Liverpool dithering over Salah opens club up to ridicule

Not for the first time Liverpool lead the race for a player down the home strait, in this case Mohamed Salah, only to be pipped at the winning post by a rival.

The list of losing bids is growing with every window and with the loss of Henrikh Mkhitaryan still felt keenly the gap to the front three is widening not just in points, but in quality and the loss of Salah is certainly feels like a kick to the solar plexus.

Questions have to be asked about Liverpool’s transfer system.  FSG have swallowed UEFA Financial Fair Play Rules hook, line and sinker and their premise is that the only way of challenging the Man City’s of this world is to become self-sustaining, thus the club has to grow commercially signing deals as they have done with Dunkin’ Doughnuts.  My problem is that it is thinking primarily based on Financial Fair Play (FFP) and the hope that every club will be guided by its principles.

Tom Werner spoke in his October interview with the Daily Mirror about FFP saying “I was very involved in representing Liverpool in that discussion at club level and it is important because the club needs to be self-sustaining.  One of the things about FFP is it means you don’t have to overspend to win.”

What Tom Werner says is laudable if the spending of the powerhouses is guided by the same principles, which we know is unlikely.

The problem is that Liverpool have a set price for players they are interested in and once the word gets out the selling club uses us as the bargaining tool to ramp up the selling price and get in other buyers, hence we are left standing.

Ian Ayre presides over LFC transfer policy

Whether Chelsea have done this just to scupper Liverpool (it wouldn’t be the first time), it smacks of a lack of understanding from the board in what it actually takes to stay in and around the Champions League positions and challenging on a consistent basis.

  

Salah represented a chance to buy in quality talent and make a statement and if anything good comes of this, it is that the board recognises that the same faces are dominating the transfer market and the will have to exercise an amount of flexibility to remain competitive.

Chelsea proved that in the transfer market they are a level above us and have the carrot of Champions League football which we appear to want to challenge for on the cheap.

A week left of the transfer window and we now in dire need of midfield holding player and midfield general, a left-back, striking cover and a winger.

Will we get all of these…? I very much doubt it.  Cynics might suggest that only Lucas’ injury has hasten any activity toward bringing a centre-midfield player and the embarrassment of not signing Salah has pressured the board into attempting to make a signing.

Should we fail to qualify the board could be accused of mismanagement and irresponsibility in terms of not recognising that this was the window of opportunity to bridge the gap and get itself back to where it belongs into the throes of Champions League competition.  I think yes.  To be honest it smacks of naivety and inexperience and one hopes we can pull a rabbit out the hat and get in a few players in the last days of the window to keep our challenge on a sustainable footing because another year without Champions League football could just see us languishing for a few more years in the wilderness.

As I have said previously, the Christmas games proved we are not too far away, but not quite and the sooner John W Henry, Ian Ayre and co realise this the better for the club going forward.

 

Billy Hogan, Fenway Sports Group chief commercial said in the same article when equating Liverpool to the Boston Red Sox  “… We are all involved in sport to win, so you want to see property doing well…”  Well, let’s hope so or it’s going to be a long few seasons.