By Brian Reece
twitter @oldfattoad
Deadline day is over and the end of another transfer window is complete but what implications does it have for Liverpool football club, well first lets look at our rivals Arsenal Chelsea Man Utd Man City and Spurs.
Arsenal made signings of desperation and not of improvement, Per Mertesacker Arteta Santos and Benayoun all point towards panic buys and not ones of planned long-term improvement.
It’s true Arteta is a quality player but Benayoun is injury prone and Mertesacker and Santos have no Premier League experience and will need time to adjust to the physical and fast pace nature of the premiership, which is not what Arsenal fans or Wenger needs at this present time.
Chelsea have again turned to Liverpool to bolster their squad with the capture of Raul Meireles plus the signing of Juan Mata Chelsea fans would be happy but are these signings good enough to land Chelsea the title? I think not, Chelsea are a fine team but lack that cutting edge of earlier years.
Manchester United have made three signings which will prove good ones for the long-term, De Gea Young and Jones have all fitted into the first team rather well apart from a few early mistakes by De Gea which am sure will soon be rectified United seem comfortable with the signings they have made and will be the bookmakers favourites to win the title again.
Manchester City are the biggest threat to United now with the signings of the fantastic Aguero who looks superb along with Clichy Nasri and Hargreaves now added to the ever-increasing squad Manchester City will be a force in the premiership this season, the only question that hangs over City is can they sustain a season long assault when key players get injured or suspended? That is the key question only time can answer.
Spurs have blown any chance of securing a top four place this season with the clear lack of quality obtained in this transfer window, Adebayor and Parker will not win Spurs the top four place Harry Redknapp believes his side are capable of and what’s more alarming for Spurs is that the current squad have no depth to it, the defence is poor and what happens if Adebayor and Defoe get injured or suspended? Modric is unhappy and Huddlestone is nowhere near world-class so who is the natural leader at Spurs who is the game winner, I fail to see any clear candidate for that role.
So now on to Liverpool and what a busy and most successful transfer window we have had for a several years, in Adam Downing Henderson Enrique Coates and Bellamy, we have signed over a half a first team line up and that is the difference between Liverpool compared to Arsenal and Spurs, every single signing acquired apart from Bellamy was with the future and long-term vision of the club in mind but also players who can make an immediate impact to the squad such as Bellamy, if our early performances are to go by and we can continue the high standard of play then we will finish within the top four and with the new players settling into the squad with ease we will be a strong contender for third or fourth spot, most importantly we have also managed to offload the unwanted players all in one window which is pleasing to all Liverpool fans.
Aquilani Degen Cole Polusen El Zhar Insua Kyrgiakos Jovanovic N’Gog Konchesky and Meireles have all gone and so has our increasing wage bill, OK some are loan deals and we will be paying some of the players wages but it was essential we cleared out the players Dalglish or the club didn’t want.
What this transfer window has demonstrated to Liverpool fans is that we have the right manager and the right owners who want the club to push forward and become winners, Liverpool are in a fantastic place both in financial stability and Managerial quality, we can once again seriously challenge Manchester United and Manchester City for honours this season and at the end of the season with the prospect of Champions League football Liverpool will be in place to attract bigger names and better quality players to add to our squad, this is the time when I believe we will mount a title challenge.
So for Dalglish its back to business until the next transfer window opens in January and we start all the speculation and compiling of our wish lists again but until then Liverpool will continue to develop and improve under Dalglish and fans will be hopeful that our club will be back competing and challenging for every competition we enter, who knows Wembley could be on the horizon this season.