25 Jul 2012

LFC fans tell FSG: Dump Hendo + sign this £15m maestro instead. Agree?

Last week, Swansea manager Michael Laudrup hinted that a 'big offer' could be enough to tempt Swansea into selling midfield star Joe Allen. Reds manager Brendan Rodgers has admitted publicly that he'd like to sign the player, but what do Liverpool fans think about the possibility, and who should he replace in the squad?

Earlier today, Swansea rejected rejected Liverpool's £10m (plus Jonjo Shelvey on loan) offer for Allen, and the Welsh club are reportedly holding out for a £15m fee instead.

With 90.3% accuracy, Allen was Europe's sixth most accurate passer last season (only 2% behind Xavi, and 1% behind Sergio Busquets), so he's arguably worth £15m, but whether the deal will actually go through is unclear at this time.

I conducted a survey last week asking fans who they would rather have in midfield for Liverpool: Allen or Jordan Henderson.

* Approximately 8000 people participated.
* 73% of voters chose Allen ahead of Henderson.

That is a ringing endorsement for the Swansea midfielder, but for Henderson, the result can only be seen as a vote of no confidence.

In a radio interview last week, Monk praised Allen's 'great potential' and praised the midfielder as 'one of the top players at the club':

"Joe Allen is level-headed which really helps him deal with pressure situations. He doesn’t get linked to the likes of Liverpool for no reason. He’s been tremendous for us. When he came through as a young lad you could see in training sessions how good he was.

"He was brilliant last year. He controlled midfield and stamped his authority, you don’t often see that with someone so young. He’s only going to get better, so I’m not surprised to see him linked to Liverpool"


Craig Bellamy is also a huge fan of his fellow countryman, and he recently told reporters:

"He [Allen] is special. He has made so many key plays for Swansea last season. He’s a Brendan Rodgers player, he fits Liverpool to a tee. If the club is able to secure him, they will have a real gem of a player. I would be shocked if Liverpool did not go for him this summer. "

All managers need a 'man on the ground' to implement their philosophy, and Rodgers particularly needs someone in midfield to orchestrate his preferred style of play. Hopefully, that will be Allen, who is a much more important target than, say, Gylfi Sigurdsson.



Jaimie Kanwar


52 comments:

  1. Henderson woulf excel in this formation and tactics he can be good or even better than allen.. Gerrard is getting older I think the midfield should be lucas,allen,henderson..

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  2. henderson should still be given a chance in his correct position. plus what about adam, cole, aqua, spearing rather lose them tbh.

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  3. FFS leave Henderson alone,so unfair to do this...How about conducting a survey to see whos the best journalist? You or Dick Head? I know who will win!

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  4. Am I the only one thinking that brendan rodgers is lacking any originality whatsoever in the transfer market? He is just going after players he already worked with before like borini, sigurdsson and now allen! Can`t he do his homework properly and scout for players all around europe with good value for money that can fit his football philosophy instead of just lazily chasing after players he already knows? Its like history repeating itself again, just like when roy hodgson came and brought along with him players he already coached before namely paul konchesky and cristian poulsen! Are there even any proper scouting system in this club!? Allen is a good player and I would be glad if we could get him. But priority is not central midfielders, we already have more than enough in our squad. Brendan had better sign some wingers and strikers first and offload all these deadwood....

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  5. Septimus_severeus7:14 pm, July 25, 2012

    Adam,Downing and Carroll all need to go ...would give Henderson another season due to the fact that he is younger than the others and was not played in his favoured position.

    ADAM & DOWNING MUST BE MOVED ON 

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  6. Its the same thing over again, average players for more monies and wages, why not Sissoko? he is cheaper and will cover our def-midfield so why go for more over-rated, one-season-wonders, big contract flops, this beggars belief.  How many midfield players have we signed?  We need extra cover on the wings both back & forward not this cr.p, if he goes the same route, we the fans will turn on him so quick..keep Aquaman, Cole, Suso, Lucas, Spearo, DON NOT SELL Andy he has come good as KK is not there to tell him lies about how hard working he is, Tom Warner has already stated the overspend and flopping, he has to pull up his socks or next window he is defo out. We do not need Allen at all, its another Hendo, and I am defo against paying up to 10mill or more for him, lets go to the rest of the world for our new players.

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  7. I guess Allen will be a good signing, most importantly BR knows him, he knows BR.

    Vote of no confidence? Harsh!!

    How many voters routinely watched Allen? Potential new signings are always enthusiastically welcomed.

    Hendo is a future replacement for Gerrard. He has drive, skill, is clean living and BR rates him. He can be moulded into whatever BR wants

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  8. Stop this younger issue, Rooney, Walcott, Wiltshire etc are young but way beyond Hendo [the kit-model, pass-&-hide and sure its a backpass] had enough of KK trying to drive him down our throats, Lucas's issue was that he was coverted to def-mid and it took him time, the excuse that Hendo was playing in the same place at SUFC, but he flopped.  I believe you said straight mate as always, you got my like.

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  9. do not think you understand, Hendo better than Aquaman, Suso, Cole or Spearo?  No way mate watch all our games and spot Hendo anyway, believe thats a joke, replay our last pre-season and watch tonite, you will change your mind.  Sell him to Swansea

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  10. how do you know that?
    he hasn't done anything to suggest that he'll 'excel'.
    i'm not having a go just saying that he had a very poor season for lfc and it's not like sunderland were playing excellent pass and move football that would suggest he'll make the step up without any bother.

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  11. So is the plan to play with 2 holding midfielders? Allen is deep lying like Lucas and most of his best work is breaking up opposition play and then playing short simple passes (usually backwards or sideways). Having a solid midfield three is important, but I can't help but feel Liverpool need someone with a bit more creativity and vision in there, especially with Gerrard's age and susceptibility to injuries.    

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  12. how has carroll come good?
    2 decent performances against chelsea and a half decent game in the semi against everton hardly suggests he has had some magical turn around in form.
    to suggest dalglish told lies is pathetic and immature,i may not be his biggest fan as a manager but dalglish is an lfc great who always put the club first.

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  13.  is rodgers the son of god?
     because he's going to need to perform miracles with hendo if he's going to be gerrards future replacement.

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  14. You are absolutely right, there was even no sign he actually improved last season he played the same way the whole season and it was pretty gutless

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  15. Well all you liverpool fans joe allen is a gem and you have to believe in rodgers as he has great awerness of football  here and overseas and as a swansea supporter and a liverpool fan from the great days of rush come on you liverpool fans you have to get behind rodgers hes got nothing wrong so far but we will miss  joe allan also sigurdsson as he was class the first time we saw him for the swans perhaps the swans and liverpool will both finish above the man utd and city teams how about that for confidence 1st 2nd in the league i will take second place only behind you scousers

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  16. Not impressed if we have indeed breached the written agreement with Swansea over their players. That aside, with British players, you are bound to pay a premium for them, as seen with Downing, Hendo and Carroll. Still, £15m is quite a bit of money for mid-table player that has had only a season in PL but would like to see him here, instead of Hendo. Looks more comfortable in a deep central midfield than say Hendo. And of course, Rodgers knows his game and I think that is a premium that is worth paying for.

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  17. Septimus_severeus8:26 pm, July 25, 2012

    Rooney is overrated, no one outside of England fears him as was seen in the Euros. Walcott has never achieved the heights his first young talents showed . Wiltshire has only performed for one season. Frankly speaking British players are overpaid and overrated. The reason Italian, German & Spanish clubs don't come in for them is because they are not good enough it's that simple. Lucas,Pacheco,Suso are technically superior to home grown Brits and that's the problem. Dalglish messed up because frankly his antiquated ideas of Britishness are for 1980 not 2012. It's not an accident that all the technically gifted players we have in the squad were not born in the UK. Instead we have Downing, Adam,Henderson who are work horses.

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  18. Septimus_severeus8:30 pm, July 25, 2012

    I'm not sure either I thought it was going to look something like this 

                       Reina

    Johnson    Skertel   Agger    Enrique

            Lucas        Gerrard      Allen        

      Borini          Suarez            Dempsey

    (Subs) Kelly, Coates, Jones, Aquilani, Sterling

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  19. always the taking the safe option,pass it sideways and no movement.
    how that makes someone think he can step into rodgers style of football and excel is beyond me.

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  20. apparently if the players wants to leave we can talk to them.the agreement was that we wouldn't make first approach.

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  21. Who is to say that the respondents to your survey were Liverpool fans?  We get lots of malicious Bluenoses and manures posting on our blogs.

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  22. We are not signing Dempsey and Carroll will stay

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  23. you know for a fact?
     

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  24. I hope Joe joins Liverpool but I have a sneaky feeling now that ManU appear to be entering the race that he'l opt for there.

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  25. Henderson is an awful player and i thought that when we first signed him, i cannot believe people even suggested he could be the next Stevie G!

    Now Allen on the other hand is much more closer to what Stevie G was at 21 years of age.. if we can pay £16-£19 million for a player of Hendersons quality we should pay £15 million for Allen without a second thought in my opinion, why not even look into a deal taking henderson the other way?  

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  26. laudrup isn't a mug,he won't take henderson.
    agree with everything you say,i remember last summer when the rumour about henderson started.didn't see the point then and still don't.
     

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  27. I wouldnt complain if we give them henderson and downing for allen and sinclair, but i agree laudrup aint a mug so it will never happen unfortunately :(

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  28. Brendan Rodgers spoke about Henderson about two weeks ago, rates Henderson big time and insisted that he wants to make a success out of Henderson so it is highly unlikely that he will be sold anytime soon. Sorry to break the news to all the Henderson haters, he ain't going anywhere. 
    If anything, Aquilani will be the player to get his marching orders. The Italian today confirmed that he wants to be in Italy by talking about taking a massive pay cut should he have had the chance to go to Roma last season. Waste of money this player, does not give a damn about what goes on at Anfield and we need to get rid of Aquilani ASAP even if it is for free. He is earning over 100k a week which can make room for players who want to be at Anfiield. Rodgers has not made it clear as yet that he wants to keep Aquilani so his days are numbered especially with Rodgers chasing Joe Allen. Nice to know you Aquaman...Henderson is still young and I am hoping the guy makes it big at Anfield. Luckily he will not be played as a winger/wide player under Rodgers which is where he featured most of last season under Kenny. Henderson is a center mid end of. Rodgers also spoke about Henderson at his age having to carry the hefty price tag and a move from Sunderland to a big club like Liverpool was sending him straight into the fire. Rodgers will get the best out of Henderson. :)

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  29. I am all for giving younger players a chance if they warrant it "as in they show some kind of potential" he was no more then average for sunderland and in his first season with us was even less then average.. Unfortunately KK made some seriously major mistakes in his buys and henderson is the worst of them all (again in my opinion) he has no direction, no fight, no clue, cant head a ball, cant pass the ball forward, cant tackle, he probably wouldnt win a tackle if he was the only one in it!
    I still cant understand why we even looked at him in the first place we had shelvey and spearing (though i think spearing is average also) and we have a real crop of gems coming through so we never needed him

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  30. you got it spot it-there was no real need for henderson.
    we had enough midfielders already,in my opinion shelvey is better than him so we didn't need to buy him.
    we could have invested that cash in a right winger or another striker.

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  31. Allen is the heartbeat around which Liverpools midfield will be built.  £15M a fair price. A lot of dead wood to shift though.

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  32. dont sell hendo. rather sell downing for 8m,adam for 5m,joe cole for 5m, and use that to buy allen.

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  33. I agree shelvey is better and has a bit of fight in him

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  34. Nice comment. Good luck mate.

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  35. Shelvey was immense for first 60 minutes tonight, no wonder BR gave him a new deal.

    Pacheco did really well in 2nd half, Adam scored an excellent goal.

    Joe Cole looked surprisingly sprightly also, showed some real football intelligence too.

    The team is getting there, pressing high up the pitch, some brilliant periods of passing late on.

    Overdid it a little at times and gave some blind passes away in dangerous positions but everyone is learning.

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  36. Highly unlikely that 8000 people voted, but anyway, a small portion of LFC fans voting on a poll on this side is not "lfc fans tell(ing) FSG to dump Hendo". 

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  37. Something must have happened in order for BR to make a move for Allen. Surely BR is fully aware of his contractual obligations not to make a move for Swansea's players for the next 12 months. We already have abundance of central midfielders and yet still make a bid for Allen means Spurs (since they're looking to replace Modric) must have made an enquiry on Allen which forces BR to act. I can't imagine any other way.

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  38. rodgers said it himself 3 weeks ago he likes from what he sees with henderson 

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  39. I know we are where we are and I know we have to be patient etc etc but personally I am not greatly excited by Borini (never heard of him before the transfer), Allen £15M!! no chance, why dont the teams above us want him? and Dempsey being linked all the time!

    We should be attracting a proven world class Manager despite the recent problems at the club and we have to IMPROVE the squad. We have lost some quality players and now are stuck with Downing, Adams, Henderson and despite Carrolls brief cameo's to remind us he may have something a bit special, it seems he may be marginalised without being given a chance.

    We finished 37 points behind City, so there is a lot of improvement to be made, but I worry for the immediate future. Apart from Spurs all the teams above us seem to have lots of positives and it feels like we are standing still. Sorry but this is how I see it.                                    
                                                                                                        Would Rodgers, Allen, Borini and Dempsey ever be considered 3 years ago as being fit to mangae or play for us?  No I dont thinks so either.

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  40. Allen cant now and never will be half the player Gerard has been and I am sure you know that. Not in the same class. why dont all the teams above us want him? Simples!

    Rodgers is bringing in players he trusts and can play his way. Unfortunately they dont appear to be any better than what we have already. Surely there are more important positions we need filling, with the little money that we have available?

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  41. Fair price, you are having a laugh!

    We have to bring in players better than we have already. When we brought in adams he came with a goalscoring reputation and provider from dead ball situations. Henderson was right up there as creating lots of chances for other players and Downings crossing stats were equal to the best!

    Allen has a great pass percentage completion but look who the other teams have already signed and who they are signing and the players they are trying to sign. They are not beating down the door to sign allen. the teams above us apart from spurs are strengthening but we may be standing still or worse!  How can we expect Borini, dempsey and Allen make such a difference?

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  42. Sinclair is not a good player, we could do a lot better than him.

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  43. Are we a little quick to right players off after a bad season? Yes Henderson didn't do well last year but he seems to be highly rated in football circles, that's why he was in the England squad in front of more established players. If we had dumped players after a bad first season we wouldn't have Lucas, Agger, Skrtel and possibly Reina who made some awful mistakes in his first season. Give Henderson another year and see how he goes. As for Allen, what's the point in buying him if we can't move on Aqualani or Adam. We have so many central midfielders currently at the club we just don't need any more. I personally would like to see Shelvey given more games, he looks like he's improving with every game and in my opinion looks to be the long term replacement for Gerrard.

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  44.  i'd take him over downing.

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  45. If and when we offload the failed signings of last year we stand to lose out massively becaue we overpaid and everyone saw it with there own eyes.

    We need quality over quantity. Is Sinclair or Allen, Borini, Dempsey any better than what we have already anyway?

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  46. YES i think they probably are

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  47. I never said he was or even will be half the player Gerrard is i said he is closer to what Gerrard was at 21 then henderson is or ever will be!
    The fact is henderson is vastly overrated by anyone who thinks he is even a decent squad player, he is USELESS

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  48. Carlton Palmer was highly rated in footballing circles, just saying...

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  49. I agree with what your saying in general about the players we are supposedly bringing in or trying to, but its time to be realistic we are not as appealing as we were 3 yrs ago, the problems are basically that we have a manager nobody knows we have no champions league football to offer and we as painfull as this is to say have been going backwards for the last 3 seasons and at present the future looks a little bleak in all honesty, but in regard to the fair price comment you had a laugh at, well... the prices we have paid on the utter tripe we have bought makes £15million a fair price!
    Allen has potential, henderson has none

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  50. We can't compete financially with the big spenders.

    Implementing BRs philosophies, combined with FFP, financial fair play, seems the only way that we can ever compete again. Football spending has become a joke. Petrodollars spoiling the sport, feeding utter greed throughout the game.

    This is a seminal moment in our history. We have to believe that Rodgers can be the new Shankly.

    Name your world class manager? Capello? Hiddink? They are now tired old men.

    BR needs to be backed. His methods need to be backed. Have you seen the 2 friendlies? We will be amazing this year. We will destroy the teams we have struggled against.

    We therefore need to back BRs signings. He has to bring in people who understand his methods to be more competitive, more quickly this year, instead of waiting 6 months.

    Admittedly, I'm not sure about Allen. I didn't pay much attention to what he did last season. I doubt many of us did.

    It's a leap of faith, but I can't wait to see Liverpool hound teams and give them a horrible time at Anfield.

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  51. yes you are! Rodgers has to firstly implement his playing style, this is not easily done when dealing with seasoned pros on big wages with big ego's. if you have watched the friendlies recentley they showed that the youth were picking up the style of play a little better than the older memebers of the squad. He will have pressure from fans to play youth players and even though by the account of newspapers that pressure is not on him to make top 4, you would have to be a little daft to think that all rodgers has to do is improve on last year. so who better than players that he knows and trusts who's futures in the game are on the up and already know his methods of play. Borrini is a finisher with alot of pace, something we were crying out for last season, sigurdsson is a midfielder who can score goals. something else we were crying out for last season and as gerrard fades in goal scoring terms this will become more apparent and allen who if you have watched him you would realise how integeral to rodgers style he is. allen would be very important. I love liverpool and ofcoarse i want them to buy the very best, the big names. but lets be honest you dont need them. all our successful teams in the past have been built with both british and lower league players and with these players we have been kings of england and europe many many times. its all about having a well oiled machine not an individual.

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