So ends one of the summer’s most surprising transfer sagas as Nuri Sahin completed a year long loan move to Liverpool at the expense of Arsenal, who almost everyone seemed to think had control of the deal.
Liverpool fans have every reason to be delighted. As their manager Brendan Rodgers suggests, Sahin is a “master technician, someone who will fit in smoothly to our playing model”. Indeed, Sahin is undoubtedly a fantastic player. His year-long struggle at Real Madrid has perhaps masked the fact that he was rated ahead of the likes of Shinji Kagawa and Mario Gotze in the Bundesliga’s all-conquering Borussia Dortmund team.
However, perhaps Rodgers and the Liverpool fans should hold fire on their excitement and adulation for their newest recruit. Indeed, despite Sahin’s obvious qualities, the player comes in off the back of a disappointing season in Spain, where he made only four appearances for Madrid due to a combination of injuries and selection issues. Additionally, Sahin’s relatively slight physique raises fears for the player’s ability to adapt to the rough and tumble of the Premier League in central midfield, particularly with Rodgers set to place him alongside the similarly slight Joe Allen. Could Liverpool’s midfield potentially become a touch lightweight?
More pertinently, the deal to bring in Sahin makes awful economic sense. Fans may cry “so what?”, but they must ask themselves exactly what happened for Arsenal, who by all accounts had the deal sewn up, to drop their interest in Sahin at the last minute?
The BBC reported that Sahin earns a staggering £115,000 a week at Real Madrid, the majority of which Liverpool have agreed to take on. That would immediately place him as one of the Reds’ highest earners. Additionally, Liverpool paid a loan fee of close to £5 million, a staggering amount considering that Sahin cost Real Madrid only £3.7 million more for a permanent transfer last summer.
Astonishingly, the loan lacks the option to make the deal permanent at the season’s end. While Madrid’s unwillingness to part with potentially a superb asset is understandable, Arsenal quite rightly, simply saw the deal for what it was: a potential short-term and definite long term no-win. Why invest such considerable resources on a player that after a season will simply be sent packing back to Madrid?
Sahin might help deliver success this season but what happens next year when the player who has become so crucial to the team’s success departs? Another transition season for Liverpool? Indeed, what if Sahin struggles to find his feet in the Premier League? What does that say about Brendan Rodgers then when close to £10 million would have gone to waste? For a single season loan, the cost of Sahin, a player who has struggled with injuries and is ultimately unproven in English football, is quite incredible.
Liverpool’s owners the Fenway Group have consistently spoken of the mess left by the previous regime under Tom Hicks and George Gillett, yet this deal appears to have all the brainless hallmarks of a decision taken by the disaster-prone former owners at Anfield.
Surely, the money would have better spent on a permanent transfer, one who would be fully committed to the club and one who Rodgers could build a team around long-term, such as Clint Dempsey for example? Dempsey may be older but at least in the American Rodgers would have a player who genuinely wants to be at Liverpool Football Club. Sahin, with his initial preference for Arsenal and unwillingness to discuss a future permanent deal, has never shown such signs.
For Real Madrid and Jose Mourinho, hats off to them for a quite remarkable piece of negotiation. The removal of Sahin and his cost from the squad has allowed them the space and funds to complete the transfer of Luka Modric. At the same time, Madrid are given the benefit of having Sahin play regular football in the Premier League and potentially regain his confidence as a top-level European player, ready to return to the Bernabeu and their plans next summer.
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And if we finishd top 4 and he gos back we can always get a better player so his worth it lfc fan in uk critisie the club tomuch
We are paying £5 for Nuri Sahin, thats it. I’m not sure about you guys, but if he gets us into the CL next year (which gives us roughly an extra £20 Million) Then isn’t that a great deal? He is also refusing to rule out a permanent deal as we have first refusal on the player. I’m quite surprised by this considering the ‘agreement’ between Spurs and Real and Spur’s obsession with LFC transfer targets in the past. Yeah…. cause’ thats not just a quick way for Real to get there hands on Modric!!!
Either way, i’m happy with Sahin, he looks intelligent and skillful from what i’ve seen. He could add the extra creativity we need to make the breakthrough in games. Even though I am delighted with the performance against City, I still think it was obvious we need that cutting edge. Two goals from set pieces would argue this point.
Just like to poit out, and I know i’m sure you are all quite intelligent enough to work it out, but I meant £5 million. Not a fiver. What a deal that would be ay 😉
Nuri Sahin is a tough character and wouldn’t have any trouble showing his fighting spirit in the “rough & tumble” of the English Prem league. It is all soured grapes stuff here. Yet again, I can’t fault Arsenal’s decision to pull out of the deal as we can’t afford to be Mourinho’s finishing school, taking on an unrated Madrid player who will become our highest earner. Not just on, at all. I wish Liverpool and Sahin well; but I am certain he isn’t going to make the difference to their season they hoped for.
Sahin’s signature was a a victory given the lack of finacial manouvrabiliy the club has. Besides reportedly there is a 14 million buy out option if he is willing to continue with us. It’s another thing if he signs a permanent deal then gets head hunted by bigger spenders as in the case of Mascherano who was loaned then bought for £2omillion only to leave for Barca. Now Sahin is a young player and need I remind you that LFC signed him because he is a proven talent not only in La Liga but the Bundesliga also. Furthermore Sahin produced the goods playing a bit part role out of position. This guy is a class act so BR cant fault your decision making there. Arsenal fans may paint a cautionary picture in their bitterness but the fact remains this is one capture where managerial commaraderie played a role. BR friends with Maurinho was preferred as well as the danger of Arsenal as direct opponents in the CL so cant begrudge old friends for being wary of potential rivals. Arsenals loss is LFC’s gain here its that simple.
iniesta + xavi = best midfielders in the world both very small in physique. my point if they are good enough they will cope! nuff said.
“combination of injuries and selection issues”
– injuries, anyone can get them…so that’s not really an issue.
– selection issues – he was playing for f’n Real Madrid, have you seen their midfield? One of which is Xabi Alonso, anyone’s going to have a hard time taking his place off him.
Don’t be slating the Liverpool owners on the strength of the numbers quoted in this article. Liverpool are paying the vast majority of Sahin’s £115,000 per week wages, which if as expected this is around the £90,000 per week mark, it represents the £5M that is talked about. There is very unlikely to be a £5M loan fee in addition to the wages. There may not be a clause to buy at the season end but this represents good business to bring in a quality player temporarily – we can’t change the whole team overnight like both Manc clubs can afford to do.
it doesnt matter as at the end we’ll trade him for xabi alonso who still hasnt and i believe wont sign a new contract at madrid. so theyll have a ready replacement and we’ll be happy with our legend back on a free
It seems as if I’ve caused a stir with this article.
Firstly, I didn’t intend to anger any Liverpool fans. I certainly wasn’t writing this article believing I was the voice of reason or that what I’m say was absolute fact.So apologies if that has come across to be the case.
Secondly, my affiliation or support of any club means nothing in the articles I write. Had Arsenal signed Sahin but without the option for a permanent deal I would have written the same article.
Thirdly, on my sources. My sources were the BBC’s original article and various other sites. By the time this article went up live on this site (a good few days after I wrote up), perhaps things had changed with regards to the details of the transfer that I was not aware of. Again, my apologies if that was the case.
This was not simply me pounding it out this morning and uploading it simply to spite fans of any club, this was simply my opinion on Sahin, who I believe is a fine player but perhaps not quite what Liverpool need at this moment in time.
I like this article, but a bit OTT on the figures!
I think he’ll be very good player for us and everytime we have a German influaence we start winning things…..
I still think we need a proven goal scorer, like Dempsey!
The Metro suggests that Liverpool are covering all his wages and paying a fee.
Virtually every other source says they are paying 75% of his wages.
With the exception of the metro report I have seen nothing to suggest any loan fee is being paid.
Therefore, the deal could be costing Liverpool anything between 3.5 and 10m depending on what you CHOOSE to believe.
I would suggest that you have no idea whatsoever how much the deal is anymore than I do and we won’t know until the accounts are issued.
For instance, last year it was widely reported that Liverpool had paid 20m each for Downing and Henderson but it turned out to be 19m and 16m. Still, what’s 5m between friends.
As one poster stated, Sahin’s physique is not a problem, paired with Allen it is not a disadvantage because these two kids can really play and Xavi and Iniesta are around the same sort of physique but that doesn’t detract from the level of their play. Note to the author, please think about what you are going to write before you write it, use your head to write, not your heart. So Arsenal didn’t sign Sahin, that doesn’t mean anything because they still have a really excellent squad despite what some of your fans might think. Wilshire to come back too, Arsenal have a lot to look forward to. As for my beloved Liverpool, I just have a feeling that Brendan Rodgers is playing down expectations but within the club he is shooting really high for this season. Sahin and Allen are the best centre midfield pairing we’ve had since Alonso and Mascherano. The only area we are really lacking in is an out and out goalscorer, but maybe Borini will start to fire or maybe Adam Morgan will break through along with Raheem Sterling. We have a lot to look forward to this season. I for one can’t wait for it to unfold and I hope BR is able to get a couple of players out and maybe one or two more in by midnight Friday.
Your argument about his physical slightness is not really relevant to Sahin or Allen as they are intelligent and technical players who know when they can take their time on the ball and know when to move it on first time. Also that 5 mil. includes his wage for the year.
What if Sahin has an excellent season and helps the club get back on track with a top 4 finish.. He heads back to Madrid and in return comes our old hero Xabi Alonso to see out his career and win a premiership medal with gerrard…. I had a dream this afternoon…
Nuri sahin is QUALITY. And if he does have a successful season, then we have a 14 million pound option to buy. If you think about it, it is a massive step up from the likes of downing and charlie (chad) adam. We as liverpool fans should focus on the likes of joe cole earning similar to what sahin is, who has so far contributed NOTHING to the team. Good luck sahin 4 YNWA!!!
I couldn’t agree with u more KOPKID. Heard we have agreed to buy klaas-jan huntelaar!!! You cannot get anymore prolific than that. I think he is up there with the likes of RVP and GOMEZ even if he is 29 yrs old for a reported 16 million that is a bargain. RVP went to the mancs for 24mill and he is the same age as huntelaar. Hope I didn’t ginx this X-X
Me think the Pool fans do protest too much. Shafted in the transfer market and now stiffed on loan. Next you’ll be saying Carroll & Downing will come good and prove their worth .. Jokers !!
So if he helps get us in the Champions league, this is still bad business. I don’t think so. It’s a big ask but some things you need to gamble on. He’s also said after the loan deal he will not rule out a permanent deal.
Dumb article.Sahin is here temporarily to act as backup for Lucas and as we saw against Man Citeh his arrival is most welcome. A good player that will take us to top four as Shelvey, Henderson, silva and Suso find their feet into the 1st team for the new season.And as Sahin himself said, he could stay if all goes well. He has no loyalty to Mourinho nor Madrid whom he barely played for but if LFC show him the true Anfield support we could seduce him if he performs well!