’? Are you sure? Really? So, money had nothing to do with it? If you think that then you are deluding yourself. Cold, hard cash is what it came down to – that, and the fact that he wasn’t going to be assured of his place in the starting line-up (that’s Gerrard’s position) whilst at Spurs he is a shoe-in as you lose Modric/van der vaart.
If we saw any of the games you played we would see you dominated them? Did that include the drubbing we gave you at the Lane? Could have been 6 or 7 on a good day…..
Every dog has its day & we were poor. But, at season’s end, remind me what you ended up with? Champs Lge qualification? Any trophies? No? Didn’t think so…
I remember that Arsenal got thumped 8-2 at MU i think and Chelsea finished lower than Spurs but who are playing in the CL now?
Oh, any titles last season even if its “just” the league cup? No…
LFC Have had transitional period and major issues with poor exscuses for owners of a football club in the past. We are stablising and as you see 2 cup finals demonstrates that. Spurs finihsed above us but yet are still in Europa league and have no trophies in years while we have had a number of cup finals, wins and losses over the last 10 years, so don’t be deluded we are still a major force in football and our so called average squad will still keep challenging for trophies. With a few additions we will only get better and with anew manager and new ideas with a great crop of young tallent we are heading in the right direction.
Well, we don’t deny it that we are not the force we used to be. Then again, when was the last time Spurs won a trophy? Or even the league. A few seasons finishing higher than Liverpool means nothing when you have nothing to show for. One season of UCL? Where were Spurs fans hiding when we won the UCL? Probably in the toilet bowl. Haha…
As a Spurs fan, it seems like Chelsea have been getting all our targets! They have more money!
However, we have to also look at the next tier of players – some of them Liverpool and others are interested in.
Rodgers shouid be given enough mmoney to secure the good b4 any club
The bigger worry is that he doesn’t appear to be able to attract anyone to the club, he can’t even get even those that have played for him from a chairman he considers a friend.
Not a good start.