Craig Bellamy has reportedly been given permission to leave Wales' training camp for a medical at Anfield ahead of a possible transfer to Liverpool. I personally like Bellamy as a player but would his signing actually be a good idea?
After the Joe Cole fiasco, Liverpool must surely be wary of making the same mistake twice, i.e. signing a player who may be past his prime. Like Cole, Bellamy can be excellent on his day, but at 32 years old now, his day has arguably passed.
It's not as if Bellamy set the world on fire during his first stint at Liverpool. During the 2006-7 season, he was 27 years old and in the prime of his career, yet:
* He managed 9 goals and 5 assists in 42 appearances, which is good but certainly not great.
* Barcelona aside, he never managed to consistently make a difference against top clubs like Chelsea, Arsenal and Man United.
* Last season, Bellamy suffered a couple of niggling injuries, one of which was related to his long standing knee problem, an issue that also arose with Man City.
The injury issue is the one that concerns me the most. After years of having players like Aurelio, Kewell, Agger and Degen constantly on the sidelines through injury, the club should steer clear of any players with recent injury problems, even if they're only back-up players.
Don't get me wrong - I have a lot of time for Bellamy, and I'm not generally against the club signing older players; however, I would personally prefer to see another ex-Red brought back: Peter Crouch. He's available; is never injured (averages 38 games a season), and genuinely offers something different.
Bring back Crouchie!
Jaimie Kanwar
After the Joe Cole fiasco, Liverpool must surely be wary of making the same mistake twice, i.e. signing a player who may be past his prime. Like Cole, Bellamy can be excellent on his day, but at 32 years old now, his day has arguably passed.
It's not as if Bellamy set the world on fire during his first stint at Liverpool. During the 2006-7 season, he was 27 years old and in the prime of his career, yet:
* He managed 9 goals and 5 assists in 42 appearances, which is good but certainly not great.
* Barcelona aside, he never managed to consistently make a difference against top clubs like Chelsea, Arsenal and Man United.
* Last season, Bellamy suffered a couple of niggling injuries, one of which was related to his long standing knee problem, an issue that also arose with Man City.
The injury issue is the one that concerns me the most. After years of having players like Aurelio, Kewell, Agger and Degen constantly on the sidelines through injury, the club should steer clear of any players with recent injury problems, even if they're only back-up players.
Don't get me wrong - I have a lot of time for Bellamy, and I'm not generally against the club signing older players; however, I would personally prefer to see another ex-Red brought back: Peter Crouch. He's available; is never injured (averages 38 games a season), and genuinely offers something different.
Bring back Crouchie!
Jaimie Kanwar
Get Crouchie and go back to the old LONG BALL system. No way !!!!!
ReplyDelete<span>"Barcelona aside, he never really made a difference against top clubs like Chelsea, Arsenal and Man United" !! lol he scored 2 goals against cheslea i think 2 season ago!! and he scored a cracker against scum utd for city!! he also scored against us to!! and why would we resign crouch another tall striker like carroll!!?? bellamy also can be left winger if needed!!
ReplyDelete</span>
Agree that we shouldn't sign Bellamy, but Crouch doesn't offer much different to Carroll surely? Crouch is Carroll with less pace, mobilty, strength, you can argue he is a better finisher than Carroll but his goal tally last season was pathetic and as you pointed out he played many games for Spurs, if we have money to spend there must be better options out there who genuinely offer something different i.e. pace, mobility, skill, movement
ReplyDeleteWe weren't a long-ball team with Crouch at the club; ironically, he wasn't actually very good in the air (!) - He was much more effective playing along the ground.
ReplyDeleteI agree, there must be better options out there. Re Crouch, I just meant that if we're in the market for ex-reds then I'd go for crouch ahead of Bellamy.
ReplyDeleteagree and disagree with you there. 100% agree and not sign craig but disgaree with you 100% do NOT sign crouchy. as much as i love the tall lad he is very over rated in my opinion. He got 4 goals and 7 assists last season and with him valued at 10 million it would be worth the money could use it to spend it elsewhere eg: someone like sturridge.
ReplyDeletewould NOT be worth the money*
ReplyDeleteI agree with jaimie, but only for sentimental reasons...think crouch was treated badly but RB and have something to prove if he's given the chance to come back...
ReplyDeleteAnything wrong with 2 tall man up front? Possibility of either one getting a header in the box is much higher now :)
i imagine bellamy is being targeted because he has some similar qualities to suarez and could fit into the favoured system, whereas crouch is a good player, but if he were to come in for suarez, the entire system would change. a crouch/carroll frontline would also be very much pedestrian, as neither has much in the way of exceleration.
ReplyDeleteBells will add pace to our attack ; i doubt he will start many games but he could be great as an impact sub when teams are tiring.
ReplyDeleteNot opposed to him coming back but i do feel there are better options out there ...e.g. Hoillet & Sturridge are good options to add pace.
So to would be Brian Ruiz or Elia ....But i think we are just looking for a short term fix untill the next window.
I have a feeling if we're in the TOP 4 in Jan we will bring in 1 big player.
We only want him as a stop gap with Ngog going to Bolton until next summer, and by then one of the youngsters may have made a good impression or we will have signed someone.
ReplyDeleteJamie, as you know - you and I have clashed in the past, but I 100% agree with you on this one. I don't think Bellamy is a good option at all.
ReplyDeletePersonally I'd go for Sturridge.
I wouldn't fancy crouchie though. We tend to lump the ball forward too much with big strikers, we did it when carrol plays IMO. Good article though.
The argument that Crouchie wasn't good in the air is false; I believe he is/was the third all time Premier League scorers of headers - not including knock-downs and assists.
ReplyDeleteWouldn't have him back though. Need more of a Pavlyuchenko type, or even a Cisse. Sturridge would be a not-going-to-happen coup.
Agreed
ReplyDeleteCome people its not a case of Sturridge OR Bellamy......Sturridge is not even on the cards......possibly rumoured to have been included in a deal for Raul. I would go that route IF true.
ReplyDeleteSky bet and ladbrooks have stopped taking bets that he will sign for us and BBC have said he's been seen at Melwood, so Sturridge is definately on the cards - Meireles going the other way.
ReplyDeleteI would prefer us not to resign Bellamy, he is a venomous little git
ReplyDeleteHowever he is effective and seems to have retained his pace, so if we are signing him I hope he does a job and doesn't go rocking the boat
Crouchy is a very frustrating player, undoubtedly skilful and with a good football brain but he can't head a ball, can't consistently strike a good ball, is rather ungainly and isn't particularly quick
Sturridge to Liverpool?? BBC only have tweets from randomers about it
As for Sky Sports News, they ramp up random transfer speculation to encourage betting on their Skybet website
Sky are the only company so perfectly placed to create such markets, Sturridge is now 1/2 from 9/1. If he doesn't move to us surely this has to be investigated by betting authorities
why would anyone want crouch back at anfield we have big andy and oh my god we do not need bellamy we might as well sign a dog kk do not bother u know what your doing DO NOT BOTHER WITH BELLAMY
ReplyDeleteBELLAMY IS LIKE JOE BARTON AN IDIOT NOT WELCOME AT ANY CLUB TOO HOT HEADED I WOULD RATHER HAVE QUEEN MOTHER AND SHE IS DEAD
ReplyDeleteHe only started 33 of those 42 games.
ReplyDeleteEven with 42 appeareance, according to your very own SMCC that a goal or assist every 3 games, which is pretty good. Also 17 goals and 12 assists in 51 games at Man City is a goal or assist every 1.75 games. And at Cardiff City he also did ok,
He is likely to be our 4th choice striker after Suarez, Carroll and Kuyt and I reckon even at the age of 32 he would be a good impact sub. I certainly have more confidence in Bellamy coming on rather than N'gog.
This article isn't well thought out. To suggest we bring crouch in, you might as well have suggsted we bring Ashley Cole in. Kenny has been looking for a player to rotate or back up Suarez as Kenny obviously has no faith in Pacheco. Bellamy has similar attributes to Suarez and will allow us to play with a reasonable degree of continuity should Suarez not play. Bringing Crouch in would have left us looking like idiots. We have Carroll and Kuyt competing for the Target man position, why add a third? We now have 2 strikers competing for a target man slot and two strikers competing for a 'no.10' slot. Just how it should be.
ReplyDeleteJust because he wasn't good in the air didn't stop players (looking at you Carra) hoofing it up to him. It is like now with Carroll in the side, the players lack the discipline to play it around and the team plays worse with a big man in the side (through no fault of said big man).
ReplyDeleteEven though we didn't bring in another specialist winger as I'd hoped for at least we managed to get another player with a bit of pace in the team and even at the the ripe old age of 32 Bellamy is still probably the fastest player in our squad now!
ReplyDeleteDalglish has taken to regularly substituting Kuyt for his frequent poor performances (unlike Benitez who refused to ever get the guy off of the pitch irrespective of how poorly he played) so hopefully Bellamy can show enough to push himself ahead of Kuyt in the pecking order as 3rd choice striker/2nd choice right wide forward and take some of the pressure off of Suarez and Gerrard to put pressure on the opposition defences.
A team of Reina/ Johnson-Carragher-Agger-Enrique/ Lucas-Adam/ Suarez-Gerrard-Downing/ Carroll, with Coates, Kelly, Henderson, Bellamy & Kuyt all on the fringes looks pretty strong to me...
... wouldn't mind if we can pull Oscar up of the hat for january as next generations Gerrard....
ReplyDeleteIf Bellamy has retained his pace and can stay fit, I think he is a great signing. But when is his last Premier League appearance. At his age, players deteriorate quickly and I wonder if he is at the same level.
ReplyDeleteI think his feisty nature is actually good, on the pitch, and he has done good things with his money during his career, so I would not call him a venomous git, but would admit that he needs careful handling. Saying that, though, if Mark Hughes can handle him, Kenny can. He is a Liverpool supporter and he knows the respect that Kenny has. Kenny has enough players that know him from his last time at the club, so if they had concerns, I'm sure someone would have said something. If he is fit, his versatility will make him good back up. But, having sold Meireles, I would still have preferred us to sign Sturridge.
Having Suarez, Carroll and Bellamy on the pitch at the same time could be interesting!
Apart from City, I think it looks as strong as anyone and is a team that can play for a few years to come, except Carragher, and then, hopefully, some of our younger players, like Sterling, will start coming through also.
ReplyDeleteput it plainly...Crouch cost a few mil quid while Craig is free, certainly no one will try long ball with Craig, Craig (as Damien pointed out in his assessment of why LFC signed Craig) can play anywhere up front and offers way more options as an attacker than Peter will.
ReplyDeleteNo offense to Crouchy as i personally like him very much and i thought we lost an asset when we sold him but i have a feeling the bosses are getting someone proven and with many options to offer in the near term (that makes sense) while we blood our younglings slowly...we have so many near to the brim of first team but not there yet so this makes sense (in terms of providing better cover than Ngog and allowing the young players to slowly come in).