Summer Transfers

[AJ The Red]

Dont want to be all doom and gloom as we are still in a great position but.

 

Our worst transfer window ever??? Nothing has worked out at all , Rafa must take a share of the blame but i can see all 3 gone by next summer(not including any youngsters).

Edited February 3, 2009 by AJ The Red

[Swagger]

You are joking, right? Do the names Diao, Cheyrou and Diouf ring a bell?

 

You're probably in denial.

[Jarg Armani]

arguably the worst since Benitez took over yes, but none of them have been great.

 

Behind the scenes has seemed shambolic for years and it seems to be coming to the surface now how bad things have been.

 

We do not function effectively as a club, chain of command is all over the place. We can see it, presumably other clubs can see it too, we get taken for more rides than miss daisy every 6 months.

 

It needs sorting as a matter of urgency because beyond the manager we're an absolute show.

[Toni]

rieira is a decent acquisition and i dont think he will be sold.

 

the disappointing about this summer is getting in only a decent acquisition. we have failed to strengthen the squad enough over last year and for a club like liverpool whose obejective is to challenge for major honours, adding only a 9 mill decent winger and wasting 7/8 mill on a full-back is simply not good enough.

 

as for the keane fiasco acquiring a 20 mill player who is sold in mid-season (arguably rightly so). what is more disappointing is that he was strangely sold on the last day of the transfer window and not replaced.

 

 

thus we had the opportunity of having a 20 mill player in our squad, fecked up this season.

 

 

simply not good enough for a club like liverpool.

 

needless to say on the transfer front we were frustratingly poor for the season we were supposedly going to challenge for the prmiership.

 

on the pitch however is not all doom and gloom as we are in a fanatastic position, with more or less last year's crop, however because of this, although i still hope, i honestly think that this year will not be our year. we lack too much in terms of strength in depth compared to the other big sides

[Flasher]

On the subject of Summer transfers - next summer that is, I hope we go for Valencia from Wigan, who apparently will be leaving.

 

Not because he's the best right midfielder in the world, which he isn't, but because he's a decent one and possibly the only one that will be available. There just aren't many of them around innit.

[Mikey]

Bearing in mind we spent upwards of £35M on players to have an OK LM and a s**** LB to show for it is pretty much up there with Diao, Diouff and Cheyrou.

[stressederic]

Bearing in mind we spent upwards of £35M on players to have an OK LM and a s**** LB to show for it is pretty much up there with Diao, Diouff and Cheyrou.

 

If we win the league I'll take it.

 

And I think you're wrong about Riera and Dossena.

[Gunga Din]

we went into last summer needing a right and left sided midfielder, a striker, and a left back

 

We'll go into the summer needing pretty much the same.

 

which is frustrating.

[johngibo YPC]

It was the worst summer we've had in 8 years

[floyd the barber]

It was the worst summer we've had in 8 years

 

and our best chance of winning the title in maybe 6-7years....

[Magic8Ball]

Any player you buy is a gamble . Given that Rafa's done a good job improving our standard of play, and at this level it's hard moving forward with little money as you're not able to buy genuine quality, you have to gamble on players who can go either way. Say we had 100m to spend, do you think Rafa would have gone for Keane?

Expect a few more of these hit and miss transfers going forward as we need:

 

Alternative to Torres ( may already be at the club)

Alternative to Gerrard ( may already be at the club)

 

Player for plan B

Another CM if Gerrard is now a support striker

 

Wingers Left and Right who can score and share the goal burden with Torres and Gerrard

Right Back

Maybe a left back

 

That's a lot of players to get with 30m - which means even though Rafa will prioritize, his purchases are likely to be more hit and miss than you'd expect if he went out and bought D Villa, Aguero, Silva, Valencia etc.

[Gunga Din]

and our best chance of winning the title in maybe 6-7years....

 

 

we got off to a flyer the season after the Diouf/diao/Cheyrou transfers. then it turned to rubbish

[Magic8Ball]

we got off to a flyer the season after the Diouf/diao/Cheyrou transfers. then it turned to rubbish

sounds all to familiar. TBH I expect most transfers we make now to take 0.5 - 1.5 of a season to get going because Rafa will almost certainly be forced to buy younger more volatile talent, "unproven" if you like.

[Kvarme Ate My Food]

Any player you buy is a gamble . Given that Rafa's done a good job improving our standard of play, and at this level it's hard moving forward with little money as you're not able to buy genuine quality, you have to gamble on players who can go either way. Say we had 100m to spend, do you think Rafa would have gone for Keane?

Expect a few more of these hit and miss transfers going forward as we need:

 

Alternative to Torres ( may already be at the club)

Alternative to Gerrard ( may already be at the club)

 

Player for plan B

Another CM if Gerrard is now a support striker

 

Wingers Left and Right who can score and share the goal burden with Torres and Gerrard

Right Back

Maybe a left back

 

That's a lot of players to get with 30m - which means even though Rafa will prioritize, his purchases are likely to be more hit and miss than you'd expect if he went out and bought D Villa, Aguero, Silva, Valencia etc.

 

buy top class, one at a time.

one brilliant signing last summer and we'd probably be clear at the top now

[Gunga Din]

sounds all to familiar. TBH I expect most transfers we make now to take 0.5 - 1.5 of a season to get going because Rafa will almost certainly be forced to buy younger more volatile talent, "unproven" if you like.

 

 

not having that. we shelled out £20 mil on Keane. he wasnt unproven. riera and Dossena are Spanish and Italian internationals respectively, riera having alrady played in England. hardly unproven. hardly cheap. Mascherano also cost a fair bit, as did Skrtel and Agger.

[Gunga Din]

buy top class, one at a time.

one brilliant signing last summer and we'd probably be clear at the top now

 

 

spot on

[Hassony]

buy top class, one at a time.

one brilliant signing last summer and we'd probably be clear at the top now

 

 

I agree

 

but who is that brilliant signing?

 

I would have gone for Ronaldinho, would have been a gamble worth taking IMO

[Sion]

buy top class, one at a time.

one brilliant signing last summer and we'd probably be clear at the top now

 

you could argue Keane was our one top class signing, and the rest were simply to strengthen the squad.

Our squad isn't good enough to just sign one player, highlighted by how worried a large % of the fanbase are with the likelihood of having a couple of our best players out in the coming games.

[Magic8Ball]

buy top class, one at a time.

one brilliant signing last summer and we'd probably be clear at the top now

Earlier ( see above) I said there's a risk with all transfers. Buying anyone is a risk even if it's someone like Messi, sure he's great with Argentina and Barcelona, but would he be that great with us? - we just don't know. Hence buying "top quality" means there's a risk all be it arguably less than buying younger talent. But the thing is we cannot afford the really top talent even with our entire transfer budget. we can't afford Ribery or D Villa for example.

We're forced to shop at the lower tier where there is more risk. IMO the best deals at the lower tier are the younger players who could yet develop into world class players, older players in this tier eg Keane are not worth the risk, too set in their ways.

 

So, I expect Rafa will be mostly buying younger semi/totally unproven players going forward

[Gunga Din]

you could argue Keane was our one top class signing, and the rest were simply to strengthen the squad.

Our squad isn't good enough to just sign one player, highlighted by how worried a large % of the fanbase are with the likelihood of having a couple of our best players out in the coming games.

 

 

we arent good enough because we havent enough top players in the squad. we tend to spread our money around on 5 or 6 mediorce players rather than just getting one or two top players a year and using the youth players if we are stuck, and then we moan because we havent got enough match winners

[dorgie]

I agree

 

but who is that brilliant signing?

 

Gareth Barry

[Metro]

People on here are talking about Valencia but I suspect he will go to Man Utd in the summer. As for players going, wouldn't be at all surprised to see Babel go.

[alias75]

Hopefully the squad is at the stage now where we can buy 1 or 2 top quality players each season instead of needing to fill out the squad. Having players like Insua break through will help that happen.

 

If the team was where it should be players like Kuyt and Riera probably should be squad players instead of first team regulars, thats the step we need to take. It seems like we've been here for a few seasons mind, although its only now when you can say the current squad is 100% Rafa's.

 

This is the advantage teams like Man Utd have over us, they can add 1 or 2 top quality players each season because that strength in depth is there, but it takes time for the manager to get to that point. They can spend £10 million plus on potential (Anderson, Nani, Tosic) apart from Babel we've never really done that.

 

If you can add 1 or 2 that are Torres level in quality then that has a knock on effect throughout the squad.

[Magic8Ball]

People on here are talking about Valencia but I suspect he will go to Man Utd in the summer. As for players going, wouldn't be at all surprised to see Babel go.

Man U have first option on Valencia - which sucks !

[Bailo]

Man U have first option on Valencia - which sucks !

Do those exist in this country? I'd be surprised.