In whose world was Willian worth £30M? Apart from Daniel Levy and Jose Mourinho.
This is a guy who made only 41 appearances in the Brazilian league for Corinthians before moving to obscure Ukranian League, playing over 6 years for Shakhtar Donetsk. Admittedly he won league titles and cups with them but what level of quality was he playing against every week. He recently moved to Anzhi Makhachkala in Russia, a slight step up in terms of quality, but has only played 11 games for them. He is 25 years old, yet has only played 2 games at full international level, in 2 friendlies against the mighty Gabon and Egypt.
Compare this against players who have been sold for similar amounts this year. Mario Gotze is only 21 years old and has played in a top class league for a top class side. He already has 22 international caps for almost as good a quality international team. Like Willian, Gotze is not a striker but his goals to game ratio is far superior to the Brazilian’s, 1 in 4 for Dortmund compared to Willian’s 1 in 7 for Shakhtar.
Bringing players to the Premier League from overseas is always a risk. The game has changed somewhat so the chances of them not settling or not suiting the style of the Premier League is less than it was 10 years ago. In Willian’s case however it is surely the step up in class that is a risk. Quite simply, apart from games in the Champions League he has simply never faced the kind of opponents he would do every week in England. On You Tube he looks fantastic obviously but there is no evidence whatsoever that he is worth anything like the value that Anzhi paid for him 6 months ago. With oil billionaire wealth their judgement on getting value for money from players is questionable.
Willian could turn out to be a great player and worth the money but if you were running a business would you risk a huge part of your budget on what is an unproven asset that might or might not be worth it. We cannot ignore the fact that FSG own a multi-million pound business in Liverpool Football Club. Matthew Sproston on another website has already spoken of the lack of importance of this so called “Marquee signing” that we keep hearing about. Quite honestly a “marquee signing” just means you are being ripped off.
Over the past few months Liverpool have shown that it is perfectly possible to buy good players for under £15M. A player at that value for a club like Liverpool does not represent a major gamble. If it doesn’t work out he can be sold at a reasonable price, even if not a profit. We cannot continue to make the kind of losses that we suffered on Carroll and Downing. FSG are absolutely correct in having a limit on the amount they will pay for a player.
This limit is hard to define. What is the value of a player? A football player must be the only business asset in the world whose value is completely arbitrary. It is often determined by what someone thinks or what someone else has paid or what the media feel he is worth. Every other business asset is based on definitive information; Production value, size, cost saving etc.
A good manager will be able to create a good team from players who cost less than £15M. There are not that many players that command the kind of ridiculous fee that Spurs wanted to pay, and Chelsea did for Willian. Good scouting and a manager who gets the best out of a player is far more important. Surely at Liverpool we have the perfect example of a success like that in Coutinho.
We should be delighted that FSG appear to have learned their lesson and are not succumbing to this foolhardy way of running a business. Fans who moan about the way they are running our club and get impatient about not getting in the Champions League soon enough or challenging for the title should remember 2 things:
1) What a complete and utter financial mess our previous owners got us into. We almost went out of business and personally I would rather see slow but encouraging progress over the next 5 years than risking millions being spent incorrectly.
2) Leeds United
Chelsea players 70% are all old ,I dont think they will do well this season as Mourinho already made bad decisions of not playing matta,letting Moses goes on loan,and his tactic are rubbish so I wonder why he left Real , ah I know why becuase he find it hard against like of barca and Atletico, and one thing for sure that Guardiola is much better and smatter then mourinho.
As chelsea fan ,Jose get lost.
Ridiculous slating of this article by Chelsea fans for being bitter. This is a Liverpool site. What I said was that Liverpool were wise not to gamble. £30M is nothing to Chelsea with an owner that just throws money at everything. I don’t care about what Chelsea do, I care about Liverpool and not seeing us get into the mess that we did previously. If you’re a Liverpool fan and want to comment on this, whether you agree or not then feel free. If you’re a Chelsea fan please go and spend your time commenting on your own club.
30 million means alot more to lfc than chelski. It’s not comparable. I hope he flops but i doubt they bought him for a laugh. They have scouts also…
well said best article
What a load of rubbish! Get a life. Willian will be a star in chelsea team and you will definitely
eat your words. youre Jealous cause he didn’t sign for Liverpool. CHELSEA FOR LIFE!!!!!
Willian cost Chelsea 32Million Pounds not 25 as some Chelsea fans here claim or the 32 Million quoted on this article. You can verify this from all notable sources like Skysports, Guardian etc.
Sky sports are reporting 25 million get your facts right before blabbing on here, YOU get your sources right!
Chelsea Takeover here nonetheless LFC Chelsea rivalry doesn’t feel the same anymore. Good luck to Brenden and Studge. Classy Chelsea Family
As a chelsea fan, I’m not too happy with this signing.We already have a lot of attacking mids in our squad and signing Willian will not only effect the development of De bruyne,Schurrle.Oscar and Piazon but wil also unsettle the Mata-Hazard partnership that was so productive last year
great article, agree with every word!!
I love how followers of other teams come to a Liverpool site to try and hang sh!t on us, I never have considered going to a ManU, Chelsea or other site.
Just goes to show how much we’re hated for being so good for so long and don’t worry we’ll be there again and soon.
MUPPETT! NEWSNOW PROVIDES ARTICLES THAT MENTION YOUR SUPPORTED CLUB! YOU MENTION A CHELSEA PLAYER IN THIS THEREFORE ITS ON OUR FEED!! :p
That explains this thread but countless other forums bombarded with opposition fans, always the same you lot coming to us
You are just bitter here, you apparently didn’t watch him in the UCL last season terrorizing Chelsea and Juventus. Watch him shine at Chelsea just like Liverpool failed to get Mata from Valencia.
BEHAVE YOURSELF!! YOU WOULDA LOVED HIM IF HE JOINED YOU! BUT HE DIDNT WANNA! BITTER LFC FAN!! WE’LL SEE HOW RISKY IT WAS WHEN HE’S BEASTING YOUR MIDFIELD AND MAKING YOU LOOK UTTER KACK!!
Please buy a new keyboard. Your caps lock key seems broken.
LOL NOT BROKEN! BUT WHEN DEALIN WITH LIVERFOOL SUPPORTERS YOU HAVE TO SHOUT OTHERWISE YOUR DROWNED OUT BY YOU LOT WHINING ABOUT YOUR HISTOREEEEEEEEEEEE
I’d just like to quietly point out that It’s you’re, not your. Oh and It’s not wise to shout a lot and laugh out loud. That said you are probably right in what you shout….
Ahhh, the comments made are surely CFC fans… Supporting a club where good players go to die… (Mereiles, Kalou, Malouda, Torres, Ba, Moses, Benayoun, Marin, Mata)
Are you kidding with that mata,malouda thing or what??mata has become even better than when we signed him and malouda tore everyone in 2009-10 season.Those flops are mentioned (torres ,benayoun,mereles they won champions league with chelsea and nothing with liverpool)
Blue, relax mate, with Roman in charge, CFC will be buying the league for quite a few season to come, dont worry…
Don’t bother pressing any of those grapes they will make really horrendous wine, bitter BD LMFAO
1) He cost 25m not 30!
2) This article stinks of sour grapes
As a Chelsea fan I’m more than happy with your policy of buying average players for 15m or under. Means you won’t be challenging for the trophies again.
You forget, in the not too distant past, LFC made it to two finals at Wembly. Not bad for an ‘average’ team NOT ‘buying’ its way to the top 🙂 Bear in mind, we are getting stronger. We are learing to close out gmaes and we are starting to really dominate play.
Our football is way more attractive than Boringly Boring Chelseas. You have the ‘Special One’…and an ABUNDANCE of talent…so why do you play such negative football?? With ALL Mourinho’s knowledge, vision and finesse, you’d think he’d be able to produce top, top quality and dare I say it, enterning and dominant football. Why the Boring stuff?? Whats special about BORING your to ‘success’…
He cost 25million and this is typical once he’s snubbed Liverpool and signed for chelsea!
When did he snub us exactly? When you go to an auction and someone outbids you is that the Item snubbing you?