It is not to long now until the January sales start. Boy do we need it to. Our front line is short, our depth limited and goals are seriously lacking. Ask people on here who we should sign and people say names like Damiao, Soldado and Cavani. Ask journalists and read rumours and we see names like Sturridge, Bent and Ince. Many of you on here dont like hearing us linked with those players. Many dont think they are good enough or cannot see them fixing our goal problem. They say we should be going for better. Yes! If we can get better then we definitely should. But! Can we get better? Or do we need to learn where we currently stand? Over the last 10 years or so we have had quality players signing for our club. When they explain why they signed they talk about how they grew up seeing a great Liverpool side dominate English football, playing great football and winning titles. But that generation is gone. Many, if not all of the players we are targeting now will have been just small children, or even not have been born when we last won the league. They will have grown up seeing us achieve near missus and frustrating case of 'so close, but yet so far'. Can we still ride on history and past success when it comes to signing players? Add to that the current financial situation with the owners balancing the books and the lack of Champions League. Are we in the right place to be signing the talent we want? I am not saying I think this is the way it is. If Tottenham can attract talent like Modric, Dembele and Lloris then we can. But I am putting this case out for debate.
With that part of the statement we have to be careful, yes results are not good enough at the moment but do we go and buy 3 or 4 players and take the risk of the likes of Suso, Robinson, Wisdom, Kelly etc, not developing into first team players? Do we keep playing them and not have great season but go into the next one with these youngsters ready to play? We are in need of a striker no arguments there and Lucas coming back will be huge. IMO we buy a striker in January and that's it.
One risk to counter that is, if we over play the young players now whilst their bodies are still growing and developing, we risk them developing long term injury problems which could cause huge issues in the future. Look at Michael Owen for example. Once he started to have hamstring issues it just started to go down hill. I agree we don't need many signings in January. I would only add to the front three. I say two players. Young players learn from experienced players to.
Personally I think there is a mid point between the extremes. If you need a striker I'm sure you could attract bigger names than Sturridge or Bent but say Cavanni for instance is ridiculous. The guy is one of the best strikers around, has just signed a massive new contract with Napoli and has been strongly linked with teams challenging for league and European titles. I really can't see that being a starter. Somewhere in between like when you got Suarez. A promising player who had bagged goals in a weak league but has since improved and shown he can do it regularly at a higher level. Should be looking around the 20 million mark if the money is there. Remi, Huuntalaar?
Although I sort of agree that we need to be more realistc, have we not won one or more od the CL, UEFA Cup, League Cup and FA Cup in the last ten year?
The days of 'names' joining Liverpool on the basis of our history is probably gone. Maybe that is a good thing as the 'weight' of the shirt is therefore somewhat reduced. However, we are starting to build a reputation under Rodgers for giving youth a chance and used properly that can be a major advantage for us. I tend to agree that our January activity should/will be probably 2 players in and maybe 3/4 out. As I believe our need is foremost in our forward line then I would expect both of the 'ins' to be forwards. I would like to say strikers but I'm not sure that Rodgers is willing to invest in players who he sees as being purely focused on being strikers. However, our need is such that I can forsee him buying both an experienced and a young player. The 'outs' that I expect to see are not a surprise, Downing, Pacheco and maybe Henderson. If, West Ham offer £18m for carroll then I don't see Rodgers resisting the offer.
But do players care what clubs have won or what they can win? I think it's more likely to be the latter and the last trophy of note was nearly 7 years ago i.e much longer than your average contract nowadays. Liverpool clearly can still attract good players, Suarez the obvious example of the last couple of years (and there would have been more save for the policy of buying average English players instead) and you've got to be looking at better players than Tom Ince etc if you are going to push on.
Another point I would like to add to what I said about avoiding over playing youth: This summer is the under 21's Euro Championships. The England squads are full of our players at every level. Sterling, Henderson (over 21 but captain, makes no sense...), Wisdom, Shelvey and possible Kelly (over 21 again but it happens), Robinson and Morgan will be included in the England squad. Suso, who played in the u17 Euro's last summer, has a chance of representing Spain. This extends there season, shrinks their pre season and can be draining for them at this stage of their careers. The following year Sterling, Kelly, Henderson, Shelvey and maybe Wisdom and Suso all have chances of going to the world cup. Possibly no full pre season for two years. When Roy wins us the world cup we will then have confederations cup the following summer... Then more Euro's. - But thats not the threads main point. That is asking whether we are in a position to attract the players we want...
No we simply aren't. No CL footy and no money. If we then go and waste what little we have on gobshites like Sturridge or Bent it'll be the final nail in the coffin. Do we need a lot more quality? Yes obviously. Well as we've only signed two great strikers in the last two decades why do people think we might magic up some amazing goal getter? We'll sign **** as usual
Mate I didn't come on last night to avoid ranting Just getting it off my chest now. True though isn't it. Since the Prem began we have only signed two top class strikers.
Sean Dundee and is the other one Stan Collymore ? It's not Collymore I figured it out it's mighty Andrei Voronin
We can't afford the very best players in the world nor can we attract them given our current situation. We can still just about rely on our global image and history to attract decent players like Suarez (players who have a good rep in Europe but not considered as world class) but that won't last for long. This is why we need to go for them ASAP.
i before e except after ****. Home grown world class were Fowler and owen. Bought world class were Suarez and torres. Everything else, yeesh!
