Regardless of the outcome, the rags have once again managed to engineer themselves into a corner on this where objectively speaking, they have little to gain.
If they fail to land him, they take another step towards the ignominy that Liverpool have suffered where no serious talent comes knocking any more. Get him, and ignoring the media wankfests that ensue, much to my delight, the Pogba transfer simply masks the fact that they are spending most of this money on trying to maintain their image/save face - a situation that has come about largely because it means they already have to.
All mouth and no trousers is not a wise long term strategy, especially when changes to your ecosystem (TV money) swells and bolsters the growing tide of have a go heroes realising they can get a payoff (exemplified by Wales and more spectacularly so, Leicester), and when the extant superpowers have in the last few months decided to redouble their efforts to avoid the farcical non-show of the previous year.
Personally, I think this whole saga is merely a symptom of a much longer term malaise that at a board level they either cannot see coming or are choosing to ignore in the hope that a combination of their history and big wads of cash can bail them out.
I think, in our terms, that they are entering the Trevor Francis phase.
