This sounds like an ordeal. You should always been deeply mistrustful of the word 'committee' when it appears in sports, especially if it is pronounced as 'commitTEE'.
Sporting committees often mean well but end up being overly bureaucratic and causing just as much problems as they solve.
That appears to certainly be the case at Liverpool, where their 'Transfer Committee' has signed just as many duds as quality players.
The six-man panel has been heavily scrutinised over the last few years but this morning we got an interesting insight into it works.
Former Liverpool boss Brendan Rodgers was on Goals On Sunday and in an interesting interview he talked about how the committee operated while also covering the disastrous signing of Mario Balotelli.
Rodgers gives us some great insights into how the club works but doesn't it seem a bit too complicated? There is nothing wrong with discussing transfers but having so many decision makers can't be good for clarity.
The ownership group have a way of working where they want to bring in young players and obviously see them develop. As a manager you will always be the figurehead of the club. There is a recruitment team in place that will look to bring in players.
He also gave a telling answer when asked if he could veto transfers.
It was a group decision. It was certainly not something that I would have the sole and the final say on.
And what's this about a list of players?
It is difficult because you want a player in, and you have this list of players but if the player you want isn't on that list, you have to take someone. You can't have a void. You can't have no players.
In a funny moment, host Ben Shepherd read back Brendan Rodgers' quote of 'I can categorically state that Mario Balotelli will not be joining', after which the Northern Irishman explained the move.
According to Rodgers, he initially thought Alexis Sanchez would join the club as part of the Luis Suarez deal before settling for... Balotelli and Rickie Lambert. That move probably would have saved his job.
All in all, the transfer committee sounds quite impractical and strange. So if the manager discovers a potential signing but he isn't on a prepared list, he can't sign him?
This piece from the Daily Mirror back in October outlined who sat on the six-man committee while Rodgers was in charge, with the American owners having a man involved in the decision making process as well as a scout and a performance analyst.
In a lot of big clubs the manager has the ultimate say in who comes in but with so many people voicing their opinions at Anfield, it is no surprise that oftentimes they have gotten it wrong.
