Liverpool must make productive in Europe !

Pete Spencer | On 09, Sep 2013

Liverpool fan Pete Spencer is pleased with the club’s business in the summer transfer window but believes success this season is now imperative.

The general feeling amongst Liverpool fans I have conversed with is that we’re a pretty happy bunch after the summer’s transfer window.

From the start Liverpool seemed to approach it with a purpose and professionalism to ensure there would be no last-minute desperate decisions, with Kolo Toure, Iago Aspas, Simon Mignolet and Luis Alberto signed before pre-season had even begun.

However, an injury to Toure in the Capital One cup match against Notts County exposed the squad to be short of cover. In the same game, Aly Cissokho, a left-back signed on loan from Valencia, made his first start but only lasted 10 minutes as he went off injured too. With Sebastian Coates also injured, resources were stretched to breaking point.

During the final week of the window Liverpool set about finding replacements, with Mamadou Sakho the headline capture from Paris Saint-Germain for £18million. The 23-year-old has been capped 13 times by France and, when 17, became the youngest captain in Ligue 1 history.

He won four major honours with PSG and is reckoned by many to be a good prospect. His £18million price tag would certainly suggest he is earmarked for more than a fringe role. It is unclear where that leaves Toure, while his signing also puts pressure on Martin Skrtel, although his recent performance against Manchester United would suggest he’s more than willing to fight for his place at the club.

Tiago Ilori was also signed, for £7million from Sporting Lisbon. The 20-year-old defender is also highly rated and it has now emerged he may be eligible to play for England, having been born in London, despite having represented Portugal at various youth levels. Liverpool had been chasing Ilori all summer and seemed to have lost their man, but their recent defensive injury woes may have provided the necessary impetus for them to push through the deal.

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Many other players were been linked with Liverpool all summer and the two who seemed most promising were both from Eastern Europe. Henrikh Mkhitaryan looked to be a very good option and was touted by many to be coming to Anfield, but in the end he chose Borussia Dortmund.

Willian was another candidate and Liverpool seemed poised to sign the Brazilian, with his club, Anzhi, involved in a fire sale. In the end, however, the club’s owners, FSG, would not pay his wages and Willian instead joined Chelsea.

The wage bill is something FSG have been keen to trim. Out have gone Andy Carroll and Stewart Downing, both to West Ham, as well as Jonjo Shelvey (Swansea) and Jay Spearing (Bolton).

Carroll will be best remembered for his cracking goal at Anfield against Manchester City and his performance in the FA Cup final against Chelsea when he came on and changed the game.

For Downing, his Liverpool experience was disappointing. For a winger it seemed odd he was devoid of the ability to beat people or cross the ball. Shelvey and Spearing, meanwhile, promised much but ultimately haven’t developed in a way their early prominence suggested.

Shelvey looked most comfortable during his loan spell at Blackpool or in the early rounds of the Europa League, which would suggest Swansea could be a good move with a lesser spotlight and with it, lower expectations. Spearing seemed determined to fight for his place at his local club, but in the end Bolton needed him more.

Jack Robinson has gone on loan to Blackpool. He has a bright future ahead of him as his debut against Arsenal suggested, but his career seemed to suffer from a poor performance in the cup at Oldham last season. He wasn’t the only failure but was one of the players who seemed far too frivolous with the chance that game gave him to force his way to a regular starting place.

To finish the window off Liverpool secured the services of Victor Moses on loan from Chelsea.  Moses seemed to have marked out his career perfectly after bursting onto the scene at Crystal Palace – he chose the less fashionable Wigan Athletic to give him Premier League experience than the brighter, more pressured lights, and after performing well at the DW Stadium he caught Chelsea’s eye. He will provide some European experience as well as the width Rodgers seems keen to utilise in his strategy.

All in all, I am pleased with Liverpool’s transfer dealings, and those players we have missed out on chose homes for reasons I am not altogether comfortable with. I have always been suspicious of players choosing to ply their trade in countries so clearly hostile towards them, when wages seem to be their only attraction.

Therefore, those types of players are best at clubs like Chelsea or Manchester City where they can spend a season or two, picking up loads of cash, and then move on somewhere else. But at Liverpool, a quality player who performs well is likely to find the fans have fallen in love with them so much that moving on becomes very problematic.

Questions still remain about the defensive competition. As I said earlier, £18milllion is a lot to spend on a player who will sit on the bench so Sakho should expect a starting place. But when Toure is fit, again, where does that leave him? Will he move to full-back perhaps with Glen Johnson facing some time out?

The pace and creativity in attack should really become a feature of the team this season, however, and Moses and Luis Alberto will certainly enhance that.

One aspect which disappoints, though, is that we have one of the most highly rated academies in the country, with a fantastic crop of youngsters, yet we have spent all summer chasing talent from abroad.

This could point to how crucial a season this is for Rodgers as he will end it with just a year left on his contract. The fans and the owners are not going to put up with two successive seasons without European football so a top-five finish and/or a trophy is essential.

Ins
•    Luis Alberto (Seville, £6.8m)
•    Tiago Ilori (Sporting, £7m)
•    Kolo Toure (Man City, Free)
•    Mamadou Sakho (PSG, £18m)
•    Iago Aspas (Celta Vigo, £9m)
•    Simon Mignolet (Sunderland, £9m)
•    Aly Cissokho (Valencia, Loan)
•    Victor Moses (Chelsea, Loan)
Outs
•    Andy Carroll (West Ham, £15.5m)
•    Stewart Downing (West Ham, £6m)
•    Jonjo Shelvey (Swansea, £5m)
•    Tyrell Belford (Swindon, Free)
•    Peter Gulasci (Red Bull Salzburg, Free)
•    Jamie Stephens (Newport, Free)
•    Danny Wilson (Hearts, Free)
•    Conor Coady (Sheff Utd, Free)
•    Henoc Mukendi (Partick Thistle, Loan)
•    Michael Ngoo (Yeovil, Loan)
•    Pepe Reina (Napoli, Loan)
•    Jack Robinson (Blackpool, Loan)
•    Suso (Almeira, Loan)
•    Jay Spearing (Bolton, £2m)
•    Oussame Assaidi (Stoke, Loan)
•    Fabio Borini (Sunderland, Loan)

INS: £49.8m
OUTS: £28.5m
Net Spend: £21.3m