This week... Brendan Rodgers gave the clearest indication yet that he will continue to add quality to the playing staff at Anfield. Around the globe, Liverpool fans gave a combined sigh of relief that the ‘big’ signings are on the way.
"What we've done in the early part of the summer is to improve the squad," said Rodgers. “That's something I feel we've done with the players we've brought in. Now what's important over the next three to five weeks is improving the team.”
Now I’m no psychologist but the manager appears to be walking a tightrope with statements like this. On the one hand, fans everywhere will be cheered with the knowledge that the spending will continue and that the level of quality being signed will take an upward curve. Good stuff.
On the other hand, the players that have already signed must be asking themselves why they are not considered first team players. Mignolet, Aspas and Toure at least must have met the manager’s comments with exasperation.
Brendan Rodgers is considered one of the best man managers around. He’ll need to be at his sure fire best in the coming months to persuade those ‘squad’ players that they are capable of fighting for a place in the starting eleven and that they haven’t just made the biggest professional mistake of their careers by joining LFC. He’ll also need to persuade those ‘team’ players he intends to sign that they are just that; first team players. Whilst thrashing out a deal for new signings, the club will hope that within the murky waters of contract negotiations, those targets won’t seek such reassurance in the form of that dreaded ‘guaranteed first team’ clause.
Last week... Shakhtar Donetsk coach Mircea Lucescu educated fans everywhere by finally clearing up the longstanding debate over where his club ranks in world football. Using Henrikh Mkhitaryan’s transfer saga to settle the issue once and for all, he declared:
"I can understand the urge to leave if he has a chance to go to a club that surpasses Shakhtar, like Barcelona or Real Madrid, but not many clubs are beyond our level - not clubs like Liverpool .....”
I’d like to thank Mircea for that intriguing insight into the new world order. Shakhtar do fight every year in the Champions League. Since 2003, they have fought decidedly hard to reach the group stages 4 times and the qualifiers on 3 occasions punctuated by the heady heights of a quarter final and last 16 appearance along the way. Qualifying from Ukraine, the toughest league in Europe, Donesk would be rewarding fans with everyone’s dream final against Barca or Real every year if it wasn’t for those dastardly, small time clubs who fluke results to knock them out.
This brilliantly consistent qualification record has sent their UEFA coefficient into orbit. They now eclipse those scarcely heard of minnows such as AC Milan, Ajax, Juventus, Benfica and, of course, Liverpool along with the 20 European Cups they have won between them.
So it should come as little surprise to LFC fans everywhere when Shakhtar Donesk unveils their marquee summer signing. A man who’s lifetime ambition in football has been to pull on the famous orange and black shirt, a club which will allow him to fulfil his full potential, play in glamorous ties the world is salivating to see, free himself from the mediocrity of premier league football and finally grace a club worthy of his superstardom. Luis Suarez.
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