Why go English?

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By Karam Raj

Going through the papers and tabloids from the weekend,i think its pretty safe to say Liverpool football club is deploying most of its funds into recruiting young players..Not only that,i think there is a stark similarity between the rumoured targets – They’re all English.

One question,why English? To be fair it goes well with the FIFA homegrown players’ rule + it will also lessen the language barriers between the players and the manager..but going through the targets we’re supposedly trying to get at Anfield,do you think they fit the bill? Especially with the price tags they’re carrying?
Dont get me wrong,young English players do have a lot of potential indeed,but are they the type of players we need at the moment?

In my opinion,we should pursue those players more who are either more technically efficient such as the likes of Silva(though he isn’t a realistic prospect) or Juan mata(Very realistic prospect) or someone with that electric pace and dribbling skills to get past opponents and provide that only lacking aspect to our frontline.

But if English players are high up on the priority list,then only a handful players come to my mind.
-Ashley young is one,but apparently he’s already snubbed us for Utd.

-Connor wickham is another,who,to be honest i haven’t seen of much but he’s only 18 and from what ive heard he has tremendous potential to be a class player in the future

-The last one,probably the only player amongst the 3 we haven’t been going after,which is actually quite surprising in all honesty,is Adam Johnson..When given a chance,he’s never let his side let down and possesses the sweetest of left foots + i think he could very well want to come to our side..He’s already not getting a lot of first team action at Eastlands at the moment,which is bound to decrease even more with the inevitable arrivals of world class talent at city..He may not come cheap,but if you’re willing to pay 18m for a player like Henderson,then i don’t think paying a little over the odds for Johnson should be a problem.

I did not include the likes of Aaron lennon or Theo Walcott in there because i think they’re both very inconsistent with their performances and would rather be a waste of money than an investment for the future.

42 Comments

  1. city have stated on more than one occasion they wont sell to rivals look at bellas, adebayor. so we can rule him out with young that leaves wickham who is unproven and imo not of the quality we are looking for. it has to be a mata or equivalent

    1. Johnson is a realistic prospect..Every player has a dream to play for their country..and he isnt gonna get any chance to play for the Three lions by sitting on City’s bench.
      Besides,the player’s young,he’d want to play week in week out..something which city is not able to provide him

      1. Hi there Karam

        Stop trying to defend the rubbishness of your article re johnson

        you talking absolute dog breeze if you think they’ll sell to us, just look at their track record.

        Thanks very much

        mcshattery

    1. Matt….get your head out your ar*e, foreign players have improved our game, by leaps and bounds, or would you rather watch the pathetic football England play every week?.
      Wake up to reality, british players (minus a selected few)are NOT tacticly equipped (bad coaching,etc)and, totally OVERATED!.

      1. it isnt giving young english talent a chance, and your just being biased as probably one of those fucking americans that dont have a clue about anything

      2. What the F has americans got to do with it, other than that, they are the OWNERS of our club, so are they (as you say) clueless as well?, and for your info, no I am not american and, probably have resided in this country much longer than you have, by your cricket like comments, on football!…..Oops

  2. Going english will guarantee that we finish out of the CL again next season. Just a plainly idiotic move.

    1. not necessarily just sign henderson coz it will be difficult to sign top quality wen u got no CL or europe for that matter so rule out young downing lennon walcott johnson mata focus on players like marveaux honda elia(not sure if he’ll cut it though) tabaneuh(not well known but plays for toulouse and is pure quality will definitly give meireles good competition

  3. Doesn’t matter how much you offer City, they won’t sell AJ to us or any other top club. Why would they? They don’t need the cash, so why make a competitor stronger?

    1. Yea but when Johnson himself gets tired warming the bench,wont he hand in a transfer request?
      & which club has successfully been able to force a player to stay at their club?

  4. i do believe in english talentbut the price tag the’re carrying the’re alot more quality we can get for that kind of money

  5. We lack real creativity out wide and pace, yet we have talent like Suso, Silva and Sterling!!!!. If your good enough your old enough i often hear???, could we use them more often???. Do we need to buy more potential???
    In my opinion now it’s time for ready made talent with experience, not taking a chance when we can do that using our own kids!. We need class ready to hit the ground running, this means top-players only.
    The problem will be the lack of Champions League football, I think it will hurt our recruitment options. We can’t offer players the holy grail, can we????. Im getting the impression top players won’t come for this very reason, I hope im wrong!!!!

  6. i thought i was the only one who was wondering why we have not been linked with Adam Johnson,,,,,but he’s pure class

  7. I really cannot understand all this alarm about english players! We now have FSG, Comolli and Dalglish at the helm, and we know for a fact that with the tweaks done in January we were running a Premier League challenging average points tally!
    I’d like to think that having had 6 months in which to plan and do their homework, the team will most certainly be better come August, British or non-British.

    1. I think we have enough top young talent without spending millions on more potential, are we really in for any world class players and can we get them without champions league football???. I think we need proven talent and experience, are we really after those players?????

  8. Since no player have signed yet! (just rumors) but if this is true then I am a bit worried! since all are players from what I call “tractor teams!!!!” and what I mean with that is zero techincal skills just hard works. You can not build a team that is to play europa league and later champoions league over that. Just look what happend to united when they meet a team with lots of techincal players!.

    So what did happen to all the players from france, spain, etc that liverpool was intrested in. ???
    Now there is just talk about players from teams like Ipswich, blackburn, etc.

    oh my god hope this is not true or we will have another season in the wast land.

  9. Adam Johnson would be a great signing. An old fashioned winger who likes to get to the byline and get excellent crosses into the box but who can also mix it up and play almost as a left sided midfielder? YES PLEASE. Not so sure about Young if I’m completely honest – to fit him into the side would mean either he plays a free role alongside an excellent attacking attacking left back to provide the width (which would be the best way to use him from what he has shown with Villa and England), but which would mean leave us with a system better suited to Kuyt up front running the channels and keeping things fluid. This would mean £35m sitting on the bench, something I’m sure FSG would be a little bit disappointed about. Keeping Young on the wing to supply Carroll would deny us the impetus and direct play that I think Young is all about.
    As the team seems settled in a fluid 4411 formation and the left side is a real issue (apart from the left flank the team either picks itself or we’re spoilt for choice), the more options we have, the better it would be. We have players who are adept at keeping the ball moving and can play on the outside of the midfield (Kuyt, Maxi) but no-one who is good at bringing it forward and pushing past the opposing fullback and provide service. I think what would be best at the time would be for LFC to go for a Rafa-esq player, someone who gives us “options” – Johnson being one of them and N’Zogbia being another. My personal preference of all the full-backs we have been linked with is the Honduran that plays for Celtic (Izaguirre). However, we still have Insua on our books, who has unfortunately been sucked into Purslows megalomanic plans for LFC (to think we were close to selling Lucas to Stoke for £4m last summer!) and lost a year of development (22 years old, may I remind you, playing a full season in an underperforming team in an unsettled back 4 – for every bad performance I can remember 2 where he was capable and provided and excellent foil for whoever was infront of him). I believe he could still do a job for us as an understudy, would still qualify for homegrown status, and save us money to go out and buy someone in the world beater bracket to compliment our existing attacking players.

    1. I admire your loyalty to Insua but he is a terrible defender. He might cut it in spain or Italy, but every team that played against us last season targeted him. A large percentage of our goals came either directly or indirectly because of his mistakes. In the two performances I have seen from Robinson he is already 3 times the player Insua is.

  10. Until We’re looking for bright talents like Henderson, Ashley Young, Connor Wickham, Stewie Downing, ADAM JOHNSON, no matter for the nationality in my view.
    In add, When We sign a player from abroad, He should be a player Who can make a difference for our Club.
    For example, an outstanding player like Suarez perfectly fits the bill.
    When We find a proper player with talent, no matter for the price tag or the nationality.

  11. going for average over hyped english players will be the downfall of lfc ,i love the king as much as anyone but if he goes down the english route we will regret it cos english players are more often than not poor or average we need players who can pass and keep possession and you only need to look at the england team to know england players cant do it on the big stage .

  12. In a league that is physically demanding a good core of English players is what will eventually win you the league. With Flano, Robinson, Carragher, Gerrard, Carrol, Kelly,Spearing and Johnson I would think that would be enough. But we have to look deeper than that, Kenny is trying to create an atmosphere around Melwood whereby his signings knit in and join in the banter. Team spirit counts for a lot in English football. It took us from the Relegation zone to 6th (with a little tactical tweaking as well of course). We need to build a team where personalities don’t collide and where players are not overawed by the sheer presence of Carra and Gerrard.

  13. G Souness went down that road looking for English players and cracks appeared in our backbone. If players are good enough to play for Pool, then that is all we need not where they were born.
    We did well against the top teams last season but did not have that extra magic to break down packed defenses of the Wigans,Wolves, Blackpools or Bragas of this world where most of the top teams secured full points.
    I believe if we have the right mix we will do well next season, just look at the magic Suarez has brought to us, imagine if we had Aguero lining up with Suarez & co.
    Barca are apparently looking to add A Sanchez to their ranks, a scary thought!! To play the pass & move game which we were the masters of in the 80s we need more technical ability in the team.
    By selling a number of the deadwood we could hopefully add someone of Aguero’s class to our team for no outlay, and to think he is only 22.
    What about Modric for creativity? been going on about getting him for at least 3 years, (hopefully the new owners will give a large pot to KK so that he does not have to settle for second best).
    Surely KK will introduce the U18s into the full squad/team when they are ready ( then we will have a number of very talented English players in our side ), but until then whoever fits the bill will do very nicely.
    I could not understand why we got Cole when Chelsea were not even prepared to extend his contract by one year!!!!
    We are LFC and deserve the best.
    In the meanwhile , scouts get out there and do your bloody jobs well ! to think that we could have had C Rolando before manure really hurts. Unearth more gems like Sammy & sign them up before others do or we will pay though the nose.

    YNWA

  14. Why go English? Overpriced overated & shite. If a quality player is available & good enough for LFC then go for them. Stop being so blinkered.

  15. I think all these English links are just a smokescreen. We bought Suarez didn’t we? & I think Dalglish is more than happy with him, just like the rest of LFC fans. LFC have a vast scouting network, 2 top class Spanish coaches aswell as Steve Clark. No stone will be left unturned in the search for quality young players. But the homegrown ruling will be in the thoughts of Dalglish when making the final decisions. Just look at how many youth players we have playing for England youth teams. I think the future of Liverpool is looking very bright indeed. Finally LFC is in the right hands, King Kenny will help us “RULE THE BLOODY WORLD” again(as Shanks would say).YNWA!

    1. Spot on Dan. I agree with you that all this English link are all smookescreen, soon we will all hear the signings of Hazard,Coentrao,Lavezi etc!Just wait and see you all!

  16. Simply put ! Our midfield and attack needed creativity and burst. The attack has been sorted with suarez coming in. In the few months that he has been here for , he is filled in for the creativity and flair needed in the midfield by playing deep. Worked well. But he is should not be treated as a workhorse cause he is our star player . We can play without stevie from now , but the impact of suarez has been such that his presence is galvanizing and we cant afford any loss from him. Hence we need to look at options for midfield. A player who could provide the moments of genius, flair and creativity that stevie has been doing for ages now. And in my opinion flair is readily available only in spain! No wonder they play beautiful football. The first person coming to my mind, realistic name is JUAN MATA . The lad is what we need now in our first 11. Coming to english players. Stats have shown how good henderson has been. He is only bound to get better under KING kenny! Phil Jones has proved is mettle, so has downing to an extent. I think there is no need to be worried ahead of next season realising the fact that the likes of joe cole,ngog,jovanovic,poulsen in the bench are going to be replaced with downing,wickham,henderson, and phil jones. The bench clearly seems stronger.
    And the starting 11 since kenny came in predominantly devoid of Gerrard, Carroll, agger, kelly, and even johnson, did so well!
    Stats pointing out that if premier league had started in january, we would have been 3rd!
    Imagine with Gerrard comin back, Mata comin in, and with a bench like the above, and with a good start season, we could be in for a big season!
    In Kenny,FSG,Suarez I trust!
    And in my opinion maxi should not be sold. Suarez makes him look world class! And kuyt-suarez will be my strike partnership with Andy playin against big clubs,the lad scores against the big boys!
    And would love to see another established striker coming in .
    Your comments are appreciated!
    Hope am spared of any abuses
    ;-)
    YNWA

    1. I agree that the deadwood should be binned, Mata is the quality we need. We must buy another game-changer like him or N’zogbia???, we have so much talent in Kirkby already to bring in. We need real class in the wide area’s as a priority, 20m for Henderson is a joke, spend that on Mata!!!. British players, we have enough of, do we really need more potential or ready made talent?????

      1. Henderson is a part of the next generation of english lads. Soon the stevies and franks, will give way to hendersons and wilsheres.
        They might or might not get to the standards that Stevie has set. But who knows? The next generation of english lads could do what the present generation of spanish lads have? And Henderson could have a value of 20mil or 25mil in years to come with more teams fighting for his signature. So its just a proactive move that the King has made. I trust in him to bring the best out of these british lads. That said, we shouldnt load are team of 25 with 20englishmen. From what I gather Mata is ONE of our top targets. Its bein said that camolli hasnt replaced torres yet. Have to wait and watch what he plans to do. But FSG are here to get the best. . English or Non english.

  17. truth is..however bad you think english players are, it was with english players in the past that we’ve managed to gather as many titles as we have.we are third in europe with the amount of titles.and 2nd in england unfortunately.is that not fact? ok, so maybe not all of them were english..but im sure most of them were british.And yes, foreign players help alot with development of football.but right now, why dont you hit two birds with one stone.and groom the english that we have as well as fulfilling the homegrown quota.at the same time there will be still foreign players rubbing shoulders with local lads..either way its a positive move.

    i just dont get how some fans above are just too blind to see..running their mouths as if they sit in the director of football’s seat or the managers post..truth is they dont know nuts about what they are saying.leave it to the professionals.and dont stop supporting.

    and also stop arguing with one another when no one is entirely correct.peace out

    so stop crapping about how english players cant do it.

    1. gerrard and carra are english..carrol is english..throw them out then if they are shite.fowler? italian? macca? french isit?

    2. Adam…leave it to the professionals?, you say,….well that surely leaves YOU out, for sure. You are still living in the 70’s and 80’s,mate, them times were fine,to have a squad full of british players,as there was hardly any foreigners than, but NOT NOW!.
      You will NOT win anything with a squad full of english players, you only have to look at the England team to see how totally inept english players are,(due to being coached by BAD english coaching, while still young!,that imo says it all.

      1. wow, you sure did feel smth there huh, YNWA.If you read my comment properly, you would notice that i have nth against foreign talent nimwit.foreign players are as important as local players.i didnt say a squad full of english players.English players are fine..

  18. Hey, why nobody mentioned Marc Albrigton. He is also not too bad at all. Instead of Young & Downing…

  19. I’m not sure about this Henderson I would definitely rather go in for Johnson and mata from Valencia. These two are proven and are internationals. They would give us the ammo to fight now rather than go for Henderson who we would have to wait for his potential.

    Please kenny go for Marta and Johnson.

  20. It doesnt matter what nationality they are,we will buy players who improve the squad. Most will be foreign but i think young players will be a priority and the right idea for long term success.

  21. Without being too rude I think what you have wrote is complete bollox!

    The one thing I’m certain of is the King will be interested in the best talent regardless of nationality, skin colour or if they like wearing womens clothes of a weekend. The only thing Kenny and FSG are interested in is restoring LFC to the greatness we once were.

    The English media is just pathetic, and if you read into it too much your not much better!

  22. Some of you havent been able to fully understand my point.
    I never said English players were pathetic or not upto Liverpool’s standards.
    But do you think the players that we’re going after fit the needs of the squad now?
    Do you think Johnny henderson would add that extra dimension to our midfield?
    Do you think Wickham would provide more firepower to our frontline? They could & probably would in the future,but why not also buy players who can have an immediate impact?
    + i did mention some english players which id be proud to see in a liverpool kit,its just that not many english players fit the criteria of players that we need at the moment!
    Ill say it again,im not being very defensive or anything,because its clearly not what i said..English players are well worthy of playing for Liverpool,but the players we’re after wont add any credibility to the squad,atleast in the immediate future.

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