Corner: Liverpool

If you pick the responses from certain English Premier League clubs, you get various takes on what the summer transfer window is supposed to provide.  For some, it’s a rebuilding effort even if a team is good enough to already be a competitor.  For others, it’s trying to figure out the damage when offers are simply too good to pass on.  Still, for others, it’s another type of loss with the resulting fan complaints. 

That brings us to Liverpool FC.  As a club caught in the no-man’s land just outside of the European places,  they needed to accomplish just enough to not have to rely on cup competitions to get them into Europe.  Better still, they need to fulfill their sizeable expectations and make the Champions League the target rather than the Europa.  Instead, they enter the real start to the 2012-13 season noticeably undermanned. 

For Liverpool, August 31st quickly became all about what didn’t happen.  That wasn’t lost on owner John Henry, who decided to address the issues now facing his club with a lengthy letter to the fans. 

I am as disappointed as anyone connected with Liverpool Football Club that we were unable to add further to our strike force in this summer transfer window, but that was not through any lack of desire or effort on the part of all of those involved. They pushed hard in the final days of the transfer window on a number of forward targets and it is unfortunate that on this occasion we were unable to conclude acceptable deals to bring those targets in.

When that’s your opening, there’s not much point in continuing to stress the obvious.  Liverpool pushes through the Fall waiting for another opportunity, even while the club stresses that they “have no fear of spending and competing with the very best but we will not overpay for players.”

Credit them for being open about their situation, but it does little to change what so many clubs face.  Even though there’s always a risk in a transfer that doesn’t work, the window has shown it’s a competition that isn’t easily strategized.  No club wants to overpay, but not spending at all can have its own set of troubling consequences. 

Corner Rating: (with 1 Liverpool holding course on value for money in January or 11 taking a flyer on a player to stay in the game) 8.

Last Week’s Corner: The problem with taking the long view with The Corner is that it doesn’t lend itself to the quick update.  We’re staying with 6.