It is a bit of a balancing act with the new homegrown quota rule alright Tes. But in fairness with Comolli on board there should have been and should be going forward plenty of time to identify what exactly needs to be done on that front.
Saw a tweet from Rory Smith suggesting that missing out on Jones Young and Wickham would suggest we are the same old Liverpool at getting deals done. Question marks will be raised about the effectiveness of Comollis role if we continue to miss out on top targets. I dont want to over pay for players nor do I want to make rush decisions and buy players that dont suit the club but for some reason or another we tend to get caught up with long drawn out transfer sagas. Whatever about the downing deal but why we havent the Adam deal done and dusted now is baffling.
I understand the need for quality British players but I have never been a Downing fan. For me hes a mediocre English player who we look like paying way over the odds to sign. Id sooner gamble on Mata or even try for Adam Johnson.
As for the whole debacle with Marveaux. Im not saying we should over pay these guys but there seems to be an emerging trend of not matching clubs value for a player or player wages. Its not like we are millions apart but we seem to be haggling over every last penny. In some instances I think the club is right, the Doni transfer for instance, he seemed more interested in cash. We also seem to have missed out on Payet whose going to Lille for 8 million.
As for the likes of Gervihno hes clearly a player who only wants CL football at all costs, I would prefer we didnt sign players like him. We need players to come to the club for what it is and where its going again , if they cant see what is currently going on at the club then we are better off without them.
The thing with all these transfers we're involved in or 'missed out' on is that we don't know what the selling club are asking, what we're offering, what the player wants in terms of salary and length of contract and what we're offering them.
Payet is a shame. £8M seems a decent price. Granted he's not PL tried and tested like Johnson, or universally regarded like Mata but he is quality, a full French international and has an excellent scoring and assist record. Still, if CL football was an issue then we simply don't stand a chance ATM.
With the Jones / Henderson transfers the Mancs appeared quicker off the mark with Jones than with Henderson. Why? Who knows, but their interest appears to predate ours.
Would we be happy paying £19M for Jones? £16M for Young, who only had a year left on his deal?
So far it does 'feel' like nothing's changed too much and Sunderland and Villa are outperforming us, but I guess with having at least 5 positions, possibly 6 that we're looking to strengthen, with multiple targets for each position, then there's a lot of juggling to be done and whilst we're working on certain deals others will pass us by.