Missing out on a transfer target can sometimes feel as bad as a defeat in the league. But should it?
Social media sites can be a great source for moaning about all kinds of football related woes. The moaning can take many different forms and usually involves criticising the very same club the moaner is supposedly supporting. I can tolerate certain types of moaning, namely about the performance of a specific player or manager, and I often indulge in a bit of moaning myself from time to time when I feel the team hasn’t been good enough. However one type of moaning drives me mad whenever I see it. This is of course moaning about missed transfer targets.
There’s never been a shortage of heartache for any club over the years but for Liverpool in recent seasons there seems to be more than ever. Even the, arguable, leaders of football, Barcelona have problems to some degree with transfers. Rumours that they have wanted to sign Daniel Agger have been present for the last two seasons yet Agger has since famously rejected the European giants by posting a picture of his latest tattoo on his knuckles reading ‘YNWA’. Rumours also spilled out in the summer that the European Champions, Bayern Munich, had previously looked to add Steven Gerrard to their ranks of top quality players but the skipper unsurprisingly rejected their offer.
But for Liverpool a certain level of frustration was growing about the lack of proposed signings that were being completed. This frustration reached a peak in the summer with all three potential ‘marquee’ signings not coming to fruition to the dismay of many heartbroken fans. The first of which, Henrikh Mkhitaryan, formally of Shakhtar Donetsk, was strongly rumoured to join Liverpool with multiple, supposedly fake, pictures and ITKs (In The Knows) spreading rumours of his imminent arrival. On the eighth of July Borussia Dortmund announced Mkhitaryan would be theirs. Relative chaos ensued on Twitter.
The next saga to engulf Liverpool fans concerned Atletico Madrid forward, Diego Costa. Again Twitter was the messenger tasked to create as much unnecessary hype as possible and that is precisely what was created. The main rumour being that Liverpool had matched Costa’s €25million rumoured release clause and that they had offered a rumoured wage, triple than his one at the time. The problem with rumours is they are often inaccurate and this proved to be the case as by the 18th of August Costa had scored his first two goals of the season after extending his contract to 2018. This unbelievable form continued for Costa and has now scored 13 goals in 13 league matches. No doubt a shame that we missed out but one cannot fault Rodgers’ eye for a player.
So by the time Willian was linked with Liverpool, as you would expect, a large proportion of the fan base was disgruntled to say the least. This saga was to be the quickest resolved out of the three but this didn’t stop adding pain to some fans that were dying for a ‘big name’ signing that summer. Willian Borges da Silva signed for Chelsea on the 28th of August for a fee of around £30million. But what has irritated fans the most is the lack of impact he has had on Chelsea. It’s nearly a quarter of the way through the season and the attacking midfielder has only appeared 5 times in the league for the blues. £30million wasted? Not quite. The signing not only boosted Chelsea’s already overflowing wealth of attacking players but more importantly stopped rivals Tottenham and Liverpool gaining a player that would surely have a huge role in any success they would have. Fans once more took to Twitter to express their disappointment.
But even now, after Liverpool signed 3 players on deadline day, including a £17million central defender, I still see tweets along the lines of these:
There’s never been a shortage of heartache for any club over the years but for Liverpool in recent seasons there seems to be more than ever. Even the, arguable, leaders of football, Barcelona have problems to some degree with transfers. Rumours that they have wanted to sign Daniel Agger have been present for the last two seasons yet Agger has since famously rejected the European giants by posting a picture of his latest tattoo on his knuckles reading ‘YNWA’. Rumours also spilled out in the summer that the European Champions, Bayern Munich, had previously looked to add Steven Gerrard to their ranks of top quality players but the skipper unsurprisingly rejected their offer.
But for Liverpool a certain level of frustration was growing about the lack of proposed signings that were being completed. This frustration reached a peak in the summer with all three potential ‘marquee’ signings not coming to fruition to the dismay of many heartbroken fans. The first of which, Henrikh Mkhitaryan, formally of Shakhtar Donetsk, was strongly rumoured to join Liverpool with multiple, supposedly fake, pictures and ITKs (In The Knows) spreading rumours of his imminent arrival. On the eighth of July Borussia Dortmund announced Mkhitaryan would be theirs. Relative chaos ensued on Twitter.
The next saga to engulf Liverpool fans concerned Atletico Madrid forward, Diego Costa. Again Twitter was the messenger tasked to create as much unnecessary hype as possible and that is precisely what was created. The main rumour being that Liverpool had matched Costa’s €25million rumoured release clause and that they had offered a rumoured wage, triple than his one at the time. The problem with rumours is they are often inaccurate and this proved to be the case as by the 18th of August Costa had scored his first two goals of the season after extending his contract to 2018. This unbelievable form continued for Costa and has now scored 13 goals in 13 league matches. No doubt a shame that we missed out but one cannot fault Rodgers’ eye for a player.
So by the time Willian was linked with Liverpool, as you would expect, a large proportion of the fan base was disgruntled to say the least. This saga was to be the quickest resolved out of the three but this didn’t stop adding pain to some fans that were dying for a ‘big name’ signing that summer. Willian Borges da Silva signed for Chelsea on the 28th of August for a fee of around £30million. But what has irritated fans the most is the lack of impact he has had on Chelsea. It’s nearly a quarter of the way through the season and the attacking midfielder has only appeared 5 times in the league for the blues. £30million wasted? Not quite. The signing not only boosted Chelsea’s already overflowing wealth of attacking players but more importantly stopped rivals Tottenham and Liverpool gaining a player that would surely have a huge role in any success they would have. Fans once more took to Twitter to express their disappointment.
But even now, after Liverpool signed 3 players on deadline day, including a £17million central defender, I still see tweets along the lines of these:
And this is exactly what annoys me: People complaining about players that we never had in the first place, 5 months after they decided to sign for another team or extend their contract. I can understand fans voicing their annoyance on twitter a couple of hours after hearing a transfer target moved on, but half a year? What’s the point of getting vocal if a player Liverpool never had puts in a good performance for another team who aren’t even in the Premier League? To be honest it just comes across as ungrateful. Brendan Rodgers has done some fantastic work this transfer window. He’s brought in 8 players for a total of £50million and shipped a lot of dead weight within the squad for £30million whilst still keeping a troublesome Uruguayan. No one can argue with the business he’s done. What you could argue and complain about is the performance of some players but there is no point moaning about players we never had when Rodgers has done some fantastic work in the summer. What I’m trying to say is fans should stick to criticising performances and praising Henderson rather than getting bogged down with things that could have been. Let’s just move on.