The summer of little cash

[Fowler_God]

I have to say that this summer is starting to feel a little like last year (the one that was supposdly never to be repeated).

While most are saying Rafa has a shed load of cash to spend, but is trying to send out the message we are skint, i believe we are actually skint (in trasnfer money terms)
If we did have a few bob then i believe he would have signed Alves by now as he appears his number 1 target for the right, but trying to call Sevilles bluff for so long now appears to mean we are skint.
In net spend Rafa has not spent mega since he has been here, and this is his 3rd summer here now and in that time he has brought in the extra revenue of 2 successful cup runs which would not have been budgeted for.

Obviously the more you spend on a player does not mean they will become a great player, but having the money there in the first place gives you 'more possiblites' as Rafa aould say. So if we are being pissed about like we are by sevilla then instead of only really having pennant as the other option we would have the money to make several others an option too.

The only real reason i can see that Rafa is having to piss around in the transfer market and allowing it, is because Moores and Parry are trying to make the club more attractive to investment, (kind of like the villa princable, but not as bad).
If the club accounts show a good couple of years of results, i.e good profit, reducing costs and reducing debts then Moores/parry have the upper hand in any potential investment deal. So for now Rafa knows he has to play the market, but with the promise of a pot of gold at the end of it.
Judging by Rafa signing his new contract then he must have been made assurances about something, which we all presumed was a bucket full of cash to play with this summer, but possible it was something more long term that he was promised, so the summer of frustration will continue.

[FaganK]

You know if this summer works out like last summer i will be very happy. the players rafa brought in last summer brought us an extra 20points in the league!

there is a common misconception that we must sign so called 'big names', but i think people forget that our side is alread full of big names,such as reina, gerrard, alonso, finnan, kewell, carragher. all of who'm we'd be wetting ourselves if were being linked with this summer.

we have signed bellamy who in reality is worth 12M so he is a big name striker.

i dont think we are as skint as people say. every summer we say it and we end uyp spedning a fair bit of cash. i dont want us to be like newcatle who throw silly money at big name players despite being 90M in debt and have nothing to show for it.

i still think we will sign alves and another striker and maybe even pennant aswell.

alves is not a 'big name' in my opinion, before we were linked with him, most of us knew little of him, its only cause of this drawn out saga that we have built him up.

im not worried, noone esle has signed anyone really, we still have over a month to get people in.

in rafa i trust

[Neuklon]

I'm not worried yet as I'm hopeful Rafa has about

[kurtangle01]

i think it's common that we as fans get concerned when we appear to be outspent by the likes of tottenham and newcastle but i don't neccesarily think that being outspent is a bad thing.

we have a shrewd manager in rafa who covers all bases when it comes to scouting and transfers and despite rick parrys flaws he will also back rafa where ever possible.

i like the idea of signing unknown players and watching them develop into top class ones whilst the likes of newcastle and tottenham try and sign anyone with a big reputation and ultimately fail in their quest for glory.

i think rafa signed his contract because he realised that he was in a job where he was given freedom, something that he wouldn't have got in spain, and that had he not signed the contract speculation about his future would still have been going on today.

[RichC]

I must admit this does feel like a long drawn out summer again on the transfer front but that being said getting the right man for the right price takes time and a lot of effort.

It is good to see that we don't just cave into the over the top demands of clubs for their players as we have done in previous managers era's.

By the end of the summer I am sure Rafa and us fans will be very happy with who has been bought in!!

[MrMichael]

So far I think we have had a pretty successful summer, once again without spending silly money. We've brought in considerably more than both ManUre and Arsenal have at this point, and the point that last summer's frugal spending brought us a 20 point improvement is a good one.

We are unable to compete financially with Chelsea, so why should we even try? Everyone likes to see the club making big signings as a statement of intent, but would we all be pleased if we had spent

[Pacman]

I think Rafa treats the money he spends as if it's how dosh. He's careful not to pay over the odds for a player and if the right one isn't available he'll wait. When he was at Valencia he went one summer not buying anyone. He wanted to strengthan but the players he thought could improve the team weren't available so he waited until they were.

I don't think we are flush but I doubt we are skint as Bascombe is making out. I think the board will give Rafa the money if he really needs it. We have a great manager and I don't think Liverpool Football Club will allow him to leave because they didn't back him in the transfer market.

I'm sure we'll sign one, two or maybe 3 more players but I agree with Fagan in that they wont be big names or so called 'star players'. As our great manager states 'it's all about tables and legs'.

[RichC]

I couldn't agree more with what we have been doing on the transfer front, as you have said Speedy, Palleta, Bellamy and Aurelio for c.

[kopite]

I have to say that this summer is starting to feel a little like last year (the one that was supposdly never to be repeated).

While most are saying Rafa has a shed load of cash to spend, but is trying to send out the message we are skint, i believe we are actually skint (in trasnfer money terms)
If we did have a few bob then i believe he would have signed Alves by now as he appears his number 1 target for the right, but trying to call Sevilles bluff for so long now appears to mean we are skint.
In net spend Rafa has not spent mega since he has been here, and this is his 3rd summer here now and in that time he has brought in the extra revenue of 2 successful cup runs which would not have been budgeted for.

Obviously the more you spend on a player does not mean they will become a great player, but having the money there in the first place gives you 'more possiblites' as Rafa aould say. So if we are being pissed about like we are by sevilla then instead of only really having pennant as the other option we would have the money to make several others an option too.

The only real reason i can see that Rafa is having to piss around in the transfer market and allowing it, is because Moores and Parry are trying to make the club more attractive to investment, (kind of like the villa princable, but not as bad).
If the club accounts show a good couple of years of results, i.e good profit, reducing costs and reducing debts then Moores/parry have the upper hand in any potential investment deal. So for now Rafa knows he has to play the market, but with the promise of a pot of gold at the end of it.
Judging by Rafa signing his new contract then he must have been made assurances about something, which we all presumed was a bucket full of cash to play with this summer, but possible it was something more long term that he was promised, so the summer of frustration will continue.

Good post, I would agree with yourcomments as it best reflects the feelings of most fans,

But needless to say if money was that tight ,why go, for the likes of Kuyt and Alves, why not just go for season loan deals ?

Juventus and the like are looking quite good due to their situation

[LFCman]

Have Liverpool ever really been a big spending club though?

I know that we SHOULD be in a position to at least afford a 10 mill player for Rafa. But how do we know if it is that we are skint or if it is actually Rafa himself who doesn't like to be ripped off?

Other clubs haven't really been running hot in the transfer market so we have no reason to panic yet IMO. In fact it's probably us who have strengthened best considering the money we have spent.

[Kinell]

Possibly the board are a little hesitant about transfers funds at the moment because of the new stadium financial situation?

[JRG]

Have Liverpool ever really been a big spending club though?

I know that we SHOULD be in a position to at least afford a 10 mill player for Rafa. But how do we know if it is that we are skint or if it is actually Rafa himself who doesn't like to be ripped off?

Other clubs haven't really been running hot in the transfer market so we have no reason to panic yet IMO. In fact it's probably us who have strengthened best considering the money we have spent.

Well siad, I think his prudenec has been shown to be effective, and we've got real qaulity for relatively little outlay..Maureen on the other hand has gambled quite a bit - we'll see who is the most effcetive.

[anfieldanfield]

So far I think we have had a pretty successful summer, once again without spending silly money. We've brought in considerably more than both ManUre and Arsenal have at this point, and the point that last summer's frugal spending brought us a 20 point improvement is a good one.

Strongly disagree.

Last summer we brought in Reina, Sissoko and Crouch, for a combined fee of around

[MrMichael]

Fair points, but I'm going to stick to my guns. We had considerably more work to do last summer, this year should really be more about fine tuning. Including purchases in January; Bellamy I think will offer far more options than Cisse ever could, Fowler will more than adequately replace Morientes, and the signing of Aurelio will see the departure of, god love him and thanks, Traore. Agger and Paletta will atleast provide significantly better cover for Hyppia and Carra than we had, while Gonzales may be an unknown quantity but has something we have been lacking in bag-fulls, pace down the wing.

Although we have yet to bring in the quality right winger we all crave, and could probably do with another striker and some centre-mid cover, I really don't think we are far off now at all. Given the almost total lack of expenditure I think that qualifies as atleast reasonably successful so far

[PLY]

I'm happy with the signings so far and there seems to be a distinct possibility that we're waiting to confirm Champions League qualification before spending further.

Gonzalez provides at least another option on the left wing , Bellamy is significantly better than Cisse IMO , Aurelio is far better competition for Riise than Traore and Paletta may just provide Carra with a much needed rest in a couple of games. That is improvement all over the pitch as far as I'm concerned and if we can add the elusive right midfielder to that list I'll be well happy.