Good/Bad business?
Who would we have liked that we missed? (Yossi back? Scott Parker? That kind of thing, not fantasy footy)
And what does it say about Kenny and Comolli's relationship the way its panned out?
For me Kenny seems to be going for a strong British squad, and has a team that is strong in midfield, young in defence and still a little lightweight in attack unless you move Dirk up front when Luis is resting... (incidentally, all the lil Lius that have played for Liverpool have been little, lithe and called Luis....)
Good business. We have to regard it as good business. All key areas have been addressed and if we started off spending too much, we then did very good deals with Enrique, Adam and Coates.
Only one miss - we should have kept Aquilani or Meireles.
It may be a little early to judge Comolli and Kenny, but so far they deserve a lot of credit and it seems to work well, this new setup.
The British core, it's partly a good thing. I'll probably open a can of worms here, but I feel we have taken it a little too far. Take CM. Adam in, Aquilani and Meireles out. Step forward Spearing and Shelvey. Or Henderson. In a way, this is a good thing. We promote them, we trust them and do our best to include them. Here we have no problem to trust the youth. But I think it's fair to say that Aquilani and Meireles represent better quality here and now. They're off to Milan and Chelsea. So it's youth over quality.
Now take Pacheco. Open spot in the squad and yet he's off to La Liga. In comes Bellamy, who is close to the end of his career. We go for quality here and now and ditch the youth. And this after having spent 60M on the existing strike force. It's a different yardstick for Pacheco. Had we sold him, fine. But now it's like we pretend to give him a chance so we can sneak him out the back door next summer.
I should add that I believe it's a very good thing that we give our best young players a role. It's something I have wanted us to do for years. I'm very much for it, but it's hard for me to see Henderson, Spearing, Adam, Shelvey and Bellamy as superior quality when compared to Aquilani, Meireles and Pacheco.
Next, which is linked to giving the youth a chance. Kenny and Comolli have reduced the size of the squad. This is very important and it's very good. Youth gets a chance. The door is open for the Academy players, so automatically we put greater value to the job done there. The smaller size also means we have to get players involved. And it means we get to see how good they are. We get answers and it's the best way to help us improve in the future. This part is often forgotten. We may talk about a reduced wage bill, but it's far bigger than that.
Finally, we have fixed the age mix. It doesn't matter what position we examine, we are not forced (due to age) to spend anywhere next summer. It's an option. This summer we were forced to get younger blood at LM/RM and we were about to get the same at CB. No more. This is also great stuff. It gives Kenny freedom how to spend his money.
It makes such a contrast to the short term perspective which ruled under Hodgson. Kenny and Comolli got a bad deal there. Sadly, they had to go back in time, get all Roy's signings out and start over. That was the biggest problem with the previous regime. They created a bigger job and forced Kenny to buy in certain areas. No more. Kenny and Comolli are doing the right things.
For me, this, more than the players we have signed, represent the best indication that we are finally moving in the right direction again.