Other transfer talk

[Gulliball]

Carroll at 35m is crazy. He's only had 6 months in the Premiership, and is in court every other week.

I'd much rather watch an honest pro trying to earn a living for himself, than an out of touch poser on 200k a week.

[happytorq]

Carroll at 35m is crazy. He's only had 6 months in the Premiership, and is in court every other week.

I'd much rather watch an honest pro trying to earn a living for himself, than an out of touch poser on 200k a week.

If you think about it, 35M sounds a lot - and it is! - but Liverpool have really only spent 7M....Carroll and Suarez cost a combined 57M ish but they got back 50M from the sale of Torres. Torres has been out of sorts for a while, and although 18 months ago he was probably the best striker around, he's been less than stellar of later. Carroll is apparently 'only' on 80k a week now (from 27k at Newcastle) which is less than what Torres was one. Plus suarez could turn out to be awesome.

I think all parties come away from this pretty happy, to be honest.

Also shows Dalglish stays past the summer....they'd not have done this if he was leaving..

[Gulliball]

That does make it sound better, but they still could have signed a much better player for 35m. They aren't going to get into the top 4 this year, so they should have banked the 50m and used it in the summer when players are more freely avaliable. David Villa went for less than that last summer, and there's absolutely no comparison between the two players. For 35m you should be buying one of the best players in the world, not someone who's been in the PL for six months and has 1 England cap.

[happytorq]

That does make it sound better, but they still could have signed a much better player for 35m. They aren't going to get into the top 4 this year, so they should have banked the 50m and used it in the summer when players are more freely avaliable. David Villa went for less than that last summer, and there's absolutely no comparison between the two players. For 35m you should be buying one of the best players in the world, not someone who's been in the PL for six months and has 1 England cap.

Here's the thing - the best players in the world won't go there.

Who could they have got, though? The players you're looking at for that kind of money are the true world class players - as you say, David Villa cost less! - and those guys aren't going to go to a team not in the Champions League (and not certain to be in it next year). Liverpool aren't the draw they were years ago and somebody like Carroll - young, talented, but in need of some moulding - is probably the ideal ones to go with at this stage. I actually think Carroll could turn out to be a top top class player (if he can stop being...well, an idiot off the field). So for a net spend of £7.5M they've got;

• World Cup star who scored 35 goals in 33 league games last season (ok, so dutch league, but still)
  current england player with potential for greatness
  got rid of sulking, underperforming player on huge wages
  ..they also showed the fans that they're serious, which for liverpool can be important.

[Gulliball]

Again, that's all true. But we're talking about the 8th biggest signing in football history here! See if you can spot the odd one out:

Ronaldo, Ibrahimovic, Kaka, Torres, Zidane, Figo, Crespo, Carroll, Villa, Buffon.

You've got 9 top internationals moving at the peak of their careers, between huge European giants.

Carroll is a 21 year old who has achieved nothing in football yet. He's played ONE full season in his whole career, and that was at Championship level, where he scored 17 goals in 39 games. 6 months in the Premiership does not equate to the 8th biggest transfer ever. That's before you consider that he's been in court for punching his girlfriend, had another charge of assault, broke his team-mates jaw and a judge ruled that he's not allowed to live on his own. He's a prison sentence waiting to happen.

I'd agree Liverpool can't attract the very biggest names right now, but with their name, reputation, 65m transfer budget and 100k a week wages they could have done a hell of a lot better.

[happytorq]

Heh - and what you say is true...Carroll's name does look a bit..incongruent. Clearly there were 3 things that drove up the price; the fact that Liverpool are desperate, they have some money, and he's a young english player moving between two english clubs. It'd be interesting to find a list of the top transfer fees of players moving within two clubs of their own country. In spain the record would probably be Villa? but you can pretty much double the price for English players moving between two english clubs...Bent (24M), Ferdinand (18M then 29M), Shearer (15M), Collymore (8M), Carrick (25M?), Jeffers (8M), Robbie Keane (19M).all of these are good players (except Jeffers, heh) but you'd have to say that all were overpriced (maybe Shearer apart). From memory the italian record is probably Christian Vieri in the late 90s, think it was about £30M but at one point I know Lentini was the most expensive player.

essentially what I'm saying is yes, it's a lot of money, but when you're transferring home players between two home clubs you always pay a premium. consider also that this is the premiership - where everybody is insane - and that Liverpool had £50M in burning a hole in their pocket, it isn't that surprising.

The problem Liverpool have now is that they're unlikely to recoup that money by selling Carroll later on, but assuming they're aiming to win the league again sooner rather than later, that's ok because doing so would more than repay the outlay.

Still think they need a defence, though

[robc]

Carrick at 25million?! Surely they didn't pay that did they? I think it was like 16 if memory serves me right...

[oldpedant]

I heard that Torres will be on £155,000 per WEEK.

An adult on minimum wage, working 40 hours per week, would have to work for 13 YEARS to make that much.

Sick or what?

[Plymouth Gull]

Thats nothing, oldpedant. (Well, of course it is to real people, but footballs beyond a joke these days)

Rooneys on £230k+ per week. Now that IS ridiculous. All for kicking a football around, and he doesn't even do it well these days! :-|

[Fletch]

Dont forget those figures are usually net as well. Clubs usually pay the tax owed as part of the contract

[happytorq]

Carrick at 25million?! Surely they didn't pay that did they? I think it was like 16 if memory serves me right...

Yeah, fair enough, i got that wrong - wikipedia says 14M rising to 18.6

Still a lot, though!

[Gulliball]

Am I a 35 million striker?

I scored 24 goals helping my team win promotion to the Premier League.

Then, in my first season in the top flight I scored 15 goals by the end of January. The 15 included goals against Arsenal away and Liverpool at home.

My form earned me an England call up winning my first cap in a friendly.










Am I a £35m striker?

























No
























I'm Michael Rickets Feb 2002

:ball2: