Breaking news:Liverpool just got new transfer chance as FSG handed major ‘Moneyball’ boost for first time

Breaking news:Liverpool just got new transfer chance as FSG handed major ‘Moneyball’ boost for first time

Liverpool is set to be handed greater scope to implement FSG’s famous ‘Moneyball’ style in the transfer market, with the latest development a major boost.

Since Brexit and the associated fallout, Liverpool’s transfer plans and strategy have had to pivot. With the new point-based system to determine who qualifies for a work permit, a lot of players fell out of the club’s reach.

For example, under the new rules, Liverpool would never have been able to sign Stefan Bajčetić, who was brought in just before Brexit regulations came into effect, and has since flourished at Anfield.

But while making things a little bit more difficult for Liverpool, the changes haven’t necessarily impacted them as much as other clubs, especially ones lower down in the Premier League table or in the Championship.

The point-based system is favorably weighted towards players playing in the top five leagues or in the Champions League or Europa League, who are always likely to qualify and meet the points required even after just one season in the top flight.

Liverpool has very rarely shopped outside the top five leagues or for players not playing in European competition. But occasionally, the club has tried to bring in a raw talent before anyone else, for instance with Marko Grujić. Having been identified in the data, the Serbian was ultimately sold for a healthy profit — those are arguably the moves closest to the kind of ‘Moneyball’ deals promised when FSG arrived, but they are subject to the whims of the points-based system.

That is until now. On Wednesday as the transfer window opened in the United Kingdom, the FA announced it had made an amendment to the new rules giving Premier League and Championship clubs the opportunity to sign four players outside of the new work permit point based criteria.

While a limited improvement on the existing system, the new rule is beneficial to Jürgen Klopp and FSG. It now means that there are no limitations for signing overseas players as long as Liverpool’s quota of four is not full. That leaves plenty of scope for ‘Moneyball’ deals.

Such freedom has never been possessed by either Klopp or FSG in the transfer market while at Liverpool. Under EU rules, while EU-based players were easier to recruit, South Americans and other players from abroad often had to go through a lengthy work-permit procedure and few exceptions were made.

This saw players like Taiwo Awoniyi and Allan Rodrigues forced to go on perpetual loan spells abroad. Now Liverpool will no longer have the need for such kind of deals.

Instead under the new rules Klopp can sign whoever he wants and in theory put them straight into the club’s first team squad as long as the transfer is made within the constraints of the transfer window and that player is over the age of 18.

The change is unlikely to have an impact on Liverpool’s first team arrivals, but it gives the Reds more room to recruit younger players who may not have qualified under the previous criteria. Players like The Gambian U20 forward, Adama Bojang, who has been on the club’s radar recently as per Ed Aarons, and who would now be able to gain a work permit under the new rules.

This is undeniably a major boost for Liverpool and the club’s talent recruitment and something both Klopp and FSG can benefit from in the long-term.

Stefan Bajčetić will certainly be a candidate in that role, but Liverpool has also been credited with an interest in João Palhinha, for whom Fulham has quoted a $63m (£50m/€58m) price tag, per Football Insider. However, the Portugal international is also wanted elsewhere.

Deco, who is now the sporting director at Barcelona, has been ‘working intensively for days’ to finalize a shortlist of potential Sergio Busquets successors, according to Sport. And Palhinha’s name has cropped up, along with that of Florentino Luís from Benfica.

‘Favorable’ reports from within Barcelona describe Palhinha as having a ‘powerful physique’, while also having ‘evolved very well with the ball’. Those traits would likely also be appealing to Liverpool, but FSG has repeatedly proved unwilling to get tangled up in transfer races — and many of the most recent links appear to suggest slightly more advanced midfielders are the priority.

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