This Is How Liverpool Stole Cody Gakpo From Manchester United!

Welcome back ladies and gentlemen to The Talking Point. We need to get straight into it. Same scenario, boys are on holiday, me and Sam carrying everyone on our backs. I mean, we also went away for a month to cover the World Cup, so maybe they carried us. Anyway, welcome to The Talking Point, where we discuss the latest and greatest topics from around the world. I'm pretty sure I've mixed a few different intros in there. But anyway, we want to talk about Liverpool and Cody Gakpo, because it looks like that deal is basically done now for a fee between 40 to 50 million euros for the 23-year-old. He's been given permission to talk and travel to Liverpool to undergo a medical on a five and a half year deal. Now, obviously, this was a transfer. We've spoken a lot about Sam over the past couple of weeks now, but not to Liverpool, to Manchester United. This kind of came out of nowhere. Sam's giving a little L apparently for United. Before we get on to his time or his future at Liverpool, because I think we'll both agree, really good move for him and the club. Let's talk a little bit about Manchester United. How do you feel right now, from a United standpoint, how would you be looking at that deal? Okay, there's two perspectives, yeah. Now, there's the fan in me that is telling them and all United fans that this is a huge L, mainly because they were linked to them with him for so long. The compilations were coming out, the tweets, the images of him in the United shirt. There was comments on, I think I've seen of him doing interviews saying he's ready for the move. It almost happened. And then there was all that Van Gaal situation. So obviously that didn't happen. So the fact that he's going to arrival in Liverpool and it's basically almost done after we heard it like an hour before it seemed to be done in a sense. You know, when you see the Ornsteins talking about it, that's when you notice it's almost there. It happened so quick. United, it's been their story for the past few years. You see them linked to a player, it takes them months to get that player over the line. And this just seems like a next instalment of that. But at the same time, when I take that fan perspective out of it, I just look at logically, he wasn't really the player that made sense for what they needed at the moment. It's just being honest. Like you look at the squad that they have right now. Yes, they lost Ronaldo, which is obviously we spoke about that countless times, but they need a striker. They don't need another winger to play as a striker. They need a striker that is going to play down the middle. And then when you look at the type of player he is for PSV and for his nation as well, his nation is he plays more or less as a striker, but he's always drifting out wide. He is that provider. He's the one that's crossing it in. He gets a lot of assists as well. Yes, he scores goals, but he wasn't the man for United. So I think in a sense, it's better for them because now they can focus solely on getting a striker. But at the same time, it is an L because a player that they wanted is going to Liverpool. Yeah. Now from reports that have come out from a financial point of view, that apparently is what actually deterred United in the end. It's a record transfer for PSV, but apparently United in the end said no before the Liverpool move happened. I mean, 50 million euros for someone in United's position is the big thing right now. United decided they could not afford him this month, especially when they were still trying to look for someone that could play through the middle. Because as you mentioned, that is a position they are desperate for right now. They've got people that can play out on the wing. They've got a winger who's currently undergoing one-on-one training to make sure he can come back to the fold. And apparently they would have had to use their money from the summer transfer budget coming to spend it in January. That's where things are at the moment. I mean, there are questions as well at the moment about obviously the Glazer wanting to sell up and would they want to use any of their own money? Obviously, if not, they've barely used any of their own money anyway since being owners of Manchester United. There are questions, I guess, that actually if you get Cody Gakpo in, a young striker who can be developed for new owners to come in, it looks like a huge, huge plus for new owners to come into, especially if he helps them get top four. But overall, finances apparently didn't seem like they could help out there. What I do think is quite interesting was that Ten Hag seemed quite confident about the signing only a couple of weeks ago. It's what you're talking about. Managers do quite well at not talking. They're asked constantly about players. So sometimes it might slip out and Ten Hag, he seems very focused on asking me the right questions. But I think in that moment, he probably thought that it seemed very likely Liverpool weren't really in the conversation them times. But then again, the World Cup's happened. He's with Virgil van Dijk, which I'm 100 percent sure spoke to him and said, you know what, you enjoy it down these sides. You need a player like yourself. You look at their set up as well. You can see him making sense for Liverpool and Klopp. So it was interesting, the speed that it happened for Liverpool. But for United, I think Ten Hag, now he's actually come out and said that we need a striker. So he's probably trying to force a few hands to get that move across. Because even though they did look quite good in their last game, I actually can't remember who they played against. They won 3-0 against Nottingham Forest. They looked good, but obviously Forest didn't look great as well. But they did look good. But I think for the overall, like the rest of the season, they're going to need a striker. Yeah, they can't rely on Anthony Martial, whose fitness at the best of times is quite bleak. I think obviously, what a huge, huge interesting point was mentioned about Ten Hag is he'd spent months actually trying to convince the United backroom recruitment staff to go for Cody Gakpo. And finally, they were kind of like all agreeing with him or willing to take the plunge. And in the end, it didn't go ahead because personal terms were supposedly agreed. Now, I actually asked Joe, obviously Joe Thomason, Football Daily fame, Manchester United fan as well, what he thought of this move. And so here's a little one minute from him. It's a nightmare at Christmas for Manchester United, at least in the transfer market, not on the pitch, because United are playing a right at the moment on the pitch. But in the transfer market, you can't paint Cody Gakpo going to Liverpool in any other way other than an L. Manchester United are holding a major L over Cody Gakpo. Of course, they'd agreed personal terms in the summer, the deal fell through because of the Anthony move. He's got the same agent as Eric Ten Hag. He'd spoken to Eric Ten Hag. Manchester United are desperate for a forward to come in in this market. And he's gone to Liverpool for such a cheap fee as well. You have to say £37 million in the winter window. It seems like brilliant business by Jurgen Klopp yet again. There are some caveats. Manchester United fans might well point to the position that United do have a lot of options in, in Marcus Rashford, Martial, Garnaccio, Jadon Sancho when he comes back. United are looking for a number nine, somebody who can play down the middle. The issue is United can't find a number nine that's going to score 10, 15 goals in this January window. It's not going to happen. So Cody Gakpo would have offered options all the way across the front line. If I try and put some positivity on it, maybe I'd say missing out on Gakpo might mean United go extra hard for Joel Felix. In my heart hearts, I don't believe it. I think it's a disaster. Missing out on Cody Gakpo. I think United are going to end up signing somebody like Memphis Depay on an extremely cut price fee. This is an L. This is a major, major L to miss out on Cody Gakpo in my opinion. So that was Joe Tomlinson's opinion. I think overall the same here. Unfortunately, it didn't get over the line, but also not maybe the person that they needed right now. I'm sure we'll cover possible future strikers that United can go for in the future. But let's talk a little bit about Cody Gakpo because he has moved to Liverpool. We mentioned earlier, fantastic signing for Liverpool. He had a great World Cup, three goals in five games for his country, reaching the quarterfinals. He's got 35 goals and assists for PSV and the Dutch national team so far this season. Really, really impressive. How do you think he fits in at Liverpool? I think it's one of those signings, like you said, when he was going to United, I was like, seeing his profile and what he does at PSV and for his nation, I don't know if it's going to be what United wanted at that point. But when I saw Liverpool links, I was like, damn, this makes sense. If you look at their current set up, they've got Darwin Nunes. He's kind of fluctuating from left-sided players. But now he can just focus on playing in the middle. You put Gakpo on the left side, Salah on the right. And then it also gives them time to not rush back Diaz and Jota, who Diaz is going to come back from a long-term injury. Jota has been quite inconsistent injury-wise. But in terms of what he does as well, crossing it to a profile of Darwin Nunes, being able to cut in and get on the score sheet like he does, the fact that he's a worker as well. And we saw for his nation at the World Cup, we've seen the highlights from PSV. Good in the air as well. He seems like the perfect forward that would do really well under clock, which is why it's annoying. Because it just came from nowhere. But then when you see it, it's like it makes sense. And Liverpool always make those signings. Even people are trying to get on to Nunes and saying that he's not performing as a £100 million signing would perform. But at the same time, I think he's doing quite well. His first season in the league, he's fluctuating. He's going from different positions while Liverpool aren't as dominant as they used to be. So they're going through a shift as well. So I think he's doing all right. And then Cody Gakpo coming in, I think that that would be a great signing for them, man. What I find really interesting is Cody Gakpo does have a future if developed through the middle. He's a guy who came up through the PSV academy playing through the middle and eventually found his success on the left wing coming in. And actually, it might be quite interesting because you sometimes see Nunes, when he plays through the middle, liking to come out onto the left. And so what you might see quite a lot is, yes, they'll start games with Nunes in the middle and Gakpo on the left, but actually at times swap over and Nunes drifts out to the left and Gakpo drifts into the middle. And so they could have a really good partnership. Obviously Mohamed Salah as well on the right wing is someone who's consistently going to be there week in, week out. But then, as you said, getting Jota back in, getting Luis Diaz back in as well, they've got a nice little couple of five forwards there. Not to mention Elliot, who can also play there. I think he's kind of more playing in midfield and Carvalho as well. And that's the thing though, now they don't have to force those players. Obviously those players can do a job there, but we're talking about a team that wants to challenge for every competition. And I think Ox played on the left in their last game. And even though he's been a great player in previous seasons, but he's also inconsistent in terms of injuries, that's not where he plays. Do you know what I mean? Getting Cody Gakpo in is like, okay, cool. They're going to have a good rotation of top class forwards on their hands and losing Mohamed, not Mohamed, Sadio Mane, and then getting Gakpo and obviously Diaz came in January, having those switching in and out when Diaz is back from injury, having Jota, Firmino is still there, Nunes, Salah. It's very good. Well, you mentioned the three there of Mane, Firmino and Salah, and I think you're actually starting to see now the kind of moving on, right? You've brought in Gakpo now, who's 23 years old. You've got Darwin Nunes, who's 23 years old. You've got Diaz, who's 25. Jota, who's 26. Obviously Salah and the rest of the crew are in their 30s and ageing. So I think you are actually now able to see young Klopp replace them, but not having to do it straight away with, okay, if Nunes is under a lot of pressure, he can still play Salah, Jota and Gakpo or so on and so forth and kind of relieve the pressure on him. He'll always have the £100m price tag, but not have it on him on his back like it is at the moment. Gakpo's also there trying to help the burden. So I think it's really, really interesting. I also think the versatility of Gakpo, who can play through the middle, can also play off the right as well if needed, though I doubt we'll see him there that much. And just the development as well, the development of Gakpo. And Nunes as well. I honestly think they might create a nice little partnership between them two. Finally, what would you give it out of 10 this signing? I would give it a solid... Because €50m is not a lot of money. A solid €8.59m. €8.59m? €8.59m? Okay. €8.5m slash 9. €8.5m slash 9. I thought you were going into double decimals. No, no, no. Why would I do that? But no, I think it's a good signing, mainly because of the price. They didn't necessarily need him, but when you see him added to their fold, it's like, wow, yeah, this makes a lot of sense for them. And given a rival team in L, in doing that is just... And I mentioned earlier about how, say, the new owners will be looking at United and thinking, oh, if we had Gakpo there, he could have helped us get to four, he could have helped us for the future of the club. New owners at Liverpool, obviously Liverpool looking to sell as well, will be looking at Gakpo and thinking, oh, amazing, a 23-year-old, this guy who looks like he could be really, really good going into the future, maybe, I'm not going to say that he is, but maybe becomes one of the world's best players, he's got that possible development, is a really interesting thing for new owners to look at, which maybe United don't necessarily have so much of. Don't also think about that, they've got Garnaccio, they've got Sancho, they've got Rashford, they've got a few players that can possibly get to that level, maybe one day. But that is all the time we have for today's Talking Point, talking about Gakpo, Manchester United and Liverpool. Let me know down below, have Manchester United taken an L, as Sam has said? Joe put it in the chat a lot of times, with all of the tweets, Fabrizio Romano, Ornstein, hold that. He got confident. Or is it actually not too bad? Is it brilliant? Because it is. I think it's very hard to claim that it isn't. Let me know down there. And any other chance of business that we've missed out on down below. That's been the Talking Point. I hope you guys have enjoyed it. Click on screen right now for some more Football Daily content. And as always, guys, don't forget to like and subscribe.