Topic: Will Kenny or Comoli be scouting any players at the international matches

[Lille Camille]

theres no point buying for the future if your present isn't the greatest. wickham will cost us more than 7m while we still dont have a decent/injury-free LB, winger, and midfielder. we need quick fixes right now.

You don't have to sacrifice one for the other.

[stevedo]

wickham's overpriced... i rate pacheco over him aswell 

Well that depends on what his price is and how its structured.
You're also comparing apples and oranges.

[hassinator]

this. very good point.

this is rubbish.  buying wickham doesn't mean we don't buy anyone else.  what it does mean is that if carrol's out we have another massive number nine who can score goals to come in and keep the teams shape.  dirk works his (red) sox off but he's not a proper number 9.  besides that we're aiming to buy the best young players as they will at least retain their value in future sales.

[hassinator]

if we do get players to help with the first team first and then splash out on young quality back-ups with the potential to be class in the future, i'm all for it. but buying youngsters for a large amount of money where we already have quality in depth, im against.

but we don't have quality in depth at number 9.  did you see tony barrat's piece in the times yesterday?  he basically said that the club felt that the only out and out striker we had coming through with first team potential was morgan.  i think that's harsh on n'goo and of course other players can do job up there but wouldn't it be nice to have someone properly tasty to bring on if the big man's injured?   look at the mancs and how many options they have up front both at the club and out on loan.

[Discipline]

this is rubbish.  buying wickham doesn't mean we don't buy anyone else.  what it does mean is that if carrol's out we have another massive number nine who can score goals to come in and keep the teams shape.  dirk works his (red) sox off but he's not a proper number 9.  besides that we're aiming to buy the best young players as they will at least retain their value in future sales.

i'm not saying buying wickham doesn't mean we don't buy anyone else. i just want to upgrade positions where we actually have to before we go out hunting for younger players.

i highly doubt we're going to bench carroll just to play wickham to get his (wickham) price up.

[Discipline]

but we don't have quality in depth at number 9.  did you see tony barrat's piece in the times yesterday?  he basically said that the club felt that the only out and out striker we had coming through with first team potential was morgan.  i think that's harsh on n'goo and of course other players can do job up there but wouldn't it be nice to have someone properly tasty to bring on if the big man's injured?   look at the mancs and how many options they have up front both at the club and out on loan.

kuyt can play as a number 9. he did @ feyenoord and did well when carroll was injured @ the start of his LFC career.

also, im sick of people comparing LFC to the mancs. we're a different club ffs. what's the point of the "rivalry" if we're using them as an idol on how to play in the future.

[Solomon Grundy]

also, im sick of people comparing LFC to the mancs. we're a different club ffs. what's the point of the "rivalry" if we're using them as an idol on how to play in the future.

I agree, but tbf, they copied how we where run when we where top dogs and its not done them any harm.

[scottishRED]

Hazard / sanchez look significantly better than Young.

[Get]

this is rubbish.  buying wickham doesn't mean we don't buy anyone else.  what it does mean is that if carrol's out we have another massive number nine who can score goals to come in and keep the teams shape.  dirk works his (red) sox off but he's not a proper number 9.  besides that we're aiming to buy the best young players as they will at least retain their value in future sales.

what is rubbish is to spend 10m on a youngster that will spend most of the time on the bench, when we need at least 4-5 top class players in other positions for the first eleven and they don't come cheap these days in this market with the competition for every single player.

a promising youngster that won't feature in the first eleven for a while won't give us a better league position next season, but a new first team player can.

[Fuzion6]

Reserve striker is very much a need. A couple of injuries and we would be struggling up front. Sure its not the most pressing need but its a need nonetheless. For those gagging for a winger or left back then you should still be happy given we have been linked to every winger and LB remotely available in the Summer.

[PJG]

Reserve striker is very much a need. A couple of injuries and we would be struggling up front. Sure its not the most pressing need but its a need nonetheless. For those gagging for a winger or left back then you should still be happy given we have been linked to every winger and LB remotely available in the Summer.

N'goo...who's apparently taller than Carroll, and not bad with his feet either

[w86]

N'goo...who's apparently taller than Carroll, and not bad with his feet either

cant say that have seen him play ...is he better than ngog what about Ince ...isnt he a CF too ??

[Discipline]

cant say that have seen him play ...is he better than ngog what about Ince ...isnt he a CF too ??

ince is a left winger

[Fuzion6]

Ngoo has been out with injury most of the season and Ince plays on the wing. I'm all up for promoting youngsters to the senior team but we don't want to rush development either. Let Ngoo and Morgan develop further in the reserves and prove themselves...Wickham is someone who has developed physically quicker as has first team experience in the tough Championship league. He is much more likely to make an impact quicker.

[theparrot]

N'goo...who's apparently taller than Carroll, and not bad with his feet either

Ngoo looks a great prospect but he's only played a handful of reserve team games this season. Considering he's about 6'7" I think he needs to improve his basic target man qualities before he'll be ready eg playing with his back to goal and using his strength. At the moment he plays more like Suarez than Carroll!

[PJG]

Ngoo looks a great prospect but he's only played a handful of reserve team games this season. Considering he's about 6'7" I think he needs to improve his basic target man qualities before he'll be ready eg playing with his back to goal and using his strength. At the moment he plays more like Suarez than Carroll!

I'm sure he can look up to Carroll (figuratively  )  for a few tips

[Keogh20]

ince is a left winger

Has Ince signed his new deal yet? His aul lad was giving out yards at our contract offer iirc

[stevedo]

what is rubbish is to spend 10m on a youngster that will spend most of the time on the bench, when we need at least 4-5 top class players in other positions for the first eleven and they don't come cheap these days in this market with the competition for every single player.

a promising youngster that won't feature in the first eleven for a while won't give us a better league position next season, but a new first team player can.

It's a sign of that we are looking beyond next season, he is a top prospect and will in all likelihood improve. IMHO its an indication that ngog is a ngonner this summer.

[hassinator]

i'm not saying buying wickham doesn't mean we don't buy anyone else. i just want to upgrade positions where we actually have to before we go out hunting for younger players.

i highly doubt we're going to bench carroll just to play wickham to get his (wickham) price up.

now when did i suggest benching carroll to get wickham's price up?  he's 18 so i'm suggesting he will get plenty of opportunity to either improve or establish himself in the team.

kuyt can play as a number 9. he did @ feyenoord and did well when carroll was injured @ the start of his LFC career.

also, im sick of people comparing LFC to the mancs. we're a different club ffs. what's the point of the "rivalry" if we're using them as an idol on how to play in the future.

i too am sick of the mancs but given they're top of the league - on our perch - they're an obvious comparison. 

[nocturnalvin]

Discipline is talking rubbish ain't he.

[best-foot-forward]

what is rubbish is to spend 10m on a youngster that will spend most of the time on the bench, when we need at least 4-5 top class players in other positions for the first eleven and they don't come cheap these days in this market with the competition for every single player.

a promising youngster that won't feature in the first eleven for a while won't give us a better league position next season, but a new first team player can.
[/quote

so where do you stand on flanagan, kelly, spearing, shelvey, pacheco etc...with an attitude like yours how is any youngster suppose to get a chance, kenny and the team arent stupid i imagine their will be a fine balance of buying and blooding youngsters as well as adding more  recognized players to the squad, lets wait and see hey ...

[MBL?]

Have not been impressed with Wickam any time I've seen him and that includes playing with youngsters around his own age.

[greenstien]

Doubt Wickham will move this summer.  The game time and experience of playing regular competitive football will do him more good than warming a Premiership bench.

[Khal]

Have not been impressed with Wickam any time I've seen him and that includes playing with youngsters around his own age.

I would agree with your assessment, I might need to watch a bit more of him but from what I have seen of him I have not been impressed either.

[TomDcs]

All those saying we don't need Wickham because of Ngoo/Pacheco/Morgan blah, we still need options for now and I completely agree that we need an understudy in the same mould as Carroll so we don't have to change our whole system whenever he can't play. Kenny and Comolli obviously have alot of targets, I suspect we'll be sticking with a 4-3-3 style going forwards which potentially means we won't be going for 2 top class 'wingers' and maybe we'll just go for Young? As long as we get some pace in whoever we buy and we have enough options 9with plenty of youngsters coming through from the academy and those out on loan) I will be more than happy. I seriously doubt we'll come out of this next transfer window with less than a LB, CB, CM (or 2), LW/F and CF.

[PJG]

so where do you stand on flanagan, kelly, spearing, shelvey, pacheco etc...with an attitude like yours how is any youngster suppose to get a chance, kenny and the team arent stupid i imagine their will be a fine balance of buying and blooding youngsters as well as adding more  recognized players to the squad, lets wait and see hey ...

sooo..you don't think it's a huge slap in the face to the directors and coaches at the academy, not to mention the players themselves, that the upper management would rather spend 10 mill on a 17 year old kid to play rather than developing someone already in our own ranks?.  In my opinion, you're contradicting yourself

[HiroProtagonist]

It's always good to be in the market for a young and potentially great striker...

But, I'd rather we focus on the positions that we need players in first.

[liverpoolfcmike]

Wickham is two-footed isn't he?

[Caffeine]

theres no point buying for the future if your present isn't the greatest. wickham will cost us more than 7m while we still dont have a decent/injury-free LB, winger, and midfielder. we need quick fixes right now.

Buying one player doesn't mean we're not spending money on other players. Jesus. Calm down.

[James Mac]

I don't understand the purpose of Wickham when we have Morgan and Ngoo potentially coming through? They're practically the same age as Wickham, albeit without the experience, but they've got to get it sometime, and having another prospect in the way won't help. If Carroll gets injured, use a combination of Kuyt and Ngoo/Morgan. Why not?

Plus for the prices being touted...

[Flying_Blind]

agreed - i don't see the point of spending that much on wickham , again to mention van wolfswinkel - he would cost around 12 i think and has already gone a couple of steps further than just being a "prospect" ....

[James Mac]

agreed - i don't see the point of spending that much on wickham , again to mention van wolfswinkel - he would cost around 12 i think and has already gone a couple of steps further than just being a "prospect" ....

Yeah wouldn't mind van Wolfswinkel but to be honest I think we're at a situation where we have 4 players who can play up top (Suarez, Kuyt, Carroll, Ngog), plus the two from the reserves/youth (Ngoo, Morgan). What we need to do is sign players so goals come from all over the pitch, as opposed to just up front. That way if Carroll and Suarez get injured, say, we can play Kuyt or Ngoo, for example, up top - but because we've got these quality wingers/creative midfielders/good defenders it won't matter, as goals will be popping up from anywhere.

[Gmol]

sooo..you don't think it's a huge slap in the face to the directors and coaches at the academy, not to mention the players themselves, that the upper management would rather spend 10 mill on a 17 year old kid to play rather than developing someone already in our own ranks?.  In my opinion, you're contradicting yourself

But they are only going to go for Youth players if they improve the team and if they feel Wickham does that and he is better than N'goo well then who are we to argue. It's not like we will buy another good right back when we have Flanagan & Kelly.We will also be buying players for the first team as well.
We seem to have a club strategy in place which looks at the First Team squad, reserves & U18s as a whole. DC,Kenny & Pep will be assessing where the weaknesses are both first team wise and youths level(with the aim of developing into a first team player or adding value to sell to sunderland ) and buying accordingly

[bushy2812]

theres no point buying for the future if your present isn't the greatest. wickham will cost us more than 7m while we still dont have a decent/injury-free LB, winger, and midfielder. we need quick fixes right now.

Very true but you are making an assumption that those defencies in the squad will still be there and that we are buying Wickham at the expense of the other areas. Would you feel differently if they intend to fill all those gaps and buy a player or two for the future?

The point being if you don't sign someone like him now in 2 years time he will be costing double or more, and will there be another 17/18 year old around then that you could sign instead? If he is as good as people suggest then probably not.

[Lee-87]

the way i see it is that Wickham will be a straight swap for Ngog at the moment, now if we can get around 5mil for Ngog (French club maybe) then adding say 2-3mil wont do any harm for a potential massive upgrade to Ngog for now and definitly for the future.
thats assuming we're looking to spend around the 8 mil mark on him which i think's fair.. and as mentioned the possibility of some add-ons. i mean really, why would anyone not be willing to pay around 3 mil on an upgrade to Ngog with one of the most highly touted young talents in England. if it's true i know i'de be happy and can't wait to see which other names we grab in the summer.

[kvarmeismydad]

In a couple of years time we could be looking back and saying "I remember him being linked to Liverpool for £15 million". Now if that £15m is built up of performance related payments, i've got to ask what the fuck are peoples problem. Too many times we've seen clear talent snapped up by other clubs and here we are possibly in the driving seat for a fantastic prospect who will most likely be a premier league striker and England international for years to come and people are whinging about left backs. We will buy a fucking left back as well. We will improve the squad. We are building towards a better future, with a core of English players who will have more fire in their bellies and happiness with life in England. Look at City. Their team cost £150m more than ours, their wage bill is madness, and we outplayed them recently and we did that because we had players on the pitch in a red shirt who cared, wanted to put their bodies on the line and had that will to win. The likes of Yaya Toure trotted around the pitch without a care in the world.
 
We need to find our winning formula, because we're not going to compete in the stupid transfer market that some clubs do, and if we build a squad of promising young players who are ready to make that step up, with lower wages that will be improved upon if they prove themselves, then I think we could build something great. Like it or not Man Utd have a squad of local lads who are prepared to fight for the cause, then they have non-manc Englishmen who understand what it means to play for a big club. Then they have added to that squad with overseas talent. Our blueprint is similar it seems, with a bit of the Arsenal blue print merged together, but with our stable ownership situation, and the financial fair play rules on the way, we could be best placed as a club to make huge strides on the pitch. We just so happen to have a fantastic amount of prospects in the academy too which goes hand in hand with building a brighter future.
 
Buying Wickham now would be a part of that. An opportunity to snap up another fantastic prospect. An opportunity to become stronger. He's clearly talented. He's a possible part of the blue print. What was our blue print under Hicks and Gillett?
 
I'm loving that we could buy Wickham.

[James Mac]

I'm loving that we could buy Wickham.

I'm loving even more though that we already have a promising local lad in Morgan, and another promising Englishman in Ngoo. They are the same as Wickham - no more than prospects. But Wickham just happens to have silly money tagged on him.

[greenstien]

I'm loving even more though that we already have a promising local lad in Morgan, and another promising Englishman in Ngoo. They are the same as Wickham - no more than prospects. But Wickham just happens to have silly money tagged on him.

The price is surely dictated by his experience as opposed to his goal tally.  69 Games and 13 Goals over 3 seasons.  £15 million is a lot.

[bushy2812]

You know I really should read all posts before replying to someone......sorry for just repeating what everyone else had already said.

[Gmol]

In a couple of years time we could be looking back and saying "I remember him being linked to Liverpool for £15 million". Now if that £15m is built up of performance related payments, i've got to ask what the fuck are peoples problem. Too many times we've seen clear talent snapped up by other clubs and here we are possibly in the driving seat for a fantastic prospect who will most likely be a premier league striker and England international for years to come and people are whinging about left backs. We will buy a fucking left back as well. We will improve the squad. We are building towards a better future, with a core of English players who will have more fire in their bellies and happiness with life in England. Look at City. Their team cost £150m more than ours, their wage bill is madness, and we outplayed them recently and we did that because we had players on the pitch in a red shirt who cared, wanted to put their bodies on the line and had that will to win. The likes of Yaya Toure trotted around the pitch without a care in the world.
 
We need to find our winning formula, because we're not going to compete in the stupid transfer market that some clubs do, and if we build a squad of promising young players who are ready to make that step up, with lower wages that will be improved upon if they prove themselves, then I think we could build something great. Like it or not Man Utd have a squad of local lads who are prepared to fight for the cause, then they have non-manc Englishmen who understand what it means to play for a big club. Then they have added to that squad with overseas talent. Our blueprint is similar it seems, with a bit of the Arsenal blue print merged together, but with our stable ownership situation, and the financial fair play rules on the way, we could be best placed as a club to make huge strides on the pitch. We just so happen to have a fantastic amount of prospects in the academy too which goes hand in hand with building a brighter future.
 
Buying Wickham now would be a part of that. An opportunity to snap up another fantastic prospect. An opportunity to become stronger. He's clearly talented. He's a possible part of the blue print. What was our blue print under Hicks and Gillett?
 
I'm loving that we could buy Wickham.

Top Top post