Exciting time to be a Red

I never thought I’d say this with all the distraction about Suarez but this is a great time to be a Reds fan.

Amid the speculation about who may be coming and who may be going there is so much opportunity to build a contender that, even more than most years, I can’t wait for Stoke and the first game of the new season.

The main fly in the ointment at this point is Suarez. Although it has been apparent since he first proclaimed his desire to play for Madrid that he would not be part of the next big thing, I think he has made a serious mistake.

Rather than being the cornerstone of a vibrant new team, he has taken the easy road and foregone an opportunity to grow as a player and as a person. Now he has no option but to hand in a transfer request at his first opportunity so that we can get on with things. Unlike the Torres deal.

‘Nando, in jumping ship in the 11th hour, left the Reds in a bad situation, scrambling to find a fit with little opportunity to evaluate talent and chemistry. With a large wad of cash, they rushed to beat the deadline for bringing in a replacement and Newcastle knew that this would work to their advantage. Kenny wanted the big man but Carroll did not fit the constellation of supporting players around him.

As a negotiator I loved nothing better than to know that the people across the table were under a time constraint and were willing to close the deal in an atmosphere that made them uncomfortable. Act in haste; repent at leisure.

The situation that we find ourselves in now, providing that Suarez acts expeditiously, is far removed from that. We already have the nucleus of the people we wanted this summer in Simon Mignolet Luis Alberto, Iago Aspas and Kolo Toure, as well as near certainty Henrikh Mkhitaryan.
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Ivan Rakitic, Atsu, and Ilori are all interesting prospects and we have yet to see the best of Coutinho and Daniel Sturridge. Borini should come back with valuable experience and greater confidence and Raheem Sterling has an opportunity to come into the side on a more rationed basis. The extra £42 million (my prediction) for Suarez should buy a marquee player to lift the team even higher.

With Lucas and Steven Gerrard steadying the ship and Toure and Agger marshalling the defense, an interested Enrique and a confident Johnson advancing the attack, I anticipate a Liverpool strategy that optimizes the invention of our young talent up-front and I envision our forwards running circles around opposing defences.

My only worry is that we still don’t have the height, either to battle for the ball at midfield or to rip that scoring header into the back of the goal from a set-piece. We are guaranteed to see much of a recovered Joe Allen but, unless he brings a stepladder onto the pitch he won’t be challenging for anything higher than most people’s belt buckles.

Without Skrtel’s leaping ability on corner kicks, Gerrard’s precision will go largely unrewarded since stealth can only do so much in the absence of height and strength.

We have a lot of question marks for the coming season but these could easily become exclamation marks with the right coaching and management. We finally have owners who are willing to leave the running of the club to the professionals and allow enough funds to build a team for years to come.

This is the year for Brendan Rogers to silence his critics and reward his defenders with a season of invention and imagination highlighted by inspired team selections and timely substitutions. There is so much cause for optimism.

Now, about that new ground redevelopment…
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