The source is the Echo website but I took this from an article on JA606 as it was already written up (via Suarez_7 (U4199)) -------------------------------------------- Asked if money will be available in January? "There will be money available to spend in January. If Walcott doesn't sign a new deal at Arsenal before January, I'd expect Liverpool to make a bid for him. He's a player Liverpool would have bid for last week if they had secured a permanent deal for Carroll." Asked why we never got Dempsey? "The reason LFC didn't buy Dempsey wasn't because there was no cash, it was because FSG weren't prepared to spend £6m on a 29-year-old. They insist there was money available for a younger attacker such as Sturridge." Asked why we never got Sturridge? "The manager wasn't convinced that at £15m it was the right deal for the club. He wanted to take Sturridge on loan first with a view to a permanent deal. Chelsea were happy with that but the player would only have moved on a permanent basis this summer." He goes on to agree we should have signed Dempsey and the club made a mistake and the FSG policy is to strict and others agree and use United buying RVP as an example of buying established players paying dividends... Asked about FSG running the club from USA instead of UK? "When I was in Boston on the pre-season tour John Henry made it clear the owners had become much more hands on with the running of the club. But there was certainly a breakdown in communication last week. FSG know it should have been handled better." Agger new contract? " I'd expect Agger to sign a new deal over the coming weeks. One of the big plusses of the window was keeping him from the clutches of Man City." Asked about where Doni is? "Doni was granted extended leave to head home to Brazil for family reasons in pre-season. Still awaiting news on when he will be back." Is Ian Ayres job under threat? "No. Ian Ayre negotiates deals but it wasn't his fault Liverpool failed to get Dempsey. The Americans simply wouldn't agree to meeting the fee Fulham wanted. The manager has been very positive about the working relationship he has with the MD" Pacheco's Future? "Pacheco was on the verge of joining Real Validollid on loan last Friday but it fell through because of Spanish club's cash problems. He failed to impress in pre-season but considering how small the squad is now he's likely to get a second chance to force his way into the manager's plans, probably starting with EL games." He doesn't have all the answers though as when further probed about Dempsey his reply was... "There are unanswered questions. What's crazy is that if FSG had no intention of buying Dempsey then why did the manager still think it was likely to happen as late as Friday afternoon? Fulham say LFC's bid was just £3million, which smacks of a half-hearted attempt to get a player the owners weren't keen on." and added "Certainly I think LFC thought Fulham would be forced to drop their demands as it got close to the deadline. LFC also knew that Dempsey was desperate to come to Anfield and had rejected other possible moves. But Fulham were always going to play hardball with LFC because they felt they had been messed about all summer. In the same way as LFC didn't want to deal with Newcastle on Carroll, Fulham weren't keen to deal with LFC. Bottom line is Dempsey was available at a very modest price and LFC failed to get done a deal the manager desperately wanted." Asked how we can pay 20 million for downing and not 6 for Dempsey? "There has certainly been a big shift in policy since the spending spree Comolli undertook. The sell-on value argument doesn't always stand up - after all LFC paid £16m for Henderson and a year on were prepared to swap him for Dempsey." Carroll returning? " LFC have the option of recalling him but that's unlikely. He doesn't fit Rodgers' style and he still won't in January" The Carroll saga? "Clearly, once Rodgers made it clear Carroll wouldn't be in his starting XI, FSG didn't want a £35m player on £80,000 per week warming the bench. In that respect moving him on was financial but if Rodgers had wanted Carroll he would have been able to keep him. The bigger issue is that Rodgers had been assured a replacement would be signed and that didn't happen. Either he was misled or there was a serious breakdown in communication with the owners." Poor scouting network will it get better? "Yes, the scouting network is being completely overhauled. The owners know it has to be improved. David Fallows and Barry Hunter have been recruited from Man City and hopefully we will see the benefits of that in the upcoming windows."
The positives I can take from this are the owners are willing to back the manager for young and exciting players (by sanctioning a £15m move for Sturridge) and that they recognise the scouting network is poor and is being overhauled.
I think it shows that we are taking a more measured approach to player transfers now and I respect that. We have a strategy of bringing in young exciting players and we should stick to that. Fans on here weren't that keen on Dempsey before but now that we've missed out on him, the same people are making him out to be some messiah who would transform our season. However, I am disappointed that we lost Carroll AND didn't bring in a replacement. That is my only issue of the transfer window. At least we can now spend that £6-8m (which was meant for Dempsey) on a better and younger player in the January transfer window.
You know who's a young and exciting player, Raheem sterling... we should make a move for him. Also, Messi.. he's young and quite exciting.
Someone said the other day people are now treating Carroll as a messiah. Nope just better than what we've been left with. The same goes for Dempsey. Not a messiah just a player with a good Prem goalscoring record. Personally I don't think this was "good planning" on the part of the owners at all. I think it totally undermined their new manager. If they thought Dempsey was too old to sign then there are wonderful modern things that we over here call phones I suggest someone teaches FSG how to use them and not just to invite people to Boston for a sacking. It's also very convenient to now say "we would have funded a move for Sturridge"...well you wouldn't pay less than half that for Dempsey so I'll take that one with a large pinch of salt. Finally...get over this obssession with only signing young players. Obviously keeping the squads average age down is fine...but who do young players learn from? Is it such a bad thing to blend youth with experience? Did Fergie actually win the league "with kids" or did he have a balance of young and old? Whilst it is an admirable philosophy it simply cannot be so inflexible as to leave us in the position we are in now. The above (if true) just shows the open letter from JWH stating how "disappointed" they were to not get a striker in to be a total crock of ****. Maybe those so quick to slate Ian Ayre will now reassess their opinions of who was to blame for the debacle last week.
'Messi'...Who? Need to stop playing FM we've got Downing and Joe Cole, we don't need some Spanish kid. ... Anyway, on a more serious note, hopefully this stops some of the accusations and groundless hatred.
Have my disagreements with you over FSG, Billy, but I'm with you on this. Young players need some older heads around them in order to develop. <old git smiley>
Interesting he used the name Comolli when he talked about blowing the money and not Dalglish as well! Perhaps just a slip, but interesting!
There is another Lionel Messi that players for Angers in France, maybe we should go for him - He's only 17 as well
What is he on about Pacheco not impressing pre-season?! He was probably our best player bar Shevley. What a nonce.
The last 4 managers not fancying Pacheco says something about the lad, perhaps it's his attitude or his mentality. But it certainly proves that our younger players have to be managed in the right way, we've had to many potential stars not live up to the hype, I fear Suso could be another one.
Yeah I thought that, but I like the bit about money in January, so I don't wanna criticize him. Although, he doesn't half have to give it away about Walcott.
I thought the same about Pacheco that he was one of our better players in the early games. I can only presume he doesnt train that well. It will be interesting to see if Suso gets some game time in the europa league.
I would rather see Suso feature if I had to choose, he looks a fantastic talent. Pacheco always looks good, but there must be unknown issues.
