A brief introduction of Inside Anfield. I have been a Liverpool Football Club supporter for just over 23 years and am a keen writer and duly post articles upon my site ever Monday. I have taken the opportunity to copy over these articles to this forum and hope you enjoy reading them and welcome any comments.What a January 2011 it has been for the new owners, Fenway Sports Group. They have made quite an impact in just over 3 weeks when they departed Boston, Massachusetts and touched down in Liverpool a week into the New Year. But just how clever are our new owners? They have proven they know how to make an impact but have also shown their savvy which has made them such a success in Major League Baseball back in the States with the Boston Red Sox.
With the fans calling for Roy Hodgson’s head after an awful December, FSG’s first task was relieving Roy from his managerial position and appointing fan favourite, Kenny Dalglish. Next came the revamp of the backroom staff. Sammy Lee survived and was joined by Steve Clarke, acknowledged by his peers as one of the best No 2’s in the game, and part of Chelsea’s highly successful period during the Jose Mourinho days. Out with Roy went the controversial goalkeeping coach, Mike Kelly, an appointment which keeper, Pepe Reina was none too pleased with having been told he would have a say in who he would like Liverpool to bring in as Xavi Valero’s replacement. And it was fairly evident that Reina had been affected with the appointment of Kelly as he suffered a dip in form as he fumbled Arsenal an equaliser on the opening day of the season and let a ball slip through his grasp and through his legs against Steaua Bucharest in the Europa League.
With the new management in place, it was a case of what next for FSG.
Kenny Dalglish reiterated on numerous occasions via press conferences and after game interviews that he was delighted with his appointment and he was more than pleased with the group of players he had inherited – although he would be welcome to new signings who would improve the squad. It was a clever use of words by Dalglish. It maintained team spirit and gave the players already at the club a feeling of being wanted but at the same time invited the new owners to dip into their pockets for new players to improve the clearly depleted squad.
The next logical step in the process was to sit down with the new Director of Football Strategy, David Comolli and to draw up a shortlist of players and to present the list in person to John W Henry and Tom Werner to see what they thought. Now obviously, both the new owners have very little football knowledge, evident through the few interviews they have conducted. They know little about the players and the appointment of Comolli was an important one as he would be responsible for player scouting, negotiating and appointment. So you can imagine both Dalglish and Comolli coming into John W Henry’s office with a piece of paper with names of players and figures next to each name with John W Henry, in turn, ignoring the name of the player and concentrating solely on the figure on that piece of paper.
The first name on that piece of paper would have been Uruguayan, Luis Suarez – the explosive, pocket-sized striker who had a fantastic (and controversial) World Cup in South Africa and a player who excelled in the Eredivisie for five years with FC Groningen and Ajax Amsterdam. At the beginning of January, the Guardian published a story that Ajax were willing to sell their prolific marksman and club captain for around £18m. Tottenham Hotspur sniffed around but then quickly disappeared off the scene. That left Liverpool in a great position of being the only team interested in the player. A few weeks of hardball were played out. Liverpool came in with an opening offer reported to be £12.8m which Ajax clearly ruled out (and rightly so in my opinion). Frank de Boer used the media to oust the figure Liverpool had bid and explained that the club wanted closer to double that figure and £25m was mooted.
de Boer clearly felt announcing the figure Liverpool had offered would invite other clubs to join the party but it did not materialise. After what seemed to be an age of going back and forth, the deal looked dead in the water on Wednesday 26 January where de Boer came out and said a deal would need to be struck by Saturday at the latest but that Liverpool were no where near the £25m Ajax would accept for Suarez.
And then in came Chelsea with a £35m offer for Fernando Torres on Thursday 27 January. This was the catalyst for the frenzy that would follow.
Fernando Torres was clearly sulking on the pitch this season. He looked bereft of fight and showed a lack of effort on more than one occasion. This was not the same Torres Liverpool had signed in 2007. After Spain's success at the World Cup in the summer, rumours formed on whether Torres would be leaving Liverpool in the transfer window. The vultures circled overhead but Torres announced he would be staying with Liverpool and the matter was put to bed.
And on Friday 28 January came the breaking news that Fernando Torres had handed in an official transfer request. The disillusioned Torres wanted out – now. When you hand in a transfer request at Liverpool, the fans are not likely to let you back into their hearts so Torres knew exactly what he was doing that morning. Liverpool immediately rejected the request but it was fairly evident that they would do business upon Chelsea’s return. And Chelsea did return – with a staggering £50m offer – which was more to Liverpool’s liking.
So back to Luis Suarez. With Torres seemingly on his way out and with Ryan Babel already having departed for TSG Hoffenheim in Germany for £6m, it was now a case of up the ante for Luis Suarez or risk having a strikeforce of David N’Gog and Dirk Kuyt for the second half of the season.
Further negotiations took place and a fee of £22.8m was accepted by Ajax – a hefty £10m on the original offer of £12.8m 7 days before. Questions have to be asked whether FSG would have pumped £10m into the deal had Fernando Torres not declared his undying love for Chelsea. The deal, as far as I could see, was dead in the water with Liverpool unwilling to budge on £12.8m.
Fast forward to Monday and Liverpool, having had the weekend to work out what to do next, announced a bid of £30m for Newcastle United’s Andy Carroll – which was flatly refused. It seems strange that FSG came in with such a low offer for Luis Suarez and then slammed £30m on the table for Andy Carroll. The offer was upped by £5m to £35m and duly accepted by Newcastle. And the rest is history.
Fernando Torres signed for £50m with with Andy Carroll joining Luis Suarez as a new Liverpool player for £35m – and all done with just a couple of minutes of the January transfer window being slammed shut (please do not ask me why they literally leave it to the last minute when they have 31 days to do business). The one that got away was Charlie Adam of Blackpool with Liverpool's final offer of £6.2m being knocked back. Even Harry Redknapp had a go a few minutes before the window closed – and he was sent packing as well.
So to conclude. With an outlay of just £1.8m coming out of the owners’ pockets, John W Henry and Tom Werner should be laughing all the way back to Boston. They came to do what they had set out to do – change the management, buy a couple of players, boost the fans confidence and show the world that they mean business – and they did it without needing to break the bank.
It was later announced that the American owners were a little disappointed and had hoped to bring in a few more players with Aston Villa being approached to gauge whether Ashley Young was available. Villa said no and Liverpool accepted the decision.
It will be interesting to see what they do come the summer. Will they pump £50m into the club or will they say they did their main transfer work in January and negotiate deals like they did with Luis Suarez – offering ridiculously low money and hoping for the best? We will have to wait and see but I envisage another exciting transfer window this summer.
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