In a recent newspaper interview, the new Liverpool Manager Roy Hodgson said:
“We have to find a basis of English players because of the way UEFA and Premier League rules are going. We’ve got to get more home-grown players otherwise we’re going to struggle to get our squad numbers together. Kenny Dalglish can play a very, very important role in this. The club has already brought in a couple of players like Jonjo Shelvey and Raheem Sterling. Top English talent. We have finished the World Cup with more players than any other team but looking at the squad at Melwood, it did seem very small in terms of seniors.”
Over the last few years of his time in charge, Rafa spent quite a substantial amount of money on talented young players, the majority of which were foreign. The reasoning for this foreign policy? Talented, young English players don’t come cheap.
From his recent comments Roy Hodgson looks set to strengthen the Liverpool squad by recruiting the services of some top English players. This is a decision that will be welcomed by many Liverpool fans. The question is who can we afford to sign? This, of course will depend on summer departures.
Personally I would welcome players such as Micah Richards, Stephen Ireland, Ashley Young and James Milner but the combined cost of these players would be roughly £60m (and that’s for a list of players that are either out of form or can’t get into their current sides first team, with the exception of Milner).
I believe that Liverpool will find it incredibly hard to sign the type of high quality, British player that we need to both satisfy UEFA regulations and to take the football club forward. They are just too expensive. In my opinion there are only 2 scenarios which would enable Liverpool to compete for such players. Cash in on Torres and Gerrard or find new owners, and quickly!
As I don’t want to get into the debate of whether we should or shouldn’t sell our prized assets, let us be stupidly optimistic for a moment. Allow me to wave my magic wand and put new rich, Middle Eastern owners in charge by tomorrow morning. Which British talent would you like to see Liverpool move for?
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My one wish this season ..
To see Scott Parker play behind Gerrard
The term “British” doesn’t apply here. Scottish and N.I. players will not satisfy UEFA rules for home-grown talent which is the main reason why Roy is making this push. Also, plenty of the young players coming through Liverpool’s youth system will qualify so long as they get in their three years prior to turning 21 regardless of where they come from.
I think that the best plan is to continue what we’ve been doing which is make the academy and youth teams as strong as possible. That way we really only need to pick up 1 or 2 English players capable of playing for the first team squad to make up the numbers. Ashley Young and SW Phillips would be my pick for this season.
Joe Cole,Bent,Bentley,Crouch.
PS
Now lets compare our SPANISH leader and his country’s perfromance.
vs Roy Nobody and the England joke team
Hicks, Gilette, Purslow, Broughton = SCUM OF THE LOWEST ORDER!!
Milner Adam Johnson Ryan Shawcross Connor Wickham they are quality young and represent the future of English football.
IF Roy only has £12mil to spend it doesn’t look hopefull, that is why he needs to do all he can to get Joe Cole, he played left wing, in the hole and sometimes right wing at chelsea and he would prob be worth £15-20mil if was under contract, the only other players who look good enough to play for us are gary cahill and maybe young or milner not convinced though, we should of bought Adam johnson when rafa first looked at him 18months ago. sell mascherano and bid for dejong this would be excellent business.
Red Truth? We get it man. Owners = scum, Broughton = Chelsea scum, Purslow = scum, RH = yes man.
Jesus man, the article ask for an answer to the question “Who would you like to see Roy buy if buying English?”
Save your redundant rants for related articles please.
No more doom and gloom!!!!
So sick of it.
RED TRUTH, RAFA WASN’T THAT GOOD!
HE WAS LOOKING AT JOHNSON AND SIGNED RIERA INSTEAD FANTASTIC!!!!
ALSO, NOT MANY TEAMS SPEND £20MIL ON A SICK NOTE, AND UPSET OUR PLAYER OF THE SEASON 08-09 “ALONSO”.
Here’s a few of players rafa could of signed instead for a fraction.
SNEIJDER INTER £10MIL
VAN DER VART AVAILABLE FOR AROUND £10MIL
MARTINEZ £15MIL
EVEN SCOTT PARKER WOULD HAVE MADE MORE SENSE.
There’s a lot of good british players who wouldn’t cost a lot, but you need to have a hard look. I don’t think we need any more ‘future of british football’ players, as we have plenty already. Get players in who can give the current crop of youngsters time to develop.
Targets i’d be looking at would be:
Wilson – Rangers
McGeady – Celtic
S Taylor – Newcastle
Nolan – Newcastle
Carroll – Newcastle
Barton – Newcastle
Dann – Birmingham
M Taylor – Bolton
Players like these are your bread and butter players. Add some flair with a player like Van Der Vaart, keep most of the current first team and we could do something this season.
Good job Roy is his own man and does not listen to these suggestions – suspect he will buy home talent but none of the ones mentioned to date.
well said thomas! red truth, when are you going to catch up here? bungling benny has GONE! accept it and move on!
the first on my list would be
Peter Crouch,we missed him as much
as Alonso after that the rest must
love Liverpool lfc before we let them
anywhere near our beloved team.
Rafa runied Liverpool.wasted a lot of money for horrible players, depended too much on Torres who was on injury. We need few strikers to take off the load Torres, or maybe sell Torres for 50 million and get 4 strikers for the cash.
if he’s gonna be injured for the season, we might as well get some1 who can play more games. looking at Drogba, i think he managed to play a lot more games at Chelsea bcos he’s not alwayz injured.we need strikers as such. no doubt, Torres is good, but we need him to play every game.
I would love to see Joe Cole, but he will probably stay in London.
I also think Kevin Nolan would be worth a try, he’s a decent player anyway but put in a red shirt and he would give 110%.
Red Truth…………YOU ARE….SPOT ON!!!
YNWalkA and red truth, how long is it gonna take guys? get on board and look to the future!
milner.young mite suprise a few ppl but crouch aswell done very well at uz a few seasons ago j cole dont think he will cum no champions lge football mite put him off
I think the only one I would consider would be Stephen Ireland, but not sure you could have him and Gerrard in the same team.
The truth is Roy has no clout in the international market. No top player would look forward to playing under him. To save face, it is best to talk about local rubbish. Crouch? Not even first choice at Spurs end of season. Not good enough to get in England’s WC horror show. Only way to play with that lamp post is high long balls. Roy will not say “No” to the owners about anything. Pefect solution for the wicked three!!!!
No way are we signing English players without money and to get money we need new owners which means selling our other crap owners:Gillet:Hicks:Purslow:Broughton.
We need to sell Babel and Riera which would be about 20 million to get an English winger Ashley Young. If we do sell Torres- must be between 50 and 60 mill to Chelsea or even better 70 mill to Barcelona plus Ibrahimovic.