With a flourishing finish towards the end of the season under King Kenny, many anticipated a flurry of transfer activity this summer. Every top name international under the sun was being linked with a move to Liverpool with the likes of Barcelona winger Jeffren Suarez being touted as a possible buy along with Juan Mata and even recent Arsenal signee Gervinho. To the dismay of many fans Kenny Dalglish has kept within the parameters of the specific criterion set by Liverpool’s current American owners, which was to buy young British talent who may have a higher resale value later on in their career.
Whilst this is not a bad thing entirely considering UEFA’s policy coming into play in European competition whereby the majority of squads must consist of home grown and national players; buying British talent does sound like a sound ploy. However there are two significant factors to take into consideration when a team of Liverpool’s stature considers buying British talent. The first is whether or not the player’s themselves are worth a punt, after all no player is guaranteed to succeed. The second is the actual transfer value itself of British players. The sums are extraordinary considering some of the British players Liverpool have brought have barely had more then a handful of season between them.
The jury will be out on four of Liverpool’s British players who between them have cost an exorbitant amount of eighty million pounds. Whilst Stewart Downing is a seasoned campaigner within the Premier League and with more then twenty England caps behind him, he will most certainly need to hit the ground running. Jordan Henderson, the recent acquisition from Sunderland for a “meagre” twenty million pounds may have his work cut out to get into the team with the likes of Dirk Kuyt and Suarez being preferred on the right side of a three pronged attack. Liverpool’s offensive line will already be looking to accommodate Stewart Downing on the left side and of course Andy Carroll who will be the target man.
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All the signings have been class players but you build a team in the same way as you build a relationship…. from behind.
So no, I am not the least pleased with the signings even if I admire every one of the players we have purchased.
Can we get the season under way before we start questioning the manager’s decisions and the squad’s ability.We’ll know come October if we have the right playing staff.
Left back?
It’s funny how some fans still think the club’s new transfer policy in targeting young British talent is the right way forward. Some fans trust Kenny Dalglish too much and sometimes even blindly, believing that everything he does is right. There is no doubt that peoples’ reaction to the 35m signing of Andy Carroll would have been totally different if it was Roy or Rafa who made this signing. As for Comolli, his job is to find young exciting talent and get them for relatively low fees, not pay way over the odds for British players. Rafa and his scouts found young players like Reina, Gulacsi, Agger, Skrtel, Ayala, Insua, Shelvey, Alonso, Lucas, Ngog, Pacheco, etc, and got them for relatively small fees. What is Comolli doing? Paying ridiculous fees for overrated British talent.
Andy Carroll was clearly a panic buy. Spurs were talking about 15-20m for this guy in January but some fans and pundits still seem to be fine with Liverpool splashing out 35m on this unproven striker who had half a good season in the top flight. This guy has done nothing to show that he is worth even half the amount he was signed for. He has no skill, no speed, no agility and no game intelligence. He clearly does not fit in with Liverpool’s pass and move attacking football. Some of you are saying that he was signed for the long term. Then why didn’t Liverpool just wait until the summer to buy a striker for a reasonable price?
Signing Henderson was a complete waste of money. The only reason he was signed is because he is English. The guy has been average for Sunderland and was awful in the U21 European Championships. Surely the 20m or 17m, whatever, could have been spent elsewhere? Also, why do we need him when we have Shelvey who is just as promising and Pacheco, who is more technically gifted than him.
Then we have Stewart Downing, signed because he is English and to suit Andy Carroll. Why did FSG sanction this signing when he is 27 years old. OK he is a proven Premier League winger but 20m for him is ridiculous. Mata is available for more or less the same price while N’Zogbia is available for half the price.
Kenny has spent more than 100m since January but only Luis Suarez and Charlie Adam are worth their fees. His signings so far typifies his obsession with British players. Liverpool will not win the Premier League with average British players like Henderson, Downing and Carroll.
No, no way. Only Luiz is a right (Quality & price worthy) signing. We have over paid for 3 English players, big time. Just let me ask, is Carroll better than Fernando? Is Adam better that Mascharano? Is Henderson better than Xavi? Is Downing better than Kyut 4 years back? I don’t think our British purchase are anything out standing, but they do have good potential.
However, the reality is, as we are out of CL, it would have always been difficult for us to collect any player at right price, like Young cost MU 15mn, Downing cost us 20mn while Clichy & Enrique are not interested to join. However, we could have bought some non Brits instead. Probably, at the same cost, we could have purchased 1/2 more players of similar quality (No way without CL, we could have purchased players like Mario Gomez, Kuno Aguero, Mata or Alix Shanches even at higher price).
Looking from other corner, our next year honest target is to finish among top 4 to ensure CL qualification. To do so, we need experienced EPL players, who can easily fit into the system & style. Even the best of foreign players often might take few months to a full season to settle & as we don’t have quality backups/bench strength, we would have struggled to qualify for CL.
I believe, our big purchase is not finished yet, it ‘ll run through the next 3 windows after this one, before we settle down. KK is building a solid team with many good to better young players, some of them having the potential to become outstanding, targeting the CL spot. Once we are there, I believe, we ‘ll get 2/3 global marque signings for market price, with our fan base, heritage & vision of the owners.
@ M.
Why compare Adam to Mascherano?
They are complete opposites as MFs.
Mascherano wins the ball back and gives it to someone creative.
Adam receives the ball from a someone who’s won it back and creates.
When you compare Henderson to Xavi (Hernandez?) –
it must be a typo and you mean Xabi Alonso, right?
Either way there is no comparison – Xavi as a MF is virtually peerless, priceless and impossible to buy, and Alonso plays a totally different role to Henderson.
A comparison between Adam and Alonso would have some merit. I think you’ll find Adam the better player at time of purchase, but who can say if he’ll become as good as Alonso did while he was here.
getting bored of people mentioning this left back issue. aurelio and robinson are good enough to ensure we don’t need to waste money on this position. if it was really a problem why didn’t we buy john arne riise back. legend.
I am delighted with the signings so far, all we need is a good left back and centre back and we are sorted
Reina
Johnson Carragher Godin? Cissokho?
Gerrard Lucas Adam
Downing Carroll Suarez