Liverpool Stalwart Carragher Reveals Club’s One Big Mistake: Not Signing Anelka
by YNWA on November 3rd, 2009 401 words | 14 commentsVeteran pinpoints big failing.
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Jamie Carragher: Liverpool should have signed Nicolas Anelka
The Chelsea striker enjoyed a productive loan spell at Anfield under Gerard Houllier in 2001-02, but chose not to sign the Frenchman permanently, instead signing El Hadji Diouf was signed for £12 million.
“I think it’s a bit strong to say it was one of the worst decisions ever, but it’s fair to say it was a mistake,” said Carragher.“You look at Anelka now – he was top scorer in the Premier League last season. It’s in the past now, but it was probably something that never went our way.”
With Fernando Torres – Liverpool’s only reliable supplier of goals – heading for an operation, manager Rafa Benítez will be forced to rely on the likes Andriy Voronin, Ryan Babel and David Ngog.
Benítez is currently using Torres sparingly but will still include the Spaniard in his squad for the trip to Lyon tomorrow: “We have to take Fernando to Lyon because we don’t have too many options. We have to keep working with him and the rest of the players.
“We are trying to manage because he was close to having an operation. Still yesterday, two days after the game, he is feeling something.
“He is not comfortable. He has not got the power he had before, so we have to try to protect him.
“But he cannot play well if you keep pushing him, maybe if you push him he will be injured for a long time.” (Daily Telegraph)
I have to say I have to agree with Jamie Carragher on this one. I remember being baffled by the decision to not sign the Frenchman permanently after his relatively successful loan period with us. Of course Gerard Houlier decided instead on bringing in El Hadji Diouf, a decision that backfired big time.
The lack of alternatives up top is plain to see and was obvious to everyone some time ago and quite why Rafa chose to not resolve the issue is in my eyes one of his biggest mistakes as our boss.
It’s no good having one of the best strikers in world in Fernando Torres and then finding yourself with no real back up or indeed no players to take the heat off a player that we clearly depend on far too much.
YNWA
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Retryboy - November 3rd, 2009 at 11:43 am
Definitely, don’t think anyone could understand that one especially with how good his attitude was when he was here. Remember diouf looking really good for senegal before and was supposed to be one of the hottest properties around but anelka was proven and scoring goals already everyone was baffled.
anonymous - November 3rd, 2009 at 12:03 pm
the past is the past, no use looking back at our mistakes. have to concentrate right now, at leats make it to the top 4, and try to win the Champions League or FA Cup
anonymous - November 3rd, 2009 at 12:44 pm
Yeah try to win the CL or the cup…….. sorry could’nt stop laughing
bod - November 3rd, 2009 at 1:25 pm
Spot on, YNWA. We could do with somebody of his calibre instead of some of the disastrous striking options we have at the moment. Honestly, we need to buy a decent and reasonable priced attacker during the Winter transfer window. This will become our number one aim if Torres ends up having an operation.
Hoogleboogybugleboy - November 3rd, 2009 at 2:25 pm
I can remember being totally baffled when Ii heard that Houlier wouldn’t be signing Anelka. Had he of signed him, Rafa would have probably sold him when he came anyway so he probably wouldn’t be at Liverpool now anyway.
anonymous - November 3rd, 2009 at 2:31 pm
The mistake was repeated later on when Benitez decided to sign Morientes instead of Anelka.
That’s twice we could have had him
anonymous - November 3rd, 2009 at 2:43 pm
its as simple as this we would not have spent, ~(sorry owners would not have given Rafa the Gaffer 20 odd mill), the money for torres if we had anelka…. so simple which one would you choose Torres or Anelka….
also Hollier had checked out both Ronaldo and Drogba before we brought kewell and Cisse…. now just think ronaldo, torres, drogba playing sll together
anonymous - November 3rd, 2009 at 2:45 pm
i prefer Anelka. as even though torres is amazing anelka has much more to his game plus when we got anelka he was 25/26
anonymous - November 3rd, 2009 at 2:59 pm
Bod we have two of the best strikers in the world at the moment????? Disastrous is a bit harsh
torres and gerrard are our striking
we do need decent back up, as ngog who i do believe will be first team in two years, voronin who is terrible, kuyt who even though is great will not get us 15 goals a season, (but gets important goals and good back up).
i think a youngish stiker in the form of someone like carlton cole/ marcus bent/ dafoe would be fantastic….
if the cash is there then Aguero has to be brought, i have seen him a 5 times in spain and the guy is amazing, he is a bargain at any price i don’t see a weakness in his game…if we sell masch for 35 mill, add babel and lucus we should have him
bring gerrard back into midfield along with aqulani
beautiful……..
bod - November 3rd, 2009 at 3:12 pm
anonymous @ 2:59 pm. I realise we have 2 of the best attacking players in the world. My comment was in reference to our current situation i.e. Gerrard out injured and Torres not a 100%. Basically, we need a quality striker to act as cover for Torres.
My take on this article is wouldn’t it be fantastic to have both Anelka and Torres on the same team, as Anelka could play alongside or play as a lone striker when Torres is out injured. Now, this isn’t going to happen, but the likes of Veronin shouldn’t be classed as striking cover for Liverpool FC
Retryboy - November 3rd, 2009 at 5:23 pm
Nemeth will be the other quality option no doubt about it!
Donavan Ried - November 3rd, 2009 at 7:57 pm
Retryboy – November 3rd, 2009 at 11:43 am i agree whole heartedly with Retryboy …. But If we would have sign Anelka would we have sign Torres?……
Would have been nice to think that we would have
anonymous - November 3rd, 2009 at 10:14 pm
Bod fair play mate wasn’t having a pop, just meant to say that if you take drogba and anelka, or aguero and forlan, rooney and berbatov, then it makes a different, apart from teams like madrid/ barcelona its going to have a affect…
Great shout Retryboy Nemeth and i would even say Pacheco
Retryboy - November 4th, 2009 at 5:14 am
Agreed… pacheco more suited to the gerrard/benayoun role behind a lone striker or as a partner but definitely gonna be a huge star.