Liverpool Welcomes Joe Allen: How Will He Fit In?
Liverpool Football Club announced yesterday that they have signed Joe Allen from Swansea, with a fee of £15 million being reported by many sections of the media. This figure has caused many people to criticise the transfer fee involved and ask if the Welshman is worth the price.
So is he worth the price paid by The Reds? Well, in my opinion, he is worth every penny. He is a promising young player who had a fantastic season in the Premier League with Swansea last year, and before you point it out I am aware that it was just his first season in the top flight.
This inexperience has inspired some to compare the deal for Allen with the deal which took Andy Carroll to Liverpool for a fee of £35 million in January 2011. At that stage Carroll was also being touted as a possible star of the future and was having a great season at Newcastle, leading their line like an experienced campaigner every week.
The difference between the two deals lies in Brendan Rodgers. The new Liverpool boss knows Allen’s game, and the style of football to be played at Anfield will be very similar to the football he was playing at Swansea last season. This was not the case with Carroll, who struggled to fit into a team built around low, quick balls to Luis Suarez instead of the crossing game that he had played at Newcastle. Allen should fit easily into Liverpool’s set-up.
Then of course there is the question of who he is to replace in Liverpool’s midfield. There is only really one spot in Liverpool’s midfield up for grabs, as both Steven Gerrard and Lucas Leiva will start whenever they are fit, which just leaves us with the spot occupied by Jonjo Shelvey in the game against Gomel and by Charlie Adam for much of last season. Allen is much more experienced than Shelvey, which gives him the upper hand in that battle, and having failed to make an impact in his debut season, Charlie Adam is reported to be leaving the club.
The other player who could possibly play in Allen’s position is Jordan Henderson, and contrary to popular belief, I believe that he will go on to become a great player. In fact, he is arguably as good as Joe Allen is at the moment, which is why he will make a fantastic back-up should either Gerrard or Allen pick up any knocks. As things stand though, he does not understand Brendan Rodgers’ style of football in as much depth as Allen does, which I feel should give the Welshman a distinct advantage over his English counterpart.
Lastly, there is the question of the money that Liverpool have invested in Allen, with many pointing out that Robin van Persie could have been signed for just a few million pounds more. This is probably true of the original transfer fee, but with a rumored wage of £45,000 and a signing on fee of £2 million, the fee for Allen begins to become dwarfed by any potential deal for van Persie.
Having paid roughly £20 million for the Arsenal striker, any club that signed him would then be obliged to pay him a signing on fee nearing £10 million and a wage as much as four times higher than that of Allen (I’m going to ignore agent fees here as some of them seem to be able to name their own price nowadays), which must beggar the question, “Is van Persie really worth it?”.
Should Allen maintain his Swansea performances once he puts that Liverbird on his chest, then Liverpool will have a fantastic player at their disposal for the next ten years, but should it all go wrong then they will be able to easily offload the midfielder due to his reasonable wage bill (which is why Man City can’t sell any of their players). They won’t get £15 million should they need to sell the Welshman, but their losses won’t be astronomical. I do not see this as a problem that will rear its ugly head, however, as I believe that with Rodgers at the helm, Allen’s Liverpool career can only go from strength to strength.
For more of my rambling, feel free to follow me on Twitter @wise_guy93
