WHILE perusing through football articles this morning online, I noticed a rather disturbing piece from the Mail regarding Maxi Rodriguez.
He is supposedly considering cancelling his own contract and moving on during this summer.
Having watched that farce from Liverpool on Saturday (for the first 60 minutes, at least) can anybody really blame him?
I could understand if Maxi had given some serious thought to moving on in the summer anyway, particularly after another strong showing this season, following his storming end to last season. And while he’s played little this season he has shown that, when he does we have few better at doing what he does, i.e. supporting Luis Suarez. Not to mention he chips in with important goals and does exactly what our other midfielders appear to feel is a bit beneath them: getting in to the bloody box to support the attack at every opportunity.
If the little Argie is seriously considering this then I would not blame him for a second, although if I was Kenny I would beg him to reconsider, at least for one more season. Sadly this won’t be the case, I don’t think, as reports from various other sources seem to indicate that Maxi will be one of the first players shipped in the summer to balance the books and to ensure that there is room (and funds?) for further jumps into the market.
Ridiculously, a few of the players that Maxi is almost certainly more capable than – and should be starting ahead of – are likely to be given another season: Downing, Henderson and Spearing. For me, these three have been colossal disappointments this season. Henderson and Downing even more so because of the fees we had to waste on them. I will pull no punches over the fact that I think that Adam and Carroll have not shown enough either but in Adam’s defence, he was starting to come into a decent run of performance once he and Lucas got a little bit of an understanding going. Once Lucas was injured he was having to play alongside Spearing and if there are still any out there that think he’s good enough, I’d suggest heading straight to your nearest shrink.
Carroll, on the other hand, has struggled all season but has started to come good when it matters most for him – the end of the season. There were doubts around him but after the past few weeks, then culminating in the massive display he gave us in the final 30 minutes on Saturday, Carroll has earned more respect for the way he’s turned things around and has probably given himself another season and the support of many more doubters, besides.
But for Henderson, Downing and Spearing the end cannot come soon enough. We’ve seen some inept footballers at this club in the past two decades but tell me, is there a single Liverpool fan that wouldn’t swap Downing for Riera, Kewell or Gonzalez now? Is there really anybody out there that wouldn’t pay over the odds to replace Spearing with Damien Plessis (remember those performances against Arsenal a few years ago) or Momo Sissoko? Mostly Rafa Benitez signings, yet he was crucified for them at the time and has been since but he wouldn’t ever, not in a million years, sign players (nor play players) as bad as these, but more on that later in the week.
As for these 3, I would happily move them all on in the summer but I would probably have to bow to pressure over Henderson, simply to be fair. Because, you see, I was probably amongst Lucas’s biggest supporters back in the dark days, when everything from his position (or, more importantly, the player who’s position he was able to fill) to his hair-style was picked at, so when we see how far he’s come up to his early-season injury, I allow myself to feel a little bit smug. So if I was to not allow Henderson the same time to develop and grow I’d be a massive hypocrite. With that in mind I could stomach letting the young midfielder have another season to start showing what he’s worth, as there have perhaps been a handful of flashes in a relatively poor season for him so far and he needs to begin showing big improvements next season. A starting point would be to grow a pair and stop allowing every game he’s a part of to pass him by as if he’s the ghost of Jamie Redknapp.
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As for the other two, however, I can’t see any reasoning that I would find suitable that would enable either player to be kept on the books. I read one or two fans that believed Spearing can still ‘do a job’ for us over the weekend but they at least had the decency to concede that he was not good enough to fill any role but that of ‘3rd choice defensive midfielder’. The guy is 23, soon going on 24 and if he is still considered nothing more than a backup for the backup then he just isn’t good enough. As far as I’m concerned, we need a genuine, quality backup to Lucas and then the player that fills in for these two should be a youngster that can learn from them. Seriously, do we really need three players in every position? That’s how we got in to the state we did under Houllier, when we had an enormously average squad back in 2005.
No, Spearing is poor and has never once this season not looked completely out of his depth. He has only been given the added time he’s had because he’s ‘local’ which, if you ask me, is beginning to sound like a dirty word every time I say it. I believe there are a number of clubs out there that would be willing to pay around £2-£4 million for the midfielder and we’d be stupid not to accept it. Whether he ends up back in the Premier league or moves down a division I could not say but he needs to be moved on now.
Downing, on the other hand, has been a great disappointment for me. I wrote at the start of the season that I preferred the thought of signing him to Ashley Young, as I had it in my mind that he was more mature and much more consistent. While Young has been anything but consistent over at Fergie-land, Downing has at least proved me right in one respect: he’s been consistent. Yes, he’s been consistently dire. When you pay around about £20 million for a winger, you expect him to be one of the best. Or, at least, one of the best in the country. But so far this season, he’s been outscored by a central defender (Martin Skrtel – 4), a striker that cost us nothing (Craig Bellamy – 9) and a midfielder that has been so ludicrously under-used he’s considering ripping his own contract up (Maxi – 6). He’s also been hopelessly outplayed when it comes to assists as well and just to save us all the time and effort, I’ll just let you know that John Flanagan has the same amount of assists as Downing does this season and leave it at that.
What you’re beginning to see there is a widely-respected, experienced 27 year-old winger, with 33 England caps so far and over 350 games played in his career at Premier League club level. For that, there can be no excuses, none whatsoever. He doesn’t need a ‘bedding in’ 12 months or any time to ‘find his feet’, he’s from England, he’s over 25 and he’s been doing this for years. The bedding in excuse is only eligible for youngsters and foreign players. Nor can the old ‘pressure from the huge fee’ be peddled out, as he’s moved clubs for large fees before, at a younger age as well. And if you find it hard to handle the pressure of a big club at the age of 27 well then maybe you’re not cut out to play for that big club, and this is the conclusion I’ve come to: Downing just can’t handle the pressure of playing at a big club. We’ll take a fairly sizeable hit from the sale but we need to cut our losses now and let him go. The likes of Newcastle, Stoke, Sunderland would be interested, I’m sure, and I bet Villa would happily have him back if they stay up. We’d lose around £5-£10 million but that’s business and we’d just have to swallow it.
So with rumours already circulating about another summer of transfer activity for the Reds, I’d happily see Downing and Spearing be the first out of the door and then perhaps the lessons we’ve learned from using players like these this season would teach whoever’s in charge by then that they need to be a little more shrewd with the money we have to strengthen our squad for 2012-2013.
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fully agree with what you’re saying mate…. and i think the next out the door after them 2, should be that useless bleep charlie adam… he is absolutely brutal…. but knowing kenny and his love affair for homegrown players, and im guessing particularly adam as he is scottish, I could honestly him getting rid of some of our foreign talents, and this would seriously effect the club… but quality should come before nationality, and in my opinion, we need to shop abroad this summer, because if this season has proved anything, it has proved that a big british presence in a team doesnt get ya very far……
Get a grip, Liverpool need to more sign players not sell them, Downing was poor in his first season at villa and eventually ended up being their best player,
They only need 3 more first team players – a striker, a central midfielder and right winger along with a few good squad players
I’m no fan of spearing but I think he would happily be liverpools 6th choice central midfielder, who could they sign for the “£2 million” your quoting, that would a better squad player, so they should keep him as a squad player.
R u for real? When was Downing ever Villa’s best player? Do u mean after James Milner, Ashley Young, Gabby Agbonlahor, Marc Albrighton, John Carew, Brad Friedel, Stylian Petrov.. Etc etc, guess he wasn’t the best player at Villa then?
Ashley Young cost less than him and has produced more in half the number of games Downing has had, same can be said for Juan Mata and Alex OXLADE- Chamberlain,… Too many to mention m8.
click this link to prove you hav’nt got a clue what your talking about big mouth
http://www.birminghammail.net/birmingham-sport/aston-villa-fc/aston-villa-news/2011/05/10/aston-villa-stewart-downing-claims-hat-trick-of-aston-villa-player-of-the-year-awards-97319-28664152/
Get real will you!!! He was maybe their best player once they’d sold all their best, maybe Mata would not have signed but i’m sure we could have tempted Arda Turan or the likes!
Yes we waited years for lucas to come good and he did, at what expense? Trophieless seasons . So now let’s give henderson a few years to come good and forget champions league until it happens ? Players who are not ready should be sent to develop on loan or reserves , not first team . Dalglish has done a good job at motivating his players for almost every game, but its plain to see there’s not enough quality in the team . Also gerrard seems like he cannot manage 3 games in a row , very alarming for next season
you hit the nail on the head mate
I agree scotty. I would like Liverpool to sign 4 or 5 out of the following players
radamel falcao
klaas jan huntelaar
oscar cardozo
jesus navas
james milner
adam johnson
ibrahim afellay
lassana diarra
mathieu flamini(squad player)
junior hoilett (squad player)
matt jarvis (squad player)
lucas biglia (squad player)
Dream on mate, we haven’t got CL none of these players will end up coming except the squad players you highlighted down at the bottom i’m afraid. Luckily the Liverpool name is still big enough to attract some talent but it may not be the world class big names everyone’s hoping for. I doubt they’ll make the same mistake of trying to find all English players. it’ll be people like Elm that we’ll sign and have to hope that they’re gems. Look at Newcastle
If liverpool splashed the cash they could get any of these players, Atletico madrid are in the europa again and they are a selling club, apart from bayern players every other player in germany would want to play in the premier league, same for any player in portugal.
milner, johnson, afellay and diarra are not first team players and are realistic targets
Downing is a footballing coward.. Downing and Enrique together on the left wing is total rubbish. Neither have any attacking ability or crossing ability, a big reason why Liverpool had such a bad year. Enrique wouldn’t be so bad if he had a player ahead of him with quality.
Downing is one of the most embarassing players we have signed in recent years.I cringed when I heard Dalglish was goin to sign him.He does’nt try enough, look at his pitifull milky little face. He has no character, does’nt chase back, and plays lame one-two’s rather than take players on. He also laps out of tackles, drifts in and out of the game.He has no chance of growing a pair cuase he’s a big girls blouse.He’s not a big game player, unfortunately he will be there next year taking his big money and putting in ball’less, spineless performances…and he’ll be 28. What a waste of money unless Dalglish or whoever is in charge wise’s up. Get rid!!!!!
All sound sweet,but u forgot to talk about basket Reina& one dat play lik a glutton rat@ d left back their.Anyway, i prefer Aurelio to the guy& lets give other keeper chance as wel
Liverpool will be lucky to get £5 million for Downing so whats the point in selling him. Give him one more season to judge him.
Spearing is shit so they could’nt give him away for free, considering he only signed a new contract last season
WOW! I was going to slate the author for including Henderson (who i think is going to be a great player for us in the future) with this motley crew but he covered his back really well!You my friend are spot on! Spearing is a championship player at best and Downing is Dalglish’s worst buy. Sell, sell, sell
Henderson has real real potential that we have seen only in the last leg of the season, give him time he will be a very very useful player for the future. Agree with you on that. Spearing is not nearly good enough to be here, but could be given possibly another year (I do not want it though) only and ONLY as a squad player.
As for Downing it actually hurts to admit that he has been plain bland this season, I would like to believe he will do a better job next season, but should he be given the chance?
Get rid of Adam, Downing, Spearing, Aurelio, Aquilani, Dirk Kuyt, Joe Cole, Danni Pacheco and Glen Johnson…. Realistic buys without breaking the bank would be Luuk De Jong, Diego Ribhas, Keisuke Honda, Gaston Ramirez, Younes Belhanda, Rasmus Elm, Gylfi Sigurdsson, Hernanes, Gregory Van Der Wiel… If we had the money Eden Hazard, Douglas Costa, Kevin Strootman, Iker Muniain, Javi Martinez, Ezeqiel Lavezzi, Stevan Jovetic etc would be great.
When people consider players why mention people like Matt Jarvis, the players we should be battling for are those that can realistically aspire to play for Barca, Real, Bayern, Milan, Juve etc that is what are competition and ambitions should be… Not the likes of Adam and Downing who reached the pinnacle of their game/abilities at Blackpool and Villa and could only have dreamed of playing for a club like LFC.
Barca wanted Mascherano, Real wanted McManaman,
Michael Owen, Jerzy Dudek, Alvaro Arbeloa and of course Xabi Alonso…. Milan have Aquilani.. Which of Europes big clubs would ever want the likes of Adam, Downing and Spearing?
Get real LFC Fans, what was the logo we wore yesterday v Chelsea “SEEING IS BELIEVING”.. Exactly,very true and what we’re seeing is a lot of the crappest players ever- HUMILIATING & DEGRADING LFC to the point where we ate the laughing stock of the Premiership!
I have been saying all season that our best left side has been when Maxi has been in with Enrique and Bellamy or Suarez in front of them. Would be a crime to let Maxi go just to give Downing another 1 year tryout.
I still believe in downing the player who was the best crosser last season why this year never crossed the ball? may be he is doing what king kenny likes most, to cut the ball inside looking for stevie g to score
i agree if Spearing is out the door next season. Maxi please don’t leave us…..
None of these players will b sold if KD is still mngr of Liverpool FC next season. He will keep buying British crap and take the club down I’m afraid.
Blackburn and wolves relegated. Any takers that liverpool should snap up some players frm the two teams?
Please I need alberto back in liverpool, henderson,downing and spearing should all go.why is liverpool going for aged players and why don’t you go for 20-25 years old players. Please stop buying England players, go out to europe and buy young players. For me I prefer Rafa Benitez to be my next season coach but if John Henry still want KD as d coach, plz kindly tell him to change is formation to either 4-4-2 or 4-3-3 because that has been what liverpool has been adapted to. Up Liverpool.
remember that downing at vila? jay for champoinship ok, Henderson is much better player than (stevie G OF 20YRS) they just deffer on who around them stevie got hamman & mcalista to clear his stupid things but today STevie cant correct henrson mistakes for sure and this was the same case for LUCAS when stevie got injured lucas proved his class,did you see that henderson & jonjo (liverpool vs chelsea in EPL)played without stevie? IAM NOT SURE ABOUT KING KENNY JOB,DID YOU SEE SUAREZ FORM,CARROLL,NO ONE PLAYED WELL EXCEPT SKRITEL DOES ALL THESE PLAYER AT LFC LUCK ON SKILLS? THINK TWICE
out;
kuyt 5
maxi 3
bellamy 2
downing 10
henderson 10
spearing 2
aquiliani 5
joe cole 5
aurelio free
jojo shelvey loan
in;
strootman 12
javi martinez 25
belhanda 15
dries mertens 15
de jong 12
g.ramirez 18
piatti 12
————–reina—————
jonson—skrtel—-agger—enrique
–strootman——–javi martinez–
————-gerrard————–
belhanda—–suarez——-g.ramirez
—————-reina—————
jonson—-skrtel—–agger—enrique
—–strootman——-j.martinez—–
mertens————————piatti
————belhanda—————–
———————-suarez———
Henderson just disappears and actually looks like he doesn’t ant to be picked; its painful. But worse than that is Spearing who is a total lability. Both Chelski goals emanated from his mistakes…and he cost us dear at OT earlier. I agree that being local is his only virtue; but he is a disaster waiting to strike again.
He is one of those weird players about whom fans say “What the feck does the manager see when he looks at him?”
In nutshell I doubt any other PL team would have him in their team…not even Wolves.
It was Henderson and Spearing that subdued Stevie in the Final; Chelski never had to do a thing.