Messi983
Senior Member
Going out on guys without BO clauses was not the problem. Signing players with 4+ years left on their contracts when all negotiations power was in other clubs hands was a bigger mistake.
I would have no problem with Ney leaving if he'd go in mid-June so we'd have full two months rather than panicking in August. But knowing Bartomeu he would probably still overpaid for exactly the same two players even if he'd have more time.
And retrospectively looking I have much bigger problem with the Coutinho signing. Dembele looked reasonable Ney's replacement at that time. But Liverpool didn't want to sell Cou that late in summer and rather than find and consider other options over the next 6 months we still went out and overpaid for him in January. Would probably end better just waiting until next summer and let other clubs "forget" we're still sitting on 100m from that Neymar's sale.
I liked Fabian from his breakthrough at Betis and wanted to sign him when his clause was still 15m. Don't know if he'd make it here longterm but even for 30m he would be a much better signing than Cou for 150m, lol.
