Jordan Henderson has already copped a lot of unfair criticism (before he has even pulled on a Liverpool shirt), regarding what people perceive to be his inflated fee. There is little sense in judging him this early, but this has become the nature of the modern football fan. Besides the fact that Phil Jones was bought for a similar fee by United, or that various squad players from our direct rivals cost similar amounts of money (Anderson, Ramires, Milner etc) – you can hardly judge Henderson on a few low-key performances in an underperforming England U21 team playing alongside Fabrice Muamba. At the least he deserves a season to prove himself.
However, one thing definitely sets off the alarm bells for me personally, it is when managers say things along the lines of “he was bought for the future”. There has been a recurring theme in some of the high profile failures in recent Liverpool transfers debacles. With Aquilani for example, who was “bought for 5 seasons not for 5 games”, or Joe Cole “we won’t rush him, we will give him all the time he needs”. Even Andy Carroll who has been injured and who does not have the remotest chance of justifying his price-tag has worried me in his brief appearance at the end of the last season – although clearly we can judge better after a full, injure free season.
The point I am trying to make is that when players are brought in, even at young ages, they do not have 5 years to prove themselves, they have a season or two to click at the most, or they are on the way out. This can be illustrated by taking a look at the squad lists of Liverpool (or Arsenal/Chelsea etc) from 5 years ago and the squads now. You would find precious few survivors, because when money has been spent, results are demanded increasingly quickly. Perhaps in Kenny, the youngsters coming through have a manager who is willing to be patient and nurture them without too much pressure, but it remains to be seen whether FSG will be equally patient as owners.
Jordan Henderson can not be judged until the end of next season. But at that time, he had better have shown some promise, because history shows that clubs have little tolerance for players who don not fulfill their potential quickly.
OurKop.com would like to welcome Ved Kamat from India to the team.
They dont have time because of fans like you who demand instant justification of their fee – too many then do not support the ‘disappointment’ which loses them cnfidence and it becomes a self fulfilling propechy
Same with Lucas. We bought him for 5m, Scum bought Aderson for 18m – who is the regular starter and how palys most for their country? Yet did we, as the faithful Liverpool support, show our support and tolerance, no he was not given any time and despite the fans and not because of the fans he turtned out to be a success, not all will have that mental fortitude in their early 20s to overcome the ridicule heaped on them because of their transfer fee
when will pacheco be ready?thats why we need to buy a proven player like mata or clichy,time is not on our side.we need ucl qualification next season.and then we go for trophies the season after.lets be realistic it will be hard for any team to tople man u with the kind of squad they have
While you have raised some good points in your article I think time is a necessity that we fans have to give the owners and the manager in order to reach the heights we crave and not a luxury that we don’t have. Ged has made a great point about Lucas and I feel that the fan expectation and the tendency to berate young talent after a few mediocre performances is one of the main reasons young talents have failed to flourish at all the big clubs not just LFC. Also as seen with Roy, though he failed to step up to the task of being our manager, I don’t think the fans were ever behind him and that affected not just his reign at anfield but also the confidence and morale of the players. King Kenny has magically restored that confidence in an incredibly short period of time. FSG have shown that they are here for the long run their faith in KK with the contract and the money they have allowed him to spend and now its the time of us fans to get behind our team 100% and have patients and faith in the players. And as for Andy why cant he live up to the tag?? he has all the potential and tho I am aware it may not be realized being pessimistic about it serves no purpose whatsoever. Also there isn’t a single manager that hasn’t had flops including Sir Rednose and its not fair on KK to say each an every singing of his has to be a resounding success. All I ask is that the team keep moving forward and improving, which we are under KK and if we have to buy a few flops to achieve the greater goal of being contenders in the near future which I believe we will be then so be it.
Hey Ved,
Welcome to the Kop Family… I am also a Die Hard Liverpool fan from India.
Keep writing man…
YNWA… Cheers…
Ok, good point raised, even in the comments.
But sometimes fans do not look at Lucas or Henderson or Adam, etc. etc.
They look at LFC and see TWENTY YEARS with no title win.
How much more time do they need?
How many times did United win the title in that same period?
Same old story…NEXT YEAR…NEXT YEAR…
I am amazed at how people are referring to Andy C as “a flop”. I mean, how many games has he played since his recovery and subsequent injury. I think it might be a total of 5 games. He has scored 2 goals in 5 or 6 games. That is a very good return. Now I will admit that he has not been as effective as he was at Newcastle. But that is only because he is trying to get get used to the liverpool way of playing. In actual fact it is the manager who is trying to adapt the teams way of playing to suit Andy C. I do not think they have figured that out yet. To put all the blame on the player is rather unfair. Once liverpool figure out how to fully utilize Andy C’s skills, I am sure we will all be here showering him with praises and rejoicing in what a good player he is. I say we need to be a bit more patient