Morning Redmen, I gave this its own thread as I thought it was a good read but if it needs to be merged then just merge it ---------------------- The Will-ian, wonât-ian saga is over with the greatest player youâve probably never seen play choosing Tottenham. Twitter has been compelling viewing since Saturday when the possibility of a deal to bring the Brazilian international (2 caps) for a cut price (!) £30 million became a distinct reality. If you have been smoking the same gear as the Arsenal hierarchy then you might have believed the âWillian was in Garlands on Saturdayâ rumour or the âWillian has landed at Manchester airport and is staying in Manchester before travelling to Liverpool on Tuesdayâ rumour. If you had inhaled particularly deeply (and believe it or not some people apparently had) then you might have believed the photograph of Andre Wisdom with a photoshopped wig at Melwood was actually the âfree scoringâ (21 career league goals) attacking sensation. There were tweets of hope, joy, panic and ultimately despair. Tottenham were derided as copycats, AVB wasnât playing fair. Blame was heaped on Rodgers, Ayre, Hogan, FSG, Tony Barrett, Lucas Leiva, Liverpoolâs communications departmentâ¦.. Cut through all the bullsh*t and what is clear is that Liverpool got involved in the potential deal because Anzhi were rumoured to be in meltdown, their entire squad available on the cheap. An enquiry was made and the club was given encouragement. Anzhi or Willianâs agent would always look for the best deal and so it is undoubtedly the case that all top clubs knew of his availability. It is telling that not many of those top clubs showed an interest or at least showed an interest at the price quoted. Liverpool put a valuation on Willian and would not go above that. Liverpool did the right thing by avoiding a bidding war for a player who was probably never a target in the first place. It should not be forgotten that a deal that looked like it might be a bargain buy turned into a profit for Anzhi. Itâs like going to the boxing day sales and offering to pay the pre Christmas price for a pair of jeans. Spurs, on the other hand, are about to lose their best player for mega money, they have to spend. Just like we did when Torres left. The fans will be distracted by all the transfer activity and will accept more easily the loss of one of the most effective footballers in the world. Trust me, Willian, Soldado and Paulinho put together will not get Spurs as many points as Bale did last season. We should accept where we are currently at. In terms of size, fan base, history etc we dwarf Spurs. However, at this moment in time, in pure football terms we are at a similar level. Neither team has Champions League football and both teams are striving for it. We are shopping in the same market. They will win some and we will win some. Sigurdsson went there for the money. Brendan knew what he agreed with Swansea and rightly wouldnât go above it. Dempsey would have chosen Liverpool but Fulham wouldnât deal with us. Spurs are no more attractive a proposition than we are. They do have the London factor which, like it or not, is relevant to some players. Always has been. Charlie Nicholas and Paul Gascoigne spring to mind as examples of footballers who chose the bright lights over medals. DUBLIN, REPUBLIC OF IRELAND - Friday, August 9, 2013: Liverpool's manager Brendan Rodgers during a press conference at Mansion House ahead of the preseason friendly match against Glasgow Celtic. (Pic by David Rawcliffe/Propaganda) So another âtargetâ has slipped through our fingers following on from Henrikh Mkhitaryan and Diego Costa but where does this leave us? Itâs clear that there is money to spend on the right player but it most certainly should not be spent on the wrong player for the sake of appeasing the fans with a big name signing. The club kept hold of their ammo when the summer window failed so spectacularly last year and came back with a coherent and massively successful January window. The fans are baying for a âmarquee signingâ. Search those two words on Twitter and the results are 90% Liverpool fans pleading with the club to make one, 5% Arsenal fans moaning that they havenât made one and 5% fans of other clubs taking the p*ss out of us and Arsenal. What does a âmarquee signingâ actually mean though? Of course thereâs no relevant definition unless youâre talking about a big tent. In football parlance I suppose it involves a big name, signing for big money. The marquee signing will be costing more than other players that the club is bringing in. Preferably heâll play in a âfancyâ position but not necessarily. Over the last 20 years I would say that players that fit that description would be Andy Carroll, Alberto Aquilani, Robbie Keane, Fernando Torres, Djibril Cisse, Harry Kewell, El Hadji Diouf, Emile Heskey and Stan Collymore. How many of those worked out? Two maybe (Torres and Heskey). Invariably itâs the players signing for slightly less money or with slightly less reputation that have turned out to be the better buys. The second most expensive signings per season for the players listed above were Luis Suarez, Glen Johnson, Javier Mascherano, Ryan Babel, Xabi Alonso, Steve Finnan, Salif Diao, Dietmar Hamann and Jason McAteer. I know which of those teams would win a 9-a-side. The club was seriously stung by the transfer dealings conducted on Comolliâs watch and they are understandably more cautious now. Where I would criticise them is for their PR naivety. The owners and management are aware of the massive fanatical worldwide fanbase that we have. This creates unwelcome pressure when transfer targets are leaked to the press. Expectations shoot through the roof which leads to unrest and disappointment when targets are not achieved. Spurs have moved quickly and quietly and we should learn a lesson from that. We certainly need to strengthen the starting 11 in the next few days and I am confident that we will. A marquee signing would be nice but Iâm just as happy with a gazebo if it turns out to be like Coutinho. http://www.thisisanfield.com/2013/08/willian-ill-take-a-gazebo-signing-anyday/ ------------------------------- Dont know if you have all seen it? I thought it made a lot of sense
Yeah,good common sense article. The reaction by some supporters re. the Willian situation has been staggering
Its common sense but some of the stuff he comes out with his complete bollox. Gazza didn't chose the bright lights of London over medals, he went there after taking the piss by asking for ridiculous amounts of benefits to be apart of the contract and the Spurs Chairman unexpectedly agreed to all his demands leaving him (in his mind) with little option but to sign for them. Obviously, the sceond group would win a nine-a-side game, the first group is all attackers! Only Torres and Heskey from the first group? The latter only played well for the first two seasons, something that Collymore not only matched but also added a season best partnership with Robbie Fowler! Fulham wouldn't deal with us? Well, if us not offering their asking price is them not dealing with us then I guess that's right Us and Tottenham are apparently on an equal level too? Fair enough, this is down to opinion but the last time I checked they have achieved or challenged for the top four for the last few years, we've not been close for about four seasons! I'm all for being positive but claiming we are equals is a little on the biased side IMO.
I agree that it is bad for us to pay more for him than Anzi's initial overinflated price so don't care about Willian, but the £25m or so we should be investing in the team this window needs to go somewhere.
Well I don't buy into the Wenger BS that there are no players in the whole world that would improve our team or squad and cost in the range £7m (our most expensive outfield player this window) to £25m (£20m investment + £5m profit)
I understand where you are coming from but I appreciate the club standing their ground and refusing to pay more than what we think a player is worth. No doubt there will be players out there that would come and improve us but its finding them, we only have about ten days?
Excellent article. Erudite ans straightforward. Someone needs to copy and paste it into the transfer rumour thread
Yep and for whatever reason havent worked out I can see how BR is annoyed but lets see who else we can go after At least we did 4 deals early where as Wenger thinks the windows just opened Looking forward to tom, God I hope we dont lose obv as always but imagine the backlash if we do!
As with Gez, I disagree on the comparison with Spurs. They are well ahead of us and that was before they spent a lot of money and bought some very good players (on paper). They dominated us at Anfield and we deserved to lose, before they imploded. They finished 11 points ahead of us last season which is a huge gap. Doubt we'll overtake them this season but I expect us to be a lot closer.
All we can do is wait and see mate, its all good signing loads but then for them all to hit the ground running is a another matter. I do think Spurs will do good though
I just think the guy that wrote it is a bit of a Paul Tomkins; 100% in favour of Liverpool Football Club and goes beyonds the realms to prove that our club is the greatest around ever, EVER!
Absolutely - I'm not saying that they will transform into title contenders or anything. But I believe some people are being naive (no disrespect intended) when they think we're on the same level as Spurs. Or if they think the influx of new players will automatically disrupt them.
Yeah you do get biased articles but its a good read if you feel a bit down on missing out on this player Chavs have stooped low here though. They dont even need him greedy bastards Do you think they want him (if hes good then obv they will, i dont know that much or seen him play) or is it a case of making sure Spurs dont get him? ****ing Chelsea do my head in cant stand the club
They want him otherwise they wouldnt shell out £ 30 mill for him or however much he's gone for but had he not been joining Spurs do you think they'd have still gone for him? If they dont want Moses then I suppose they would
