The FSG Transfer Policy.. Wrong or Premature?

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By Karam Raj

“This aint baseball” “Don’t sign any more kids ffs!” “They’re in it for the financial profits” are just some of the many comments and remarks ive read which have been made about our Owners lately.

The majority of the fans are highly frustrated,and rightly so. We’re still struggling,although we’ve shown a glimpse of what is to come in the next few years with a string of good performances in Januar, but the impression of the owners is still undecided & their transfer policy doesn’t help their case either.

Apparently,no player above the age of 24 is to be recruited for our club.. simply because of the fact these crop of players will not have a respectable ‘Re-sale’ value in the future.

If you think about it,its not so bad,the policy,that is, you’ve got players who,even if their careers don’t work out for the next 2 or 3 years at the club,can still be sold at a pretty nifty price,and in these times where the financial accounts are being closely monitored by the ruling authorities,its not a bad ploy at all.

But, the only problem with this particular policy is its timing. It’s not a bad idea to be investing in young players, but you do that only when you’ve already got a settled first 11 in place.

As Luis Suarez recently said “Ive won games with Younger players,but i’ve won Championships with experienced ones”.
We need older players in the squad. We’re buying young players in every window,without even looking at the more older and experienced ones!
You think about the future when your present is secured, ours is not. We’re in 7th place,still 7 points off the 4th spot,and we’re Liverpool,we belong in the Champions League. You’re not gonna qualify for the CL with a bunch of kids. Why? Coz they need time to settle in, while we’re asking them to hit the ground running! Its not a very pleasing situation. It puts more and more pressure on the younger players to perform,and that’s not how you develop them! It’s taken Henderson 18 months to show his true potential & if we buy every player of his age,we’ll be waiting in the same range for them to show their true colours on the field,when we don’t have that time! There’s only so much time we have in terms of being able to buy good or world class players on the basis of the name and the reputation of this football club, coz honestly,we’re not exactly providing a realistic incentive of winning trophies for the players,are we?

Besides, buying younger players is always a gamble, they may or may not work out for the club. Having the opportunity to re-sell them is one thing, but what if the majority of the younger players which were bought don’t exactly pan out the way the club wanted them to. Not only do we lose more crucial time but we lose our position in the table too. Seriously, can we afford to let that happen?
This makes qualification for the CL even more vital.. We NEED the Champions league more than we want it. And that ain’t happening until someone in the board knocks some sense into our very own John Henry.

Present first, then the future. You don’t just skip the present and think about the future. It’s a simple enough process. BR’s got my full backing,but the owners.. meh. I’m still a bit tentative at the moment.

13 Comments

  1. We all feel the pain of struggling in the league with an inexperienced squad. However it looks like FSG are going to settle for no CL qualification this year, but build a squad which can mount a real challenge as they age and become more experienced. Will we be singing FSG’s and BR’s praises in 3 years time for building a fantastically exciting team with limited money? I hope so, but will we potentially lose Suarez in the process. Him and Gerrard should be playing in the Champions League again, but FSG are sacrificing their careers by remaining fiscally responsible. Personally I would love them to trust BR to buy a couple of solid experienced players now and allow us to really go for a CL spot this year. If we buy another expensive flop however, FSG will bear the brunt of fans criticism so you can see why they would want to build a squad from up and coming players, with a manageable financial outlay…

  2. You have written an excellent article and I couldn’t agree more. The problem is not with BR, but with owners who have been frightened by past mistakes. Unfortunately, their remedy for those mistakes seems to be to make new ones….

  3. Ghost writer.

    It looks like you who has been posting the doom and gloom comments all over the Liverpool blogs. Just because you don’t like the transfer policy of the owners it doesn’t mean they will take any notice of you. You are not and have never been a club manager/owner, you know nothing about running a club, so we have to hope the owners do know what they are doing and have faith. If it hadn’t been for them coming in Hicks and Gillett would would have bankrupted the club and we’d be in the Championship.

    FSG are not going to risk all their assets to pay over the odds in this window for overage players.

    Finally you can win with kids, ask Old Red Nose, he proved Hanson wrong.

    1. Im not longing for our Owners’ attention. This is a site which lets you share your opinions and im doing just that.

      & Im not asking the owners to pay over the odds for overaged players,but you have to mix it up a little. You just cant focus on one age-bracket. What if the younger players we’ve bought in the recent past dont reach the levels we expected them to? The repercussions of that will be huge.. trust me.

  4. Enough is enough with these owners . We are like a poor mans football team. I see a artical inter want Coutinho sold so they can buy paulinho for 18mil why cant we buy paulinho is it the price range ? yes . How diffrent has it been since Rafa gone no diffrent for past 5 years we are 6Th to 8th and we are still selling players to buy player to cut wage bill. We have skeleton team kids which system rafa started and just put 11 half good players on park. where man city and united chelsea have back up in every position . We sold torres mascherano alonso arbeloa world class players who are over 25 years off age . and replaced all of them with 1 world class player Suarez. We all so live off sponsors dollars and selling players to buy how the hell are we going foward . FSG enough

  5. I don’t get it – reina,Johnson,agger,skrtel,Gerrard,Lucas,Enrique,downing,suarez,carragher – how much more experience do we need?

    1. You’ve named me 11 players there but can you make a decent enough team out of it which could last a whole season? The answer is NO. We need more depth in the squad,with a lot more ready made quality,and not buy players on the basis of their Potential. I write this because i dont feel we provide the world class players out there a proper incentive to sign for us,as i said,we NEED champions league football,man.

      1. I hope you can more patient in this term. If you need more world class player signing, you can wish some of Middle East businessman looking for buy LFC. But the problem is not at that. FSG just looking for LFC can sustains itself without more extra money from the owner. It doesn’t means FSG cheapskate, but just to prevent IF the owner has same problems like the past.FSG choose to smart buy in players. We look at the result of the next season, not this season, and we can evaluate FSG more extremely.

        1. What a load of poppycock Stevie. I dont think many true fans judge FSG on the basis that they are American, just that they dont have a clue what they are doing. John Henry himself says that they are constantly learning. LFC feels like an experiment to them. Reap in the Sky football money and sponsorship deals (with the exception of Warrior none they have arranged) and try to implement a system (money ball) that they didn’t even use to win the world series with the red sox (when they spent their way to the title).

          There is a simple logic in football – money brings success. Look at who’s won the league in England or Spain over the past few years and its all teams who spent masses on top class players. You cannot and never will be able to transform a sub standard team on the cheap.

          The policy is one dimensional and short sighted to me. Forget today, put all your eggs in one basket and hope it pays off. Its not even good business transformation as it goes. Any other business adopting FSGs approach would be done and dusted in two years, but they are cashing in on fan loyalty.

          The deloitte figures provided last week, showed clearly that FSG have not invested a penny in operating the club since they bought it…and moreover have made almost £50m to offset their inital purchase.

          I wish fans would wake up. They are here for the money and thats all. They’ll recoup what they paid for LFC, commence (but not finish) the stadium redevelopment, make us look like a good buy, and then sell the club for tidy profit, and all the while the team will go to rack and ruin.

          Sorry stevie, this is not an anti yank thing. They just haven’t got a clue

  6. I don’t understand this mentality. I believe it to be a bit shortsighted. I guess where my confusion comes in is based on a different perspective. Because I from the US (and I know everyone around the world love to hate those from the US)I believe I have a different view of professional sports. I have only followed LFC for 5yrs (my first was the last year LFC were relevant in the PL) but their seems a void in the football world of understanding that sometimes teams have to do this thing called ‘rebuilding’.

    When a team develop poor habits it sets them back a bit and will undoubtedly take more time to get healthy and then even more to advance. It is part of professional Sport.

    Crazy to think things don’t happen immediately but when you don’t have ownership swimming in moneys – it is a reality that the business of sport must be handled differently.

    The one thing you have failed to recognize in your article is a thought that though these young players are not ‘world class’ at present – when/if they do (and yes there is a risk involved) you have a squad that will be outstanding and at HALF the cost.

    This is the LFC world you live in – get used to it or go support City or Chelsea – if feel entitled that instant money should be tossed around (and they don’t seem to fly high all the time with it). I don’t want to support a club that buy their success straightaway, I like a club that does things by way of proper business that may take time.

    FSG are a BRILLIANT sporting organization (not perfect (Andy Carrol)- I am sorry that you discount their pedigree because its American. I understand that all things in Sport do not translate but many do and there are one or two successful franchises on this second rate side of the pond – take notice and respect what these owners (not your money) did for LFC. Don’t demand instant success like child. Enjoy the ride up the table over the next few years. It will make CL and PL success that much more enjoyable to know that it was attained through meticulous steps of pride for a club that deserves winning by honorable means.

    1. Firstly,dont take things so personally. Never have i even once mentioned the word ‘american’ in the article,let alone actually having a go at the whole argument of Americans not knowing their stuff when it comes to English football.. So just keep those words to yourself.

      I think youve misunderstood me. You make me sound like im not willing to be patient. thats not the case,trust me. I like the direction the club’s heading at but i also feel buying young players is too big a gamble and IF it doesnt work out the way we want it to,there are gonna be huge problems for us to face. Im just wary. I never said i dont believe in FSG,im just sitting on the fence on how they’re going about their business at the club until i finally start to see some significant progress.

      The policy needs a bit of tweaks. Relying on young blood could prove to be fatal. I just dont want us to become another Arsenal.

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