Quantcast
Featured

Who do we need more?

|
Image for Who do we need more?

Reina Suarez MelwoodIT’S been a tough 7 days to be a Liverpool fan, since Luis Suarez decided to dive head-first into a summer-long saga of being tapped-up by Real Madrid.

Summer transfer windows are never the most fun time, unless your club is absolutely loaded – which ours isn’t – and they are even less fun when half your squad is being linked with half the clubs across the continent.

Which it seems is now the case with Liverpool, with Pepe Reina also being linked with a move to one of Spains’ top two and Dan Agger apparently all but transferred across to Monaco.

Then there are the rumours that Rafa is looking to bring both Martin Skrtel and Lucas Leiva with him to Napoli and Seba Coates seemingly all but ushered out the door already, thing aren’t looking too promising for the club. There’s less chance of Lucas leaving the club, but it’s still worrying, knowing how highly Rafa rates the Brazilian holding-man.

It’s likely that at least one or two of those mentioned won’t be at Liverpool come August but the question is: who would we miss the most?

The answer seems fairly simply on the face of it – Luis Suarez. I wouldn’t blame anybody for jumping to that conclusion either but there are a few things to take into account first.

With Suarez, he is our top-scorer, best player and generally just our ‘talisman’. But given the lack of funds compared to the likes of Chelsea, City and United, Luis is likely to bring in the biggest pay day and provided Madrid match our valuation (particularly now that the player has made it fairly clear that he’s at least considering leaving) it would be hard not to see some sense in it.
[ad_pod id=”unruly-video” align=”center”]
But then a player like Dan Agger, having just had a decent season, and with a reputation as one of the top defenders in the Premier League, would bring in a decent fee too. In fact, I’d be surprised if he wasn’t valued at at least £15-£20 million and with the interested party being Monaco, there’s no reason why we couldn’t extort a bit more from them.

On the other hand, with Skrtel likely to be leaving in the summer, Agger is the last remaining stalwart of our old set of centre-backs and while losing one or two is one thing, it’d be a grave error to completely overhaul the defence in one transfer-window.

Not only this but Agger is a top defender. He may not have had a remarkable season but then none of our centre-backs were consistently impressive but it would be a mistake to let Agger leave when he’s just about to enter his prime.

Then there’s Reina who is now one the clubs’ longest-serving player and a captain without an armband. Until last season Reina had been one of the few constant, and consistent aspects of every Liverpool side since he replaced Jerzy Dudek in 2005.

Having cost us less than £7 million, he has paid us back many times over since but given his age and the Reds ailing fortunes mean that he would be unlikely to bring in much more than we paid for him, which is frankly farcical, considering his fairly recent status as the best in Europe.

Having amassed just 5 short of 400 appearances for the club and kept a clean-sheet in 44.6% of those, Reina is a ‘keeper that doesn’t come along often. You only have to look at how long Manchester United and Arsenal have been chasing that golden goose and anybody that tries to tell you that David De Gea is one of the top goalies in the Premier League has some slight eye-sight issues.

Which is why I believe that losing Reina would stand as the biggest blow to the Reds. Losing Luis would hurt and he’d be hard to replace, but in Sturridge and Coutinho, it appears that we have the players to replace his goals and creativity. Not only that but the vast sums we should recoup for Suarez would allow us to add to our attack, whilst also removing the stigma of having such a despised player and the prospect of losing him for another 5-10 games for some new misdemeanour.

As things stand, the news of Lucas moving with Rafa to Napoli is just conjecture at the moment, as it feels like nothing more than a case of putting 2 and 2 together – Lucas was bought and heavily backed by Rafa, therefore Rafa will want him at his new club. Should these rumours gain more weight then I may have to alter my thoughts (I’m sorry, I rate Lucas very highly).

But as things stand, you don’t replace a player of Reina’s quality, leadership and substance overnight, as United found out with Schmeichel and Van Der Sar, particularly when the prospects for replacing him start with Simon Mignolet.

Obviously, we won’t all agree and there is no doubt that we’ll struggle equally to replace Suarez but the difference is that we won’t get an obscene amount of money for Pepe and Suarez hasn’t made it clear – as Pepe did on Tuesday – that he intends to honour his contract.

Wouldn’t it be nice if we managed to hold on to all of them though? And isn’t it equally depressing that we’re having to tolerate the thought of having to ‘hang onto’ our best players…
[ad_pod id=’pubsquared’ align=’right’]
Live4Liverpool is recruiting columnists. For further info contact the site editor at
live4liverpool@snack-media.com

Follow us on Twitter here: @live4Liverpool and ‘Like’ us on Facebook

Share this article

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.

8 comments

  • sam charles the king says:

    what we do need is to get on with it this summer!
    we are to long in the tooth for anymore crap form Fsg and The board and in general the whole of the ownership.

    We just simply need to get on with it and buy better players, city at it again today, Liverpool are far to slow and far to unwilling to go that extra pound or mile to buy that better player?

    Why do you think every summer for the last 5 years or so we have a problem where by the better player- or best players is almost leaving the club?

    Because we never take 3 steps forward without taking 2 back!!!! its time to buy even before we sell or keep Suarez, we are not showing much ambition while waiting to keep or sell him, what does that send out to the rest of the game if we cant even buy a better player before we keep or do sell Suarez, what is it about the transfer market and Liverpool.

    Underwhelming at the moment, and fans wounder why we don’t do well in the league> its bloody clear as day to me.

    Invest or pack it in?

  • Raam says:

    Yes,if theres a good offer just sell those who wants to move. If their heart is not with Liverpool than theres no use keeping them. Even if they stay, they wont be their self, injuries, tantrums,fitness problems will crop up and in the end depletes their value and the club will end up with deadwoods.

  • Erin says:

    Vision is what’s needed and clarity. Not necessarily communicated to everyone in the press, but BR needs to get in with the transfers as quickly and decisively as possible.
    Who is allowed to leave, by what date, and how the money can replace them. I fear another dissaster window as the job is FAR too big for Brendan the trainee…he will learn a lot again, and I fear LFC will pay a big price for his development
    YNWA

  • T.boier says:

    Well…i tink we fans must be ready 2go through d rigours of havin a young manager in our club… We can be rest assured dat any top manager comin off d heels of a complete season wld be lookin 4wad 2 d offseason in oda 2 bring in new recruitments bt dats not Rodgers wich mins we’re stuck 2 him…i can remember Jose comunicatin 2 chlsea nt 2 get som certain playas cz dey dnt suit him despyt still bin a Madrid coach& avin lyk 3 matches 2 play 4 dem..Fsg are not ready 2 spend loads of millions bt any unhapy player shld be movd on 2 raise mony so as 2 replace dem wit quality ones asap… We rily nid depth & a large squad wont do us any harm…we d fans are so concerned abt our team cz we want 2 be competitive agan..so i tink its only safe 4 brendan & FSG nt 2 test our patience…dey nid 2 kip d ball rolling cuz action speaks louder dan wods… YNWA

  • Dean Fitzpatrick says:

    Daniel agger won’t leave I’d put me mortgage on dat

  • barry jones says:

    T.boier, you need to learn how to spell properly. people dont use this bull* shortened text on here as it is free to post…………….. anyway, lfc are just working behind the scenes, this does not mean nothing is being done, it just means they are being secretive. i am fully confident we will have acquired most if not all of our targets come the new season. i would rather luis goes to be honest if we can replace him with a 20 goals per season striker and improve the team then i will be happy. be patient and support our manager. some liverpool fans really do over react when it comes to their opinions, make me wonder if they actually want what is best for the club to be honest. BR is definitely a manager who can take us forward as a club, only time will tell if he will take us all the way to the top of European football. we shall see, just sit back and enjoy the football. YNWA!!!!

    • stevieG says:

      To say Rodgers is ‘definitely’ a manager who can take us forward is preposterous

      He has shown nothing to suggest he is even a capable manager. It was a huge error appointing him

  • kingsley says:

    to say br. is the coch to take us foward that i absolutely disagree, but i think it’s what we deserve, u dn’t expect anything more than average from an average coch.

Comments are closed.