Re: Liverpool Thread(I Just Can't Get Enough!!)
Have a look at the Blackburn side that won the league how many star names do you see there?
In fact, look at the players United sign, were they star names when they were bought? Just because they're not the rarest stickers in your Panini album, it doesn't mean they're not good enough and wont fit into our system.
I read that Kenny took a lot of stick for some signings as Liverpool manager before too. One player was said to not be cut out for the top teams, just a one trick pony, no substance to his game, a waste of money. John Barnes did alright for us though, right?
And a lot a people laughed when we signed a player from the lower leagues. We were the top team in the country, why were we getting players from so far down the pyramid?! I think that player was John Aldridge, another who did alight for himself.
This is half of what's wrong with the game, especially ours. Fans aren't interested in buying potential for the future, they want big names NOW! None of this building a side and moulding them into a squad that can dominate for years, just go out and buy players who are five stars already when you played Football Manager last night.
Apologies for comparing to Utd again but they've overtaken us by having a great manager who had a good youth system and bought players wisely who will fit into his system of being able to do a job now and for years later. It's only now that Fergie is having to rebuild more than usual, beforehand he just needed to make one or two changes a season because he'd already had his squad being built for years.
Otherwise, why not just go and support Man City or Chelsea? They seem to fit some people's model perfectly. They look for the best names on Football Manager and sign them. Forget about planning for the future, who cares if the players we sign now will be too old in three years and we need to rebuild? We'll win the league NOW and that's all that matters.
Did you even read anything John Henry said when we we taken over? Do you know how the Red Sox have been run? They've been successful by spending on young players who can grow with the team and build a dynasty to last years. And they'll spend big to get those players if it means we'll be competitive for years rather than just the next year. And the Red Sox went on to do pretty well since Henry took over.
The plan is to have the club able to sustain itself without FSG needing to spend big every summer. If we can build a squad this summer that can last us 5-10 years, with only minimal changes to the squad each season after, that's the aim. Henry has said numerous times that the idea is for us to only need to rely on our own income to buy players, to be a self sufficient club. If we go and sign these superstar players, what happens in 2-3 years when they need replacing? FSG won't have the money available again to replace a £50m player and I doubt the club will be making the money to replace them itself. And then there's FFP rules.
And lastly, why would players choose us? We're not in Europe next season, let alone the Champions League where superstar players want to be. And we won't be paying silly wages either, Henry has already commented that our wage bill is too high. So what reason would big names join us? A good project? No, players are like some of you in here. They don't think about the future, they want the here and now. And they have a point, their careers don't last long. Hopefully our football club is here to stay and we need to plan for dominating for years again, like we did.
I can't be bothered to post any more discussing the rights and wrongs of Kenny's transfers, it's just a roundabout. Nobody is going to change their opinion anyway. And if we dont win the league next season, those people will be all "See! If we signed X player, we'd have won it all easily!!!". Hopefully we'll soon be in a position to win the league on a regular basis in a couple of years. And I wonder if those same fans still will be criticising the players were signing now, or Kenny's transfer policy.
Kenny has done more than enough to earn our trust, why not give him some?
