Looking at the £225 million we have spent under Brendan, I think we can all agree that we have not achieved either the level of player that we wanted or value for money in our transfer dealings.
Although it is far too early to definitively judge whether the latest batch of players have been a success, it is certainly true that they have produced little enough to put the manager's job and our european qualification at risk. That means that, in the short term, the transfers have been a disaster for the manager - just as Kenny's were. There are signs that the players will pick up form however, just as it was for Kenny, this upturn may come too late for the manager and team.
We were meant to have signed some of Man City's best scouts who were apparently operating at genius level in terms of statistics; the manager was meant to be working hand-in-glove with the committee to identify our needs - what has gone wrong? is it the case that we are identifying the right players and failing to get the deal done or are we just picking the wrong players in the first place?
For me, getting the deal done to bring the players here is easy if we are certain they are going to be a success. we would happily have paid double for Suarez if we knew how much we could eventually sell him for.
We are still failing to confidently identify the RIGHT players that we need.
I have posted a list of the players that we have bought for Brendan but it's just as instructive to look at the ones we missed out on. It's easy to say now that we should have overpaid to bring Costa and Sanchez here but was it reqally worth doing that for Salah? or Siggurdson? or Konoplyanka? or Papadopoulous? or Willian? None of the latter bunch is exactly pulling up trees.
Why did the gamble work with (for example) Suarez and fail with (for example) Balotelli? Both were outrageously talented, controversial, immature in character.
How do we change the system so we pick more Suarez and less Balo?
Do we sack the scouts and start over again - in the meanwhile being prey to the usual problems of relying on agents to bring in the players we need?
Do we give complete control of the pursestrings to the manager - who doesn't have the greatest track record amongst the players we have signed so far and wanted to bring in the likes of Ashley Williams and Clint Dempsey?
Do we appoint a Director of Football - someone like Rafa - to identify and bring in the players we need - or will that be an intolerable threat to any manager's position in case results take a downturn?
Since we aren't going to be outspending our rivals anytime soon the key to our future success lies in answering the key question of how we go about identifying the talent we need.
Player Club Fee Date
Fabio Borini Roma £10,400,000 13 July 2012
Joe Allen Swansea City £15,000,000 10 August 2012
Oussama Assaidi Heerenveen £3,000,000 17 August 2012
Nuri Sahin Real Madrid On Loan 25 August 2012
Samed Yesil Bayer Leverkusen £1,000,000 30 August 2012
Daniel Sturridge Chelsea £12,000,000 2 January 2013
Philippe Coutinho Inter Milan £8,500,000 30 January 2013
João Carlos Teixeira Sporting Lisbon £830,000 31 January 2013
Luis Alberto Sevilla £6,800,000 22 June 2013
Iago Aspas Celta Vigo £7,000,000 23 June 2013
Simon Mignolet Sunderland £9,000,000 25 June 2013
Kolo Touré Free Transfer Free 2 July 2013
Aly Cissokho Valencia On Loan * 20 August 2013
Mamadou Sakho Paris St Germain £15,000,000 2 September 2013
Tiago Ilori Sporting Lisbon £7,000,000 2 September 2013
Victor Moses Chelsea On Loan * 2 September 2013
Rickie Lambert Southampton £4,500,000 2 June 2014
Adam Lallana Southampton £25,000,000 * 1 July 2014
Emre Can Bayer Leverkusen £9,750,000 3 July 2014
Lazar Markovic Benfica £19,800,000 15 July 2014
Dejan Lovren Southampton £20,000,000 * 27 July 2014
Divick Origi Lille £9,800,000 * 29 July 2014
Javier Manquillo Atletico Madrid On Loan 6 August 2014
Alberto Moreno Sevilla £12,000,000 * 16 August 2014
Mario Balotelli AC Milan £16,000,000 25 August 2014
http://www.lfchistory.net/Transfers/ByManager/25-1
