I've a valid question. Is there a slight snobbery amongst supporters when it comes to clubs signing players? I'll explain what I mean. Rival fans saying to each other ''We signed an Arsenal player and you only signed a Wigan player, so our player is better than one you signed'' The reverse in reality may be the case. We're all guilty of it, by saying for **** sake we only signed a player from x when we should have been signing a player from x. Brendan Rodgers touched on it in a piece in todays mirror. He said that agents are more inclined to plug players once they've signed for a bigger club, when they are playing for a small club, they can't kick a ball. Is it just me or is that fans think the same?
to an extent, yes. But for obvious reasons. If Adam had performed in Real Madrid's starting XI to the same ability as he did in Blackpool's we'd have been creaming ourselves over his signing- players look better when they are the star of a mediocre team with less expectation it can be argued.
This is only partially true though imo. Charlie Adam may have been playing for a "mediocre" team, but he was playing against a high standard of opposition. Why he doesn't fit in with us has been debated endlessly elsewhere so I won't go into it again. In answer to the OP, I think there is snobbery everywhere. Fans will take any opportunity to have a dig at their rivals so that just gives them yet another string to their bow. I also think there's a rather simplistic belief amongst fans that if you sign some exotic sounding foreigner it must be a step up to the rather mundane British names, even though a lot of the time none of us have much idea about how they play.
I agree with that. Is it the mindset of the supporter. We've signed an Alberto Aquilani and he'll perform better than a Scott Parker. The reverse in reality is the truth and has been proven. We could say the same thing about household names and unknown players. The unknown player may perform 10 times better than the household name.
There is also the snobbery in where fans judge player on where he goes to. As one recognizable Arsenal fan said on Sahin... Snobbery at its best.
If we signed him, would we have signed Allen? Where would Gylfi play if he was in this squad now? We didn't miss out on that one.
Just look at Valencia at United to see that players from lower clubs can perform, It pains me to say it but fergie has done good there £18m for a player who I consider to be the best out and out winger in the world
Beat me to it. I think these days it's more of an issue because we have so much more exposure to the "big" European and World names. I never really cared whether we sign a player from Barry Town or Barcelona I judge them when I see them but i think the difference now is that we have all seen a vast number of players who are playing, people can find out contract lengths, whether they are happy with life (twitter etc) and even what they had for bleeding breakfast. A lot of fans see more of Madrid, Barca or Bayern games than they do of the Championship games for instance. People want the household names and they tend to play at the clubs we see more of. In reality most of our best signings over the last decade have been from what you might call less fashionable clubs whether they be home or abroad. Me...I couldn't care less where we get them from as long as they can play
There seems to be a trend at the moment, anytime we are linked to a player from a club lower than us, out comes the "how the mighty have fallen " malarky. It really is a terrible terrible attempt at wummery. #Musttryharder
Yeah it's amazing that if it were true Zingy those transfer fees should be getting lower when we buy someone. Weirdly it's seems the more "has been" we get the higher those fees get eh? That's probably because those doing the buying and selling know a bit more about a players abilities beneath the name than we do (most of the time anyway) I've always judged on what I've seen of a player before we sign him and a grit my teeth if I didn't find that impressive until I see him after our clubs got a hold of him. Think of the nobodies that became heroes of Anfield and think of the "names" that have come and done nothing.
I'd not say snobbery... i'd say: 1) its a stick to beat rival fans with to some... utd sign valencia, jones smalling so lfc players say they are muck but if utd spent 17mil on anderson nobody comments until they see him to 2) There's a bigger demand for the bargain. if a small club gets a good price a big club must be deserate cos surely there's jsut as good a player in outer *****lia or malaga or somewhere. If you sign a player from a small club even if the club is is europe you have to pay very little. 3) the biggest thing LFC sees is we are linked to or buy relegated weak assed players that we just know as fans don't cut it at top 4 level. so we are angry. Pennent, bellamy (sorry but true) crouch, adam.... downing. I just think snobbery isn't the word so much as people can see too well what a player who's played all year in the prem is capable of. Borini played for chelsea and roma and on loan for swansea. theres little debate on him at 11mil but 15mil for allen just cos he came from swansea is seen as too much. not sure if its snobbery or being ill informed.
Another valid point. I understand that, and I know where a lot of the Liverpool legends came from. However at the moment its the mind-set of supporters to be a bit snobbish.
Who cares as long as they come and perform. In fact it's the little known players,of whom we have little expectations,that arenoften the best buys. Look at the players Newcastle signed last year,all of a sudden they are a top side . Liverpool,along with many others, have had too many big name signings recently who have dramatically underperformed .
The problem is uneducated fans. They rate a player based on how good he is on FIFA or Football Manager.
This It's generally opposition fans who try to make snap judgements like that about a player, rather than the fans of the clubs that sign him imo. They just want an opportunity to have a go. Like if you guys get Tello, will you be expecting him to suddenly be your best player just cos he's signed from Barca? I'd guess not, cos he's had virtually no impact at Barca thus far, and doesn't even have a squad number next year. But if you guys are chatting with Utd fans, would you not claim Tello was a much better signing that Powell, cos Powell has only ever played for Crewe? Course you would, cos it's Utd and you'd want to score a point or two
Only up to a point. I've never played a single computer footy game of any sort, and I'm sure there's countless thousands like me.
