1st team transfers since 2007

[Exiled_red]

There's a number of points here for me, firstly not all of those players were signed as first team players some were signed to provide back up (like it or not). secondly taking out the money spent on Torres and Keane leaves £55m for 13 players that's ~£4.2m each which if you look at isn't a bad average for a squad player especially at a big club. Admittedly some of those players haven't been a success but you're unlikely to get great players for that sort of money

[The Birdman]

I'm still waiting for the answer to my earlier posts when I asked Imy and Craig H who they would have signed instead for the 18 million that would have made a gauranteed massive difference and what part of our squad they would have left thin.

Some people have a lot of opinions (which is great for a forum) but not always too many answers.

[Kenneth]

There's a number of points here for me, firstly not all of those players were signed as first team players some were signed to provide back up (like it or not). secondly taking out the money spent on Torres and Keane leaves £55m for 13 players that's ~£4.2m each which if you look at isn't a bad average for a squad player especially at a big club. Admittedly some of those players haven't been a success but you're unlikely to get great players for that sort of money

Why take out Torres and Keane? Especially Keane, who was expensive turd.

[Flight]

Why take out Torres and Keane? Especially Keane, who was expensive turd.

Why include Keane at all, seeing how we got back nearly all the money he cost (even ignoring the fact Rafa tried to stop the Keane signing happening right up to and including the day it happened).

[wiw]

taps on desk waiting for Craig to reply to MrM

[Craig_H]

Poor squad, with many terrible players on lengthy over the top contracts and the club in debt we couldn't afford. Playing the worst football I can remember seeing at Anfield for decades. Struggling to make the Champions League.

Dreadful, dreadful football, going 1-0 down was the end of the game, constantly hoofing it from the back and hoping Owen would feed on scraps. On top of that, we lost Owen and Heskey and brought in Cisse for £14mill.


We were on a massive downward spiral, both in the football we were playing, the quality of our players and constantly losing massive amounts of money on poor signings. 30 points off top wasn't underachieving, that was about our level.



And, as I said, in four years we've gone from that to the number one ranked team in Europe by EUFA for the first time since 1985 and Heysel. Short memories, some of us.

Yeah to all that, but i still dont know when it was that we were apparently nearly a midtable team.

[Craig_H]

There's a number of points here for me, firstly not all of those players were signed as first team players some were signed to provide back up (like it or not). secondly taking out the money spent on Torres and Keane leaves £55m for 13 players that's ~£4.2m each which if you look at isn't a bad average for a squad player especially at a big club. Admittedly some of those players haven't been a success but you're unlikely to get great players for that sort of money

That's entirely the point i'm making - £55m spread across 13 players isnt going to get you much quality.

[MrMichael]

Yeah to all that, but i still dont know when it was that we were apparently nearly a midtable team.

I guess you could say that in terms of points rather than positions we've quite frequently been closer to mid table than to the champions.

[nbryan1764]

That's entirely the point i'm making - £55m spread across 13 players isnt going to get you much quality.

gave up reading the whole thread but...Craig are you defending Rafa here or criticising him? The points you make are exactly what he said himself. He implied that he has been stopped making the £20m signings and signing 4 £5m players instead. Craig you are simply agreeing with him! Not sure in that case why everyone is disputing what you say. Have to be fair though, considering he has been forced to shop at Kwik Save, he has a pretty good signings record.

[Flight]

That's entirely the point i'm making - £55m spread across 13 players isnt going to get you much quality.

We've only got three players left from Geds side - including the aging Sami - the others were either very poor or crocked.

Rafa has had to find two players for every position on the pitch. You are underlining what a limited budget he has had, with that in mind.

Do you think Mourhino would have done better with the money we have had to spend ? Not a chance.

[Craig_H]

I think plenty of the '£4.2m on average' signings have been little better than the deadwood they replaced.

[Exiled_red]

That's entirely the point i'm making - £55m spread across 13 players isnt going to get you much quality.

It's easy to say instead of spending that £55m on those players if we'd spent it on two or three £15-20m players we'd have been better off, but that being the case we'd have a squad of about 16 players, many of whom would be ageing and unable to play regularly for a full season. Having a few world class players playing with dross would see us in a worse position than we are now, you can't afford to carry passengers at this level

Most of these replacements are younger than the places we had before so some have time to improve or at least can be sold on for close to the purchase price if not more, the players we had before would have aged, given less to the team and reduced in value so we would have got less for them then than we did when we sold them.

The evolution of a squad on a budget such as ours, requires time and IMO many of these players are improvements on what we had before.

[Guest]

It's easy to say instead of spending that £55m on those players if we'd spent it on two or three £15-20m players we'd have been better off, but that being the case we'd have a squad of about 16 players, many of whom would be ageing and unable to play regularly for a full season. Having a few world class players playing with dross would see us in a worse position than we are now, you can't afford to carry passengers at this level

Most of these replacements are younger than the places we had before so some have time to improve or at least can be sold on for close to the purchase price if not more, the players we had before would have aged, given less to the team and reduced in value so we would have got less for them then than we did when we sold them.

The evolution of a squad on a budget such as ours, requires time and IMO many of these players are improvements on what we had before.

Great post.

[tommyg]

Bit of a stupid thread really, every club picks up players on free's or for low amounts knowing that they arent going to make World XI of the year but they're needed.

[Craig_H]

It's easy to say instead of spending that £55m on those players if we'd spent it on two or three £15-20m players we'd have been better off, but that being the case we'd have a squad of about 16 players, many of whom would be ageing and unable to play regularly for a full season. Having a few world class players playing with dross would see us in a worse position than we are now, you can't afford to carry passengers at this level

Most of these replacements are younger than the places we had before so some have time to improve or at least can be sold on for close to the purchase price if not more, the players we had before would have aged, given less to the team and reduced in value so we would have got less for them then than we did when we sold them.

The evolution of a squad on a budget such as ours, requires time and IMO many of these players are improvements on what we had before.

No we wouldnt, because we wouldnt have sold all the deadwood in the first place (only to replace it with more expensive deadwood).

Bit of a stupid thread really, every club picks up players on free's or for low amounts knowing that they arent going to make World XI of the year but they're needed.

Frees and low amounts are fine.

A total of £55m isnt.