A Comprehensive Review of Brendan Rodgers' Liverpool Signings 2012-2015

Players Bought Under Brendan Rodgers at Liverpool 2012-2015
A Review​

Evening fellow Reds!

Some of you may remember I spent some time making a thread last year discussing this topic which raised a few eyebrows and created some lively debate. This thread is an up to date review of Brendan's signings whilst at Liverpool FC.

The previous thread contained tables to make things easier to view but it appears you cannot readily make them anymore when creating a thread, which is a shame.

As a result, the following is a list of the players Rodgers has signed and whether I believe they have been a 'hit', a 'miss' or 'TBA' and also whether they can be seen as 'value for money'.

I will then analyse these findings and hopefully instigate debate.

Since 1st June 2012 Brendan Rodgers (and/or a comitte) have signed the following 31 players:



2012
Fabio Borini - £10,400,000 - MISS - NOT VALUE FOR MONEY
Joe Allen - £15,000,000 - MISS - NOT VALUE FOR MONEY
Oussama Assaidi- £3,000,000 - MISS - NOT VALUE FOR MONEY
Nuri Sahin - On Loan - MISS
Samed Yesil - £1,000,000 - TBA

2013
Daniel Sturridge - £12,000,000 - HIT - VALUE FOR MONEY
Philippe Coutinho - £8,500,000 - HIT - VALUE FOR MONEY
Luis Alberto - £6,800,000 - TBA
Iago Aspas - £7,000,000 - MISS - NOT VALUE FOR MONEY - SHOULD BE MADE INTO GLUE
Simon Mignolet - £9,000,000 - MISS - NOT VALUE FOR MONEY
Kolo Toure- Free Transfer - MISS - VALUE FOR MONEY
Aly Cissokho - Paid £850k to take On Loan - MISS - NOT VALUE FOR MONEY
Mamodou Sakho- £15,000,000 - MISS - NOT VALUE FOR MONEY
Tiago Ilori - £7,000,000 - TBA
Victor Moses- Paid £1.5m to take On Loan - MISS - NOT VALUE FOR MONEY

2014
Rickie Lambert- £4,500,000 - MISS - NOT VALUE FOR MONEY
Adam Lallana- Up to £25,000,000 - TBA - NOT VALUE FOR MONEY
Emre Can- £9,750,000 - HIT - VALUE FOR MONEY
Lazar Markovic - £19,800,000 - MISS - NOT VALUE FOR MONEY
Dejan Lovren - £20,000,000 - MISS - NOT VALUE FOR MONEY
Divick Origi- Up to £9,800,000 - TBA
Javier Manquillo- On Loan - HIT - VALUE FOR MONEY
Alberto Moreno - Up to £12,000,000 - TBA
Mario Balotelli- Up to £16,000,000 - MISS - NOT VALUE FOR MONEY

2015
Joe Gomez- Up to £6,000,000 - HIT - VALUE FOR MONEY
Adam Bogdan- Free Transfer - TBA
Danny Ings - Tba est £5,000,000 - TBA
James Milner - Free Transfer - TBA - VALUE FOR MONEY
Nathaniel Clyne- £12,500,000 - HIT - VALUE FOR MONEY
Roberto Firmino - Up to £29,000,000 - TBA
Christian Benteke - £32,500,000 - TBA



General Comments on the above:

I think we paid over the odds on a few players who we bought for their potential which i have described as 'TBA' (Alberto, Ilori and Origi,) but the Martial transfer has completely rocked player potential value and these could perhaps now be seen as not unreasonable sums of money.

I think we overpaid for Firmino and Benteke - but again these were bought in the same window as Martial (£36 million) and if he has been bought for potential then Benteke is the finished article so in theory worth £32.5 million and Firmino not unusual at £29 million.

If it wasn't for the Martial signing then I would have perhaps have put Benteke and Firmino in the 'not value for money' catogory so Rodgers has got lucky in this respect.

Player value has simply gone crazy!

The Ings figure is to be decided by tribunal - so for the purpose of this discussion I've estimated his value at £5 million.

I have not touched on the committee, if it indeed exists, as we're not privy to the information which confirms their imput. All I know is the above transfers were completed under Brendan's watch.

I have also not factored in 'net spend' which ultimately would not change the fact money has been wasted.



Analysis of the Findings

'Hit or Miss'

The total value of the 31 players Rodgers and co have bought is £298,900,000 in just 3 years!

In regards to whether I have decided a player has been a 'hit' or a 'miss' - 11 have been described as 'TBA' at a value of £128,100,000 which mainly equates to players who havent been at the club long enough to be deemed a success or not yet or players I'm unsure on like Adam Lallana.

So, of the 20 left, I believe that just 6 have been a success with a combined fee of just £48,750,000. Of those, two of them have not been at the club long (Clyne, Gomez) and one Rodgers decided not to retain (Manquillo).

I believe there are only two players who can be deemed an out and out success (Sturridge and Coutinho) and one of those is injury prone. The remaining player is Emre Can who I think we can just about justify as a success and should be an important player for us if he can be played in his correct position and given time.

This leaves 14 players who are a 'miss' totalling a whopping £122,050,000!

So, in regards 'hit' or 'miss', just £48,750,000 worth of players have definitely improved our team out of £170,800,000 with a large amount (£128,100,000) unclear and £122,050,000 totally wasted.

This is absolutely unforgivable in my opinion. Thats a hit percetage of just 30%. For every 1 successful player there are not far off 3 duds who have been signed.

We have fundamentally not improved as a first team.



'Value for Money'

Of the 31 players purchased at £298,900,000, 9 of them have been described as 'TBA' basically meaning its too early to conclude value for money - and 1 loan signing has not been considered as he did not have a lump sum fee attached to the deal (Nuri Sahin) so I feel working out a 'value for money' is not really neccessary, although you could of course total the wage figure - i'm not The total for the 10 excluded from the decision is £103,100,000

This leaves 20 players - 8 of which I have deemed 'value for money' also at £48,750,000 and the remaining 12 not value for money at a staggering £147,050,000!

This again highlights the terrible transfer record of just £48,750,000 worth of transfer fees representing 'value for money' out of £195,800,000 at just 24%.

This of course does not take into account the revenue tied up in 'potential' which could make this percentage drop as much as fall.

One thing we have been doing far too much of is buying players for potential and not actually improving the first team whilst shipping out previous first team members - for example Pepe Reina.

On top of that we also buy players on potential but pay the amount that they could be worth should they become successful!

A completely flawed system!




Conclusion

Based on the findings I have shown above, I believe Brendan Rodgers tranfer record is absolutely terrible representing a hit close to only 1 in 4 players and a value for money of less than a quarter.

Under his watch £122,050,000 of the £298,900,000 spent has been flat out wasted and £147,050,000 worth of transfers have not represented value for money with a large sum tied up in 'potential' or too early to be taken into account in this evaluation.

Rodgers, Ayre and whoever consistantly fail to get value for money and in this respect I think we are amongth the worst in world football. It has become a running joke to others about the amount we pay for both potential and fully established players.

Ultimately, after 3 years, our first team is no better - in fact you could argue worse than what it was before before he arived despite the heavy investment. Our squad perhaps has more depth now but he has failed to replace squad players with genuine first team quality.

As a result of this I believe at some point this year somebody else deserves a chance to become manger of this once great club and get us back to where we want to be.

Please feel free to discuss any of the above and whether you think Rodger's and co have failed in their transfer dealings.

I have also added a poll to keep you people happy!

Bow

 

Carragher and Neville were discussing this on MNF about the PL in general . There's so much money awash in the PL but we (all the big teams) are buying the dross of Europe basically being the bank of European teams and yet you could argue that the standard of PL teams has fallen further and further behind them all.

As for us specifically I'm not too worried about "how much" has been spent. The club can afford what it can afford.

BR, the committee, etc gave a timetable to bring success and consistency. That was three years. Well that's up so if we don't do well this year its been a failure.

My concern will be that if after failure BR rightly goes what manager do we get next? How many of the top managers will accept the current set up and how much are FSG willing to change it to get them? If they aren't willing to change then we will be looking in the same pool of managers that BR came from so why bother changing? It'll just be the same lack of transparency and accountability for another three years.

There no longer appears to be a philosophy or identity to our team play. If you dont have that how can you be certain and aggressive in the transfer market? So maybe in that sense a new manager can bring a specific identity to make the focus more surgical with transfers and scouting.

But I just don't see how any new manager coming into this set up is going to get that clarity.

If he stays FSG is going to have to change the philosophy they came in with. There is clearly more money floating about than when they wanted balanced books and self sufficiency and surely we have to look at the wages we are prepared to pay because like it or not the best players (out of the ones coming to the PL) won't come to us for anything but money until we start winning the trophies to attract them...

 

@bow4fowler*

Did the first group for you

2012
Fabio Borini	£10.4m	Miss	Not Value for Money
Joe Allen	£15m	Miss	Not Value for Money
Ossama Ossaidi	£3m	Miss	Not Value for Money
Nuri Sahin	On Loan	Miss
Samed Yesil	£1m	TBA

 

This is where the DOF model should come in. The club identify a style they want to play, be it the owners or the people they bring in at the top that know football, they hire a DOF to work to that brief and they along with the scouting and transfer committee search for players that meet that criteria. You then hire a manager that suits that style... recruitment team have a clear brief and don't have to overhaul the squad every 2 years when a new manager with different styles come in.

Obviously the manager should have some sort of say in terms of players but they should just get on with coaching players who are all together in playing a certain way.

 

Good thread btw Bow

My comment on this is you can't include this summers transfers in this because after 5 games they are bound to be in the TBA category. There's no way of knowing how these are going to turn out so it misleads the stats somewhats.

Onto the last sentence, I think in previous years, yes we've brought for the future and that was clearly something FSG wanted with the whole buy young with potential for selling high in later years. However, this year things seem to be different. Clyne, Milner, Benteke, Firmino are all established first team players while only a couple of younger potential players like Gomez, Ings have come in.

In theory we have the makings of a good squad with plenty of experience and plenty of exciting youth, but playing them in the wrong positions (Ings, Origi, Gomez, Can last year) won't help them fdevelop properly and that's what tests the patients of the fans.

 

I've mentioned it as have some others and now the media are certainly on it. We are not Liverpool anymore I don't recognise a Liverpool team out there on the pitch.
If Rodgers has stuck to his Tika Taka I would respect that, that was his philosophy and when he was appointed we knew that and were all willing to see how it went.
That along with the all out attack philosophy has now gone and he seems to be coaching a very rigid tactical philosophy that is simply dire to watch and leaves players worried about expressing themselves.
I was probably the first on here to actually say out loud that he should go he then had a bit of a run and I looked a twat but it was the style of play or lack of it that worried me more than the results. At this point it seems my gut feeling was right something is very wrong and I want my club back yes that may mean we scrape top 4 or not get close but win a cup, I'd take the roller coaster of seasons gone by other than this boring non football where we won't get top 4 or near a cup.
The highs and lows are what football is all about and yes we had the Suarez season and came close but even that comes down to Rodgers attacking Chelsea when they had offered us a point.
Time for a chance already which I feel sad about but we have IMO a good squad if we can get a good manager we'll do well, the owners need to act quickly before this season becomes a right off.

 

The OP was about signings my opinion there is a better manager may well change opinions on some of those players.

 

Summary?

 

Rodgers is ****.

 

He's bought a load of old ****

 

Must be a **** article then, we buy mainly young players

 

Sorry, he's bought a load of young and young'ish ****

 

Hi mate.

The stats are not misleading.

I have left out those described as 'TBC' from both my fractions and percentage calculations specifically for this reason!!

I've also mentioned numerous times that there is a large amount tied up in 'potential'.

 

I don't entirely agree with everything you put but not nearly enough to remotely alter the conclusion you've come to. I don't believe Brod is good enough in this area (shockingly understated!) but this committee BS needs addressing too. A club can't be run by multiple people, there needs to be one man in charge. That man should be the manager IMO but if the club want to go down the European route employing a DoF that controls transfers for the Coach to work with, so be it. Just make it one mans responsibility and stop giving people places to hide!

 

I completely agree mate.

As fans we don't totally know who is responsible for what so its not easy to proportion blame.

It does appear - as backed up by Stevie's comments, that we are approaching thing in an amateurish way.

It did appear that was the case but you always feel someone in there must be competent enough - apparently not!

 

I still think Sakho is a great player and would be a hit if he got game time. Hes only a miss because of Brodge.

Benteke and Firm its early days yet but I think history will record both as misses (hope I'm wrong).

If Brodge gets the sack a new manager might make Benteke a hit but under Brodgers he will be a miss.

 

You rate Sakho? I think he's quite good at times but I just don't trust him to not make a mistake.

Interesting point regarding Benteke & Firm and the relationship with Rodgers.

I agree this system isn't getting the best out of Benteke.

In my mind he's a good player for Villa. Still not convinced he's Liverpool standard.

It was a huge amount of money to gamble.

I agree he, and quite a few others, may perform better under a better coach which I think you @Gerrez have previously mentioned.

I've updated this list once - I maybe I'll redo it in a year when hopefully a new coach comes in

 

Based on what we have been told, we know who we need to blame but the problem is, there is a degree of doubt on what we've been told.

Brod, Ayre and Henry all said that Brod had the final say on transfers. That tells us that every player we have signed since the committee was formed was wanted by Brod, he simply must have said yes at some point. What it doesn't tell us is how much pressure Brod was under to say yes for these players, it doesn't tell us what players Brod did want but was denied.

I think all the committee members must agree to a signing. This means what Brod, Ayre and Henry said was factually true but the way they said it suggested Brod had more power than others, I simply do not see this as the case.

Where Brod as gone wrong is buckling under pressure when it comes to signing certain players. There is no way he wanted to sign Balotelli or Sakho for example. If he had no intention of playing them, why agree to it? Even if it was a last resort, why agree to it? Why not put your foot down or (even though it never happens nowadays) walk away out of principal? Further more, why did he ever agree to the committee idea when he so blatantly refused to work with a DoF...?

We can claim the committee vs Brod hasn't help but Brod was part of that process, both setting it up and the actions its taken since. He simply can't hide!

 

End of day he lost his bargaining position to dictate terms and arrangements. That went out the door with Suarez at the end of that season and a quick exit out of the CL. Add to that he's in job survival mode and has ripped up his own plan he's now a guy doing EVERYTHING in a way he doesn't really want to. He's now playing safe.

I can't see how he wins his way out of that.

To go back to his devil May care approach and then lose a few games doing it will end up with the same criticism.

 

Rodgers had complete control in his first window. After the Carroll/Dempsey debacle, he was removed from the process and the committee took over for the next 2-3 windows where we signed Coutinho, Sturridge, Sakho, Migs, Cissokho, Aspas and Alberto (may have missed some).

Then Rodgers got 2nd place and he regained some control, and now we have mish mash of a process where committee find some players and Rodgers picks some himself - this is where the problem lies. We need to give full control to either committee or Rodgers. He clearly does not rate some players simply because they're not his preferred signings. THe treatment of Sakho is clear evidence of that. Getting rid of Markovic and keeping Ibe, persisting with Gomez at LB than Moreno are further examples.

It's widely known that he has to agree to signings but there are signings which are imposed and he has little option but to accept it.

What we need to do is bring in a DOF. It will be the single biggest appointment we can make, and the DOF will be crucial in identifying a new manager with whom he can work with. Most top European managers work this way - this is not a new thing. It's only in England where manager gets full autonomy and it;s wrong IMO. Arsene and Fergie are the only two real success of this structure.

Read an article on Dortmund and their transfer success and they said Zorc (Dortmund's DOF) bought all the players, and his team of scouts had around 80% of control and Klopp's involvement was at around 20%.

I'm a fan of a committee/DOF structure because you're giving experts control of their area. Rodgers along with many managers are poor judges of players. Let them do what they're good at i.e. coaching and development. Recruitment is a completely different area.