Friday, March 29, 2024

Is Shelvey signing a sign of things to come this summer for Liverpool?

Jonjo-ShelveyPremier League underachievers Liverpool have signed promising young midfielder Jonjo Shelvey from League Two Charlton.

The initial payment of £1.7million with more money to follow depending on appearances seems like a good deal for everyone.

Could this be the sign of things to come for Liverpool in these hard times?

Future

Rafa Benitez’s reign as Liverpool manager may or maybe not being coming to an end, but it looks as though future managers will profit from his vision in signing young players. Many Liverpool fans will say he’s spent too much time on signing youngsters and not enough time signing players ready for the first team.

However some of the youngsters at Anfield have made a breakthrough this season. Defender Daniel Ayala and Daniel Pacheco have shown great promise in their brief first team appearances and could prove vital to the future of the club.

The signing of 18 year-old Shelvey is a real coup for the Benitez as well. A number of top English clubs were said to be trailing the youngster and Liverpool won the race. Shelvey is rated as one of the top young English players and it breaks a trend.

English

Rafa Benitez hasn’t been a big fan of signing English players in general. The Spaniard signed Glen Johnson last summer but most of his recent signing have been foreign imports and a lot have been flops. However Benitez has admitted today that he would like to sign more English players.

It remains to be seen whether he can actually sign English players of enough quality to improve his side but it’s a nice idea. He has made a start with Shelvey and he if he can capture some more young promising English players it will benefit the club.

Shelvey

I have to be honest I haven’t seen much of Jonjo Shelvey. What I have seen of the youngster has impressed me. He seems older than his years and not purely on his appearance either! On the pitch he shows a maturity beyond his years.

A fee of £1.7million is a snip from what I have seen of Shelvey. Even if Shelvey doesn’t fulfil his potential the fee is not a massive one. The sort of fee that pales into significance compared with the clubs spending in previous seasons.

Bargains

Assuming that Rafa Benitez stays at Anfield this summer he will working on a very tight transfer budget. That is unless a new owner takes over the club which at the moment looks like a remote possibility.

A tight budget means that Benitez will have to find some bargain buys this summer. Benitez has not always been the best at picking up bargains, but has come up with some in his reign, the signing of Spanish keeper Pepe Reina being one of the best examples.

The Spanish international has been superb since he arrived from Villarreal in 2005 and became one of the top goalkeepers in the Premier League. Some of the other signings such as Daniel Agger and Martin Skrtel have also proved very shrewd. So we know he’s not a complete stranger to the bargain basement of signings.

Staying?

Benitez’s future at Liverpool is still in doubt after a poor season by the Reds high standards. He has revealed that he is committed to the club but the people behind the scenes may have different ideas.

If he does stay then this summer’s transfer activity will in the history of the club. The futures of star players Steven Gerrard and Fernando Torres are in doubt and he must make sure they stay at Anfield. Then he must sign the players that will make the difference next season and make sure the club doesn’t experience another season of disappointment next season. Rafa is its over to you!

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

David Nugent


David is a freelance football writer with nearly a decade of experience writing about the beautiful game. The experienced writer has written for over a dozen websites and also an international soccer magazine offline.
Arguably his best work has come as an editorial writer for Soccernews, sharing his good, bad and ugly opinions on the world’s favourite sport. During David’s writing career he has written editorials, betting previews, match previews, banter, news and opinion pieces.

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