We're much better at business these days

[BoysPen]

It was always noticeable how badly we fared when negotiating outgoing transfers - from running players' contracts down - McMannaman, Owen, to selling decent players for next to nothing - Warnock, Carson, Riise, Guthrie Hammill, Arbeloa, Kuyt, Meireles, Ayala, Kelly - just a few examples on from an endless list.

Since Klopp's arrival - we've sold a lot of surplus stock - for decent money:-

Lambert 3m
Sinclair 4m
Ibe 15m
Canos 2.5m
Allen 13m
Skittles 5m
Smith 3m
Alberto 6m
Illori 3.75m
Benteke 27m

The only one we lost out on was Suso

It's now rumoured that we'll sell Sakho for £30m and the kids all have price tags on them when they leave

All of which should make wage and transfer budgets stretch further and make it easier for the owners to trust the manager's judgement.

 

[keniget]

Perhaps.. but then the market is very very different to what it was a few years ago. A few years back and I reckon we'd have taken a big hit on Benteke - the lower league clubs didn't have that money to spend.

The standout sale for me has been Ibe. 15m for him was amazing business.

 

[HC]

Jerome sinclair for £4m was sound. Couldnt get near the watford first team, went on loan to Birmingham and found himself not playing under zola.
Hes still 18 or so so it might well pay off for watford, i guess.

 

[gkmacca]

We've really improved when it comes to selling players. We're tougher, we demand more, usually we get more, and we now get several clauses added for buy back and sell-on options. That's a genuine improvement.

Where we still need to improve is the buying of players. We're still too slow, we don't compete well enough, there's never a strong enough consensus, quickly enough, as to how high we want to go, and we're still messed around far too much by agents.

 

[Athens]

Now all we need to do is to get better at winning trophies.

 

[peekay]

I do think it has also been helped by the fact that most clubs in the PL have more money than sense these days.

 

[Rosco]

Perhaps.. but then the market is very very different to what it was a few years ago. A few years back and I reckon we'd have taken a big hit on Benteke - the lower league clubs didn't have that money to spend.

The standout sale for me has been Ibe. 15m for him was amazing business.

Yeah thats looking quite amazing right now. He featured in Statsbombs list of worst transfers this season:

Jordon Ibe

This is the kind of transfer that lives on the cusp of old football vs new football. Old football watches Jordon Ibe and likes what it sees. He can run, he can beat players, he’s quick, he’s young and he is “promising”. That kind of player is one that many a scout loves, sticks him in the notebook, keeps an eye on him.

New football is looking at some numbers and wondering “what gives?” Now it’s tough to come down on a young player but there were red flags here that were visible from a good distance. Firstly, he came through at a huge club in Liverpool, had loan time, spent time in the first team yet at 20 years old they are happy enough to sell him? This is not a Raheem Sterling situation. Looking at his pre-Bournemouth top-flight career, Ibe played nearly 2500 minutes in the Premier League and European competition, scored just two goals and created three assists, from a general shot contribution (shots and key passes) of around three per game. These numbers are very much on the low side for an attacker of any sort, and moreso for one that has gathered up minutes playing for a reasonably high volume shooting side, while getting a good amount of time off the bench.

Twenty year old Jordon Ibe did not participate in goals. As a buying club, perhaps you’re okay with this, you think you can find a way of fitting him in, work on these aspects? A cheap bid should do it, right? Couple of million? Alright, five million, times have changed. Au contraire, Bournemouth spent a club record £15million.

To spend so much of a budget on a gamble such as Ibe? That is madness.

Ibe’s season has not gone to plan. Thirteen league starts all in, but just two since Christmas, including what looks from the outside to be a “prove a point, mate” selection against Liverpool, for which he lasted an hour and created nothing, not even recording one dribble, let alone something useful like a shot. He’s often been sacrificed at half time, or thrown on when the team is getting stuffed, and all the way along 1000-plus minutes, has recorded no goals and no assists. That he has become so peripheral also raises questions about how he is being managed and Eddie Howe could earn some added kudos by finding the key to his record signing. Ibe might still learn, I guess, and his development could move forward, but there is practically no evidence that he will become a Premier League standard player or live up to a big fee. Liverpool already made that call last summer, and for now he is a bust, and one that wasn’t hard to foretell.

 

[manwithnoname]

Perhaps.. but then the market is very very different to what it was a few years ago. A few years back and I reckon we'd have taken a big hit on Benteke - the lower league clubs didn't have that money to spend.

The standout sale for me has been Ibe. 15m for him was amazing business.

I'm just amazed he hasn't turned out to be better than Sterling

 

[Oncy]

Or Raheem.

 

[refugee]

Whilst the club has done a lot right recently paying Lovren 100k per week does not scream good business