Eyebrows were raised when Liverpool paid £7.1m for two centre-halves in 1994. This week they were ready to shell out £60m on Virgil van Dijk and the record fee for a defender looks set to be smashed this summer“I was in demand,” remembered Phil Babb. “I was on holiday and every other day I was reading the papers and I was going here, there and everywhere.”Back in 1994, the player who was once rejected by his local club Millwall appeared to have the world at his feet. Fresh from his exploits for Republic of Ireland at the World Cup in the United States, Babb joined Liverpool on 1 September for £3.6m – a then British record fee for a defender....
To improve his rickety defence and demonstrate Liverpool’s determination to win the Premier League, there is no better signing Jürgen Klopp could makeOnly three players in the Premier League have the ability, when at their awesome best, to make everyone else on the pitch look like immature creatures, toddlers trying and failing to compete with giants. Two of those players are on the wane – Yaya Touré and Zlatan Ibrahimovic – but the other should be approaching his prime. If Liverpool sign Virgil van Dijk they will be making the ultimate upgrade to their team.On one level it could be argued that to splurge £60m or thereabouts on any player is to blare a huge scouting or coaching failure, since a...
Premier League sides have struggled to impose themselves in Europe in recent years because the domestic competition is seen as an obstacle to successNext season, assuming Liverpool can negotiate the play-off round, there will be five English clubs in the Champions League. That is a large number, though it does not necessarily follow that a greater representation will lead to a better chance of English success. Premier League sides have been struggling to impose themselves in Europe in recent years. From a position a decade ago when finals were being reached on a regular basis and Uefa had genuine concerns when two English clubs faced each other in Moscow in 2008, the strength of the Premier League now seems to...
Manchester City and Chelsea continue to produce and stockpile English players, but neither club seems keen to see the job through and select themWhen Ron Greenwood remarked, while responding to criticism for dropping the young Glenn Hoddle from his England team in 1979, that “disappointment is part of football”, he was widely derided for appearing to stifle the expression of creativity. But Greenwood knew what he was talking about, even if he chose the wrong words at the wrong time. Beneath them lay a truth that comes closer to the surface as the rewards for success in English football grow ever more outrageous.It’s a sad fact that young footballers sometimes have to gamble with their lives if they want to...
It used to be seen as domestic football’s Everest but the modern domination of a handful of clubs has made winning the Premier League and FA Cup a much less remarkable featAntonio Conte is on the verge of winning the Double in his first season in England. That sounds a remarkable feat and actually it will be as Chelsea will have disposed of Manchester United, Tottenham and Arsenal in the FA Cup should they be found running round Wembley with the trophy on Saturday evening, though there can be little doubt the Double is a somewhat devalued currency these days. Related: It was Arsenal’s day in 2002 – but it has mostly been Chelsea’s ever since | Amy Lawrence Related:...