Damien Comolli. He's paid the price for paying the price of about £58m for two players who have failed to inspire Liverpool to improve on last season. http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/17687524
Luis Suarez (£22.8m) Andy Carroll (£35m) Jordan Henderson (£16m) Charlie Adam (£8m) Stewart Downing (£20m) Doni (Free) Jose Enrique (£5m) Sebastian Coates (£6m) Craig Bellamy (Free) Total: £112.8m
I'll raise you £20m for Stuart Downing! TWENTY MILLION POUNDS!
It's insane, isn't it? Completely nuts. I've said it since he first played for England - If Downing was right footed, he'd be in the Championship. Comolli has finally been found out. He'll struggle to get the same gig elsewhere with that stigma of that list following him around.
Best signing of that lot was Bellamy. Coates might come good, Enrique might turn out ok in the long term. Carroll might still be a Liverpool hero in the long term, just never worth that price.
Dalglish mentions in the report that all the players were his choice and he left Comolli to take care of the transfers. Just goes to show how out of touch Dalglish is with modern day football!
I actually rate Downing, but £20m is still insane.. But if compared to Carroll...!
Why!? I don't understand how that's possible!
Granted, based more at his time at Villa than at Liverpool.. Have only seen him in red in the CC final, and thought he had a good game.. I usually watch a different team in red..
I think the £35m for Carroll needs to be taken in conjunction with the £50m they got for a crocked, possibly finished, Torres. I would have thought that Carroll and £15m was fantastic business for the sale of Torres. Also at the time Carroll was thought to be the great England Hope. He was banging in goals for Newcastle (a side that was hardly setting the world alight) and is still very young.
He hasn't worked out, and he was a little over the top price wise, but if he'd got 20 goals this season (and this was what he was on target to do for Newcastle when they signed him) there would have been no complaints.
They paid too much for most of their signings, but so do all the big Premier League clubs, and even though Man City, Chelsea and Man Utd have bigger budgets available they are still all chasing the same players.
If anything I think the players have failed to live up to their potential this season, which makes Comolli a Scapegoat for Dalgeish, who is, by all accounts, unsackable.
If anything I think the players have failed to live up to their potential this season, which makes Comolli a Scapegoat for Dalgeish, who is, by all accounts, unsackable.
Sorry Kings Hill but you can't sensibly offset the Carroll fee against what they got for Torres. I assume Comolli was involved in the sale of Torres and perhaps he thought that has long as he made a 'profit' on the sale everyone would be happy. Dalglish even called Carroll the 'minus £15 million player.' This is complete rubbish of course. Carroll should have been valued on his own potential without any reference to the proceeds of the Torres deal. I understand that the previous year Carroll could have been bought for £1million. Carroll is and will always be a lumbering striker who is good in the air but with little else to recommend him. Carroll, Henderson, Downing and Adam are mediocre players at best so Dalglish should have gone as well. £79 million wasted. I bet John Henry is well pleased!! I expect Dalglish told him that the Carling cup was Britain's premier trophy and that Cardiff were the Welsh equivalent of Barcelona.
He's taken a bullet for Dalglish, who'll be following him out at the end of the season. Every interview I see with Dalglish is the same, dour monosyllabic answers, grim faced and he looks like he hates the job and is looking for an escape hatch.
Surely he just got in the players that 'King' Kenny asked for?
Not like he has bought them and said to him - there ya go kenny, win us the league with this lot I have found.
He's the one who arranges the fees though - which have been over the top.
But he was doing his job in negotiating contracts.
Liverpool based their transfer policy on the moneyball philosophy that you sign good quality young players on longish contracts. The theory being that they still have some residual value if you want to sell them after a few years, even allowing for a contract extension or two, allowing you to recoup some if not much of the transfer fee while having the services of a decent player for a few years.
I feel sorry for Commoli, he fell on Juande Ramos' sword and now has fallen on Dalglish's.
He signed the likes of Gareth Bale, Kevin-Prince Boateng, Younes Kaboul, Luka Modrić, Benoit Assou-Ekotto, Vedran Ćorluka, Roman Pavlyuchenko and Dimitar Berbatov for Spurs when he was our Director of Football. Ok, it didnt quite work out for Boateng at Spurs but he's gone on to make a name for himself at AC Milan now but he others have done extremely well for Spurs. Berbatov was sold for huge profit and if Bale and Modric are sold on eventually, it is likely we'll get huge profit for them two as well. He also had a very good success rate at Ars*nal before Levy put him on the Tottenham payroll.
Go back to 2004, Levy brought in Frank Arnesen (before he was replaced by Commoli a year later) as DOF with the coaching team of Santini and Jol. The signings were of the DOFs choice and the coaches were expected to work with them, the idea it brings stability if the coaches are dispensed with. It worked to a point. After Santini left, Jol done a reasonable job with the squad he was given. He had huge arguments with Commoli over suggested targets (and the signing of Darren Bent arguably) and that was when Commoli championed Juande Ramos to Levy. Dont think Levy ever forgave him for that lol. The business model was that we couldnt compete with the bigger clubs as we had limited cashflow due to not being in European Competition then, so we looked to buy young, unproven players and then develop them and then we get up the league table and/or sell them for profit. First Carrick, then Berbatov followed. £15m profit on Carrick, £22m profit on Berbatov. With inflated potential transfer fees of £40-£50m being quoted for Bale and Modric, Commoli did do something right.
At Spurs, Commoli identified the players but Levy took control of all contract negotiations. I cant believe that Commoli was left to negotiate contracts at Liverpool himself. Of course, for all the good signings he made, you could also point to the hit and miss signings of Alan Hutton (probably the worst full back I've ever seen), Heurello Gomes (need I say any more?), Gio Dos Santos and David Bentley.
At Liverpool, he wasnt given the same brief. He was looking for players that could go straight into the first team and make a difference.
Surely he just got in the players that 'King' Kenny asked for?
Not like he has bought them and said to him - there ya go kenny, win us the league with this lot I have found.
He's the one who arranges the fees though - which have been over the top.
But he was doing his job in negotiating contracts.
Liverpool based their transfer policy on the moneyball philosophy that you sign good quality young players on longish contracts. The theory being that they still have some residual value if you want to sell them after a few years, even allowing for a contract extension or two, allowing you to recoup some if not much of the transfer fee while having the services of a decent player for a few years.
If that's moneyball then I seriously misunderstood the movie!
This idea is great but it's hardly revolutionary. This is the exact approach me and some friends took with football manager games as fatback as the early 90s. The system only works at a club (team) where demands for success are limited as it can take years for the players to develop into a winning team.
The Moneyball film was good but their target was undervalued players, irrespective of age, or at least that's how I understood it.
Surely he just got in the players that 'King' Kenny asked for?
Not like he has bought them and said to him - there ya go kenny, win us the league with this lot I have found.
He's the one who arranges the fees though - which have been over the top.
But he was doing his job in negotiating contracts.
Liverpool based their transfer policy on the moneyball philosophy that you sign good quality young players on longish contracts. The theory being that they still have some residual value if you want to sell them after a few years, even allowing for a contract extension or two, allowing you to recoup some if not much of the transfer fee while having the services of a decent player for a few years.
I think what Liverpool did was the exact opposite of the moneyball theory. I read the book and my understanding is that you aquire undervalued players that are cheap and under everyone else's radar. I would say that Newcastle have been closer to that theory adding players like Ba, Ben Arfa and Cabaye. Do you think that Liverpool have anyway of recouping money from Carrol, Downing or Henderson? I'd say it was unlikely, best they can hope for is their performance start to match the high price tag. Best bit of business they did was getting Shelvey from us, he does have potential to either play for them for a few years or to be sold on for a big profit.
It's common knowledge that Henry tried to secure the services of the man behind the Moneyball theory, think Comoli going is the first step on a new way of thinking at Liverpool.
Saying all that I agree with the above post that Liverpool might be too big to be a "Moneyball" club, where they buy cheap and sell high, but that doesn't mean they shouldn't be getting better value from their transfers.
Comments
Andy Carroll (£35m)
Jordan Henderson (£16m)
Charlie Adam (£8m)
Stewart Downing (£20m)
Doni (Free)
Jose Enrique (£5m)
Sebastian Coates (£6m)
Craig Bellamy (Free)
Total: £112.8m
Based on that, We should of got atleast £20m for Shelvey!
Best signing of that lot was Bellamy. Coates might come good, Enrique might turn out ok in the long term. Carroll might still be a Liverpool hero in the long term, just never worth that price.
Other than that, ridiculous spending!
Not like he has bought them and said to him - there ya go kenny, win us the league with this lot I have found.
He hasn't worked out, and he was a little over the top price wise, but if he'd got 20 goals this season (and this was what he was on target to do for Newcastle when they signed him) there would have been no complaints.
They paid too much for most of their signings, but so do all the big Premier League clubs, and even though Man City, Chelsea and Man Utd have bigger budgets available they are still all chasing the same players.
If anything I think the players have failed to live up to their potential this season, which makes Comolli a Scapegoat for Dalgeish, who is, by all accounts, unsackable.
sack himmove him upstairs in the summer.Liverpool based their transfer policy on the moneyball philosophy that you sign good quality young players on longish contracts. The theory being that they still have some residual value if you want to sell them after a few years, even allowing for a contract extension or two, allowing you to recoup some if not much of the transfer fee while having the services of a decent player for a few years.
He signed the likes of Gareth Bale, Kevin-Prince Boateng, Younes Kaboul, Luka Modrić, Benoit Assou-Ekotto, Vedran Ćorluka, Roman Pavlyuchenko and Dimitar Berbatov for Spurs when he was our Director of Football. Ok, it didnt quite work out for Boateng at Spurs but he's gone on to make a name for himself at AC Milan now but he others have done extremely well for Spurs. Berbatov was sold for huge profit and if Bale and Modric are sold on eventually, it is likely we'll get huge profit for them two as well. He also had a very good success rate at Ars*nal before Levy put him on the Tottenham payroll.
Go back to 2004, Levy brought in Frank Arnesen (before he was replaced by Commoli a year later) as DOF with the coaching team of Santini and Jol. The signings were of the DOFs choice and the coaches were expected to work with them, the idea it brings stability if the coaches are dispensed with. It worked to a point. After Santini left, Jol done a reasonable job with the squad he was given. He had huge arguments with Commoli over suggested targets (and the signing of Darren Bent arguably) and that was when Commoli championed Juande Ramos to Levy. Dont think Levy ever forgave him for that lol. The business model was that we couldnt compete with the bigger clubs as we had limited cashflow due to not being in European Competition then, so we looked to buy young, unproven players and then develop them and then we get up the league table and/or sell them for profit. First Carrick, then Berbatov followed. £15m profit on Carrick, £22m profit on Berbatov. With inflated potential transfer fees of £40-£50m being quoted for Bale and Modric, Commoli did do something right.
At Spurs, Commoli identified the players but Levy took control of all contract negotiations. I cant believe that Commoli was left to negotiate contracts at Liverpool himself.
Of course, for all the good signings he made, you could also point to the hit and miss signings of Alan Hutton (probably the worst full back I've ever seen), Heurello Gomes (need I say any more?), Gio Dos Santos and David Bentley.
At Liverpool, he wasnt given the same brief. He was looking for players that could go straight into the first team and make a difference.
The Moneyball film was good but their target was undervalued players, irrespective of age, or at least that's how I understood it.
It's common knowledge that Henry tried to secure the services of the man behind the Moneyball theory, think Comoli going is the first step on a new way of thinking at Liverpool.
Saying all that I agree with the above post that Liverpool might be too big to be a "Moneyball" club, where they buy cheap and sell high, but that doesn't mean they shouldn't be getting better value from their transfers.