So today Liverpool – according to every press source under the sun – have upped their bid for Sunderland’s Jordan Henderson. Apparently, the reported initial bid of £13 million wasn’t enough so the club went back in with a £15-16 million bid. Again, they were rebuffed. Today, we’ve moved again with a bid in the region of £18.5 million.
Now don’t get me wrong, I’m as pleased as punch that we are able to table bids of this sum for players, it shows that we’re not short of a bit of money anymore. But what we’re talking about here is a player who has spent his entire professional career (one spell at Coventry apart) with a bottom 10 club. In two full seasons at Sunderland, he has played 77 games and scored just 5 goals. He is a midfielder and an attacking one – that can also play out wide – and he has scored just 5 goals over two seasons. We have tabled – reportedly – an £18.5 million bid for this player, who also has one England cap. He has never played in Europe and has not yet even made an impression when playing against one of the big sides.
Contrast this with a player reportedly on offer for £500,000 less, Valencia’s Juan Mata, and you can see why I’m a little concerned about the amount we’re prepared to pay. Mata, by contrast, is barely 3 years older than Henderson, has played over 170 times for Valencia with 46 goals to his name. He has also played 11 times for the best national side in the world, scoring 4 goals. He has played a further 38 games for Spain at various youth levels, scoring 21 times. Now if anybody believes (and can also prove) that the Englishman is greater value for money then I will happily retract my statement and eat my hat.
Similarly, I have read today via the official LFC site that Ipswich have refused an £8 million bid for their young striker Connor Wickham. They believe that they are entitled to about £2 million more and I can see why, after all he has scored an intimidating 15 goals in 72 appearances for Ipswich. In the Championship. Now, I appreciate that I may sound overly harsh, he is after all only 18 years old and it’s impressive in the sense that he’s playing regularly in the Championship and has been since he was 16. But £10 million? For an 18 year old that has scored 15 goals in his whole career so far? I’m sorry but British or not; ‘home-grown’ or from the Isle of Sandwich, that fee is positively extortionate. In January, we spent just over double that on a proven Uruguayan international that had scored over 140 goals in his career by the age of 24 – Luis Suarez.
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If Henderson became a scholes like player and achieved a similar amount with the club that scholes did for man utd and stayed at anfield for 8/9 years would you be saying it wasn’t worth it.
The guy has played in a okay sunderland side and will surely shine with more quality around him. Hate to keep using the Scholes analogy but when he was the same age as Henderson he scored 5 goals the whole season in a decent utd side.
It does seem like a lot but football is a business and these guys know more than us whats going on.
Ridiculous. Scholes was promoted to the first team and cost Manutd no transfer fee. In contrast, Liverpool are taking a huge risk by paying way over the odds for a over hyped and overrated Henderson. The same applies for Carroll who has had good half season in the Premier League. Kenny and Comolli are simply too short-sighted and cannot beyond rubbish England for talented youngsters.
Tell you what Eric if you don’t like it go and get lost Kenny is in charge not you, £13 million for a young talented midfielder isn’t bad, plus we got rid of N’Gog or would you espouse buying more N’Gogs?
Im a Sunderland fan and say; Henderson is CURRENTLY not worth the £13-£15 mill figure banded around in the press…… BUT what u do get is the youngest,most hard working, professional and talented English born midfielder since Scholes/Gerrard/Becks/Lampard………He WILL BE WORTH the price if he stays at Liverpool for many years to develope further. He is also loyal, he did not ask for this transfer and it is in fact Bruce doing his “everyones got a price” act again…….Do not expect tough tackling and amazing Lampard style long range power shots or fancy dribbling (yet), wot u will get is solid passing, occasional sweet balls into the box and the odd special free kick…….no frills no lost possession…… THAT IS HOW HENDERSON PLAYS!! he will be special in a few years tho im sure.
Can u guys please stop for all this crap pricing issues….liverpool fc only means for the real fan who gv full support for the team n management….i dun see 18mill is a big amount to be spend 2day as today market value no more like those days….i believe in Kenny Daglish….he knows when and where to place the player’s so to make him “perfect”…….so please stop talking bout the price and just support all out for Liverpool….after all King Kenny is showing much improvement(much2)…..
I am staggered that people still say stuff like “he’s not worth £20m”. How do you value any player? Peter Beardley cost £1.9m 20 years ago but the cost of living hasn’t gone up tenfold. A player’s worth is purely driven by those who value his services, and if Liverpool belive Henderson is key to their plans, and they have the money required for Sunderland to agree to sell then that is that, it is called market forces. Also, you can’t just go “Let buy Mata!”. It’s not a computer game. You can’t just click “Buy Player” and it’s done! And buying a foriegn player is certainly more of a gamble. I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to see another Aquilani, £20m spent there and didn’t show anything like the form of a top class player.
Judging by the type of articule i’ve just read.You can’t be any older than 20yrs?Biecause if you knew about king kenny and the anfield way of doing things,when it comes to signing.You would of took just a moment pause.Before summitting this opinion of yours.
Liverpool before the big bang,always looked at the POTENTIAL of whoever they were signing.They were never as you would say…world class(such an over rated saying that,mind)Rushie came from where again?Bearsley,aldo,houghton young digger.Wealan Mobly souness Kenny and the list goes on.
We were a team,No prima donna’s no ego.And no really big money signing…in comparison to todays like.
WE were a team first and foremost.And the rest HATED playing us.We need to stick together sod what the bellends what to think and say.And TRUST IN A TRUE GENIUS.
Your probably a manc anyhow.But me mam always said ”be nice to those that are a bit touched in the ead”…with that i’ll say ta ra…
As long as we get Downing I’ll be happy. He’s the best left winger in the league at the moment and we are in desperate need for wingers.
Aaaah! Shut d f*** Up guys. KK knows wat he is doing. U wanna talk, Go sit on His chair. If not, Smoke Cigar elsewhere, Not in LFC.
NEVER HEARD SO MUCH DRIBBLE IN ALL MY LIFE!!!
Most of you armchair fans haven’t got a clue about what it takes to be a LFC Player… Kenny Dalglish knows what GOOD players are and what GREAT players are, so dont jump the gun just yet! The players we will sign first will be young and British to meet the criteria set by our owners! Henderson has great potential, so too does Wickham, these players aren’t first team buys regardless of price, they are for the future! The european market opens on July 1st so dry your knickers and open your eyes ffs! Fans like ARSE-ALAN need to have some respect for Dalglish and Comolli and wait until next season before casting judgement! If you dont like what they’re doing go support another club and leave us true reds be! It’s not just a saying…. IN KENNY WE TRUST!!!