€40m Chelsea striker Diego Costa is the proverbial 'one that got away' for Liverpool FC, and Reds legend Jamie Carragher has now joined the long-list of ex-Reds who are fully paid-up members of the Costa fan-club.
After watching Sunderland achieve the rare feat of stopping the Brazilian from scoring in the Premier League, Carra enthused:
"I love watching him [Costa]. I would love him in my team and would've loved to have played against him even more!"
John Aldridge is also a huge fan of Costa, and in a recent column for Sunday World Aldo admitted he'd 'love to see Costa in a red shirt'. He noted:
"Costa will get his fair share of red cards, but that will be outweighed by the number of matches he wins for Chelsea with his attitude, his aggression, and goals. We need more players of his calibre at Anfield"
Obviously, Aldo is spot-on, here: Liverpool need more players like Costa, but Rodgers keeps wasting tens of millions on the wrong players, which is endlessly frustrating.
Costa - - recently hailed by John Terry as a 'brilliant' striker - rejected a move to Anfield last summer, and when asked why, he told Spanish newspaper Mundo Deportivo:
"I had options to leave, and I was very close to doing so. Liverpool is a great team, but after so much fighting and overcoming so many difficulties to win my place at Atletico, how could I go?"
Costa is just being charitable here. At the time of LFC's interest, the Reds had just finished seventh in the league, so a move to Anfield (understandably) held no attraction whatsoever.
The same thing will happen against next summer if Liverpool fail to qualify for the Champions League; top players just won't want to sign for the club, so the pressure is well and truly on for Rodgers to pull the club out of its current slump.
It's a painful exercise, but just imagine if Liverpool had Costa this season. With 11 goals in 10 Premier League games so far, the Brazilian is on fire, and with those extra goals, LFC would almost certainly be nestling safely in the top four right now.
Author: Jaimie K
After watching Sunderland achieve the rare feat of stopping the Brazilian from scoring in the Premier League, Carra enthused:
"I love watching him [Costa]. I would love him in my team and would've loved to have played against him even more!"
John Aldridge is also a huge fan of Costa, and in a recent column for Sunday World Aldo admitted he'd 'love to see Costa in a red shirt'. He noted:
"Costa will get his fair share of red cards, but that will be outweighed by the number of matches he wins for Chelsea with his attitude, his aggression, and goals. We need more players of his calibre at Anfield"
Obviously, Aldo is spot-on, here: Liverpool need more players like Costa, but Rodgers keeps wasting tens of millions on the wrong players, which is endlessly frustrating.
Costa - - recently hailed by John Terry as a 'brilliant' striker - rejected a move to Anfield last summer, and when asked why, he told Spanish newspaper Mundo Deportivo:
"I had options to leave, and I was very close to doing so. Liverpool is a great team, but after so much fighting and overcoming so many difficulties to win my place at Atletico, how could I go?"
Costa is just being charitable here. At the time of LFC's interest, the Reds had just finished seventh in the league, so a move to Anfield (understandably) held no attraction whatsoever.
The same thing will happen against next summer if Liverpool fail to qualify for the Champions League; top players just won't want to sign for the club, so the pressure is well and truly on for Rodgers to pull the club out of its current slump.
It's a painful exercise, but just imagine if Liverpool had Costa this season. With 11 goals in 10 Premier League games so far, the Brazilian is on fire, and with those extra goals, LFC would almost certainly be nestling safely in the top four right now.
Author: Jaimie K
Costa is the embodiment of what Kenny thought Andy Carroll would be.
ReplyDeleteCosta would have destroyed you made you look like Lovren!
ReplyDeleteHaving qualified for the Champions League this season we then proceeded to sign dazzling mediocrity, so maybe it does not matter where we finish.
ReplyDeleteHe rejected us and they still whine for him. Pathetic!
ReplyDeleteYeah like anthony said Jaimie, I don't know why you're acting like finishing outside the top 4 will make us lose our appeal, when you don't think we even have that appeal- despite being in the UCL- anyway.
ReplyDeleteCosta is becoming a bit of a sick note though. Injured again.
ReplyDeleteIf only we tried to sign Lacazette who has 11 goals in 13 Ligue 1 matches this season plus he is never injured. Offers the same as Suarez did too. The element of creating something out of nothing. Money wasted this season on players who should have never been signed i.e. Lovren, Balotelli and Lallana. Over £60m down the drain.
I think it is time we appointed a manager who can attract better players. Liverpool have becoming nothing but a club for potential players but saying that I am happy with the likes of Moreno, Can and think with the correct coaching we could see a much better player in Markovic.
ReplyDeleteCosta is also a prime example of top players won't need much time to adapt
ReplyDeleteLike Suarez, Torres, Aguero and many
BR attention!
Our costa could be Wilfried Bony
ReplyDeleterodgers wanted him and not mario balotelli
get origi back in january as well and we can start playing our football, romero to put pressure on migs
............................................Bony...........Origi/Balotelli
................................................Sterling/Coutinho
.....................................Lallana/Can...............Henderson
.......................................................Gerrard/Allen
.....................Moreno....Lovren/Sakho........Toure....Johnson/Manquillo
......................................................Mignolet/Romero
so January outlay bony 30m origi 4m romero 2m
that is not something massive
then in summer
clyne 25m
song 12m maybe
that is reasonable 73m over two windows
Under Rafa a manager who is world renowned won la liga twice
ReplyDeletethe only two big signings we made were
torres 26m
alonso 10m
reina was not hard to get as well as kuyt , mascherano was a west ham flop ,
i think players tuning us down has more to do with the city
Konoplayanka president advised kono if an offer between us and spuds cam to go spuds because if LONDON
Anyone noticed we look so much better when Balo is not playing and really pleased for Lambo he showing he can score and create goals but the only problem is he has no pace
ReplyDeleteim not writing him off yet wanna see how he does with origi or bony up front
ReplyDeletebut when you are struggling balotelli makes it worse his body language is defeatist and he takes too many shots
lambert and sterling up front till january
then we get bony and recall origi maybe sturridge comes back then we can go on a long run and get top 4
or win the europa league and get top 4
lets hope this is the turning point
ReplyDeleteand not the bolton game roy won at anfield
As a lone striker Lambo is far better lets see once Studge and Balo are fit and how they play
ReplyDeleteHow about Sturridge and Lambert? Lambert has shown that he has the awareness of what to do and with Sturridge in behind, it could lead to something.
ReplyDeleteAgree if Balotelli and Sturridge does not work then Sturridge and Lambert might. I think both could work could try both combinations and see what works.
ReplyDeleteThe location argument is not a big reason why Liverpool get turned down by the best.Some fans talk like Liverpool is the UK's version of Gaza.
ReplyDeleteLondon is the most appealing place to live in this country, but that didn't stop Sagna, Robin Van Persie, Adebayor, Samir Nasri or Clichy swapping the capital for a move up North.
Players want to be attached to ambitious clubs that compete for trophies every season and be rewarded with a high wage.
Stars attract other big name players too.Before Suarez was sold we should've used his star power to help bring in another elite player.We needed to strike while our iron was hot.Liverpool had everything in our favour to sign a couple of superstars.
We qualified for the Champions League by narrowly missing out on the title.Played attacking football.Had £120m to play with, but like Anthony said we ended up getting the same sort of players we could've got without CL football.
Rodgers tried to sign Costa (before the start of last season) before anyone knew very much about him. He didn't want to come, as he had a chance at first team football at Atletico after Falcao had left them. We still had Suarez. Harsh to blame Rodgers for not buying players like Costa, when he attempted to sign him before any other club in England.
ReplyDeleteHe had been second choice behind Falcao, and finally got the chance as the main striker for A. Madrid when Falcao was sold to Monaco. This was the explanation he gave as main reason to say no to Liverpool. I think this is credible. He was no world star when Liverpool wanted him, but he became the following season, sad enough.
ReplyDeleteI was too late, my words below suddenly feels unnecessary :)
ReplyDeleteWe as a club have never gone down the route that Man City, Man Utd and Chelsea have gone down, paying mega money for World Class Players.
ReplyDeleteWe have historically brought players who had potential and then improved them.
As for why some players turn us down, it is most likely a combination of location, the fact we have not won any major trophy for a long time and that we do not pay the most in wages, i.e 200k+ like Man Utd and Man City.
Agree with the Lacazette shout, would have been a much better signing than Balotelli. Mario has the capability to be one of the best but his attitude sucks. It still hasn't hit him that it is a privilege to play at the top level. He should look at Diego Costa as an example of how he should commit himself. Too busy trying to look cool while the rest of the team is toiling. Personally I think that Sturridge being out injured has hurt us massively. If he gets back fit Liverpool will look like a different outfit. Our replacements are Lambert ( does a good jo but not particularly quick) Balotelli (attitude) and Borini ( nowhere near good enough and BR should have been stronger in getting him off the books.) We do have Origi arriving next year, but we should still target Lacazette because of Sturridge's injuries. Pick from 4 of Sturridge, Lacazette, Origi and Lambert and that's a formidable striking lineup.
ReplyDeleteGhost Rider your line about Liverpool have NEVER gone down the route of paying mega money for world class players is false.
ReplyDeleteLiverpool have taken that route, when we dominated domestic and European football.Something everyone wants us to get back too.
Like you said, recently we've bought players from the level below the elite standard and tried to make them superstars.
That transfer policy has proved expensive because of the risk attached in taking punts on unproven players.It's also seen no PL trophy in nearly 3 decades.I understand we have to operate close to those guidelines because we don't have the money of clubs like Chelsea or Man City.But we need to tinker a bit because it's not proving a successful formula.
Let me get my point out clearly before anything gets twisted.Liverpool don't need to assemble a squad full of expensive superstars, but a handful of top class players won't break the bank or send us into liquidation like some fans think.
Liverpool are a big club but I think a lack of recent success which you also pointed too, has given us a mid table transfer mindset.
A section of our support run with and accept excuses why we can't get the sort of players our rivals do.
I have no idea why some fans think every quality players wages falls into the 200k+ bracket.
We can get top players for less.Ambition in the transfer market is key!
half chips half rice
ReplyDeletewe just pay mega money for potential
ReplyDeleteexactly England isnt exactly australia ....on there money you can just hop on a plane or in a taxi or train
ReplyDeleteit helps if they get played
ReplyDeletewe should of just pushed the boat out and bought 2 world class players
ReplyDeleteI fully agree. The problem with trying to blood a whole team of youngsters is that you will have a team full of youngsters, which attracts youngsters because they think they have a shot at making the first team. For superstars ... well they want to play with superstars, to see where they really at, and to see how far they can go with more stars around them. Yes we had no CL, but barring an aging Gerrard and Suarez who was leaving there was no stars in the team to attract others. That and the fact that Liverpool is not London. If we want to attract superstars, we will need superstars. That is very much also the draw of Real Madrid, Barcelona, Bayern.
ReplyDeleteI cannot stand Costa, and not because he plays for Chavski.. He is a dirty little scrot, and should have been sent off yesterday for his obscene kickout against Sunderland, and then again for dilberately elbowing O'Shea in the face... At Madrid he was as filthy, flick globules of flem at opposotion players.. If it was suarez doing that yesterday, he'd have been banned.
ReplyDeleteAlonso wasn't a big name when we signed him
ReplyDeletePeople talk of a lack of ambition, then add Romero to their wishlist... Funny! Erm, who's the media fancy today?, we should sign them for ridiculous sums...ha!
ReplyDelete"Imagine seeing Costa at Anfield?" Imagine if Sturridge was fit and playing for LFC!
ReplyDeleteI keep hearing people say that Balotelli has the ability to be one of the best but I just don't see it. When exactly in his career has he demonstrated this world class ability? I can't think of him ever being anywhere near what he's built up to be. He has the odd good game but that's it. Also take set pieces off his goal record and it's fairly abysmal too
ReplyDeleteCarra said he would have liked to play against him, he didn't say he could hold him out.
ReplyDeleteTouche,
ReplyDeleteto Jamie K
No Chance!!
ReplyDeleteI think that Costa would relish his status if he came to us.Despite their current status LFC is a much better club than Chelsea due to our history and our great fan base.Money is not everything as someone called Fernando found out to his owen detriment.
ReplyDelete