Are You Offended by Klopp? By Dan Smith
Some Gooners felt disrespected by Jurgen Klopp on Saturday for making a post-match dash to have a conversation with Martin Odegaard, a player he’s been linked with.
Whatever the Liverpool manager said put a smile on the midfielder’s face who in the past has called the Champions his ‘dream club’ growing up.
I wrote this before, it’s never nice seeing those in an Arsenal shirt laughing and high fiving the opposition after a defeat. Something tells me a Vieira or Tony Adams wouldn’t have reacted like that after being humiliated at home? They would be embarrassed to be 10th in the table in April!
While I accept that was a different era, let me ask if we had won 3-0 at Anfield what would Henderson’s demeanor have been?
The sense that a defeat doesn’t hurt like it should come down to the environment that Mikel Arteta’s creating and needs to improve. If a player who’s only been at the Emirates for a couple of months doesn’t see a home drubbing as serious, that’s because he’s been allowed too. That concerns me more than what was or wasn’t said by the Liverpool boss.
Sir Alex Ferguson once told a story that he bought Ronaldo based on how good he was in a friendly against Sporting Lisbon. Trust me, Klopp didn’t see anything this weekend where he felt obliged to tap any of the opposition up. Nor will he feel the need to have to try and sell his club with some sort of speech.
Odegaard only needs to look at the table, the respective squads, and our ambition in the market to know Anfield would be the most likely place to win silverware consistently.
Is it really tapping up anyway if it’s not your player?
Contractually he’s paid to do his best for us till the end of the season and after that owes us no sense of loyalty.
There’s such a sense of entitlement that some football fans are forgetting the point of a loan. Spurs have been apparently hurt by Bale’s comments during the international break. They seem upset by his admission that the point of the loan was a chance to stay fit for the Euros, Real Madrid getting help paying his wages and possibly an asset putting himself in the shop window.
Real will have the same policy with Odegaard. He either proves he deserves to play at the Bernabeau, or he increases his value. Hence why; if Zidane stays in charge, Real will reportedly ask for 50 million for Odegaard. He was worth less than half of that this time last year.
If the likes of Arsenal or Spurs feel used by the system, then stop relying on loaning big clubs cast offs!
A big club shouldn’t be doing that. In our case we are borrowing two squad players from Madrid.
Because our recruitment team had the criteria of finding a bargain, they were adamant in January they didn’t want any obligation to buy.
Real were reportedly happy to put in an option of a guaranteed 20m-25m purchase. We refused, and now they ask for double, a figure we should turn down. He’s had a couple of good games but not enough to justify anything over 30 million.
Yet again some of my peers are getting carried away. Our best hope is another loan but that’s when others will start counter bidding.
That’s just my opinion on the topic. I’m not offended by Klopp engaging with our players as he does that all the time. I’m more concerned the response of those in the red and white. Is it me or did they seem quite chilled out for the worst Arsenal team in 25 years?
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Dan