I realize that is hard to believe after the spending spree we just witnessed in the EPL at the end of the transfer window...I am still flabbergasted at the fee Liverpool paid for Andy Carroll. £35m...really? I am not sure who advised John Henry on that one, but clearly the owner of the Red Sox and Liverpool is not shy to splash out the cash this year...see how much he has paid Carl Crawford and Adrian Gonzalez to play for the Red Sox (being a Red Sox fan I am not complaining mind you). However this latest spending spree has caught the eye of UEFA, who have come out and said that they will be serious when it comes to enforcing more sound fiscal policies for clubs.
European teams will need to be fiscally sound if they hope to play in European competitions. Sounds good. It will be difficult to enforce - example what if a billionaire Russian buys a London club and basically uses his own piles of cash to subsidize the team's books to ensure there is no "debt." I realize that this does not construe breaking even on "soccer business" however I am sure there will be ways around that. Maybe this Russian's other holdings will magically spend an inordinate amount of money to have some sponsorships with the club. Or maybe many of the non-player expenses will be "outsourced" and covered by a holding company, therefore moving the costs off the club's books.
In light of what happened over the past few days, this is a good sign, but UEFA better be crystal clear as to what they mean by "soccer" business as well as how they will be scrutinizing the books. Otherwise we will just make more lawyers and accountants wealthy as they play shell games with the finances and books associated with football clubs.
4 comments:
Suarez is a good buy and already some early returns. Torez had lost his mojo with Liverpool and time for a change.
Carrol is a risk. But no risk not return. He is huge impact player an punished Liverpool earlier this year (so they wanted him). Having only 1 cap for England means nothing--(I love England but they have not managed their country skills that well in the past)
I think New Castle could suffer without him. No one knows how he will do on a top 5 or 6 team like Liverpool (or any others on that list).... Having Gerard and Carrol on the same team could be very dynamic and Suarez helps alot here. Liverpool does not have much patienceto wait for their next dynasty so they hope this is it and the RedSox magic can be transferred. But one big injury could spoil their hopes (look what happened to Celtics after a famous college basketball recruit they died tragically (Len Bias). Liverpool is just missing a few key players and maybe they have closed alot of the gap.
Interestingly Manu U had always wanted to get Torez. Did they give up on him or doing too well now to need him? Maybe both.
I think that Manchester United saw the price tag Liverpool slapped on Torres and walked away. That is a lot of cash if you do not have the fiscal backing of a Russian or Qatar billionaire!
I think that the Carroll risk is too much to take considering you already had Suarez and I am not sure you needed another striker when you have other holes - aka midfield. For the money Liverpool spent, they could have purchased M'Vila as a holding midfielder and another striker - Gervinho from Lille could have been had for half of the sum paid for Carroll.
Time will tell.
That is true that Liverpool does have other gaps. From watching some New Castle game alot of activity I saw of Carroll was more around the 30 yard line and he scores some goals from there too. So in some games he was playing more as an attacking midfielder. Not sure where he is best suited but I feel Torez and Suarez are more speedy forwards. Carroll is more of a target but I think he is very different than what Suarez or Torez was. And I am not sure who they currently have that would be like him. I think he could play in a midfield role. Then some of your gaps they need to fill are in the backline defense. Remember Kuyt was hired to be a Liverpool striker but now is just a hard working outside midfielder. Carrolls role may change too....
I think that Carroll is suited as a last line of defense striker, one who can use his height to knock down crosses or put the ball on goal.
Good point on Kuyt, then again Rafa was selling us a bunch of smoke and mirrors when he came in as a "striker" anyone who had watched the dutch international realized that he was more of a 2nd striker or more of a linking player between front line and midfield. Far from the goal scoring machine Rafa pitched him as....which is not surprising coming from Rafa
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