In hindsight, how would you have spent our summer budget?

Our summer signings of 2014 have done little to help our campaign (as was the case with our signings of summer 2013). Emre Can has impressed me the most and he has hardly featured.

With hindsight helping you, how would you have, realistically, spent the roughly £100m sum that we spent in the summer?

I'll post my list later on.

Benatia 40m
Kroos 20m
Mandzukic 18m
Can 10m

No need for wingers. Coutinho, Sterling and Sturridge would do that trick.

I dont if its a small club mentality or something, But we always go for players who have no experience and are young, It should be a combination of youth and experience. Transfer committee needs to be sacked asap. We need big names.

Nishy wrote:Benatia 40m
Kroos 20m
Mandzukic 18m
Can 10m

No need for wingers. Coutinho, Sterling and Sturridge would do that trick.

I dont if its a small club mentality or something, But we always go for players who have no experience and are young, It should be a combination of youth and experience. Transfer committee needs to be sacked asap. We need big names.

It's unrealistic to expect we could have gotten Benatia or Kroos when Bayern and Madrid were putting offers in for them, too.

Is it not too early to say?

Mandzukic would have been a great pick up for you lads.

Personally, I would have done:
Manduzkic 20m
Can 10m
Moreno 12m
Lambert 4m
Depay 15m
Howedes 20m
Jung 2.5m
Firmino 25m

That is a tad under what you guys actually spent, covers the same areas but with better (imo) players.


Two possible formations, one with and one without Studge. You'd still need a DM but they can be brought in Jan or next July.

Reus, Manduzkic & Howedes along with Manquillo, Moreno & Emre.

------------Mignolet------------
Manquillo-Howedes-Sakho-Moreno
-------Gerrard-Henderson-------
Raheem------Reus------Coutinho
------Manduzkic/Sturridge------

Busby Babe wrote:Is it not too early to say?

Not when you have Br signing these players. 60% chance they'll leave by next season January or be loaned out.

Not that i dont support them, Im just saying what usually happens. But i also understand they need 1 season to settle acc to the wise, which is a load of crap because players of their ilk need at most 6 months to adapt. Manquillo i'd give an year but he's been one of our better performers.

Art Morte wrote:

Nishy wrote:Benatia 40m
Kroos 20m
Mandzukic 18m
Can 10m

No need for wingers. Coutinho, Sterling and Sturridge would do that trick.

I dont if its a small club mentality or something, But we always go for players who have no experience and are young, It should be a combination of youth and experience. Transfer committee needs to be sacked asap. We need big names.

It's unrealistic to expect we could have gotten Benatia or Kroos when Bayern and Madrid were putting offers in for them, too.

No time for research, exams.

Balotelli 16
Remy I guess as cover for Sturridge (although not at that reported 90k or whatever we were going to give him over 5 years)
Shaqiri 25
Kovacic/Blind (preferably Kovacic but Blind is class) 15
Hamsik/Cesc 25
Howedes/De Vrij 20/10
Keep Aspas over Lambert

Don't know any decent full backs atm...

Nishy wrote:

Busby Babe wrote:Is it not too early to say?

Not when you have Br signing these players. 60% chance they'll leave by next season January or be loaned out.

Not that i dont support them, Im just saying what usually happens. But i also understand they need 1 season to settle acc to the wise, which is a load of crap because players of their ilk need at most 6 months to adapt. Manquillo i'd give an year but he's been one of our better performers.

Fair enough, but there is others like Markovic, who looks like he has no confidence right now and only in time we will know if he's good enough or not. I mean Henderson was only seen as a good buy later on too.

Keylor Navas, Garay, Clyne, Moreno, Javi Martinez , Reus

-----------Navas---------
Clyne-Garay-Sakho-Moreno
---------Martinez-----
-----Hendo----Coutinho
---------Raheem-----------
----Sturridge---Reus-----

When not injured, Martinez is being wasted at bench/CB position at Bayern so I thought about giving it a shot

pls no Clyne.
They'll probably find another RB, Better than Clyne if we sign him.

NO MORE AVERAGE PLAYERS FROM MIDTABLE PL TEAMS PLEASE EVER

I think if were not going to spend big then don't spend it and save it for a big transfer.

My list:

Can. Easy to say now, I wouldn't have been aware of how good he is, but hindsight helping was the point here. So, yeah, I would have signed Emre.

According to rumours, Shaqiri seemed possible, so I would have tried to get him rather than spend £20m on Markovic.

Might have tried to get Song as competition / rotation for Gerrard. Should have been easy to get as West Ham got him on loan. West Ham's Enner Valencia also impressed me at the World Cup and I think a pacey forward like him, with a nose for goal, would have suited our style better than Balotelli or Lambert. Either him or Remy, but if our medical department thought Remy was a risk, I'm happy to listen to their professional opinion and leave Remy out.

Given how bad Lovren has been, in hindsight I would have rather kept - and played - Agger. I also kinda like Caulker, so would not have minded him, either.

Moreno has done OK, so I'd take him and Balotelli for £16m is still a good attacking option to have as long as you don't play him as a lone striker, Brendan, so I would take him, too.

Can £10m
Moreno £12m
Balotelli £16m
Shaqiri £25-30m
Song (loan)
Enner Valencia £12m
Agger / Caulker (free) / £10m

~ £90m


I hindsight, I think that would have been better - and still realistic - than

Can 10m
Moreno 12m
Balotelli 16m
Markovic 20m
Lallana 25m
Lovren 20m
Lambert 4m

~ £105m

Really wishing now that Sanchez hadn't turned us down. The simple switch of Sanchez for Lallana would make this team look completely different.

Would have liked to get Alderweireld as opposed to Lovren and kept Agger. Alderweireld/Skrtel and Agger/Sakho would have been fine and much cheaper. Moreno was ok, you can see the talent is there, but I'd also liked to have seen a more experienced right back brought in as opposed to Manquillo who we didn't even buy.

In midfield I'm not upset about the Can signing he actually has looked quite promising, but I think we could have gone for someone more experienced that would really push Gerrard and others. Lallana and Markovic I could have done without. Both too expensive for what they'd done to that point...Lallana especially. I don't mind him, but I always said we should have been aiming for higher.

I don't mind the Balotelli signing because I think he could work really well in a two striker system (or as more of a false 9 with our wingers acting more as forwards who cut into the box as much as possible because Balo loves to drop deeper and hold the ball up, take long shots and play others into the box). Lambert was a useless signing that seemed like more of an enabler for the Lallana deal which is upsetting.

For me...I think this is somewhat realistic with the money we had:

Toby Alderweireld - 10m (or on loan)
Oliver Sorg - 10m
Alberto Moreno - 15m
Axel Witsel - 35m
Xherdan Shaqiri - 20m
Alexandre Lacazette - 15m

According to transfermarkt prices mostly. On their notes we spent 133m including the Origi buy, and the above would have cost 105m.

We could of bought the Best DM in the world and Rodgers wouldn't drop Gerrard for him.

Cujo, Alderweireld isn't that good. You'd basically be getting a slightly better Lovren, it wouldn't make a difference.

Would've brought Griezmann for the Markovic money €25m.

I don't believe the London story for a second, we held a lot of leverage with Barca in that Sanchez deal and blew it because I'm sure we weren't willing to pay Sanchez the wages he wanted. So would have bought Sanchez for the Lallana+Lovren+Lambert money £50m. Bought Kovacic for the rest of the money.

Would have kept Agger and Ilori. Skrtel would have been sold and Lovren never bought.

Would have bought Luiz Gustavo for the Balotelli+Can money £25m.

Would have bought MDS for the Moreno money £12m. Johnson and Enrique would have been sold.

Would have still bought Origi and brought Manquillo on loan. Would have never bought Lambert and sold Mignolet, Borini, Alberto, Aspas, Assaidi, Suso, Coates, Wisdom.

Would have bought a starting CB and GK from all the sales money. Keylor Navas would have been on top of the list for the GK and a competent CB really (Manolas/Schar/Howedes).

Sanchez £35m + Kovacic (£15m/€20m) > Lallana+Lovren+Lambert £50m
Griezmann €25m > Markovic 25m
Luiz Gustavo £25m > Balotelli+Can £26m
DeSciglio £12m > Moreno £12m
Origi £10m
Manquillo (loan)
Keylor Navas €10m > Mignolet £10m
CB > All the sales






Ilori/Sakho would have been playing while/if Agger was injured.

Griezmann/Origi playing while Sturridge is out.

Manquillo and MDS starting while Flanno is out.

Kick wrote:Cujo, Alderweireld isn't that good. You'd basically be getting a slightly better Lovren, it wouldn't make a difference.

Alderweireld can be very good. I've been watching him since he played with Ajax. Unless of course he took a big step back in La Liga, but the main difference too is that he doesn't step in and take away a spot from Sakho or force a sale of Agger because he plays the right side...he also handles the ball quite well and would fit right in to Rodgers' building up from the back philosophy. Which makes it all the more disappointing that he spent 20m on Lovren when he could have had Toby on loan.

He was rubbish in Spain, actually.

I rate Howedes above him (hence why he is in my team). Howedes is also a leader which seems to be lacking in the Liverpool backline.

Yeah even at Ajax, Alderwiereled was always second best behind Vertonghen and even arguably worse than Moisander. And Moisander and Vertonghen really aren't that great tbh.

I would take Howedes over Alderweireld as well, but there's no indication that he was available.

Moisander arguably better than Alderweireld...one of the strangest things I've read on this forum. It's not even close when Toby was at Ajax. Again, I didn't watch him in Spain so I can't speak to his time there, but Vertonghen is a fantastic defender when healthy -- his first season even in the EPL was very, very good. I would take an Alderweireld + Vertonghen pairing any day of the week almost any combination in the EPL right now.

Yes of course you would, if midtable was your objective.