Liverpool's Contract Problems Have Huge Impact On January Transfers
A column. Plus playing strong sides in the cups, Tamworth's deal with the devil and window woes before the failed title challenge of 2014
DO LIVERPOOL NEED another player or two to help them get over the line in their Premier League title challenge? Maybe.
Can they afford a meaningful dip into the market in January? Probably not. I don’t mean that in a purely financial sense.
It’s a situation complicated by the contract status of Mohamed Salah, Virgil van Dijk and Trent Alexander-Arnold. Who knows whether the main goalscorer, the captain and fulcrum of the defence and the most creative right back in the top flight will need to be replaced come summer.
Allowing three of the four most important players in the squad – the other is Alisson Becker – to reach the final months of their contracts has a huge knock-on effect on other recruitment decisions. Unless the club is very close to deciding how they are going to deal with the trio, it would be dangerous to spend money this month.
A year ago, after Jurgen Klopp announced he would be leaving in the summer, sources inside Anfield seemed to be paving the way for the exit of Salah and van Dijk. Alexander-Arnold, we were told, was the priority. The fans needed to understand that any saving on wages would be reinvested in new players. It seemed like the scene was being set for the departure of ageing big earners.
The suspicion is that Fenway Sports Group and the Michael Edwards-led executive structure believed that this season would be transitional. No one expected Arne Slot to position the team at the top of the table beyond the halfway point of the campaign. No one thought Salah would produce a series of performances that suggest he is at his peak and not in the slow decline of a thirtysomething. And who figured that van Dijk would grow in stature despite closing in on his 34th birthday? And that both would want to stay at Liverpool on very similar terms to their present deals.
Liverpool’s last two forays in the January window have been positive. Luis Diaz and Cody Gakpo have been fine additions to the squad. With so much uncertainty around the club, however, it may not make sense to lay out significant cash when the summer might offer more value and opportunity. At least then you'll know what you need.
Whatever way you look at it, this is a mess that should have been avoided. Someone’s been asleep at the wheel. Let’s hope Slot’s title drive doesn’t crash because of it.
Weak arguments
“You’re only ever eight games from the sack,” Kenny Dalglish once told me. We were discussing why managers act like they do.
“Even me,” he added. At the time he appeared unsackable.
It’s a story I tell whenever a supporter asks why the hell first-teamers are selected for the semi finals of the Carabao Cup. I get the idea of saving players for the league. It’s a great notion in principle.
If you could guarantee a title or Champions League by playing the kids in the domestic cups, Slot would send out the under-14s. But you can’t.
So, being so close to Wembley and silverware, the head coach hedged his bets at White Hart Lane in the first leg and will deploy a strong side when Tottenham Hotspur come to Anfield next month.
There’s no point in moaning about it. If you go out of the cup with weak sides and then the season goes to shit and you miss out on the big prizes, no one’s going to be saying, "You did the right thing.”
Management is always a balancing act. Slot’s doing a pretty good job of it so far.
Sorry Tamworth
My first instinct when I saw that Tamworth had been sponsored by The Sun for the FA Cup third round tie against Spurs was to hope the National League team got spanked. Then I thought about it.
You can argue that all football fans (and clubs) should be affronted by The Sun’s obscene behaviour after Hillsborough and join us in the boycott. It doesn’t work like that, sadly.
It’s our battle, not theirs. Why wouldn’t they take the money?
This is another example of classic Sun behaviour. They create the illusion that the paper is on the side of the little man. It’s not. After Tottenham knocked them out, Tamworth were erased from the Sun’s mind.
The newspaper used the non-leaguers for their own purpose and moved on without a thought. But someone, somewhere will associate The Sun with the underdogs.
Nah, this is not a medium for giantkillers. What this organisation engages in is giantbuilding. It is not an advocate of the little man. It's a tool of the powerful whose only concern is aggregating wealth.
They got what they wanted from you, Tamworth. They’ll move on to the next minnows now and never give you another moment’s thought. They'd dance on your grave if it suited them.
And I sniggered when they went out and chuckled at the rage over not getting a replay.
I actually think the system is wrong. But, you know, that’s not my battle.
No defence
Talking of January reinforcements and stalled title challenges, in the winter window of 2014, Brendan Rodgers wanted a defender. The club put their energy into signing Salah, a move that Rodgers scuppered.
In the opening month of 2014, it looked like Liverpool were in a scrap for Champions League spots. Then they went on a stunning run, only to fall short in the final week of the season.
Nevertheless, in that January I had lunch with John W Henry. Why, I asked him, were the recruiters going after a winger when the manager wanted a defender? “There are no defenders out there,” the principal owner said.
I was, like, “yeh wha!?”
“No, no,” he said, “they assure me there are none out there.”
Mmmm. But, good enough, he went away and asked the question again. The next day he sent me the email exchange.
“Why aren’t we signing a defender,” Henry asked in his characteristic terse style.
“There are none out there,” was the equally abrupt reply.
Would a judicious defensive buy have got Liverpool over the line that year? Who knows?
But 11 years on, I’m still struggling to make sense of it all. The same way I’m struggling to make sense of letting three huge players get into the final six months of their contracts.
Far Foreign Land, a book about Istanbul and Liverpool’s supporter culture, is available here £10 UK, £15 Europe, £18 Rest Of World. All including postage. Get it in time for the 20th anniversary year