Candystore

Given that Edwards hasn't taken the Sporting Director role I can see FSG buying or taking a major stake in another football club. Would make sense, sign young players who could potentially play for us one day and if not, sell them for decent profit.

You can tell he's had enough of the off the pitch stuff, especially the press conferences. Same questions every few days, must get draining.

Pretty sure Ox was a Klopp signing. https://www.independent.co.uk/sport/football/transfers/liverpool-transfer-news-chamberlain-klopp-lemar-van-dijk-deadline-day-a7921986.html

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2-0

From Jonathan Northcroft in the Sunday Times: Yet Liverpool are losing someone who can do the ruthless side of leadership too. A fringe player who Klopp wanted to put in their place was told, "Listen, if my mum and dad hadn't got together and had me you would never be a Premier League footballer".

Alonso wins the title with Leverkusen and then takes over next season hopefully.

"What I know definitely – I will never, ever manage a different club in England than Liverpool, 100 per cent." Sounds like he may manage again after a year

All that energy fighting against cheating b*****ds City has taken its toll

The UK government's relationship with Abu Dhabi will. Hope I'm f***ing wrong though!

Klopp: “We had our talks and I told Hendo I wanted him to stay but we had to talk in these conversations about the possibility of not playing regularly. “I cannot have a talk before a season and tell a player they will have 50 games 100 per cent because I don’t know that, it all depends on performance. “And if Hendo had performed, he would have had maybe 50 games, absolutely possible. “But in the specific situation, with the relationship we had, I thought it was important that we speak about everything because I don’t want to wake up one morning and need to lock horns with each other because he thought he would start and I tell him he isn’t. “Obviously (for) Hendo that meant, ‘OK, he doesn’t want me here’. I understand it 100 per cent but we clarified that. “If I would have told him ‘Hendo, stay here, you will be the main man in midfield’, he would have stayed but as much as I wanted him to stay, I couldn’t say that so that’s why it was better that Hendo moved on.

Interview he did with the Sunday Times ‘Duel King’ Wataru Endo: Japanese are clever – I outguess attackers At school in Yokohama, Wataru Endo had a teacher who loved the Beatles and played their songs before lessons. All the kids had to sing along and those tunes lodged in his brain. Back then, he didn’t know the Beatles were from Liverpool. And look where he ended up. “Yes,” Endo says, grinning broadly. “Here I am.” His journey was far from normal. He was the boy passed over by J League clubs who had to start in Japan’s second tier; the hopeful brought to Europe by a modest Belgian team; the trier who grafted his way from Stuttgart’s bench in Bundesliga 2 to become ‘Leg-Endo’, their beloved captain in the top flight. He is the 30-year-old who, when Jürgen Klopp pushed through his recruitmentfor £16 million in summer, became the oldest player Liverpool have paid a fee for in seven years. The Premier League was always his goal and he’s proud he made it. He says: “A dream came true. But for me it’s not, like, ‘Wow’, you know? Because I deserve to play for Liverpool. By that I don’t mean this [pushes up his nose to denote arrogance]. I mean that it is not by luck. That I worked hard. And that I know what I need to give to this club.” Their national team skipper, in Japan he is nicknamed ‘The Duel King’ in celebration of his feats in Germany where he was involved in more duels during his three seasons in the Bundesliga than any midfielder and ranked second for possession won and successful tackles. Duels have become something of a motif for him: life, after all, is about navigating challenges, and a belief that his experiences could help others has led him to write a self-help book (called ‘Duel’) and create a video platform where he dissects his own performances, offers tips to young footballers and even — speaking with plenty experience, as the father of four children — dispenses parenting advice. The book, subtitled ‘30 ways of thinking that don’t need correct answers,’ was written with input from players he admires, like the former Leicester City title winner Shinji Okazaki, and challenges stereotypes about the Japanese which sometimes they believe themselves. Chapters include, ‘How can a Japanese captain a Bundesliga team if he can’t even speak German?’ and ‘How can Japanese win one-v-ones against strong Europeans?’ “Between the World Cup in Russia to the World Cup in Qatar — in those four years a lot of things came to me. I went from playing in Japan [for Urawa Red Diamonds] to captaining Stuttgart and the national team. It’s a good model for other Japanese players so I just wanted to tell them that even if you are not a young talent, you can go play in Europe and you can go even to Liverpool, to a top, top team. “I wanted to show Japanese that more is possible than people tell them. Before I became ‘Duel King’ everyone, Japanese people too, thought Japanese couldn’t win duels so we have to play a different way but I like to think about things as possible, as normal. After I began thinking like that I began to win duels even though I played against taller players or physically stronger players,” he says. So what’s the secret? “Some of it is timing. And you have to take up a good position. [A tackle] is not just hitting against your opponent, you have to be in the right position and maybe be clever and guess what an opponent is thinking, or the play they want to make. “Japanese, I think, are clever, so you can use the benefit of that to win a duel. That’s my opinion anyway, and it works for me.” At the press conference when his book was launched at Christmas last year, Endo was asked who he would like to give a copy to and replied: “Takehiro Tomiyasu.” The Arsenalleft back was his team-mate at Sint Truiden and Endo’s reason was that “he has a glass heart.” During our hour together, it becomes clear that Endo has a fearless honesty belied by a mild demeanour, and he is happy to explain this remark. “Tomiyasu, he is sometimes thinking too much. Like when he gets an injury — it is because he has eaten something, or it’s his car. He always tries to change something. Like superstition. “I understand that reaction but, actually, don’t think too much. That’s what I always told him: don’t think too much. I think he has the book — but I don’t know if he read it.” We’re at Liverpool’s training centre, where he’s already a popular, smiling, understated presence — not too different in demeanour from the player he replaced, Fabinho. Endo’s connection with his club goes back to adolescence, and early mornings or late nights in Yokohama where he and his dad, an employee at Hitachi, watched Premier League matches on their TV. “I didn’t support a team but I often watched Chelsea’s games, because Mourinho was there, and Arsenal because Arsène Wenger was there, and I watched a lot of Liverpool too — because I liked Steven Gerrard. And Carragher. So many good players.” Playing in Europe, and in particular England, was already the dream but while at junior high school he took part in selection trials for the big local club, Yokohama F Marinos, and didn’t make the cut. His father, a realist, prepared him for this. “He told me before the trial, ‘You cannot go there’ and I knew it was going to be difficult. So I wasn’t disappointed, I just kept working hard and trying.” A J2 League (second division) club, Shonan Bellmare, did sign him for their youth section. “When I was 15, Shonan’s coach came to watch my high school game but actually it wasn’t to see me, it was to see our goalkeeper. But I played well, I was the centre back, and at 16 they asked me to join.” By 21 he was captaining Shonan, helping drive them into the Japanese top flight. After winning the Asian Champions League with Urawa Red Diamonds, and making Japan’s squad for the 2018 World Cup, Endo joined Sint-Truiden, a mid-table Belgian Pro League side newly taken over by a Japanese electronics company. By then he had settled on defensive midfield as a role and his performances caught the eye of Stuttgart’s sporting director, Sven Mislintat, the former Arsenal head of scouting. The move to Germany followed but initially it was tough with manager, Tim Walter, keeping him on the bench. Stuttgart’s star, the former Germany striker Mario Gómez, fought Endo’s case. “I was always telling the coach to put me in the same team as Wataru [in training] because then we will never lose,” Gomez said. “I remember those days,” says Endo, smiling. “Actually I didn’t know Mario said that to the trainer but I am so glad to hear that. He was next to me in the locker room and I often had conversations with him. His career was amazing and he was a big player and a really good guy.” The Gomez story hints at how much Endo puts into training sessions. “Yes, I give everything there,” he says. “At the moment I have to especially because I am not in [Liverpool’s regular] starting XI. But it is also a Japanese mentality, to keep working hard, even when the situation isn’t good. “At Stuttgart I thought if I focused on myself and kept working hard I would get there. That’s what I’m doing here. It is the most important thing for a football player.” That, and self-belief? “Yes. I had a dream to play in the Premier League and [told myself] that every day I could get closer, until the dream came true.” He became Stuttgart’s lynchpin under Walter’s successor, Pellegrino Matarazzo; the ‘silent leader’ who, with the armband on his bicep and absolute focus in his eyes, helped drive promotion to the Bundesliga. Matarazzo dubbed him the team’s “bodyguard” who “embodies everything we stand for” and Klopp — a Stuttgart fan — knew what he was bringing in. Perhaps not so much a Jordan Henderson replacement, despite the ‘Endo for Hendo’ headlines but, culturally speaking, a James Milner one. A stalwart who is there to serve. “When I was a boy, I was always captain and I have nearly always been captain of my teams. I don’t know why. I’m honoured by it,” he says. “I think at Stuttgart, even though I don’t speak much, I was always working hard in every session, every game and always playing for the team and that’s what the trainer saw.” In 2020, his performance against Liverpool in a pre-season friendly piqued Klopp’s interest. “Tell him I’m 23!” Endo joked to Takumi Minamino. Was he surprised, given his actual age, that after getting to various stages in pursuits of Jude Bellingham, Mason Mount, Moisés Caicedo and Roméo Lavia, Liverpool turned to him? “Yeah. It was a bit of a surprise. But I was thinking that all the top clubs were looking for midfielders and not all could get the top young players so maybe if they couldn’t get those, I would still have a chance to go to a top team. “Klopp told me Liverpool were very offensive and that he needed a defensive No 6. Also, that he was watching my games and that he knows me well.” Endo has started only two Premier League matches but played all Liverpool’s League Cup and Europa League matches, making the most recoveries in the game against LASK on Thursday but also showing an underappreciated trait — the ability to progress his team with his passing. There at the start of moves that led to two goals, it spoke of the player who was fifth in the Bundesliga for chances created in open play last season. A duellist with multiple skills. Like Fabinho before him, Endo is undergoing a period of being kept in reserve while learning the specialist requirements of a Klopp-ball No 6. Liverpool press higher in midfield than his other teams did, meaning Klopp wants him applying his skills a little further up the pitch. “When I came here, I had a meeting with Klopp where we sat and watched some of Liverpool’s games and he talked to me about what he wants. Since then I have been trying to adapt and I’m still adapting every day and every match but it’s actually getting better. “Normally I take a little bit lower position and try to go to the duel and now I have to be higher and win the duels in a different position. It’s only five or six metres but it’s very difficult to win the ball higher. “But it’s very exciting to have this kind of challenge. I am already 30 years old but feel I still have the chance to keep learning. I’m enjoying this style of football.” He is also loving the practice sessions. “From day one, I’ve thought, ‘This is pretty good!’ Stuttgart also had good players and training was a high standard but since I came here [the leap in level] has been surprising.” And who, in training, is hardest to win duels against? “Hahaha. Mo [Salah]. He’s not tall but he is very strong and knows how to keep the ball. It is very difficult to get it from him. But everybody is very high quality.” He wants to be a coach someday and one reason for starting his video platform was to talk tactics for a Japanese audience. “In England and Germany they analyse games on TV. Even after the match, they talk about it for an hour or even more, right? But that is not normal in Japan and I would like to have more analysis, so I am doing it on my channel.” He sometimes records audio discussing his performance after midnight when he gets home from a game. Given what he puts into football, and having four children aged between four and ten, you wonder where he finds the energy. Family life? “Noisy. Busy. But I like it. Right now, I’m alone in my house because my wife and kids went back to Japan, to apply for visas. I miss them. Being with them, I can relax. “My kids have started school, near Manchester where we live. The first and third ones really enjoy it and the second and fourth are like, ‘Nah, don’t want to go to school’. Kids have such different characters. I always wanted a big family and so did my wife.” He has explored Liverpool a little, visiting the Cavern, the Beatles Museum and finding a decent Japanese restaurant. Does he understand locals? “You mean Scousers? Sometimes it’s difficult but it’s getting better,” he smiles. He says it didn’t take long for him to register just how big a club Liverpool is. “When I was coming here, my move was supposed to be secret but already fans were talking about me on the internet. Crazy! After I arrived, I went to a restaurant in the city and already people know me. ‘Hey Endo!’ ‘Can I take a picture?’ They are very friendly. “I know already that Liverpool fans are very amazing fans and I want to win titles for them. And people in this city are a bit like me, I think, family people and hard working. I like them.”

This website is also good for some paywalls https://1ft.io

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I don't think the Premier League would ever do anything to damage their brand. Calling TV pundits, Sky etc and telling them not to criticise refs for example. So I can't see them stripping titles (which is what should happen). Transfer ban, fines, relegation or a combination of the 3 is what I'm expecting. They won't care, will be promoted again in one season. Hope I'm wrong though

mates in the media are usually batting for an English manager or when one is struggling its usually them saying 'be careful what you wish for' Heard Darren Lewis the other say saying that Dyche should be in contention for manager of the season

Wouldn't even need to force them. They'll be a club in crisis and his mates in the media will be telling everyone that they need someone who knows the club.

https://www.theguardian.com/football/2017/aug/29/girona-manchester-city-pep-guardiola-brother-questions

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