11 Mar 2015

Sign Him: Legend urges Liverpool to buy 'wonderful' €30m playmaker 'in July'

Steven Gerrard leaves this summer, Liverpool will be woefully short of players with genuine Champions League experience, and as this season's ignominious performance shows, the current team just doesn't have the stuff to make a significant impact in European competition. Clearly, experienced reinforcements are required in the next transfer window, and LFC legend Ronnie Whelan has urged his old club to start trying to sign Europe's elite.

In his column for The Herald this week, Whelan bemoaned the 'problem' with Liverpool's 'squad depth', and noted:

"I would love to read that Tony Kroos has decided to come to Anfield and have that confirmed in July with a signing ceremony. It would be fantastic to see a class act or six like that set up camp on Merseyside".

Liverpool were linked with Kroos last year, but he ended up signing for Madrid in a €30m deal, and it's highly unlikely that he'll leave the Bernabeu after just one year.

Signing a players like Kroos - recently hailed by Brendan Rodgers as a 'wonderful' player - remains a pipe dream for Liverpool, for the following reasons. Read it and weep:

* Rodgers doesn't have the profile or the pulling-power to attract Europe's elite players. The failure to sign Sanchez and Costa is a recent example of this.

* Rodgers is an excellent manager in his own right, but the brutal reality is that he hasn't achieved anything of real note in the game (i.e something that will make elite players sit up and take notice).

* Liverpool's main rivals are managed by Mourinho, Van Gaal, Wenger, and Pellegrini, all of whom have the requisite profile/aura/track-record to attract the best players in Europe.

* Last season aside, Liverpool failed to qualify for the Champions League FOUR years in a row, so playing in Europe's elite competition is the exception right now, not the rule. This will undoubtedly be a factor for top players looking for a move to the Premier League.

* Existing players can play a part in making a club attractive for prospective signings, but when Gerrard leaves this summer, Liverpool will have no longer have any world-renowned stars at the club. I doubt the cream of Europe are jumping at the chance to play alongside Markovic, Lallana, Henderson, and Borini.

* On top of everything else, Chelsea and Arsenal have the major advantage of being based in London. This is not always a deciding factor, but it is something that can make a difference.

It'll be fantastic if Liverpool qualify for the Champions League again this season, but without the addition of several experienced, top-class players, the club will probably end up being dumped out of the competition in the early stages once again.

Sad but true.

There is, however, one surefire way for for Liverpool to attract the world's best players: money. If the Reds offer bigger salaries that any other club, then the mercenaries will come running, but that is not a sustainable transfer policy.

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21 comments:

  1. He'd be a great signing. I hope we don't try and do too much business in the summer. We need a quality striker, a keeper to compete with Mignolet, and someone like Kroos and I'd be happy. Quality not quantity should dictate our transfer strategy this summer.

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  2. With FSG's backing, there's one person who'll take Liverpool to CL and hopefully BPL as well, our summer transfer......RB :)

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  3. I wouldn't class pelligrini as an elite manager

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  4. I thought we offered Sanchez more money?

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  5. No one has or had a chance to sign him with Real in contention..

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  6. The man is the solution to our problems!

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  7. Robert Barker more like.

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  8. This B.S about manager profiles B.R has shown he can manage at the top level what Liverpool need to do is sell themselves better and show them the money.

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  9. I'm going to sound daft, but I like the idea of bringing in younger players who have undoubted ability which other managers couldn't bring the best out of.


    We are not in the market, and to be truth have not been in the market to bring in the really big names, and I feel that if we did it could unsettle a really good bunch of young and exciting players.


    I disagree with the report that if we do qualify for the Champions League again we will be dumped out. All the players have shown great maturity, especially in the second half of the season which I believe will put them in a good position for next season.


    Add 2 or 3 good players with great potential, lose the few that are not at the level we need and add to this group of players and I think we can move forward without blowing the bank.

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  10. It seems that even if Brendan won the EPL title and champions league it will never satisfy the moaning editor here!! You keep going on about Brendan not being high profile enough yet he came the closest to winning us the title last season so what exactly do you want him to do?? We knew he was low profile when appointing him as manager, Alex Ferguson was not exactly a household name when he took charge of Man Utd. Hindsight is a wonderful thing, there is no guarantee that we'd be able to sign the top players even if we had a Jose Mourinho in charge for as you say it's all about money now. Liverpool do not have a bottomless pot like a Barcelona, Real Madrid or Chelsea where we can spend £50 million on a player that is the main reason why we keep missing out on our top targets. It's ironic that you believe we should sell Rahim Sterling if his financial demands are not met, is that Brendan's fault as well?? It's true that Brendan has made many poor signings however can you name any manager who hasn't done that?? Get of Brendan's back, he's doing a great job! Thing to remember is that even if a supposed household name manager came in we do not have the real big money to attract the top players like the London or top Spanish clubs. Only solution to this problem is that we find buyers who have billions to spend unlike the current owners who won't do that, I can't see that happening.

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  11. Richard Branson surely

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  12. Two reasons we can't attract the big stars right now... 1) Wages. 2) Extended absence from the champions league. Simple as that.
    I honestly believe however that with a little patience, FSG and Rodgers will deliver a sustainably successful football club and it'll be all the sweeter knowing we didn't just buy it. Dortmund did it in Germany, Atletico did it in Spain, we will do it in England. A purer form of success achieved through skill and hardwork from boardroom to boot room - the Liverpool way.
    As a Scot whenever people ask me what attracted me to Liverpool (apart from the rich Scottish heritage at the club), I simply reply...'They've got heart...'
    I would rather we never won the league than we became the plaything of some Russian gangster playing FIFA for real.
    I believe our club is in good hands and feel real anticipation for what the next couple of years may bring.

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  13. Razer Blackwidow

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  14. BTW who's Rob Brydon? couldn't care less anyway.

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  15. Pellegrini seemingly just has a reputation and little else. He had a couple of good seasons with Villareal but they didn't win much and had their fair share of losses. His win % there is less than 50. He was a failure at Real Madrid and although City have done well it's hard to image any half-decent manager not succeeding with that kind of quality. I see very little in his career of note, he just happened to have featured a lot in the press. As far as I can see most of what we can say about his negative or just average. So in my view players haven't gone to City because of him, they've gone there because of the money and the stature of the club itself. The manager has little to do with it.

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  16. I'd assume that if Liverpool were in the CL again next year that they will be a better team. The way they were playing before Christmas was just terrible and it's not really comparable to the team they are now. Add a class striker into the mix, a decent midfielder and it's a good team that can compete. The players we have are not necessarily not good enough for Europe, it's simply that the entire team was poor, the tactics were wrong and the combinations were not there. Those same players are now leading Liverpool back up the ladder so I don't agree that there is some critical lack of quality. I don't see that anyone can have been watching Liverpool over the past few months and still come to the conclusion that it's a squad of average players.


    We'll see in the near future just how good the team is with matches against United, Arsenal and Chelsea. Having just beaten City Liverpool can establish themselves as THE form team in England. If they carry that kind of form into Europe next season it will be a totally different outcome and getting out of a group like the one they were in this year should be entirely achievable.


    Rodgers has built this team on players that, when they were signed, raised little excitement. We forget that Sturridge was an unknown quantity, Coutinho a very young and immature player. The rest of them have been received quite poorly by fans, consistently branded an underwhelming or not good enough for a club like Liverpool. But look at how many of these unfancied players are starting every week and winning matches. Still it seems the results have yet to convince people and we're still stuck in this "we need big name players" mentality. I guess it's going to take a bit longer for some folks to get the message.

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  17. I agree with all the points, albeit for the second one, I think BR has age in his side. Even when Guardiola was appointed, he hardly had any achievements, but could sign top players.


    I think, one more issue is BR's confidence. I have a feelings that BR isn't comfortable to hire top players from bigger clubs where they have played under top reputed Managers. BR's fascination for players from his old clubs actually indicates lack of confidence.

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  18. Guardiola had a superb career in the game, and had the respect of players as a result of that.

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  19. NO, Razer Blackwidow is more famous.

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