Dalglish spends big and buys British, but are they worth it?

Liverpool manager has clear policy as he rebuilds club with capture of Villa winger – taking spending to £100m

By Tim Rich in Kuala Lumpur

Friday, 15 July 2011

Stewart Downing arrives at Liverpool's Melwood training ground yesterday. Kenny Dalglish is flying back to tie up the deal

Kenny Dalglish's last public act on Liverpool's tour of Asia was to engage in some public banter with Phil Thompson in front of 38,000 fans who had come to see his players engage in a little light training.

It proved that, however firm their place is in Anfield's pantheon, Thompson and Dalglish have a limited future as a comedy double act, although the reception they received would have flattered Morecambe and Wise. Then, the Liverpool manager was driven to the airport for a 6,000 mile overnight flight to Merseyside to meet his newest signing, Stewart Downing.

The chance to welcome the 26-year-old winger, who has never quite fulfilled the early promise he showed at Middlesbrough, was not the reason for Dalglish's journey. There was a family engagement to fulfil but, as a player and a manager, Dalglish has never been slow to seize an opportunity.

Since his return to Anfield in what was a bleak if emotional January, Dalglish has moved swiftly. The £20m fee Liverpool will pay Aston Villa brings his total spending to £100m in seven months.

Looking at the footballers he has brought to Liverpool, it is not hard to see where he imagined the deep fault lines that undermined his predecessor, Roy Hodgson, lay. There have been two very different centre-forwards in Andy Carroll and Luis Suarez and now three midfielders. If Charlie Adam has been recruited to provide the telling through ball for Suarez, then Downing's role is to deliver the crosses that were often absent in the narrow teams Hodgson and, in his last season, Rafael Benitez oversaw.

At Blackburn and Newcastle, two clubs where Dalglish also spent big with differing results, the most common cry on the training pitches of Brockhall and Chester-le-Street would be Alan Shearer's voice demanding crosses into the box. At Melwood the Geordie accent is similar but it belongs to Carroll.

Jamie Carragher, for one, understood that this is something Liverpool have long lacked. "It's a terrific signing, there's no doubt about that whatsoever," said the man who has flung himself into the role of pressing the flesh in China and in Malaysia.

"He's been a top player in the Premier League for the last six or seven years and he will make a difference, with his ability to go outside and down the line to get quality crosses in.

"He was Aston Villa's player of the year and he will give us something that we have been lacking, genuine quality on the left hand side. Every team looking to compete needs quality players in each position and that is what we are getting back towards."

Suarez apart, the one common link in Dalglish's spending is that it has been focused on British footballers, which underpinned his success at Blackburn. In his brief, sometimes tortured, tenure at St James' Park he often shopped abroad with mixed results.

British players are relatively expensive – the £35m that took Carroll from Tyneside to the shores of the Mersey was enough for Barcelona to bring Alexis Sanchez to the Nou Camp. However, they bring with them a certain togetherness.

"I know him, so does Stevie; he knows Andy Carroll and Johnno from playing for England, so he is not going to be walking into a dressing room and be on his own," said Carragher. "He will get a great welcome because he's a good lad and a top player as well."

It is easy to feel optimistic when you are a Premier League footballer in Asia. At last night's training session Dalglish's squad were cheered and the flashbulbs glittered when they passed into an empty net. Their manager's every press conference was book ended by the kind of applause Dalglish does not expect in England, not even among his own journalists at Anfield.

Nevertheless, Dirk Kuyt, who 12 months ago was toying with a move to Internazionale, said he felt the kind of genuine optimism missing when he returned to Melwood from the World Cup. And it was not just because, for the first time in five years, he had been able to have a proper holiday.

"When I arrived at Liverpool, five or six years ago, we seemed to have two very good players for almost every position," said Kuyt. "I have just got a feeling we are getting back there. There is more rivalry, more competition but it gets the best out of you.

"The start of pre-season last year was very strange for all of us. We didn't know where the club was going with the owners but since they [Tom Hicks and George Gillett] have gone, there has been a lot of change. A change of manager and a couple of good signings like Luis Suarez and Andy Carroll.

"It all looks very positive. It is what I want and what the players want. We have to challenge with the best and it looks like we are getting there."

Canny Kenny: Will his Famous Five prove good value?

Luis Suarez

Bought from: Ajax

Fee: £22 million

Verdict: A forward obviously from the top bracket, and a bargain at £22m.

Andy Carroll

From: Newcastle United

Fee: £35m

Verdict: An inflated price which Carroll (two goals so far) will struggle to match.

Jordan Henderson

From: Sunderland

Fee: £16m

Verdict: Expensive given his experience, will have to grow into role at Anfield.

Charlie Adam

From: Blackpool

Fee: £7m

Verdict: Given Adam's technical quality, a good fee, if he can step up to a big club.

Stewart Downing

From: Aston Villa

Fee: £20m

Verdict: Perhaps £5m more than market value, Downing will have to produce at Anfield next season to justify it.

This is from talkshite...

Liverpool legend John Aldridge believes the club’s new owners will keep on spending this summer despite splashing out £58m on Andy Carroll and Luis Suarez.

Aldridge, who scored 63 goals in 104 games for the Reds in the 1980s, was delighted to see the Fenway Sports Group plough money received from the sale of Fernando Torres straight back into the transfer market. And he doesn’t expect them to stop now.

"Other signings will come in future, I’m sure of that," he said. "Kenny can build the team as time goes on because the new board have shown they are willing to spend.
“Other signings will come in future, I’m sure of that”John Aldridge

"If we had sold Torres under the last owners it could have been the last nail in our coffin. Thankfully they have gone and the new owners have re-injected the whole lot into the squad. They were happy to put their hands in their pockets, they showed their intent which makes me feel so much better. And I think they’ll do it again in the summer."

Aldridge says fans may have to be patient as Kenny Dalglish rebuilds the squad but says it can reap dividends in the end.

He said: "I remember when I went to Liverpool. I came first then Rushie went and Peter Beardsley came and John Barnes the same week. And the final piece of the jigsaw was Ray Houghton. You just have to wait, Kenny has been in this position before and he knows what he wants and he has the backers from the owners. I'm pretty sure he'll have another cheque to go out and get some young gifted players in the summer."

A player is worth what the buying club is willing to pay.

I don't agree with that myself, although I understand the phrase.

All I know, it's much better to be paying £35m for Andy Carroll & £20m for Stewart Downing than £4.5m for Poulsen & £4m for Konchesky & paying millions in interest to the RBS & expenses to the leeches every time they have a cup of coffee & piece of Fruit Cake on a Virgin Atlantic flight.

We wasted millions signing on & signing off Roy and his backroom staff.

I say let's go and waste some more money buying more players.

I must admit, I never feared bankruptcy or the end of LFC as a club, even though we were perilously close. A lot closer than I realised or wanted to admit to myself I suppose. I didn't think things would turn out the way they did with the inside coup and backstabbing, allowing FSG to procure us with little resistance.

Maybe in a few years I'll start whinging again about the amounts we are paying for players (I do like a good whinge like) but at the moment I couldn't care less if we paid £20m for Tony Hibbert..............

OK now I have gone mental.

Seriously, it is just nice & welcome to see us chasing the higher calibre & quality of player again. We are not quite chasing the world class - best of the best players, but we are getting sufficient quality players and that'll do for me.

Evans giving his 2p worth now...

Kenny has spent £105m but Liverpool are still miles off the pace warns Roy Evans

Published 23:01 14/07/11 By David Anderson

Kenny Dalglish’s £105million refit of Liverpool is NOT enough to get them into the Champions League, claims Anfield legend Roy Evans.

Evans, part of Dalglish’s Boot Room during his first spell in charge from 1985-91, feels the Reds are still short of the Premier League’s top sides.

The former Liverpool boss has warned success-starved Kopites they must give Dalglish the time to make the team one of the ­country’s elite sides again.

“When you’re at Liverpool, you always expect ­silverware,” he said.“That’s the name of the game and that’s what comes with the job.

“But I don’t think it’s going to be quite as easy as ­everybody thinks.

“Kenny has done a fantastic job and took them to a reasonable place last season.

“But, in the last home game of the season against Tottenham you saw that we were short of a little bit of class against the better teams.

"It’s going to be tough. Everyone expects Kenny to turn it around quickly. But I think it’s going to take a little bit more time than the fans would like.

“We’re still a fair bit behind the top four or five clubs in the Premier League.”

All of the £105m spent by Dalglish since he returned in January has gone on strikers and midfielders and Evans feels his old pal needs to use a few quid on the back four.

“I do feel they’re going to need a little bit of cover in defence,” he told ­radio station talkSPORT.

“Daniel Agger is a great footballer, but obviously injury-prone, and Jamie Carragher is still the lynchpin.

“He gives so much ­information to the players around him and the two young lads, [Martin] Kelly and [John] Flanagan. Carragher helps them an awful lot and he’ll be the biggest loss when he goes.

“I do feel we need to find a centre-back, as we seem a bit short at the back, and that’s a worry.”

Dalglish, who has broken off from the club’s Asian tour to oversee Stewart Downing’s £20m signing from Aston Villa, disagrees with Evans’ ­pessimistic assessment of their prospects for the new season.

The Scot claims that missing out on Europe for the first time in 12 years can help them clinch a ­top-four spot.

“We’d much rather be in the Champions League than out of it and this is the first year for many years when we’ve not been in Europe,” said the Liverpool manager.

“But maybe that will be an advantage to us because we will have fewer games to play and players will have a chance to get more rest.

"All we can say is we’ll give our best for the football club. The more games we win, the more successful we’ll be.

“We can promise everyone we will give everything for the ­football club. All we can do is give our best and, if we get results, we’ll be successful.”

Downing has had his medical on ­Merseyside and has been offered a four-year deal worth £75,000 a week.

The England winger will be joined at Anfield by Doni. The Brazilian ­goalkeeper is due to complete his Bosman move from Roma today to become Pepe Reina’s ­understudy.

Fuelled by Liverpool’s revival under Dalglish and their spending this summer, Kopites feel the good times are just around the corner.

But Dalglish is not worried at having to carry this weight of expectation on his ­shoulders.

He says the players are just as desperate for success as the players.

“It’s more of an honour than a burden to manage this club,” he said. “The expectations are there, but we have to manage them and the supporters have to manage them.

“We know our fans have respect for us and ­commitment to the ­football club and we hope to get results for them.”

Read more: http://www.mirrorfootball.co.uk/news/Liverpool-news-Reds-still-not-among-Premier-League-top-sides-despite-105m-spent-on-players-under-Kenny-Dalglish-warns-Roy-Evans-article768389.html#ixzz1SBIv5gYA


I agree with some of what he said, but to say we are a fair bit behind the top 5 is rubbish.

Happy days ahead!

“We’d much rather be in the Champions League than out of it and this is the first year for many years when we’ve not been in Europe,” said the Liverpool manager.

“But maybe that will be an advantage to us because we will have fewer games to play and players will have a chance to get more rest.

Amen to that Kenny. The EL is a Mickey Mouse competition. If we end up a good period of time outside the top four then it might be worth pegging for, but seeing as we were 2nd in the league only two seasons ago, and had a run of 5 straight years was it in the CL, at the moment I would rather not be in the EL if it gives us a bit more of a chance of getting back into the higher competition.

For the benefit of our younger listeners, this does not mean that, because we are not in the EL we definitely will be in the CL next season, it just means we have a better chance.

On the other forum particularly they seem to take it as a given.

No......fifth next season I reckon. Best we can hope for.