Liverpools plight a result of their shocking failure in the transfer market NOVEMBER 12, 2014 7:17:47 AM PST By David Usher Liverpools overall record in the transfer market during the Premier League era really doesnt make for pleasant reading. Hundreds of millions of pounds have been squandered in a vain attempt to re- establish the Reds as the major force they once were and that ineptitude in the transfer market is the single biggest reason for their failure to win a league title since 1990. Graeme Souness set the ball rolling by blowing millions on Paul Stewart, Julian Dicks, Dean Saunders, Torben Piechnik and others. Poor signings led to the poor results that cost him his job. Roy Evans took over from the Scot but fared little better; buying the likes of Oyvind Leonhardsen, Phil Babb, Bjorn Tore Kvarme and Sean Dundee. Liverpool went close to the title under Evans but failure to add the players who could make the difference proved to be the downfall of the popular Scouser. Next up was Gerard Houllier, who ultimately lost his job because El Hadji Diouf, Salif Diao and Bruno Cheyrou flopped spectacularly. Rafa Benitez enjoyed early success but mediocrity followed, with millions wasted on Robbie Keane, Alberto Aquilani, Andrea Dossena and others. Yet among all the misses there were still plenty of hits. Souness signed Mark Wright and Rob Jones while Evans recruited Patrik Berger, Danny Murphy and Stan Collymore. Houlliers success was based on signings such as Sami Hyypia, Stephane Henchoz, Didi Hamann, Gary McAllister and others, while Benitez can point to Xabi Alonso, Javier Mascherano and Fernando Torres as examples of spectacularly good signings he made. As for Roy Hodgson ... well, lets not talk about that. But by and large, youd have to say that Liverpool have had far more misses than hits when signing players and -- worryingly for Kopites -- the strike rate appears to have gotten significantly worse since Fenway Sports Group bought the club. They initially hired Damien Comolli as a director of football to work with manager Kenny Dalglish before firing both for poor results. Comolli claimed last week that it was the signing of Jordan Henderson that got him the sack. Nothing to do with the 60 million (and then some) wasted on Andy Carroll, Stewart Downing, Charlie Adam, then? OK. The Frenchman was replaced by this much vaunted transfer committee consisting of Brendan Rodgers, managing director Ian Ayre, head of recruitment Dave Fallows and director of technical performance Michael Edwards. If anything, theyve been even worse; at least Comolli can say that Luis Suarez was signed on his watch. The current regime have been dining out on the signings of Daniel Sturridge and Philippe Coutinho for nearly two years now. Even last year, when Liverpool went closer than ever to ending their title drought, it was in spite of what theyd done the previous summer rather than because of it. Aly Cissokho, Victor Moses, Iago Aspas and Luis Alberto were all shipped out within a year, Tiago Ilori has spent two seasons out on loan, Kolo Toure has generally been fourth choice, and Mamadou Sakho has been largely disappointing despite a fine pedigree and big reputation. The likes of Aspas and Alberto were gambles that didnt pay off, but Sakho should have been risk-free, given his proven quality. Goalkeeper Simon Mignolet has been a mainstay of the team at least, even if he has been far from convincing and rumours persist that Rodgers is looking to replace him. Just why have Liverpool been so poor for so long in the transfer market, though? In some cases, the players were just not very good to begin with, but more often than not the problem has been that for whatever reason, Liverpool seem to have this uncanny knack of making good players look bad. From Fernando Morientes to Rickie Lambert, Nigel Clough to Joe Cole, Sebastian Coates to Dejan Lovren, players who looked the part elsewhere have struggled to reproduce that form on Merseyside. Its rare that Liverpool sign bad players; most of the time they just become bad when they pull on the red shirt. Even Milan Jovanovic looked decent before joining Liverpool, yet one season at Anfield turned him into a laughingstock. Dont believe me? The top search result for him on YouTube is a comical failed diving header attempt against Arsenal. This year, the problem has been more evident than ever. Whether the players signed during the summer were good enough for a club with Liverpools ambitions is certainly debatable. Whether they are better than they have shown so far is not. Take Lambert, for example. Despite spending his entire career in the lower leagues, he impressed everybody in his two seasons at Premier League-level with Southampton and even became a regular on the England squad. Hes clearly a good player who can score and create goals, yet he has looked about as comfortable as an elephant on a bicycle since moving to Liverpool. Rodgers doesnt need him to be Ian Rush, he only needed him to be the player he was at Southampton. Perhaps starting him more instead of sending him on as a last throw of the dice when the team is losing would help him regain some form but there is no guarantee of that. Lazar Markovic cost 20 million pounds and was billed as one of the brightest young talents in European football. Its far too early to render definitive judgment on him, but he does look like a little boy lost. Some players take time to settle but usually theyll show something. Has Markovic done anything of note at all? Mario Balotelli is another, but so much has been written about the Italian I have no wish to add to it, other than to say you dont play for Inter, AC Milan, Manchester City and Italy if youre useless. Yet thats exactly how Balotelli has looked since moving to Liverpool. Then theres Lovren. How can he go from being so commanding for Southampton and Croatia to the complete mess weve seen this season? If this were just a recent thing, it could be placed on the shoulders of Rodgers, but this has been Liverpools Achilles heel for 25 years now. Just what is it about LFC that impacts certain players performances so negatively? Is it the weight of the shirt, as Rodgers often likes to say, or is it simply a case that they sign talented players who just are not a good fit for how the team plays? Liverpool need to find the answer s HBoon; this squandering of hundreds of millions of pounds has to stop if they are ever to become genuine challengers again. Its not just about signing good players -- its about signing the right players
Posted on: Thu, 13 Nov 2014 08:11:24 +0000
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