THE past three summer transfer windows have been a mixed bag as far as the signing are concerned.
Andy Carroll, Charlie Adam, Stewart Downing, Fabio Borini, Oussama Assaidi and Alexander Doni are some of the signings which come to mind which have not worked out. There have been exceptions such as Luis Suarez and the ever improving Jordan Henderson.
The January transfer window saw two exciting youngsters, Philippe Coutinho and Daniel Sturridge, who were deemed surplus by their respective clubs, join Liverpool for a combined fee of £20.5million. Though it’s still early days their combined fee looks like one of the bargains of the century. Sturridge scored an impressive 10 goals in 14 Premier League appearances, while Coutinho has recorded 5 assists and 3 goals in 12 games since joining the Reds.
The capture of these two youngsters has given the Kop a glimmer of hope for the upcoming season and with that in mind it makes the upcoming transfer window one which will be filled with uncertainty as far as Liverpool fans are concerned.
For a side which over the past season flittered from championship winning form one week, to resembling a mid-table team the next, signings must be made in key areas if they are to improve and fight for a top four place.
Liverpool scored 71 goals this season compared to just 47 last season and conceded 43 goals as compared to 40 last season representing a goal difference of +28, which was a significant improvement from last season’s goal difference of +7. Only Man Utd, Arsenal and Chelsea scored more. This is a testimony that Brendan Rodgers’ project is heading in the right direction, though the league position says otherwise.
In my opinion the area which needs to improve the most if Liverpool is to challenge for the top four and domestic cups is the defence.
The retirement of Jamie Carragher who has been as solid as any defender in the 21st century represents the first headache as far as replacing him is concerned. Players of Carra’s stature are irreplaceable and whoever is going to be brought in surely has big boots to fill.
Two names have been thrown around the papers as potential replacements: former Man City captain Kolo Toure and 21 year old Schalke defender Kyriakos Papadopoulos. The main concern at Anfield is finding someone with Carra’s experience and that’s why Kolo Toure has been drafted in.
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Kolo Toure is a free agent and comes with a wealth of experience and leadership which is much needed by a current squad which has an average age of 23. At 32 he is a two-time Premier League winner with Arsenal and Man City, has played in the Champions League final, and won the FA Cup twice.
With Martin Skrtel being linked with a move away from Anfield the capture of an experienced proven defender who will bring about leadership qualities into the dressing room was top of Rodgers’ priorities this summer.
Papadopoulos is more of a long term fix as he is only 21, though he is mature beyond his years as he has played over 60 games since joining Schalke from Greek side Olympiacos in 2010 and has been capped 16 times by Greece. Papadopoulos may also bring a few extra goals which are much valued with 7 goals for Schalke since joining them and 4 goals for the Greek national team.
The highly rated Papadopoulos will not come for cheap as he is valued at around £15 million and a number of European giants are after his signature. If Liverpool are to buy him it would be a significant step towards the top four.
The club may also need the buy a few forward players who will add a few more goals onto the season total.
Christian Eriksen and Tom Ince are some of the players who have been linked with the club over the past few months. Both are young and bring in the much needed extra goals which will be needed to improve on the current season’s total.
Tom Ince scored 18 goals in 42 championship games for Blackpool which is a pretty good total for a winger. Eriksen scored 13 goals in all competitions this season and has played in the Champions league and been capped 34 times for the Denmark national team. The Denmark international has attracted a lot of interest from Europe’s elite particularly UEFA Champions League runners up Borrusia Dortmund who are looking to fill the void left by Mario Gotze who is joining Bayern Munich this summer, thus Liverpool have to pull off something special if they are to get the Dane.
Therefore Rodgers has to play his cards right and sign the appropriate players who will improve the squad as I believe this team to be only one excellent transfer window away from the top four.
If the club can manage to get three of these players then we will not be far away from the top four next season which at this point of the rebuilding phase is the primary target.
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Carroll and Suarez were not bought in the summer window, both were bought in January, same year…
Resign Torres for £18m from Chelsea!! esp. after selling him for £50m!?! That’s quite a smart piece of business there plus sturridge an Torres have playing time together from Chelsea and sturridge isn’t a lead the line striker like Torres he’s a solid 2nd striker and they could form a deadly strike force with Lucas coutinho and Gerard running our midfield with a new winger like di Maria heck you could do a player+cash deal for Suarez bring in pepe and di Maria and about £16m in cash. And that gives you a new threat on the wing so sterling doesn’t get overplayed like he did this year. And pepe and kolo toure and agger are a solid back 3. Think of this line up 4-2-3-1
Reina
Johnson pepe/agger/toure Enrique
Gerrard Lucas
Sturridge coutinho di Maria
Torres
Now that’s a team that can challenge for the top 4!!!
if Liverpool is to lose Suarez this summer i suggest Brendan keeps his eye on Lewandowski
Yeah right. Like any top player will come to a struggling team with no European football
bringing lewandowski wil be impossible
If liverpool lose suarez then we will replace him as we have always done, Gerrard will put it on a plate for any striker we sign, he is the talisman of our club and has been since his first game. Think of all the set ups he has given our strikers over the years, he can turn a 10 – 15 goal a season player into a 20 – 30. Look at torres now,
If anyone wants to leave, get a good sum for his head and show him the door. When Torres left us, we managed to bring Luis who is without doubt more creative and entertaining.LFC always finds strikers who are better than the previous.£50m is reasonable enough. We already got Kolo,Aspas is next, why dont we get 2 Luis’es when we sell one.Luis Muriel and Luis Alberto. Add Papa, Erickson and exciting Luciano Vietto. With these guys and our home grown talents, Liverpool will be more than capable of a top four finish.
we need to hold out for the best possible deal,madrid has some good players who might be of use to us (benzema,higuain,callejon,alonso)and we need to use suarez to get those player plus cash
None of them would come here
due to the fact that the ball is in our court it is easier to get one of these players through such a deal rather than tryng to bid for them in a separate deal
We are always one excellent transfer window away from top 4 .
Problem is …we keep buying rubbish
January was good …but last summer was our worst ever …a complete disaster
We need 3 or 4 players of Coutinhos ability , and no more Joe Allen rubbish
In the summer transfer window,it is somehow difficult to make plans before its opened coz ryt nw no one knows the players dat we r yet 2 lose, as the likes of agger, lucas and skrytel are wanted by benitez at Napoli, suarez may leave, reina also, maybe 2 barca, so many rumours.And it takes a great magician coach to deal wth this case, a coach who is planning to strengthen where we were weak last season, especially in defence and strikeforce even wen we had suarez and carragher, he has to pretend as if they are still here,and try to find where we were porous and then start phase 2 of his plans, i.e plans for the replacements of of all those players that are being linked with moves away.
But from Rogers` signings in january i trust his way of spending money, its simply: first strengthen and then find possible replacements. If he fails to play his cards well during dis transfer window, we wil be doomed and become a mid table team.
We are doomed. And we already are mid table team
Simple really. Suarez and Reina want to go. Let them. The biggest clubs in Spain want to buy them. Sell Suarez for 55M to Real. Reina for 15M to Barca. With 70M pounds you could do some damage. I would buy Butland from Stoke for 15M. Lukaku from Chelsea for 12M. Eriksen from Ajax for 13M. Richards from Man City for 5M. You’d still have another 25M to bank. In a 4-2-2 you’d look something like this…Quite a lethal attack.
Lukaku Sturridge
Eriksen Gerrard Lucas Coutinho
Johnson Agger Toure Richards
Butland
First and Foremost , The owners and B Rodgers have to stand strong and not be held to ransom by Real Madrid or Suarez.
If Suarez is to be sold he should be sold for £60-£65M , no less as Real Madrid have offered £60M plus for G Bale and Suarez is better than Bale and has been over the full course of the season.
The lowest B Rodgers and the club should sell Suarez is £45M plus Benzema, Di Maria or Higuain.
If Real Madrid offer any lower than £60M and None of those 4 players are mentioned the club and B Rodgers should stand firm.
If the club gets offer of £45M and Higuain then the club should accept the deal.
Then with £45M the owners should add another £10M and bring in these 4 players also:
1: FD: C Benteke(21) Of A Villa for £17-£22M Then the club would have 4 good class quality strikers competing with one another over the course of the season: Aspas, Benteke, Higuain and Sturridge.
2: AM: I Munian(19) Of A Bilbao for £12-£14M to compete with Coutinho, Suso and Shelvey for the AM position in the first 11
3: RW / RWF: C Tello(21) Of Barcelona for £8-£10M to compete with Sterling
4: LW / LWF: D Capel(25) Of Sporting Clube De Portugal / Lisbon for £4-£6M to compete with IBE.
In Benteke, Capel, Higuain, Munian and Tello , club would have replaced one world class player in team and brought in one world class player and 4 class, quality players with the potential to being world class in future.
And in Benteke and Higuain thats 30-40 goals a season brought to squad alone which would compensate for Suarez’s goals
And in Capel, Munian and Tello , there are three Spanish players blessed with mobility, pace, speed, creativity, class and goals in them. And those 3 players would bring 15-25 goals to side/squad.
And with those 5 players brought to club: Our attacking options would be frightening and we would be able to put any team in world football to the sword with those 5 attacking players at club, along with Coutinho, Gerrard and Sturridge.
In attack we would be a very dangerous proposition in world football
And If P Reina wnats out also, he should be sold to Barcelona for £10m, then that £10m and then the owners should give Rodgers another £3-£4m on that to bring in two class quality Goalkeepers to compete with one another for the No 1 position at club, so complacency does not creep in again within the Gk department. And these two Gks should be brough i to replace Reina: 1: GK: A Mccarthy(23) Of Reading for £5- £8M 2: GK: M Vorm(29) Of Swansea for £3-£5M, Those two players would replace P Reina well and would keep one another on their toes as the competition for the NO 1 Position would be fierce and Tough.
spot on we must not be held at ransom by madrid we have to get cash plus another player coz we are not the best buyers and it is harder to get some of the players madrid have through competing for them in the transfer market,we have to get the best deal possible
It is a pity that this is how suarez wants to pay us back. Just as severals have mentioned above, the key is for him not to hold the club to ransom. If he must leave then it must be on our terms and not his. Maybe in future, with the benefit of hindsight, it will be a great blessing in disguise. We just need to spend wisely.
So many people seem to think they know whats going on at the club like mini chief executives!!!
However we are either so close to having that much more compact better quality squad or we are very far away – it all depends on this –
The Suarez sale – money we get and how we play ball & how much ambition we have in getting rid of the dross and going out and buying much more established players with quality.
Id like for the following players to go – (as these are either unhappy or just not happy playing the squad game or just not wanting to have a great attitude)
Suarez – sell him 50 mill no less, re-invest in the team with whole amount please!!( if not we have had it)
Skrtel – good player but will not play second fiddle for next year, sell for 12 mill, wage save also.
Carroll – enough is enough, please take even 12 mill and move on, wage save also.
Assaidi – sell him , we might get back around 2.5 mill at best, poor buy to start with.
Spearing – not good enough, we need better and we know it, be happy with 3 mill back in.
Shelvey – what we think he is good, dear me, hes OK, that doesn’t get you top 4, sell him and move on, would be lucky to get 6 mill.
Ngoo – sell him, we are not keeping Carroll who is better at present time, but why keep Ngoo when we are selling his older style of player ? would get in around 1.5 mill at best.
Flanagan – young Ryan is better, Johnson, Wisdom and Kelly are all better, sell him for around 1mill at best.
Coates, with Suarez most likely to go, Coates should go, just because he is so slow and generally doesn’t look like he anything in him to force his way into the team, we could just about get back 6 mill at best.
All that above gone, with Carragher wages gone and with all above fees coming back in puts the club in a more balanced state to spend again.
What we then need is FSG & John W Henry to get of his butt and start spending, not just the above amount in player sales money but by adding a healthy 25 – 30 mill budget to the player sales money and then as a club we need to hit the market big time.
If not its another year not even close to top 4, and then more players will be leaving the next year and it will become a cycle which we cant afford.
We must see that this summer is so so big, we need to make some statements that we are still a go getting ambitious club if not just watch us fall?
its up to you John W Henry
good observation,we can raise around £75million through selling a few players,if FSG put in another 25-30mil we at 100mil,with this kind of outlay we can manage to buy players who are quality through offering good wages which will tempt them from signing for teams in European competition,this summer it’s either we hit the jackpot or we lose more ground on the London and Manchester clubs
The club wont pay big wages, they have performace based pay structure in place. This is a good thing as we wont have any more joe cole and harry kewell situations.
I like the idea of fsg to buy players with skill and potential at the end of their contracts, it shows that they have learnt and adapted after kenny went mad and spent a kings ransom.
For too long we have been ripped off by teams that knew we would pay more than most. Ever since dempsey in jan lfc have put their footdown, as with ince.
Fsg and rodgers are playing their cards very close to their chest and next season we will see if the are bluffing or not
Sam in all honesty,
The dead wood average players we have at club who should be shipped out this summer are as follows:
1:GK: B Jones for £1-£2M 2:RB: Flanagan for £600,000-£1.5m 3:CB: Coates for £4-£7M 4:CB: Wilson for £1-£3M 5:DM: Spearing for £3-£5M
6: RW / RWF: Assaidi for £2-£3M 7:FD: Pacheco for £1-£2M 8:FD: Borini for £5-£8M
9: FD: Ngoo for £1-£1.5M 10: FD: Carroll for £12-£17M 11: LW / LWF: Downing for £7-£10M
Those are the Eleven players who should and need to be definately shown the door this summer.
But If Suarez wants out he should be not sold for no less than £60-£65m Cash, or if we are too accept £45M then Benzema, Di Maria and Higuain need to be brought into equation. We do not want Callejon, only one of these three players and then £45M cash upront, no installments malarchy should be accepted by the club.
And If Skrtel has his heart set on leaving then he should be sold for £12-£14M, then four centre backs would need to be brought to club.
And we already have K Toure on a free signing, Hopefully A Pearce Of Reading should be signed on a free also, Then M Sakho of PSG should be brought for £10-£12m and K Papadopoulous Of Schalke for £10-£14M.
And If P Reina wants out, we should sell him to Barcelona for £10-£12M and then he needs to be replaced by two good Goalkeepers, who will both challenge one another for the No 1 position week in week out: 1: A Mccarthy(23) Of Reading for £5-£8M
2: M Vorm(29) Of Swansea for £3-£5M, Those two goalkeepers would be for the now and future of club.
REINA (id stays, its barca or LFC)
JOHNSON PAPADOPOLOUS AGGER ENRIQUE
ERIKSEN LUCUS GERRARD
COUTINHO
DAVID VILLA JACKSON MARTINEZ
Ha haaaa! Cheque-book arm-chair manager playing fantasy football!
Brigadier, the funny thing is its not being armchair fan is being honest truth full fan, we are no longer able to compete with the two manchester clubs or chelsea and bring in the £20m Plus players, but over last five seasons we are falling further and further away from the champions league places as our rivals are getting alot better and stronger.
Our club need huge overhaul of players before we can even attempt to compete with Arsenal, Chelsea and Tottenham for the 3rd and 4th position in the league.
Our club have 9 players out of 25 who could get into the top 6 teams in league: Agger, Coutinho, Enrique, Gerrard, Johnson, Reina, Skrtel, Sturridge and Suarez.
And if any 4 of them are out injured at the same time or suspended our team struggles and looks like a very average side.
so only 9 out of 25 players in squad would get into the clubs we are competing for the top 3rd and 4th position and we wonder why we have only been competing with Everton, Fulham, Newcastle and Stoke for last 4 seasons for the 6-10 position in league.
Until our club makes a huge overhaul, 14 players out roughly and brings in 12 players in, then we will be competing for 6-10 again next season.
Its not rocket science, why our club is now so incomplacent, weak squad, no class competition for places, no depth and a huge lack of class and quality in squad.
Our top 9 players would be match for anyone, but can they be fit, injury free and suspension free all season . NO. That is why a good squad is needed to compete with the best all through the season
Everyone have their own idea on who they want and who should be sold. The fact was,is and will always be LFC builds its team to sustain long term success.We dont buy a team like some mad Russian or a middle eastern. Look what has happend to them.We tried and even if it was a few number of players, we failed. Gerrard Houlier got a heart stopping moment as the result! BR and FSG have their plan, and they know who is suitable for it. We might wish so and so to play for LFC but in the end not everyone can play and will play as expected. Remember Aquilani,Joe Cole or A.Carrol!!? They came with a lot of promise but the end result was not something worth remembering. Money wasted. And we keep repeating the same mistake of building team around certain player, when the certain player got injured or suddenly sold, the whole team is effected. It happened with Torres,and we are going through with Suarez. We done something different the second half of last season and the result was outstanding than when we were depending solely on Suarez. So when a player is brought in,he should be able to fill in the position without any problem in any team. If he can achieve that, he is good player. Sturridge,Coutinho,Kuyt,Enrique and Suarez are such players. But these are our own opinion. If only the players think about the supporters and the amount of money paid for them, every and each footballer will be like Stevie G and Carra.
You don’t talk sense at all
The dead wood average players we have at club who should be shipped out this summer are as follows:
1:GK: B Jones for £1-£2M 2:RB: Flanagan for £600,000-£1.5m 3:CB: Coates for £4-£7M 4:CB: Wilson for £1-£3M 5:DM: Spearing for £3-£5M
6: RW / RWF: Assaidi for £2-£3M 7:FD: Pacheco for £1-£2M 8:FD: Borini for £5-£8M 9: FD: Ngoo for £1-£1.5M 10: FD:Carroll For £12-£16M
11: LW / LWF: Downing for £7-£10M
Those are the Eleven players who should and need to be definately shown the door this summer.
And as the loyal great serving Vice Captain Carragher has hanged up his boots that would be 12 players who would have left squad if those 11 players above mentioned are shown the exit door this summer like they should
And If P Reina seriously wants out, he should be sold for £10-£12M and replaced by two good class quality Goalkeepers
If Skrtel has had enough of bench and desperately wants out, he should be sold abroad only for £12-£15M and our club needed three centre backs with him at club, so if he is allowed to leave 4 centre backs should be brought to club this summer.
And If Real Madrid meet the £60-£65m barrier for Suarez or Offer the club Higuain and £45M then Suarez should be allowed to join them. Otherwise he is not for sale. Suarez should be sold for £60-£65M no less. Unless Benzema, Di Maria Or Higuain are part of a deal and £45m.
If all these players are shipped out and sold 14 players in all that total is, then B Rodgers should be allowed to replace 12 of them.
And here are the 12 players who should be brought in to replace the 14 in total :
Defensive players : Seven / 7:
1:GK: A Mccarthy(23) Of Reading for £5-£7M to compete with M Vorm(29)
2:GK: M Vorm(29) Of Swansea for £2-£5M to compete with A Mccarthy(23)
3:CB: A Pearce(24) Of Reading on Free Transfer to compete compete with Every centre back at club
4:CB: M Sakho(23) Of PSG for £10-£12M to compete with Every centre back at club
5:CB: K Papapodoulous(21) Of Schalke for £11-£14M compete with Every centre back at club
6:LB: S Umtiti(19) Of Lyon for £4-£6M to compete with Enrique
7:DM: E Capoue(24) Of Toulouse for £6-£9M to compete with Lucas
Attacking players: Five / 5:
8: CM: De Guzman(25) Of Villareal for £4-£7M to compete with Allen, Gerrard and Henderson
9:AM: I Munian(19) Of A bilbao for £10-£14M to compete with Coutinho, Shelvey and Suso
10: RW/ RWF: C Tello(21) Of Barcelona for £8-£10M to compete with Sterling
11: LW /LWF: D Capel(25) Of Sporting Clube De Portugal / Lisbon for £4-£7M to compete with IBE
12: FD: L Muriel(22) Of Udinese for £10-£14M to compete with Aspas, Higuain and Sturridge if Suarez is sold in the summer
I think we r one excellent transfer window and one managerial appointment away from top 4 , cos we will never get top 4 wit Brenda . Ever !
I don’t think anyone really has a clue.
If we don’t have the money to go out and buy 5 top or even better players then we have then we are not going anywhere fast, lets stop the crap.
Face facts if we cant even use all of the player sales money to bring in better players then we are in huge trouble!!! Yes we know that FSG & John W Henry are going to be not spending more then they have to and for us to be sustainable too.
Lets face it, Reina may be off, Suarez most likely to, Skrtel will not want to be a back up choice.
So its shame we are going to have to really rebuild, but lets get on with it.
Reina will bring in 10 mill
Skrtel will bring in 12 mill
Suarez will bring in 45 mill( we would like 50 mill)
You then have the Carroll money around 15 mill
That lot there get’s you – £82 mill, and if we cant spend all of that then whats the point?
Add to that this mess of a pile of players that will bring in money –
Spearing, Pacehco, Flanagan, Coates, Wilson(gone), Shelvey, Assaidi, – that lot brings in over 17 mill
Add that to the above could see us (if the owners let us spend even player sale money) we could have a very healthy budget without spending anything of the clubs budget and just spend the players sales money and have this to spend £99 million.
Why not, we have to move forward
Skrtel = Alderweireld
Carroll = Papadopoulos
Reina & spearing = Asmir Begovi?
Suarez and the rest = Aspas, Lamela, Jackson martinez,
1 transfer window
1 managerial appointment
And about 100 million investment
Only then could we get top 4