da brwin： Now that the transfer window has closed, it’s time to consider where it all went wrong for two clubs in particular – Tottenham and Liverpool. Were both Andre Villas-Boas and Brendan Rodgers badly let down by the hierarchy at their respective clubs?
da lvbet： At Anfield, Liverpool made an absolute hash of replacing the departing Andy Carroll, who moved on a loan deal to Sam Allardyce’s West Ham. The idea was to bring in either or both Clint Dempsey for a fee around the £6 million region and Daniel Sturridge on loan from Chelsea.
The club’s managing director Ian Ayre is the one that has been blamed by many, predominantly for his refusal to match Fulham’s valuation of the American utility forward and offering up a derisory, bordering on the embarrassing offer of £3m. However, in an unusual step, the club’s owner John W. Henry delivered an open letter to the club’s fans this week which tackled the issue of the striker shortage.
The statement read: “I am as disappointed as anyone connected with Liverpool Football Club that we were unable to add further to our strike force in this summer transfer window, but that was not through any lack of desire or effort on the part of all of those involved.
He later went on to add: “No one should doubt our commitment to the club. We are still in the process of reversing the errors of previous regimes. It will not happen overnight. It has been compounded by our own mistakes in a difficult first two years of ownership. It has been a harsh education, but make no mistake, the club is healthier today than when we took over. After almost two years at Anfield, we are close to having the system we need in place.”
While being fiscally prudent, (particularly with Financial Fair Play on the horizon) is certainly wise, FSG are still getting to grips with the way that the game operates and they have to take accountability too for Ayre’s failure, with their consistent dithering the past 18 months. Having previously stated that any club would be lucky to have a player like Dempsey, Ayre must have gone into discussions with Fulham knowing full well that he had a ceiling limit set on what he could offer, which directly led to the move never materialising and Rodgers was badly let down by those above him.
Rodgers sounded despondent when asked about the chronic striking shortage in his squad: “We have a very small group. We had 19 training yesterday. It is something that would have to be discussed.
“I felt we needed reinforcements. That is the reality. But it is gone now. The window is shut. We have to concentrate on the players who are already here. There are one or two things we need to iron out. If we do that it will help us in the next window and the ones after. But they have not misled me.”
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Can you hardly blame him for sounding like that? He’s held up his end of the bargain by drastically reducing the wage bill this summer, but FSG and Ayre simply haven’t held up theirs when he needed them to the most.
At Tottenham though, it was something of a different story altogether and chairman Daniel Levy was often the man charged with negotiating. It was all very last-minute due to the Luka Modric transfer saga being dragged out, but considering the fee and commercial partnerships in the future, they more than secured a good deal.
However, it’s the knock-on effect that this had on other deals that makes it similar to Liverpool. Why was Andy Carroll allowed to leave on loan without a direct replacement guaranteed? With all the paperwork in place, the power should be in the hands of the club that owns the player. Similarly, having known that Luka Modric was going to be leaving for quite some time, why were negotiations only opened with Joao Moutinho, his replacement, on deadline day?
Levy’s thirst for a good deal was seen in the signing of Hugo Lloris for just £8m up front, having outmanoeuvred the famously tough Jean Michel-Aulas, but a new goalkeeper wasn’t the priority, a replacement for Modric was and while Dembele and Dempsey are certainly very good signings, they still need a player capable of dictating the tempo from deep and Villas-Boas is left with a squad large on numbers but slightly light on quality now as a result.
Making deals on deadline day is always an extremely risk business, and failing to make the ones that the manager not only requires, but has asked for, leaves the owners open to ridicule and in the cases of Tottenham and Liverpool, both managers were caught short as a result of dithering and tough negotiating.
You can follow me on Twitter @JamesMcManus1
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