I moved into my new house a little over 16 months ago, and I couldn’t wait to start working on some improvements. I took a few weeks off work and began plotting my plans. “I’ll paint this, fix that, get rid of those, build them…”; I thought I had a perfect plan. I had decided what I would be doing and which days were reserved for each job. It was simple case of planning for the future as to get the job done to the best of my ability, knowing what I had and what I didn’t.
Then I started. I was painting in the bathroom, I leaned on the sink at it came away from the wall; it has been stuck on with putty rather than sealant. I noticed the bath and toilet were the same too, and came to the conclusion that I’d been stitched up. As I walked around the house, I noticed things I hadn’t during my earlier viewings. It then dawned on me that my plans had to change, and I had to address some matters more urgently than others. It was about prioritising.
I imagine that Brendan Rodgers must be feeling the same as he heads into the transfer window. He will have laid the groundwork in terms of players he wants to come in and players he’d like to leave. He’d have his targets lined up, and probably began negotiating with clubs, players and agents. Then he will have been informed that Luis Suarez could be looking at pastures new and that Pepe Reina could possibly be a target for Barcelona – even if Valdes stays I’m sure they are looking at goalkeepers and Reina is the obvious, Spanish choice.
Just like I felt when I leaned on the sink and noticed that it was coming away, Brendan will know his job had just gotten a whole lot more difficult, and that his plans may well have to change very quickly.
Rodgers probably wanted to sign four or five players in the summer, and let some fringe players go. Now he’s faced with losing the two key components of his side – his striker and his goalkeeper – as well as rebuilding his defence, and trying to add more depth in the attacking positions.
I believe that Daniel Agger is fortunate that Jaime Carragher decided to hang up his boots, and that the manager seems to have little faith in Martin Skrtel and Sebastian Coates. I say this because Agger has been like Teflon this season, in that the criticism of the defence has seemingly not stuck to him, and instead has been attached to the other defenders. Agger in fact, had a pretty average season and looked all over the shop at set pieces but Rodgers can’t afford to lose and replace four centre backs and possibly his goalkeeper in one summer, so Agger will not be seen as dispensable, although if he performed poorly in previous seasons, the club may well have cashed in.
I think the Luis Suarez affair will have a similar effect on Stewart Downing. I believe that both Rodgers and the club would like to move Downing on. Despite an improved season, he doesn’t justify his high salary and if Suarez stays, I’m sure there’ll be a desire to move Suarez wide left, play Sturridge up front and sign a new right sided attacking player. If Suarez leaves, which unfortunately looks more likely with every Uruguayan media interview, I’m not sure if Rodgers will want to lose Downing as it just gives him another headache to deal with in what will be a defining summer in his career as Liverpool manager.
Sometimes you can’t fix everything at once, and there’ll be times where you have to make do with what you’ve got, and in the case of Downing we all know that he’s not the best player in the world, but we may have to accept that we might be doing too much at once and that keeping him for another year may be a necessity.
In football as well as in life, things can happen that change your plans – like a poorly fitted bathroom falling off the walls, or a star player deciding he wants to move – in these situations, it can be easy to panic as your future plans can no longer be realistically achieved in the time-frame that you originally wanted due to both time constraints and costs. I had to spend the money I had planned for a new shed and lawn on a new bathroom suite, and Brendan Rodgers may well have to spend some of his budget that he had set aside for a defender on a new goalkeeper, especially if he wants a younger, better version of Pepe Reina but I’m not even sure such a player exists on the Ulsterman’s budget. He may also have to accept that he move too many players on in one window, and he may have to ‘settle’ for the odd player, which may include Stewart Downing.
We all knew and accepted that this summer was about Rodgers adding a few extra pieces around the key players in his side, but things look to have changed now and instead of adding those final few finish touches, he has got some serious re-building work to do, and that will take him longer to accomplish. We as fans, and perhaps more importantly FSG as owners of the club, need to be patient with the manager as he embarks upon what could end up being a major renovation in a short period of time.
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