When Arsenal bid £40million and £1 – wrongly believing it would trigger a non-existent release clause – to try and sign Luis Suarez in the summer of 2013, Liverpool owner John W Henry famously took to Twitter to mockingly remark: “What do you think they’re smoking over there at the Emirates?”
While they certainly have no reason yet to get the cigars out at Arsenal – given their trials and tribulations this season and the ongoing debate over Arsene Wenger’s future – there will be a puff of satisfaction in knowing it was they and not Liverpool who then signed Alexis Sanchez, who is a more than serviceable clone of Suarez.
Wenger and Brendan Rodgers will face questions over Sanchez in their pre-match press conferences on Friday. Sanchez, who has been an outstanding success in a patchy campaign for Arsenal, will obviously be one of the major themes going into the meeting between the two sides at Anfield on Sunday and it will be a more comfortable conversation for Wenger than Rodgers.
Liverpool wanted the Chilean as Suarez’s replacement. They talked to Barcelona about the deal. They did not hide their interest. They even bid more than the £35million Arsenal paid for the forward, around £3million more, but Sanchez decided that he wanted to join the London club – and a big draw was that it is a London club. Geography is indisputably a factor for some foreign players. Sanchez also argued he wanted to play with Mesut Ozil and that he had a better chance of winning trophies. And all that might be true.
Liverpool tried. He did not want to come. What else could they do but move on? But did they really try enough? Did they show a ‘big-club mentality’ in making such a persuasive case to acquire Sanchez that he would not say no?
In other words did they throw enough money at him and at Barcelona so that he could not say no? What if they had bid £45million? £50million?
Maybe that would not have been the right reasons to sign him. Maybe a ‘big-club mentality’ is to move on. No-one wants a mercenary – but no-one is saying Sanchez is that. Liverpool are a big club; a huge club given how they have retained their status and interest despite a relative lack of success. Last summer was a time to demonstrate real ambition and there would have been no greater demonstration of ambition than blowing the opposition out of the water to get him.
Sanchez was perfect for Liverpool; probably even a better fit, stylistically, than he is for Arsenal. He has the desire and attitude to fit into the high-tempo, pressing way that Rodgers wants his team to play.
If not Sanchez then it had to be someone else. Someone similar - a marquee name. And pay what it takes.
Instead Liverpool moved on. Their strategy was clear. They decided to strengthen their squad, add to the numbers, increase its depth, let Rodgers work and develop. It was a strategy that looked good on paper and is largely sound in practice. It looked sound and sensible.
They effectively copied the approach that Tottenham Hotspur took when they sold Gareth Bale for £85million, even though that failed.
At this point I should admit that I thought Spurs’ strategy might work and wrote so at the time. Some of their acquisitions – such as Roberto Soldado and Erik Lamela – were exciting, although in mitigation I did not appreciate just how tense relations were between the then head coach Andre Villas-Boas and chairman Daniel Levy. I thought they could turn a huge negative into a positive.
Villas-Boas not only thought Spurs bought too many players – seven in all – but missed out, or did not attempt to buy, his main targets. He wanted three, four players and then for the club to wait if they could not bring in who he wanted. Spurs went too far.
And Liverpool have gone even further. Nine – nine! – players have been brought in, including Divock Origi, who has remained on loan at Lille. But not one is close to replacing Suarez. Daniel Sturridge’s injury problems have been a terrible set-back – but Liverpool knew he was a player with a poor record of remaining fit.
What both Spurs and now Liverpool can stand accused of is failing to think big. They tried to be prudent - and fair enough. But they can be both prudent and also take that one big plunge as well. And we are not talking about Mario Balotelli. No-one would blame a club further down the Premier League, with lower ambitions, and fewer resources – West Bromwich Albion, Stoke City, Sunderland – of selling a superstar if they possessed one and using it to bring in several players to strengthen their squad.
Did you know Telegraph Sport has a Liverpool Facebook page?
But Liverpool finished second, they returned to the Champions League, they expect to kick on, progress, win trophies. Suarez did not go because Liverpool missed out on the Premier League title or because he bit Giorgio Chiellini at the World Cup. Despite signing a new long-term deal last year Liverpool always knew that season was likely to be his last.
So was there enough contingency planning? Did enough thought go into identifying and recruiting the right replacement, or getting that vital piece of the jigsaw in place? It was not just Sanchez. Liverpool looked at Radamel Falcao, at Edinson Cavani. Both deals were very expensive. But something big had to be done. I go back to it - if not Sanchez then someone else. And pay what it takes.
They had to get a game-changer; a match-winner to add to Sturridge and to give the new recruits another leader alongside Steven Gerrard. They have Raheem Sterling who is outstanding but he is only just 20 and his future needs to be settled.
Rodgers is only partly to blame – there is the transfer committee and the club’s owners Fenway Sports Group have a specific recruitment strategy – and pretty much come what may this season the manager’s position should not be under genuine threat. That makes absolutely no sense especially given the strategy and the long-term approach. Let him work.
Liverpool had to improve the “numbers and that quality and depth” of their squad Rodgers said at the start of the campaign. “So, irrespective of Luis staying or going, it was something we had to do,” he said.
And there is the point. Liverpool had to strengthen in terms of numbers if Suarez stayed; they had to strengthen in terms of numbers and also a replacement for Suarez if he went. They succeeded in the former; failed in the latter.
- Who are Arsenal and Liverpool targeting in the January transfer window?
0 nhận xét:
Đăng nhận xét