9 Jan 2013

Done deal: 'Fantastic' LFC star signs 'long-term' Anfield contract. Good news?

Promising right-back Andre Wisdom has signed a new long-term deal at at Liverpool.

Since starting five games in a row back in November - and performing brilliantly - Wisdom has mostly been consigned to the bench, making only one Premier League start in the last two months.

Considering his age, perhaps that's just good management, but Wisdom is unfazed by his recent lack of game-time, and after signing his new contract, he enthused:

"It's a great honour to sign a new contract at the club and I'm very happy.

"It was an easy decision to make - as soon as they offered it to me, I grabbed the opportunity with both hands because it's a great club and I just want to continue to play for Liverpool.

"I am happy with the progress I've made so far and hopefully I can progress more in the second half of the season and continue to keep playing.

"There's still so much hard work ahead. There is big competition within the team and everyone wants to play football. I just hope I can keep progressing and continue in the way I have been."


Managing director Ian Ayre added:

"It's fantastic news. It's another great example of a player committing to the club and what we're trying to achieve under Brendan.

"He's a great young player, shown a fantastic improvement, broken into the first team and made a huge contribution. He's come on leaps and bounds in the last year or so and that's because of all the hard work he's put in and the manager giving him a chance, so it's absolutely essential players like that commit themselves to the club."


With Wisdom in the team, and Glen Johnson on the left, Liverpool:

* Have lost only once in 15 games.
* Are unbeaten in the Premier League.
* Concede less than a goal a game.

Wisdom right and Johnson/Enrique left should be the club's first choice full-back pairing IMO.

Jaimie Kanwar


49 comments:

  1. Certainly good news. Good solid player.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Really excellent news. The more I see him play the better and better he becomes. Reminds me of Micah Richards a little bit, but with better concentration!

    ReplyDelete
  3. A good bit of work by us. I`m glad he has signed a new deal. I prefer him on the right than Kelly, although Kelly when fit isn`t too bad. We have a lot of promising youngsters coming up through the ranks.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Very good news that Wisdom has signed up long term. Just watching the Nextgen match against Inter and we have four or five really good players to look forward too progressing further. The future looks really good with the young talent coming through.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Of course it is good news when we are able to tie down our promising youngsters to long-term contracts. It's even better news when there were no reports about the player asking for inflated wages in the press beforehand.

    ReplyDelete
  6. We can talk about Benitez and his transfers all day long but he did bring in most of those youngsters and his work on the academy is starting to pay off. We owe him a big thank you for that.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Great news! Solid player, and will (hopefully) only get better.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Yes, I completely agree.

    ReplyDelete
  9. good news...wisdom is a center half n not a right back,he can play anywhere across the back.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Well done, very good. He will be a solid defender in the future. I hope we sign solid players ready to enter in the 1st team because we need 3 players easily. Against a non league team we found it very difficult with our 2nd team so we need imminently to bring in good and ready players.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Where can you watch this? do you have to sign up to LFC website or are there other ways? 

    ReplyDelete
  12. Let's credit Rafa for personally watching youth games up and down the country and scouting 14-year-olds. And for fixing the hole in the ozone-layer. I'd like to think that many people, some of whom Rafa brought in, had a very helping hand in finding Wisdom. Had those folks not done their job, Rafa probably wouldn't have known about him. Credit where credit is due.

    ReplyDelete
  13. Great news, we have some good defensive youngsters coming through. I still think having Johno on the right is the best option, right now. I think we need cover for left back. Wisdom and Kelly future LFC CB's

    ReplyDelete
  14. I wouldn't read too much into a Cup game against opposition who may well know that this is the biggest game in their lifes.

    ReplyDelete
  15. He's only ever played at RB for LFC, so he's a RB at this time.

    ReplyDelete
  16. This might make some interesting reading (not that the Daily Mail usually runs interesting stories):

    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-2259129/THE-FOOTBALLERS-FOOTBALL-COLUMN--FRANK-McPARLAND-What-does-Liverpool-player-Personality--We-German-lad-said-Ive-look-wage-slip-I-want-opt-tax-thing.html

    McParland: "If I want a player the manager and I go
    over it. He asks how he will fit in, watches a DVD of the player and
    then if we pursue it will spend an hour with the parents and with the
    boy."

    ReplyDelete
  17. Just like Carra when he came through. Wisdom and Kelly were both centre backs at reserve level. It's obviously easier to give them their early run-outs with the first-team as full-backs as at centre-half any mistake may result in a goal.

    ReplyDelete
  18. He's a great lad... although i must disagree... johnson and Enrique are the top pairing for me still... however, Wisdom is not far off!

    ReplyDelete
  19. Not first choice yet - Wisdom has been managed the best out of the kids this season (imo).

    Put in the team for some experience, taken out of the firing line and encouraged to continue improving by making it clear that he is not first team yet. As opposed to Sterling who plays every game pretty much already, and Suso, who gets withdrawn at halftime on a regular basis (I'm sure most players would rather have 30 mins at the end of a game than the embarrassing achievement of being subbed off at half-time...)

    ReplyDelete
  20. I just go by the stats on this one. Johnson and Wisdom = much more defensively solid that Johnson and Enrique.

    ReplyDelete
  21. Decent player and good to tie him up. If coached right and keeps his head in the right place, could be around for a long time.

    ReplyDelete
  22. another one for the future at this rate all the money lfc save on players wages will have to be spent on child care

    ReplyDelete
  23. agreed on the defensive, but Enrique attacks better... we are an attacking side IMO and should perhaps choose that over the former, especially against smaller teams. Will be good against united (hopefully) this weekend!


    But still, Enrique recovers well and gets forward excellently... he was more defensive last season, but his bombing runs and great assists have sometimes even outclassed Johnson!!! 

    ReplyDelete
  24. My favored team for this weekend

                   Reina
    Johnson Skrtel Agger Wisdom
                  Lucas
                  Gerrard
                  Suso/Allen (for midfield control- still prefer suso)
    Suarez Sturridge Sterling 

    ReplyDelete
  25. I've Created a fantasy League for all who would join it...

    Code: 711779-568090

    ReplyDelete
  26. Watched it on Sky TV on Channel 429 which is the LFC site. I don't pay any extra for it.

    ReplyDelete
  27. Hey mate. Can you post the link to the league and any other details and I'll put a note about it at the top of the comments section. Cheers.

    ReplyDelete
  28. I think it's not fully activated yet so you have to just join it...

    Start a fantasy league account and join it there. It will start from this game week and we'll all be scored on even terms.

    Just go to "Join League and put in the code above...
    This is the number of the league 568090...

    There will only be a webpage of it I'm guessing after this wkend

    ReplyDelete
  29. Is this on the Premier League site?

    I fear I may have an unfair advantage if its starting from this week as I already have over 1000 points for my team...

    ReplyDelete
  30. That answers my question below....

    Do you know if it will just count our score from now or add in previous score too? Because I dont want to join and be 1000 points ahead of everyone because they have only just set a team up.

    ReplyDelete
  31. Johnson, Enrique, Kelly, Wisdom, Flanagan, Robinson (Dare I say Downing?).

    We have a very deep roster of fullbacks.  Plus we have some players out on loan. 

    My question is, how can we find the proper balance to make sure the younger guys are developing while not getting regular first team action? Are we going to be relying solely on the FA Cup and Europa for that? Because if that's the case, there's no guarantee that they aren't going to get more than another 3 to 4 games.  

    Don't get me wrong, this is a good problem to have. It's always important to have depth, but we keep adding players without subtracting.  At some point these guys are going to get frustrated from a lack of consistent playing time (or in the case of Flanagan and Robinson, just about no playing time at all).

    ReplyDelete
  32. For a young lad, he has done well this season. Yes, he has had some dodgy moments/performances but its par for the course. As a back up right back, he will do for now. Local players or players that came from the youth ranks are more likely to put up with being squad options for longer periods for so-called reasonable wages, especially younger ones. We have needed to boost the depth in the squad like this with good prospects from the youth ranks and so kudos to the guys that have done work lower down the ranks at Liverpool.

    ReplyDelete
  33. over 1000 points is good!

    but it should only start registering scores from game week 22... if it doesn't I think we can change it. I set it to game week 22 scores onward

    ReplyDelete
  34. by the sounds of it thats why stering needed a pay rise. child care fees arn t cheap!!!!!!

    ReplyDelete
  35. Of course, but as managers get all the blame, they also get all the credit. I know Rafa brought in new coaches and wanted a different system for our youth set up, were they would play in the reserves league too. I know also he was in charge when we signed a lot of great youngsters. Of course the scouts, coaches all had their part, and found some of them, maybe all of them, but the manager is the driving force for these things to happen. If you look at the amount of players he signed, a lot were young, more so than most managers would. From my understanding he wanted to increase the talent in the youth ranks to help push up standards. It is the same for first team players too, some will be found by scouts, not managers. The manager though will be the one who dies by that call. So credit where it is due, to Rafa for his ideas, and to the whole youth team set up from coaches to scouts.

    ReplyDelete
  36. im on 920, which is actually pretty good when you consider I had hardly any points after 3 weeks, and aint looked at it ever again haha. Will join now, and start paying attention to it. I didn`t have a league before so kinda gave up.

    ReplyDelete
  37. Wisdom has been liverpools find of the season....i wasn't sure about him ...but the kid is class ....hes the clubs best Fb in imo .......calm under pressure ...links up ....cert for England

    ReplyDelete
  38. Managers get all the blame for first-team players that turn out to be not good enough, but hardly for all the youth players that come in and don't make it.

    Rafa has changed quite a few things at our club for sure, but McParland has been with us long before Rafa. And plenty of other staff, too.

    Did you know that before Houllier arrived our youth system was a total shambles. He hardly gets any credit for it at all, but he pushed through the development of you Kirby Academy (as far as I know). People keep praising Rafa for all the good he did (and rightly so), turn a blind eye on all the not so good things, and tend to forget who's overseen the initial overhaul of our youth set-up (and who's put us back onto the European map in 2001).

    When signing youth players I would like to think that those in charge of recruiting youth players are the driving forces, not the first-team manager. He may have the last say on signings, but he must rely on the youth development people.

    ReplyDelete
  39. I'm so glad someone else has made that comparison with Micah because I really see that. Even the recent whispers of a Liverpool bid for Richards made me shiver as I believe he is very, very good and has not reached anywhere near his full potential yet. So to have Andre at the age he is, in comparison, is absolutely awesome..... I think Wisdom comes across really well off the pitch as well as on it, so basically the sky's the limit for him. If he takes the opportunity and becomes the real deal then, wow......

    ReplyDelete
  40. Just think, if the plan works, the squad will be litered with top class players, worth absolute fortunes, all only just entering their primes! The future could be so very bright....Must stop now or I may start drooling.

    ReplyDelete
  41. Houllier did a lot of good, but our youth teams were still pretty bad when Rafa took over. I`m the last person who only says good stuff about Rafa as I see a lot of his faults too. However I still think it is true that the Manager plays a big part in it all. That isn`t taking away from anyone else in the youth team, but nor should it take away from the manager. You have to have a manager who wants young players signed for people like McParland too be allowed too. I don`t understand why you think I don`t credit Houllier? I think he was our best manager or joint best with Rafa of the last 20 years.

    ReplyDelete
  42. Excellent point and well spotted. They did it so quietly that I didn't bear a moment to it. Little statements like that impress upon me greatly so therefore I must say a genuine thank you for for sharing that!

    ReplyDelete
  43. Good to see someone else who isn`t all doom and gloom about things :-)

    ReplyDelete
  44. When you dream as much as me mate it doesn't leave much room for the dark clouds some people choose to carry around! LFC will ALWAYS have me dreaming  :-)

    ReplyDelete
  45. True. And no, I don't think that you don't credit Houllier. It's just an observation that often people tend to forget him and reserve all the praise for Benítez.

    ReplyDelete