We'll never again waste resources on inflated transfer fees

£6,800,000 - Luis Alberto on loan at (Deportivo La Coruña)
£16,000,000 - Mario Balotelli on loan at (AC Milan)
£19,800,000 - Lazar Markovic on loan at (Fenerbahçe)
£7,000,000 - Tiago Ilori on loan at (Aston Villa)

£49.6m

That's not taking into account the Lovrens and Moreno's and Lallana's who can't exactly be classed as value for the money.

There is something fundamentally wrong at our club regarding player recruitment.

Loads of great character you listed there. Spreading their beautiful character onto other clubs.

Obviously we've got to share the wealth.

14m gets you Ross MacCormack from the Championship.
50 odd m gets you de Bruyne or David Luiz.

If the board had bought real top top 4 Prem Lge players, instead of Carrolls, Adams, Downings, Allens etc, we wouldnt be having any of these debates today. 5 yrs ago 30m would get a terrific midfielder. Now you need to spend substantially more to get the same level player.

Again, greed and smartarse antics has come back to haunt them.

£6,800,000 - Luis Alberto on loan at (Deportivo La Coruña)
£16,000,000 - Mario Balotelli on loan at (AC Milan)
£19,800,000 - Lazar Markovic on loan at (Fenerbahçe)
£7,000,000 - Tiago Ilori on loan at (Aston Villa)

£49.6m

That's not taking into account the Lovrens and Moreno's and Lallana's who can't exactly be classed as value for the money.

There is something fundamentally wrong at our club regarding player recruitment.

Surely that lot there dispels the myth that we are being run by smart businessmen , thats fifty million spunked down the swanny , what an utter joke that is .

Surely that lot there dispels the myth that we are being run by smart businessmen , thats fifty million spunked down the swanny , what an utter joke that is .

Throw Lovren, Lallana and Moreno into the mix and its over £100m

With Lambert, you can basically say we pissed the Surez fee up the wall as last summers transfer business is looking anything but good at the minute, with most either sold or loaned out or not performing.

Just goes to show Fallows and Co computer software needs updating 

Throw Lovren, Lallana and Moreno into the mix and its over £100m

With Lambert, you can basically say we pissed the Surez fee up the wall as last summers transfer business is looking anything but good at the minute, with most either sold or loaned out or not performing.

Apart from

Benteke > Balotelli
Clyde    >  Johnson

Has our first team improved that much at all, I'm not sure?

Same old squad improvements without any discernible improvements in the first team.

Throw Lovren, Lallana and Moreno into the mix and its over £100m

With Lambert, you can basically say we pissed the Surez fee up the wall as last summers transfer business is looking anything but good at the minute, with most either sold or loaned out or not performing.

And to think some on here were laughing at the spuds for the Bale money being spunked away , cant find the quote but I do remember our gaffer making  a comment on it as well , wonder what he thinks when he gets reminded of that , it should have taught him to think first before gobbing off .

The problem is, there are also players like Studge, Can, Coutinho, Ibe, and Henderson that you also have to bring into the discussion. You can't just talk about the half of the players that failed to justify their transfer fee. You also need to look at the ones who succeeded and analyze them as a whole. No team has a perfect record when it comes to transfers, and most of the big clubs probably regard less than half of their recent transfers as unqualified successes. Just look at Chelsea, for every Costa  a Remy, for Pedro a Moses, and for Fabregas a Cuadrado. The list goes on and on, but suffice it to say, we aren't the only team with this problem.

Just goes to show Fallows and Co computer software needs updating 

Think we need more than just a software update , think our floppy disc needs seeing too .

Every club wastes money on players, some work out others don't. We wasted huge money last Summer but learned a few lessons I think our transfer business has been quite good this season and we have definitely improved on last year. However I'm still not sure we have done enough to get back into the top 4.

It all depends how quickly the new players click and if we can keep Sturridge fit once he returns.

£6,800,000 - Luis Alberto on loan at (Deportivo La Coruña)
£16,000,000 - Mario Balotelli on loan at (AC Milan)
£19,800,000 - Lazar Markovic on loan at (Fenerbahçe)
£7,000,000 - Tiago Ilori on loan at (Aston Villa)

£49.6m

That's not taking into account the Lovrens and Moreno's and Lallana's who can't exactly be classed as value for the money.

There is something fundamentally wrong at our club regarding player recruitment.

We're the club who wasted the most money on sh*t players and this is one of the main reasons we didn't win the league in such a long time. Everytime i think about the deals we've made, i've got a lump in my throat. We've been ran by the most inept people, they never seem to learn, no matter who they are and it beggars belief every time you think of some of our dealings. Yes we'll still make a good transfer here and there, but by the ammount of useless players we signed you get to feel that the good ones were the exceptions.

The list starts with the likes of Sinama Pongolle and Diao, goes on with Diomede, Mark Gonzalez, Jovanovic and Voronin, and finishes with the likes of Carroll, Assaidi, Alberto or Lovren, among others.

I don't say that all were piss poor players, some of them indeed were useless, and some were mismanaged, in the end the result was the same: years wasted by signing players that didn't helped us at all.

The problem is, there are also players like Studge, Can, Coutinho, Ibe, and Henderson that you also have to bring into the discussion. You can't just talk about the half of the players that failed to justify their transfer fee. You also need to look at the ones who succeeded and analyze them as a whole. No team has a perfect record when it comes to transfers, and most of the big clubs probably regard less than half of their recent transfers as unqualified successes. Just look at Chelsea, for every Costa  a Remy, for Pedro a Moses, and for Fabregas a Cuadrado. The list goes on and on, but suffice it to say, we aren't the only team with this problem.

Thats fair enough but the title of this thread is wasted resources not successful ones .

Thats fair enough but the title of this thread is wasted resources not successful ones .

Yeah why bring up positive sh*t, it ruins the atmosphere of the thread.

We're the club who wasted the most money on sh*t players and this is one of the main reasons we didn't win the league in such a long time. Everytime i think about the deals we've made, i've got a lump in my throat. We've been ran by the most inept people, they never seem to learn, no matter who they are and it beggars belief every time you think of some of our dealings. Yes we'll still make a good transfer here and there, but by the ammount of useless players we signed you get to feel that the good ones were the exceptions.

The list starts with the likes of Sinama Pongolle and Diao, goes on with Diomede, Mark Gonzalez, Jovanovic and Voronin, and finishes with the likes of Carroll, Assaidi, Alberto or Lovren, among others.

I don't say that all were piss poor players, some of them indeed were useless, and some were mismanaged, in the end the result was the same: years wasted by signing players that didn't helped us at all.

The fact our Summer business was infinitely better than last season shows we are learning. We have a good group of players capable of finishing top 4. If Rodgers fails to achieve this he will have to be sacked to give another manager the opportunity to get the most out of the squad.

I can see the reason why we are taking these punts on potential talent, hopefully  some will come good. After all the other big boys are doing it so we need to keep up.

Big difference between us and our Top 4 rivals is that they will also part with big cash for top proven talent. Not the Lallana's and Lovrens of this world.

£6,800,000 - Luis Alberto on loan at (Deportivo La Coruña)
£16,000,000 - Mario Balotelli on loan at (AC Milan)
£19,800,000 - Lazar Markovic on loan at (Fenerbahçe)
£7,000,000 - Tiago Ilori on loan at (Aston Villa)

£49.6m

This is painful.

Yeah why bring up positive sh*t, it ruins the atmosphere of the thread.

I do believe we have a thread for that nonsense

Be able to add Origi to this soon, he wont play much.

£6,800,000 - Luis Alberto on loan at (Deportivo La Coruña)
£16,000,000 - Mario Balotelli on loan at (AC Milan)
£19,800,000 - Lazar Markovic on loan at (Fenerbahçe)
£7,000,000 - Tiago Ilori on loan at (Aston Villa)

£49.6m

That's not taking into account the Lovrens and Moreno's and Lallana's who can't exactly be classed as value for the money.

There is something fundamentally wrong at our club regarding player recruitment.

There definitely still seems to be a lack of joined up thinking Daz.

Those above are all good footballers and with Markovic and Ilori in particular described as top talents for the future I have no idea why they are just binned off after spending big money on them.

£6,800,000 - Luis Alberto on loan at (Deportivo La Coruña)
£16,000,000 - Mario Balotelli on loan at (AC Milan)
£19,800,000 - Lazar Markovic on loan at (Fenerbahçe)
£7,000,000 - Tiago Ilori on loan at (Aston Villa)

£49.6m

That's not taking into account the Lovrens and Moreno's and Lallana's who can't exactly be classed as value for the money.

There is something fundamentally wrong at our club regarding player recruitment.

Something's not right that's for sure Daz.  We're never going to get every transfer right but of the 24 players bought between 2012 and 2014, 13 are no longer at the Club.

The list starts with the likes of Sinama Pongolle and Diao, goes on with Diomede, Mark Gonzalez, Jovanovic and Voronin, and finishes with the likes of Carroll, Assaidi, Alberto or Lovren, among others.

We were told by our Owner following the sacking of Comolli and Kenny that 'We'll never again waste resources on inflated transfer fees' anything before that is irrelevant to this thread in my opinion as it was never a statement that was made by any one else.

There definitely still seems to be a lack of joined up thinking Daz.

Those above are all good footballers and with Markovic and Ilori in particular described as top talents for the future I have no idea why they are just binned off after spending big money on them.

Because despite what Rodgers says about no player being signed without his final approval he is a liar and hence has no backbone to stand up to the TC.

Yeah why bring up positive sh*t, it ruins the atmosphere of the thread.

That's like Ignoring your missus suffers from stinking vaginal discharge because she's got a cracking set of tits.

The first way to fixing problems is identifying them and admitting that you have them, then you can work towards a solution.

That's like Ignoring your missus suffers from stinking vaginal discharge because she's got a cracking set of tits.

The first way to fixing problems is identifying them and admitting that you have them, then you can work towards a solution.

What a cracking metaphor. 

I can see the reason why we are taking these punts on potential talent, hopefully  some will come good. After all the other big boys are doing it so we need to keep up.

Big difference between us and our Top 4 rivals is that they will also part with big cash for top proven talent. Not the Lallana's and Lovrens of this world.

Irrespective of opinion regarding the Lallanas and Lovrens of this world the fact is they were to replace Suarez and Sterling as well as provide credible cover for Sturridge, that in itself is F***ing farcical.

Warning bells were deafening when the Suarez dosh was not used to replace his skill or something resembling it.
Benteke - Sterling mk 11, very few people think so. He is not the finished article and to even contemplate he could produce the magic of Suarez, Sturridge or Sterling is wishful thinking at the moment.

One thing is common to all the above - economies taking precedent and stifling success.   

£6,800,000 - Luis Alberto on loan at (Deportivo La Coruña)
£16,000,000 - Mario Balotelli on loan at (AC Milan)
£19,800,000 - Lazar Markovic on loan at (Fenerbahçe)
£7,000,000 - Tiago Ilori on loan at (Aston Villa)

£49.6m

That's not taking into account the Lovrens and Moreno's and Lallana's who can't exactly be classed as value for the money.

There is something fundamentally wrong at our club regarding player recruitment.

If you fail to compete in the market for top talent then you gamble what you do have on "potential".
Would seem failure of said players to reach their "potential" is even more costly.
Marquee names gone.

Serious question.

We've had Gerrard, Torres, Alonso, Suarez that made stomaching the increase in costs a bit easier.
In fact Suarez was worth the ticket price alone.

FSG seemed to have missed that point in all the moneyball nonsense.

Who's worth the price of admission now?

Coutinho, and sorry kid but he's no Suarez.

What a cracking metaphor. 

He has a certain way with words does Daz

If you fail to compete in the market for top talent then you gamble what you do have on "potential".
Would seem failure of said players to reach their "potential" is even more costly.
Marquee names gone.

Serious question.

We've had Gerrard, Torres, Alonso, Suarez that made stomaching the increase in costs a bit easier.
In fact Suarez was worth the ticket price alone.

FSG seemed to have missed that point in all the moneyball nonsense.

Who's worth the price of admission now?

Coutinho, and sorry kid but he's no Suarez.

As much as I love little Phil.......no he is not. Nowhere near.

What a cracking metaphor. 

He has a certain way with words does Daz

Its true though, you can think of the positives about those titties all day along, but when it comes down to doing the nitty gritty at bed time, your not going down on that pussy, that shits Nasty....

I do believe we have a thread for that nonsense

Yea and it's clouded with negative nancy's.

This is nothing new...

Konchesky
Voronin
Poulson
Aquilani
Jovanovic
Diouf
Riera
Gonzalez
Keane
Cole
Aspas
Assaidi
Morientes

...to name a few.

Irrespective of opinion regarding the Lallanas and Lovrens of this world the fact is they were to replace Suarez and Sterling as well as provide credible cover for Sturridge, that in itself is F***ing farcical.

Warning bells were deafening when the Suarez dosh was not used to replace his skill or something resembling it.
Benteke - Sterling mk 11, very few people think so. He is not the finished article and to even contemplate he could produce the magic of Suarez, Sturridge or Sterling is wishful thinking at the moment.

One thing is common to all the above - economies taking precedent and stifling success.   

Stuey one thing I will say in defence of Benteke, he's still better and an upgrade on Balotelli!!

Yea and it's clouded with negative nancy's.

Haven't been in that particular thread , so couldnt say 

We need to sack every last scout we have

I wonder is it the case that big clubs have a higher failure rate when it comes to successes, or is it just that we notice it more because of the money involved.
It's easy to highlight Southampton and Dortmund as the team's that got great value for money in their transfers, but I'd be surprised if it wasn't the norm to have more failures than successes.

I wonder is it the case that big clubs have a higher failure rate when it comes to successes, or is it just that we notice it more because of the money involved.
It's easy to highlight Southampton and Dortmund as the team's that got great value for money in their transfers, but I'd be surprised if it wasn't the norm to have more failures than successes.

All clubs have transfer failures there's no doubt about it, it's the nature of it but I honestly think that we are somewhat in a bit of a different situation to a lot of clubs in terms of us falling between 2 stools.

I'll try to get out what I mean as its a bit of a scramble in my head exactly what I'm trying to get at.

The top level of clubs right now, either in our league (City, Chelsea, Utd, Arsenal) or the very top sides around the world in other leagues (Barca, Madrid, Bayern) or the attractive clubs around (Dortmund, Juve, Atleti) are in a different boat to us as we stand in recent times.
The likes of those either have settled squads of the better talent due to long term success and are only adding one or two of that top level player or an up and coming talent who they can nurture.. They also have the pull for the players knowing they get regular CL football.. They also have better climates etc that attract players and their families. They can pay big money in wages which we simply can't and even the ones not on massive money, that you would call maybe that step down from the elite will be attracted there over us for any of the aforementioned reasons

We are right now not a regular CL club challenging for the title, we also can't pay the wages to tempt players from those others clubs which is a massive factor, we can offer very good wages but even if it's comparable to those other clubs it's not enough to outweigh the CL football pull or the climates or the teams that maybe we are a bigger name still than but they regularly finish top 2-4 in their leagues where we don't currently and to really turn their heads we can't afford the massive pay packets of say what City were offering prior to them becoming a regular at the summit of the game to attract those players to bully your way into that.

As a knock on we are shopping at the level below the world class level and below the level of those just below that, we are shopping in a market that we are hoping to find a bargain or an unearthed gem (Suarez-Coutinho) we are shopping in a market paying over the top prices in the most part for teams below us better players and paying them big wages to come but in reality probably 75% of our incomins wouldn't be considered by those above us, the reality is without a fantastic strategy and plan which in my opinion we lack then you are hoping more than expecting to be able to get into that next level.
The amount of transfers we do in recent years will never ever be giving us a level of consistency to even give us a chance either.
You need a manager and people doing the player recruitment with a great plan, a great eye for talent and a great pull for the players.

In essence for me we are buying in the level of players that gives us a greater chance  of gamble than say the real top clubs.. We are doing it blindly without an end goal, look at City when they went from mid table to CL to champions, they had a plan of how to do it and I honestly believe we haven't got one. The turnover in gambles that wouldn't be of interest to the clubs we want to compete with is too much, I'm frustrated this summer with the likes of Markovic, yes he had a poor season, but to throw it away and start again brining in another 5-6 new faces into a side at the beginning of the season shows no real leadership in any aspect of the club, no overriding plan of how we get there.. Just those ones didn't work, let's try a new load.
Look again at City in that period of growth they were buying players who would have interested those above them, we aren't and that indicative of the amount of flops we are having for me.

Yes a transfers are gambles, all clubs make mistakes but ours in the last say 6 years are too many

We often buy flavour of the month type players or big fishes from a small pond.

When we signed Carroll, he was the in form forward of the league. We spent 35m on him even though he had only a couple of months PL experience under his belt.

Downing was voted Villas player of the season and I think he had something like the most assists in the league in the previous season. So what do we do? Spend 20m on him.

Mignolet was the in form keeper of the league so we signed him too. I remember the MOTM pundits analysing his game before we signed him saying how great he was but based on what? Half a dozen or so games? In a Sunderland top? We spent 10m on the lad and sometimes I honestly think my 5 year old lad would do a better job in goal. Mignolet is certainly no upgrade on Reina that's for sure.

Lallana & Lovren were both stand out players for Southampton. We spent 45m on them without knowing how they would handle the pressure of playing for a club like ours. Both have flopped. They aren't a big fish in a small pond any more. They are goldfish in an ocean.

I'm not judging him after four games so don't bite my head off but I also predict Benteke will fall into the flop category because of the fee we paid for him too. I just can't see him scoring enough goals in a Brendan Rodgers set up to justify his transfer fee.

So those are just a few examples but the list is a lengthy one. The above players obviously have more pressure on their shoulders than the likes of Jordan Henderson because we spent much more money on them.  We reportedly spent 16m (+add ons = £20m) on Jordan so there is less pressure on him. Had we spent 25m on him like we did with Lallana then I think we would be sitting here saying he was a flop too, despite being our captain. Was Jordan a good buy? I think most will say yes. Me? I'm on the fence. In todays market I'd say he is a 20m player. We might scrape a couple more mil for him because we can say he is our captain & plays for England now but there is no way he would get a game for any of the 5 sides that finished above us last season.

It's a balancing act. If we didn't spend big then we would all be outraged and calling FSG all sorts but that doesn't mean we should waste our transfer kitty every year either. Coutinho, Sturridge, Can, Gomez are fine examples that you can buy very good players for next to nothing. If they don't work out then the risk is little because the fee was small. Obviously you need to mix it up and buy proven quality too but I'm sick of the type of player that our board sees as proven. Adam Lallana or Stewart Downing aren't proven players in my eyes. Players like Pedro who were available this summer are. They've seen it all and they've done it all.

There is no guarantee Pedro would have been a success here but I'd rather gamble on somebody like him than I would F***ing Andy Carroll.

Its simple. Stop F***ing buying flavour of the month players or players who stand out at clubs like Sunderland or Swansea. We can get much better quality for the same price at top clubs around Europe.

That's like Ignoring your missus suffers from stinking vaginal discharge because she's got a cracking set of tits.

The first way to fixing problems is identifying them and admitting that you have them, then you can work towards a solution.

 
Just splattered my brekkie all over the table with snot hanging out of my hooter,   

Thanks Daz


YNWA

We need to sack every last scout we have

We have Scouts? I thought we used Championship Manager to make our signings 

On a more serious note this is what happens when you make transfers by committee. Getting rid of Illori isn't necessarily a bad thing if the manager doesn't fancy him. the problem is in buying a player the manager doesn't fancy in the first place.

We often buy flavour of the month type players or big fishes from a small pond.

Because big players demand big wages. Your Higuains and Reus' of this world will want far higher wages than your Bentekes and Lallanas and despite reducing the wage bill for the third season running, FSG are simply unwilling to spend the cash on wages. The wage gap between ourselves and Chelsea, United and Arsenal has substantially increased over the last decade and until that changes, nothing is going to change for us as a club.

This is nothing new...

Your missing the point mate 3 years ago, following the sacking of Kenny, John Henry took it up on himself to write an open letter the fans, a letter in which he tried to justify the sacking of both Kenny and Comolli for the failed transfers of Downing and Carrol stating that 'We'll never again waste resources on inflated transfer fees'

Here we are 3 years later with a £20m winger just like Downing, been sent out on loan just one season after he was purchased, a £16m striker sent out on loan a year after he was purchased, a £7m defender, we were told was going to be the future along with Sakho sent out on loan without getting a sniff of first team action.

Then we have the likes of £20m Lovren and £25m Lallana, signed last season who can be describes as anything but a success, as reddebs said on the previous page of the 24 players bought between 2012 and 2014, 13 are no longer at the club.

That in itself is a major condemnation of how our approach to the transfer market in terms of selecting players and player acquisition is failing miserably and that we are once again wasting our resources, I think there is only really Spurs in recent history who can claim to have had so many misses and not enough hits in their transfer dealings in one summer as we did last summer.

The whole way we go about transfers needs ripping up, with a fresh start going back to basics, what will it be next summer £20m Lovren on loan ?, £25m Lallana ?, maybe £32m Benteke ?, or perhaps £29m Firminho ?

Summer 2012.

Fabio Borini   Sold.
Joe Allen   
Oussama Assaidi  Sold
Nuri Sahin    Loan Terminated.
Samed Yesil    Currently Loaned out.

January transfer window.

Daniel Sturridge   
Philippe Coutinho   

Summer 2013

Luis Alberto    Currently Loaned Out.
Iago Aspas    Sold
Simon Mignolet   
Kolo Toure   
Aly Cissokho    Loan Terminated
Tiago Ilori    Currently out on loan.
Mamadou Sakho   
Victor Moses    Loan Terminated.

Summer 2014

Rickie Lambert    Sold
Adam Lallana   
Emre Can   
Lazar Markovic  Currently Loaned out.
Dejan Lovren   
Divock Origi   
Javier Manquillo    Loan Terminated
Alberto Moreno   
Mario Balotelli    Currently Loaned Out.

Your missing the point mate 3 years ago, following the sacking of Kenny, John Henry took it up on himself to write an open letter the fans, a letter in which he tried to justify the sacking of both Kenny and Comolli for the failed transfers of Downing and Carrol stating that 'We'll never again waste resources on inflated transfer fees'

Here we are 3 years later with a £20m winger just like Downing, been sent out on loan just one season after he was purchased, a £16m striker sent out on loan a year after he was purchased, a £7m defender, we were told was going to be the future along with Sakho sent out on loan without getting a sniff of first team action.

Then we have the likes of £20m Lovren and £25m Lallana, signed last season who can be describes as anything but a success, as reddebs said on the previous page of the 24 players bought between 2012 and 2014, 13 are no longer at the club.

That in itself is a major condemnation of how our approach to the transfer market in terms of selecting players and player acquisition is failing miserably and that we are once again wasting our resources, I think there is only really Spurs in recent history who can claim to have had so many misses and not enough hits in their transfer dealings in one summer as we did last summer.

The whole way we go about transfers needs ripping up, with a fresh start going back to basics, what will it be next summer £20m Lovren on loan ?, £25m Lallana ?, maybe £32m Benteke ?, or perhaps £29m Firminho ?

FSG for all there Big talk, haven't delivered. They just like Brendan, talk the talk, but don't walk the walk.
They're like politicians when they speak, tell the people what they want to hear, and blame other people when it doesn't work.

£6,800,000 - Luis Alberto on loan at (Deportivo La Coruña)
£16,000,000 - Mario Balotelli on loan at (AC Milan)
£19,800,000 - Lazar Markovic on loan at (Fenerbahçe)
£7,000,000 - Tiago Ilori on loan at (Aston Villa)

£49.6m

That's not taking into account the Lovrens and Moreno's and Lallana's who can't exactly be classed as value for the money.

There is something fundamentally wrong at our club regarding player recruitment.

Im almost certain if you look at every clubs transfers over past seasons, there will be a similiar patern.

Its not just us, and its happened for ever as well, and will continue to happen, maybe even get worse now the fees are so high.

Just the way of the footi world.

So we recouped around £60M and spent around £75M this transfer window.

Imagine only investing £15M in new players when you have an annual turnover of £300M.

So we recouped around £60M and spent around £75M this transfer window.

Imagine only investing £15M in new players when you have an annual turnover of £300M.

Yeah, but look at what Klopp achieved at Dortmund with a small net spend etcetera etcetera!

#inbeforehlollywoodballs

A major problem we seem to have is buying players with no real plan with what to do with then when we get them in the squad.

Every club has successes and failures in the market but we seem to allow players to 'fail' more quickly. By that I mean we don't seem to try and integrate the players we have and then just bin them off after a season.

Borini
Balotelli
Lambert
Markovic
Aspas

There's 5 attackers in Brendan's time here and have they even played 50 games between them before we gave up on them?

So we recouped around £60M and spent around £75M this transfer window.

Imagine only investing £15M in new players when you have an annual turnover of £300M.

''Investment'' in the true sense of the word is manicured by JWH & Co to mask economies.
 £300m generated by LFC should be used to improve and bolster the team, more so in light of the fact our custodian has stated he will not dip into his own stash to promote the club in any way.
In that respect only using a mere fraction of that turnover to improve LFC equates as faulted business practice - light years from the ''investment'' JWH & Co would convince they are ploughing into the club. 

So we recouped around £60M and spent around £75M this transfer window.

Imagine only investing £15M in new players when you have an annual turnover of £300M.

That stand needs financing from somewhere.

Im seeing folk slagging club for not spending enough, but on the other hand they are also saying we have spend a fortune and not won anything.

Im seeing folk slagging club for not spending enough, but on the other hand they are also saying we have spend a fortune and not won anything.

Personally I'm fine with the spending, more or less, and I'm fine with the majority of the players we have bought.

The problem I see is there seems to be a disconnect between the players we think we need, the players we then buy and how we get the best of them on the football pitch.

Im seeing folk slagging club for not spending enough, but on the other hand they are also saying we have spend a fortune and not won anything.

It is quite the conundrum isn't it. I've often wondered how someone could stand on both sides of that fence myself. I think the middle ground statement is that we aren't spending the money "well" or "smartly".

This is painful.

Makes you want to cry. Absolute joke.

A major problem we seem to have is buying players with no real plan with what to do with then when we get them in the squad.

Every club has successes and failures in the market but we seem to allow players to 'fail' more quickly. By that I mean we don't seem to try and integrate the players we have and then just bin them off after a season.

Borini
Balotelli
Lambert
Markovic
Aspas

There's 5 attackers in Brendan's time here and have they even played 50 games between them before we gave up on them?

Every one of those players was unsuited to playing for Liverpool for a variety of reasons. The issue was not giving up on them so early but rather that they should never have been bought in the first place. I mean, we had £75 million at our disposal and we decided to buy half a dozen players with it, none of whom were experienced, or talented enough to walk straight in to our first team and improve us to the level were we can compete with the best in Europe. It's been a common theme throughout FSG's ownership. Torres out, Carroll in. Suarez out, Balotelli in. Sterling out, Benteke in. We consistently sell our best players and then bring in the wrong players to replace them. Since they took over, look at the talent drain we've suffered:

Torres
Suarez
Sterling
Carragher
Gerrard
Kuyt

All experienced, talented players who have never been replaced. No team anywhere in the world can expect to loose its most talented, most experienced players, fail to replace them and then compete successfully. This is precisely what I mean by an overhaul of the club being needed rather than focusing solely on a change of manager. Changing the manager will accomplish nothing while we continue to allow our best players to leave the club and replace them with cheap, substandard replacements. Until this stops, it doesn't make a difference who the manager is, we will never be a successful club.

Every one of those players was unsuited to playing for Liverpool for a variety of reasons. The issue was not giving up on them so early but rather that they should never have been bought in the first place. I mean, we had £75 million at our disposal and we decided to buy half a dozen players with it, none of whom were experienced, or talented enough to walk straight in to our first team and improve us to the level were we can compete with the best in Europe. It's been a common theme throughout FSG's ownership. Torres out, Carroll in. Suarez out, Balotelli in. Sterling out, Benteke in. We consistently sell our best players and then bring in the wrong players to replace them. Since they took over, look at the talent drain we've suffered:

Torres
Suarez
Sterling
Carragher
Gerrard
Kuyt

All experienced, talented players who have never been replaced. No team anywhere in the world can expect to loose its most talented, most experienced players, fail to replace them and then compete successfully. This is precisely what I mean by an overhaul of the club being needed rather than focusing solely on a change of manager. Changing the manager will accomplish nothing while we continue to allow our best players to leave the club and replace them with cheap, substandard replacements. Until this stops, it doesn't make a difference who the manager is, we will never be a successful club.

Yes. This is one of probably the 2 or 3 fundamental illnesses within the club/company/whatever LFC Ltd is now.
The wrong players and also cheaper places - re fee and wages.

As someone said to me, if you adopt a dog that has been mistreated and needs medical attention, you are duty bound to provide that treatment. Especially if the dog (say a breeeding dog) has a high value. Its the same principle with listed historic buildings.

You can't adopt the dog/building and carry on trashing it. Or refuse to provide the medical treatment. Now imagine  you say to the RSPCA "oh I cant be fu**ed with med bills, it was the last owner made the dog ill, I just want to sell it off for a profit when I can, F**k spending money. Maybe I'll do something if it earns me some fat stud fees in a few yrs time". You can bet you'd have the dog seized from you and you'd be facing prosecution for neglect of an animal.

And its the same with OUR animal, the Liver Bird.

The problem is, there are also players like Studge, Can, Coutinho, Ibe, and Henderson that you also have to bring into the discussion. You can't just talk about the half of the players that failed to justify their transfer fee. You also need to look at the ones who succeeded and analyze them as a whole. No team has a perfect record when it comes to transfers, and most of the big clubs probably regard less than half of their recent transfers as unqualified successes. Just look at Chelsea, for every Costa  a Remy, for Pedro a Moses, and for Fabregas a Cuadrado. The list goes on and on, but suffice it to say, we aren't the only team with this problem.

You can take IBE , CAN and HENDERSON  out of the list . They havn't been a success by any stretch of the imagination. Try and think of the great games any of them have had.

STURRIDGE and COUTINHO  change games, actually have a consistent impact on the team. So up to now , it's only two signings we have that can be considered a success.

Also, whilst CHELSEA  have had a few duds, they have continued to win titles.

 I think that one of the problems is that the players we would all like to come here, don't want to come here.  Therefore we are already buying from outside the very top tier of talent.

Let's take Markovic for example - we could have probably bought a player who would of had as much impact as he had last season for a mere fraction of the cost, but nobody would of been happy with that either.

I think that one of the problems is that the players we would all like to come here, don't want to come here.  Therefore we are already buying from outside the very top tier of talent.

Let's take Markovic for example - we could have probably bought a player who would of had as much impact as he had last season for a mere fraction of the cost, but nobody would of been happy with that either.

what is the decision making process for a young talented player. The Manager's standing, The Club's standing, The squad of players and
 the money (no particular order). Money is one thing but I still think players want to win things and if they are good enough they want to be in a team challenging for their Domestic league and the CL these are the players we need. I think Torres may have been our last signing of that ilk. Luis was still not at the very top of his game that came in 13/14 I can't think at this point of another world class player but I am sure someone will put me right. Is it really 8 years since a player of Torres standing came to us rather than anyone else?  F**k me

I think that one of the problems is that the players we would all like to come here, don't want to come here.  Therefore we are already buying from outside the very top tier of talent.

Let's take Markovic for example - we could have probably bought a player who would of had as much impact as he had last season for a mere fraction of the cost, but nobody would of been happy with that either.

If we were to splash the cash on one, more would follow. Elite players want to be alongside elite players because that gives them a chance for a trophy. That's why Suarez left.

Had we gone out and bought Costa, Fabregas, Kroos, Pedro, Otamendi, Mangala, Coentrao, and Cech*, instead of all the players we bought last summer and the summer prior to that, I guarantee you we'd have all those players in our starting lineup, as well as Suarez and Sterling still in our ranks, we'd be in CL footy, and we'd be making a title challenge at the minimum.

Unfortunately, FSG don't have the ambition to support that and Brendan is happily willing to agree with them on their lack of desire for true success. Therefore, we will continue to push forward with truly overpriced transfer prices for low wage, young, inexperienced players who have some small hope of becoming stars. We're not even getting the top tiers of the young potential stars either, which is pretty pathetic considering the fees.

There is certainly a disconnect between our ambitions as fans and the ambitions of our owners and management.


*The list is not exclusive and I'm not saying it had to be exactly those players, they're just representations of some of the quality that has been transferred over the past 3 years.

The fact our Summer business was infinitely better than last season shows we are learning. We have a good group of players capable of finishing top 4. If Rodgers fails to achieve this he will have to be sacked to give another manager the opportunity to get the most out of the squad.

I agree that overall our signings this window have been better than the last but the ridiculous thing is that pretty much all of us could have predicted that many of the signings over the years wouldn't have worked out.
It's not hindsight, it was blindingly obvious at the time.
This goes back many many many years.