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Was Letting Ince Go A Mistake?

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Paul Ince was a great player (when he wanted to be) but don’t worry, I’m talking about his son – Thomas. The young winger/striker signed for Blackpool in August in 2011 from Liverpool for an undisclosed fee and, like many a youth exit from Liverpool, met with little fanfare.

But since his move to the Tangerines, Ince the Younger has been setting the place alight. Since his signing for the club, Ince has gone on to contribute 14 goals and 13 assists in 36 starts. With one eye on Liverpool’s current issues in that department, you might wonder whether we made a huge mistake in letting him go, considering that his default position is now usually as a striker, he may have come in handy, from the bench at least.

Of course, you have to also take into consideration the league he’s playing in and the drop in quality from the Premier League to the Championship, these days, is pretty drastic (one or two teams aside) so that will always skew things a little.

At the same time however, he’s only now 20 and has been at the club since he was 18, so he’s still relatively inexperienced by comparison with some of his team-mates, so his performances should be all the more impressive, in that respect.

This season alone, Ince has scored 6 in 6 games, with 5 assists. That means he’s made 11 goal contributions for the club this season – whether directly or indirectly – which is about 4 or 5 times more than any single Liverpool player has managed in 8 competitive games this season.

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I’d read that there were concerns over Ince’s attitude and, as always, his father is a constant issue with his bickering and sniping – somewhat similar to Ian Wright really – at the lad’s managers or fellow players should he not play too often. But given the impact another young player has made this season, who’s to say whether Brendan Rodger’s wouldn’t have given Ince a try in the first team?

It’s all ifs and buts, of course, but from the impact he’s made since he arrived at Blackpool, it looks like the young striker could’ve made a telling contribution to Liverpool’s season, if he hadn’t been let go. Just imagine a couple of substitute appearances and maybe the odd assist or goal? It might’ve made things look slightly healthier by this point.

However, it’s out of Rodger’s hands and he had absolutely nothing to do with letting the player go. He can only work with what he was left with, or picked up on his own. Don’t be surprised though, to see Tom Ince end up at a much bigger club than Blackpool by the time he’s 22 and for a fee well in excess of the ‘undisclosed fee’ that Blackpool paid to us last year. Hindsight is a wonderful thing.

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I'm a 32 year old Liverpool fan, living in the heart of the City Centre. I've supported the club since the day I was born and have been writing articles for L4L for over 3 years, writing close over 350 articles in that time. My favorite player of the past generation is Sami Hyypia.

I am the current editor for L4L, with my day job being in R&D for the NHS.

9 comments

  • Bill says:

    I hope we had a sell on price on his head.

  • zain says:

    Toss of the coin

  • Neil says:

    No, he’s a big time Charlie like his old fella, wanted far to much money and had too much to say. If he was worth the trouble we’d have given him a new contract! At his level with Blackpool, Nuff said!

    • Tango says:

      ‘At his level with Blackpool, Nuff said!’.

      Yeah, the same Blackpool team that did the double over the ‘mighty’ Liverpool last time the teams met. Unless your man Rodgers can pull is finger out, Liverpool might well be playing in the Championship next season while Blackpool will be back in the Premier League. Nuff said.

    • teesomethang says:

      nah,u are wrong mate ince is good and we made a mistake letting him go.checck this out,we will lose many other youngsters if we dont begin to give them a chance.we may lose coady,silva,wisdom,robinson,flanagan,adojan if we dont give them chances.my haert bleeds for mike ngoo who has not even been called once to the senior team yet he is more prolific than some of the guys in the team.and if and when we lose him,we will again cry.remeber that young player we let join fulham in exchange of the useless koncesky or wat ever his name was.are wenot mourning now? we lost amoo too,eccleston,wat will happen to him

  • Adamdellboy says:

    Don’t buy this nonsense about him being a ‘big time Charlie’ wanting too much money at all. He went to Blackpool who pay the lowest wages in the league and turned down the chance of Premier League football in the transfer window. He’s playing out of his skin at the minute, scoring goals that are out of this world. I will guarantee you he is a far better player than Downing even now and will be a £10m+ player, he’s that good.

  • oscar146 says:

    Thomas Ince was one of many signings by BFC. Matt Philips and Ince are catching the eye at this time. The wheel of football will continue to turn. LFC made a judgement on Ince. Only if he gets a chance with a top half Prem’ club will we know if LFC were wrong to let him go. Live with it. If you get 25% right you’re very good.

  • cmw says:

    I thought him and Raheem would have sorted out our wing positions for the next decade. He’s not far behind Raheem, and if anything is far more physical and fitted to PL football. However, through monitoring his progress I learned that he isn’t a great character just yet, and is heavily influenced by an entitled father, and I remember him being more of a problem than an asset before he left. That said, he’d be perfectly placed had he remained at the club, with BR’s arrival. It was mindless transfer tactics again that saw us lose Dalle Valle, Kacaniklic and 3m for Konchesky, so we lost Ince, Bruna, Shelvey (be it a loan) and 5m for Adam to Blackpool. It’s like we’ve become a charity club, giving points away too to clubs struggling in the bottom 3. We’re a bunch of suckers, and I rue the sale of Ince even if he and his father are douchebags.

  • Steve 1953 says:

    Neil – ‘At his level with Blackpool, Nuff said!’

    Short memories you lot. Two seasons ago whilst you had KK and we did the double over you. Make no mistake, Incey is a future International and is far too good to warm your bench. How condescending, with your position in the league!

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