TBF, Torres and Reina were past their prime, well more specifically in Reina's case he had his head turned after his father claimed he was in talks to secure a move to Barca with an agreement already in place. Valdez didn't move and Reina was caught with his knickers round his ankles, coincided with this, his form certainly slumped. But no, re. Torres you missed nothing there, but prior to that you did.
If I am correct FSG bought LFC on or about the October 6, 2010,
I believe in our squad we had
Pepe Reina Daniel Agger, Martin Skrtel, Jamie Carragher, Soirios Kyrgiakos, Fabio Aurelio, Glen Johnson*, Steven Gerrard, Lucas Leiva, Joe Cole*, Maxi Rodriguez, Milan Jovanovic $, Dirk Kuyt, Fernando Torres, Ryan Babel $,
(But our squad then were beating most top teams in the EPL let along Europe)
NB * Players I did not rate
NB $ Players that proved to be disappointing
They (FSG) were quoted as sayingā¦ ā'While we had a few top players like Steven Gerrard, other players like Fernando Torres and Pepe Reina were probably beyond their primes, and Javier Mascherano was not even on the team.ā
Torres was 27 (out of form yes, but not past his prime of Chelsea would not have spent Ā£50m for him) where as Pepe Reina was 29, hardly beyond their prime
There rest were getting there, so I would have to agree with their analysis as to the teams over all age,
But two points if I may
(1) If like FSG: are doing (The whole young with resalable value thing) you end up with one or two modelsā¦.Man Utd class of 92ā¦. You spend a lot of team honing those you players before they become good and start winning trophies on a regular basis
(2) The Arsenal Models you win the occasional League or FA Cup qualify for Europe regularly with out win it
A mixture is needed, Young and Old, but most of all Quality
FSG cleared our debts but never really gave us a great deal of money to renew the Squad, The Suarez money came mainly from the sale of Ryan Babel (we never really meet the asking price for Suarez before the sale of Babel) and the Torres money wasted on Carroll, Downing, Henderson and Adamā¦ā¦ That lies firmly at the feet of Kenny Dalglish
I remember warning that supporters should not expect FSG to ride in, clear the debt, and spend shed loads of money, said then that people need to read between the lines of what they were sayingā¦.
Maybe this is JĆ¼rgen Kloppās master plan, show them (FSG) how bad this team is to get them to investā¦. What was it Herr Klopp said? āI donāt need lots of moneyā
He will use the little that they give him, get rid of the dead wood, and bring in two to three quality signings a year, players that can do things his way