Transfer Expenditure - IS THIS THE PROBLEM?
Posted: Sun Feb 21, 2021 3:39 pm
I have been the first to congratulate both Klopp and the owners for their achievements. Let’s face it with just a bit more luck we would have have two league and CL titles during their tenure. The quality of the football until recently has been of the highest quality. Only the most unforgiving of supporters would argue that injuries haven’t been the key reason for are recent demise.
It would be very simple to suggest that we have been the victims of our own downfall by being far to prudent in the transfer market. Over the last 10 years City and United have spent £1020m and £944m respectively. Liverpool have spent £339m which is just £10m more than Everton. Liverpool’s success during the last 10 years compared to Everton has been phenomenal and the same can be said of City compared to United. Money matters but clearly it is not the only factor. During the last 5 years which is Liverpool’s most successful period during the last 10 years they have spent a measly (in football terms) £111m and this for me this is the real problem. City have spent £563m and United have spent £498m during the same period and that is at a time when United have been suffering. Even Everton have spent £256m and brought in a world class manager.
We have made some truly fantastic signings but unfortunately this season the best of them have spent prolonged periods out due to injury. Our defence has suffered to a ridiculous extent. After Henderson being injured against Everton we now go into our next game with the 18th different central defence pairing of the season. That is crazy and any team would suffer as a result. For me the biggest problem is Fabinho and Henderson being moved into defence. Our midfield has looked thoroughly lacklustre as a result and an off form front three hasn’t helped.
Whilst injuries have caused serious problems it is also true to say that our extreme lack of spending has to be questioned. The following example of frugalness is the very worst for me. Just Google Liverpool’s interest in Fernandez for maximum frustration. Several teams had him on their radar with Liverpool as front runners for a long time. Whilst hindsight is an exact science it didn’t take Einstein mentality to appreciate what a talent the lad was. And what did we do we allowed United to buy him for £47m (potentially rising to £67m) at a time when they couldn’t even offer him CL football and were playing possibly their worst football in years !!
So fo me it is a combination of VAR, downright bad luck, injuries and some poor decisions in the transfer market. I just worry that we have done too little for too long with regards to future team planning. Strength in depth for a very long time until a couple of years ago was a massive problem and we seem to be regressing in that direction. The majority of our very best players are close to 30 and simply won’t last for ever and this perhaps applies to our front three the most. So by not rebuilding gradually during a period of tremendous success we will almost definitely suffer.I fully accept that the owners are running a sustainable business. Covid has also created unrivalled financial difficulties. Have we missed a trick or do we just put it down to bad luck? Time will tell........
It would be very simple to suggest that we have been the victims of our own downfall by being far to prudent in the transfer market. Over the last 10 years City and United have spent £1020m and £944m respectively. Liverpool have spent £339m which is just £10m more than Everton. Liverpool’s success during the last 10 years compared to Everton has been phenomenal and the same can be said of City compared to United. Money matters but clearly it is not the only factor. During the last 5 years which is Liverpool’s most successful period during the last 10 years they have spent a measly (in football terms) £111m and this for me this is the real problem. City have spent £563m and United have spent £498m during the same period and that is at a time when United have been suffering. Even Everton have spent £256m and brought in a world class manager.
We have made some truly fantastic signings but unfortunately this season the best of them have spent prolonged periods out due to injury. Our defence has suffered to a ridiculous extent. After Henderson being injured against Everton we now go into our next game with the 18th different central defence pairing of the season. That is crazy and any team would suffer as a result. For me the biggest problem is Fabinho and Henderson being moved into defence. Our midfield has looked thoroughly lacklustre as a result and an off form front three hasn’t helped.
Whilst injuries have caused serious problems it is also true to say that our extreme lack of spending has to be questioned. The following example of frugalness is the very worst for me. Just Google Liverpool’s interest in Fernandez for maximum frustration. Several teams had him on their radar with Liverpool as front runners for a long time. Whilst hindsight is an exact science it didn’t take Einstein mentality to appreciate what a talent the lad was. And what did we do we allowed United to buy him for £47m (potentially rising to £67m) at a time when they couldn’t even offer him CL football and were playing possibly their worst football in years !!
So fo me it is a combination of VAR, downright bad luck, injuries and some poor decisions in the transfer market. I just worry that we have done too little for too long with regards to future team planning. Strength in depth for a very long time until a couple of years ago was a massive problem and we seem to be regressing in that direction. The majority of our very best players are close to 30 and simply won’t last for ever and this perhaps applies to our front three the most. So by not rebuilding gradually during a period of tremendous success we will almost definitely suffer.I fully accept that the owners are running a sustainable business. Covid has also created unrivalled financial difficulties. Have we missed a trick or do we just put it down to bad luck? Time will tell........