Adios amigo
So, after contract negotiation avoidance, Twitter outbursts and weeks if not months of speculation, Jose Enrique has finally swapped St James' Park for Anfield. The writing was on the wall yesterday, with the publication of a posed photo from the medical - a besuited doctor taking the Spaniard's blood pressure while he grinned from ear to ear, wearing a Liverpool T-shirt.
As so often seems to be the case with players who've left Tyneside, his initial comments appeared as much a barbed commentary on his former employers as a glowing endorsement of his new club: "I am excited by the new signings - it shows Liverpool's ambition. They spent a lot of money in January on Andy and Luis Suarez, and this summer they've spent a lot of money on other players. You can see they have big ambitions and that's why I came here - because I want to win things and I think I can do that here". Jabba will no doubt again be nettled by his words, but this time has no recourse to a fine.
The protracted, rather unsavoury and messy nature of Enrique's departure shouldn't detract from the fact that, after a couple of seasons finding his feet in English football, he was tremendous in our promotion season and again as we reacclimatised to life in the top flight. My reaction is more of frustration and disappointment than outright anger - the increasingly inevitability of the move put paid to that. For his part, Alan Pardew expressed a kind of resigned and wearied acceptance, reading from the Jabba-prepared script about the importance of financial stability while bemoaning the loss of another of his star men.
Liverpool can congratulate themselves on picking up a skillful and accomplished defender who was among the Premier League's very best in his position last season, and for a very respectable fee - roughly the same as we paid Villareal when he was still a raw and unproven 21-year-old.
As with Rocky, though, the Scousers have contrived to cause us maximum damage by leaving the deal so late. We still have more than two weeks to find a replacement (Erik Pieters, hopefully) before the transfer window shuts, but with no natural substitute at the club and Shane Ferguson injured, we face the prospect of trying to beat Arsenal in tomorrow's curtain-opener with Danny Simpson, James Perch or even Steven Taylor at left-back...
As so often seems to be the case with players who've left Tyneside, his initial comments appeared as much a barbed commentary on his former employers as a glowing endorsement of his new club: "I am excited by the new signings - it shows Liverpool's ambition. They spent a lot of money in January on Andy and Luis Suarez, and this summer they've spent a lot of money on other players. You can see they have big ambitions and that's why I came here - because I want to win things and I think I can do that here". Jabba will no doubt again be nettled by his words, but this time has no recourse to a fine.
The protracted, rather unsavoury and messy nature of Enrique's departure shouldn't detract from the fact that, after a couple of seasons finding his feet in English football, he was tremendous in our promotion season and again as we reacclimatised to life in the top flight. My reaction is more of frustration and disappointment than outright anger - the increasingly inevitability of the move put paid to that. For his part, Alan Pardew expressed a kind of resigned and wearied acceptance, reading from the Jabba-prepared script about the importance of financial stability while bemoaning the loss of another of his star men.
Liverpool can congratulate themselves on picking up a skillful and accomplished defender who was among the Premier League's very best in his position last season, and for a very respectable fee - roughly the same as we paid Villareal when he was still a raw and unproven 21-year-old.
As with Rocky, though, the Scousers have contrived to cause us maximum damage by leaving the deal so late. We still have more than two weeks to find a replacement (Erik Pieters, hopefully) before the transfer window shuts, but with no natural substitute at the club and Shane Ferguson injured, we face the prospect of trying to beat Arsenal in tomorrow's curtain-opener with Danny Simpson, James Perch or even Steven Taylor at left-back...
Labels: jose enrique, liverpool, transfer window
posted by Ben at 1:48 pm
4 Comments:
let's remember one of the reasons we ended up the the championship was that he had a nightmare season before we were relegated. His pass competion that season must have been less than 10%!!! With one good season under his belt he's off.
I'm now 32 and supporting Newcastle and England and still son't know what it feels like to win something! Pretty sure I'll go to my death bed still not knowing!
I think jose will be a huge hit for LFC i do feel a bit for NUFC as ashely clearly doesnt have the best interests at heart with the player sales he endorses.
Good luck NUFC and welcome to Liverpool Jose now YNWA....
As a Liverpool fan I am very happy to get Enrique and I suppose the reason it was left so late was that after (possibly) spending way over the odds for AC, we were not going to do so for JE! Mostly due to his contract situation and obvious desire to leave. Apparently MA (Jabba I believe you call him??), thought we should pay nearly £10 million more!?
As for your club, I must admit I have a great deal of sympathy. To get back to the PL so quickly was a great achievement and yes you lost your number 9, but received a massive transfer fee that could and should have been put back into several players. This was, as far as I'm aware, promised?! Obviously that is not happening, in fact has a penny actually been spent on actual transfer fees? This is an absolute disgrace and whilst I'm not a massive Alan Pardew fan he is in an impossible situation and many managers would have left so respect to him for staying (although I suppose he knows he's manager of a big club in the PL and may not get another chance!!)!
Anyway, good luck for the season!
I rather enjoyed the sense of eleation when we won the Championship two years ago.
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