Liverpool owner John W. Henry has defended his side’s transfer activity this summer in an open letter to the club’s supporters.
While expressing his disappointment that the Reds were unable to bring in another attacker, the American insists the club had “pushed hard” to lure new recruits until the end of the transfer window, and draws attention to the arrivals at Anfield as an example of the club’s progress.
Brendan Rodgers admitted after the Reds’ 2-0 loss to Arsenal that he would not have sanctioned Andy Carroll’s departure on loan had he known an attempt to bring in a replacement would have proved unsuccessful.
Henry maintains that in retaining Daniel Agger and agreeing new long-term deals with Luis Suarez and Martin Skrtel, while adding youthful signings to the squad, the club are putting in place a clear long-term plan for the future.
“A summer window which brought in three young, but significantly talented starters in Joe Allen, Nuri Sahin and Fabio Borini as well as two exciting young potential stars of the future – Samed Yesil and Oussama Assaidi – could hardly be deemed a failure as we build for the future.
“Nor should anyone minimise the importance of keeping our best players during this window. We successfully retained Daniel Agger, Martin Skrtel and Luis Suarez. We greatly appreciate their faith and belief in the club. And we successfully negotiated new, long-term contracts with Luis and with Martin.”
Henry goes on to explain that in doing so the club must avoid “short-term quick fixes” and “risky spending” in light of mistakes under both his stewardship and that of the previous owners, and because of the introduction of Uefa’s Financial Fair Play guidelines that ensure spending must be tied to income generated by the club.
The American also insists that Brendan Rodgers’ judgment about the squad is trusted, and that although his plans are a work in progress, the club are close to putting the desired system in place.
He continued: “No one should doubt our commitment to the club. In Brendan Rodgers we have a talented young manager and we have valued highly his judgement about the make-up of the squad. This is a work in progress. It will take time for Brendan to instil his philosophy into the squad and build exactly what he needs for the long term.”
He concludes his letter by assuring supporters that in his ownership of the club he is not looking to generate cash but holds ambitions of building the club up to winning the Premier League.