Liverpool FC Forum

[JC_81]

I'm not overly happy nor disappointed with our business.

We've lost arguably our best player from over the last three seasons or so, but he's been out of form/disillusioned for about a year so maybe 50 mil was good business.  However his timing, comments and destination leave a bad taste.

We also shipped out two lads who contribute next to nothing in Babel and Konchesky.  One is a wasted talent and one is just sh.it.  Happy to see the back of them.

Also on the upside we've got two new strikers of decent quality.  One unproven in this country and one very raw but with huge potential.  My guess is one will flop and one will be excellent.  Don't ask me which though.

On the owners and 'backing Dalglish' I'm not convinced either way yet.  Our net spend this window was 2 million.  Until I see hard evidence of them putting serious quantities of their own money into this club I won't be convinced.  Once bitten twice shy.  I won't judge them until the close of the next transfer window.

[SouthCoastShankly]

I was happy with what we did. You don't want to go buy 5 players in January, you will be paying too much for too many players.  We really needed a second striker, so we bought Suarez.  We were looking at Adam because the owners were willing to speed up the rebuilding process a bit.  When Torres was leaving, we needed another striker, so we bought Carroll.  We still need some other players, but we have people who can hold the positions until summer.  In summer, we will invest much more.  I'm assuming we will probably be looking at 2 wingers and a CB, if not 2 CB and a LB.

They way I look at it, we spent 58 million pounds in this transfer window.  We sold 56 million pounds worth of players, so the owners only spent 2 million pounds.

They basically said we would have up to 35 in January and even more in summer if I'm not mistaken?

So possibly we could have the 33 left from January and 40 more, we could be looking at spending 75 million pounds in the summer, plus the sale of maybe a few deadweight players, we may have 80 million pounds so spend.  We could target some great wingers, Ashley Young and maybe a player like Jesus Navas, a great LB and some great CBs and maybe even get a bit of depth in the squad.  We could be full ready to mount a title challenge depending how soon we buy the players and how well they gel.

UEFA Financial Fair Play rules come into effect next transfer window.

As described in the thread I created here -

From the 2013/14 season when the rules practically come into force, an owner can invest up to €45m over two seasons in exchange for more shares in the club.

At today's exchange rate that is £30m pounds extra (on top of net profit) over two seasons that a club owner can invest or deviate from the break even line.

Last year our total profit/loss would of been +£25m if it wasn't for servicing debt. This years we are debt free and will probably achieve the same level of turn over and operating costs. Assuming John Henry and co will use the full amount of deviation allowed over two seasons, this will give us a maximum of £40m to spend (£25m profit + half of the deviation £15m) for the whole season (2 windows).

He could however use all the deviation allowed in the next window, leaving £60m for investment. Doubtful but an option nevertheless.

[Kharhaz]

On the owners and 'backing Dalglish' I'm not convinced either way yet.  Our net spend this window was 2 million.  Until I see hard evidence of them putting serious quantities of their own money into this club I won't be convinced.  Once bitten twice shy.  I won't judge them until the close of the next transfer window.

But they did put up the money. Before Judas handed in his request, we had already agreed to spend £23 million on Suarez, as well as other transfers they were working on, including Adam. With the request it just worked out that we got a nice amount to more or less pay for the ones we have signed. The intent to improve the squad is definately there.

[crim cram]

I thought we would have spent more in this window given the fair play rules beginning this Summer.  It probably means they aren't going to spend crazy money ever because this was their last chance.  Because of the rules going into effect, expect players to not move as much as in the past.  Expect arbitration specialists and psychologists to be in the employ of many big clubs in lieu of transfers     

What the signings do, is signal a clear intent to players we target in the Summer window that we mean business and want to win.  The signings are flamboyant and marquee and both are young.  You can build a long term future around players like that (if they settle) that you can't do with defenders or midfielder. It was a calculated move to turn players heads in the Summer who might not have considered us if it had been, for instance - Suarez, Adam, and Young. 

In the Summer Adam, Young, Coentrao, etc..  will see a stable front line and I know the phrase "you build from the back"  but that's easier to do in a Summer window.  It's also easier if you know what's in front of you and how they play.

This was the first window we got to see our new owners in action and they didn't disappoint.  We all want it to happen at once, but it looks as though they have a plan, and the Summer will show us more.  It feels like the club is being run better top to bottom and nothing in the window seemed to indicate otherwise.

[Roger Red Hat]

Until I see hard evidence of them putting serious quantities of their own money into this club I won't be convinced.

they spent £23m on suarez before they knew torres was jumping ship

[Raoul]

Look, let's be realistic about this okay?  First, as noted, it's the January window and no massive squad shake-ups happen in January for all the reasons I've discussed above.  Anyone expecting that is not grasping the realities of modern football, IMO.

But, going beyond that for a minute...let's look at our particular situation this transfer window.  The club was obviously negotiating to bring in both Suarez and Adam.  That much we know for sure.  According to rumours, we might well have also been inquiring about Ashley Young and Stephen Warnock but we can't be quite so certain about those.  Anyway, we were proceeding as you do in January (and as you do once more under Dalglish at Liverpool): quietly negotiating behind the scenes, trying to get our main targets without giving away the farm.  The grumblings coming from both Ajax and Blackpool attest to the fact that we were after their main men in a committed but prudent way, slowly advancing negotiations.  Indeed, we accomplished what we set out to do with Saurez and I think we were probably getting close with Adam too.

Then, wham, in comes Chelsea with the Torres bid and he blindsides us with the transfer request with 3 days left in the fooking window.  This upset the whole applecart my friends.  Now, if Chelsea had really low-balled it, we could have told them to feck off...even with Nando's transfer request.  No point letting go of the lad for cheap right?  We would have knocked the chavs' offer back and told Torres to get his head down until the end of the season.  But, Chelsea's offer wasn't that low-ball and, when you throw in the transfer request, it needed to be taken seriously.  We were looking at getting 50 million quid for a lad who's been short of his best for some time now, perhaps on terminal decline and clearly not committed to the cause.  Of course we had to take their offer.  Of course we did.  We might not have had a better offer come summer.

But, the minute we decided to accept the offer, we had to fill the hole Torres would leave.  No question about it, finding another striker was top priority given how light we've been up front for a few years now and given that Suarez is untested in England.  Everything else on our wish list had to take a backseat to this new priority and the clock was ticking.  I'm sure that no one wanted to pay 35 million for Carroll but I think it's interesting we did.  Clearly he was the man we wanted and money for once was going to be no object.  I suspect we were planning a move for him in the summer but the Torres bullsh!t accelerated that time line.  We needed him now and were prepared to pay what it took to pry him lose from the Barcodes.

But, in doing so, I suspect we had to abandon some of our other transfer plans.  Other clubs were no doubt starting to take the p!ss with transfer fees once they caught wind that we would have the Torres money to spend.  I have a strong suspicion that's what happened with Adam.  Sure, we paid over the odds to land Carroll but I don't think the owners were prepared to make a habit of that with every transfer.  In addition, you can't juggle too many balls at once: I'm sure that brokering the Torres and Carroll deals ate up most of the time of the last couple of days of the window and left little opportunity to seriously negotiate other deals.  Much smarter to get the striker hole addressed and then sit tight until summer, when better prices for a wider pool of available quality players will surely allow us the best opportunity to revamp the squad responsibly.

So, I can understand a little disappointment about the transfer window but I don't think any serious criticism can be directed at the owners, who showed both their willingness to splash cash on a desired target and their discipline to sit tight and wait for better opportunities in the summer.  No, if you must criticize someone for our disappointing window criticize Fernando fecking Torres for driving a bus through our transfer game-plan at the 11th hour.  Without his selfishness we might have seen a very different set of targets landed on the last day of the window.

Good post Bob.

No doubt about the madness of the last three days, and the way that would have upset the apple cart, but what about the rest of the transfer window?

Suarez, Adam, and yes, to a point Young, were trucking along. I would have liked to have heard the name of a CB and/or LB in the mix too.

Perhaps the eleventh hour bid for Richards was planned to happen sooner but Carroll rightly needed to take priority, but the window is longer than 3 days!

I don't think I'm being unrealistic, I wasn't execting a whole new team. And I did enjoy the window in a way I don't remember enjoying one for years. I just felt there are some significant gaps that we a missed an opportunity to even look at.

Still, I'm looking forward to the summer window.

[SouthCoastShankly]

Just posted on LFC.TV. Cracking pics of Carroll and Suarez being unveiled.

[SouthCoastShankly]

[metalhead]

One unproven in this country and one very raw but with huge potential.  My guess is one will flop and one will be excellent.  Don't ask me which though.

what about both will be excellent

[laza]

Great pixs, nicking one of them for the sig

With the prices involved in both players, im sure a case will be made if one is inclined to be able to declare failure not matter what they do

I hoping the sum of parts will make a partnership that irregardless of indivdual stats will make them both a success for the club

[RedSi35]

How tall is caroll?

He looks massive

[Kash_Mountain]

One unproven in this country and one very raw but with huge potential.  My guess is one will flop and one will be excellent.  Don't ask me which though.

what about both will be excellent

I have a feeling both will be hughly successful at Liverpool FC.

[DrTNT]

How tall is caroll?

He looks massive

He's around 6 ft 5 inches tall I believe. I can't wait for him to get playing, he could have scored 2 or 3 last night with some of the crosses and the corners that were put into the box just in the first half.

[DaMo]

I honestly think we did well in the window all things considered. We've all been frustrated with our right wing options (and nobody thought of Meireles as being the answer there), as well as the fact we lacked a legitimate support striker. Bringing in Suarez in was an excellent way of addressing both issues. With El Judas screwing us over, it was imperative that we brought in a striker who can lead the lines effectively on their own, because we simply do not have the ideal personnel for a flat 4-4-2. Was Carroll bought for more than his "market value"? Most definitely, but given the nature of the January Window, as well as the fact we had zero time to work with, we had no choice but to tolerate what appears to be an inflated fee. For what it's worth though, I think Carroll may justify it in time.

A new CB or LB would have been welcome, but it didn't happen for various reasons. If not for Torres though, I like to think that we would have brought a defender in before the end of the window (Micah Richards?), but I don't think it's an unprecedented disaster that we haven't been able to do so. Johnson seems to be getting used to LB, so we'll most likely be seeing him play there often for the rest of the season. As for our centerbacks, I'm sure that's an area that will be addressed immediately in the summer. For now though, we've just had 3 clean sheets on the trot, so things could be worse. It's worth bearing in mind that the defence isn't going to be under as much pressure as it was under Hodgson, who had that fetish for "containing" the opposition. a.k.a. sitting back and just waiting for the other team to equalize / score a late winner.

What does our activity in the window tell us? It showed that our owners are willing to spend. After all, Suarez was brought in before Torres wanted to leave, and I do believe Kenny was quoted as having said that they asked if he wanted to bring anybody else in. That also suggests that they surely have faith in Kenny beyond this season. Also, bringing in Carroll suggests that we move quickly in order to address an emergency, even if it means paying top dollar to do so. I think it's incredibly refreshing to see us make as aggressive a move as we did for Carroll.

All in all, good signs all round and I think we have reason to be excited about the summer.