Value for money.
Paying over the odds.
Cheaper alternatives.
It’s quite common now for fans, and the media, to believe they know the value of players and what their club should be spending when they they’re looking to bring somebody in. The latest player to be put under a microscope is Shahktar Donetsk’s Alex Teixeira. Plenty of people weren’t too familiar with the attacking midfielder before he was linked with Liverpool, but now they’re all certain the club shouldn’t be paying £38 million that the Ukrainians want. Why?
There’s no value for money in that deal. You’re paying over the odds for the player. There are cheaper alternatives out there.
I’m guilty of doing it too. It’s human nature to want to find a bargain.
The player only has two and a half years left on his deal, he wants to move and his market value will only decrease from now on. In an ideal world Shakhtar wouldn’t be asking for £38 million for an uncapped 26 year old, but then when is the transfer market ever ideal? The selling club set the price. If the buying club believe the player enhances the squad enough to warrant such a fee then they pay it. The final price isn’t always representative of the quality of the player.
There will be cheaper alternatives out there but they’re cheaper for a reason, right? You have to pay over the odds for players of real quality. There won’t be many, if any, attacking midfielders with a goal scoring record that rivals his. If he’s being brought in to improve us in that department then he’s probably the best out there at doing what he does. However, we’ve been here before haven’t we? In the summer with Christian Benteke when many fans seemed to believe the deal was a no brainer because ‘he scored goals and Liverpool needed goals’. I said it at the time that a history of goals isn’t transferable, he may have delivered for Villa but there’s no guarantee he’d do the same for Liverpool. You need to buy players to suit your style.
Teixeira, on paper, suits the style Liverpool are looking to play and he brings with him a history of goals. He ticks both boxes with is a rarity in today’s world. Therefore he’s worth the extra money, surely?
I was recently buying a new television. I went to a shop, it was Tesco, I’m a bit of a clubcard points fiend, anyway I went there during the post-Christmas sales in the hope of picking up a bargain. I wanted a Smart, 43 inch plus TV with plenty of HDMI ports and a decent HZ rate. They were my requirements. A TV profile, much like a player profile. If a TV ticked the boxes I’d run it by my transfer committee, also known as my girlfriend, and we’d go from there. Cut a long story short I’d narrowed it down to two LG TVs, one had everything I wanted and the other had everything apart from the Smart TV bit. There wasn’t much difference in price, the smart tv-less one was about £50 less in price and I didn’t really need the internet function on the TV because I’ve got one of those Android boxes.  I still went with the more expensive one because although there wasn’t much of a difference it was still better. I was willing to pay that little bit more because the TV had everything I wanted.
Teixeira may have everything Jurgen Klopp wants to improve this squad so you he’s willing to pay that little bit extra.
Obviously in the Teixeira deal we aren’t talking about a fifty pound difference but tens of millions, that’s football though. If you’re a big club, which we still are, what can you actually get with £10 million? There are rarities which sees you buying an Emre Can or a Philippe Coutinho but this isn’t all that common. In today’s market £10 million gets you a squad player at best, and Liverpool have enough of those.
Arsenal systematically improved their squad with these sorts of buys. They had ‘too many attacking midfielders’ but still went out and paid over £70 million for Mesut Ozil and Alexis Sanchez when there were cheaper alternatives out there, especially in the case of the former. These signings worked though. Successive FA Cup victories, a top four finish and a real push for the title this season. Would they have had as much ‘success’ going for the ‘cheaper’ options?
Liverpool have been burnt paying over the odds many times in the past but the club can’t be hesitant in the transfer market. If Jurgen Klopp really feels as though Teixeira is the man to help Liverpool unlock these deep sitting defences then he’ll repay that money in helping the team to victories.
You’re wrong about Benteke. Liverpool fans were shocked when we were linked with buying him and the majority didn’t want him. We only got behind it after we signed him like we always do. FSG have made so many mistakes, not buying Teixeira now would be another. We can’t compete with the huge clubs in the summer when they’re doing their transfer business.
I’ll be so angry if FSG blow this deal over the price they were going to pay for 29 year old Shane Long!! Just pay the extra bit of money!!
I’ll be angry too! Just buy Teixeira, Matip and in the summer, Goetze. Sick of hearing about Ian Ayre flying around the globe and coming back having achieved zip.
Janet
It may not be as simple as paying more straight away. We’ve been here before with Ukranian clubs. In one instance everything was agreed, including the fee and the president refused to sign at the last moment. It’s a process and we’ll have to work through it.
Unlike most other LFC fans, I have absolutely no idea if this guy will be any good for us. We’re still looking for a Suarez like player that will run at defenders and score goals. I’ve seen elements of that in the various clips of him but not all.
I find this very amateurish. Why go all the way there if a price has not been agreed? It makes LFC look stupid.in the age of telephone , email, conference call etc etc. Why the hell was a propper discussion not had before Ian Ayr went over.
Unless Shakter were/are trying to use LFC as bait to draw out other potential buyers like Chelsea who simply do whatever it takes to get their man or some German club who lets face it know how to negotiate with Shakter better than LFC deos.
Having got this far if player is good enough and would enhance our team and not another squad player I think LFC should just pay it.these episodes are simply damaging our reputation when it comes to trying to buy big players.
Over the past 2/3 years the number of teams and agents who have used LFC to achieve better deals and contracts for their players is simply embarrassing. Costa,Mikytarian,Salar,Willian. No one can say that with the exception of Salar these players would not have improved LFC at the times we allegedly went for them.
Reputation and image matters in the transfer market and we have to protect it.its ok looking for bargains or money balled players,but sometimes common sense must prevail.