The summer transfer conundrum

Imagine if we hadn't signed Balotelli, Lambert and Markovic who offer zilch to the team and instead used that £40 million to sign Benzema. A proper top class striker. Oh well.

Imagine if we hadn't signed Balotelli, Lambert and Markovic who offer zilch to the team and instead used that £40 million to sign Benzema. A proper top class striker. Oh well.

shouldn't the committee be sent a short message which reads "quality counts"

Imagine if we hadn't signed Balotelli, Lambert and Markovic who offer zilch to the team and instead used that £40 million to sign Benzema. A proper top class striker. Oh well.

That's the type of clever thinking that we don't need .

That's the type of clever thinking that we don't need .

spending money on proven quality players that will never work

There was an interesting article recently in the Tossergraph by (the tosser!) Chris Bascombe.

He basically touched on all the pts. How its a transfer committee and dodgy scouts, staticians etc and  a keep wages/fees down/buy to sell on for profit - like a posh "nursery club".

This Summer was a gigantic success for Fenway. Because as JD and others say above, football isn't very important.
They're financial fundamentalists.  Think of it as a beauty contest for the accounts of LFC vs soft drink companies, bogroll manufacturers.. ANYTHING. Only thing that matters is continually lower costs, lower customer expectation, and a possibility of higher income.

They'd sell the Church of England/Vatican if they could get someone to swallow the spin enough. Jordan Belfort's got nothing on this lot.

People have got 3 choices. Accept it, bin it, or get to work on us having proper owners.

when we came so close last year which idiot decided to F**k about with the squad and add a load of mediocrity to it.
yes Luis went but we won games without Luis what we needed was not another Luis but players who could bring some gravitas to the club 2 maybe 4 at most. Now if your spending £130 million you should be able to persuade clubs to part with their best players if you wave upwards of £30mil at them.
Its a bit of a mute subject now as its over done and dusted but lets not do the same again in January and add more lightweights.
many may not agree with American Plant but the structure of his posts are worth considering.

when we came so close last year which idiot decided to f**k about with the squad and add a load of mediocrity to it.
yes Luis went but we won games without Luis what we needed was not another Luis but players who could bring some gravitas to the club 2 maybe 4 at most. Now if your spending £130 million you should be able to persuade clubs to part with their best players if you wave upwards of £30mil at them.
Its a bit of a mute subject now as its over done and dusted but lets not do the same again in January and add more lightweights.
many may not agree with American Plant but the structure of his posts are worth considering.

No one would disagree with any of your points but as others have also mentioned who is on this mythical transfer committee and decide on the ceiling of players Brendan is allowed to have.

when we came so close last year which idiot decided to f**k about with the squad and add a load of mediocrity to it.
yes Luis went but we won games without Luis what we needed was not another Luis but players who could bring some gravitas to the club 2 maybe 4 at most. Now if your spending £130 million you should be able to persuade clubs to part with their best players if you wave upwards of £30mil at them.
Its a bit of a mute subject now as its over done and dusted but lets not do the same again in January and add more lightweights.
many may not agree with American Plant but the structure of his posts are worth considering.

I don't give credence to anything he says because he basically comes across as a know-it-all blowhard and he only posts when things are going "bad". If he was less abrasive I might consider what he has to say but as it is, not too concerned.

No one would disagree with any of your points but as others have also mentioned who is on this mythical transfer committee and decide on the ceiling of players Brendan is allowed to have.

I don't think we buy players solely to improve the squad there is a huge element of what they can be sold on for.
That in my eyes ties Brendan's hands.

Wait a minute, if we are buying players that are no good as some are suggesting, then how are we going to make a profit when have spent so much on them?  How are we going to make so much on Markovic if we spent so much and he's so obviously crap?

I'm confused.

I don't give credence to anything he says because he basically comes across as a know-it-all blowhard and he only posts when things are going "bad". If he was less abrasive I might consider what he has to say but as it is, not too concerned.

we didn't always get along but I have mellowed with age whats your excuse

Wait a minute, if we are buying players that are no good as some are suggesting, then how are we going to make a profit when have spent so much on them?  How are we going to make so much on Markovic if we spent so much and he's so obviously crap?

I'm confused.

I wasn't suggesting Markovic is crap, I was saying that in his position as we stand we are fairly well stacked and I'm not sure right now where he gets his minutes he needs to develop and with and we need in terms of other areas it could have been spent on those other areas

Wait a minute, if we are buying players that are no good as some are suggesting, then how are we going to make a profit when have spent so much on them?  How are we going to make so much on Markovic if we spent so much and he's so obviously crap?

I'm confused.

come on don't be Coy you know as well as anyone else what we have bought.Markovic is a young lad if he develops in 3 years we will get our money back and possibly more.We did have a poor record of buying players who ultimately had no sell on value so I get the idea but I don't get the players we are buying

we didn't always get along but I have mellowed with age whats your excuse

I wasn't referring to you, was referring to AmericanHater.

I wasn't suggesting Markovic is crap, I was saying that in his position as we stand we are fairly well stacked and I'm not sure right now where he gets his minutes he needs to develop and with and we need in terms of other areas it could have been spent on those other areas

Wasn't saying you were but many have been slagging him and others from this year and last. All I'm saying is that it isn't as simple as saying that the owners only want to buy players that can be sold on later. I think in truth the goal is a mixture of players for now, players to develop and probably players to use, abuse and sell for a profit.

Now whether we are succeeding at finding those types of players is up for serious debate.

i bet my hat that markovic will end up loaned at another team in the summer, i hope i'm wrong

i bet my hat that markovic will end up loaned at another team in the summer, i hope i'm wrong

Why?

Do you really like that hat?

Why?

Do you really like that hat?

  yes !

The biggest mistakes this summer was not buying Remy and not having a plan in place to replace the best player in the league even though we as a club knew he was off from last summer. FSG and Brendan knew Luis was going to be allowed to leave for over a year and we still looked like we only found out the day he was signing for Barca.

I am a Balotelli fan, although right now it's diffcult to say that, but I still thought Remywas a far better fit for our team and Brendan's style and I'm still mystified with how that transfer didn't end up happening.

I think in hindsight the Lovren signing seems a strange one as he doesn't look any better than what we have and if anything it just pushed out a player we spent big money on the previous summer in Sakho.

Otherwise I think we bought good players but once again there seemed little in the way of a plan and thinking behind how we approach strengthening the team.

Our centre backs get no protection and any centre back would struggle with no guard in front like Lucas gave us when he was on his game I still think he could still be good again but for that he would need a run of games and for some reason Rogers has sidetracked him taken his confidence away along with Suso they'll be gone come Jan Lucas to Napoli and Suso to AC milan.

In general, Brendans transfers have been a joke.

I mean, why has Tiago Ilori not been given a chance? Why can Jordan Ibe or Suso not seem to break through? I heard good things about Markovic from a friend who's a Benfica fan. But in the admittedly limited game time he's had, he's done F**k all. So far? 20 million wasted. BR seemingly doesn't rate Borini. So why spend so much on him?! He knows him from Chelsea/Swansea days so no excuses there.

Then there's Mario. He's clearly a talented player. But if Brendan thought he was going to change his style and work rate to match Suarez, then he was clearly deluded and it would be easy to say his ego has gotten the better of him.

The biggest mistakes this summer was not buying Remy and not having a plan in place to replace the best player in the league even though we as a club knew he was off from last summer. FSG and Brendan knew Luis was going to be allowed to leave for over a year and we still looked like we only found out the day he was signing for Barca.

I am a Balotelli fan, although right now it's diffcult to say that, but I still thought Remywas a far better fit for our team and Brendan's style and I'm still mystified with how that transfer didn't end up happening.

I think in hindsight the Lovren signing seems a strange one as he doesn't look any better than what we have and if anything it just pushed out a player we spent big money on the previous summer in Sakho.

Otherwise I think we bought good players but once again there seemed little in the way of a plan and thinking behind how we approach strengthening the team.

Absolutely. Missing out on Remy ended up being a huge disappointment because, as you say, he's a much better fit with our style of play than Balotelli is. Same thing goes for Alexis Sanchez, who would have been absolutely brilliant here.

The winter will be a tough market to find a striker should Sturridge still have injury problems. Maybe Jackson Martinez? Maybe take a chance on a recovering Benteke?