It is hard to do anything but praise Kenny Dalglish for the job he has done since returning to Liverpool. His return was always going to rejuvenate the fans and players after a disappoiting time with Roy Hodgson, but he seems to have continued to build on his impressive start with some excellent performances towards the end of last season.
After signing a contract, his next task was to deliver in the transfer market. He had already added strike duo Andy Carroll and Luis Suarez to Liverpool's squad in January and has now completed the deals of Jordan Henderson, Charlie Adam, Alexander Doni and now Stewart Downing.
One of Dalglih's January signings left me scratching my head a little. On one hand, Andy Carroll had played superbly for Newcastle and was scoring goals, was an ideal candidate for the role of a target man and could form an excellent partnership with Luis Suarez and was young with the potential to get better. However, £35 million seemed a hefty price tag for someone who had only really been in the Premiership for half a season. Then again, after selling Torres for £50 million, Liverpool could afford to splash out.
This summer, Carroll has been joined by two more very expensive English players; Stewart Downing and Jordan Henderson. Stewart Downing had an excellent season for Villa but surely din't do enough to justify a price tag in the region of £20 million. Jordan Henderson is a player with potential and could develop into an excellent player. However, some Sunderland fans believe him to be quite limited in some aspects of his game and wasn't exactly outstanding in Sunderland's midfield last season.
Of course, if these three players stay at Liverpool for a long time and continue developing into top players, they may well eventually justify the prices payed to secure their services, but it's hard to imagine that many clubs would've played that sort of money for similar foreign players.
Of course, it isn't just Liverpool who have spent over the odds for English players. Man Utd, for example, have also focused on young English players this season and have had to pay big money to get them and Gary Cahill is being linked with a £17 million move to Arsenal despite the fact that he has no Champions League experience. Man City also made spent crazy money in recent seasons on the likes of James Milner and Joleon Lescott but I suppose they can afford to spend just about what they want on players.
The most likely reason for this overpricing of English players is the media who constantly overhype English talents, putting huge pressures on them for major international competitions and helping to increase the already ridiculous prices being paid by clubs for players.
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