Sim

I’m not sure I’ll ever fully understand why football fans, have an expectation that every signing is going to live up to the sky high expectations we put on them. It’s not that I don’t understand excitement or positivity about signings, because it’s always fun. But not every signing is going to improve by x amount just because they cost x amount. Speaking as someone who does it for a living and knows the data behind it, even the best clubs, in terms of recruitment and scouting (ie Brighton, Brentford etc), only “hit” on about 60% of signings. For the elite clubs, that’s always going to be lower, because the criteria for a “hit” is very different. Which is why you have to know when to go for it and when to hedge your bets. Look at Liverpool and our big signings. Alisson, Van Dijk, Szobo, Jacquet and Ekitike have worked out imo, where as others like Wirtz, Isak, Nunez, Barcola and Naby Keita either didn’t work or have yet to fully show it. That’s just around the 50% mark, which is kind of what is statistically expected for signings in terms of working out. I’m not saying fans shouldn’t be excited or have expectations for signings, but to expect every signing to work out and live up to those expectations is just never going to happen.