We’re about to head into August and we’re about two weeks away from our first Premier League match against Sunderland.
Milan Jovanovic and Christian Poulsen are still-STILL-on the squad. Certainly no Liverpool fan would have had it that way at the start of this summer.
Jova has had one foot out the door for the whole summer and it looks like his wages are a sticking point for teams interested in taking him on. His wages are currently £60k p/w and he needs to be honest with himself right now: There is nothing that he has done at Liverpool that makes him worth that. Nothing. I’ll give him credit for coming and giving a consistently high effort but all that effort was really without much quality. He’s just not a Liverpool player, plain and simple.
It’s harder to find Christian Poulsen’s wages but he’s probably getting paid something similar to Jovanovic. I can only hope it isn’t higher.
He was signed to be a replacement for Javier Mascherano and failed massively. He turned 31 last season and it seems as though the game has passed him by. We ended up doing Juventus a huge favor by taking his wages off of their hands and paying £4.5 million for him. We would have been better off keeping Damien Plessis in the long run, the man whose shirt Poulsen took.
Poulsen, too, has been linked with a few teams for a move away from Anfield. When his former club FC Copenhagen were interested in him, Poulsen’s agent Jorn Bonnesen said that there would be no move to Copenhagen and proclaimed that Poulsen’s future was at Liverpool.
No, it’s not. He’s not good enough. He could help at a team like Fulham but for a team that is pushing to get back into the Champions League in England, he just can’t bring anything to the table.
I would have thought that Paul Konchesky-one of Roy Hodgson’s worst deeds at Liverpool-leaving would have prompted the other two to switch. Konchesky realized that the payday was not worth rotting on the bench. If Jovanovic and Poulsen had the sense, and maybe an agent to give them a nudge, they’d realize the same thing.
Joe Cole and David N’Gog are different, at least to me. They can give us something. For Cole, it might be a little bit of neat passing and fresh legs as a sub, and he’s versatile enough to play a few spots. He’s not the star that we thought we signed but he could be a threat from the bench. David N’Gog has shown some promise as a 22-year old striker. Sometimes he looks the part, sometimes he doesn’t. His wages can’t be that expensive at this point and the position depth for less important games like early Carling Cup and FA Cup games would be beneficial for resting our starters. Adam Morgan might be another striker that we could use in this role but I would hate to see N’Gog go and finally realize his potential for another team.
Milan Jovanovic was a Rafa signing so its unfair to put the blame on Roy. He had signed a Pre-contract agreement before Rafa was sacked, he decided to honour this agreement despite Rafa trying to sign him at Inter.
Good article though, I agree with the N’Gog part but I think Cole offers us very little considering his wage. Time to move him on if we get the chance in my opinion.
Jova wasn’t Roy’s signing. Before Rafa was fired he had a pre-contract agreement to come to LFC.
However we can blame Roy for loaning out Aquillani to Juventus, and then signing Poulsen from Juventus. What a terrible swap!
Roy was a terrible manager though you cant pin the blame of loaning out Aquilani to Juventus on him.
Loaning out the italian wasnt his choice,in fact,he was given a choice between 2 players – joe cole & aquilani..since both of the players had high wages Roy was told to either back out of signing Cole on a free or loan out aquilani to a club to diminish his wages.
Who’s to blame you say? Hicks & Gillette.
Roy did some poor stuff but you can’t blame Jova on him, that was a done deal by Rafa, remember the media build up I will still sign for the reds even with Rafa gone….. If we need to have a go at Roy for this then it was coz he’had no balls to say no I don’t want him…..Poulsen….all Roy sorry can’t defend him there, sacking was a correct one then !!!
Wasn’t jovanovic a benitez signing?
WHOOPS. Let me fix that. I forgot that the agreement was done by Rafa and he came into Roy’s side. Thanks for catching my mistake and being kind.
jovanovic was rafa’s last signing.
n’gog, i’m willing to give another year as a sub, or loan out to see how he progresses, but everyone else mentioned must leave; cole too. 90k a week for an impact sub? who do you think we are, city? gerrard, meireles, adam, aquilani, henderson, downing, lucas, spearing, jonjo, maxi, kuyt, you stop me when you hear a name you want to replace with cole. rather give chances to jonjo, spearing, even some of the bright academy prospects like sterling, and coady, etc than cole.
Jova and Poulson rotting on the bench???
No way should they get anywhere near our bench.
The sight of Poulson in a Liverpool shirt makes me Sick.
I hate to see that last point about FA and Carling Cup games. We have no Euto commitments this season, we should be fully focused on domestic matters which shouldn’t include too many team changes for the Cup games.
I totally agree with you, why not try and win everygame we play like the top teams generally do?? Are youngsters should rightfully get a chance blended into a strong team from time to time to develop them, that’s what happened from January onwards last season. That’s what a top team should do, not swop out 11 players for a cup game….. One of Rafa’s major failings during his time (in my opinion).
Cole is plain and simple finished in the premier league at the top end…… Fulham, QPR or lower still West Ham is where he should be. 90k a week for nothing performances and long injury lay offs is awful for us.
I can’t agree with the author with regards to Ngog as well. He is past potential stage now, he’s simply not good enough. Sturridge, Wickham and Welbeck are youngsters who will develop their already seen potential……. Ngog isn’t in that bracket, so we need to replace with a higher standard 3rd or 4th place striker (depending on where Kuyt will end up this season).
The only anomaly that I see is Aquilani because I genuinely think he could do a job now that he’s fit and playing. That said, there is a long list of players that he’s got to get past if impressing The King.
For me: Cole, Jovanovic, Poulsen, Ngog, Kyriagos, Maxi, Meireles (only given we now have better players and he’d raise cash), Wilson, Deggen, G Johnson and Skyrtel could all go and with only a few signings we’d be far better off. Leave the raised eyebrows too, Skyrtel and Johnson aren’t top 4 defenders. Get the youngsters playing more.
Get all them out and get 1 striker, 1 centre back and 1 left back…….. Then we might be true top 4 material.
YNWA
I WILL WRITE THIS TILL MY FINGERS GET NUMB! FOR A PLAYER TO LEAVE YOU NEED:
A) A CLUB THAT WANTS HIM
B) THE PLAYER NEEDS TO WANT TO GO TO THAT CLUB
THERE IS A WORLD OF DIFFERENCE FROM WHAT WE CONSIDER AS OBVIOUS AND WHAT CAN ACTUALLY BE ACHIEVED.
THE ONLY OTHER SOLUTION FOR PLAYERS UNDER CONTRACT (NOT THE CASE OF JOVA APPARENTLY) IS TO COME TO AN AGREEMENT TO HAVE THE CONTRACT RESCINDED.
IN THE ULTIMATE SOLUTION, THE CLUB WOULD SAVE ON THE PLAYERS SALARY BUT WILL LOOSE OUT OF A POSSIBLY RECOUP OF THE ORIGINAL CAPITAL OUTLAY TO BUY HIM IN THE FIRST PLACE.
Tonio,
Cool down brother!!!