Coutinho left out of Liverpool squad, Yiadom left out of Barnsley squad

[LondonBristolian]

These are just two examples. There was a bit of conspiracy theorising going on about Flint last week but I think we have to accept - for better or worse - this is more often than not what happens now when players are linked with a move.

 

i can see a number of possible explanations why this might happen now more than it used to...

 

a) the prevalence of social media makes transfer speculation more intense and distracting, especially as players can search their name in a search engine and find out exactly what individual fans think of them...

b) there is ever more focus on marginal gains and managers increasingly believe that distractions shave a few percentage points off level of performance that can make all the difference.

c) another reason entirely which you are very welcome to speculate below.

Look around the football league and Europe and you will find countless more examples of players linked with moves being left out of teams. Hopefully this puts to bed the idea there is anything sinister going on...

[Bar BS3]

But where is the fun in that..?! And if that were the case, how can it possibly be twisted into a way of having a pop at LJ..? 

Keep up..!

[EnclosureSurge]

1 hour ago, LondonBristolian said:

i can see a number of possible explanations

I'm not sure you can say 'I can see a number of...' and then invite us to add one on the end...of your list of two! I know 2 is a number, but when people say 'a number of' it indicates something higher than 2. Say, 3. But without resorting to the audience adding the third...

[LondonBristolian]

20 minutes ago, EnclosureSurge said:

I'm not sure you can say 'I can see a number of...' and then invite us to add one on the end...of your list of two! I know 2 is a number, but when people say 'a number of' it indicates something higher than 2. Say, 3. But without resorting to the audience adding the third...

Fair point. I was typing on my phone and got lazy. 

[LondonBristolian]

21 minutes ago, EnclosureSurge said:

I'm not sure you can say 'I can see a number of...' and then invite us to add one on the end...of your list of two! I know 2 is a number, but when people say 'a number of' it indicates something higher than 2. Say, 3. But without resorting to the audience adding the third...

 

[Guest]

As you say lots of factors. One of the biggest I think is players learned that they could get away with small fine for refusing to play, better than waiving some rights by handing in a transfer request. Seems this summer more and more clubs are fronting up to players and forcing them to.