We could sit here all day, and debate what areas of our current squad needs strengthening. We could also discuss potential targets, and how realistic a chance of a certain team accepting a bid, and a certain player joining.
In fact, I have read many a debate on the the forums here...
Player transfers were one of many things Liverpool managed poorly last summer, as Christian Purslow and Roy Hodgson oversaw some woeful signings and ludicrous sales. The arrivals of promising prospects Jonjo Shelvey and Danny Wilson were tied up by Rafa Benitez, who also sanctioned the signing of Bosman flop Milan Jovanovic. Following the Spaniards sacking, Hodgson and Purslow were active in the market themselves. Joe Cole and Fabio Aurelio were signed on free transfers, but in deals that will cost the club a lot of money in the long term; wages of approximately £90,000 per week for Cole and a two year deal for the injury prone Aurelio. The remaining signings were Paul Konchesky from Fulham for slightly more than £3m, Christian Poulsen from Juventus for £4.5m, Brad Jones from Middlesbrough for £2.3m and Raul Meireles from Porto for £10.7m. Leaving Liverpool was a raft of former Academy and Reserve Team players, the wantaway Yossi Benayoun, Albert Riera and Javier Mascherano, but also Alberto Aquilani, after just one season of adaptation in England and the promising Argentine international Emiliano Insua, both on loan.
In the 2006 January transfer window, Daniel Agger moved to Liverpool from Brondby for what was a club record fee for a defender, at £5.8m. Agger made his Liverpool debut that February against Birmingham City, a match which also saw the ‘second coming’ of Robbie Fowler. However, the Dane was limited to just 4 appearances for his new club that season due to injury.
Despite this seasons ups and downs there has been almost one constant in the side, Maxi Rodríguez.
Our number 17 has featured in 24 of our 31 premier league matches, joint in 5th place with Glen Johnson for season appearances.
But many people question why Maxi continues to be selected and feature so heavily in the side.
To...
“We’ve got the only Brazilian that can’t play football!”
“It’s clear that he’s not going to make it.”
“Not Liverpool class.”
“We’re not going to win a title with him in the squad!”
“Would he get into our rivals teams? No.”
Are just some of the comments I’ve heard or read. Others can’t be written down…
It was late Thursday night, that the brilliant Tony Barrett, was reporting that Chelsea had made a bid, and we had rejected it. I was sat in work, with a copy of the Times printing another trusted article, while my colleagues had copies of The S*n, Daily Fail, and every other made up story going. I was brushing it under the carpet. We rejected Chelsea's bid, we move on, right? We have been in this situation before, haven't we?
Ive never written a blog before on anything, all I normally write are reviews for Hotels and Restaurants on trip Advisor and process documents for work.
It's close to two weeks since the victory against Manchester United and we've, once again, done a full circle of emotion. Ecstasy of beating our rivals to dejection of crashing out of Europa. However we still think there are ten reasons to be positive:
It’s always hard to rate keepers. You can’t really rate based on goals against averages or clean sheets, as they are not just decided by goalkeepers, but on how good defences are and how defensive coaches can be. Some keepers can look good...
It’s always hard to calculate transfer costs. Transfer fees can be undisclosed, and additional costs such as agents fees and wages etc are even harder to guess. But despite these obstacles, guesstimates can be made. Looking at the stats we do have, the last four Liverpool FC managers, Gerard Houllier, Rafa Benitez, Roy Hodgson and now Kenny Dalglish, have between them laid out nearly £440 million in transfers, on 172 players. By my count, in total the four of them have laid out £10 million or more on a single player 13 times:
