Since the turn of June, transfer gossip has been beating our minds in from all directions and, as Liverpool fans, we’re certainly no strangers to that as the Reds transfer strategies seem to have taken precedence over everybody else’s in the eyes of the press and the internet.
It is not difficult to understand why either, as we’ve embarked on a mission to sign up as much English talent as possible and, preferably, young Englishmen at that. Now, that is an admirable desire, as I have said before: I would love nothing more than to see a young, all-English (or at least, predominantly) side take to the field at Anfield and play with a mixture of passion and verve. As much of a pipe-dream that that probably is, it is still a good one to have and I fully support it. The one issue I would raise though, is this: if we see youth as the future and English really is the way to go, why are we looking outside of the club and spending an absolute fortune in the process?
Having just signed Jordan Henderson for a reported £20 million, we then looked to loan out Jonjo Shelvey to Blackpool in exchange for Charlie Adam; again, reportedly. I get bored of hearing myself say ‘£20 million for a 20 year old English midfielder?’ but I get a little annoyed when thinking that we’re looking to loan out a perfectly good, at near enough the same level (and a year younger) midfielder to make room and to get experience. Nobody should be fooled by the price-tag, Henderson will not become a first team player overnight, which again raises the question of why we needed him in the first place when we have both Spearing and Shelvey available and the ex-Sunderland player hasn’t done anything yet to show why he deserves a place ahead of them.
In the same breath, the club is clearly ready to part with David Ngog. That would be fine, if we hadn’t been being linked with another young French striker – Nolan Roux – for a fee reportedly in the region of £10 million: less than we’d likely get for Ngog. I’m not for a second trying to say that Ngog is worth that much but if this young lad is worth the money then I’d expect him to be a first-teamer. He won’t be, at most he’d be warming the bench which… is what David Ngog has been doing for 3 years. A very good bench-warmer he is too, and quite handy with getting goals from the bench too. So is there really a point in letting a perfectly useful, well-experienced Premier league striker leave, only to pay twice as much for somebody the same age, with less Premiership experience just to have him sitting on the bench?
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We will build for the future and that means bying in young and relatively cheap, I think we are trying to do that but at the same time bring in some experience to mount a challenge this season.The time to judge will be next April or May – hopefully by then the football world won’t be able to shut us up!!
Henderson has done nothing to show he’s better than Spearing????
What are you on man?
Henderson is 2 years younger and already far better than spearing.
Henderson is far better than Shelvey also – I’m sure all the hype about this guy is based on the youtube videos of what he did for Charlton, because he has never shown the ability to control the midfield for us – either with the reserves or the first team.
On the point of Ngog being a proven scorer from the bench though, where is the evidence of this??
I agree with the overall sentiment though – there is no point in buying another unproven striker when we already have Kuyt as our 3rd choice striker, with the creative Pacheco, giant Ngoo and goalpoacher Morgan waiting in the wings for the opportunity to show what they can do too
I’m imagining dat the Dalglish’s answer to this would be “WE ARE DOING THINGS D LIVERPOOL WAY” lol.
I’m so happy you pointed out they are speculations meanwhile a lot of funny things has been happening at Lfc this days.
How can you release Jovanovic&leave Joe cole&Maxi(forget about d hattricks,2 me he’s passed his peak). How can u pay £20mill for Henderson who’s less proven when compared to Downing& decide to make a £15mill bid 4 Downing. I won’t blame Villa if they slap £30mill on Downing bcos really d transfer market is spoilt.
it stirred me abit when you liken Jonjo to Jordan, seriusly .. the talent of these two young midfielders is similar i´ll grant that, but the experience is nowhere near the same, while Jordan (71 games for Sunderland) has had the time to play first team football in the premiership, Jonjo(15 games for Liverpool) has had a few cameos for the first team at Liverpool.
while i of course agree that Liverpool should focus on youth and i´m all for giving them a chance, we could never allow us the chance these young players can get at Sunderland/Bolton/Blackpool and if we have a chance to “use” these teams to nurture our own talent by loaning them, i would jump at the chance to give a player like Jonjo a whole season on the pitch.
Who knows maybe in the future they will both be bossing the midfield for us.
another thing about the youth is we cant get to hasty with them, we (and i mean “most” Liverpool fans) are starting to hype up our youth players that it´s becoming near impossible for any of these players to succeed at Liverpool, and then when the do get the chance all we do is piss and moan why he is on the pitch not someone else.
i put my faith in Kenny that he knows how to bring up talent, he has given Flanagan a chance and continued what Rafa did with Kelly, so i dont think we should worry alot about youth getting a chance.
sorry for the long response, i liked the article. it was an interesting point of view, its a little negative for me but, i try to look on the bright side of life now after the sale 😛
Birnir Snær Gunnlaugsson
Oh! I forgot 2 add this. Nice work by you the article actually makes a lot of sense& I enjoyed reading every line of it. Keep it up. It’s really goin to be painful if we loose d likes of Pacheco. I think d club is frustratin d young boy. Ynwa.
Buying young players? Oh yes we are doing that but buying relatively cheap players? Oh no we are missing it there. Do u call 20mill&10mill relatively cheap. How much did Wenger buy Song. I dont think Man. U paid up to £10mill pound for Chicharito, Man u paid just above that for C.ronaldo & u can see d quality. So if we are realy goin to pay 10mil for Niang then he must be close to Chicharito’s quality at least but I doubt it. Cos according to dis article,he only has 3goals to his name. I think d owner of Lfc shld go into charity and give their money to the needy instead of wasting it. They will be remembered more& blessed more for their charity works.
“The academy of the Liverpool is the only one that can compare to La Masia of Barcelona FC. If Liverpool can manage those lads in the academy, then maybe 20 star players can arrive from that academy.” (PEP GUARDIOLA)
maybe he want to be liverpool manager, give him a contract and let’s see what he can do for liverpool
Ngog shud never b sold,he’s a good scorer! he jst needs beefing up and speeding up!