Brendan Rodgers and the transfer market

[Pureblood]

It just seems like we have no coherent transfer strategy at all despite this committee.  Rafa and Houllier signed some shite but at least they knew their markets and could bring in quality as well, drawing from a pool of players they obviously knew about for years to give them a greater chance of success.  With us now it's like we threw a dart at the map and it landed on Lazar Markovic.  

[Mathewbet1]

Surely our scouting system is flawed? Cant think of another explanation. Markovic would have been scouted extensively? There is a lot of luck in the transfer market though, but we have been especially shite at it in recent years. it the whole quality over quantity thing. If we had signed one or maybe two players equal or or in the same ball park as suarez it would have been better than all our signings combined this season.

[Fi!]

Do we even have scouts looking around Europe for players. From our current transfers, it seems like our scouts are too lazy to even scout on Football Manager.

[stringvest]

Rodgers has final say on all signings, just like every manager we ever had.  It's bizarre to think that there are people who don't believe this to be the case.  

[zigackly]

Between 1974 and 1990, we could pretty much take our pick of the best players we wanted. Now, given that non British born players seem to prefer living in London to almost anywhere else in the UK, there's an extra block to signing the best which generally we cannot afford.

 

Do players really prefer to live in London? We like to say so, but it's also a convenient mask for the fact that the bigger London clubs are all prepared to pay more wages than we are.

[thompsonsnose]

The buck stops with Brendan Rodgers.

He earned praise for last season,and rightly so. At the moment he is under pressure for the first time and deserves some constructive criticism but it will go away if we finish in the top four,which we easily could.

I personally believe he needs to put his vision of fast attacking football on the backburner for a short while and be a bit more flexible and fit a formation around his players available rather than making his players play the way he sees as perfect. Results are what matter at the moment and wins breed confidence.

For the record,i believe we've made some excellent signings but ignored our most crucial if we are going to play on the front foot all the time. A DM is crucial.

I agree with this 100%.

He didn't sign enough of the right players in the summer for the way he wants to play.

Which is firstly fucking bizarre, and secondly, i'd say, dawning on him right about now.

Bearing in mind Gerrard and Lucas are of no use whatsoever playing like that, he left himself a bit thin.

Not a criticism of Gerrard,he needs to play as an attacker when he plays.

But that's another story.

[Brownie]

Rodgers has final say on all signings, just like every manager we ever had. It's bizarre to think that there are people who don't believe this to be the case.

He has nowhere near as much freedom as previous managers have had.

[ratcatcher]

OK, hands up, who'd have paid £28m for Lukaku at the end of last season?

[mattyq]

He has nowhere near as much freedom as previous managers have had.

How do you know this, Brownie?

Bear in mind that Kenny had to operate under that fraud DoF, Comolli.

Hodgson had to operate under the auspices of him being a fucking spastic and severe financial constraints and Rafa had to operate under 2 of the worst owners in known history and severe financial restraints

[Ranxerox]

He has nowhere near as much freedom as previous managers have had.

 

I tend to agree

[Denny Crane]

He has nowhere near as much freedom as previous managers have had.

 

He signed a long-term contract very recently. I can only assume he is vey happy with his working conditions and the set-up. He was quite happy to take the plaudits for wonderful technicians last season, Coutinho, Sturridge etc, you can't pick and choose, when it suits.

[aws]

He's had far more freedom in the sense that he's had far more cash to spend. And I suspect he's had as much influence in choice of players as well.

 

I reckon this "transfer committee" is not much more than a process for finding and screening potential candidates. I don't believe for one second they can buy a player without Brendan's approval.

[LFC 6 Times]

Markovic was the one that I struggle to understand most, we spent 20 million on a prospect when it was patently obvious we needed some class and guile to replace the void of Suarez. I know I'm banging on about Lazar too much but I've never seen less courage or craft from an attacking player and even at benfica I wasn't impressed, had we got someone like Shaqiri or even konoplaynka we'd be in a far better shape.

[ratcatcher]

Markovic was the one that I struggle to understand most, we spent 20 million on a prospect when it was patently obvious we needed some class and guile to replace the void of Suarez. I know I'm banging on about Lazar too much but I've never seen less courage or craft from an attacking player and even at benfica I wasn't impressed, had we got someone like Shaqiri or even konoplaynka we'd be in a far better shape.

 

Shaqiri has already said bayern wouldnt accept Liverpool's bid, same with the ukrainian lad. How are we supposed to buy players when their clubs wont sell? Make them a stupid offer? Then the club is accused of paying inflated fees.

 

It just cant fucking win.

[ratcatcher]

Kono was available, but we decided that Markovic was the better option. 

 

Ive no idea who kono is.

[Brownie]

I'm not suggesting that players can be bought without Rodgers approval although I know that does apply to sales.

 

The way the committee has been explained suggests that group decisions are made.

 

In that sense, I don't think he would be able to buy a player without a majority agreement, and if so then I think that's wrong.

[ritchie]

I find it frustrating that Rodgers is the fall guy when the club operates with a transfer committee, of which Rodgers is just one voice.

 

I'm sure we don't sign players that Rodgers isn't okay with but whilst there is a committee, there needs to be collective accountability in my opinion.

 

If it was up to Rodgers we'd have only gone out and got Ashley Williams, Vorm and Bertrand instead of Sakho, Mignolet and Moreno so I don't think the committee are particularly turning away from loads of boss player to get these other lads in.

 

Our whole transfer strategy is a complete clusterfuck. We sign players without knowing what to do with them, where to play them, in what system and what position or style of play. It's no good signing tiki-taka players and playing route one or signing a load of wingers and number 10s and playing a diamond. Our transfer strategy is like Spurs'. We buy players who are better than mid-table but not good enough for top 4. We struck lucky with Suarez and they struck lucky with Bale and Modric. Once they go you're back to square one.

 

The transfer policy would be a lot easier if we knew what position and style of play we were going with rather than change it every week. But are we having to do that because we buy so poorly? it's a bit of both and it's not going to change. LFC is permeated with mediocre staff in top positions and until that changes this will happen every summer. Rodgers is a talented coach trying to learn his trade at a top club and whether it's in the boardroom, the scouts, or his coaching staff he hasn't got strong enough experience around him. He'd be better off with that DOF he wouldn't have. He's got nobody to give him advice.

[Brownie]

He's had far more freedom in the sense that he's had far more cash to spend. And I suspect he's had as much influence in choice of players as well.

 

I reckon this "transfer committee" is not much more than a process for finding and screening potential candidates. I don't believe for one second they can buy a player without Brendan's approval.

That sounds more like the scouting department.

[ngogswilly]

I found the whole Mario signing odd as in Rodgers came out weeks before hand categorically saying we wouldn't be signing him. It wasn't the usual bullshit dismissal either, it was a proper no fucking chance statement. 

 

So it's weird that we ended up signing him. Maybe it was purely to throw other clubs off the scent since I'd guess if it was common knowledge he was available there would have been other suitors. 

[Brownie]

I found the whole Mario signing odd as in Rodgers came out weeks before hand categorically saying we wouldn't be signing him. It wasn't the usual bullshit dismissal either, it was a proper no fucking chance statement.

 

So it's weird that we ended up signing him. Maybe it was purely to throw other clubs off the scent since I'd guess if it was common knowledge he was available there would have been other suitors.

I think his comments since have helped to explain that, with a bit of reading between the lines.

 

He basically suggested that it was Balotelli or no-one so whatever the options were that he preferred fell through in some way or another.

 

After what happened with Dempsey I think he was pretty pragmatic with his decision.

[ritchie]

I found the whole Mario signing odd as in Rodgers came out weeks before hand categorically saying we wouldn't be signing him. It wasn't the usual bullshit dismissal either, it was a proper no fucking chance statement. 

 

So it's weird that we ended up signing him. Maybe it was purely to throw other clubs off the scent since I'd guess if it was common knowledge he was available there would have been other suitors. 

 

Milan had Mario up for sale and nobody looked at him twice. We were desperate to sign a striker and didn't know who else to get so we got him because he was available. Milan were delighted.

 

At least when we signed Carroll he was a sought after player with other clubs interested (but never at 35 mill). 

[Section_31]

Tired of this patronising narrative that 'we're not the biggest club in England so we can't attract the best players' bollocks. That doesn't excuse buying absolute shite.

 

We attracted Hamann, we scouted and attracted Hyypia, we found players like Patrik Berger who - while having some obvious flaws - wasn't an overpriced useless sack of shite.

 

We attracted Mascherano, Reina (who was class in his prime), Torres, Alonso, Suarez.

 

Word to the wise - we have bought good players before, it is possible if you go about things the right way, don't be fooled into thinking otherwise.

[Russ Atmosphere]

We agreed terms with both Balotelli and Eto'o then when the Balotelli deal went through Eto'o resigned himself to Everton. It isnt working out well for us.

[Grinch]

I found the whole Mario signing odd as in Rodgers came out weeks before hand categorically saying we wouldn't be signing him. It wasn't the usual bullshit dismissal either, it was a proper no fucking chance statement. 

 

So it's weird that we ended up signing him. Maybe it was purely to throw other clubs off the scent since I'd guess if it was common knowledge he was available there would have been other suitors. 

 

He also said he'd be mad to let Carroll leave without a replacement, meant little in the end up.

[Tony Moanero]

I found the whole Mario signing odd as in Rodgers came out weeks before hand categorically saying we wouldn't be signing him. It wasn't the usual bullshit dismissal either, it was a proper no fucking chance statement.

 

So it's weird that we ended up signing him. Maybe it was purely to throw other clubs off the scent since I'd guess if it was common knowledge he was available there would have been other suitors.

Brendan Rodgers has explained why we signed Balotelli.