By Chris Wright
Liverpool manager Roy Hodgson is in the process of drawing up plans for the January transfer window, despite the club’s new owners NESV telling him that they will be spending cautiously until the summer at the earliest.
However, in a lengthy interview with the club’s official website, Hodgson seems certain that the Yanks will be willing to stump up the dollars should the occasion arise:
“If we want the right quality, we have got to be prepared to pay the right price. The owners know that perfectly well. We have got to make certain that if we go out and spend £20 million, we are getting a £20 million player.
We want to be attracting the players that Barcelona, Real Madrid and Inter are chasing. It would be nice to think that we can shop at a high level.
I’m like all managers in that I’m wary of the January transfer window. I think it can be dangerous as clubs try to correct mistakes. But, having said that, we are going to very interested in trying to improve our squad in January. There is no question about that. I am sure we will sign players.”
Hodgson also believes that he already has the foundations in place to build a great side at Liverpool:
“What I would hope to do is get this group of players playing well enough so we don’t need to panic, then I can say to the owners, ‘If we are going to spend a lot of money, let’s get the right man’.
I don’t want to spend half the money that might be available on someone for the sake of buying when the player we actually want might not be available until the summer.
The lucky thing is that we are rebuilding around several top-class players. We have got Reina, Carragher, Gerrard, Torres, Kuyt – it’s not as if we are rebuilding from nothing.”
If he truly believes that the Liverpool defense can be rebuilt around the visibly decaying Jamie Carragher then he’s got a short sharp shock on the way.
Anywho, Hodgson also aimed a veiled swipe at some of his direct predecessor’s transfer dealings, claiming that a few members of the squad he inherited have not proved their worth:
“I think you can pay an awful lot of money for poor players and you can pay not very much money for very good ones – it is all to do with how good your scouting and your eye is.
There are a lot of things here that the club has got to get right. We have got a lot more expensive failures on our list than good players that we have brought in for next to nothing.
Free transfers don’t necessarily mean that you have got a bargain. My experience of them has been very mixed. You need to be sure that the player you get can do the job you want from him.”
This from the man that fluffed £4 million on Christian Poulsen?