Wednesday 16 January 2013

Liverpool's mix of youth and experience best of any team in the Premier League ... - Telegraph.co.uk

"It's not a policy which is set in stone but it's an aspiration. If we feel there's a particular position or player who can contribute to the group and is over that sort of age limit, it doesn't mean we won't consider that player.

"You need to have a mix in your squad and we have probably got the best balance in terms of any team in the league."

Ayre stressed the difference between spending a fortune to buy a player in his late 20s, or prolonging the deals of those experienced stars already at the club.

"As everyone saw in the summer we renewed deals with many of our senior player. So experience is vital and we will consider more experienced players where it makes sense," he said.

"But where a player is younger and talented with the right level of ability, we will always go for the younger option because it's a better long term investment for the club to have someone who will be here a long time."

Ayre's comments underline how Liverpool are still recovering from their difficulties in the summer transfer window, when it was clear manager Brendan Rodgers' desire to sign Clint Dempsey, then of Fulham, was not shared by his hierarchy who balanced the relative costs against the player's age.

Since then, there has been an ongoing debate about how the merits of this deal were quantified.

"The issue then came down to a particular deal and a particular price or structure to that deal. It wasn't right to do it," said Ayre.

"Likewise the interest in certain other players wasn't right. Sometimes you have to be stronger for the greater good.

"People may feel they want to criticise the fact we didn't have an additional striker. But at what price would you sacrifice spending for something that is not in the long term interests of the club versus what we just did, which was getting a great price on a great player in Daniel Sturridge?

"If we had spent that money in the summer then we wouldn't have done that trade recently.

"It may have left us short, but the pieces just did not come together. We've come through that period now. I still feel it was the right decision."

On the subject of Van Persie, Ayre argued United are currently in a stronger position to dismiss age as a key factor in transfer dealings.

"If you look at the United team they have a very established group and have added a very experienced player to that," Ayre added.

"What we are doing is that we are building something. But if the right more senior player became available and was the right person to contribute - and the manager made that point strongly - we would definitely consider it."

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