25 Jan 2016 14:49:57
Scary to think how many genuinly good players we have let slip through our grasp recently for no reason.
And no i'm not talking about all the ronaldo or batistuta bull, true it may be i'm talking about very recently.
While there have been a few i am glad we didn't get, eg mkhitaryan, willian, soldado etc, for every one of them there is a hidden gem that leaves you scratching your head.
The most recent example is of course dele alli - he had talent and was desperate to come to us, how many players can you say that about these days? But clearly giving 140k wages to james milner was a better alternative.
Balotelli over lacazette? Lacazette was well within our grasp before he started putting serious numbers away for lyon, but somehow we ended up getting balotelli?
Konoplyanka on a free? How did we miss this one out when we were willing to pay 12 million before him 2 years before? Clearly it was much more logical to spend 20 million on markovic or 25 million on adam lallana the year before.
Also why didn't we try and move in again for diego costa when we sold suarez, especially when we almost signed him as a replacement the year before?
Why were the club so eager to pay £32 million for benteke, a player who clearly didn't fit and made no sense for us, when bacca was available for half the price?
There are of course many other examples from recent times, lloris, butland, eriksen, bertrand, and players who we somehow didn't pick up on the radar eg payet.
You do just have to wonder who on earth makes the decisions at the club and whether it will get any better under klopp in terms of ins and outs, as well as the money spent on players. The caulker loan is an encouraging sign - he may be awful, but he provides cover for 6 months while we wait to obtain joel matip, who gets a good name as a quality defender, on a free transfer. i'd prefer this to splashing 25 million on a no mark centre back from the portuguese league who everyone reckons is good because they've been linked to united in the daily star a few times.
Time will only tell if our decision making in recruitment gets any better.
25 Jan 2016 15:09:07
I see nothing about Bacca to suggest he would have been a better fit for us than Benteke.
Costa had already rejected our approach once and let's be fair, he's a nasty piece of work.
Couldn't tell you why we passed up on Kono, but I'm not really sure Lacazette was ever a viable option for us, tbh.
25 Jan 2016 15:18:15
Hindsight is a wonderful thing :)
25 Jan 2016 15:23:07
Hindsight is a wonderful thing. I'm sorry but I disagree with a lot of this. You do have some very valid points but a lot of the post seems to be hinging on hindsight and a lot of the players I wouldn't consider comparable.
Delli Ali or James Milner? I don't think it's fair to compare these and other than by using hindsight I don't think the majority of fans would have switched at the time.
Obviously Lacazette would have been a way better signing than Balotelli but who wouldn't? I don't think he was attainable at the time.
Kono for 12m may have been better value than Markovic, and even Lallana, but there's a fairly strong chance that he wouldn't have worked out either and you may have him in the list of who we shouldn't have signed then!
We tried for Costa the year before his best year. His profile grew, he attracted the interest of Chelsea and Mourinho and he wanted to go there.
I agree with you that Benteke's style never looked like he would suit but Bacca was not available for half the price. He went for over 20m still and his wages would also be a lot more than half of Benteke's. He is also older. I'd have agreed with you on this if you just said Bacca would have made more sense in the short to medium term but you went in to money which I don't think is valid here.
Lloris - since when have we ever been interested or when did we have a chance to sign him?
Butland - he has come on leaps and bounds this season - this to me is pure hindsight. Yes he was highly regarded but he did not look impressive in the few chances he got before this season.
Eriksen - we didn't really want to be his stepping stone, he may have grown up since but this is one the majority wanted to avoid at the time.
Bertrand - there were arguments over Bertrand the time we were going for Moreno. EMS was mad for him but I don't recall anyone else being as keen. I think Ed002 mentioned him as well.
The last comment about players we somehow didn't pick up on the radar and Payet as your example - we cannot sign everybody.
25 Jan 2016 15:40:37
What is wrong with Willian and mhki?
25 Jan 2016 15:43:14
I stop reading when you mention willian as a player u r glad Liverpool did not get, something is wrong there. R u ok, bro?
25 Jan 2016 15:44:46
I disagree with your point on Wilian, but i respect why you're glad. He was grossly over priced. The most glaring weaknesses in our team are a) wingers b) set piece specialists.
Willian is both of those things. Pace, energy, skill, flair, wicked delivery, great shot from dead ball etc. He has more goals (8) this season than Milner and Lallana combined (7). Our lack of goals from midfield is a major issue and Willian is almost at double figures with half a season to go.
I know a few people will disagree with me (including Ed001) but I think Willian is a good player who'd be a massive improvement on what we have.
25 Jan 2016 15:55:05
Sean, e prob is Spurs manage to sign those we ought to. So we got to look at why we miss out on Dele Ali, Son min heung who are there for taking. Its a structural issue if we keep buying over valued players.
25 Jan 2016 16:02:21
You don't see how bacca would have been a better fit for us, have you seen him this season in an average ac Milan side? Did you watch him the last couple of seasons at Sevilla? He's scored 12 in 24 and 3 assists in all competitions in a team that don't create half as many chances as we do. Bacca is a similar player to Suarez, not as good but very similar, benteke is a slightly better version of balotelli. Bacca would have been a much better fit and would hardly ever be injured as his injury history shows, plus at the price he went for, you have to be blind to think it wasn't a better deal.
No one else would have paid £32.5 m for benteke. We all knew he wasn't going to be the right fit, most people wanted bacca for a reason, even ed1 said he preferred him over benteke at the time.
25 Jan 2016 16:33:54
Goals scored isn't really an indication of how well a player will do for us though. Not like Benteke didn't score plenty of goals in the last 3 seasons, and yeah AC Milan might be a little average compared to before but let's face it mate, so are we.
25 Jan 2016 17:18:29
Leekuanyew, I can agree with you that Spurs have signed some good players in recent seasons alright but I don't think we should be trying to sign everyone. They have also signed plenty of duds (Yedlin, Trippier, Davies, Fernando Fazio (CB), Holtby, Soldado) .
25 Jan 2016 18:08:24
There is no doubt in my mind that for whatever reason, the TC are getting it wrong way too often.
How could they have agreed to pay so much for benteke when some competent scouting wouldve shown what we amateurs can now see- that his style was so different to rodger's style (and now klopps) that he would be a very poor fit?
Has delle alli turned into a genius in 15 games? No, his quality must have been obvious when they watched him last season.
Somehow, that committee are discussing things, and accepting input, and prioritising things, in such a way that they are consistently getting it wrong.
The wrong opinions are ending up being the deciding ones. The wrong criteria are being used to make final decisions too often.
The dynamics of that group are not working right, and for every Firmino or Can, they sign a Benteke, or a milner- good players and decent guys most of them, but not what we need.
I remember when they put accountants in charge of my company's purchasing. instead of listening to the people who knew what products were good value and worked the accountants usually selected suppliers on the cheapest price, and we then got machinery that broke down and wasted days, consumables that fitted the machines badly and held up work repeatedly, and all sorts of other costly problems.
That comittee is making decisions badly, for some reason, and our costly mistakes will happen again until its workings are sorted out.
{Ed001's Note - there is a problem with the scouting department in my opinion, which has not been fixed with the changes.}
25 Jan 2016 18:51:05
Nah willian is no more than a better than average utility player for chelsea who cost about £30 million, maybe more i can't remember. I just don't see what he offers that's so drastically amazing and different from everyone else, he has good delivery and dead balls and that's it. When we were linked with him everyone made out he had a touch of a wizard and would terrorise defences across the country. Sorry but that didn't happen, and if he had joined liverpool we would be wondering what we paid the money for - but since its chelsea and they have money to burn, nobody sees him as a flop.
25 Jan 2016 19:40:34
Then, must have never seen Bacca play, welshboy. He is a beast of a player. Runs all day, pressess, works hard and can still score goals for fun (over 22 last season playing up top on his own and scored twice in the EL final) . i`ve seen him at seville and Milan this season and each time he plays and scores, I am so frustrated with BR`s incompetence at ignoring bacca who was there for the taking and got Benteke who many said doesn`t fit our style. Bacca is an animal nad he was the one many of us here really wanted. i suggest you go watch him closely. He and Firmino behind would have been lethal.