The only way to deal with silly season is to 100% buy into eerie scurrilous rumour, no matter how far-fetched, or how unreliable the source. It’s a good way to prepare for the highs and lows of the upcoming season.
Now, I’m on the opposite train of thought. Don’t buy into any rumour until there’s an official announcement by the club itself, whether on LFC’s social media channels, or accompanied by photos of ‘the lean’ and the obligatory first LFCTV interview is up on the official website.Because there are so many sources out there these days, so many rumour mills and more fake news than you could shake a stick at! So, for me at least, it’s easier to not believe anything you read online or in the press regarding transfers of players until the players are shown in the new club’s colours. There are exceptions of course – Nabil Fekir being one. The interview was done, the photos were done…. and then the club pulled out after concerns over his medical arose. Although that’s a rarity.
But thebluediablo’s comment got me thinking. Is the best way to deal with Silly Season to believe everything? Is that the best way to prepare for the upcoming season? I mean, you see a rumour about, for example, Kylian Mbappe coming to Liverpool (he’s been linked with us for what feels like forever now), and you’re so sure, you go and splash £100+ on the new shirt, get Mbappe’s name and number on the back….. and then his signing doesn’t happen. You’re quite a chunk of money out of pocket and you’ll probably never wear that shirt, because let’s face it, it’s very unlikely we’ll ever buy young Kylian.OK, that’s perhaps an extreme example, but there are folk out there silly enough to buy into Silly Season and football in general so deeply and completely (like the two Manchester City fans recently, who had tattoo’s done proclaiming them to be the 2021 Champions League winners – before the match had even been played. They were so confident they were going to win. Stupid people exist!)THE REDMEN TV STORE – BUY HERE
Liverpool have been linked with a number of players already this summer, including the aforementioned Kylian Mbappe, Jadon Sancho (who’s more realistically off to Manchester United at some stage), Raphina from Leeds, Yves Bissouma from Brighton, Youri Tielemans from Leicester and Patson Daka from Red Bull Salzburg. To name only a few.Now the reason we’re linked to most of these can be fairly easily explained. Mbappe has the Nike connection. Sancho simply because he wants out of Dortmund and the general thinking of fans and journalists alike is that we’ll be buying another forward this year as support for the ones we already have. Raphina the same, although Leeds fans seem to think he’ll stay there for at least another year. There’s also news came out recently of Raphina’s friendship with our own Bobby Firmino which has also added fuel to that particular fire.Bissouma and Tielemans both simply because Gini Wijnaldum has left for Barcelona, and we’ll need a replacement. Will that replacement be either of these two? Possibly. But it’s all up in the air. There’s also been rumours that Klopp is happy with the midfield options he has and won’t be replacing Gini – at least not this summer. I mean we have Thiago, Fabinho, Henderson, Jones, the Ox, Milner…. so until there’s anything official, is it really worth getting hyped up or stressed out over who may or may not be joining Liverpool?!
As far as Patson Daka goes, the only reason I can see us being linked to him, aside from the same reason as Sancho and Raphina, is the Red Bull connection. We’ve just signed Ibrahima Konate from RB Leipzig, and have previously signed Naby Keita, also from Leipzig, and Takumi Minamino from Salzburg. So, are the press adding 2+2 and coming up with 5? Only time will tell on this one.And why now, before the European Championships? I know like a lot of clubs, Liverpool like to get their business done early in the transfer window, but with the Euro’s just around the corner, it could be more prudent to wait, and there may be previously undiscovered players that catch the eye of Klopp, Edwards or someone on our scouting team, that could be better than the options they have in mind, and possibly cheaper too. Which is always a bonus in these COVID times. Fans and journalists alike seem to enjoy revelling in Silly Season, whether it’s every summer window, or every winter window. Local and national press sports pages go into overdrive, whilst every corner of the internet, especially Twitter, goes into meltdown over which player is moving where, and more often than not are left with egg on their faces when players don’t move at all, or go to a completely different club than all the rumour mills have been suggesting for the last however many weeks.Silly Season. It’s probably easier to stay sane by not buying into any of it.Symes Pearce@SymesCyber (Twitter)
