When Benitez took charge of Liverpool, he had a lot to sort out other than signings. Because of Heskey's departure, the English players in the Liverpool team were very surprised. They had partnered with Heskey for two years.
For a while, even if the relationship wasn't close, it wasn't too bad. Moreover, Heskey is still the main center forward of the England national team. Now that the new coach has arrived, Heskey is the first one to be kicked out. How could they not be surprised?
For Liverpool, the Spanish coach is new.
There is a lot of xenophobia in British football. Therefore, the most active players in England have always been English and Scottish coaches. Since the 1990s, foreign coaches such as Gullit, Vialli, Wenger, Houllier and Ranieri have been the most active.
He began to slowly enter the English football world, but the Spanish coach never appeared.
They don't understand Benitez's style, so they are even more worried. Maybe Benitez doesn't like to see English players. After all, Spanish players and English players have completely different characteristics. Benitez may not like the football played by English players.
Wind. The local players in England are a little worried.
At this time, Lister met with Owen's agent and Gerrard's and Carragher's agents from SFX. SFX is the world's largest agency and sports promotion company. They made their fortune from American basketball.
At its peak, the NBA's top superstars were under their control, and their annual income exceeded tens of billions of dollars. This was a real giant in the world of sports, a giant that spanned various sports.
Now some of England's top stars are also cooperating with them. For example, Beckham was originally a player under their banner, and later became independent. And Liverpool's local stars are all players under their banner. However, because sfx entered European football late
.So the model they adopt is a cooperative model.
Just like Holmes, Irving's current agent, he needs SFX to help package, publicize and promote Irving. But he holds most of Irving's rights, and he only needs to hand them over to SFX at a certain share every year.
Holmes seems to be an agent under SFX, but the relationship between them is actually a cooperative relationship. Because of Irving, Holmes's status in British football is not low. Of course, List looks down on Holmes.
Holmes, because the failure of Irving's career was due to the agent's mistakes. Irving could have chosen any way at the beginning, and choosing Real Madrid was the worst, but Holmes made Irving choose Real Madrid. But he looked down upon the return.
Despite looking down on it, List still met with Holmes and conveyed Benitez's wishes. Owen is still the flag of Liverpool. He is still the most important player under Benitez.
Then Lister met with Marshall. Marshall is also an agent under SFX. But he is more powerful and powerful than Holmes, and his status in SFX is also very high. SFX only cooperates with him.
That’s it. Marshall has been in this industry for more than ten years and has been an agent since 1991. Marshall is a very well-known agent in British football. He is also an agent who has a very close relationship with Liverpool.
He is not only the agent for players Carragher and Gerrard who came out of the Liverpool youth academy. He is also the agent for Heskey and McAllister. This shows the role of an agent. Why Heskey
Ski and McAllister were able to move to Liverpool, and no one would believe it without the contribution of their agents.
Now Benitez is most worried about Marshall after taking over. Because Liverpool does not have a royal agent like Manchester United and Arsenal. Among the current Liverpool clubs, the most powerful one is sfx. But even among the same company
There are also differences of interest. sfx is not like List's agency. They have more cooperative relationships with European football agents. Therefore, there is also a lot of competition between agents under sfx, and Marshall is a member of the Liverpool team.
The most powerful agent.
But Lister is here. SFX is many times stronger than Lister. Lister’s brokerage company cannot compare to SFX. No matter in terms of scale, promotion capabilities, connections, or income
There is a huge gap between the world and the world. But if you compare it to European football alone, Lister’s agency is not afraid of SFX at all. Because SFX covers so many areas, it covers all sports. Only in football
He is not stronger than Riester.
Not to mention Holmes and Marshall. The two of them are backed by SFX, otherwise their current strength is completely incomparable with Lister. McAllister is leaving on his own, and there is nothing to say about it. But
Benitez has now directly sold Heskey, which makes Marshall very nervous. Lister might not just dislike Marshall and want to drive him away, and then become the boss behind Liverpool. But during the meeting, Lister
Promise Marshall that Benitez will never touch Liverpool youth players. Gerrard will be the future banner of Liverpool.
In fact, Benitez should have done this kind of thing. If he likes a certain player or wants to appease the team bosses, the best way is to call them directly and give them a guarantee. But Benitez
Si is not this type of head coach, so as Benitez's agent, Lister has to help him give them a promise.
In this aspect, Benitez is really far inferior to Mourinho. When Mourinho first went to Inter Milan, he actually sent a text message to Ibrahimovic who was playing in the European Cup. Then he communicated with him,
He also praised him, which immediately made the unruly Ibrahimovic admire Mourinho very much.
…………
Lister helped Benitez to stabilize the local big players who came out of the youth academy, while Benitez needed to deal with some players in the team.
The first is that veteran midfielder McAllister, who performed very well in the past two seasons, is leaving Liverpool. Speaking of this, he is really a bit legendary. He is a Scottish player and played in Scotland at the beginning of his career. Then he transferred
When he arrived at Leicester City, he performed very well here. Unfortunately, Leicester City was relegated, and his performance in the second tier of England was also very good. Then he was spotted by Leeds United and became a Leeds United player.
.Here he won the only English top league championship in his career, and it was the last English League One championship.
Later, McAllister also played football at Coventry. In 2000, McAllister became a free agent, and at the same time, McAllister was thirty-five years old. Thirty-five
A player who was 20 years old could just go to a small team. But Houllier took a fancy to him, and Marshall was behind it, so McAllister joined Liverpool for free.
No one thought that the 35-year-old McAllister would still have such strength. He performed very well in Liverpool and even became a core midfielder.
But he is already thirty-seven years old, no matter how powerful he is, he can no longer play in a giant like Liverpool. So at the end of last season, he was ready to leave Liverpool. After Benitez came, it was just a symbolic
After all, Liverpool fans have great affection for him. However, after McAllister has been around for so many years and played football for so many years, it is easy to see what is sincere and what is false. He can tell from
Benitez, a young coach, saw strong ambition in his eyes. McAllister was self-aware, so he rejected Benitez's "sustainment".
The veteran McAllister left, and soon the Finnish fast horse Litmanen also contacted Benitez. Because a new coach came, the original main players were worried about their positions. And those
Fringe players want to know if the new coach will give them a chance.
Litmanen is such a player. When he came to Liverpool, Houllier spoke highly of Litmanen, saying that this was the most important signing in his Liverpool career. But Houllier was a little different.
Litmanen is not reused. He has been a substitute for two consecutive seasons and has no main position at all.
Now that Benitez is here, his agent wants to hear Benitez's opinion. Benitez has not guaranteed the main position. Litmanen's agent understands, so he quickly contacted Benitez
Si expressed his hope to let Litmanen go. Benitez also agreed. Litmanen came to Liverpool for free a year and a half ago. Liverpool once again let Litmanen go for free. Litmanen returned to his old club.
Club Ajax.
The one who came to Benitez with Litmanen was Barmby. Barmby will definitely be able to leave a name in the Premier League in the future, not because he is very good. But because he is the first player since 1959
A player who joined Liverpool from Everton. At that time, Liverpool spent 6 million pounds, but in fact, apart from the symbolic significance, his performance was not outstanding. He was even disturbed by injuries last season, and Holly
I didn't like it very much so I only played six times.
Now that the new coach is here, he wants to hear what Benitez thinks about him. If Benitez is willing to give him a chance, of course he hopes to stay. But Benitez ruthlessly told Barmby,
There is no place for Barmby in the season plans.
Soon Leeds United offered Barmby 2.3 million pounds. Benitez agreed to the transfer with a stroke of his pen. Barmby, who transferred for 6 million pounds two years ago, two years later
A loss of four million pounds.
Benitez also eliminated players like Traore and Diomede who simply couldn't play in the game.
With the transfers one after another, Liverpool's lineup has been slimmed down very much. This has been the case starting from the midfield and backcourt. Marcus Babel has not returned yet, and he doesn't even know if he can play football. As a result, Liverpool is now
The number of players in the defense has been reduced sharply, with Henchoz, Hyypia, Carragher, Riise and Finnan being the only players with good quality.
The same is true for the midfield. The two most skilled players in the Czech Republic, Borg and Smicer, have been injured all year round. The only ones who are good now are Hamann, Gerrard, and Murphy. There are not many good forward players.
Just Jankoler and Irving.
Everyone understands that Liverpool's transfer market has just begun. (To be continued...)
