For me, this is a difficult question to answer as we don’t know what is going on behind the scenes at Anfield currently. I do feel it is unfair to criticise Roy Hodgson too harshly and there are a lot of things that have to be taken into account. Firstly, Roy has only been at the club for the best part of two months. To change everything he wants to change during that time is nigh on impossible, and takes time both to assess the squad and make judgements about players without having a great deal of time training with them. The late return of many players from World Cup would have certainly not helped matters and delayed his season preparations, as well as decisions over player’s futures including Javier Mascherano’s. There has been criticism therefore that he hasn’t given some players a chance before selling them; Alberto Aquilani, Lauri Dalla Valle and Emiliano Insua to name a few. In such examples I have no doubt that Roy already had knowledge of all three players before he even came to Liverpool. On Insua, he would have observed his performances in Liverpool’s campaign last season, on Dalla Valle he had watched the player after scouting reports from Fulham Academy director Malcolm Elias last season and was not convinced, while Aquilani would have been a player Roy would have known about for a few fair years with his contacts in Italy. Roy must have felt he was a player who would not cut it in the Premier League.
Mascherano and lack of spending power
There has also been criticism of Roy for selling players for low prices or not spending the money he received. Both are valid arguments to some extent. The sale of Mascherano for £10m below asking price was nothing short of bad business but the situation was forced on the manager by the players’ attitude, and the timing of Masch’s protest days before the end of the transfer window. On Aquilani, some have said the Juve deal was a bad deal for Liverpool as if he does well on his loan we will lose a great player and if he performs badly we will be lumbered with somebody we don’t want. I think it’s reasonable to assume that the Italian will do well if he stays fit and the £13m from his transfer will be a loss, but not as big if we had persisted with selling the player during this window. The value of an injury prone player without a great deal of match practice would have led to him being sold for even less in my view.
In the end Roy was left with an unenviable situation. With the ownership situation not sorted and no new money to spend on new players, this was always going to be a difficult transfer window. You could criticise Roy for being too soft and not standing his ground to get more transfer cash, but I believe no matter who was in charge, including Rafa, the Yanks wouldn’t have given the manager any money. He had to do the best with what he had, and he sold Mascherano with only a few days left until the end of August. He reacted quickly to seal a deal for Meireles while he attempted vainly yesterday to buy a striker. I think at times we could all be accused of expecting too much; I even yesterday recommended signing Arda Turan and a striker, without realising that in fact Roy didn’t even have enough for a striker. The Guardian said today that we had to offer both Lucas Leiva and Ryan Babel in a bid for Carlton Cole. The amount of money we had to spend must have been tiny.
Choice of Signings
Where I believe Roy can be criticised is the choice of signings. The jury will be still out on Christian Poulsen and Paul Konchesky for a long time, and I will not past judgement on them until they are given a fair chance. I won’t criticise however the purchase of Portuguese international Raul Meireles. For me, he is an essential purchase, a person who can direct play and control midfield; he was a greater priority than a striker and a winger. I will hold my hands up if the Meireles purchase doesn’t work out, but for me it really could be an inspired signing. There are other names that have been bandied around, we could have bid for Klass Jan Huntelaar, Ricky van Wolfswinkel, Arda Turan or perhaps even Rafael van der Vaart during this transfer window, but the lack of funds have put paid to these ambitions. Even with the VDV situation yesterday, I don’t believe the Reds even had the £8m to match Tottenham even if they wanted to.
Fundamentally then, as Fernando Torres said today, the only real change will come when new owners are put in place, and the manager is not put under the tight financial constraints he has been working under since his appointment.
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“The sale of Mascherano for £10m below asking price was nothing short of bad business ”
What a load of rubbish. It is widely excepted that Liverpool received in excess of £22m for Mascherano. Guilleme Balague and Graham Hunter have both confirmed Barcalone put out misleading statements about price for their own PR purposes.
http://www.guillembalague.com/rumores_desp.php?id=285&titulo=Mascherano%20fee%20higher%20than%20initial%20reports
If you are going to write an article like this, make it factual and reasonable, this is really poor.
we all know the situation… money has been disappearing from transfer sales- alonso?!!! and so forth. tom and jerry aren’t backing the team in investment – but that’s nothing new. I am happy with Roy’s transfer dealing considering the restraints he has to deal with.
How long does it take to sell somthing?
I am not quite sure that I understand the point of this article. I am sure that this is a basis in there somewhere but I just couldnt find it. Roy isnt the only person making decision about the players that were sold by the club. Dont believe everything that read in the press. Dalla Valle is a player with potential and like any other reserve player, he needed first team experience which he wasnt going to get at the club. I wish it was a loan move but like other youngsters in the past and other other youngsters in the future, he had to move on. That was not Roy decision but other people at the club. Insua was set to transfer even before Roy signed off, so that was off base as well. Again, I know there was a point there just dont see it.
As far as players coming in, I think that Roy did a good job in the transfer market given the lack of funds. The only notable addition you mention is Meireles and I wonder why, is that the only player you consider a big name player that we signed. Poulsen is going to fit in nicely when he need him to. We needed a solid left back and now we have one, we need a back up keeper and now we have one that also adds to our homegrown quota. We needed a left sided midfield player and we brought in Milan and J. Cole. So again, I dont see your point. I think that Roy did a great job in the transfer market. The other names that you mentioned, Arda, RDV, VW, whom I am sure that you consider big name players, but we lack the funds to make several of those kinds of purchases, so again I commend Roy for the job he did in the market.
poor transfer window? I think we’ve done superbly with what we have, and considering it was only Man City who really spent big, the issue isn’t a lack of spending power as it seems no one else had much either
At one point it looked like we might lose Torres, Gerrard, Kuyt and Johnson. In that case we’d have been battling relegation. We’ve staved this off until next season now, unless we get new owners, and we should be comfortably mid-table.
At the end of the day Roy’s job is to steady the ship until the new owners come in. No new owners means his old club will probably finish above us next year.
When the Guardian says we offered Lucas Leiva and Ryan Babel for Carlton Cole try to use at least a little bit of the grey matter. It doesn’t mean that we offered them both as part of the same deal. It is more likely that there was deal (a) Lucas and (b) Babel. In either event those players are both far better than Carlton Cole so I wouldn’t have swapped either of them for him. I’d have been prepared to swap with Tottenham for Pavyluchenko because he’s quality but Carlton Cole! What was Roy thinking?
the question is simple – who have we bought that is going to score the goals ? cole, jovanovich etc are going to have to come up with 20 goals between them if we are to get anywhere and thats if torres and stevie score 50 between them
pawluchenko is too slow for the premiership, a poor mans morientes, thats why redknap wants rid, he can finnish and will score goals but not the 20 a season man we need
Difficult question?
No, wrong, there’s no way fro giving falths to Roy.
Roy is a football manager, He’s not a wheeler & dealer.
Under sell to buy regime Roy bring in such as quality plyr like Joe Cole and Raul Meireles.
The portuguese midfield is considered one of the best box to box midfield in european footie but the Rafa’s troops can’t admit Roy hits a great business for the Club.
This article is only shite and only ones to blame are the americans.
Can I underline the famous claims of Tom Hicks about the magnificent summer transfer window of LFC?
Now, the reality is that Roy must exchange Ryan babel in order to buy an average striker like Carlton Cole.
It’s a fact.
Roy is doing a magnificent work under restrictions, and the only one to blame are the americans muppetes.
FACT.
it’s so very easy to point fingers and criticize for the lack of activity. i feel for RH. the masch saga certainly did not help. masch claims RH knows the truth about something but that is besides the point. Barcelona also messed up Rh’s plans. if only they had come in sooner with a PROPER bid and not left it till late. it’s like they planned to do this all along just to prevent LFC and RH to shop for a the necessary players needed to beef up the squad. the aquaman affair is different. there is no doubting his skills but his fitness is still suspect to me. it’s looking very clear that he will remain in Juve unless Juve does a u-turn. in any case if the sale goes thru, thats 13m in the bag and if not Aquaman will be back having racked up more minutes and hopefully improving his fitness. i also agree judgment will be made on poulsen and kons very quickly, especially Poulsen since he has to fill very large shoes left behind my Masch. Kons on the other hand has loads of experience in the league and should have no problems fitting in. Raul Meireles would alo need time to get used to the pace of the game and also his team mates. Yes, names were being thrown in from all corners of the world to fill the much-needed stiker. i would scrutinize everyone and see if they fit LFC’s football style and can compliment the current crop of players. i wouldn’t just rush into signing any tom,dick or harry for the sake of signing or just because he is a big name or high profile striker. i don’t blame RH a bit. as much as I would have wanted more activity during the transfer window, we have to live with it for now. I, along with all other TRUE LFC fans and followers, would hope and pray that new owners are brought in and new funds are made available. YNWA
I think Roy has done a GREAT job. Now, all we need are “NEW OWNERS !”. By the next transfer window, LFC should be in a new owners hands. Preferably someone who is capable of competing with Chelsea and Man United fundamentally and would bring the club back to it’s normal state. All this by right should happen BEFORE THE NEXT TRANSFER WINDOW RE-OPENS.
Therefore, by the next transfer window Roy should have at least 40M to spend on bringing in :
David de Gea for 4M – Young and could be Reina’s understudy like Jones. Then, we can be rid of Itandje.
Javi Martinez for 18M – Young, could be the next Xabi Alonso and at 21 he is a heck load better than Lucas.
Patrick Helmes for 18M – El Nino and Moppel? He might just be what we have been looking for. Forget Carlton Cole, N’gog is almost as good as him. If we want a quality striker, I would say Helmes is what we’re looking for. They’d be unstoppable.
—THE END OF THE IN-COMING TRANSFERS FOR THE NEXT TRANSFER WINDOW—
And now, we can sell :
~ Charles Itandje for (0.5M)
~ Sotirios Kyrgiakos for (2M)
~ Lucas Leiva (8-10M)
—THE END OF THE TRANSFERS, FOR THE NEXT TRANSFER WINDOW—
~~~~~~~~All those transfers = A TOP-FOUR FINISH~~~~~~~~
*Season 2011-12*
To challenge for the Champions League and the Barclays Premier Leaugue, we have to sign Marcelo from Real / Royston Drenthe(Preferably Marcelo). We can get him for 10M + Emiliano Insua. He is a superb left-back, full of pace and is capable of running pass defenders. (Since Insua is on loan to Galatasaray, this transfer can only take place in a years time. that is when he’s back)
With Marcelo and Juan Mata dominating the left side and the English duo of Cole and Johnson on the right, Liverpool will be a very threatening side. Especially having Torres and Helmes up front. In addition, the partnership of Gerrard and Meireles(considering he performs as he did in Porto) in midfield would make Liverpool a very dangerous. With Pepe in goal, Carra and Skrtel in front of him, Liverpool might just be on their way to a twentieth Prem League victory since the year 1990.
Lets hear what Mr C Poulson has to say now – he was full of it when he arrived – so lets hear it now
Kerry – It is people like you who wanted nothing less than Villa or Aguero etc with the same financial problems when Rafa was here and now settling for Konchesky, Jones, C Cole etc. It is not just the players he has signed but all those his name has been associated with; the likes of C Cole, Luke Young, Crouch and that kind of rubbish. Your facts are almost all out of place. Javanovic was signed in a precontract by Rafa. J Cole openly admitted he was convinced by SG to join. Negotiations were done by Purslow according to Roy himself. If you had been in touch with most Liverpool chat forums, nearly everybody was opposed to us signing Poulsen. Konchesky at 29 signed for 4 years. Unless he starts to produce milk at the age of 32, heaven knows why Roy has committed for 4 years? Dalla Valle did not want to leave and Roy’s words were “I did not rate the boy but the Fulham coaching staff did”!! So which drugs or planet are you on?
angels – Stop making excuses. Why would Barca come in early to help our cause? Look at our own history. Simoa boading the plane on the final day; negotiations fail by 1m and he is off-loaded. No replacement possible! Keene sold deliberately on the last day so money could be swindled into debt payment. Rafa tried desparately to sign Kierrson but conceded there was not enough time. Masch deal was agreed on 27 Aug. What the hell was Roy doing until 2 hours before the deadline? He wasn’t sure who to go after and finally went for Heskey’s younger brother in C Cole. I think it was deliberate again, but beyond Roy’s comprehension. The surplus from Masch sake is now gone for good. Finito. Not coming back in the next window. Good business; my foot!!!!
Our dealings this summer have been F-ing incompetent from Purslow, Hodgson and of course the Yanks. Everyone in football has known for the last 18 months we need a support striker for Torres. FFS it was a stick with which to beat Rafa with all last season, “oh its Rafa’s fault we started a season without support for Nando”, one would have thought that this year’s absolute priority was to get a second striker. And this should have been secured in June/July, not farting about on the last day of the season offering cast offs and whatever funds could be found in the coffee collection for a second rate striker. For this i blame Purslow and the Yanks. However, Woy having seen the problems we faced last season, and knowing how desperate we were to sign him before or in case the England job became available should have made £15 million in funds for a striker a condition of joining us. As it is once Nando is injured again, our season will fall apart again, and this time it will be Woy’s head on the block. Sheer utter pathetic transfer strategy. Again.
I think its been as good a window as it could have been considering Roy had to get rid of a lot of Rafa’s terrible signings, the trying to sign replacements after H and G had dipped into whatever we made from sales. The only things that might have been done differently was maybe Flamini instead of Poulson and selling Kuyt to get a winger with some actual pace. I have no problems with Dalla Valle going, looked small, slow and lazy in pre-season. I’ll be very surprised if he turns into a decent Premiership player.
Have to agree with Kerry, I don’t see the point of this article. You answer your own question in the first para – we don’t know what’s going on behind the scenes, so why try to blame Hodgson. We don’t know for sure who he tried to sign but most people here just seem happy to regurgitate the crap that’s written in the press – most of which seems to be made up anyway (remember all those stories about Torres signing for City/Chelsea/Barca etc, strange none of those southern journos thought to ask FT what he planned).
RH did all he could to keep Masch but he wanted to go for family reasons, and Aqua clearly doesn’t have what it takes to hack it in the Prem. As to the new players lets give them a chance – Konchesky will be solid (another Finnan?),while Poulsen and Meireles will need time to adjust.
None of us are happy with the current situation with the owners, but writing off the manager and players before they’ve had a chance just plays into the hands of those who want to see us fail. Whatever happened to YNWA.
I’ve been reading the responses with interest. Liverpool are definitely lacking in goal scoring department and my initial take on Jovanovic is that he isn’t technically good enough – industrious yes but hangs on to the ball too long, doesn’t get his head up and runs into dead ends. Mind you, I admit it is very early days to judge.
I do honestly believe though that Liverpool do have a lot of the answers in-house if they have the courage to do a Wenger or Ferguson and play our most talented youngsters in the first team – in particular Pacheco. In my opinion, given the opportunity, he could be the next Fabrigas and the ideal position for him would be behind Torres. Play Gerrard and Meireles behind, Cole on the left and Maxi, Babel or Kuyt on the right. I really believe that Pacheco could the key to getting Liverpool’s shape and system right and play a style with real pace and invention – and can really see a partnership with Torres florishing.
We also have to be more willing to play the likes of Eccelstone, Amoo and Ince more. My biggest concern is our lack of pace and width but given that, we need to do something along the lines of what I’ve suggested. I really hope we get to see the system I’ve suggested get a try out..Arsenal and ManU have shown that if you are good enough you are old enough. Here’s hoping the signings we have made turn out to be better than feared.
It was managerial incompetence from Benitez last season not to get a decent striker to cover for Torres and it is the same managerial incompetence from Woy Hodgson. Even worse really when we all seen how last season went with Ngog as our 2nd striker.
Woy could have signed Trezequet or Gudjohnson for free so lsck of money is no excuse. Skills in the transfer market is a huge part of being a top manager. Woy has been shown to be average in the transfer market if Carlton Cole was his great idea on deadline day after 7 weeks in the job to find a striker.