Man with a plan: Damien Comolli has a strategy of
buying young and promising English players
It has not taken Damien Comolli long to roll out his Tottenham
Hotspur blueprint at Liverpool. Andy Carroll and Jordan Henderson,
with Charlie Adam and Stewart Downing next, Comolli is embarking on
a customary supermarket sweep of the best English and British
players.
This is not to underplay the role of Kenny
Dalglish, the manager, who will have identified the targets, but it
all seems too much of a coincidence for Comolli not to have had
input.
Since his arrival, Liverpool's transfer policy
has become increasingly rooted in the purchase of leading
individuals from smaller English clubs, picking off the best at
Newcastle United, Sunderland and now Blackpool and Aston
Villa.
Paying a premium: New Liverpool midfielder Jordan
Henderson didn't come cheap at £16m
Sound familiar? It was a policy Comolli inherited and then
pursued at Tottenham with conflicting results. The club had already
established its penchant for the bright British prospect when
Comolli joined in September 2005, following the acquisition of
players such as Calum Davenport, Sean Davis, Michael Dawson,
Michael Carrick, Jermaine Jenas, Jermain Defoe and Andy Reid by the
previous regime.
At the very least, Comolli maintained this project
and arguably accelerated it with buys including Darren Bent, Gareth
Bale, David Bentley, Jonathan Woodgate, Ben Alnwick, Danny Rose,
Alan Hutton and Chris Gunter.
He bought from abroad, too, but Tottenham were
largely known for taking a punt on a domestic prospect. The
difference being it was not such an inflated market
then.
Comolli gambled big on Bent at £16.5million and
Bentley at £17m, but many of his other acquisitions were bargains.
Alnwick, Sunderland's goalkeeper, cost £1m. The fact that he has
made a single appearance since arriving at Tottenham is therefore
no more than a minor irritation.
Alnwick has been out on loan to Luton Town,
Leicester City, Carlisle United, Norwich City, Leeds United and
Doncaster Rovers, with varying degrees of success. Now 24, he does
not seem to have trained on; still, at that price, he was a risk
worth taking.
Now compare that to Liverpool's buy from Sunderland
this season, Henderson. He is a young midfielder with full
international experience, rather than a goalkeeper, so the premium
is always going to be higher.
Even so, at £16m, Henderson can be no gamble. His
signing has to work this season, as does that of Carroll, as will
those of Adam and Downing. The days when a chance could be taken on
a callow Briton have gone.
Tough target: Andy Carroll needs to score more than
20 goals this year to be considered a success
Liverpool are moving in a market
that is high-end expensive, with results far from guaranteed. Even
the going rate for goalscorers has almost doubled in the time
Comolli was between Premier League jobs. Bent was a prolific scorer
with Charlton Athletic when Tottenham signed him, yet many were
surprised at his £16.5m fee. That seems almost a snip now that
Carroll has set Liverpool back £35m.
Fabio Capello's chosen one is far from the
finished article, also, and some inside Anfield have raised
eyebrows at the rawness of his match play, in which he flicks the
ball on for non-existent runners, rather than hold it up for the
midfield to join.
These are huge, expensive calls that are being
made by Liverpool's director of football. He will be acting in
accordance with Dalglish's wishes, of course, but even so, on
spending, the buck will stop with him.
The Fenway Group who own Liverpool are looking to
Comolli as a man who knows the market and can advise on value. He
cannot afford too many mistakes with £35m signings. Carroll has to
be a 20-goal striker in his first full season.
Comolli did some fantastic business at Tottenham.
He bought Bale for £10m and the player could one day be sold for
five times that; except Bale's career was going nowhere until
rescued by Harry Redknapp and this time last year the jury would
have been very much out on his worth.
Luka Modric and Dimitar Berbatov were others
signed during Comolli's time, indeed he seems far happier
evaluating the big ticket items abroad, established internationals
such as Luis Suarez, than he is projecting what will stand the test
of time domestically.
Tottenham's biggest buy of his era was Bentley,
last seen failing to establish himself in a Birmingham City team
who were ultimately relegated.
Tottenham, like Liverpool, were a work in
progress when Comolli arrived; except Liverpool are in more of a
hurry with higher stakes. Lose their footing in the elite four, or
five, and it will require a mountainous recovery once the financial
fair play regulations kick in, with a quartet of clubs additionally
benefiting by a minimum of £30m from UEFA each year.
John Henry, the new owner, talks of a long-term
project, but the figures suggest a club that is looking to quickly
re-establish itself through a wise and popular manager and an
overhauled youthful squad.
There is promise. Liverpool were much improved
under Dalglish last season and there is every reason to be hopeful.
Yet this is a risky strategy and the consequences of failure far
greater than last time at White Hart Lane.
Liverpool supporters must hope the items in
Comolli's trolley on this sprint down the aisles have been pulled
from the shelves with greater clarity.