January 2013 was a brilliant transfer window for Liverpool Football Club. Not just in the shape of the players bought into the club, nor the wages saved on those deemed surplus to requirements at Anfield, but the clear message the club sent out that it would not be forced into paying inflated fees for players as it has done before.
During the winter window, the Reds stuck to their guns and as a result ended up obtaining the services of two young, exciting, full internationals.
The club’s philosophy in the transfer window is as clear as it’s been in a long time. The target is young players with something to prove, someone who can help the team now, yet will only improve in time.
In signing Daniel Sturridge and Philippe Coutinho, Fenway Sports Group have shown they will back Rodgers with funds, if the deal is right for the club, and that is exactly how it should be.
FSG have received a lot of criticism since they took over? the club from supporters for ‘not backing their man’, but January’s purchases take Rodgers’ total spend to £49m this season – a figure no one can complain about.
Liverpool’s signings over the last few years, especially those of Stewart Downing and Andy Carroll really hurt the club. The eye-watering £55m spent on the pairing has made FSG think twice before warranting similar fees to be paid, and rightly so. Since Rodgers took over, both windows have seen a more frugal, considered approach from Liverpool. Don’t get me wrong, he’s spent money, but the signings have been very particular ones. At the date of signing, all six of Rodgers’ buys have been 23 years old or younger, with Samed Yesil, with an exceptional goal-scoring record at youth level, the only player yet to win a full international cap.
The pursuit of Thomas Ince is a prime example of the clubs patience in the transfer market. A bid of what the club see as value for money, around £6m (minus the 35% the Reds are due back thanks to a sell-on clause), was put in for Ince early in the January window. The 21-year-old has just 18 months left on his Blackpool contract, which will be 12 months in the summer, so instead of overpaying (like the Reds may well have done 12-18 months ago), to a club who won’t have as much demanding power come the next window, Liverpool simply gave The Tangerines a take it or leave it offer. They left it. we’ll There can be no doubting that Liverpool will be a bit more vigorous in our pursuit come the summer though, I’m sure.
What impressed me the most though, was not just the capture of Philippe Coutinho, but the way the club went about it. Starting with a low ball fee of around £5.6m, to test the waters was an albeit small, but encouraging sign and as simple as it may sound, the club did the total opposite when signing Jordan Henderson in 2012, lessons are clearly being learned at boardroom level, as well as on the pitch.
That bid was rejected and an improved bid of £8.5m was also turned down as Liverpool supporters became uneasy, and worried they wouldn’t get their man. Meanwhile, Southampton entered the fray, going straight in with a £10.2m offer which was accepted and a lot of supporters were calling for the Reds to match the offer and get the deal done. You wouldn’t have blamed them either, but instead of upping their offer, Liverpool simply renegotiated the £8.5m deal that was previously rejected, to see Inter receive more of the fee upfront.
This is the sort of clever business the club has lacked for a long time. It was daring to go back with a lower offer than the one Southampton had already had accepted, but it did the trick and Liverpool got their man, saving £1.7m on what the newly promoted Saints were prepared to pay.
In the past supporters have grumbled, when the club walked away from deals for now Tottenham duo Gylfi Sigurdsson and Clint Dempsey, but the capture of Coutinho and Sturridge show the manager will be backed, but only if the deal is of value and makes sense for the club.
We don’t have Russian or Arabic billionaire owners but American businessmen, who are doing their best for the welfare of the football club. As mentioned above, supporters have been embarrassed with some of the fees the club has paid in the not so distant past for players, and I for one am all for a more prudent approach.
The Sturridge deal was also impressive. The fee for a young England international with a very good goals to minutes ratio, was a fair one. His wages aren’t astronomical but the best thing was how quick the deal was done. By January 2nd, Sturridge was a Liverpool player and by January 6th, and before most clubs had even made a signing, he had played and scored for the Reds – an instant impact and one that wouldn’t have been possible had the club not been so quickly off the mark in signing the young striker.
One thing Coutinho and Sturridge have in common is they have both been without a regular mentor. Neither player has made it in the game yet, and both have something to prove.
Coutinho arrived at Internazionale with a big reputation and the world at his feet. Aged just 18, the next few years would be key to his development but in his two and a half seasons at the San Siro, the Italian giants had six different managers in charge. Such surroundings are no place for a youngster to make his mark at a club. Youngsters need to know they’re trusted, but with each new manager as desperate for points as the one that went before him, the young maestro struggled for game time.
Similarly, after arriving at Chelsea in 2009, Daniel Sturridge has been managed by four different managers – all with different styles of play, and with different ideas about how to utilise him. He rarely got more than a couple of first-team starts in a row before being benched again and, used mainly used as a substitute, Sturridge struggled to build any kind of form at Stamford Bridge.
Under Rodgers we’ve already seen firsthand just how good he is a developing youngsters and also as well as giving players confidence, and both signings are perfect for Rodgers’ favoured 4-3-3 system. At a combined fee of £20m, we may well look back on this as one of the key transfer windows for the club.
Other business conducted last month included seeing around £230,000 a week vacate vanish from the wage bill, with the footballing Where’s Wally, Doni, vacating his £60,000 a week wages to move back to Brazil. Joe Cole left leaving permanently for his boyhood club, West Ham, who will now have the delight of seeing him hands on hips and tongue out more frequently than they will see him celebrate goals. Cole’s wages of £90,000 a week another huge chunk off of the wage bill. Then there was Nuri Sahin, who apart from one or two glimpses of class, never really got going at Anfield, and had his loan move terminated by the club – another £80,000 a week saved.
All in all, with the exception of possibly Newcastle, or as you may call them now, ‘Le Toon’, Liverpool had the best window of all Premier League clubs. The targets were signed, key positions and weaknesses in the team addressed, and although the squad is a long way from the finished article, it is moving along nicely.
The owners gave Rodgers their back with another £20m and it was used cleverly, hats off to the much-maligned Ian Ayre for negotiating the deals. If not always perfect, he deserves credit for his work this window which as mentioned above saw Liverpool act quickly, and also smartly to get their targets.
A big four months on the pitch now wait for the Reds before it’s time to do it all again in the summer for what could be Liverpool’s most important transfer window in many years. The squad is strong, young and at a nice size now. The overpaid deadwood has gone, and three good signings could be enough for Rodgers to see the squad close to what he’d like.
FSG’s and Ian Ayre’s efforts this window suggest that lessons have been learned, and I’m sure there will be further proof of this in the summer. For now we just sit back and watch the players they did so well to bring to the club, develop into the players Rodgers envisaged they would.
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