That the Liverpool squad needed strengthening was one of John Henry's first appraisals after buying the club for a reported £300 million last October, at a time when the club were propping up the rear of the table. The fact that Rafa Benitez had pushed Manchester United all the way to second in the league two years previously, with largely the same squad didn't seem to wash with the new American owner.
Roy Hodgson, who had been appointed by the previous board, never really stood a chance, although he was far from helped by the performances of some of his key men and the quality of some of his summer acquisitions. His sacking in early January gave Fenway two weeks to make their mark in the transfer window, aided by newly appointed director of football Damien Comolli and Anfield hero, Kenny Dalglish.
After offloading Fernando Torres for £50 million, Liverpool were quick to rush through deals for Luis Suarez and Andy Carroll for a combined fee of around £58 million. Carroll's signature seemed to fall in line with Fenway Sports Group's optimistic corporate policy that they would look to sign young talent, preferably English players.
Carroll was most certainly one of the most desirable young English strikers around, following his performances for Newcastle before getting injured and his subsequent full England début against France. But a transfer fee of £35 million was vastly inflated for a player who had only broken through into the Newcastle first team less than two years ago, after their relegation to the Championship.
That the deal was rushed through on the last day of the window also put Newcastle in the driving seat, as Mike Ashley was able to virtually name his price fully knowing how desperate Liverpool were to sign another striker to replace Torres. A deal was reportedly struck at £25 million only for Ashley to whack another £10 million on the asking price on deadline day, by which time Liverpool had little time to negotiate.
A similar trend seems to have emerged with Jordan Henderson's proposed move to Liverpool. Like Carroll, he has been in Sunderland's first team plans for the last two seasons and also made his England début against France alongside his future team-mate. Unlike Carroll, Henderson failed to impress in his first senior outing and has failed to make any subsequent full England squad and his club form also deteriorated towards the end of this season.
He is due to depart with England's Under 21 squad for this summers European Championships, and Liverpool were once again in a rush to finalise the transfer before the competition kicks-off and other potential teams showed an interest in Henderson. The quoted figure of £20 million, possibly including David N'Gog as a make-weight, seems over priced for a player who has scored only four goals for Sunderland and suggest that Liverpool might have paid over the odds again.
Both Carroll and Henderson are young players who could develop further into senior players in the England contingent but the heavy investment in them already seems a risky strategy for Fenway and Kenny Dalglish. It's all very well stating that a club wishes to buy young, talented and English players, I'm sure most clubs would do, but its also worth noting that such idealistic aims are not always possible. And when there is such a severe premium on young and English players, such a transfer policy seems foolhardy and overly optimistic.
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