Liverpool’s transfer policy has undergone a radical and noticeable shift since Kenny Dalglish, aided with the help of Director of Football Damien Comolli, came back to the club and there has been a deliberate attempt to snare the best of British in and around the top flight. But, with a huge premium put on British talent possibly more than ever before, is pursuing players based solely on the nature of their passports a financially viable and rewarding policy? Furthermore, could Liverpool’s change of tack be said to be anything other then reckless considering the considerable rebuilding job needed at the club at this point in time?
Of course, pursuing British talent is always an admirable aim to aspire towards; a British spine to a side, in my eyes at least, is always preferable, but not when it comes at the expense of decreased quality.
Since his emotional return to the club and the subsequent upturn in the club’s fortunes both on and off the pitch, the team spirit that Dalglish has fostered has made Anfield a good place to ply your trade once more. Liverpool are once again an attractive proposition despite the club being unable to offer European football for the foreseeable future. However, it has become almost sinful to criticise Dalglish since his return; he has become somewhat immune and beyond reproach, but with concerns to their current transfer policy, some Liverpool fans are beginning to voice their discontent at the worrying path that the club are taking – being taken to the cleaners by smaller sides for deeply average players for hugely inflated fees.
Andy Carroll and Jordan Henderson have already arrived for a combined fee of £51m – a startling amount considering that they boast just 109 Premier League and 3 international appearances between them. They both have bags of potential but there is a huge risk being taken here and an equally large burden rather unfairly being placed upon the players to step up and perform straight away, even though the transfers themselves are aimed more at the long-term.
Stewart Downing is currently being touted at £18m to move to Merseyside with the onus now placed squarely on the player to make the move happen with Liverpool thought to be unwilling to meet Aston Villa’s lofty price tag for their most consistent performer last term. Charlie Adam is expected to complete a move to the club for a fee between £8-10m by the end of the week. Are either of these players worth the fees being bandied about for them? Not on your nelly.
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Kenny has bought three players in one from Uruguay and two from England. I don’t really see your point you would rather us buy older more injury prone players for 30mil plus? Then sell them on for nothing like Man United do? Great financial model that is, with Uefa bringing in tighter financial rules. Your article is based solely in newspaper speculation so I suggest you sit back until the window is actually closed to judge the club on how well they have done in the market. If you really are a Liverpool fan……
fantastic post mate.
Spot On.
I dont think anymore needs to be said on this article.. Michael has said it all
With European rules on Fair Play, and on homegrown players, buying young English talent is essential. We may not be in Europe this season, but we are building a squad for European competition. This is the only way forward, and the only sustainable transfer model that makes sense.
What is it with so called Liverpool fans and their moaning. Look at where we are, no European football (I don’t believe the Europa League would have made much difference) and people want us to sign Sanchez, Neymar or Aguero catch yourselves on. We are in a process of rebuilding and things need to be looked realistically, at this moment we are more attractive to British based players than European based ones. And as for us being myopic, excuse me if we are looking at 2 players of similiar ability and one has experience of English football and one doesn’t, I’ll go for the one who has the experience due to the faster pace of the EPL, it doesn’t stop us signing top foreign talent as we did with Suarez. Can everyone wait till September before making any judgements on our dealings please.
English players are not good enuf. Shop abroad and bring some flare in. Spain are world champions and under 21 world champions we should be getting the next crop of Spanish players coz they will dominate football for the next 10 years
I believe Kenny is going in the right direction. Isn’t it required, in a couple of years, to have so many home grown talent on the pitch, if you are in a European competition? I understand the frustration the fans of this great club have, when trying too pick up the talent.But, I also believe that we shouldn’t be held for ransome too pick these players up. Kenny and Damien know what they’re doing. Please give them some time.
If Liverpool are going to continue adopting this transfer policy then they will not win the Premier League and will even struggle to get back into the top four. The British players linked with Liverpool include the likes of Dann, Adam and Downing. These guys are not good enough for Liverpool and are mid table quality at best. Liverpool need to stop targeting overrated and overpriced British players and should instead focus on bringing in top talent from abroad. The over obsession with young British players is going a bit too far and it’s even more worrying when the club is willing to pay way over the odds for a player just because he is British. What is worse is that Kenny Dalglish is willing to sacrifice quality and experienced foreign guys like Meireles just because he wants to accommodate his new British players. If Liverpool are serious about challenging at the top then they need to forget about targeting overpriced and overrated British youngsters and focus on bringing in top foreign talent instead.
No one has condemned the idea of bringing in young british talent but the question is are they good enough for the price? The young(british) talented ones in our reserve team, what will become of them?
Suarez(24) for 20m
Henderson(21) for 16m-20m
Carrol(22) 35m:………..SUMS IT ALL.
LFC should hold fire on any more signings till January as some of the teams who get knocked out in the group stages of the Champions League may contain some players who prefer to then leave their clubs to play in the Premier League in a similar situation to Suarez leaving Ajax in January who went out in the group stages of last season’s Champions League.
The rightwing slot until then should be filled by rotating Johnson and Gerrard in that position. Gerrard is still one of the best crossers in the modern game.
I agree that the likes of Downing,Adam and Dann would be a huge waste of money. Fans are however going way overboard about Meireles. He took ages to score then he managed 5 in 4 games then failed to score for the remainder of the season. For a midfielder like him allowed an attacking role to have such a poor goal return is shocking.
Shocking in his first season?