Soon enough, the rest of the nation will wake up to Le Tallec's talents. Let's not forget who was named Player of the tournament in the World Youth Championships two years ago," says Chris Bascombe
In most cases, paying #12m for a teenager would be considered rank stupidity, over-indulgence or, at the very least, a gamble which even Chris Kirkland's dad would shy away from.
When Manchester United do it, it's a stroke of transfer genius.
According to everyone who they make listen, United have just signed the best teenager in the world. By God are we hearing about it.
I'm not doubting Ronaldo's abilities. Clearly he's a talented kid who may be on the threshold of greatness. It just strikes me as rather odd that no-one has given the same attention to Liverpool's equally stunning new teenage recruit.
It seems Gerard Houllier's mistake with Anthony Le Tallec was to buy him early rather than delay until everyone in Europe wanted him. Obviously, Liverpool should have waited until Le Tallec's value was #12m.
Soon enough, the rest of the nation will wake up to Le Tallec's talents. Let's not forget who was named Player of the tournament in the World Youth Championships two years ago.
No doubt both Gerard and Sir Alex watched those same youth championships in Argentina a few years back and noticed the same players.
Indeed, Liverpool had already signed Le Tallec by then and were strongly linked with Ronaldo themselves, but can't afford to splash out like United.
Time will tell who's got the better deal, but for value for money I know who I'm backing. It's a bit like Houllier and Ferguson have both dined at the same top class restaurant and had their pick of the best main courses on the menu.
Houllier has managed to get his dish at a quarter of the cost Ferguson has paid, and yet it's his rival who is getting all the praise.
Indeed, I'm getting an eerie sense of deja vu when it comes to theman dubbed TLT who's about to explode onto the Premiership. I remember how slow our London based number one writers were to realise who Steven Gerrard was a few years back.
The Kop Magazine I once wrote even launched a campaign to get him in the England squad, so little attention was he receiving. Then, when the rest of the country noticed a year later, they decided to make him their own property.
It was a similar story with Wayne Rooney at Everton. A friend of mine who works on a national newspaper tried to get a feature on Rooney into his paper in the summer of 2002. They were having none of it. How times changed three months later when "Rooney Opens Crisp Packet" stories were making the front page.
Le Tallec won't get the same attention as Rooney, Gerrard or Michael Owen because he ain't English. But the few glimpses I've had of him remind me so much of the first time I saw Gerrard.
So young, yet so full of class. So clearly ready to play at the highest level and begin the learning curve which will take him to the top of the game.
One of the most encouraging, but sadly overlooked parts of Sunday was Le Tallec's being named a sub. Pity he didn't get on, although Houllier said he was prepared to play the youngster if the circumstances of the game had been different.
The career paths of Le Tallec and Ronaldo are sure to cross regularly over the next decade. Should the French gem prove himself the better player, you never know, maybe the manager who signed him will get a bit of credit.
http://www.liverpoolfc.com/news/latest-news/why-le-tallec-will-be-our-ronaldo
Comedy gold that.
Le Tallec and Ronaldo
posted on 30/5/13
I think Bebe is one of our worst ever signings.. at least with Veron and Berbatov we got some quality playing time out of them...
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Veron had his moments and you made a bit of cash back on him, Berb definitely had his moments - quality player, wrong club for him unfortunately. In terms of big money I still think Anderson may be the worst.
Bebe is in a different league to those. In a league with Kleberson and Djemba-Djemba. A nice reminder that no matter how good you are, you can always balls the occasional thing up!
posted on 30/5/13
Just had a look at this Fifa youth championship to see who previous winners of the player of the tournament were.
First off, Le Tallec never won it. Suntans Pongolle did. Some of the players to have win it have disappeared into nothingness
89 - Wil, Scotland
91 - Lamptey, Ghana
93 - Addo, Ghana
95 - Kathiri, Oman
97 - Santhamaria, Spain
99 - Donovan, US
01 - Pongolle, France
03 - Fabregas. Spain
05 - Anderson, Brazil
07 - Kroos, Getmany
09 - Emmanuel, Nigeria
11 - Gonzalez, Mexico
Who are these people ( except for the 01-07s)
posted on 30/5/13
* Sinama Pongolle
posted on 30/5/13
Julian Faubert on loan to Real Madrid is my favourite transfer of all time.
posted on 30/5/13
Sterling I tend to think of transfer fees in this way...
Money you paid for the player...
Divided by number of seasons he played for you...
Take away the transfer fee you receive at the end.
Then look at the level of performances during those seasons, Bebe actually made one or two appearances but barely worth classing as a season of playing for us....
Anderson on the other hand has had several seasons for us where he has given some good performances (some not so good as well)
According to wiki it was £20 million and I think we would get at least a 1/3 of that back... call it £8 million. For £2 million a season I don't think he would be that bad...
Whereas Bebe looks likely to be £6 million for one season with us of contributing nowhere near what Anderson contributed...
posted on 30/5/13
I don't fault the players at all but every now and again there is a Bogarde or Salif Diao who win the wages and contract lottery who just won't go away.
If you were them you'd do the same but they're the gift that keeps hurting for years.
posted on 30/5/13
Meh. Attitude gets you further in football than talent.
Probably the main reason that Scottish football is so bad just now. Loads of greatly talented players that just got involved with partying and the sorts. Leading to them being released/not progressing.
posted on 30/5/13
Bloody hell I forgot about Diao. We didn't half sign some utter dross under Houlier and Benitez at times.
posted on 31/5/13
Diao
He really was one of those that just wouldn't go away. We loaned him out for about three years before he finally went to Stoke.
posted on 31/5/13
That article is funny 10 years later but at the time was reasonable.
Le Tallec (and Pongolle) were very highly rated. Ronaldo was too, but nobody could reasonably tell that Ronaldo was going to be one of the best ever while Le Tallec was going to be an average French league player.
I bet Ronaldo is better than Fergie thought he would ever be.
That's football.
It wasn't delusion from Bascombe, it was a reasonable prediction at the time, but sometimes reasonable predictions turn out to look silly.
If someone has said in 2000 that Chelsea won't win the league for another 50 years it would have looked reasonable after already going 50 years and flattering to deceive for 4 or 5. Thirteen years and three titles and a ton of other cups later and it looks ridiculous.
Football is unpredictable, for clubs and individual players.
I bet Le Tallec did have as much talent as Ronaldo at 17. The difference was that one wanted to make the most of it and be the best he could possibly be, and one didn't.
It's not talent that gets players like Ronaldo to the top. It's talent plus a brilliant mentality to work hard.