Liverpool legend Jan Molby has called on his old club to stop focusing on the restrictive practice of buying 'younger players with resale value', and ramp up the experience level within the squad, starting with a bid for one of La Liga's most prolific goalscorers.
In his column for Eurosport this week, Molby bemoaned FSG's resale-orientated 'Moneyball' approach, but warned that 'if the players don’t shine – and they are unlikely to do so without the right team environment – no-one will buy'.
Although many Liverpool fans are still in denial, the departure of Luis Suarez seems more and more likely with each passing day, and when it comes to replacing the Uruguayan, Molby insists that the Reds 'need to be a bit more flexible than the moneyball approach they are adopting'.
Young, inexperienced attackers continue to be linked with Liverpool, but Molby believes the club should focus on trying to acquire one of Spain's most experienced goalscorers. He explained:
"[Alvaro] Negredo would work for me. He wants to try England, he is a physical player but he has a fine touch and, crucially, a great record in front of goal. He has seen a lot and would be a great addition to the squad.
"If the short-term project is to qualify for Europe, they [LFC] cannot afford to wait for youngsters to develop to the right level. As a means to an end, Negredo would be perfect".
Liverpool have been linked with Negredo many times over the last four years:
* June 2009: Rafa Benitez tried to sign the striker, and when quizzed about the Reds' interest, the striker admitted that he'd love to play for Liverpool:
"To play at Anfield is a dream. I have not spoken with Rafa Benitez, but I do know that contact exists between the clubs. It is logical that I am interested in playing in the Premier League and especially for Liverpool"
* Jan 2011: Spanish newspaper AS reported that Liverpool were ready to offer £17m for Negredo. Alas, kenny Dalglish splurged £35m on Andy Carroll instead.
* July 2012: Liverpool pursued Negredo prior to signing the much cheaper Fabio Borini.
* April 2013: Spanish newspaper Marca claimed:
"Negredo is on Liverpool's shortlist to replace its controversial Uruguayan Luis Suarez. [Jose Maria] Del Nido [Sevilla President] has slapped a €25 million price tag on his prized asset"
In a recent interview, the striker - who grabbed 31 goals in 40 appearances for Sevilla last season - reaffirmed his desire to move to England. He told Cadena COPE:
“I've always said it and I've never tried to keep it hidden. I like the Premier League. I don't know if it's now, maybe a bit later, or tomorrow, but I will play there."
Manchester City and Spurs are also in the hunt for Negredo, but in an interview on Monday, Del Nido refuted claims that City had put in a bid. He told reporters:
"There hasn't been any change with respect to Negredo's situation. There hasn't been any communication between the English club and Spanish club, and there hasn't been any offer from Manchester City."
When quizzed about his future on Wednesday, Negredo revealed some insight into why he wants to leave Sevilla this year:
"If I leave then it will be because it benefits both the club and myself. I’m happy on a personal level but collectively we have not achieved the goals we wanted. In the end, no matter how well you do individually, if collectively you don’t achieve anything then the individual counts for nothing.”
Alas, even if Liverpool want Negredo, he'd probably reject the Reds due to lack of Champions League football. Del Nido suggested as much in June:
"Negredo has said that he wants to develop and wants to play in the Champions League"
I totally agree with Molby's overall take on things: experienced players are needed. Rodgers himself even admitted this several times towards the end of last season, and if FSG refuse to sanction moves for older players, then the group is basically sabotaging Liverpool's future progress.
If Suarez stays, I wouldn't, however, advise the purchase of Negredo to play alongside him. Imagine the confusion: 'But Ref, I said Negredo NOT Negro!'
Jaimie Kanwar
NOTE: Please stick to the Comment Policy (Click to read)
In his column for Eurosport this week, Molby bemoaned FSG's resale-orientated 'Moneyball' approach, but warned that 'if the players don’t shine – and they are unlikely to do so without the right team environment – no-one will buy'.
Although many Liverpool fans are still in denial, the departure of Luis Suarez seems more and more likely with each passing day, and when it comes to replacing the Uruguayan, Molby insists that the Reds 'need to be a bit more flexible than the moneyball approach they are adopting'.
Young, inexperienced attackers continue to be linked with Liverpool, but Molby believes the club should focus on trying to acquire one of Spain's most experienced goalscorers. He explained:
"[Alvaro] Negredo would work for me. He wants to try England, he is a physical player but he has a fine touch and, crucially, a great record in front of goal. He has seen a lot and would be a great addition to the squad.
"If the short-term project is to qualify for Europe, they [LFC] cannot afford to wait for youngsters to develop to the right level. As a means to an end, Negredo would be perfect".
Liverpool have been linked with Negredo many times over the last four years:
* June 2009: Rafa Benitez tried to sign the striker, and when quizzed about the Reds' interest, the striker admitted that he'd love to play for Liverpool:
"To play at Anfield is a dream. I have not spoken with Rafa Benitez, but I do know that contact exists between the clubs. It is logical that I am interested in playing in the Premier League and especially for Liverpool"
* Jan 2011: Spanish newspaper AS reported that Liverpool were ready to offer £17m for Negredo. Alas, kenny Dalglish splurged £35m on Andy Carroll instead.
* July 2012: Liverpool pursued Negredo prior to signing the much cheaper Fabio Borini.
* April 2013: Spanish newspaper Marca claimed:
"Negredo is on Liverpool's shortlist to replace its controversial Uruguayan Luis Suarez. [Jose Maria] Del Nido [Sevilla President] has slapped a €25 million price tag on his prized asset"
In a recent interview, the striker - who grabbed 31 goals in 40 appearances for Sevilla last season - reaffirmed his desire to move to England. He told Cadena COPE:
“I've always said it and I've never tried to keep it hidden. I like the Premier League. I don't know if it's now, maybe a bit later, or tomorrow, but I will play there."
Manchester City and Spurs are also in the hunt for Negredo, but in an interview on Monday, Del Nido refuted claims that City had put in a bid. He told reporters:
"There hasn't been any change with respect to Negredo's situation. There hasn't been any communication between the English club and Spanish club, and there hasn't been any offer from Manchester City."
When quizzed about his future on Wednesday, Negredo revealed some insight into why he wants to leave Sevilla this year:
"If I leave then it will be because it benefits both the club and myself. I’m happy on a personal level but collectively we have not achieved the goals we wanted. In the end, no matter how well you do individually, if collectively you don’t achieve anything then the individual counts for nothing.”
Alas, even if Liverpool want Negredo, he'd probably reject the Reds due to lack of Champions League football. Del Nido suggested as much in June:
"Negredo has said that he wants to develop and wants to play in the Champions League"
I totally agree with Molby's overall take on things: experienced players are needed. Rodgers himself even admitted this several times towards the end of last season, and if FSG refuse to sanction moves for older players, then the group is basically sabotaging Liverpool's future progress.
If Suarez stays, I wouldn't, however, advise the purchase of Negredo to play alongside him. Imagine the confusion: 'But Ref, I said Negredo NOT Negro!'
Jaimie Kanwar
NOTE: Please stick to the Comment Policy (Click to read)
yes please!
ReplyDeleteIm sure Mr Molby wouldnt mind throwing in a few mil to help out with the transfer :P
ReplyDeleteI was having a good day until I found out we could have had Negredo for half the price we payed for Carroll! Thanks Jaimie ;)
ReplyDeleteI do think Negredo is a great player though I would love to see him sign, highly unlikely though!
LOL. Nice one Jamie. Negredo would be nice. Could lead the line well. You hear anything about us signing Eriksen? Seen something on the Caughtoffside website but nothing anywhere else.
ReplyDeleteThey certainly were some cracking goals.... Suarez out for 45 and pick Negrado up for 25-30?
ReplyDeleteNo CL football,No Negredo..Try Burak Yilmaz instead ..!
ReplyDeletewe wont get him - city will jump while we are sleeping
ReplyDeletewe should get jackson martinez , we should have got him last time . but we where sleeping !
now hes about 3x the amount we could have signed him a year ago - no thanks...
ReplyDeletenext january theres surely a big chance for us to get some bayern players, if guardiola gets another CAM midfielder (Thiago) where the hell does that leave other players like toni kroos or luiz gustavo...? just saying, there will be some bargains out there soon i think
ReplyDeleteYes please. Him or Soldado.
ReplyDeleteisnt gustavo cdm ?
ReplyDeleteNo thanks. We should get Higuain instead. If Suarez leaves.
ReplyDeleteAdem Ljajić from Fiorentina would be a great signing. And he is on last year of his contract. Better than over hyped over priced Jovetic IMO
ReplyDeletemolby is wright what he says about buying young lads to bring on and sell in the future, not the way to do it and should put all there efforts into making Liverpool great again and go for top first team players.
ReplyDeleteNo resale value. FSG won't consider the deal.
ReplyDeleteHmmm, not sure....
ReplyDeleteSwansea have just completed the signing of Bony!!
The owners won't spend the money, on over 25's. They are trying to, firstly even up the books. Then they will look to a long term investment plan into the stadium renovation, Before considering buying more cheap young players. When suarez goes, they will reinvest 50% of the fee, maybe, that's my opinion, anyway.
ReplyDeletePeople forget that we haven't sold Gerrard, Toure was brought in, Johnson is also still around and so is Reina. I'm of the understanding that age is only a factor when it comes to stupid transfer fees.
ReplyDeleteIt's a chicken or the egg question:
ReplyDeleteShould we wait until we sell Suarez before buying another striker.
Or should we buy the other striker so that if/when we sell Suarez, the striker has already started getting acclimated.
Obviously number 2 is the best way from an overall perspective... but I'm not certain it's going to be realistic.
It's a good point, my view is that LFC know already if they will sell or keep Suarez, no matter what they say in the press and then in my view they should already take steps to replace him or come out and say that he isn't for sale and that Suarez should just shut up as he is not going anywhere. This is a world cup year, there is no way Suarez will sulk on the bench if he stays
ReplyDeletenot a chance of signing negredo,not a chance
ReplyDeletebetter had buy 1st..coz we had been f**k up b4 on last min window
ReplyDeleteYes...this is the guy. Get him...drop everything else and get this guy. So smart, so fast, such a great touch. 31 goals in 42 appearances for a 9th place team. If we have this guy, Suarez will either play better or he will go...won't matter. We will soon forget Suarez if Negredo is up top with Sturridge.
ReplyDeleteyes he is, just wanted to point out bayern has too many midfielders IMO, competition is good but guardiola wont manage to keep all happy i think... Schweinsteiger an Martinez are set in midfield, gustavo is martinez backup, kroos will be schweinsteiger backup, thiago götze müller kroos will all have to fight for one place...
ReplyDeleteHim or yilmaz,Muriel would do me if Suarez goes.
ReplyDeleteHonestly I prefer Soldado when it comes to the bigger Spanish strikers. Seems more suited to the movements we utilize in our attack.
ReplyDeletewe will not pay big enough wages ,we cannot offer champions league something offer clubs interested in him can,hes to old and to expensive ,but i suppose we can live in dreamland
ReplyDeleteSure we gave Suarez 130K.... Only a few months back. That's big enough for a club without CL. Also Seville finished 8/9 last year so if he moves to us he would know he would improve as a player... only team which enquired about him was man city but now there signing jovetic. So the doors open for us IF Suarez goes.
ReplyDeleteWell yes and no.
ReplyDeleteI believe Suarez was given 130k based on incentive goals he hit in his contract.
Odds are if we signed anyone after selling Suarez, we wouldn't automatically given them a 130k contract. In that regard, I think Jason is accurate.
I was just making a point that he is one of the high earners. Also I know he wouldn't be given that much to start with he only on a little at Seville, if we give him 80k but on performances then he would come... But really depends on teams around if one of the big boys come in then he wouldn't sign :)
ReplyDeletethey wont come cheap .-.
ReplyDeletebtw did u see that bvb pre season friendly ...... mhiktaryan already showing us we missed a trick on him :(
ReplyDeleteA bit off topic but it is funny how people were raging last summer as southampton (apparently) beat us to the signing of Forren, and now he has been let go back to Molde!
ReplyDeleteI don`t think this will happen, as I`m not sure Rodgers or FSG will sign any proven top players unless there super cheap due to age or on a free.
ReplyDeleteI know proven doesn`t count for everything but we really need to step up our game by a long way in the transfer market imo.
Looking at the players signing for or expecting to sign for the clubs around us and a bit below us, there signings on paper look a lot better.
The line no CL means we wont get them, doesn`t cut it with me. Swansea, Spurs, and Southampton are signing good players, so I`m sure we could.
The ones we have signed might turn out to be great, but its all very big mights, bigger mights than proven players imo.
I have a feeling unless Suarez goes we wont be spending big, and I expect our total net to be around the zero mark, with no transfer budget given.
I think people need to relax a bit and have some trust in the new scout network,
ReplyDeleteRodger came out today and said that the transfers we done so far have added to the "squad" and that we will be making some signings in the next 3weeks or so for the "team" so i am confident that they have their targets and back up targets so just cause they dont sign every player we are linked with they will hopefully get the ones they really want
Have faith!
Well I think what's important to distinguish is that FSG will pay players a higher wage (as you say)... as long as the player earns it.
ReplyDeleteI always have faith paddy, its not meant as a negative, just my take on things. I don`t expect us to sign every player we are linked with at all, but I do expect some top top players, sooner rather than later.
ReplyDeleteThe new scouting does seem ok, its early days, and hard to tell, but the two players that came in under it worked out well, also they were meant to have found a lot of good gems when at city, just city kept buying stars.
I just get that feeling, thats all. Ones mans version of adding to the team is different from anothers. Time will tell on this one and I hope your right, I still think though the budget is almost zero. Reina will be sold imo, and that will bring our net back down to zero. Suarez will prob leave and so we will have 40mil to spend (ish). If we spend more than that I will be nicely suprised, although its also how its spent.
I'd prefer Muriel or Soldado because they'd suit our style of play much more easily and are not at the top yet but would soon reach their. I think these two players will turn out to be like Jackson Martinez who we did not sign but now is amongst the hottest properties in Europe. I don't know if anyone noticed that but Columbia has the most prolific strikers/forwards than other countries.
ReplyDeleteyeah it hurts... such a quality player...
ReplyDeleteyes bayern players are always expensive, but according to their market value they will come cheep, i think...
kroos is the one i think he wont be happy with his chances, but you never know .. gustavo wouldnt be too expensive and hes an upgrade on lucas, or at least a relief and competition!!
i personally understand you 100%, i´ve the same apprehensions and worries you have, and i cant see us signing the big names out there. of course we cant play along the big money spenders like ManC Chelsea Psg Monaco Real ..., but as you say if southhampton can buy proven quality players, we should do so too!!
ReplyDeleteWith the top 3 teams in our league having new managers, when is time better to look at the now - not at the potential future - and spend a little bit on proven players to push really forward for the first 4 spots?
mhiktaryan will set the bundesliga on fire this year i guess... just watched the highlights...
ReplyDeleteRodgers said today, he has improved the squad, and over the next 3-5 weeks, will improve the first eleven. Hope thats true. That Brazilian Bernard looks a great player, better than Eriksen IMO, and maybe £15Mill, hope the rumours of interest are true.
ReplyDeleteThe Barnard link is a total fabrication; made up out of thin air by SportsDirectNews, the website of Mike Ashley's company. In May, the site was forced to issue a public apology for making up a transfer story about Wayne Rooney:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2013/may/15/sports-direct-sorry-newcastle-wayne-rooney
"SportsDirect News wishes to express its sincere apologies to Wayne Rooney and Triple Sports and Entertainment Group for publishing the article 'Newcastle in shock Rooney bid', which was formulated and published without authority, merit and is untrue."
yeah a lot rests on them getting irritated :)
ReplyDeletelove the last line Jaimie!
ReplyDeleteI agree with you. Most clubs try to operate under the radar in the transfer market, so we will only know when all the dust has settled. The scouting team this time round does seems better.
ReplyDeleteHopefully we can add some experienced players to the team. Molby is right. We do need a mix of experienced players with young player. We may not have CL games this season but if Brendan can convince these players to look beyond this season, then we may have a chance of signing them.
Some the players that we have signed, although some have not heard of them, may turn out to be gems. Newcastle signed Papisse and he turn out great for them in his 1st season there.
I trust Brendan and his scouting team will get the players we need and fight for top 4.
Buying young and old players very quickly, selling the best players out of the club (sometimes old boy like Moldy encourages the club to sell too, amazing!) and being very very slow in buying top class players. These are the policy of Liverpool. You will never climb to the top four.
ReplyDeleteHow many target you have missed. With mediocre players now, you will never win any trophies. Believe me. At the beginning of season, Gerrard will come out and say they will be among the top four, but when the time goes by, he will finally accept the fact that Liverpool is too low in terms of standards so it is impossible for the club to win.
ReplyDeleteyes LFC should stop buying kids and look for serious proven strikers. On the pretext of building up Liverpool they keep on buying very players to save owners costs. Look at Arsenal how they are prepared to splask 35 m
ReplyDeletefor Suarez. Liverpool will never splash out such money. Fans are taken for a ride by the owners.
but they are only taking in very young unprovrn players. And more midfeilders.
ReplyDeleteagree wih u. They keep on buying kids and midfeilders.Unless we have an Arabian owner with money to splash forget about LFC ownes spending on Proven top top stikers. BR is used by them.
ReplyDeleteThese are the players we should be looking at, without them no top four, trouble is they won't come 'cos we're not there already, we don't have big name manager, FSG are skinflints and they will have to play with average players.
ReplyDeleteJan is pointing out players anyone with a Football brain could do, but rodgers wants to keep suarez for 1 more year minimum, and if we get into the champions league then well see.
ReplyDeleteI completely agree. Now is the perfect time, the perfect chance. I would even go as far as saying sell Suarez to increase the budget. If FSG would put in say 20mil, and we get 40mil from Suarez, that 60mil should be enough to get us back to top four, or at least fighting for it.
ReplyDeleteWhile in parts I agree about the proven part, the Arsenal ref is not really true. Arsenal are well known for being one of if not the most tight penny pinching club in the prem. They had a stratergy. They built a new stadium, cut costs and waiting till the stadium was pretty much paid off, now they are in a place where they can start spending big as they can afford it. For the last 7 years Arsenal have not been spending big.
ReplyDeleteIts those guys, negredo honda.. if we do it like you said these are the players we should go for. These are the players that win you games...
ReplyDeleteI agree with you about selling suarez, but if Rodgers is so keen on him staying why doesn't he do himself a favour by putting a price tag on him, lets say 60m for all English clubs 50m for the others. Surely there would still come in some offers, with only one difference, offers would be higher. Tottenham are doing it that way, and sometimes I just don't understand why its so difficult for us to do the same...
MOLBY was a great player ,did'nt know he was a great manager. Lets see what happen's.
ReplyDeleteAC 35m-->15m. Great resale value if you ask me.
ReplyDelete