Liverpool FC Forum

[inglis5]

If we have £30 million to spend we should definitely be investing in only 3 player maximum. We have the young players (Insua, Nemeth & Plessis) to come into the squad and from what I've seen of them (and heard about who we are being linked to) each of these is better than the players we are looking at buying.

We have TOO many average players already. Mascherano & Torres (and arguably Babel) are the type of quality that we should be buying and you need to spend £15 million + to get that type of player. The fact that we are looking at 5 players for £30 million (if true) is very, very worrying and only supports the idea that Rafa continues to view an above average squad as more important than the overall quality of the first team. I was hoping that this summer we would see wholesale changes again, selling 2 / 3 players to fund the transfer of a top quality 1.

[inglis5]

It only serves to highlight again that despite our 1st class history we continue to have to buy 2nd class players while the likes of Man U and Chelsea buy who they want.

You watch, Man U will go out and spend another £50 million on 3 squad players and we'll be getting f*cking free transfers and players nobody has heard of. There is a reason a player is available for free! He's either sh*t or a money grabbing ars*hole. Either way he shouldn't be good enough for us.

I'm in a VERY, VERY bad mood today.

[JBG]

Albert Reira, who is on that list, is big news in Spain this year. He was middling at best for Manc City last season but from what I've been reading this year both Real Madrid and Barcelona are now interested in him. Perhaps Sabre can shed some light on him?

[Redman in wales]

If we have £30 million to spend we should definitely be investing in only 3 player maximum. We have the young players (Insua, Nemeth & Plessis) to come into the squad and from what I've seen of them (and heard about who we are being linked to) each of these is better than the players we are looking at buying.

We have TOO many average players already. Mascherano & Torres (and arguably Babel) are the type of quality that we should be buying and you need to spend £15 million + to get that type of player. The fact that we are looking at 5 players for £30 million (if true) is very, very worrying and only supports the idea that Rafa continues to view an above average squad as more important than the overall quality of the first team. I was hoping that this summer we would see wholesale changes again, selling 2 / 3 players to fund the transfer of a top quality 1.

completely agree.. would prefer 2 players for a total of 30mil, not 5 players.

players on  a free - like degen - are not neccesarily good enough (like voronin) and eat into our wage structure.

when are we gonna learn, its quality not quantity (i know these are rumours still , but its still worrying. Would like to be looking at lahm, not degen...)

[red_guy]

Another fringe player. I doubt that Degen can be as good as Arbeloa. We keep signing 3rd - 4th class players then how can we compete against Man Uniturd , Chelshit and arseanal? Might aswell use the kids from under 18 and reserves....they have more potential and reliable than most of bosman's players....

[radun5]

I remember Valencia at the 2006 World Cup ... he was great in the first two group games.

Although he is not exactly excelling at Wigan, from what I know, he may be another Mascherano (I mean wasting himself at a small club). And you can add Arteta on that list 

[JBG]

Degen?

[account deleted by request]

I think some people on here need to get real, where is the money going to come from? He has to take a few cheap squad players, as he will have no money left once we have signed Kaka, Messi and Villa.

[The Manhattan Project]

According to Manhattan's sources, we will sign Jean-Marc Bosman on a Bosman deal.

[stmichael]

I suspect it's going to be another summer of fans saying "why can't be offload half the squad and bring in three amazing players" forgetting that what United have again done is strengthen the squad whilst not reducing the size of it significantly.

Rotation is here to stay. It works for Ferguson. It hasn't unduly harmed Chelsea. And Liverpool will continue to do it under Benitez. It doesn't work with a small first team squad.

And I would have hoped that by now we would have moved away from the idea that only expensive players are good players. Skrtel cost £6m and looks a very good signing. There is no reason why a full back would necessarily have to cost £15m to be a good signing.

If Valencia can do a proper job for the team on the right hand side, then I see no drawback to signing him. I suspect with respect to Benitez (and indeed other managers) he won't be buying Valencia because he's cheap (using Valencia as an example). Valencia will be bought because he can do the job he is signed to do and as a bonus the market hasn't clamoured for him so the price isn't too high. It's as simple as that.

[7_Kewell]

we are in desperate need of a WORLD CLASS winger....Babel isn't a winger and Pennant, Kewell and Benayoun arn't good enough.  I would keen Yossi as a squad player, but in reality we need a left winger and a right winger....unless Kuyt is going to stay on the right.

there are rumours of Lennon coming in...and for 6-7 million i would go for him.

[inglis5]

I suspect it's going to be another summer of fans saying "why can't be offload half the squad and bring in three amazing players" forgetting that what United have again done is strengthen the squad whilst not reducing the size of it significantly.

Rotation is here to stay. It works for Ferguson. It hasn't unduly harmed Chelsea. And Liverpool will continue to do it under Benitez. It doesn't work with a small first team squad.

And I would have hoped that by now we would have moved away from the idea that only expensive players are good players. Skrtel cost £6m and looks a very good signing. There is no reason why a full back would necessarily have to cost £15m to be a good signing.

If Valencia can do a proper job for the team on the right hand side, then I see no drawback to signing him. I suspect with respect to Benitez (and indeed other managers) he won't be buying Valencia because he's cheap (using Valencia as an example). Valencia will be bought because he can do the job he is signed to do and as a bonus the market hasn't clamoured for him so the price isn't too high. It's as simple as that.

I understand with what you are saying St Mick and I agree in the main. My problem isn't necessarily with rotation and I think that the idea of having 11 top quality players and little else is ludicrous. The problem is that our squad is bloated and full of too many average players and only a handful of top quality ones.

If for example you were able to reduce our squad by 10, to a still ample 30+ (at the same time reducing the wage bill) and then supplement that squad with youth and 2 / 3 world class players then what would be harm in that?

I know this is all speculation at the moment but if we do want to compete (especially in the Premier League) we need a better first team. Our problem isn't in games against the likes of Fulham, Birmingham etc, it's against the other top 3. Over the past 5 years our record in those games is very, very poor and this has everything to do with the fact that in these games we are outclassed.

As for your example of Skrtel, yes, he was £6 million but it is rare for centre halves to be much more expensive. If you want to buy proven quality on the wings or up front (where we need to be better) you need to be spending £10 million plus.

With regards to rotation, I agree, it is here to stay. You can argue that the reason why we are so strong now (with relatively few injuries) is because Rafa rotated earlier in the season. The problem with this is we were out of 3 competitions before the end of January. You say that rotation works for Chelsea and Man U, it does but they are able to do it succesfully as their squad has depth in quality NOT quantity.

Ferguson leaves out Rooney, he plays Tevez (£20 million+). He rests Ronaldo, he plays Nani (£17 million). We leave out Torres, we play Voronin (FREE), we rest Babel, we play Benayoun (£6 million).

My idea of rotation is to play your best side each week. If a player is tired, give him a rest. If you go 2 / 3 goals up, take off your best players. My idea of squad players should be that they should be able to do a job if the first choice gets injured or that you can use the different strengths of a player for a specific purpose.

What's the answer? I don't know but I'm pretty sure it isn't adding more average players to the squad. I understand that Rafa has a limited transfer budget (the reason for that is another matter entirely!!) but I just don't agree (if it is true) how he is going to use it.

[ICE-MAN]

I agree, Im a big fan of Lennon, Ive seen him terrorise Chelsea and other teams on a number of occassions, hes young and any consistency issues can be sorted out through decent coaching from Rafa, I wud definitely throw in a bid for him, his lightning pace for quick counter attacks wud be awesome!
Failing that id love us to sign SWP from Chelski but they'd never sell to us!

We need to offload Kewell and Voronin asap!!!!   Kewells wages wud save us a fortune even if he left for free!

[Roger Red Hat]

i'd leave kuyt on the wing, he's been great there so far.

[Richj]

It would be such a bad move going for SWP, he is the most overrated player going, Not sure on Lennon as he does not score that much, Bentley would be my choice as a Winger.