Odds shorten on a Dingleburn relegation

[Crouch > Davies]

Garcia has his off days, but he's worth £6 million. Big game player. Doesn't offer a lot on the road, is a very important player at home.

£7 million is not what we wanted to pay for Crouch, but we were so desperate to sign him, we did. And take it from me, he's been worth every penny. Look at our away form as testament to that. The lad is quality.

Agger would be early to judge at the moment. Has looked stylish and composed.

Sissoko is probably the best value for money of the lot of them. Class, class, class. If Essien is worth £24 million then Momo is worth £100 million, because he's 5 times the player.

These are all pricey players, that I don't dispute, but Morientes and Josemi aside, I think Benitez is canny and sly in the transfer market.

[mummywhycantieatcrayons]

These are all pricey players, that I don't dispute, but Morientes and Josemi aside, I think Benitez is canny and sly in the transfer market.

And no reasonable person could have predicted that Morientes wouldn't be great value for £6million

[Mustard Dust Sand]

Garcia has his off days, but he's worth £6 million. Big game player. Doesn't offer a lot on the road, is a very important player at home.

£7 million is not what we wanted to pay for Crouch, but we were so desperate to sign him, we did. And take it from me, he's been worth every penny. Look at our away form as testament to that. The lad is quality.

Agger would be early to judge at the moment. Has looked stylish and composed.

Sissoko is probably the best value for money of the lot of them. Class, class, class. If Essien is worth £24 million then Momo is worth £100 million, because he's 5 times the player.

These are all pricey players, that I don't dispute, but Morientes and Josemi aside, I think Benitez is canny and sly in the transfer market.

£6m who only plays well at home - bargain.

£7m for a freak who had 6 good months in the Prem, who has failed to establish himself at every other club he has played for - bargain. To caveat that he does help with your long ball tactics.

£6m for an unproven defender - bargain. Makes our unproven defenders (when signed) like Ben Haim seem extortionate.

Sissoko five times the player Essien is - classic. You wanna swerve the Tippex this early in a morning.

Yep, Benitez is shrewd as they come - Alves for £12m a real steal if that comes off.

[Crouch > Davies]

And no reasonable person could have predicted that Morientes wouldn't be great value for £6million

Absolutely, I thought he was comfortably going to be the back to goal striker we've needed for ten years. Sadly, just not to be. Never looked settled, never looked like he was going to. And he was missing chances that Fernando Morientes eats in his sleep. I wish him all the best, because in spite of his failures in front of goal, he ran his balls off.

£6m who only plays well at home - bargain.

£7m for a freak who had 6 good months in the Prem, who has failed to establish himself at every other club he has played for - bargain. To caveat that he does help with your long ball tactics.

£6m for an unproven defender - bargain. Makes our unproven defenders (when signed) like Ben Haim seem extortionate.

Sissoko five times the player Essien is - classic. You wanna swerve the Tippex this early in a morning.

Yep, Benitez is shrewd as they come - Alves for £12m a real steal if that comes off.

You're entitled to your opinion, as utterly wrong as I think you are.

[Mustard Dust Sand]

Thanks for pointing out I'm entitled to my opinion, very noble of you.

A constructive contradiction of my opinion too.

[blurred]

£6m who only plays well at home - bargain.

How about £6m for a player who scored the opening (ie: crucial and winning) goals in our ties against Juventus and Chelsea at home, and Leverkusen away en route to winning the Champions League, and scorer of more than his fair share of goals from midfield all season long. We tend not to play him in the tighter away games as he can be somewhat profligate, as all 'flair' players can, but he's got a great knack of scoring important goals and unlocking defences. For my money he's well worth the £6m or so.

£7m for a freak who had 6 good months in the Prem, who has failed to establish himself at every other club he has played for - bargain. To caveat that he does help with your long ball tactics.

Does it matter if he's not established himself at other clubs? What a spurious argument. Henry was a Serie A reserve winger before Wenger bought him. Not that I'm comparing the two players, of course, but that argument's got about as much chance of standing up as Arjen Robben on a windy day.

Crouch is a player who, if you watched week in and week out, you would notice is an incredibly effective player who does so much more for the team than he's credited with. Admittedly you pay a premium for English players (Andy Johnson £8m?!) rather than their equivalents from the continent, but I'd say he's worth every penny. A player who's scored something like 6 in 9 for England, and after opening his account for Liverpool (excusing his settling in period) has scored in something like every other game. Yes he's not a massively prolific goalscorer, but how key has he been in players like Garcia and Gerrard netting more this season?

£6m for an unproven defender - bargain. Makes our unproven defenders (when signed) like Ben Haim seem extortionate.

For a start the fees you've been mentioning are total fees, and certainly not what we've paid up front. A large amount of transfer fees these days, I'm sure you are aware, are dependent on various contingencies, such as 1st team appearances, goals, national team appearances, etc. Daniel Agger is an established international centre half at a very young age, and for the outlay of a couple of million up front, may well turn into a Hyypia-esque bargain. I've not seen enough of him to say he's going to be the next big thing, but he's looked competent enough to me. The next 2 season's we'll see if he's going to step up and become a first teamer.

Sissoko five times the player Essien is - classic. You wanna swerve the Tippex this early in a morning.

Hyperbole aside, I know who I reckon had a better season and made a bigger impact on his club's fortunes. Sissoko has looked ridiculously good for someone so young if you ask me. Yes he can be a bit raw, and his distribution is sometimes frustrating, but he's looked incredibly promising, and helped free up Gerrard to get his 20+ goals this season.

[blurred]

If Essien is worth £24 million then Momo is worth £100 million, because he's 5 times the player.

Maths not your strong point, fella?

[H. Pedersen]

Look, I'm not trying to argue whether or not these players represent value for money. What I take issue with is Davies > Crouch's implication that Liverpool are somehow a team that is put together on a shoestring budget, or that they are any different than Chelsea or Man U. That is laughable. Let me be blunt: you are not Bolton Wanderers. You are not a plucky side cobbled together on Bosmans that is punching above its weight and exceeding all expectations. You dump a bunch of money into the transfer market and get a return that is either about right for or below your investment. I know you're trying to create this "us against the big boys" mentality to justify another disappointing league finish, but you ARE one of the big boys, you have more money than 99% of the clubs in the world, so stop this victimization crap.

[Crouch > Davies]

You have totally misread the meaning of my signature.

Chelsea have their billions. United do have their millions. We have millions too. It's in reference to winning the EUROpean Cup 5 times! It's got nothing to do with money whatsoever. Nothing.

And you shouldn't be going on about "little Bolton" when you bid £8.5 million for a player earlier this summer.

[blurred]

Look, I'm not trying to argue whether or not these players represent value for money. What I take issue with is Davies > Crouch's implication that Liverpool are somehow a team that is put together on a shoestring budget, or that they are any different than Chelsea or Man U. That is laughable. Let me be blunt: you are not Bolton Wanderers. You are not a plucky side cobbled together on Bosmans that is punching above its weight and exceeding all expectations. You dump a bunch of money into the transfer market and get a return that is either about right for or below your investment. I know you're trying to create this "us against the big boys" mentality to justify another disappointing league finish, but you ARE one of the big boys, you have more money than 99% of the clubs in the world, so stop this victimization crap.

I'd agree with part of that. Yes we are one of the 'big clubs' and as such do spend money on players in excess of at least 75% of the rest of the league. I'd say that Chelsea and United are ahead of us in terms of expenditure on players, if only in terms of looking at the price of our respective top 3 purchases over the last 5 years or so, and that we are much more on a par with Arsenal and, of late, Spurs.

I don't claim any victimisation, or indeed that we're put together on a shoestring (nor, do I think, is Crouch>Davies to be honest), and I know that we're in a much healthier position than the vast majority of teams, but that's because we're a well run and successful club and haven't mortgaged ourselves in the way Leeds did. The problem is that Chelsea have skewed the focus of any sort of rationalising of transfer fees in this country. Previously it was only United who could dream of spending £15m+ on a couple of players, and even back in those days there were teams who could occasionally muster a 'big' signing (such as Shearer to Toon), and even now Newcastle have outspent Liverpool on more than one occasion for their record transfer.

[communistworkethic]

Touché. Seriously though, if it does go through I reckon it'll be interesting to see how much of this hype around his bad attitude and nightlife loving lifestyle is actually true. Had a mate at Newcastle uni who'd see him sporadically in town on nights out and suchlike, but I don't think his attitude is all that bad, and hopefully Benitez will be able to get him ship-shape. And if he is a pisshead, then I'll go for a pint with him

sees the hype aint so hyped.....

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/south_east/5138726.stm

[blurred]

Looks like he'll get on well with Cissé, then

[Dr.Karl]

Crouch<Davies, you have to realise for Bolton to get into the position of tabling a bid of £8.5 million we've had to find some real bargains in the transfer market and be successful on a shoestring budget. How on earth does that relate to Liverpool I don't know because when Benitez and Houllier finished fifth which was regarded as a failure they continued to spend big on players. If we had failed we would have been relagated. Lets put it into perspective, Liverpool should have done better in the league with what they've spent in recent years. The league in is the barometer of how good a team is, a cup team is totally different imv.

[blurred]

Part of the reason why Liverpool appear to spend big is, of course, repeated Champions League football. This generates revenues of £10-£15m per year when a side is in it, obviously dependent on how far they go. If you look at Liverpool's net spending each year under Houllier and Benitez, it is around the £15m a year mark. This is no different to Bolton looking to splash some of their UEFA cash now. Part of the problem for you guys is that you fell at the final hurdle this year, and had European football been established for the second year in a row you'd've been able to cash in on this in the transfer market, as not only does your buying power increase, but so does your exposure.

Liverpool, Arsenal et al do not mortgage themselves on transfers, and can only 'spend big' (comparatively) because of their sustained league success. United (to a lesser extent) and Chelsea (to a great extent) have been able to outspend everyone for a good 5 years, not necessarily linked to success on the pitch so much as off it.

Liverpool's transfer policy is much like Bolton's, but on a slightly bigger scale.

[Batman]

burred- I agree


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£6m for a bloke who will spnd the first 3 months of the season behind bars is a little excessive

[Bruce Rioja]

£6m for a bloke who will spnd the first 3 months of the season behind bars

And then the remainder of his contract leaning against them! "See, I suffer for my art, Bartender. Isn't it?!"