Filed under: Liverpool, Premier League, Football
These are heady days at Anfield - but amid Liverpool's frenzied buying, are all the club's fans satisfied at the changes made to the squad?The answer to that, if some of the sentiments expressed on message boards and Twitter are to be believed, is no.
Times have changed dramatically at the club and the nature of the debate about the current transfer policy only serves to illustrate the profound way in which the landscape on Merseyside has changed.
Under former owners George Gillett and Tom Hicks, the then manager Rafa Benitez had to buy before he could sell, he had to try and find rough diamonds - usually in foreign markets - and try and polish them into Premier League players and he operated under extremely limited financial restrictions.
Benitez was the first person to let that be known - both on and off the record -
even if it does not excuse some of the players he did bring to Anfield.
Fanhouse UK is confident that most Liverpool fans still shudder at the likes of Andriy Voronin, Charles Itandje and Gabriel Paletta but those days now appear to be comfortably in the past so for that fact alone Liverpool's fans can give thanks.
Fenway Sports Group's £300 million acquisition of Liverpool last October has completely redefined the club's financial outlook and what it can spend in the transfer market.
FSG head John Henry maintained he would back first Roy Hodgson and now Kenny Dalglish and he has been true to his word.
In just two transfer windows, Henry has paid £35 million for Andy Carroll, £22.8 million for Luis Suarez and a further £43 million on Jordan Henderson, Charlie Adam and Stewart Downing, who has finally agreed a deal after months of wrangling.
That is £100.2 million in just seven months and while those sort of numbers would have been fantastical under Hicks and Gillett they are starting to cause a tingling of discomfort for some.
In the recent past, those with allegiances to Liverpool have not been slow when it comes to criticising other clubs for their inflated spending, accusing nouveau riche Chelsea and Manchester City of attempting to fast-tack their way to success.
These days similar charges could be levelled at Liverpool, albeit the recent wave of signings still represents only of fraction of City's activity. That in itself is no bad thing - you cannot be expected to compete without spending cash these days - but you can almost hear the sound of Chelsea supporters clearing their throats and preparing to deliver a few barbs of their own.
Yet that abstract concern is nothing compared with the more concrete reasoning that although Liverpool have bought big, have they bought well?
Suarez is undoubtedly a class act and has taken to the Premier League with aplomb since his Ajax switch. But £35 million for Andy Carroll, a player who is yet to really prove his scoring pedigree?
A combined £36 million for Henderson and Downing, one of whom is only 20 and the other who fails to fire the imagination?
£7 million for Adam, a man with one great season under his belt in a Blackpool side set up for him to shine?
No wonder there are niggly doubts. Liverpool's chequebook is well and truly open but questions remain whether the squad has been bolstered by players of genuine quality who can deliver meaningful success.
And there is no doubt success must be delivered as the club sets about recouping its huge outlay.
In one sense only the forthcoming season(s) will answer those questions but at the moment the jury is out.
Yet one thing is for certain, the current euphoria relating to Liverpool; the return of Dalglish and the return of having a few quid to spend, will evaporate and evaporate quickly if FSG's grand gamble does not reap the expected rewards.
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