The Liverpool chief executive Rick Parry has spoken out
about the relatively new practice in the Premier League that sees clubs loaning
players out to fellow top-flight clubs.
According to Parry, this is a situation that leads to
problems, and a situation that isn’t actually necessary. Parry used to be the
Premier League Chief Executive before taking on his role at Anfield, and said
that when he was there it wasn’t felt there was a need for two competing clubs
to deal with each other in this way: “At the Premier League we thought that,
given the money there is, you didn’t need loans – you should be able to stand
on your own two feet. There is enough money around to make transfer deals
permanent.”
Players on loan can’t play against their own clubs when the
two sides meet, but last season saw some questionable “gentlemen’s agreements”
where players on loan had their deals made permanent, often outside the
transfer window, on condition that the same rule stood.
Parry, speaking to the BBC, said the old rule worked well: “That
stood over 10 years. It’s only in the last two or three years that we have had
the loan system in the Premier League. It worked fine without it. There is a
sense that it can be open to abuse but clearly it was the will of the clubs to
allow the relaxation of it and clearly the majority are in favour.”
Liverpool saw some benefit from the rule last season, with
goalkeeper Scott Carson spending the season on loan at Charlton.
Meanwhile one of Parry’s bosses, American co-owner Tom
Hicks, has been talking about the new stadium plans. The Sunday Mirror quotes
Hicks saying that the final revised plans for the new stadium will be presented
to the council in little over two weeks. They include provision to expand the
capacity of the ground to almost 80,000: “The city council’s planners will
receive the final plans on July 25. The initial capacity will be the 60,000
previously approved, but the design will accommodate an eventual capacity in
the high seventies.”
Liverpool vice-captain is reported in the Mail as being set
to retire from international football. Carragher is disappointed that despite earning
an excellent reputation as one of the world’s best centre-halves from his
performances for the Reds, he’s seen as a fringe player by England. Rather than
continue to go through the disruption of international trips, only to be left
on the bench, he’s going to concentrate on his domestic career.
The paper quotes ‘a source close to’ Carra as saying: “Jamie
does not want to sound like a big-time Charlie. He just feels that at this
stage of his career it would be better if he concentrated his efforts on
helping Liverpool become the No 1 team in England again.”
That in itself is music to the ears of Liverpool supporters,
who obviously would love nothing more than to see their hero get success for
his country, but at the same time hate to see him treated so shabbily. It seems
former Manchester United coach Steve McLaren, who picked United’s Wes Brown at
right-back and Spurs’ Ledley King at centre-back last time out, is not a fan of
Carra’s. The source went on: “He has always regarded it as a tremendous honour
to represent his country and he has happy memories of pulling on the shirt. But
things have to end sometime and he thinks this might be a good time to bow out.”
If Carra does call it a day, he’ll be leaving behind an
England set-up that has been in disarray for some time. A coach who seems to look in the papers to
help him choose his side isn’t likely to pick Carra for future games, and so Jamie
will gain more from staying behind at Melwood during the disruptive
international weeks.