Why is it that former Liverpool defender Jamie Carragher feels as though he must cover all his bases now that he is a football pundit, rather than get behind the club and the fans that supported him all these years before he got his new big job with Sky?
Liverpool has had in the most part what Red supporters see as having a good summer in the transfer market as they prepare in high-hopes for what next season will bring, while not only hoping, but praying the club can get off to a better start than they did last time around.
Here at Soccer Transfer we were not all that keen when first we heard that Liverpool were targeting Aston Villa striker Christian Benteke, as in our minds were visions of Mario Balotelli trying to score from everywhere on the pitch as soon as he received the ball.
To us, he just did not seem the right fit for the style of football Liverpool manager Brendan Rodgers was trying to instil in the team, and we think that now after one season we have been proved right, and that the 24-year-old Italian is for the chopping block if Liverpool managing director Ian Ayer can find any club willing to pay his over-inflated £100,000 per-week wages, and as for getting the £16 million back they paid to AC Milan for the former Manchester City bad boy, we think they will be lucky to get £10 million.
As for Benteke, we have changed our tune thanks to Robbie Fowler who knows a lot more about strikers than we do, so when we heard that the former Liverpool hit-man say this about Benteke, we were suitably impressed.
“I’m absolutely delighted. I think he’s an excellent player, he will get us goals,” Fowler told Sky Sports News HQ.
“He’s a proven Premier League player so I’m excited he’s joined. I think we probably needed a player to take a little bit of the burden off a few of the other players as well so hopefully he’ll be a massive success and score loads of goals for us.”
Fowler also feels Benteke’s physicality could be crucial for Liverpool to create more chances.
“He has scored goals everywhere he’s been,” he said.
“He’s a big, strong lad so he’s not going to get knocked off the ball too easily, and when you’ve got a player like that I think he can buy time for the midfield players and even the defenders to get up there and support him so it’s a really good time to be a Liverpool fan.”
Thanks Robbie, as that is exactly what we wanted to hear, and not what Jamie Carragher had to say about new signing Roberto Firmino when he tells fans not to get too excited over the signing of the £29 million Brazilian midfielder, saying he could turn out to be another Alberto Aquilani.
He wrote in his Daily Mail column: “Though 95% of Liverpool supporters have never seen Firmino in action – YouTube doesn’t count – they believe he is already on his way to becoming an icon.
“He comes from Brazil, his style is similar to Luis Suarez’s and his form for Hoffenheim was brilliant, leaving fans saying: ‘Imagine what he’ll be like for us!’
“That is the mystique of buying players from abroad. Firmino could well be another Suarez; he could also be another Alberto Aquilani.”
Aquilani of course turned out to be a flop, returning to Italy after just a short time at Anfield, but the difference between the two is staggering with an Italian player joining the Premiership from Serie A, whereas Firmino has already had four seasons in the Bundesliga to prove he is good enough to play for Liverpool.
We are upbeat about the arrival of Firmino and think that he will fit into the team and provide some of the goals we have been missing of late, and unlike Jamie Carragher we are not covering our bases in case he fails, because he won’t.
