FSG will be highly scrutinized once Suarez is sold
Under Pressure… I want to set the mood for this piece just right so please in your mind say those 2 words over and over until all you can hear is Queen and Freddy Mercury, and then you may continue on!
All over the land, whether you wear red, black and white stripes, blue or some sort of strange take on a table cloth, you will be told that Sumone Neverheardofinho is signing for your club….no wait he isn’t…. MadeUp FC want an extra £3 but your club doesn’t think it is worth losing a Boots meal deal over….bast#rds….can’t believe he is not signing he is the best player ever….until the next link or he signs somewhere else then he is rubbish.
Don’t you just love it? Not really! Still trying to decide whether my half hourly rumour checks on Twitter is better or worse than the Ceefax gossip page or clubcall! Cheaper I guess. As wonderful it is when a Can or a Lambert or a Lallana signs on the dotted line its mortifying when a Suarez is about to do the same elsewhere, and here is where we find the pressure.
Every single transfer window for every single club will see the ownership come under close scrutiny to open their wallets, swipe the American Express or just generally flirt with anyone with a vested interest, and each year bloggers and journalists will praise/damn/question (delete where applicable) the actions taken. He cost too much, we don’t need him, he is rubbish, why didn’t we sign that San Marino wonderkid and so on. With such a spotlight nowadays with social media in the mix ‘the Liverpool Way’ is not possible, between newspapers, ITK’s and Indykalia nothing appears to be a secret or necessarily true, if it were I’m not sure how Liverpool could pay all the players they are signing and whether our squad of 4,367 could actually fit in Melwood. I suppose the only real way to know if it is the truth is if dog pooh is shoved through your letterbox, but I’m sure we have all moved on mates.
The summer of 2013 and January of 2014 were no different as we were left cursing a failure to apparently offer that extra needed for a Mkhitariyan, Willian or Diego Costa or in fact the sheer double hard Bruce Lee nasty bast#rdness to convince an eastern European to sign a piece of paper. Yet signings were made, some fairing better than others and on the whole a raft of potential… and Victor Moses.
All this without the lure of Champions League. In fairness, the ambition shown by the club to attract the star names, signing the likes of Sakho for the present and Ilori for the future combined with the stubbornness to retain a want-away Uruguayan when faced with a French London connection counting out coppers to make up that extra £1 left a largely positive feeling. When you match this with the emergence of Sterling, Sturridge realising his talent, Henderson with a big ‘F You’ to a certain Scot and Rodgers winning over the fans we marched out of the last season with a strut reminiscent of Vince McMahon and his grapefruits.
However, as we enter the summer of 2014, FSG have become like ants under the Kop magnifying glass, and the good work undertaken last season to get us to this point and silence the doubters is becoming increasingly fragile and precarious. There are certain facts that we know:
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Work on the stadium has begun
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Roughly £45 million spent on players without Champions League
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We now have Champions League
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Premier League TV money is going up drastically
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Ticket prices are not coming down
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Likely that Luis Suarez is leaving and we know the price
The situation is simple. It is a well established fact that Liverpool’s squad, if it were a swimming pool, would be suitable for babies and toddlers due to its depth. Undoubtedly a contributing factor to our impressive season was a lack of European football which is thankfully back (you are allowed to sing ‘The Champiiiiiiiiiiiiiioooooooonnnns’ at this point), so our minimum number of games to be played this year is significantly up. We need an investment in both our squad and our starting 11 if we are to at the very least maintain our Champions League status. Even if Luis Suarez were to stay I would suggest that it is reasonable to expect a spend in excess of the £45 million we spent last year as we should have more money available and the quality of player we should be able to attract will have a higher price tag.
Its no secret that it is a tough market and there are some clubs that you just can not compete with, your Chelsea’s, Manchester City’s, Real Madrid’s, PSG’s and Barcelona’s, I mean for some it doesn’t even matter if there is a transfer ban for you or a football ban for a player! What can you do?! I personally believe that our business so far is solid if not a tad expensive for a particular Southampton player, but you would hope this business is done with the mindset that Suarez is staying. I would personally hope that there is Plans A, B and even C for if he were to leave. You can not simply replace someone like Suarez for he is simply one of the very best in the world and it is here where FSG face their biggest challenge.
If/when Suarez leaves you are not only having to replace his goals, assists and general (legal) contributions but you also have to placate the fans, give them something to cheer, to hold on to, and regardless of how good a Lallana is, should he become the biggest buy of the summer or that the entirety of the money received for Suarez is not spent on top of whatever budget was there initially then all of FSG’s good work is undone in an instant. Should Luis Suarez depart then the club needs a statement signing! Simple as. Obviously somebody suitable for the club and suiting Rodgers style, but nevertheless a world name, a stellar signing. As I said, as good as Lallana is, and hopefully as good as he may turn out to be, he is not that signing, not that name.
Whatever happens the club needs to look at North London to see what went wrong, and that whoever is brought in is in the mould of the manager’s vision but as ABBA said, Money Money Money, and if FSG fall short there may well be hell to pay.
Come find me on twitter @timdibs
Suggestings then.,.,
Suarez is irreplaceable, but it looks like he’s off anyway. There aren’t many names out there could make us feel any better about it but Sanchez would be a good start. I was never that comfortable about Lallana and his price, Im not really sure what he’ll do for us and I hope he proves me wrong. When we raided Southampton I’d much rather we’d started with Lovren, our defence needs fixing and strengthening before anything else in my opinion.
my god why should FSG fail? everything they have done has been positive, please start been a supporter instead of a miserable pessimist, LFC have owners that know how to run a show, we have made massive improvements on and off the field and are about to reclaim our rightful place amongst footballs elite, I can not understand your need to write a negative article, maybe you should try twitter for crap like this.
Perhaps you should read again…..not negative at all, I’m all for our owners!
Do you not think this a big high pressure summer?? FSG have to get this right otherwise their positive work to date will be forgotten!
Replacing a star man as spurs and arsenal have shown in recent years is very tough
Sanchez or no deal pure and simple
Loic remy and shaqir from bayern munich might be a better options for our attark….. Both will combine less than £30mill,also need left back and goalkeeper.,
For instance if Suarez leave & we are to get Sanchez & Shaqiri then the issue of Suarez will be forgotten quickly because their goals will surpass the departed Suarez. liverpool is a club bigger than individual person & a new sharp shooter will be born & those who force their exit will fail, look at the likes of Michael Owen, Torres to name just a few
Sanchez feels too small to fit into suraez shoes.
Whether we get sanchez or not we’ll stil remain force to be reckon with, watch out for sturidge, he’ll score up to 30 goals dis season…remember dis saying, ‘when a king dies, an heir to d throne arises. But no pessimism brethren, with some couple of signing we’ll move d world again…YNWA!!!
Fsg as fail liverpool fans all over the world they are selling suarez without a replacement, sanchez is going to arsenal they will be stronger and liverpool will get wicker do not sell suarez to barca
Fsg as to think like human beings barca is selling sanchez to arsenal for arsenal to get stronger they should ask spurs what happen to them after the sail of garet bale arsenal went to madrid to buy osil
We should be posititive. where we tsnd we are much better in all. FSG must not sell Suarez. they must do their best to keep him and try to get the french guy, Valbuena. he is terrific and will get it him maxi £10 Million. We need these kind of players. We need to get at least 2 defenders as well in the calibre of Danny Alves
Hahaha!! Nice.
the writer is correct if we sign and continue to sign average players players then our club remains average. surely Suarez mustn’t go and if he goes we nid a world class replacement. FSG must be serious.yes spending doesn’t guarantee success BT we nid to spend big on big names to compete with e likes of Chelsea,man city and Barcelona.we are equal to these guys why then should we be used as their breeding growing.
For the most I agree, Lallana, has got a lot to prove, he may of been stand out at Southampton but his goals and assists just aren’t that high, so 25m is way too much for him, personally i think Fsg always show they’re cheap, even the stadium issue is the same.
Names like Sanchez, Rodriguez, even Benzema, in reality, we are not looking at, the club, or someone close to the club release names like this to make us think FSG are on the ball, when they are really always only looking for the cheaper option
Liverpool must to buy alexis sanchet by all means.
So far,FSG have done a commendable job. From the business point of view they continue to bring investment into LFC. The Anfield development has begun. And on the field, BRodgers has been given freedom to build the team. For the Suarez saga, no official statement were released or spoken by any of the LFC officials. So,its all media hype and rumors. But as a supporter, I’m with majority of fellow supporters would definitely against the sale of our prized asset below 80m£. And if Arsenal’s bid for Sanchez accepted, what were Sure and
Sorry for last sentence, it was to be;and if Arsenal’s bid for Sanchez accepted by Barca,why should we negotiate any further regarding Suarez.
Suarez equals 31 goals plus 12 assists….we need a striker that provides 20 goals, better mf options to create more and compensate for the assists. Lalana should provide cover but I’m not convinced with the 25 million pounds transfer.
Bottom line, find a 20 goal season striker, tighten up the defence. Instead of conceding 50 plus goals , make it 40…. We should get stronger next season. Unless , me Johnson is there costing the team 20 plus goals agan