British Players/Foreign players. Must it be one or the other?

I think we need a striker that can score bags of goals.  We need to find the best player available to us from anywhere in the world.

This , this , this !
Last year we announced we  were buying British. I hope this year we say nothing and just get on and sign them.

i don't think we'd be having a fraction of these debates if we had a decent striker who could convert a few more of the chance we're creating.

for me, caroll is the only huge let down. downing turns in occasional motm perf and goes missing for a couple of weeks and adam is a decent squad player. as for henderson, i think it was an unnecessary purchase. he's not a winger and we already have more than enough people in the middle of the park, so i don't understand that purchase. their price tag is indeed a problem, but, looking at how many chances we've wasted over the season, it's clear the main problem is at the front, not in the middle.

but, i'm not going to blame kenny as suarez and enrique have been superb signings and coates is already looking good. i'm afraid we have to cut our losses with andy and replace him with a 15+ goals per season striker, all will be rosy then.

My point is that British transfers are only the same as any other transfers, you've just got to make sure you buy the right players in the first place...

Quite simply where players come from doesn't matter, they just have to be good players who can handle the Premiership. Buying ALL foreign probably isn't the answer, and buying ALL British isn't the answer either. Buying good players is the answer, it's really as simple as that.

Nice honest opening post mate so sorry for just grabbing these parts.

On the point of buying the right players: Of course you are right as it's been proven time and again; neither cost nor country of origin can be an indicator to whether or not a signing will succeed. (We can all rhyme off some names to prove this).

I know I've written this on other threads but the facts are:

* No-one has ever gotten signings 100% right. British or not.

* No-one ever signs a player knowing they will fail.  British or not.

* Everyone who has ever signed a player has believed that they are the 'right player'.  British or not.

Having said that we must remember too... with the new homegrown rule 'senior homegrown' (forget 'British') players are a necessity and therefore, like it or not, they come at a premium rate. Remember a team must include six homegrown players in the match-day squad of sixteen.

I have a theory that, like it or not, stage one was to secure the signings of a few players who fall into that category and are still young enough to play for a number of seasons (Henderson, Downing, Carroll). Stage two will, in my opinion, include the promotion of younger 'homegrown' players and the inclusion of 'foreign' signings'. To that end I believe we'll see more 'foreign' than homegrown signed this Summer.

I'm sure there are those out there who'll disagree with my opinion as I'm equally sure there be some who'll only see any 'foreign' influx as an admission that buying British is wrong - something, of course that 'they' knew all along.

At note of caution (not that it's needed):'... this 'act' still won't mean that we'll have bought the right players. Although we can guess and pontificate all we like: we will only know for sure if they're either 'better' or 'right' AFTER the fact. 

I think this whole nationality debate is silly, English players tend to be overpriced but it doesn't mean all of them are bad business. Quality and price are the main things to take into consideration, irrespective of where the player was born. The reason this debate was brought up so many times this season was that we apparently went for British based players and, since most of them didn't work out, generalization started.

I think this whole nationality debate is silly, English players tend to be overpriced but it doesn't mean all of them are bad business. Quality and price are the main things to take into consideration, irrespective of where the player was born. The reason this debate was brought up so many times this season was that we apparently went for British based players and, since most of them didn't work out, generalization started.

Have to agree with this completely, just as in other parts of life where you come from and the color of your skin does not make a person, it is the skillset and what that person is inside.

But we can't sign any more over priced over rated English players ........

For me its about finding the balance irrespective of nationality, most the successful clubs have a blend of English and Foreign players, Arsenal early on with Keown, Bould, Adams, Dickson, Petit, Overmars etc, United with Gary Neville, Bruce, Scholes Beckham, Schmicael, van nistelrooy, Chelsea with Fat Frank, Joe Cole, Cech, Ballsack, etc etc.

We meed quality but we need value overall. Its no good spending stupid money unless they are proven quality. I mean proven over a decent spell not half a season (Carroll). You have to accept to a degree that all transfers are a risk no matter how good they are normally. The player has to fit the style of play of that team as well as have quality. I still believe Carroll was a bit of a desperate knee jerk purchase when Torres dumped on us.

How many half decent midfielders could we get for the Henderson price tag? How many decent forwards could we get for the Carroll price tag? That has to be the robbery of the decade, even if he was a good player that we needed.

In 1987, Kenny bought English League players at overinflated and record fees. The European Cup football that you could get in Italy or Spain, was no deterrent. The difference was they were top players who he wanted and we needed, and we got what we paid for. We broke record after record on the pitch the following season. Buying English League players isn't a problem, spending money wisely is.

I think we have a good core of HG players now and will most likely be kept ticking over by the youth system.
Now that's done with let's just get the right players at the right price.
I don't care where they are from.
No more rushed buys though. Do your F***ing homework on the next few and maybe lay off the stats analysis slightly.

The problem seems to be this: Take 2 players that are equally talented. Exactly equal. One's British, the other's a foreigner. The British player costs about 33% more because of the homegrown rule.

Specifically, Downing supposedly cost 16M. If he were Spanish or Dutch he would have been about 12M and we wouldn't be complaining so much. 

Agreeing with others here, LFC seems to have its quota of British players. I'd bite the bullet and sell Carroll, however painful a loss that would be. He just isn't quick enough to play in a pass and move club like Liverpool aspires to be.  LFC needs to stop trying to fit such a miscast player into its system. I'm not in love with Adam, but to be fair he's ok for the price as a squad player -- he never would have gotten this much play had Lucas and Gerrard not been missing so much. I think Henderson will be a fine player in 2-3 years, keep him and nurture him. Downing -- I'm not sure -- keep him for now unless you can get better in the summer?

We need to scour the planet -- everywhere -- and bring in 2-3 young, quick, ballsy, relentless attackers this summer. There are 10 or 12 young future 15-20 goal-per-year scorers in the Premier League, Germany, Spain and Italy somewhere out there right now. Kenny and Comolli need to find two of them this summer (before someone else does), whether they are in Mexico, Uruguay, Portugal...or England.   

Ultimately it doesn't matter where they come from as long as they're any good. I'd imagine the buy british policy is on the back burner at the moment though.

I've got no problem with us buying British players.

My problem is with us buying sh*t British players.

This!