LIVERPOOL FC, please buy some belief.
Sensible. That’s what Liverpool’s transfer business has been termed thus far. Sensible.
Let me get this out the way: I’m a James Milner disciple and thoroughly looking forward to following his ‘whatever it takes’ ethos. He is intelligent in and out of position, a winner, a worker and a game changer. You may snigger at that last description, but it’s accurate. He can be as boring as he likes because he’s a tick-all-of-the-boxes boss.
I’d do cartwheels if Danny Ings and Divock Origi hit the heights they both have the potential to. I hope they’re not undone by being relied upon too heavily, because the expectation and scrutiny will be unlike anything they’ve encountered so far.
I’ll be honest, I would have preferred more goalkeeping competition and greater distribution skills than Adam Bogdan represents, but he’s a decent deputy. Deals done early, little to no fuss or fight, the absence of ‘HOW MUCH?’ anger over fees and small nip-tucks to the squad.
Sensible.
As I understand it, and unless there is some seismic shift, there will be minimal further business. A certified goal-getter is the priority (again) and the recruitment of a right-back is on the agenda.
So then ‘sensible’… What that word should entail for Liverpool — a club whose owners have continuously stated has designs on Premier League glory but are in danger of dropping further away — is business that recreates the buzz the players had during their song and dance in Dubai. A celebration. That’s sensible. It should be transfer business that uncreases Steven Gerrard’s frown lines, turns Raheem Sterling’s head, inspires Phil Coutinho, reinvigorates Brendan Rodgers and surprises and enlivens us all.
Truly sensible business sends a message to everyone that playtime is over and it’s win, win, win, no matter what. A transfer is never a guarantee, no matter the status of the star or the millions involved, but it can make a statement, change the mood, set the pace…
Rewind with me.
The Puma store in Carnaby Square is circled by a swarm of supporters outside, and press folk swimming in champagne within its walls. It is July 10, 2o14 and Arsenal are unveiling their ‘Future, Forever, Victorious’ trilogy of kits. Mikel Arteta, Santi Cazorla and Mathieu Flamini are on the roster to swoon about their new shirts, but are surprised with a much sweeter prospect to salivate over. A club official takes to the stage to announce that Alexis Sanchez is now an Arsenal player, and the trio — all seated — get off their chairs, high-five and fist pump. The reaction was a duplication of the supporters pressed up against the windows outside. Triumph was thick in the air.
The Gunners had made a statement in capital letters, with the font bolded: we’re not messing here — Mesut Ozil the summer before, the Chile superstar now. Next? Well, that’s anyone’s guess, but whoever they target will look at those two purchases and put them atop the ‘Pros’ section on their why-should-I-make-this-move? list. Seems like Petr Cech is doing just that right now.
Anyway, a return to the throwback: I’m stood to the left of the stage as Arsenal just casually dust the dirt off their shoulder, and the whole place is painted with swatches of swagger. Cazorla’s teeth are on full show, serving his ‘Ronaldinho’ nickname earned at Villarreal well. Arteta is locked in an ‘I told you so’ tussle with Flamini and all of it may as well be a scene in Dirty Dancing, because they’re having the time of their lives.
Today, like most days, I revisit this vignette. I do it so often, it feels like the night is on repeat. I get stuck on the laugh lines; the way the Arsenal players, supporters and club officials were one. And the same. If there was any shred of doubt over how much of an impact an exciting, significant signing can make, it was tombstoned on 10 July last year. RIP.
Cazorla, who said he “felt like a little kid, like a fan again” when Ozil joined, was in no doubt that the signing of Sanchez would also galvanise the Gunners.
“We were all talking about it and reading everywhere that we were linked with such a great player like Alexis and we were hoping it would happen so we could celebrate,” he explained to me. “I spoke to a couple of players about him — I spoke to Arteta and Nacho Monreal [the latter turned out against Sanchez while at Malaga], who told me a lot about his way of playing. How special he is and how he will fit in. He’s the type of player everyone wants to have in his team. So we are really thrilled to have him with us. Like Ozil, he will uplift us.”
He was right. German genius: £42.4m. Fiery forward: £35m. Show of ambition, revitalisation of the squad, a unified sense of belief: you can’t put any amount of zeroes on that — the stuff MasterCard can’t buy. It’s two trophies in two seasons for Arsenal, with shiny FA Cup winner’s medals around the necks of their shiny acquisitions, and the players are now all following the same script: it’s time to win the Premier League.
Knock knock. Who’s there? Hopefully a Liverpool suit who realises that in order to close in on the title, the club needs to close in on more quality. To convince current players that they’re at exactly the right place if they want to be winners. To advertise to future prospects that the football club is an attraction that can’t be missed and one they should be queuing up to experience. To show the manager and the rest of the staff at Melwood that the tools to deliver the title and other successes won’t always have to be about quantity, sourced from the bargain bin or the absolute opposites of the ones needed. To convince a fan base, which is surrounded by toxicity to rival hydrogen cyanide, that they need not worry about their club falling any further away, that there are big forward strides to be made. Luis Suarez packed his bags for Barcelona and folded in it was much of the belief, impetus and force which characterised Liverpool’s charismatic title charge.
#BringBackOurBite
When everyone is looking at the dressing room, is there enough to look to? There is a lot of industry, artistry and bucket loads of potential — accede to Stevie’s plea and sprinkle in some genuine quality to energise them. Ditto the appointments in the coaching staff: there’s a chance to be better, to do better.
To speak in a language the suits understand, Liverpool’s sponsors and potential partners need to be excited too. Remember Ian Ayre gloating that Mario Balotelli — who parts the support base like Moses did the Red Sea — sold £50,000 worth of shirts on the day he joined the club? (He did not even make the top 10 of kits sold at the end of the season, only Steven Gerrard featured from Liverpool). Yeah, great stuff that guys. But next time, instead of settling on a gamble at odds with the collective that you were actually dead set against and then don’t play to his strengths, sort a star who’s a headliner because of what he does *on* the pitch.
Such a player sparks his teammates, gets all the fans onside, continues to sell kits throughout campaigns, and will have the likes of Nivea moisturising themselves to no end. Success where it matters most will roll out the welcome mat for profit margins and if you want to pocket more of the megabucks from sponsorships, bring in players who will bring more of them in. Everybody loves a winner, and everyone wants to be associated with them.
All that effort that goes into selling the club to brands — how about using some of it to give prospective personnel any and every reason to join Liverpool? ‘Can’t get him’, ‘he won’t come here’, ‘no point even trying’, ‘he won’t go for it, ‘isn’t there anyone easier to recruit?’ — be realistic, we’re told. What if Arsenal had thought that these past two summers? When the Gunners did the absolute un-Arsenal thing of putting in a ballsy bid for Suarez in the summer of 2013, we were all sucked into the ‘what are they smoking over at the Emirates?’ smog.
It was a strong, welcome stance from John Henry and Liverpool that the Uruguayan was not for sale — especially not to a direct rival. But whatever was in Arsene Wenger’s pipe needs to be passed and puffed around; such audaciousness would be welcome on Merseyside right now. FSG have repeatedly insisted they’re willing to compete with the very best in the market and that they “have only one driving ambition at Liverpool and that is the quest to win the Premier League playing the kind of football our supporters want to see.”
We dared to dream in 2013-2014, but that was anomaly of recent history, not the norm. There were several factors behind the club’s tra-la-la-la-la-ing, but it’s no coincidence that a player, who in the form he was in courted company with Leo Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo, was central to it. Pardon the oversimplicity, but you can do great things with great players.
This is not some manic mouthing off about football’s version of unicorns — the ‘marquee signing’ who comes along and magically fixes all things. This is merely a request to reconsider the aim of making money go as far as possible, and instead to make sure it has as much impact as possible. The signings of Daniel Sturridge and Phil Coutinho being a case in point — you don’t always have to spend blow-everyone-out-of-the-water sums in order to galvanise a club.
Yet for all the talk of Liverpool not being able to compete with the pull and purchasing power of those above them, this is an institution that has spent £42million on three centre-backs (Mamadou Sakho, Tiago Illori, Dejan Lovren) in the past two summer windows. One of them has not officially kicked a ball in the red shirt while the most expensive of the lot saw the football version of Freddie Kruger before his eyes repeatedly throughout his debut season. The undoubted quality and class of the other is hampered by the fact he has missed 43 games through injury in his two campaigns.
Money has been available, but too often its use has been dictated by a ‘strategy’, which undergoes more cosmetic changes than a Kardashian and aims to be overly smart instead of surgical. Transfers are already tricky enough to navigate without extra how, buts, whys, and a nagging need to complicate them further with buzzwords and whatever is on today’s agenda for “building the right way.” Moneyball, buying British, buying like Swansea, buying young and foreign, buying Southampton, buying a circus, buying Premier League proven, buying free agents…
FSG may have some good intentions and some good ideas, but the inability to stick with anything or execute it effectively enough is problematic. The club were willing to beat Arsenal’s £35million fee for Sanchez last summer, but then turned to £8m Loic Remy, before eventually pinning the tail on Balotelli for £16m. Same priority position, but three completely different players, price ranges and markets.
The uncertainty of that business means a striker is again Liverpool’s focal point in the window, yet the only formidable link has been to Christian Benteke — a player that is the antithesis of Suarez or Sanchez, one theoretically at odds with the club’s best player, one that has recent injury concerns and represents a very big risk at £32million — an amount the Reds are quite shy to meet.
At the moment, the strike force for next season reads: Daniel Sturridge, Ings, Origi, Balotelli, Rickie Lambert, Fabio Borini. The club are desperate to shift the last three, but have already seen how difficult that can be. Mino Raiola has insisted Super Mario is staying put, and while his word is not gospel, it indicates it will be a mission to shift the Italian. If Liverpool can’t move enough bodies out, my concern is no more ammunition up front is sourced. Do we then spend next summer working on the same priority again?
It’s everywhere and nowhere.
After splashing out last summer, Liverpool are looking to save every penny in this one. Hit it out the park, play it safe. Target the long game, quick fix, quick fix. In September 2012, John Henry declared: “We have no fear of spending and competing with the very best but we will not overpay for players.” I think you’re a lovely fella JWH, and a incredibly intelligent businessman, so I hate to break this to you: we’ve not really seen much proof of the first part of that statement, but have plenty evidence to contradict the second bit.
We need to stop thirsting after some secret formula, which exists in the same universe where Victor Moses scores 20 league goals for Liverpool, and get the business that needs to be done, done. A quick, tricky forward with intelligent movement, neat positioning, strong finishing and rabid pressing is required. Must compliment the technicians. Needs to spend minimal time on the treatment table and social media. Who is the best option? What will it take to convince him? Do everything it takes, and then some.
After a Spanish talent? Get Xabi Alonso to do Liverpool poetic justice. Targeting someone on Barcelona’s books? Ring up Luis Suarez and get him on the case. Whatever it takes, and then some.
Sell the shit out of the club. Spray its attractiveness everywhere. Spin so hard you make Sepp Blatter blush. Sell dreams, sell to egos, SELL SELL SELL. Because if you don’t bring top talent in, you’ll be selling yours. This season’s Sterling saga could be next year’s Coutinho debacle. And so on and so forth.
Liverpool have waved farewell to far too many premier players in recent years because they feel they have to go elsewhere to win things. That should chokeslam every single person connected to the club and those with the power to change that perception need to eat, breathe, shower, and sleep solutions.
“We firmly believe that the direction the club is heading in will lead to Premier League championships.”
It’s either the above, and we do everything to ensure that happens. Or ‘be realistic’ and accept that fifth is par and perhaps once in a while something more magical may happen.
It can’t be both though. If we can’t be completely sure of what the end game is, and conclusive on what it takes to achieve it, we’ll continue to be nutmegged by those above us. And by the likes of Tottenham. All while being ridiculed by Lyon. LYON!
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Why are you kissing arsenals ass they fail every year. Soz but finishing second doesnt mean anything only chelsea can be happy with last season.
Hi mate. They haven’t finished outside of the top four for 19 seasons. They’ve won the league three times in that period. They’ve won the FA Cup the last two years. But yeah, they fail every year.
Slicj, you’ve probably missed how they’ve won two trophies in two seasons and compete in the Champions League every year, plus have an attraction for world class players.
There’s no arse kissing. There’s a realisation that Arsenal are pulling further away. If you cannot even keep up with them, there’s no point thinking of Chelsea. You need to worry about the likes of Spurs then.
This is the reality. LFC have finished 7,6,8,7,2,6
Can’t keep talking about winning the title from the top down if the mechanics are not there to make it happen.
Thank you for making that point!! That’s is certainly what is driving 95% of supporter frustration.
Nice piece as usual Melissa.
Every philosophy comes down to the same basic point in the end though: “buy good players”. Everything else is just talk.
The Sanchez signing is illustrative but not in the way meant here. Teammates may have danced up and down, but that £35million bought them three more goals, one place in the table, and five fewer points than the year prior. Arsenal have won two trophies since they started “buying big” – beating titans like Hull City and Aston Villa in FA Cup finals. There’s little to indicate either Ozil or Sanchez moved Arsenal any higher in the Premier League hierarchy.
That’s not surprising. Suarez-type impact purchases are exceedingly rare. When they appear, they’re likely the target of several clubs, most of whom can offer more than LFC at the moment. The FSG strategy can work – complain about the CB purchases all you want but they landed Sakho – but it’s going to require buying players other than the headline-grabbing targets. LFC right now can’t afford to spend big for minimal improvement. That’s not to excuse the sensible business done so far this summer as enough; rather, it’s to say we shouldn’t evaluate the purchases by how excited they make us or LFC’s sponsors.
So how does Milan, who is in even deeper doo than we are, sign Jackson Martinez? Milan aren’t even in Europa League next year. And that fascist dope of an owner doesn’t know if he’s coming or going.
Because they just sold half their club to Chinese investors so they’ve got a huge pool of cash lying around? That’s only a guess, of course, as Italian football business is nothing if not inscrutable.
I think you’ll find, if you’ve read anything from Arsenal or on Arsenal, that Ozil and Sanchez have contributed to a huge mental shift. Purely looking at the numbers won’t reflect that. There was an insightful interview with Amy Lawrence on Gutmann in the Gutter (week before last I think) where she explains how the atmosphere and environment is different there.
Titans like Aston Villa, whom LFC couldn’t beat in the semi. See, this kind of arrogance won’t help Liverpool win things. In Arsenal’s trophy cabinet, there’s no note next to the FA Cups saying ‘oh, only beat Hull and Villa to win these.’
I don’t see where there was a complaint about the CBs? There was a point that money is available to be spent. Also, at the very start of the piece it says that the upgrades to the squad are smart.
There is also a line about this isn’t about headline-grabbing targets. Take and welcome all your points, but you’ve been very selective in your reading.
You use the CB purchases to illustrate flaws in FSG’s transfer strategy, implying that money could be spent to buy one really good attacking player rather than three CBs. It’s a bit odd to point out two of those haven’t borne fruit when the third has been spectacular, no? Why doesn’t the same approach – buy a handful and hope one becomes great – make sense at the other end of the pitch? That seems to be what FSG want to do.
Your point about Villa and Hull is exactly my point – buy players to beat these squads. Buy players to put yourself above your current peers. For LFC right now that’s Southampton, Spurs, Swansea, maybe Stoke. If you’re losing by five goals at the Britannia, you have no business trying to do business like United or Arsenal. Buy to beat who’s beating you. Spending big money on players that excite the fans and the sponsors – and if your main idea isn’t buy players to cause celebration and “buzz,” then I concede I’ve missed the point of “make a statement, change the mood, set the pace” – isn’t in the cards right now. It shouldn’t be. Arsenal fans can feel as optimistic as they’d like, but their lot is likely to be the same as it’s been. There’s no reason to think Sanchez will change things any more than Ozil did any more than Podolski did any more than Nasri did and on and on. Mentality shifts matter far less than “the numbers” that reflect who wins.
Fortune-changing purchases are incredibly rare. They’re almost never known to be such at the time they’re made. I’d be concerned if LFC were thinking about the signals their purchases send to the squad, fans, sponsors, or potential recruits. Because those signals rarely correspond with what shows up on the pitch two or three years later.
The point on the CBs was there IS money to spend, considering the cash used on that position in the past two summers. Sakho is a success – but then let’s go spend £20m on Lovren to play ahead of him. Can’t just highlight the positives…
For evidence of why quantity instead of quality that matches philosophy doesn’t make sense up front, look at last season.
Liverpool should be bullying the ‘lesser’ teams, yes. But if you really believe they have no business competing with Arsenal squad-wise, then you’re happily accepting the continuation of the 7,6,8,7,2,6 cycle.
LFC’s dressing room lost faith in themselves after the United game. The manager started to feel as though he had to continuously pull off some tactical miracle because there was little faith in too many players. That Stoke game happens because they’d already thrown the towel in on the season because they didn’t believe they had anything left in the tank.
Perhaps look at Steven Gerrard’s take on what LFC need right now. How everyone feels about what can be achieved may sound silly, but it’s vitally important.
Whatever happens with Arsenal, they are actively working towards winning the Premier League.
Cheers for the comments, but need to get some sleep in now! You’re going to keep me awake haha.
” But if you really believe they have no business competing with Arsenal squad-wise, then you’re happily accepting the continuation of the 7,6,8,7,2,6 cycle.”
I fully agree with this and for me it goes at odds with the bloody ‘par’ excuse that’s been doing the rounds for the last few months.
‘Oh its ok 5th is par now, its where we are meant to be’, ‘we won’t spend big as we are being par for being 5th richest in UK’
This par stuff has got a lot of people believing that we cannot go big when it is almost now a statuatory need for us to. It’s all very well harking back to the 70’s & 80’s where we pulled superstars from the fringes such as Chester, Scunthorpe and the like but that is not the way of it these days. this needs to be realised, quickly , though I doubt it will.
Anyway great piece Melissa. Thanks
Agreed to whatever is being said with comparisons to arsenal. But let’s not forget and rewind 3-4 years back.
Arsenal sold, Fabregas, Robin Van Persie, Nasri, etc.
They got to the market, replaced Fabregas with Arteta, RVP with Giroud, Nasri with Cazorla. One premier league players, rest two completely new.
Highlights on Giroud because it’s the highlight of the article (buy exciting, attacking players) :
The purchase was not arsenalesque. They had to change the way they play to help him accommodate in the team. We did the same thing, getting Balotelli. But the latter we didn’t. The players we already had didn’t create enough for Balo and it led to more problems and it was a failure in the end. Mind, not having Sturridge fit for almost entire season is another unfortunate thing and has majorly impacted our season.
My point being, purchase of Balotelli and Moreno, did excite our fans but it didn’t work out in the long run. Rewind back to spurs game in august, we saw Sturridge and Balotelli together and it was amazing, but it wasn’t meant to be.
Regarding to our business this season and excitement among fans, had milner cost 10 20 mil, fans would be dancing around. Since it is free people are not focusing on how much valuable he’d be to our squad. And to come to think, transfer window hasn’t even opened yet. Point being, judge the window once it has closed. The signs are promising though.
But Arsenal topped the table 2nd half of this season and 1st half of the season before. They are right up there.
People will ignore this, because somehow bashing Arsenal’s intent will improve Liverpool’s.
They’re building to win the league. No-one said they’ll do it next season, but at least they are actively *trying* to do it
Would a statement from Brendan or fsg stating our goal is always to win the next game suffice as a statement of intent. Season long goals are too broad, transfers have far too high a failure rate or take too long to judge properly. Lets keep it simple, win the next game, if we don’t win address the reasons why and win the next one. Focusing on the league as a whole is like making a marathon out of a series of short sprints. We don’t need to find a pace that outruns everyone, just outrun the guys your up against next.
A sensible article that i really enjoyed reading, keep it coming.
Naive. It won’t happen for a legion of reasons. But mainly we have owners who don’t have a scooby about what they’re doing when it comes to the actual togger (that’s scouse for football don’t you know!)
Milner? FSG are great aren’t they? They’ll end up with Sterling and we get Milner…..
Milner. I mean Milner though. Oh yes I remember last season as well. He came on for the last 20, and I thought ‘oh hello’. But then I quickly relaxed coz he did fuck all. He ran around and DIDN’T change the game.
It’s gonna be an interesting autumn.
To suggest the owners don’t give a scooby doo is just untrue,
Miner is a free and City will pay way over the odds for a promising player if he goes at all & Milner came on at Anfield at half time with his side two down (2013/14 season) and between him & Silva they bossed a really decent Liverpool team and DID change the game,
Just because he didn’t in the last 20 of this seasons corresponding fixture doesn’t mean he isn’t a good signing as we can all pick & choose games to suit any signing or agenda.
Milner though.
Ring up Luis Suarez? As if he gives a shit about the club anymore, or ever did except as a means to an end. Ah well at least fans can support Barcelona and tweet ‘six times’ in the absence of anything positive happening here.
Whatever makes you sleep at night.
You can ignore what his LFC teammates say, what his book says, what all the staff at Melwood say, his family say…
Because you know him and exactly what he’s like and what he cares about.
Don’t know how the negativity of attacking Suarez will change the “absence of anything positive happening here.”
So quick to defend Suarez but you can bet that you were willing to believe anything negative said about Fernando Torres when he left whether it was true or not (the reality of what happened there is still unclear). I guess it all depends on your perspective and what you want to believe. In the end who really knows what goes on behind the scenes – so much is PR and self-preservation.
I’m not going to deny it, Alexis Sanchez is a damn good player and he made a huge impact at Arsenal this year scoring big goals.
But remind me again what “statement” did Arsenal make this year?
– they go from 4th to 3rd but obtain 4 fewer points this year (75 pts vs 79 pts)
– Just like every other year they embarrass themselves in the Champions League, going out in the round of 16
So yeah, they won the “PR war” and had a great kit launch on the back of signing a superstar …… it in no way propelled them to the next level …. at best they were treading water this year.
The statement is that they are building towards a stronger challenge for the title. That they’re not going to go years without winning a trophy. That they’re going to buy quality players instead of selling them.
Do you think potential players, sponsors etc are looking at the fact they finished 3rd with less points than finishing 4th the season before? Absolutely not.
They are IN the Champions League. You’re ridiculing a club who play in a competition every season, when LFC have done so ONCE in six, embarrassed themselves in it and couldn’t even get to the last 16 let alone bow out then.
‘at best they were treading water this year’ – have you watched any football in 2015, mate?
Discrediting Arsenal won’t change the position LFC find themselves in.
ANYONE DEFENDING SUAREZ THE RUNT IS AN IDIOT NOT WORTHY OF A DISCUSSION!!!!IQLESS MAGGOTT! Bore off melissa, go cook something in the kitchen because you are absolutley deluded and clueless about anything football related..I doubt you can cook something decent though, probably be like this pile of crap! WOW
I’m actually a great cook. And love being in the kitchen. I also love being paid for my opinions on football. As well as interviewing the LFC players and manager, covering World Cups live and such.
Have a wonderful week x
Well said
Bellend.
Or maybe I have it all wrong. When Arsenal means “they’re not messing around” what they really mean is that they’ll have a great kit launch but ultimately they’ll just spin their wheels in the league and will be out of the title race by October
Yeah, once Arsenal settled they were the best team in England last season — more points than anyone the last 25 games and they are justifiably talking about going for the league. Complete opposite of Liverpool, of course. We are at one of the low points in our recent history.
Everyone can see our club is not run well — the earnest yet bumbling manager, the over-negotiated and disjointed transfers, the blithely distant owners. We’re being outcompeted off the pitch in the worst way, not just by the top 4 clubs but also by Spurs, Southampton, even Swansea. If the budgets were reversed, our group would probably have us relegated in just a season or two.
I think Melissa’s point is right on — money can buy you more than talent. Arsenal were like us just a few seasons ago — passive and rightly considered a joke by other clubs’ fans after failing to pay enough to keep stars like Nasri and Van Persie. It’s no mystery how they fixed that. They started paying more money.
So if Melissa wants our owners to spend more, for whatever reason, that sounds good. It’s never too late to start spending big on players’ fees and wages. Arsneal have a 50% hit rate, but at least they are trying to compete at the top of the transfer market. We’re just bargain hunting poorly and overpaying for mid-market talent, which isn’t working.
Good read but equally worrying as it highlights how far behind we’ve fallen. The owners might well spend big money on a player but the likelihood is it will be the wrong player. The only transfer pattern we are witnessing is in the wrong direction, Suarez, now Sterling and as Melissa says, Coutinho could be next, however the chances are it would stop at that point as there would be no one of great value left! It’s going to be a frustrating couple of months especially when our “rivals” start spending.
The way the Lacazette link died on the vine really saddened me. Here is a player that seems ideal for our squad, the kind of modern striker we can build around (in fact, we’ve already built it). He would get the players and the fan base excited, show intent to Sterling, increase shirt sales/global reach/sponsorships, and potentially drive down the price of future deals.
But that would require a flashing of cash that reflects our lowly position. I still feel that a deal for Lacazette COULD be done if we prioritize the funds accordingly, and make one hell of a sales pitch – namely, that Rodgers can transform Lacazette into the next Suarez. Doesn’t matter that half of the fans don’t buy it, Ayre would have to make Lacazette buy it.
The sad truth, though, is that FSG would never countenance it, and Ayre would never be able to sell it.
Rodgers spoke these words when Willian agreed to sign for Chelsea, and they have rung true ever since.
“It’s disappointing because this was a player who would have been perfect for us,” Rodgers admitted. “It wasn’t a football [decision] and I don’t really want to go into it… that’s for us as a club really.
“The bottom line is he hasn’t come here for whatever reason and we move on.
“We identify the targets and then try and get the deal done financially. That’s how it was.
“The club has pushed financially as hard as they felt they could but it wasn’t to be.”
Walter, sometimes we as a club get trapped into thinking the sale is all about the money. The sale is about advertising the project, playing to a star’s ego, talking up the city, talking up current players…
Saying for example to Sanchez ‘we can pay you more wages than Arsenal’ won’t work if Arsenal are saying ‘you’ll get really good money here, and we’re going to build around you and Ozil. You guys are just the start. There will be more quality added and we will win things together. You can help make Arsenal great again. And you know all about London, it’s a big wonderful City. And if you need, Giroud can style your hair.’
Okay, ignore that last bit, but you get the point. Silva is an excellent case study in selling a club to a player.
Pushing ‘as hard as you can financially’ is not the full effort in selling.
Great article. It’s about time Liverpool compete with the best with the required firepower and not mere potential.
I agree with the gist of the article. We definitely need to make changes at all levels to get out of this realm of mediocrity. I’m not sure that it will be sorted out by buying a “big” player each season though.
However, the question I have is this….can we “legally” pay, let’s say, £50M or £60M on a player under FFP?
The clubs we are aiming at have significantly bigger revenues than us. So can we be expected to compete under UEFA rules?
But we don’t need to spend £50/60mil on one player, for us £30-45mil is massive spending. Only twice since FSG has arrived have they spent more than £20mil on a striker and both were in the same window. Now money doesn’t guarantee goals but there’s a reason why strikers cost so much money.
Summer 2013 we spent approx £22mil on Aspas, Alberto and Ilori. Combined they have had little to no positive impact on the team. Could that money have been better used on buying ONE quality player instead??? Most definitely!
Our scouting seems to consist of “who’s cheap and available?”. Rather than targeting a certain player for a certain position.
Dortmund don’t have any Euro football next season and have just lost their charismatic leader so why arnt we trying to poach Aubameyang or Reus or Hummels. Some are more gettable than others but if you don’t try you don’t get. As Melissa says you gotta sell the club, sell the idea, sell the ambition. Who’s doing that on our behalf?? Ayre??
This argument is well constructed and I enjoyed reading it. Is there not a strong argument that Coutinio was a better signing than Ozil as it turned out. Also how many players in the Liverpool dressing room ‘ felt like a child’ as Santi Carzola described it, when Sturridge signed? None probaby but was a great signing. The uncertain, random and unpredictable nature of signings is made even more frustrating because they also happen to be the most important part of the Managers job and have the biggest impact on their reputation and fate. Who’s be a manager?
Coutinho’s signing did actually excite the players, as did Sturridge’s. Go back and check the reaction from Gerrard as a start. Suarez references those buys as the catalyst for LFC and when he describes their arrival in his book, talks about how it lifted the players.
It excited the support base too (there will always be those who moan, for the sake of moaning)
Importantly, it also bolstered the manager in terms of executing the aggression on the ball he wanted.
It’s not always about how much a player costs, but what everyone identifies a player to mean.
As I’ve said, no transfer is guaranteed to work on the pitch, but you can guarantee an elevation off it. A sort of signal in the direction you’re taking. Arsenal are now a different prospect to potential signings than they were three summers ago.
Fantastic article mate, absolutely spot on!!
Beautifully written article.
When you are approached by a club you look to see
1. Who is there;
2. Who else is possibly joining them;
3. Where do I fit in.
With us, now, the answers are
1. Sterling, but he wants to leave:
2. Milner. Ings. Orrigo. Bogdan. Who??
3. Who knows?
Forget 5 times CL winners. Villa have won it. Forest (remember them?) won it twice.
Kevin – great points. Last month I actually asked two players (not from LFC) who received offers this summer what was their thought process through the decision making. The overarching theme was: What would the move mean for my career? Your 1, 2, 3 was a big part of that, as was where is the club heading? It’s also recent history that plays a bigger role than what happened in the 70s and 80s
DEluded clueless idiots, am out..Not even wasting my time trying to explain to you deluded fucks why those players will never come here, FSG AND BR OUT, deluded idiots like you out!!!! But a hint, they are fucking human not robots and everybodu hates looserpool the pennypinching assholes who embaress themselves all the time
Problem is, players and their agents are not idiots. Sometimes you can sell sell sell for a long time without anyone buying. Why? Because they don’t like what is on offer A team (I mean everyone involved from top to bottom) that underperforms for a whole seasons, goes out of Europe so shamefully, shows no fight whatsoever when the going gets tough…..thats very hard to sell.
I’d say Liverpool needs to fix up from withing first before we can talk about buying players to solve our problems. This team is already good enough for top 5 (in my opinion, could also acquit itself well in Europa league),add maybe a right back here and a good finisher there ( I believe Danny Ings can go from being just good to being very good if the coaching is correct).
The main thing though, is to stop the nonsense that takes place when Liverpool doesn’t have the ball, you can see the idea is sometimes right but the execution isn’t up to standard when we have to defend.Tthis comes from players who aren’t drilled well enough, an internal issue. You could burn through another 60 million and I guarantee all the defensive issues we have would still be there.
Thats what I’d like to see next season, addressing the issues that we can address, stuff like Sanchez preferring Wengers Arsenal to Rodgers Liverpool, theres very little we can do about it, theres a particular store in which Liverpool can go shopping at the moment,we should embrace it and hope that Rodgers and his mates on the commitee buy players that a. That are needed b. That Rodgers knows how to use.
Absolutely – LFC have to fix from within. But a big part of that is sourcing from outside, or clubs would never ever use the transfer window.
If you sell well and hard enough, you will make a sale. I read an interview with Garry Cook on how City convinced players to join when they were still not an attractive enough proposition. Now, with them, they could throw out loads and loads of money which is mightily helpful, but players could earn big money at other, more successful clubs who were regulars in the Champions League. He made a presentation for commercial sponsors, but also drafted a sell for players. If you look at their acquiring of David Silva for example: their negotiations with him consisted of convincing him they were going to bring Yaya Toure on board (despite a deal not being agreed yet), they outlined their short-term and long-term vision for the club, and how he would be key to helping them achieve their aims. Silva agreed to join City on the basis that Yaya was joining and that he could play a part in making them great. (Check out his interview upon signing)
Cook: “Yaya came and said, ‘I’m going to make this club great’. He was THE ONE. After we signed him, every top player began to see the possibilities at City.
“David Silva, for example. If we hadn’t signed Yaya, I don’t think David would have come.
“Once we signed Yaya, all the others followed. He was like a Pied Piper.”
On Suarez/Sanchez: LFC had an entire season to prepare for the very HUGE possibility that Suarez would depart. If we were smart, shrewd and surgical enough the deal for Sanchez could have been tied up long before Wenger got involved. Instead not only did with take our time with Alexis, we failed to source any really solid alternatives with all that time to plan. A priority position. Unacceptable.
On your point about defence, LFC’s best form of it is to attack. Improvements need to be made yes, but you can have great defensive organisation and it will mean F* All if there’s no-one putting the ball in the back of the net.
LFC lost goals last season. Lots and lots and lots of goals. Goals which made them title challengers. Getting goals is the focus.
Solid defence cannot be overlooked, I played in the backline so yes, I’m very heavily biased. Point is, I look around and I can’t see a single team with poor defensive organisation succeeding, even Barcelona (who probably have enough firepower to blow almost anyone away whilst neglecting the defense) have recognized how important it is. Last season we had the best ingredients we might ever have for carrying out a game plan which relies on defending from the front and ultimately, we still look back at last season with thoughts of what could’ve been. I just think its easier to win stuff if you can first and foremost avoid losing.
I don’t doubt the effect that certain players can have on a team at all, look at Cambiasso down at Leicester, he’s influence on that team is undeniable. Also, if I remember correctly, signing Gullit had a tramendous effect on Chelsea . Thats what I think what I think we should be aiming at, players who aren’t just “past it”/”has been” but players who really have something bigger than just footballing ability to contribute. Current big names really aren’t on FSG’s radar and to be honest, I understand why. Im sure they do still try every nowand again though.
Excellent article, Melissa. Thought-provoking and wonderfully written. Nodded my head a lot at the points and smiled often at the anecdotes. “Buying Southampton” cracked me up.
But this summed it up perfectly for me:
“Because if you don’t bring top talent in, you’ll be selling yours.”
When it comes to transfers I believe that financial considerations trump footballing needs. FSG have put in place improved commercial contracts and increased our revenues. Its that money that they are spending. None of their own. To move away from ‘sensible’ the owners need to be prepared to lose a bit of money, THEIR money. These men aren’t motivated by seeing beautiful football, I have to imagine they don’t even like the sport as a spectacle given how little they are over here. Their end-game is money and profit so our net spend will reflect that. The more they win financially, the more ground we lose in becoming a force.
Good piece as normal, but I’m find a few of the articles and shows are repeating themselves.. It’s all getting throughly depressing. Can we have more school yard and fantasy transfer committee shows!! Do away with all the doom and gloom, we all know we’re fucked.
This is an excellent piece that makes many key points and delivers with great clarity. It’s required because there is so much noise about what should be relatively straightforward processes. Thanks for writing. My only contention is on sakko who, despite being one of our more impressive defenders, absolutely has it all to prove especially in a defensive two. Matched correctly he is undoubtedly an asset but this is a player moved out of a top 8 champions league team who displays great athleticism and good passing but has issues when things are tight and his overall defensive positions away from the ball. Ultimately this is not about sakko but it is about judgement. We know what consistent and effective centre halves should do because we have watched enough good ones. They are the standards to aspire too and they can be found because Everton have one in stones. For me sakko needs to display far more quality, and later longevity to be elavated to a class player. Here’s hoping as he seems to have good character. Enjoyed reading so cheers Melissa.
Great article. I think Milner is a good signing. He did change the game in 13/14, & whenever I’ve watched City in the last few years I could never understand why he was left out so often. In a lot of those games they’d be poor first half, by losing or 0-0 at the break. He’d then come on at half time or after an hour & up the effort, up the tempo & lift the team.
This is a very well written article by a clearly passionate fan. But perhaps that passion has prevented the author from approaching the issue in a clear, logical fashion?
1) The whole Arsenal issue – Why I believe we can’t compare with Arsenal’s recent success in signing big names
A. Arsene Wenger – A name synonymous with positive attacking football. The longest serving premier league manager at the moment. You get a guarantee that the manager is going to play good football and is not going to quit the club suddenly and leave you in the lurch.
B. Track record of Champions league – How many continuous seasons was that again? 15? 16? I think it’s fairly obvious but this matters a lot to the players!
C. Financial muscle – Big shiny stadium? Far superior match day revenue?
D. Location – London > Liverpool? I am not a journalist so I formed this opinion only from reading reports on the internet at the time of the Sanchez signing that one of the reasons he chose Arsenal was the fact that it was in London.
E. Foreign players are not interested in our history, heritage, and “special club” spiel. I believe that if a player has to choose between arsenal and Liverpool, he knows that both these clubs are at best the stepping stones on the way to the real top tier trophy magnets Chelsea, man city, Bayern, PSG etc. and what he needs is just the perfect shop window to display his wares
For the reasons A-E stated above, I think any football player who approaches the choice from a strictly logical viewpoint with his self-interest as the main motivating factor, will choose Arsenal.
2) The writer states this this is not about Marquee signings but about “make sure it has as much impact as possible” and then cites Sturridge & Coutinho as examples of this category. This is rather confusing. Consider the following points:
A. When Sturridge was signed, there was no fanfare like Sanchez & Ozil to attract supporters or boost the player’s morale.
B. Rodgers and Gerrard were both on record stating that this was his last chance saloon.
C. The Sturridge signing then BECAME special because of his performances thereafter which exceeded expectations and was therefore a pleasant surprise.
Here comes my question regarding point 2):
• What was the unique factor that marked out the Sturridge deal at the time of his signing as the “make sure it has as much impact as possible” type that the writer desires?
I’m really trying to work this out but I’m not coming up with an answer. At that time, Sturridge was no different from Ings in everyone’s perception. The author doesn’t think that Ings falls into the desired category otherwise this article wouldn’t have been written. So what is it? The author denies that this is about Marquee signings so does she somehow want signings that aren’t Marquee but still generate the same effect on the supporters & players?
I have a few more questions but I’ll save them for if the author decides to respond to my post.
Hi, your points A-E are valid. But nowhere does the article state that it is easier for Liverpool to attract players than Arsenal. Or that they should automatically be better at it.
The referencing of Arsenal is because I witnessed first-hand how their players and fans reacted which was something they were badly in need of, there’s evidence to suggest they’re heading in the right direction, and they are the club Liverpool have to keep close to. United are too financially powerful along with City and Chelsea. Get further and further away from Arsenal and you’re not looking up and fighting, you’re battling in a different sphere. Already, Spurs have finished above LFC in the past five out of six seasons. Ground is being lost and status is being surrendered.
Arsenal woke up and realised that in order to not look down and still have a chance of a say at the top, they needed to bring in top quality. Mentioned this in a different comment, but listen to the interview done with Amy Lawrence on Gutmann in the Gutter.
On Sturridge and Coutinho:
There was not *AS MUCH* (but there was still) fanfare because they were not considered ‘marquee’ (hate that word, btw). The way things are packaged in this Sky deadline day age ensures that the astronomical deals get the most attention. My point with the impact: both players fitted the philosophy perfectly and BR and SG’s ‘last chance’ quotes were choreographed to challenge Sturridge. Dan loves to prove himself. He played so well with Suarez partly because he wanted to prove that he wasn’t that far away from being world class.
You’ve also ignored the other stuff they said upon his signing. BR: “I have known Daniel since he was 12 at Coventry and then coming through the ranks at Man City. He can score, he has pace and power. He is also hungry and what we need at Liverpool is players hungry to do well.”
Gerrard: “Daniel has the quality. I know he’s got it – I’ve seen it.
“He’s suffered a bit at Manchester City and moved on to Chelsea where he hasn’t played as much as he wanted but has shown flashes of brilliance. It’s all there for him. He just has to go and grasp it with both hands.”
While we didn’t see any fist-pumping, Suarez describes the immediate positive impact both players had on the squad upon arrival in his autobiography.
Comparing Sturridge signing to Ings is just absolutely baffling – especially when you’re doing it on ‘everyone’s’ behalf because that certainly isn’t the case. Sturridge excelled at youth level, had seven seasons in the Premier League (3 at City, 4 CFC (+ loan to Bolton). Despite not being given much attention/minutes at City as a young player, he still showed enough quality that Chelsea signed him. Even in his cameos there, and often being asked to play on the wing, he contributed despite being afforded continuity. In 2011/12 when he did get more minutes for them, he bagged 11 league goals in 26 starts.
He went to Bolton on loan and got 8 in 10 starts. He was a full England international.
Ings is a year younger than Sturridge when he arrived with ONE season in the PL with BURNLEY, 3 in the Championship, 2 in League 1, 1 in League 2 and a loan spell in the Conference. He is not a full international.
You cannot say they’re on the same level, in any universe.
Please read this paragraph again, because you’ve selectively chosen words which doesn’t paint the full picture.
This is not some manic mouthing off about football’s version of unicorns — the ‘marquee signing’ who comes along and magically fixes all things. This is merely a request to reconsider the aim of making money go as far as possible, and instead to make sure it has as much impact as possible. The signings of Daniel Sturridge and Phil Coutinho being a case in point — you don’t always have to spend blow-everyone-out-of-the-water sums in order to galvanise a club.
I’m saying there’s no such thing as a marquee signing who COMES IN AND FIXES ALL THINGS. I’m not saying that I’d be against LFC dropping big money for someone like Benzema. I hate the ‘marquee signing’ cries because often it is based so removed from reality – Zlatan, Pogba…
You don’t ALWAYS have to spend blow-everyone-out-of-the-water sums in order to galvanise a club. Carlos Tevez, for example, wouldn’t fetch an bend-over fee, but would get everyone buzzing.
LFC will spend 20mil on two could-be-good players, but not 40mil on one who is great and can galvanise those around him. So – don’t look to make money go as far as possible, be bolder with it. Especially if you keep saying the intention is to win the league
I enjoyed the article and have been bemused by some of the comments. Here’s a simple question: which of us wouldn’t swap Arsenal’s current state with ours? They have a brand-spanking-new stadium that’s packed every time, cash in the bank some of which they’ve been splashing on players we’d love to have, a recruitment policy that’s at least no worse than ours and they’re somewhere in the mix come the end of every season. Plus, their club seems to have little of the drama and angst that we’ve been going through for the past god-knows how many seasons*. So how can we have a chip on our shoulder about Arsenal?
*Disclaimer: some of their fanbase isn’t immune to the “Wenger out — he’s taken us as far as he can” nonsense but by and large I think their club is less prone to our kind of drama.
Milner…………?
Why?
‘Liverpool have waved farewell to far too many premier players in recent years because they feel they have to go elsewhere to win things. That should chokeslam every single person connected to the club and those with the power to change that perception need to eat, breathe, shower, and sleep solutions.’
Loved that paragraph and couldn’t agree more with the sentiments. I’m scared shitless that we’re going to be having the same conversations a few years from now when we’re just as far off a title and at least being able to give Europe’s best a game as we are now. We need quality players on the pitch alongside Sterling and Coutinho to break this seemingly endless cycle of replacing our best players from a position of weakness.
‘Par’, ‘sensible’, etc. Cowardly talk to justify not even trying to compete with what’s above us. The opposite of everything we were 2013/14 where there was a collective ‘why not us?’ Or 2004/05 for that matter. Basically any season that’s been worth a carrot in the last 25 years. If FSG won’t even try to make Liverpool the best Liverpool we can be I’ve got problems with them. If you don’t have the ambition and mentality to at least put yourself in a position to strike lucky we’re all wasting our time.
Enjoyed that article.
Thanks Melissa.
I have to be honest though and say that I for one can’t wait for the new fixtures to be released.
We are where we are as a club.
It’s not the best position to be in but it also is far from being irreversible.
The negative stench of last season is hanging around like a bad smell.
I can only hope that the fixtures announcement this week will bring a more positive reaction from fans.
When do you start looking forward rather than backwards??? Who knows.
We know Rodgers is the boss, rightly or wrongly and we also know that Sterling is probably going to go.
We know that when we sell all players that we deem to be surplus then we probably have 100 million to spend again.
The transfers so far have been good in my opinion and all with no transfer fees (Ings apart).
So I think we will have a good window and I can only hope that once last season is put to bed officially then a more positive approach is taken by the fans….
Who am I kidding!!!!
Still loved the article.
Who would want to sign or even work for an organisation that sees a managers back office sacked for under performance? Either Rodgers sacked Pascoe and Marsh, without accepting any responsibility or FSG sacked Pascoe and Marsh and thus undermined Rodgers and made his position untenable.
Milner is a young father and is settled in the region. Ings was going back in the Championship…hardly inspiring reasons for the support.
Let’s hope the lack of ambition points to owners looking to sell. FSG are running the club down.
Hi guys, what is the use of qualifying for the top 4th spot for the last 18 or 19 years and you can’t win the CL YNWA
Revenue, experience, club attractiveness are just 3 of many reasons.
Hi mate, do you think winning the Champions League is easy? YNWA.
Being a arsenal fan in cl must be like being a lfc fan in pl no hope of winning it.nearly 2 decades they’ve been in it & got to 1 final.
even when they had a great side around 2002 – 2004 the were nowhere near close to winning cl.
It’s a realistic point you’re making, I don’t mean any disrespect when I say it’s a simple point you’re making.
The difficulty is naming that player you’re talking about.
I didn’t see you mention the name(s) in your piece, so out of interest, who in your opinion should we be targeting?
Aubameyang would be my realistic choice.
Hi Neil,
I don’t mention names on purpose (as with the Benteke piece I did). You can read thousands of stories on thousands of sites with players thrown out whom the writer has never watched or actually studied and analysed.
There are of course obvious stars you’d know would come in and immediately lift things – Tevez being an example as Sanchez would have been last season – but to be in a position to list names, in my opinion, you’d need to watch every single team in every major league as well as South America and know everything about every player.
If you do not have that expertise, you can’t form a proper argument.
This is the job of the club’s scouting and recruitment network, who get paid very handsomely to monitor players worldwide. I do not get paid to do that.
I will also not write about stuff I do not know entirely. Everyone can have an opinion on anything, so it is important to have an informed one.
I hope that makes sense?
Great article and response Melissa,
The impression is that Liverpool missed the boat last year by not exploiting CL qualification and being arguably one of the most attacking and joyful clubs in Europe, last year it felt like the club and manager were going places and the club had positive momentum and long term stability.
The failure to replace Suarez has raised questions about the owners aspirations at Liverpool ; what Arsenal have shown over the past two years is intent and like most organizations the message comes from the top and the message at Arsenal is that they want to win and this filters down to the players and supporters
The message from FSG is at best non existent and at worst indifference.
When they lost Sanches last year they could have gone for a more expensive target but instead went straight to Remy, and that smacks as a lack of ambition and intentional or not that is the message that has been the black cloud above anfield ever since. This question of ambition opens the door for sterling to agitate for a move and that door was opened by FSG and its is not just Sterling wanting to know the answer to this, all of us would like to know, and if at the end of this transfer window that door is still open, and then why should Coutinho and IBE not walk through it next year?
Until FSG show us their ambition then LFC are in limbo and other teams like Arsenal will sail further away and remember just over 12 months ago Arsenal were humiliated at anfield and had not won a trophy in 9 years and Ozhil was a bit of a flop and had a nightmare and run ragged. They then won the FA Cup and built on that with Sanchez and won the FA Cup again and will build on it again.
If you’re a professional footballer and you want to play for Liverpool the answer is simple. Play well against them.
Haha Robin. Gutted I missed ‘buying players who play well against you’ in that list in the piece.
Haha. It was a good piece. I’m worried the club are now accepting mediocrity. We’ll see!
Great replies to the ridiculous comments.
P.s I share your views on Arsenal 100%.
Well Melissa,this could run and run and I’m not surprised.You’ve managed to hit the target and sum up just what many of us are thinking with this excellent piece of writing.
There is just one thing though and it’s not a criticism of Rodgers.It’s more about this unfathomable process of recruiting players.I go back a long while and I’ve always understood football to be a very simple game.
You’ve got eleven players and you play them to their individual strengths.At the risk of stating the bloody obvious you play defenders who can win the ball and have positional awareness.God knows these players are coached in these aspects from about 14 years of age when they are identified as defenders.The same goes for midfielders and attackers and goalscorers.You then recruit players to improve those positions.
I know this is over simplistic but I just don’t understand this idea that you can try and play like Barcelona if you don’t have the players to do it.Never mind this season;my heart was in my mouth a lot of last season watching the back 3 or 4 passing the ball across the penalty area and waiting for an accident to happen.
The point I’m trying to get to is that we seem to be buying players for the sake of it and then carrying on with the same old plan of trying to play like Barcelona.Trying to change the natural instincts and qualities of players to conform to one of many rigid plans and tactical formations.
We’ve got a very good squad here with great potential.But the thing that worries me is if we do sign some big name players will they finish up square pegs in round holes like a lot of them seem to be at the moment?
That Lad Higuain has all the makings of a decent centre back!
The other thing I wanted to add to my earlier comments is that hindsight is a wonderful thing.
I mean, where’s the equivalent article for Man U’s 62 million signing Di Maria? He almost cost double the amount as Sanchez …. did he show that they weren’t “messing around” and they were all about winning? I mean this was a guy that was the man for Real last year and pushed them to win the Champions League. But there’s no Di Maria article because for 62 million he contributed very little – they would’ve come 4th place without him, he didn’t really push them anywhere. By the end of the season he was pushed out of the lineup by Ashley freaking Young.
I guess the counter argument would be “yeah but we’re talking about goal scorers”.
Ok, well Spurs spent over a combined 60 million on Soldado and Lamela. And lets not forget that Soldado had a 5 year run in La Liga as a 20+ goal per season man, tonnes of caps for Spain, and pretty much a “guaranteed” 1 in 2 striker. Conversely Lamela was pretty much the hottest talent in Serie A, scoring 15 goals as a 20 year old in a non-striker role.
But there is no article about Soldado and Lamela because they came here and flopped miserably.
Are we talking about making statements or are we talking about producing results?
Now of course, if you have some type of analysis to offer that could show why you knew ahead of time Sanchez would be a massive success but Di Maria, Soldado and Lamela would all be various levels of failure, well that would be extremely interesting to read. But this just reeks of hindsight bias.
There is no point talking about Man United’s transfers because they are a financial powerhouse. Comparing what Utd can do in the market to what LFC can do is a useless exercise. They CAN afford to take very expensive gambles and continue doing so if one or two or three don’t work.
LFC CANNOT COMPETE WITH UNITED IN THE MARKET.
Of the top four teams, LFC are the closest to Arsenal. They need to keep touch with them. The other three are much superior in terms of budgets, pulling power, squads etc.
Also, what is the point looking at what Spurs are doing when LFC are not looking to be in their company, but in that of title contenders.
Anyway, comparing Soldado and Lamela to the quality of Ozil and Sanchez – you’re messing there right? Spurs have spent and finished above LFC in five of the last six seasons, which for them is great.
Also the article states no transfer is a guarantee etc. It’s about intent and ambition.
Brilliant article Melissa and agree with every word pretty much. No idea how any LFC fan can’t to be honest. Right now all we are doing is taking a very quick road to mediocrity, whilst Arsenal continue to strive for the ultimate. If we seriously have Benteke as our number 1 striking target then FSG need to just pack up and give someone else a shot because that to me shows that they aren’t in any way trying to make us title winners and subsequently it shows they are massive bullshitters! Before Arsenal signed Ozil, i would have laughed my head off if you’d told me that within a calendar year he would be at the Emirates alongside Sanchez. They are consistently trying to improve not just there squad but the team that goes on the pitch every week and they finish top 4 EVERY YEAR!! We can barely make fourth and yet all we seem to want to do is get a load of ‘semi decent’ lads for the squad on the cheap. It’s nothing short of depressing as fuck and i don’t see it changing.
Since the end of the 14/15 season we have confirmed that we are also-rans. Buy nobodies and attract nobody. The most depressed I’ve been since Rafa was sacked.
Melissa I agree with much of what you say, but I think the problem is that the obsession with signings will not get us anywhere.
If we look at Europe and see where financial minnows have been able to mix it up with the big boys AZ Alkmaar in Holland, Athletico in Spain, Valencia in Spain when Rafa was there and Dortmund in Germany the common thread is superior management that gets the most of the available resources.
Goals are the most precious commodity in football and it follows that the players who are proficient at this skill cost a lot and most likely gravitate to financial powerhouses.
We on the other hand have a manager who cant seem to coach his teams not to concede. And without two of his most prolific players we could all see the faults in his methods.
Mario Balotelli or Rickie Lambert as a lone striker. Emre Can as a right-back and central defender. Glen Johnson as a left-back. Javier Manquillo as a left-back. Adam Lallana, Jordan Henderson, Raheem Sterling and Lazar Markovic as wing-backs. Sterling also as a central striker. Philippe Coutinho on the right wing.
With a history of these types of decisions and consistent failure in Europe what would be the attraction to an up and coming player to come to us?
for me the rot starts with the man in the dugout and Liverpool will continue to struggle until he is replaced with someone with a winning pedigree. It just so happens that there are a number of such candidates available and without gainful employment. Signings coached by a novice coach will not solve our problems.
Ozil and Sanchez were silly money! For £35M we should be buying Lacazette and Kondogbhia but we will not. This club is after money now and not willing to spend on the right players.
Brendan Rodgers just needs to churn out a £50M player a season for us to sell. We won’t win the big prizes because the club just want to make money by cutting wages and selling players and finishing top 4. They will not buy the top ten players!
Milner though!
Why?
Good article, Melissa.
I’d use one word to sum up our recruitment policy in the last few windows; “uninspiring”.
I completely get your point about Ozil. He’s certainly not set the world alight in his time at Arsenal but the signing does more to convey a message of “we’re ready to compete”, existing players as well as potential new ones see it as a signal of intent that Arsenal want to win titles.
We’ve lost two of the club’s biggest pulling factors in the last two seasons; Suarez and Gerrard. As good as players like Henderson and Milner are, they don’t have that same pulling power as the former, do they?
Sometimes you need to be brave, make a bit of a statement in the market. I just wonder whether we’d be able to do that or not.
It should not be that difficult to recruit players never mind all the “not in the Champions League” or “players prefer to live in London”. Money talks Monaco,PSG, half the clubs in Russia got the top talent they acquired by paying for it. Does anyone think Serigo, Toure etc wanted to go to Manchester City from Barcelona…you pay them enough and they will come. We seem to be obsessed with the “Sanchez case” he apparently preferred to live in London so you top Arsenal’s wage offer with an extra 20/30k and see where he prefers to live. We seem to just shrug it off and go ok then see you later. I’m all for buying young talent with a potential sell on value that’s just good business. But you must bring in top class established talent to compliment the youngsters you are buying in, we could end up being a LYON type club that gets in players has them for a season or two and then sells them on. That works for a brief period but at some point you will falter as they did, if i’m honest i don’t see FSG as desperate to get us back into the CL, the new domestic tv deal covers the increased £30+ million of CL revenue that was on offer and with the new stand coming into play. FSG may just want to coast for the next 2 seasons with the possibility of sneaking into the CL should a top 4 club slip out. We as fans are not asking them to break the club but to be competitive and that won’t happen with cut price deals, smart cut price deals ala Milner sure they make sense. The slogan i believe was we come to not to play…indeed.