28 Dec 2012

"It'll take a hell of an offer" - Boss concedes 56-goal LFC target could leave. Bid...?

During the summer, Liverpool were regularly linked with a move for ex-Huddersfield striker Jordan Rhodes, a proverbial goal-machine from the lower leagues. I repeatedly called for the Reds to sign Rhodes - who is now doing well at Blackburn Rovers - but, alas, the club failed to move. with Liverpool (arguably) in desperate need of at least two goalscorers in January, Burnley's Charlie Austin - another prolific lower-league striker - is on the market, and his manager has admitted that he could leave if the right offer came in.

Speaking to the Burnley Express this week, Clarets boss Sean Dyche conceded that interest in Austin is just 'the reality of the market', adding:

"I'm pretty sure, knowing the club now as I do, it would take a hell of a figure to get him [Austin] to leave. You want interest in your players because that's usually a good sign that things are going well"

A couple of weeks ago, the Daily Mail reported:

"Burnley's Charlie Austin has been watched by an increasing number of Premier League scouts over the past five games as they assess his ability to make the step up. Newcastle have a long-held interest while Liverpool, Everton, Reading and Aston Villa have also taken a look".

23-year old Austin has grabbed 20 goals and 2 assists in 17 games for Burnley this season, which makes him Europe's current top scorer. Over the last 3 seasons:

* 53 goals in 87 starts.
* 1 goal every 1.6 games

Burnley signed Austin for just £1.5million in 2011, and if Liverpool went in for him, it's likely he'd be available for £3-£4

In my view, Liverpool should just go ahead and sign Austin. For the sake of argument, if the club could get him for, say, £2.5m, surely it's a risk worth taking? Spending £11m Fabio Borini was a much bigger risk, and look how that's turned out so far.

Liverpool may well sign Daniel Sturridge in January, but having a promising, comparatively cheap back-up option would seem to make sense too.

I still think it was big mistake to let Rhodes go; the Scot has 13 goals and 2 assist in 20 games for Blackburn so far, which is a very good return, and like Austin, he seems to be that rarest of commodities: a genuine natural goalscorer.

Worth a bid?



Jaimie Kanwar


45 comments:

  1. I would rather risk £3 million on him then £12 million on Sturridge, though I do have to laugh at the company we are keeping in looking at this guy, Everton, Newcastle, Reading and Villa... Kind of tells us where we are as a club don't it

    ReplyDelete
  2. id be happy to be up with everton .......this guy wouldn't fit into rogers system so forget it...we could offer borini and cash but i doubt they would be that stupid

    ReplyDelete
  3. Yes we need more world class talent like him. Go BR...make us proud!!

    ReplyDelete
  4. I am a Burnley supporter and we rate Austin as at least twice as good as Jay Rod who we got £6 million for.
    There is no way you will get him for £3 to £4 Million.
    In your Dreams!!!!!

    ReplyDelete
  5. He wont go for more then 8mn. Mark my words.

    ReplyDelete
  6. £2.5 million - that would need trebling at least for Burnley to even show any interest

    ReplyDelete
  7. I agree with you Jamie, he's worth a risk at 4-5 million. We've made greater gaffs over the last few years ie. Carroll, Poulson, Adams, Aqua, (Borini - Jury still out) He's a natural goal scorer albiet in the lower leagues.

    ReplyDelete
  8. There really is no system. At 3-4M for each we should jump at Rhodes and Austin immediately! That is just the thing that clubs like Everton and Newcastle take a chance on and it proves to be gold-plated. To try for these two for under £10M should be screaming "good business sense" to FSG if they are truly looking for improvements at the RIGHT price!

    ReplyDelete
  9. How can you praise the guy that much, and than expect that his club would be happy to lose him so they can earn a million?!?

    ReplyDelete
  10. Seems to stand around a lot waiting for his team-mates to dispossesses the opposition and pass it to him in front of an open net (and/or for the opposing keeper to make a mistake). Little more than a championship poacher who won't press or create his own shot...won't fit in with BR system, nor many other's in the PL. Might be as good as Holt one day but no evident PL class at this point (like many of the players that Jamie bangs on about).

    ReplyDelete
  11. These were the guys we used to sign in the old days like keegan & rushie from the lower leagues, providing we werent shafted as usual the guy would definitely be worth buying, id sooner him that wigans goal machine franky,lol

    ReplyDelete
  12. Rethinking the argument. Does it really give a strong indication of the clubs aspirations. Liverpool rumored to be looking at Santo, Austin, Rhodes, and Ince, when the mancs are rumored to be looking at Ronaldo, and Snider, having bought Van Persie in the summer.

    ReplyDelete
  13. For that price I would take him as a back up. We need good back up players, and if he works out then he would be a bargin, if he don`t do that great, he is still a good back up to have

    ReplyDelete
  14. I would not say there gold-plated, as you only hear about the ones that work out, which gives it a gold-plated tinted look on it. But I do think if we really want to do things different, it is finding deals like these, to help compliment the squad, but make no mistake if we are to get back into the top four, we will need top top players, and wont be able to risk signings like this too often

    ReplyDelete
  15. am hoping they will sign good players. Look at arsenal they are linked with big players .The likes of David villa Gomis etc. Chelsea are linked with Falco and Cavan. Thats what we want to hear from Liverpool. Average players i do no think they will deliver at Liverpool at all

    ReplyDelete
  16. Yep, standards are slipping, and now we are in the mix with the also rans for players, which prob isn`t much better than us being in the mix for top clubs rejects. Ohh how the mighty have fallen. What it tells me is we aren`t going for the right players, if we want to break into top four, we need players a top four club would have. I know some don`t want to join us with no CL, but we should at least try. It seems like we have given up already.

    ReplyDelete
  17. These guys wont come cheap as soon as they see Liverpool. The price tag will triple and we will be held to ransom. I say forget EPL players and go South American. European players even, but not players in direct competition with us. Shows no class in our respect.
    I am sure there are cheaper and better players out there. Bloody scouts better get their act together real quick and get us some class players.
    Or else Buck the Rodgers will be on his way out.

    ReplyDelete
  18. Its sickening aint it

    ReplyDelete
  19. I don't know much about the player but I think that we are going to have make these type of transfers nowadays. Hopefully we find a few gems that make it worth the risk of buying a lower division player.

    ReplyDelete
  20. Couldn't agree more in regards with our falling standards. What get's me most frustrated is our seemingly lack of common sense when it comes to transfers. How BR can look at our squad that creates bundles, can't finish, and identifies Sturridge at 12mil raher than Llorient (free in the summer) or Ba 7mil and proven, is shocking to me. While our results are not inspiring, this transfer window was touted as the perfect opportunity to give the fans and club a lift as a whole. Signing Sturridge imo will continue this belief (and now reality) that we're taking 10 steps back for every step foward...*sigh*

    And yes, I'd rather see Austin lead the line as he can find the back of the net, has a great work rate and desire. Three things that Sturridge is lacking

    ReplyDelete
  21. we can get the lionking from spain or the lionbar from burnley ....makes you realize how far as a club we have dropped when we are getting excited about bidding for this guy...we need world class players and a manager to boot and we need them now or we will be playing in the same league as austin

    ReplyDelete
  22. We should start acting like the global powerhouse of world football we are and laugh off these names as not good enough.FSG has succeeded in lowering expectations so much that some fans think, this is the best we can do.
    Our scouting department should be hung drawn and quartered.They fail to realise that the ASIAN, SOUTH AMERICAN and AFRICAN market is open to us and represent good value for money compared to British players.
    We need to stop acting like BLACKPOOL and go for quality players that other top teams want.We got SUAREZ without CL so it can be done so show some ambition for FFS!

    ReplyDelete
  23. Rodgers does not have an easy job that we all can agree on, but he himself has contributed a lot to our problems we have as a team. Letting Joe Cole leave would be a great step in making our club a more competitive one. "Standards have fallen" is a bit of an understatment Tesoman. In fact there are no standards at Liverpool. If a player is cheap enough he is welcome. The balance sheet is all we care about.

    If i were a teacher I would give Brendan Rodgers the failing grade of a C on his report card. Still stand behind him and all that but it is clear that at this point in the season his tactics are not working.

    Here are what Rodgers can do to turn things around and actually raise those standards.

    (1) first he has got to stop the annoying habit of praising poor performances. Always complimenting the squad even after a clearly shitty performance. Please get more upset on camera let the team know you are pissed. That psychological effect has worked for Fergie, Wenger and Mourinho.

    (2) resist the temptation to try and bring in every player you have ever worked with to your new club. Spent so much time just trying to sign Siggurdson , Allen and Borini from his former team that he really didn't get a chance to purse other more viable talent. Should have gone after Dempsey well before dead line day. None of his new signings have really hit the ground running. We are all enjoying emergence of Sterling, Suso, and Shelvy but they were there before Rodgers.

    (3)The most important thing Rodgers can do is to bring in more technically sound players. Players who have mastered the art of the "tactical dribble." We all like Suarez for many reasons; one is the offense he brings to the team as he takes people on dribbling past them in tiny confined spaces. That is true class and it is missing among many Liverpool stars.

    By working in these problem areas Rodgers would do a lot to make our team more competitive.

    ReplyDelete
  24. 8 million for austin is crazy south and north america and africa and asia is where we will pick up value ...

    ReplyDelete
  25. BEAST thank you for saying your words. I want you to shout it loud and hopefully it can reach the ears of Brendan Rodgers and the folks across the pond at FSG. They are doing nothing but sucking the life out of our club. I want a more competitive Liverpool where our scout scour every corner of the globe searching for the hottest and brightest foot-ballers around. A Liverpool than can be herald as a real institution of excellence. One that every other club will strive to be like. The world is full of many gifted individuals just waiting to be discovered. There is a kid right now kicking the ball around on a beach in Sao Paulo with more natural talent than Sturridge who would cost us next to nothing. We just have to be willing to do the work to uncover these gems.

    ReplyDelete
  26. The point you made about ALLEN, SIGUARDSSON and BORINI is spot on.I fear LFC will be a home for CHELSEA reserves and SWANSEA players he must broaden his transfer targets.
    The players he's worked with before can only take us to a certain point which is below the CL target level.

    ReplyDelete
  27. Well Chib, I'm a classic delusional fan and somewhere deep down I still harbor hope that we can wake up from this nightmare, start playing the liverpool way, and get back to where we rightfully belong. But then again, I am delusional.

    In terms of bringing in players who have mastered "tactical dribbling" I would have to dissagree. For the most part, the base of the team is there. BR has gambled on this philosphy and needs to see it through. What we need is a leathal striker. Suarez is only scoring the goals he is because, without another striker, he's taking 3times as many shots as any other striker in the league. In games against tough defenses like stoke, where chances come rare, we need someone who is lethal and Luis is not the answer. When we had lethal strikers in Torres and Owen the rest of the team looked great. Having someone who can naturally stick it in the net gives confidence to other players who then start chipping in with important goals. Take the 07-08 season for example, we ended up with Torres scoring 26 goals and the next FIVE top scorers scoring double digit goals. We don't have that now because we don't have a clinical striker. If we get one (and his name is not Sturridge) I am almost certain goals will start to pop up from other areas of the pitch. I'm not saying we get rid of suarez, we just need to get someone up there so that when the suarez show begins, there's someone there to put the cherry on the cake

    ReplyDelete
  28. I have tried to get excited about the Sturridge signing BEAST i really have but I just can't seem to get my self excited about him. There is something about him that puts me off. Oh yeah i think i got it, it's his talent, it's so....... mediocre. "yeah that's it." A player who couldn't take advantage of 50 million pound's Torre's goal scoring drought at Chelsea. There was no better time to prove to Chelsea that you need to start more games than scoring when Torres couldn't. He is a player who couldn't break into the starting 11 on a regular basis. A player who hasn't been called up that many times by the national team. He is the one that is going to take us to the top four. He is blessed with pace and not much else.

    Now about former players we are in agreement that he Rodgers should not spend so much time pursuing former players. It a big wide world Brendan scour the globe for pure raw talent and then release the purse strings. If you don't someone else will it's as simple as that. Other clubs will not wait for us to get our shit together.

    ReplyDelete
  29. well Tesoman I think a bit of reality is always a good thing even for the classic delusional fan. I believe in tough love and in calling out the team when they deserve it. This squad can't clearly win a champion's league final if were to happen today, not if we lose to inferior talent like Stoke. By the way Stoke is considered inferior; a team operating on a much smaller budget than us , don't posses a better bench than us yet can score on us 3 times in one game.

    There seems to be some confusion here in interpreting my words. I am in complete agreement with you that we need a tactical finisher up front. We need someone for whom scoring goals comes as easy as breathing pure oxygen comes to most of us. Of that there is not doubt. What i am saying is that we need the said striker to be more technical. Preferably someone who possess the technical dribble as part of his arsenal. By this i mean to posses better ball handling skills. Someone comfortable on the ball and who is able to operate in small spaces like Messi (watch him sometime he is an artist). Our Liverpool squad does not posses a lot of individual brilliance. Defenses every where do not fear many players on our squad. Simply because many players on our squad do not posses real ball handling skills. Watch a Barca game sometime and you will find out that most of their players have the "technical dribble." If Messi is being double marked another player can create space by getting behind the defense after beating his man one on one. Playing Barca a team has to worry about the ball handling skills of Xavi, Iniesta, Alexis Sanchez , Cesc Fabregas as well as Messi. They have many people who are comfortable on the ball . They can kill a team with many weapons . Liverpool has just Suarez, Sterling and really nobody else. Our team can produce a lot of turn overs sometimes and we do not instill a lot of fear in the hearts of many defences. We are seen as average in the league by many of the opposition.

    We need more of the "tactical dribble"

    ReplyDelete
  30. DANIEL STURRIDGE signing for us is a upgrade on what we have but the club should be doing much better than him.
    Like I said in previous comments on different topics the buy British policy that has so far lead to us languishing in mid table and filled our squad with expensive flops is a stupid route to continue with.Our scouts are retarded and the leadership from our owners is dreadful.
    If FSG knew about football do you think they would've let KENNY waste 35m on a big ponytail or spend 16m on a headless chicken or pay 20m for a winger that has dribbled more from the mouth than on the pitch?
    Mistakes can be forgiven, if not repeated.But we continue to persist with British and ignore real talent that will elevate this club to the upper echelons of world football where we belong.
    STURRIDGE a late Christmas present for LFC fans.I hope he comes with a receipt so we can send him back and sign a player with better quality!

    ReplyDelete
  31. I can tell you now he won't go for anything less than £6.5m. Speculation at half that price is implausible.

    ReplyDelete
  32. Some of what you're smoking to think you can get him for that price please!

    ReplyDelete
  33. You realise that Blackburn paid £8m for Jordan Rhodes right?

    ReplyDelete
  34. Beast spot on! Our scouting is so substandard that it's one of the reasons we've fallen from grace! The reason why the likes of West Brom are doing better than us is based on shrewd purchasing of seasoned internationals e.g Long, Mulumbu & Odemwingie. Forget potential we need RIGHT NOW! As for Sturridge he does have talent, joint top scorer last season for Chelski despite less playing time than Torres. Abramovic calls the shots & if he says his £50mill toy plays then he plays irrespective of form. This it is totally out of Sturridge's hands. Plus he deserves credit he's obviously not coming to us for silverware, he wants to do well for club & country. Remember he single handedly saved Bolton from the drop & was commended for having a great attitude by Coyle.

    ReplyDelete
  35. Funny guys - you can't afford Austin. Also, why would he come to a mid-table team of no marks? Dream on.

    ReplyDelete
  36. Get real. We are Liverpool. We may be mid table now. But will be competing in the Europa league at least next season.
    Why can't we afford Austin?

    ReplyDelete
  37. Despite only picking up these new scouts from MAN CITY a few months ago.Which was stupid because all they did was buy players like AGUERO,TOURE,NASRI and SILVA well known established players with big reputations signed for massive amounts of money (which we don't have).
    I would get rid and bring in PORTO's scouts because these guys are the best in the business.They've picked up the likes of FALCAO,RODRIGUEZ and HULK for peanuts.I think my point is made, they work within a small budget and get great results by being creative and doing their homework in the SOUTH AMERICAN football system.
    LFC's scouts clearly lack knowledge and connections to foreign markets.Our recruiting structure should be headed by people that have a proven record of picking up cheap unknown players,with superstar potential.

    ReplyDelete
  38. "Our scouting department is substandard" you're being polite, let me guess you were toying with the idea of saying something stronger but worried it wouldn't get viewed.
    The lack of imagination in the transfer market from our club is shocking and predictable.My forecast for summer signings, British & average.DANIEL STURRIDGE, I think the same time next year we'll be talking about him as the latest flop that we've wasted money on.I hope I'm wrong!

    ReplyDelete
  39. The way blackburn are going id expect Rhodes is not gonna be happy, if i was rodgers id offer 10 million for him, im a hudders fan and can tell you he is gonna be massive! Big mistake going to Blackbourn!

    ReplyDelete
  40. Relax, Burnley and Liverpool don't even play in the same league. Why bother?

    ReplyDelete
  41. we have missed the boat on rhodes he would be 7to 8 million now ,still better value than sturridge imo

    ReplyDelete
  42. yes 8 million still a lot better value than sturridge for 12 imo

    ReplyDelete
  43. Both nowhere near the quality required.JASE, when fans drop standards that's when owners take us for mugs.We can do better!

    ReplyDelete
  44. i don,t know about rhodes i think he would have been worth a shout ,agree with you about being taken for mugs, but fsg have till the summer transfer window to show there intentions as to were they want the club to go,imo its going to be another yanks out situation,i think thats why they got rid of kenny because he would have told them that major money is required were as rodgers is a yes man,whos happy to have his 15 minutes of fame

    ReplyDelete