So today Liverpool – according to every press source under the sun – have upped their bid for Sunderland’s Jordan Henderson. Apparently, the reported initial bid of £13 million wasn’t enough so the club went back in with a £15-16 million bid. Again, they were rebuffed. Today, we’ve moved again with a bid in the region of £18.5 million.
Now don’t get me wrong, I’m as pleased as punch that we are able to table bids of this sum for players, it shows that we’re not short of a bit of money anymore. But what we’re talking about here is a player who has spent his entire professional career (one spell at Coventry apart) with a bottom 10 club. In two full seasons at Sunderland, he has played 77 games and scored just 5 goals. He is a midfielder and an attacking one – that can also play out wide – and he has scored just 5 goals over two seasons. We have tabled – reportedly – an £18.5 million bid for this player, who also has one England cap. He has never played in Europe and has not yet even made an impression when playing against one of the big sides.
Contrast this with a player reportedly on offer for £500,000 less, Valencia’s Juan Mata, and you can see why I’m a little concerned about the amount we’re prepared to pay. Mata, by contrast, is barely 3 years older than Henderson, has played over 170 times for Valencia with 46 goals to his name. He has also played 11 times for the best national side in the world, scoring 4 goals. He has played a further 38 games for Spain at various youth levels, scoring 21 times. Now if anybody believes (and can also prove) that the Englishman is greater value for money then I will happily retract my statement and eat my hat.
Similarly, I have read today via the official LFC site that Ipswich have refused an £8 million bid for their young striker Connor Wickham. They believe that they are entitled to about £2 million more and I can see why, after all he has scored an intimidating 15 goals in 72 appearances for Ipswich. In the Championship. Now, I appreciate that I may sound overly harsh, he is after all only 18 years old and it’s impressive in the sense that he’s playing regularly in the Championship and has been since he was 16. But £10 million? For an 18 year old that has scored 15 goals in his whole career so far? I’m sorry but British or not; ‘home-grown’ or from the Isle of Sandwich, that fee is positively extortionate. In January, we spent just over double that on a proven Uruguayan international that had scored over 140 goals in his career by the age of 24 – Luis Suarez.
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What we are doing with player like this we are not thinking about title !?!
where is ashely young who will sign for man
where is juan Muta – jesus Navaz – Enrique – Countario ????? we need 2 of those player if we think about title 🙁 20 million in player at 20 and he is not superstar
Yeah cos we need superstars like Balotelli, Dzeko, Torres and Adebayor. We shouldn’t work to mske stars out of players like we did with Reina, Mascherano, Alonso and Torres. No let’s spend millions on established superstars who for some reason don’t want Champions League football and are prepared to accept half the pay they would elsewhere.
OK. First of all, Liverpool always get higher price for good & bad players. Arsenal & other top team like Barce, always get a good players that match to their quality. This is not the first time & it is keep on happening till today. Look how much we spent on Caroll. Their really must learn something skill from Arsene Wenger….For me, spent enormous money for those players that mentioned really not worthy at all. LFC got pletty of young talents. Why must we buy from other club?
barcelona are massively in debt and arsenal have not won a trophy in how long!! Liverpool are not in debt and have just signed kenny dalglish who has given us back our club and ethos again. God supposidly took 7 days to make everything, give kenny a bit more time for f**** sake!!
look who ever we sign from now till sept is out of are hands henderson and carroll are both overpriced but how many dud overseas players have we signed in past 20 plus years at least there english and if it does go titts up king kenny will pay with is job
Haha top comment vish. If we’re going to buy English then why not go all out on Adam Johnson. Not much older than Henderson but has tons of skills. And if I was Adam Johnson I would definitely want to go to Liverpool, where he would be guaranteed start to almost every game available and to a team with the ambition of winning the league……That’s Liverpool, where ynwa
IT’S THE ADAM JOHNSTON FACTOR. We should also go all out on Adam Johnston ’nuff said
dont worry… its a market transfer tactick.. we kwow jordan henderson are value for 15 million and swoop for ngog 5 million… great deal…
now we get youngster .. jordan are faster and he can play right flank.. look what he can do with adam johnson or downing..
welcome To Liverpool.. YNWA..
jordan henderson
phil Jones
downing
dsuzcak
enrique
aguero
you are red….
please get agueroooooooooooooooooo……
if we back this up with the signature of someone like aguero and mata it will be ok. Otherwise we are not showing the same intent/ambition as the likes of Barca who are looking to sign players of the calibre of fabregas (for the same position) and sanchez and rossi.
Mate, understand the sentiment in the article. But based on your thinking, players like Rio, Rooney, Shearer, Lampard would never have moved from their ‘home’ clubs.
Shearer’s scoring record and southampton was poor. Rooney had barely played half a season, and lampard was considered over priced when he moved. and then 18mil for a defender?
Yes, there is a premium for english players; that is because they adapt better in the league, tend to be more loyal and because of the 4+4 rules in the 25 man squad.
Finally, look at Barca. the spine of their team play not only club football but international football. That benefits Barcelona, in the same way liverpool will benefit from Flanagan, Kelly, robinson, Jones, Shelvey, Henderson, Sterling, Carroll, Wickham play and train together.
PS. I love mata, and have no doubt he will be a star. but for every Alonso/Torres there is a Morientes/Reyes.
Liverpool are seriously becoming a massive laughing stock. 35m for Carroll and now 20m for Henderson. Can Dalglish and Comolli not look beyond the Premier League for more talented and cheaper alternatives? All they can do is waste buckets of money on overpriced and overrated British players. All this crap is becoming a joke now. Who would have thought that Liverpool would spend 55m on two unproven and overrated English kids in Carroll and Henderson. Dalglish and Comolli need to wake up and spend the money more wisely. These guys are clueless in the transfer market and are being held to ransom for average British players. Liverpool seriously need to stop paying over overrated and over hyped British players.
I don’t care what anyone says that we should trust what Kenny and Commoli are doing. I AGREE 110% with you Eric! Carroll is more like 20m and Henderson 10m (however, we did get him for 15m plus N’gog…its a 20m dollar deal!)! I would have rather shipped 15m for Adam Johnson or even 20m because the kid is like a English-Brazillian! So if these kids are worth this, shouldn’t Suarez be worth like….40m!!! Let’s hope they bring in some cheaper alternatives with passion for the game like N’Zogbia (atttitude, guile, skill)or Afellay, Baines (highly unlikely, but I’d go for Izzaguire or play Agger there!), Park Chu Young (great player to come of the bench and play a role similar to his countryman with the Manc), Dann (Scouse Blood and will only elevate his game with LFC) and a striker to come off the bench and make an impact (Bojan, Sturridge, Djibril Cisse(does the job even if you don’t like him!), Higuain (if Tevez joins Madrid), DJ Campbell (This guys got the goods and supported him since Brentford!), Kevin Nolan even Klose!)…But I saw someone (Joe)said Henderson’s gonna be better than StevieG soon!..hmmmmmm..You’ve gone mad have you!?!?! GERRARD IS GOD! and there will never…cough cough..NEVVVVVVVVVVERRRRRR be another Gerrard! Even though our Captain is not as vocal as I would like to see him, don’t ever support LFC if you’re not going to support StevieG and make him the best in your heart! He along with Carra, Kuyt, Pepe, and a few others give me chills when the game starts! You know the love they have for LFC…Just remembering seeing Gerrard with the fans on the last day! Ask anyone, if you’d see Giggs, Lampard, Terry, Rooney or whoever do what Lord Stevie would Do! By the way, good comment Eric!
It seems a bit expensive as the writer says….
Well guys, I read thru all ur comments and replies. True enough we didn’t smell champion for long time, but we got used to it. Why not we trust KK and give him a full season? Lets see what he has for us the end of the season. For now, stop arguing and support him 100%. YNWA…..
dont worry….
liverpool will sign 7 player only…
henderson or downing >> right winger
jeffren or young or dsuzcak >> left winger
john or dann >> central defender
enrique or cissoko >> left back
mata or aguero >> attacking striker
doni >> backup keeper
adam or matuidi >> mid line
but i choose this…
……………..reina……………….
…..cara…….skertel……enrique…..
……….gerrard……lucas………….
downing….henderson…suarez……..mata
…………….caroll……………….
hmmmmmm…and you’re saying those other players are going to sit on the bench???…Stop dreaming mate…with you at the helm we’d be looking like the ManCity’s and Chelsea’s…(WE DON’T BUY CHAMPTIONSHIPS!)…and remember we have youngsters that DESERVE to be playing in the first team because of Borello and Co’s work!!! Sterling, Coady, Silva, Morgan, Suso…WHAT YOU GOING TO DO WITH THEM?? SELL THEM ;S
and remember! Glen Johnson is still a WORLD CLASS player! and you’d play Enrique over him..hahahahah…Downing over him…lolololol…Mata over him…lmao!! i THINK NOT! Be sensable with names and everyone stop throwing in names like Hazard, Coentrao, Mata!! THEY WILL NOT COME with the likes of Real Madrid, Barca and others out there with LFC having no CL or even a Euro competition next season! They would have to be die hard LFC fans like Turan, Alonso, Villa etc..if they would join!
hahahaha…. thats a dream only… but its not possible.. look… LFC get around 60 million transfer trade. we know ngog was swoop with hendersen and they value him for 5 million… who cares…
henderson – 20 million
mata – 18 million
aguero – 30 million
Aguero will NOT be coming this summer GET OVER IT
I would just like to say, that Rooney scored 15 goals in 67 appearances for Everton and then moved for a large fee, look at him now! Conner Wickham has 13 goals from 65. (these stats came from wikipedia, i know its not the most reliable but its pretty accurate)
I must say I dont think Henderson is worth £20m, but if Ngog goes and knocks £5-£8m off what we’ve paid that i must say thats not a bad bit of business, also must mean we’ll be in for a new striker for sure.
Hopefully this is correct, then I think it’s a reasonable deal.
“The deal will see Liverpool pay £13 million and the £7 million-rated striker David N’Gog move to the Stadium of Light in part exchange.”
Source: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/teams/liverpool/8562711/Liverpool-sign-Jordan-Henderson-from-Sunderland-in-20-million-deal.html
It’s simple. UEFA regs regarding homegrown players will become more strict; Germany even has its own quota separate to UEFA’s. This has happened since Bosman and a few other milestone moments, including the last time a quota was introduced (Look what Souness had to pay for English players then.) Emile Heskey is a case in point; We paid £11m which at the time was an horrendous price to pay and since then he’s had another 2 or 3 £10m + transfers. why? He’s English. Fill the squad with Mata, Enrique etc and then when we get Euro games back, we have to field a 2nd team; where will that get us in the long term? ManUre have long been the self-acclaimed bastion of home-grown talent; in the CL final they fielded just 3 Englishmen.
Btw, look what those 3 Englishmen cost them; Ferdinand, Carrick & Rooney = £80m
At last a bit of commonsense!
Some people just don’t know Liverpool’s history, or I suppose any football history, look at some of the Liverpool legends, and where they came from. Kevin Keegan? Scunthorpe! The quality of a player cannot be judged on what level they have played at to date. Beckford was a first division player before going to the blues. Its so short sighted to value a player only on the level they have played at previously
All these English players and we will end up like the national team. Total c***. I love LFC and i’m trying to tell myself that KK will bring us through, but sorry Carroll, Henderson wayyyyy overpriced.Good news is that it looks like N’gogs going. Personally i’d take Charlie Adam and Adam Johnson would be my 2 main targets if we are going British. Charlie Adam would be my main target whatever we do. One thing, I hope we don’t lose sight of the fact that we need another striker and a left back. I am nervous for the new season, but just hope KK can propel us back into the top 4 where we belong. YNWA
I am getting a little bit sick of the internet liverpool fan and their lack of faith and subsequent lack of memory. If Kenny Dalglish has signed henderson well he must think that he has the right attitude and ability to make it at liverpool, its as simple as that. If he did not think it then he would not have signed him. Henderson is 20 years old and full of potential. I remeber some other signings kenny has made like this namely shearer, sutton, barnes, beadsley, aldgridge he signed these good players and took them to a new level. have faith, he would not sign them unless he could get the best out of them and make them winners. You only have to look at how he has transformed liverpool from no hopers to maybe with a few signings getting back up where we belong. with young signings and success = we ensure it is not a one off.
I’m a bit worried about this sort of investment for someone so unproven. Ive spoken to an SAFC mate of mine who thinks Henderson is a good player, but not worth the money. We need someone to provide the final ball into the box which is where we looked poor last season when we appeared to have run out of ideas. And Henderson MIGHT do this.
BUT as for the Liverpool fans who keep blindly exclaiming in Kenny we trust, you probably dont remember Kenny buying Jimmy Carter from Milwall in his first spell in charge and he was embarassingly poor. Kenny is capable of errors in judgement too (he is human), I just hope that this is not a £20m error in judgement as there are better players who we could buy that are proven. Plus our midfield looks a far stronger department than left back and wings.
another important point is this the owners have faith so why are the fans not happy!! they are the ones spending the money. can you imagine if H&G where still here! Administration and championship football thats what!!