Everyone has now heard of the fee agreed with Sunderland for Henderson, being touted as worth £20m. In terms of what we're getting, £20m is probably a bit steep - but we all know how much money is added on for young English talent. Another target we're linked with is Scott Dann, currently at recently relegated Birmingham. As a rough guess I'll say if we do get him, it'll be between £7 and £13m. The point of this article however, is to highlight the aims of FSG and Kenny when it comes to Young talent and how an influx of English talent may affect the PL and the England National team. FSG and Kenny both have the same plan; they are so far a perfect example of an owner-manager partnership. The owners want to win everything, Kenny has won everything which has built a solid block on which to mould our team. They are going for young players for a reason - As they progress, they also get to know their team mates more and how they work. Many players don't have brilliant first seasons, but after a few seasons once they've begun to click with their team mates things start changing and their true worth shows. This is what Kenny is planning. This also comes to show why we're going for UK talent and not overseas; they all speak the same language and they know the worth of Liverpool. Let's also not forget; we're being attracted to the hottest prospects in English football, whilst we have plenty of young english stars in the academy. What kind of message is that sending out to other prospective English stars? It's telling them we're in this for the long haul and we mean business. This in turn will make the stars more likely to join us than our rivals. So, whilst us spending £20m now may seem a lot, it has a knock-on effect when it comes to our reputation around England. The England team has been poor in recent years, and the last world cup highlighted how much the team needs change. I'm going to take Barca's team as an example. They are THE academy for Spain, they get first refusal of all talent and they develop everyone they find into the best players they can. This is good for Barca and for the Spanish national team; from what I can see, this is what we're also trying to do. If you gather English talent in one place and make them gel, then you're onto a winning formula. So far it's worked with all of the top clubs, and Kenny knows it's the way to move us forward. In conclusion, have some faith - Kenny knows what he's doing and this £20m buy has highlighted his ambitions.
Excellent thread. I'm going to promote it to article. However there is nothing wrong with a little bit of continental flair.If DC and Kenny were to sign someone such as Jeffren Suarez,then I would be just as chuffed.He's young and also fits the FSG mould.
I 100% agree. The whole post perfectly sums up how I was trying to explain the spending/philosophy in other threads. I already believe english players will now see Liverpool as a perfect team to play for. It'll be like the 80's, lots of british players in one team, but the only difference is, Liverpool will be the only one doing it this way, compared to 'back then' when it was the norm.
Excellent article. Completely agree with the points that you have made. Like you have said, the players will build a relationship with each other and that will help them work well as a team in the years to come. This should help the team progress and help the club achieve its aspirations. I also agree with the point you have made about the younger players and chances they may get. Kenny has given players like Flanagan and Robinson chances in the team. This compares better to other teams who don't give the youth players chances in the team because they might cost the team points in the league if they make mistakes because they are nervous. This does make us more attractive to younger players like Henderson who know that they are going to get chances to shine.
Excellent post mate Not that I care one jot about the England team - but if this philosophy pays off for us, it can only help the England setup and maybe avoid the embarrassing debacles we've seen in recent tournaments.
said this exact thing re players england barca spain yesterday, totally agree 100% Good article matey
Nice one, Ze. I remember Ron Greenwood having an England line-up with seven Liverpool players in it. I'm not sure it worked as well in practice as in theory, though. Ever since I've been convinced you can't pick international players by club form. It's a different beast and different players excel. Look at Crouchy's England record, yet he can't get a game.
Good thought provoking article. I'm not interested in developing an England squad: for me club will always come before country. The UEFA regulations will mean that we must make the most of English players we either develop or purchase. Hence a concentration upon young talent has to be the way forward for us. However, we must also ensure that we have the opportunity to bring in overseas players to meet the needs of the club.
Good points raised, and I would agree with most of it regarding Kenny looking at producing a young team of players (not just english, as the likes of Pacheco (sp) and Wilson are also good prospects for the future). The only concern would be the amount of money it costs to sign players in England who are "the next big thing". As you said, 20m is a lot for Henderson (I'll be honest, I personally think over twice what he is actually worth), but that's just the beginning. Can you honestly say you think Liverpool would be improved by signing say the next 5 hottest prospects in uk football if that was the average price paid for each, rather than players available from around the world? Put it this way, considering there is not much difference in the price paid, who would you rather have - Henderson or for example, both Mezut Ozil and Sami Khedira?
great article ze yes i also remember the 70,s and 80,s when we and man utd dominated the home nations teams.it can only be good for our football as a nation and also good for liverpool,again great article.
I think the british core will help with the premier league but I dont think it will work that well if we get back into europe. The way I see it you need some flair and creativity if you want to progress in the champions league. Which is something british players are not really well known for mainly due to the way they are coached at a younger level.
Hold on a sec lads - there were very few English players involved in the 1986 team. NONE appeared in the FA Cup final that year (McMahon was on the bench and stayed there) British yes, English no.
That's why I've said UK talent . I wasn't particularly trying to compare us to Liverpool teams of the past; rather current Barcelona, Bayern Munich, AC milan teams.
What about our 1977 team that won the title and European Cup had a majority of British players. Clemence.(England) Neal(England) Smith(England) Hughes(England) Jones(Wales) Case(England) Callaghan(England) McDermott(England) Heighway(Republic of Ireland)*He only lived in Ireland for 6 months,His family are English,but he represented the Republic of Ireland because he was born in Dublin. Keegan(England) Toshack(Wales).
False economy to buy older players, though. We made over £5m on Ngog but we won't make the Poulsen money back.
That's asking a bit much isn't it?! It took him 10 minutes to write that sentence. He didn't have a computer until the age of 27, due to him being from Newcastle, so he's computer illiterate.
