Liverpool takeover talk doesn’t faze boot room boy Roy Hodgson
The belief that all of the club’s talking should be done on the pitch is one that always used to pervade at Anfield, home of the famous boot room – where all of the Liverpool FC’s inner workings would remain, and sensible decisions would be made.
Events of the past few years have made that seem like more and more of a romantic ideal, as the Reds have appeared in the financial pages of the newspapers almost as much as the sports section. Owners Tom Hicks and George Gillett are of course to blame, but their manager Rafael Benitez – an excellent boss for the club – frequently didn’t help matters with his demands for money and continual involvement in every aspect of Liverpool life, even ones he had no right to be in.
His successor has no such desires.
“If one day an enormous amount of money is made available like it was for Manchester City and Chelsea so be it, it would be nice,” said a typically understated Roy Hodgson after Liverpool’s Europa League win over Rabotnicki at Anfield last night.
“But we would still have to do a lot of research before we started splashing that money around. It is not a question of how much a player costs, it is how good he is.”
In short, Hodgson will not start throwing money at players à la City when Liverpool eventually get taken over.
Should this week’s reports of a bid backed by the Chinese Government come to fruition, the Reds – that’s Liverpool, not China – would have a wealth equal to or greater than any side in world football, yet Hodgson doesn’t want to start signing players just for the sake of it.
“I think the danger would be in a late takeover,” said the veteran boss, who was appointed by the Anfield outfit just five weeks ago yet has quickly brought a much needed sense of calm and common sense to the club.
“That money would be made available but we wouldn't have had a chance to research the players in this transfer window. We are doing our research in this window and targeting players that the club is [currently] able to buy.
“We have made some signings so far and we hope to bring in at least a couple of other players.”
One of those players looks likely to be the £5million-rated Danish international Christian Poulsen.
The 30-year-old’s representatives have confirmed that the Juventus midfielder is in talks with the Reds to replace the still Inter Milan-bound Javier Mascherano, with Poulsen – who won the Danish championship under Hodgson at Copenhagen in 2001 – keen to link up with his former boss at Anfield.
For now at least, those are the kind of signings that Liverpool will be making, but supporters should be in no doubt that Hodgson’s approach to bringing in new recruits is the correct one.
Eventually much more money will be made available to greatly strengthen the squad, but there is no need for Liverpool to start asking clubs to name their price, one look at the several multi-million pound signings on the Manchester City bench – or even on the fringes of their squad – will tell them that.
In Hodgson, the Reds have a boss who will ensure that they don’t run before they can walk.
Supporters who have always longed for a return to the glory days of success on the pitch can at least rest assured that off it, that old boot room spirit is being kept alive.
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