THE transfer window is mad. We know this. Proper mad.
And it seems to get worse every year; the hysteria created by media and fans together just seems to escalate more and more, to the point of exhaustion. And then there’s Twitter…
We hate the transfer window, but we just can’t stay away from it.
They say the buck stops with the manager, which in modern football could be seen as a truth with certain modification. The way I see it the buck stops at the top end of the chain of responsibility, meaning the owners’ willingness to back their manager financially is partly what decides whether or not said manager can reach the outlined objectives.
Last summer was a bit of a damp squib in the end for Liverpool FC: too many leaving and too few joining; fans unhappy and a new manager left hanging – abandoned and let down by those who appointed him three months earlier. That was the general opinion at the time.
As the deadline now creeps closer I can’t quite shake the feeling that it’s somehow happening again. Not because of unwillingness from the owners of the club; I have no reason to doubt them supporting the manager. I rather think it has something to do with the set of rules we have set for ourselves which affects our flexibility when operating in the transfer market.
As we know, the transfer market isn’t at all rational. Far from it, actually. It’s this weird sort of micro cosmos created by and feeding off irrationality, which doesn’t appear to suit everyone. Arsene Wenger has been accused of an unnecessary level of prudency in recent years, because he tries to act rational in this utterly irrational environment. Looking at it from the outside it seems as if he, or whoever decides these things at Arsenal, places a value on a player and refuses to go beyond this value – which I suppose is perfectly natural behaviour and way of thinking from a man with a degree in economics.
This is also the approach FSG seem to have adopted, after having learned a few valuable and expensive lessons during their first year as owners of Liverpool Football Club.
I’m sometimes left wondering how one places a value on a player, and particularly how it’s done at LFC. Do we go into a negotiation with a maximum value – or a ceiling if you will – on any given player, or are these things open for evaluation and reconsideration as the negotiation process goes along?
If it’s the former then I think we inevitably set ourselves up for some disappointments now and then, and it’s also what appears to have happened in the Willian deal. By all accounts it appears that Brendan Rodgers and the rest of the transfer committee acted swiftly once he became available, and all press reports point to Liverpool being the first club to the party. Yet still we ended up on the outside in the end, even though this looked like a deal we could have wrapped up had we been willing to bend a principle or two.
Granted it’s probably the transfer committee that sets this value – in my opinion FSG can’t claim to be the ones within the club most qualified to do so – meaning they are the ones who draw the line we won’t cross, and thus can’t really blame FSG for not being flexible enough to splash some extra millions when it’s suddenly necessary.
One dilemma here could of course be that the committee doesn’t want to set this ceiling too high, potentially leading to FSG not giving the green light for what in all honesty would be perfectly valid reasons. But then again, if there is this inherent aversion against what we consider to be overpaying for a player, can the club seriously claim that the actual ambition level matches the noises we hear about getting back into the Champions League and eventually challenge for the title again?
Could it be that it’s we, the fans, who need to be more patient and develop a more sober outlook regarding the time scale of the club’s progress; or do we have a valid point when we raise our concerns regarding lack of investment in the squad?
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I think the buck stops at FSG.They own the club so they call the shoot.I may b wrong but it seems BR wasn’t 2 pleased in his latest press conference.At the same time i wont blame FSG cause of wat happend with Dalglish.All in all,we fans must b ready for major disappointment like this in our journey with FSG.We shall get there but 4 how long?,i cant tell.But we need 1 or 2 marquee signings trust me.
It has always been Ayre and FSG. That’s why FSG employed BR. They wanted a patsy, and that’s exactly what they got, because truthfully BR would never have gotten a job of this calibre. That’s the reason they didn’t go for a big name manager.
They call the shots and the last couple of days BR frustration seems to confirm this. This is not a critism of BR, any coach in his position would have taken the chance. Who else would have offered him the opportunity? The answer. No one.
BR is a spineless lackey, he looks ‘disappointed’ in his press conference so why doesn’t he resign? FSG and BR are made for each other but neither are right for LFC.
I wish he would resign , if he had any respect for himself he would resign now instead of being Henrys b!tch
Rodgers knows he wouldn’t get a sniff of a top job like Liverpool ever ,thats why he puts up with being their lackey. I agree if he had anything about him , he would quit
This transfer committee nonsense will never work . All clubs need a strong manager to choose and buy targets . Rodgers is not that , he is a yes man there to coach whatever fsg give him
Fact is – fsg dont care about LFC , they won’t spend what is required to get Liverpool back to the top. They need to be removed
Very true FSG don’t really care about Liverpool.They only care about balancing the books and making a profit.
Agree with all . Fsg are here to make money , the dont care about our club , our city or our people. They just want to take our money
Why are some people so stupid and gullible ? Didn’t you learn your lesson from hicks n Gillett ?
We are now competing with the likes of Everton , Newcastle n Southampton for europa league spots. Rodgers is a stooge and not a capable manager too. FSG OUT !!!
FSG are the problem. BR Has turned out to be the man LFC needs, our style of play is the best in the league. All he needs is investment and John W Henry and co will not provide it. FSG must go, all LFC fans need to take the club back or insist on a sale to owners that have money.
It would appear that FSG are the problem, Brendan is not my favourite man but at least he seems to be showing his frustration over the transfer situation which to me is a positive thing for the club, I was impressed with our performance last weekend against stoke, lets hope the momentum continues against Villa, really don’t understand the loaning of a proven international player, if the reports of them wanting 4million is true then FSG should have just sanctioned the purchase.
We are broke just pretending to chase high value players to give fasle hope to fans we are dead broke nothing over 10m being spent on one player
I tend to put more emphasis on the manager than FSG. They’re obviously not sugar daddys like abramovich or Qatar, but our commercial revenues are improving more than double digit growth each year (which is strong for any organisation). Rodgers failed to get Europa league football with a squad easily capable of it. He massively underachieved last season. A top experienced manager would’ve got close to champs league with the likes of Suarez and fully fit Gerrard and Agger etc last season. BR made loads of mistakes that cost us even lower level European football, which is still a draw for players. Finally as BR has no record of success in the past, and no reputation to go on, he is not a draw for players, if anything he puts them off. Hence with no Europe, an inexperienced manager and a pathetic 7th place we can only rely on our name of LFC to draw players, which is mo longer enough.
At least we have signed 5 players when ManU & Arsenal have signed next to no one.
Yes. But the 5 players we have signed utd and arsenal WOULDN’T WANT
fsg is a big shame always pointing at overspending on carroll,adam,hendo,downing fact is they are poor and has got no ambition POOR_POOR_POOR.
FSG are in profit this transfer window, but wont raise the budget an extra couple of million to get a target that could help us reach 4th and earn them an extra £30m.
I’d at least appreciate it if they were honest and said they have no ambition of Champions League football and they’re just here to recoup the money they wasted when Kenny was in charge and to streamline the running costs to that of a Championship club.
To just be on a mission to sell the clubs high earners, replace them with children and to bleat on about top 4 is ridiculous.
The club itself is in a much more stable state financially thanks to FSG, but they are not willing to invest in the squad to push us on to greater things. They should sell up, take their profit and let someone with ambition take the reins. The basis of a great club is now back in place, we just need investment in the squad. Plus FSG (knowing nothing about football) have implemented their own managerial hierarchy at the club, that clearly doesn’t work and even worse each person is completely inexperienced in their relative position. This is wholly unacceptable for the 9th highest earning club in football. They should have bought a League 2 club to practice on first.
Btw. How can the committee not convince FSG not to spend another couple of million on Mkhitaryan or Willian, yet they’re happy to spend £7m on Alberto?! Barcelona B player, who’s gonna sit on the bench and for whom there was no competition to buy. Good player, but you can see why Sevilla nearly bit our hand off when we offered that much!
Good comment . All true . Time for Fsg to go
Oh no… Another nightmare result for u tommy. I don’t know how I can console u after sealing 6 points form 6 to kick the year off… Clearly this will be a difficult evening for u u poor whinging flog. Sleep it off now. U may get redemption next week.
What a childish comment . Of course I’m delighted we won . There will be plenty of highs and lows this season but like I said before – we will never get top 4 with Rodgers as boss , anyone who knows football understands this. Grow up you sheep
Yep. So delighted u haven’t been able to utter a single positive comment after starting 2 from 2. Just move on to another board *head.
You lot are morons
Does all this whining and insults and criticising will make FSG or Ayre or even BR give up..? Are some of us so naive to even think that after investing hundreds of millions in this club, FSG will step aside because we write things like this? Stop whining. After years of loosing financially, finaly we made some profit in this transfer window. And theres still 10 days left.
They must love mindless morons like you that follow blindly . If your a fan of FSG – your not a fan of LFC
Fenways are greedy bstards . Action must be taken to try and get these sc umbags out of our club. They have turned one of the worlds greatest biggest clubs into a mid table joke. Don’t let 2 Wins cover up the fact thst our team is weak and won’t even challenge for top 4
Yes , but you can already see all the silly kiddies already carried away by two wins against average teams
Surprised some fools aren’t proclaiming we will win league yet. The more realistic of us realize we won’t finish top 5 unfortunately
Great win, really surprised how well we are actually playing, I will give Brendan credit for this as I have been critical of him in the past, but he does seem to be having us play some good football and now consistency as well, really looking forward to us playing one of the top 4 from last season, Its a good job that Brendan is turning into a good manager seeing as FSG are not exactly being generous with the funds. Onwards and upwards.
We aint beat anyone good yet . This is not a good team
Realistic and true
I think FSG have someone leak false info into the media of links to this player and that player and so called offers for players. I also think in the case of Willian etc, if we did actually make an offer, we knew it wouldnt be accepted. FSG will come out at the end of the transfer window and say well we tried, but because of no champs league we couldnt get any one. Anyone who believes that crap is a complete fool. How do spurs get their players!!!Also whats happened to the stadium talk, thats forgotten now until some more *next season about the plans etc. FSG are liars, thay want out, it wouldnt surprise me if we sold Suarez to Real on Monday the 2nd and then the old bull *of no time to replace him, while FSG pocket the 55mill. FSG please sell the club to someone with ambition who wants to see LFC back where it was challenging for trophies every season and challenging for the league.
I despise FSG because they promised to be good owners who were ambitious both on and off the field. I have no problem with working to a budget but where was this years budget, we have probably reduced the wage bill by 2 mill a month, have made a profit so far of 5mill on spending.
I really feel sorry for Rogers, no one could get us top 4 with the budget he is working to, christ Southampton, Sunderland and plenty of others have spent much more. I think he may have sold Allen and Borinin, but he may not be allowed to replace them, like Downing and Assaudi.
Anyway sell up FSG and stick to baseball.