Has Brendan spent well this summer?

Firstly, I know many people will avert and/or dismiss this subject matter by claiming it's too early on in the season to judge. For the more reserved supporters, that will probably be the case. However, from the small data that has been gathered this early on in the season, is there anything you disagree with in terms of the spending by the club during the summer?

I am not asking whether you think this player is sh*t or that player is great, nor am I asking you to rate them (you can if you want). What I am asking is that whether you genuinely believe we have spent well? Have we bought the 'correct' players this summer? Are there any areas, in retrospect, that you would have added to?

My opinion, based on the transfers and from what I have seen, is that we have purchased too many inexperienced players. By no means am I doubting the players levels of ability that we have brought in.

I feel we have done an Arsenal. An Arsenal in the sense that we've strengthened areas of which were not of the utmost importance but then failed to strengthen areas that were truly necessary. I think some of the players we have brought in will end up as fantastic little players - Manquillo, Moreno, Markovic, Can.. but I'm unsure whether we have brought in the right players.

But referring back to that Arsenal comparison, I made a point yesterday that I could not believe we had spent £25m on Adam Lallana when Morgan Schneiderlin may well have been the better option. Firstly, we can play Coutinho, Sterling, Allen, and Suso in the attacking midfield position. We also signed Markovic who, like Lallana, will slot into an attacking midfield position. Secondly, having spent heavy on this area has left us rather light in the more central area's of midfield. If Gerrard were to get dropped from that defensive midfield role, would Lucas then be the next strongest candidate for that position? Or would you rely on young Emre Can to put in a performance for us there?

Your thoughts?

Too early to judge

So early in the season, I cannot really answer this question but I really think Brendan missed a chance to get a Good goalkeeper and a strong defensive Midfielder

Short answer, yes. Time will tell whether the prospective quality he has brought in turn into premier league quality. Young players like Markovic and Can will take a lot longer to show their worth. Just like Henderson, they are obviously quality but will take time to show just how good they can be.

My problem is we haven't bought that instant impact player to replace our most active player. The one that would of cost a fortune and expected massive wages. We tried and failed at some and tried and didn't pursue others.

Lambert on the other hand, was bought as backup to SAS - never as a 1st choice striker. Borini was planned to be sold. Upfront after Balo and with Studges injuries we look poor.

On paper everything else looks good...

Push Gerrard on forward, Allen or Can to take his role.

I believe he has purchased well, might not have signed the players some wanted,  but he has certainly fleshed out the squad well.  Whether the players are a success or not, not really the issue and far too early to judge,  but as for buying well, I don't think an argument exists, in terms of positions and depth, to say he didn't.

I think he has.
Hardly his fault that Sturridge, Allen and Can, F**k it even before that, Markovic and Lallana,
have all got injured early one.

We desperately need Allen and Can back.
No way Gerrard can afford to be playing 3 games in a week.

Could have started this topic without the final two words.

25 players bought for £212M.

It's way too early to judge this summers signings but last summers has to be one of the worst on record.  Even the loan/frees were duff.

Alberto £7M
Aspas £7M
Mignolet £9M
Ilori £7M
Sakho £15M
Toure free
Cissokho loan
Moses loan

Could have started this topic without the final two words.

25 players bought for £212M.

It's way too early to judge this summers signings but last summers has to be one of the worst on record.  Even the loan/frees were duff.

Alberto £7M
Aspas £7M
Mignolet £9M
Ilori £7M
Sakho £15M
Toure free
Cissokho loan
Moses loan

Jesus, that was a bleak transfer window.
Sturridge and Suarez almost won the league on their own.

Without them it's been painful.

I think he has bought well even though it's very early to be making such profound statements either way.

As others have said it's hardly Brendans fault that we've had early injuries to important players and some of the new ones, meaning he's had to use players that probably needed more time to get used to how we play and we've had to play Stevie in 3 consequitive games in 7 days.

We now have what Brendan wanted in terms of 2 quality players for each position, the only one missing is a GK but hopefully that will be rectified next month when/if Valdes joins us.

Too early to judge.

Certainly when I compared our starting line up on sat against that of city or Chelsea I was struck by its inexperience.
Although good players, can you imagine Chelsea having Manquillo and Moreno as their full backs average age 20? Borini and Balotelli up front......
I feel as if we have signed players along the same lines as over the past couple years - prospects and bargains. I think many of them will turn out to be good players but we should have been this summer in the business of signing for the here and now not 2 years down the line. What Utd did in the maket this summer rubbished this notion we have to be continually cautious and prudent in the market - if they, in a state of disarray can spend £30 plus 6 times in the past 12 months why couldn't we make a statement and go for a Di Maria?
I love BR not having a go atall but the signings made in his tenure could be his undoing, they have been decidedly hit and miss in his 2 years here (emphasis on miss)

If we're assessing the young players, then yeah they're exciting young players. But WAY WAY OFF building a top team around this season. Can, Moreno, Manquillo, Markovich its staggering actually how few games they've played.

Lambert= a VERY average player, and should be backup to the backup really.
Lallana = I wasnt a fan. For such a key role, we should have been MUCH more ambitious.

______________________
There's no Luis replacement, no Gerrard replacement.

Look at the squad and( other than Sturridge+Sterling) its a reasonable bunch of players MINUS a footballing legend.

Compare us to Man City and Chelsea and their squads look like a different LEAGUE.
____________________

Since Fenway took over, I can only think of Sturridge, Suarez as being terrific signings. Lovren and Sakho are pretty good. Markovich will be. Can prob will be, likewise Moreno and Manquillo in time. Balo has + AND - pts.  But our whole signing philiosophy is utterly POISONED by this Moneyball and sign to profit crap.

A bigger squad should have been a given, bearing in mind we have big income jump with Champs Lge fball AND with the new TV and other deals. But all we had was our crown jewel plundered to give a slightly strong top 18 or so. And a GIGANTICALLY weaker 1st 11.

If we'd got a proper Luis replacement, the window would have been passable.

Ultimately, BR was forced to buy kids who will appreciuate in value, but will largely be UNABLE to perform at the top level for 2 or more years. Footballing failure and financial "success". As BR says, even after FFP, we have " a third of the budget of some of our competitors". Yet our turnoever and income is fairly similar.

So the question is... what the f**k is going on.


PS its almost funny. The guy who signed the players we spearheaded our season around(Sterling and Suarez) and the guy who bought the bulk of the team (Rafa) were both sacked by our current and last owners.
BR's signings havent tended to set the World on fire.

Too early to tell. Only Can has shown some character here and not being bullied. Can't say the same about Markovic, seems to be dallying too long on the ball to be effective and hasn't pick-up the guts to take on defenders. Impressed with Moreno, Javi looks decent. Balo looks ok, deprive of the supply, Lallana looks ok, will excel if BR knows how to use him better to link up with Balo.  What we really needed is a world class DM to shield the defence and push Stevie further up the field and BR still hasn't realise yet that he needed one and the train has gone.

Jesus, that was a bleak transfer window.

But when was the last time we really had a GOOD window?
Before the one you quote, we had the "open letter to the fans" one.
Some inactive windows.
And the Torres for Carroll and Stweart Sodding Downing window.

To spend 30m pa is simply covering depreciation ie like paddling to stand still.
The last "good" window I can think of was probably the one when we signed Masch or Torres.
ie the last time we substantially improved via investment in the squad.

The reality is that our transfer policy revolves around homegrowns or youngsters bought, then sold and swapped around, or sold to fund some modest replacements (eg as happened with Luis and Nando). As our rivals get ever more ambitious (and reap new revenue deals) we insist on this paddling to stand still. Its a piss poor excuse.

Too early to tell. Only Can has shown some character here and not being bullied. Can't say the same about Markovic, seems to be dallying too long on the ball to be effective and hasn't pick-up the guts to take on defenders. Impressed with Moreno, Javi looks decent. Balo looks ok, deprive of the supply, Lallana looks ok, will excel if BR knows how to use him better to link up with Balo.  What we really needed is a world class DM to shield the defence and push Stevie further up the field and BR still hasn't realise yet that he needed one and the train has gone.

I actually wondered about having Gerrard in a free lying role. Where he can use skill, perhaps a burst of pace. Shots, and passes.
Makes more sense than duping us he can do a "Steve McMahon" type job. (Ok he's not played like Macca but I think people understand my meaning).

We are desperate for a top midfielder, and we arent short of the cash for one. Henderson isnt the heir to Souness, Gerrard, Alonso, Masch etc. Maybe he will improve, maybe he wont.

I wonder how quickly Can can settle in.

Yes he spent well, however the players haven't proven it yet. Whatever kind of player you wanted us to buy, we bought. We bought English for the xenophobic amongst us, we bought foreign for the anti-British brigade, we bought young talented kids for those wanting us to secure the future now, we bought players in the prime of their careers for those who want the present now, we spent big for those who just like to whinge about price tags, we bought cheap to appease the skinflint fan, we got a couple of bargains thrown in there, we even bought a, supposedly, world class star. All bases were covered in the window.

However, the players may just not be good enough in the long run. Right type of player but just the wrong player ultimately.

Lambert at four million isn't bad but it's not the kind of signing that gets you excited. Don't get me wrong, I said we should sign Lambert last year and I'm happy we did. But Rickie is a stop gap player only.

Lallana is somebody I don't rate and think for 25 million quid, we have overspent massively on. In the games where he's featured thus far, I don't see much in him either.

Can is somebody I like the look of. Hopefully gets himself fit soon and we can get a proper look at him.

Markovic again is somebody I like the look of, quick, direct and a touch of flair. However, what I've seen of him is he seems to drift in and out of games too much. Some wingers are always in the game, Lazzy doesn't look he'll be one of those.

Lovren I was happy when we signed him as he looked a proper centre half at Southampton. Unfortunately that hasn't translated to Anfield and he's looked dodgy as F**k.

Manquillo looks ok but I'm not convinced. At times he looks like a beast, others he looks like the moment is too big for him.

Moreno is quickly becoming my new cult hero. He will however have to tighten up defensively because as a defender that has to be his first priority. Signs are there though that we've got a quality left back on our books.

Balotelli, I don't rate. I didn't want us to sign him, not because of his off the handle antics but because I just don't see the quality he supposedly has. He might score the odd cracker and suddenly everyone raves about him but his all round play isn't good enough in my eyes. We need better than that.

If we're assessing the young players, then yeah they're exciting young players. But WAY WAY OFF building a top team around this season. Can, Moreno, Manquillo, Markovich its staggering actually how few games they've played.

Lambert= a VERY average player, and should be backup to the backup really.
Lallana = I wasnt a fan. For such a key role, we should have been MUCH more ambitious.

______________________
There's no Luis replacement, no Gerrard replacement.

Look at the squad and( other than Sturridge+Sterling) its a reasonable bunch of players MINUS a footballing legend.

Compare us to Man City and Chelsea and their squads look like a different LEAGUE.
____________________

Since Fenway took over, I can only think of Sturridge, Suarez as being terrific signings. Lovren and Sakho are pretty good. Markovich will be. Can prob will be, likewise Moreno and Manquillo in time. Balo has + AND - pts.  But our whole signing philiosophy is utterly POISONED by this Moneyball and sign to profit crap.

A bigger squad should have been a given, bearing in mind we have big income jump with Champs Lge fball AND with the new TV and other deals. But all we had was our crown jewel plundered to give a slightly strong top 18 or so. And a GIGANTICALLY weaker 1st 11.

If we'd got a proper Luis replacement, the window would have been passable.

Ultimately, BR was forced to buy kids who will appreciuate in value, but will largely be UNABLE to perform at the top level for 2 or more years. Footballing failure and financial "success". As BR says, even after FFP, we have " a third of the budget of some of our competitors". Yet our turnoever and income is fairly similar.

So the question is... what the f**k is going on.

Say I'm senile or too much into conspiracy, bombard me if you like, I won't retaliate. I've said it 3 years ago and I still hold on to my belief that the club will be sold by the owners 5 years from the time they owned the club and the process starts when we get into the CL. Upon owning the club, the first thing that happened was to get rid of those players on inflated wages, which they did, try to get into the champions league, which we did, improve revenue by being in the CL with increase sponsorships and TV revenue, which we did, buy players not in excess of 25 or 30 mil with potential sell on value which increases the value of the club, which we did. All boxes ticked, say I'm mad or too much into conspiracy, we're into the 4th year and it's nearing the 5th.

It's easy to see that 75 mil from Suarez's sale, plus another 25 mil selling off players that we don't need and 30 mil from the owner's pocket, that makes a whopping 130 mill!!! We haven't include the CL money yet. With that money we could have gotten 4 or 5 world class players at 25 to 30 mil each, if there's a genuine intention to win the league. No, we continue to buy average players with potential to grow while our coffers continue to grow.

I think if the goal was to strengthen the squad it has probably been achieved. If the objective was to strengthen the first team I think that so far it has failed as we will probably not see the best of a few of our new signings till next year.

I don't believe there was any easy answer to the problem of replacing Suarez, so it is perhaps unfair to compare Balotelli with him. However I do think that we need to be more pragmatic in our approach to games now we no longer have the goals and assists that Suarez brought to the team. Games that we may have won 5-3 last season could quickly become 2-3 this season unless we accept the fact that we are no longer as free scoring as we were and adjust our attitude accordingly.

A long way to go but for me the fact that we didn't bring in a better third choice striker, a top defensive midfielder and a quality goalkeeper may prove to be very costly to our ambitions.

We all want our new players to succeed but I don't believe that we should fool ourselves into believing they are better than they are, or in most cases better than we already had.

   

Say I'm senile or too much into conspiracy, bombard me if you like, I won't retaliate. I've said it 3 years ago and I still hold on to my belief that the club will be sold by the owners 5 years from the time they owned the club and the process starts when we get into the CL. Upon owning the club, the first thing that happened was to get rid of those players on inflated wages, which they did, try to get into the champions league, which we did, improve revenue by being in the CL with increase sponsorships and TV revenue, which we did, buy players not in excess of 25 or 30 mil with potential sell on value which increases the value of the club, which we did. All boxes ticked, say I'm mad or too much into conspiracy, we're into the 4th year and it's nearing the 5th.

It's easy to see that 75 mil from Suarez's sale, plus another 25 mil selling off players that we don't need and 30 mil from the owner's pocket, that makes a whopping 130 mill!!! We haven't include the CL money yet. With that money we could have gotten 4 or 5 world class players at 25 to 30 mil each, if there's a genuine intention to win the league. No, we continue to buy average players with potential to grow while our coffers continue to grow.

Hold it. The stadium development is not done yet. Perhaps when that is nearing completion.

Way too early to judge yet 5 games into the season, we have been really unfortunate with injuries. If anything the one area we are still light in my opinion is a commanding CM.
No doubt the likes of Markovic, Can, Moreno etc will come good, the talent is there.

I actually wondered about having Gerrard in a free lying role. Where he can use skill, perhaps a burst of pace. Shots, and passes.
Makes more sense than duping us he can do a "Steve McMahon" type job. (Ok he's not played like Macca but I think people understand my meaning).

We are desperate for a top midfielder, and we arent short of the cash for one. Henderson isnt the heir to Souness, Gerrard, Alonso, Masch etc. Maybe he will improve, maybe he wont.


I wonder how quickly Can can settle in.

That's what I've been thinking all along, if Stevie can't do proper defending, not that he doesn't want to, then it won't hurt to deploy him further up the pitch to support Lallana, Lambert and the rest where he can be more productive and leave the DM to someone else.

Since BR  has not prioritised buying a DM as a top priority, I'd suggest deploying Moreno as a DM and left back taken over by Enrique. Say, I'm desperate, yes I am, surely things can't get any worse than by having Stevie and Lucas as DM.

Hold it. The stadium development is not done yet. Perhaps when that is nearing completion.

Ah ... ha .... totally forgotten about that, most probably still on the drawing table.

Was thinking the other day if you could buy any foward who would you buy that can do what Suarez did? I couldn't think of one ?