Transfer Window Arrivals

Our first permanent signing of the summer was one that had been rumoured since Rafael Benitez had been in charge and an outstanding performance in the 2010 world cup, the signing of Uruguayan player Luis Alberto Suárez Díaz from Ajax for a figure which is reported as between £22million and £27million. Suarez has been a huge success in his time in Europe so far, albeit in Holland which is no longer recognised as one of the top leagues. His record for Ajax was a phenomenal 81 goals in 110 games, and I have seen some people trying to say that because these goals were scored in Holland that doesn’t prove they will translate to England which is fair enough, but it doesn’t mean that they won’t. For every example of players who cannot translate their talent between the leagues there are examples of players who can. Ruud Van Nistelrooy, for one, never missed a beat when moving from PSV to Utd so there is every chance Suarez can fit straight in, especially now that he has scored on his home debut.

Suarez was certainly bought to play with our now departed Spaniard but obviously immediately after signing it became apparent that this would not be happening. He is a rare breed in that he is most certainly a support striker who is very creative for his partner and others, but he also scores by the bag full and is a very accomplished finisher.

If the Suarez signing was one that was in the pipeline, our second transfer was a bolt from the blue. Andy Carroll arrived from Newcastle at a price of £35million to become Liverpool’s new number 9. It is a deal which has caused a lot of mouths to drop to the floor. Andy at 22 is a giant. Not just tall but big in stature and strength too, in fact his unveiling handed Kenny the perfect chance to mimic Bill Shankly’s famous introduction of Ron Yeats to the press pack when Shanks called Rowdy a “Colossus” and invited the journalists to “come in and take a walk around him”. Let’s just get something out there, I’m not going to argue with anybody who says that he was overpriced, I will however argue with anybody who says that this was a panic buy and a case of the reds just throwing money out there. There are a whole host of things which add up to mean that his value increased above what you might expect. He’s 22 so add on a few million, He’s English that’s another few million, It’s the January transfer window that’s another few million and of course one of the more important, his club didn’t want to sell. He may not have lot of experience behind him but he has dealt with some things at his tender age that others never do. This year was his debut season in the premiership and just to add on an extra bit of pressure he was handed the number 9 shirt at Newcastle, worn by club legends such as Malcolm MacDonald and Alan Shearer. This pressure didn’t make him wilt, it actually seemed to encourage him to his fantastic start to the season, 11 goals in his 19 appearances so far show this. He is a pretty unique player, the strengths he has don’t come around very often and he brings a completely new dimension to our play. He can score as well as bring others into play (a quality shared with his new partner Suarez). He is a good footballer who can really smash the ball and his incredible body strength teamed with his height can make at times unstoppable in the air something which we have not had for a long time (Yeah Crouch was tall but would you actually call him strong in the air?)

At the end of this window we have something which seemed impossible when we realised Torres was leaving and that is excitement. We have 2 players who when combined could be incredible. People have suggested they could form a partnership similar to that of Toshack and Keegan and if that turns out to be nearly true then the rest of the premiership better watch out! Suarez is 24 and Carroll is 22 so realistically they could form a famous partnership for the next number of years, it’s no exaggeration to say we could very well be better off when now we have 2 players to do the job that for a number of years now we have been relying on 1 man to do on his own.


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