Former Liverpool goalkeeper David James has backed the Reds to reclaim our Champions League spot this season, at the expense of two-time Premier League champions Manchester City.
James believes that Manuel Pellegrini and co are ‘simply throwing together a collection of big-money players’, something which will see them fall from second to fifth place and allow Liverpool to swoop.
We have, of course, also spent big this summer – bringing in seven new players at great expense. However, James believes that his former club have spent much wiser than our greedy-eyed opponents.
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“I don’t see the City model being right,” he said, in quotes taken by the Daily Express. “Just spending loads of money and acquiring players. It isn’t necessarily the model of continued success.
“I have seen changes elsewhere and at the moment I’m not seeing that at City. It is just spend a bit more and expect success.”
City have spent big on English talent this summer, bringing in Raheem Sterling and Fabian Delph to help them comply with the Premier League’s home-grown rules – while Liverpool have spent wisely to help plug the gaps which saw us fall short last season.
“I am encouraged Liverpool have changed around their coaching staff,” James added. “With all the acquisition of players and no success, there had to be a reason. Now with the new coaching staff Liverpool will be winning far more games. Brendan Rodgers has had three years and now he is looking at a different way of doing it.”
Sean O’Driscoll and Gary McAllister have both come in to replace Colin Pascoe and Mike Marsh, while Pepijn Lijnders has also earned a promotion to a first-team role, something which appears to have immediately made a difference – with the new-look coaching team inspiring five wins out of six during our pre-season tour.
Let’s hope that James proves to be right when the serious games start this weekend!