The conundrum that is Ryan Babel

Submitted by russell wall on Wed, 2009-05-27 13:51 on http://www.anfieldred.co.uk/conundrum-ryan-babel/2803.

Sometimes it's easy to look at a quality player and be blinded by their upside regardless of the fact that they might not fit into your squad. If there was ever a played that fit this particular mold, it was Ryan Babel.

Coming from Ajax with a bright future ahead, I think I can speak for most Liverpool fans when I say that I was excited to see Babel join the squad. From day one I was amazed with his pace when he had the ball at this feet; however, I was also blown away with the number of times he lost the ball in a careless manner. It was at that point as I watched him lose possession of the ball time and time again that my view on one of Liverpool's brightest futures changed.

It's hard to pinpoint when exactly I started to feel this uncontrolled rage inside of me, but sometime early this season as I watched Babel come on late in games and play with a more-than-lax attitude that I realised he just wasn't cut from the same cloth as the rest of his Liverpool team-mates.

I'd liken him to that kid you used to play football with at the park who had all of the skills but none of the drive. Sure, he'd make your head spin on occasion as he dummied a defender and fired a rifle shot into the top corner of the goal, but for the most part his lack of drive outweighed his amazing skill.

Whilst I'd chalk up Babel's inability to find a role within the squad on his own attitude and drive, there's another side of me that blames Benitez for not placing him in a role and allowing him to blossom. For all of those who said he was the perfect cover for Torres, there was also a camp that said he was the left winger of the future. And to be honest, when you have two camps screaming out for two different things, you know the chances of him finding his niche were few and far between.

The news today that Benitez has given Babel's agent the go-ahead to talk to clubs about a possible move comes as no surprise. With time on the pitch dwindling and his anger for not getting time in the starting XI rising, it appears that we've got no choice but to cut the string and let him go on his way.

I doubt we'll get anything close to the £11.5m we paid for him back in 2007, but at this point I doubt it really matters. The one things I'd like to see Rafa do is make sure Babel doesn't move to another club within the league. There's been talk that Martin O'Neill and Villa have an interest in him. And while I'd be fine swapping Babel and funds for Barry, there's a part of me that's afraid we'd wake the sleeping giant if we let him move to another Premier League club.

I love to keep tabs on our former players when they leave the club, always hoping that they find their place in the world where they can be truly successful and happy. And while I'd like Babel to be happy, I'd rather him feel that joy in a league away from us. The thought of him exacting revenge on Liverpool and the rest of the league whilst playing with a chip on his shoulder is something I'd like to view from afar -- like say in La Liga or the Eredivisie!

As much as I'd love to keep a wonderful talent like Ryan Babel and watch him grow into a top class Premier League star, there's that part of me that knows he won't be doing that under our watch. It's time for someone else to take the reigns of this wild stallion and see if they can tame him. Rafa has done his best and should be commended for that.

It's time to take what we can from the signing of Ryan Babel and move on.

re: Ryan Babel

Submitted by squirrel32 (not verified) on Wed, 2009-05-27 17:20.
1. Tell me which young talent have we tabbed and evolved? Only Insua seems to be making it to the top.

2. Babel is a second striker by nature, you can notice this when he cuts always towards the inner half. How can you try to mould him into a left winger?

3. Send him to Arsenal or Villa and you will see what he turns out to be!

4. If we swap him with Villa for Barry, Villa will get new blood they can sell at a profit within two or three years. We will get a good professional which will have no value in two or three years time. That's bad managment.

5. We lack good coaching and managment. Such talent was not well managed, same goes for Pennant, Crouch. Pennant we spent around 7M and we sat him on the bench same as Crouch.

6. WE CANNOT KEEP CHANGING PLAYERS - NEW PLAYERS MAY NOT GEL IN WELL.

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