Being Young and English is Helpful and Other Saturday Notes

By: Ed | June 4th, 2011

One of the more helpless feelings about being a supporter during the silly season is that, when it comes to who the club pursues, your voice is about as strong as Joe Cole’s influence on a match. There’s nothing you can do, even if you see loads of attention being paid to footballers that you don’t really rate. Sad as it is, Liverpool probably don’t care about my success rate in a Winning Eleven Master League purchasing young foreign talent as part of a treble-winning side for twelve consecutive seasons.

Completely unrelated, the Saturday news and notes:

* There’s nothing concrete yet, so the intro might be a little reactionary, but news from the Telegraph yesterday has Liverpool moving full steam ahead with their plans to bring in an army of Martin Samuelites—there’s been more and more reports about Jordan Henderson from Sunderland and Phil Jones from Blackburn, and today we get confirmation(?) that there’s been a bid placed and promptly rejected for Ipswich Town’s Connor Wickham:

The Championship side have turned down the bid as too low and will demand at least £10 million for the 18 year-old, who helped England’s Under-17 side win the European Championship last summer. Liverpool had made inquiries about Wickham last January when Fernando Torres indicated his desire to leave Anfield, but were put off by the £15 million Ipswich were asking at the time.

The 6ft 3in Wickham, who has been compared to former England striker Alan Shearer, agreed to extend his contract by two years until 2013, and the deal was updated in April to run until 2014 – although it is believed to contain an escape clause for £15 million.

So, depending on reports that may or may not be based in reality, that’s at least £10 million for Wickham, £15 million for Henderson, and £15 million for Jones. That’s £40 million for a whole lot of unproven, barely-legal action, and unless Liverpool are playing with Monopoly money this summer, I find myself more than a little distressed. It’s not just the money that’s concerning, it’s the fact that we’re talking about three names that seem to be a ways off having any sort of discernible impact, as well as the apparent availability of names with a little more immediacy attached (JUAN MATA GODDAMMIT). For now I’ll just hope that this is part of a Quaalude-induced night terror and when I wake up it’ll be August.

* Involved in some part of this discussion is Kenny Dalglish, who’s staring down his first full season as Liverpool manager in twenty years. We’ve done and redone the impact of his return on the latter half of the season, so, with an assist from Prad, there’s a slightly different take on the King’s task by Andi Thomas over at SBNation. Hopefully without bastardizing the sentiment:

“The point is that Dalglish was always going to be better than Hodgson, by simple virtue of not being Hodgson. At which simple task he excelled: he got hat-tricks out of Maxi Rodriguez, oversaw an famous win over Manchester United, and generally gave the Anfield faithful a vigorous back-rub. But it’s worth nothing that the biggest disappointments of his brief second reign have come in the only games that mattered in the wider scheme of things: the Europa League ties against Braga and the two games at the end of the season, when Europe was back on the table. If there’s something riding on it, Dalglish’s Liverpool have cocked it up.”

As a Liverpool homer, my initial reaction is to shift uncomfortably under my lap desk and mumble incoherently, although I can somewhat understand the perspective that Liverpool were effectively prancing through the second half of the season, unencumbered by the weight carried by other sides.

That’s a tough sell for me, though, as I still bristle at the “pressure-free” argument and don’t think we can simply accept the narrative change that Liverpool were just good under Dalglish because people like him and that meant nobody really cared anymore. There were and will continue to be a whole host of challenges facing Dalglish and Liverpool, and creating consistency and achieving expectation are among the most important. But I don’t think that Dalglish being not Hodgson and starting in January made things any less “real,” or that Liverpool were just good when there wasn’t anything riding on it. Disappointing end to the season, which I’m more prone to attribute to a tired and thin squad than the sudden realization that omigod people are paying attention again what are we supposed to do.

Of course, it’s all a long way of saying we don’t really have any idea what’s going to happen, but I’m banking on Dalglish and yet again find myself wishing it was August already.

As I mentioned yesterday, the Friday internationals had little to do with Liverpool, but today’s the day to tune in, and you can check your local listings and/or visit ESPN3.com, MyP2P.eu, Atdhenet.tv, or FromSportcom.com for something online.

And, if none of that suits your fancy, you can just focus on not getting cut off mid-funk:

Some Related Liverpool Posts:

Category: International Duty, Miscellaneous, Team News, Transfer News

« Embrace Your Ambivalence: A Full Slate of Internationals Awaits | Home | Internationals Recap and Taxidermy »

Tropics Red

As you say, amazing prices quoted for such unproven prospects. I'm particularly interested in why we suddenly have such a focus in young english talent when we already have enough english players in our squad to meet the home grown quota.

I'm sure Commoli and FSG's 'moneyball' strategy does not include being "rinsed" by any club with a young english prospect. Being young and having potential doesn't mean they are automatically going to develop into world class players.
Xantheina

On a funnier note: today, Chelsea are opening their new museum.

"the new facility offers fans a journey through more than 100 years of
Chelsea history"

*giggle*
Zach

Hey while the rumors are running around why not throw another one in: "Liverpool to hijack Chelseae's move for Neymar" Yeah? Hows that sound? I like the kid...
Mike

Juan fucking Mata. Can we start on online petition?
JohnC

good piece! and the youtube is a class touch!! totally agree.
Anthony

the 2 braga games in the euro cup a 2nd rate cup like the reserves and we don't belong in that cup the spurs game we played ok caroll didn't and carra getting knocked to the ground in the box just as downing scored for villa the team that beat arsenal away and the player kenny wants wickham is not needed agreed cos we have a team of kids of his quality but i don't know who we will get but i trust kenny 4 titles back him up but the man is a born winner we have played some top class football under kenny with suarez in and torres out caroll has been 50% at best give the man time
Jack

I think I agree with you mate, but use some punctuation! That post was so confusing!
dsm9412

I almost feel bad for Fernando Torres. He hopped on Chelsea's sinking ship as Liverpool was ascending and he is just so clearly out of place with Spain, even with the goal today. Of course, it's his own fault, but it's just so pathetic.
DJ-Chutfield

I considered feeling sorry for him, but I find schadenfreude to be FAR more enjoyable. Started on the bench for Spain and after scoring his second goal since January, he had to field questions about the uncertain future of his new "big" and "stable" club.

I would've been hilarious if we ended up buying Llorente. His replacement in both the Spain and Liverpool line-ups would've been the same man! Ah well. Suarez is doing just fine, I think.
Ryan

With the lack of European games next season, I have my own ideas of what I want to happen in the premier League. Chelsea, Manchester United, and Arsenal all seem to be leaning towards major changes in their squads. Granted that Arsenal qualify for the champions league, they all are gonna play for the CL 100%, with Chelsea working even harder with the new manager and the Russian crazy guy wanting the trophy. We are rebuilding as well, but since A.) we actually have a manager, B.) and that manager is not Inspector Clouseau, C.) we have a gingerless center midfield as well, we have a good shot at throwing a few zonal punches.
mardia

I've decided to take this transfer drama with a healthy amount of salt--and by that I mean a truckload. If Dalglish and Comolli think a player's good enough for Liverpool, then I'll trust their judgment, but the prices being thrown around are, frankly, too ridiculous to be believed, so I don't believe them. Considering how inflated the English market seems to be, I'm starting to wonder if we'll buy ANY English players this summer. 16-20 million for Henderson? PLEASE.

Frankly, I think the reason we're hearing so much about English players is because the transfer market isn't open yet in other countries, and because so far, Liverpool/Comolli/Dalglish/et al seem to be fairly tight-lipped on the matter, so the press are going into overdrive trying to predict which way we'll go.
Mike

LFC might just call your bluff... Watch them ONLY buy English teens. Any no offense to those fine young lads, but I'm getting nervous.
ChrisLFC

Does seem a bit odd to be looking at more English youngsters considering the (hopeful) fruition of the kids in our own program this year. Flanagan, Robinson, Kelly, Shelvey...these and many more...seemingly on the road to first team already. Maybe not what you're counting on for immediate success next season, but then why look at getting more depth where you already have it? I am guessing Henry/Werner/Comolli/Dalglish are going to do their dealings without much public knowledge as they seem to have done so far....so this Henderson/Jones stuff may just be what it is, typical early transfer rumoring. I'd like to ignore til August too!
Lynz

So far this transfer window has got me thinking we'll be lucky if we finish 6th again next season. Don't mean to whine, but Henderson? Seriously?
cheekyfellow

patience my young padawan
Ismael Jawad

That article really fueled my skepticism. On the other hand, whom ever we sign this summer will be an upgrade on the people who were brought in last summer so I wouldn't be that worried. The price tag is unbelievably high but unfortunately that's the way things are now.
LFC4LIFE

Ed, how come you prefer winning eleven to FIFA ?
Guest

Same question I was wondering myself. The lack of licensing alone is what drives me to FIFA. I rented Winning Eleven (or Pro Evolution as I believe its called outside of North America) a couple of years back and at that time the gameplay may have been more advanced, but playing as the "Merseyside Reds" instead of Liverpool, and not having real kits was just too much of a bummer. I'm kind of curious as to how the gameplay in the most recent iteration of Winnning Eleven stacks up to FIFA 11, though I doubt I'd be able to admit it is better than FIFA even if it is objectively better.
Ed

There's people who geek out pretty hard making option files and patches for WE, which basically gives you everything official you could want. Besides gameplay, that was the tipping point for the six years ago version of me.
Guest

Do you own the most recent version of WE? Is it something I should look into? I'm planning on picking up NCAA in a month, which is something I haven't done in a couple of years because I eventually learned that Madden and NCAA never really get better on a year-to-year basis. So if WE is worth it, I could pick that up and maybe not get pissed off at EA again.

EA does a decent job with improving NHL and FIFA year-to-year though, IMHO
Ed

Probably nostalgia--my buddy and I played WE9 until the XBOX started freezing and had a blast. Shitty animations now, but it let you play football.

Had an okay time with both recently, but not overwhelmed. Can't play single player FIFA because the AI is shit and can't play online because you rarely find someone who's interested in an actual match. Feel like PES is better in some respects but still not great.

Basically I'm looking for a time machine.
Guest

"can't play online because you rarely find someone who's interested in an actual match"

I can relate to this. Haven't played online in over a month, but whenever I did, I'd trot out a 4.5 star Liverpool squad to inevitably face off against Real or Barca. Every. Single. Time. And all dudes do is play Ronaldo or Messi as lone striker and launch the ball quickly up to them and try to outpace your CBs, which is not efficient or how the game ought to be played, but it works more often than it should. That, and EA makes Ronaldo some sort of beast he's not, and he doesn't get knocked off the ball even though he falls over like a bitch in real life at the slightest breeze.

Though it is worth mentioning there is nothing more satisfying than using Liverpool to beat some douche using Real or Barca.
Ryan

I take it a step further and use only Lille and Porto in online matches. There's enough talent in those teams that you can have the "wtf?" factor and still keep up with 5 star teams. Or I use Fluminese, because somehow, Wellington Silva, who is a 67 overall, has the ball control and skills of Messi.
Guest

You think if we leaked a rumor on Twitter that Liverpool was going to sign Wellington "skills like Messi despite only being a 67 in FIFA" Silva, that it would catch on? Make it a big figure (£15 million!), and spice it up a bit ("He's got dual citizenship in England and Brazil!" or "Have you seen what he can do with a golf ball?!?!") and I think it might just become big news...
Eshan KoKiloo

Great post!
Totally agree.
I think we should concentrate on proven players this summer and buy emerging players in winter.
We should buy Cahill, Mata and Hazard! Commolli should weave his magical French wand and buy Hazard! Plus I think what Commoli is doing is what he did at Spurs, excessive players in the midfield. Spurs have Palacios, Huddlestone, Modric, Krankjar, Sandro and Jenas fighting for those 2 CM postitions. Too much depth which wont be good for our wage bill I tell you if a similar future awaits us.
Ryan

I watched Hazard at Lille quite a bit this year. Gotta say, He was a headless chicken for most of the first half of the season. But turned out to be the most important player to winning the league, besides Cabaye and Gervinho. The only worries I have is that he started playing less and less on the wing and more and more in the middle if I remember right, with him and Cabaye being the midfield with Mavuba in a 4-3-3. We've got our Stevie G and Raul to keep that role filled. As for a wider-role, I don't think we need much competition for Suarez...because Hazard will just be benched. I don't want us to be like Spurs and have a bunch of brillant midfielders running around, trying to feed a ball to a breadstick.
Nic

Agree with Ed about the pressure thing.

Just a point to be made, we may not have had anything to play for when the King took over [thanks to Roy's ineptitude].BUT - Chelsea, Man U, Arsenal & Man City all definitely did, if a team playing with no pressure can raise their game to a higher level than a team playing for the title, there's some motivational problems there.This just might be me wanting to make excuses and 'shifting uncomfortably under my lap desk'.

Although said article might have a point about the last 2 games of the season but i just put this down to a lack of quality/depth in the squad, after-all we did play Joe Cole against Villa, which doesn't exactly say to me that we were going all out for Europa league football!?