After the latest spitting incident, which means we'll never play him and never off load his massive wage bill, I've decided there is absolutely no doubt --- El Hadj Diouf. I think he'll be about 4 million GBP per goal scored for anyone (LFC or Bolton).
Diouf is a great player. He spices up the matches and works hard and spits on the opposition. What more could you ask for? He's scoring for Bolton by the way, because he is actually playing a striker position.
Paul Stewart, hands down. If the title of this thread didn't say players instead of player, I'd say the mods should just close it now. We don't need to discuss this any further. As for those who can't remember Stewart, whether cause they were to wee at the time, didn't support Liverpool at the time or because years of therapy produced some results, here's the 411. Lets start with the money. £2M. Back in 1992 before TV revenues went through the roof and kids in Singapore were wearing Pool tops. That very summer, Shearer went to Blackburn for 3.6M and a year later, Collymore went to Forest for 2M. That's just to give you an idea what kind of money we're talking about. Stewart had scored 24 goals for Man City in '88. If I'm not mistaken, they were in the old Second Division at the time. Spurs bought him and he proceed to score fewer goals every season there, culminating with 5 goals the year we bought him. This from a forward. Somehow, he managed to collect 3 England caps along the way, about the same number as Matt LeTissier, who scored 15 goals that year and 25 the next. His first season at Anfield, Stewart had one goal. ONE GOAL! Hell, even Diouf had 3 his first year. Stewart was probably no worse a player than Dundee or Meijer, but the difference was in expectations. Shearer's transfer broke the English transfer record that year and we paid almost 2/3 of that for Stewart. Rooney just went for 20 million and I'd compare this to paying 12 million to get Duncan Ferguson. Stewart was 28 at the time and hardly at his peak. He was supposed to partner up with Saunders and Rush, who both had a decent season the year before. He was supposed to score 10-15 that year and lead us to a serious title challenge. Neither panned out and he lasted a year and a bit before Robbie Fowler's emergence sent him packing. Needless to say, Pool did not get the 2 million back. He was emblematic of those days in the early to mid 90s when Liverpool bought shìte players like him or Nigel Clough and paid through the nose, only to see them underperform horribly.
The reason he was sold was it seemed because Houllier deemed him to be too hot-headed. He always gets a great reception at Anfield.
I had a mate back in the schooldays who was Davey Thompson's biggest fan since he was a kid in the reserves - oh, the amount of excitement when he broke into the first team...
He is my biggest disappointment in terms of a Liverpool signing. IMHO quality player but a head full of **********.
Yes. Xabi Alonso can score this goal against Arsenal only with Stophen Garrards assist. Otherwise he is a completely useless garbage. Why??? Oh because I disagree with you I am charged with suspect knowledge? Hey!
Xabi Alonso can also score deflected free kicks v, Fulham (on top of turning the game and sending me loopy). He can also control a midfield v. England. :0
So what? Rooney is aggressive and unpleasant fat steroid boy and he was scoring goals out there too! This means nothing! You are using the Euro as barometer for player quality? Sooooooo Zidane is crap, Owen is crap. For team quality? Sooooooo Greeks is the best team in Europe by your reckoning? Haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!
This happened to be Baros's first major tournament. His previous one was the Under21s where he was superb as well. I have happened to watch him closely throughout his Liverpool career and I happen to think he is superb. He has been unfortunate with injuries but he is improving steadily. Rooney might be a fathead but he is a decent player, you cannot take it away from him. Do you happen to be bitter about Euros due to your German or Italian allegiances? Zizou is the best player I've seen, whose career I have been able to follow.
Realistically speaking the Euro can not be used to gauge the quality of player or team. It was a farce. However I am agreeing with you on the following points: Boras is superb who except for Gerrard can be Liverpool's best player so far this season. He is doing all the goals on by himself. His teammates should be ashamed of themselves. Rooney is a fat git but he has more potential than Robben and Ronaldo. He can develop into the best player in WC2006 in Germany. This is fact. The only thing is bitter is the water coming out your samovar when you need a stress relieving drink after watching Russia in Euro! HA!
The Greeks played to their strengths. I can't blame them. Baros is not doing all the creative work. We have had some excellent team performances this season. Yesterday's one was without Baros and Liverpool dominated, despite missing three attacking players. I did not need a stress-relieving drink after watching Russia. I did not expect us to get out of the group, unlike the Russian press, whose delusions of grandeur about the national side were ridiculous to the extreme.
It was only a half decent result against Arsenal. Liverpool was at home and expects to take something from this game. Remember Arsenal is not playing with sufficient hunger and desire to maintain its top performances from last season. Against MU they have suffered a terrible psychological blow. This will improve but right now Arsenal is vulnerable, which reduces the significance of Liverpool victory. Also, yes without Baras, but with return to Stephen Gerrerd. This was a great boost for Liverpool team. Still the performance can improve vastly. Liverpool must improve or risk UEFA cup obscurity. Middelsbrough can chase hard this year to the fourth CL position!
Whatever they say about the lack of EDu and Gilberto, we're missing our two main strikers and our flair player from midfield. I refuse to buy the fact that the signicance is reduced. Teams suffer from injuries. We have suffered from them terribly over the years, losing Fowler, Owen and Stevie G when he was growing for lengthy periods, so when others start moaning about (lack the mancs in the second half of last season), my reaction is "********** off!" We wiped the floor with Arsenal in the first half of the Anfield match last year, yet still lost when they had 2 1/2 shots. We didn't this time. It is a massive result for us.
His name is Baros, and no not all of his team mates should be ashamed of themselves! There is one who in my opinion is standing tall abov even Sir Steven, JAMIE CARRAGHER! Never even so much of a murmour when left out originally under Houllier and asked to play everywhere but in goal, he is Mr Liverpool! So far my player of the season, granted Sir Steven has missed 2 months though
I think the thread is getting off topic here. I will try to right the ship and put in my vote for Harry Kewell. Now I know there have been worse players technically but for the amount of expectations and his lack of delivery on any of his promise, Harry gets my vote.
Hmmm. A bit of a vogueish choice, but an argument can be made, even if it's not a very strong one. If you're talking expectations and lack of delivery, then Diouf would easily outstrip Kewell. At least Harry appears to give two shits about his form. And FWIW, he never hides. He had a wretched game yesterday, but he stayed with it, kept making himself available and (through a bit of luck) had a hand to play in both of our goals as a result. That's more than can be said for other players in our past that have gone through a sticky patch. Julian Dicks - now there was a player out of his depth at Liverpool and he just retreated into gormless thuggery in response. Far, far worse than Kewell.
It is hard to argue that Kewell is a bigger flop than Diouf, but since I cast my vote, I am going to do my best. In my opinion, my expectations on Diouf were not as high. My hopes were high, but I did not know what to expect. Diouf was coming off a big tournament and sucess in the French League but many players have come off solid tournaments and success in another league and done nothing here. (See Poborsky, Veron, etc...) So I hoped he would be a success but I wasn't banking on it. Kewell, however, was a proven success in the Premier League. Since his arrival there seems to be a weekly sound bite of him saying something along the lines of 'I know I am not at my best, I am carrying a bit of a knock, the best is yet to come...' Yes he says he is going to get better and he is working at it but at some point these promises ring hollow. I admit to the vogueish nature of my pick. Maybe I just wanted to talk about how crap Kewell has been as of late.
I wouldn't put Thompson on that list. If Thompson could have controlled his temper, he'd be a valuable reserve for us, kind of like what Vlad is when he's healthy and on form. I'd rate Jason McAteer below Thompson any day of the week.
What bout throwing jean michel ferri into the mix? he was bought and then not played, or maybe the likes of jurgen nielsen? how many danish keepers have we had thinking we had the next peter schmeicel?