Latest Transfer News at Liverpool FC: 2
Posted by Akzoony in Liverpool, Premiership, Transfers | 24 June 2006
My second update on what’s been going around on the old t’interweb recently. It’s been a while since my last one but I don’t like to jump on every rumour that’s going on. I prefer to summarise what I’ve heard over the last month or so and let you guys let me know what you think.
I’m sure everyone has heard at least a dozen or so names each that we have been linked to over the last few months, many seemed just crazy, some we knew about already and some seem promising.
I think its safe to say that we have already done some good business this summer, with the confirmed signing of Craig Bellamy up front, and Mark Gonzales on the left wing (I’ve yet to read a report stating that he has finally had his application for EU citizenship confirmed, but it's definatly just a matter of time), we have added some much needed pace and imagination to the side. Gabriel Paletta has added some more support in the defence (even if he is one for the future) alongside Daniel Agger (admittedly he was signed back at Christmas).
Similarly I have yet to hear a confirmation of the promised deal with Fabio Aurelio (Brazilian Left back) but I’m not too surprised about this as even when we were being told about pre-contracts other clubs were circling. With the proposed departure of Djimi Traore (more later) however I wouldn’t be surprised if this one still went through.
We also have reportedly signed a deal with Jermaine Pennant as a possible option for the right wing. We have allegedly agreed very generous personal terms with him in order that he will wait in reserve in case we fail to bring in a more high profile target. A very promising idea after the Figo saga from last summer
The transfer of Daniel Alves looks nailed on. A very versatile right back, who can also play on the right wing. I don’t know what I think about this one and if anyone has any input for me I would be very interested to hear it.
Rafa has done very well and made Sevilla back down from insisting upon £13-15 million to just under £10 million (predominantly due to the fact that Daniel was so keen to join us), but this seems like a heck of a lot of money for a club so much in need of a new striker and right winger.
Rafa hasn’t let us down before, and this would be one of his biggest signings to date, so I’m inclined to trust him, but I’m really not sure what his thinking is here.
The other side of the transfer window has been quite lively at Liverpool already this summer as well. The last of Houlliers turkeys seem to be on their way as well as some heroes that unfortunately have had to make way.
Djibril Cisse was supposed to be leaving the club for a reported £8 million to Marseilles, but unfortunately due to another horrific injury (he broke his other leg this time, snapped the shin bone! The poor guy has the worst luck) it looks like that is on hold. The Marseilles Chairman has said today that he may be willing to take Cisse on a season long loan still (in a similar way to what we did with Gonzales last year) but today has been reported as stating this is only likely if he can be back up and running (pardon the pun) again by the end of October. Early reports from the medical team at Melwood stated he could be fully fit again by November so this is still a possibility.
Didi Hamann -the Kaiser- has been told that despite the 1 year extension to his contract he triggered earlier this year, he will be surplus to requirements this time around. He seems have got himself into a little bit of trouble by signing some sort of early agreement with Bolton, before pulling out at the last minute, and is now looking to end his career back in Germany. He has been a top signing for us since he arrived at the club, and I’m sure all Liverpool fans out there will join me in wishing him all the best!!
Djimi Traore has also been told he has to find himself a new club this summer. Manchester City (amongst other clubs) have been taking a look at him at he should find a new home easily with his hard tackling ability and Champions League experience.
Rumours still abound that Jan Kromkamp may be leaving us this summer, despite only joining in January and the imminent arrival of Daniel Alves leads me to believe that this could be true. He didn’t ever really get a chance to prove himself at Liverpool and I feel bad for him, yet it was a financially a fantastic (if heartless) move, as we couldn’t even get £800,000 for Josemi and we can definatly get a few million for Jan.
Finally Jerzy Dudek is likely to leave the club this summer with Scott Carson being his replacement as our number 2 between the posts. Again an Anfield hero, not just for his exploits in Istanbul will be leaving for a reported fee of £1 million and again we wish him all the best.
Dudek has had a nightmare recently, after returning home to find all of his football memorabilia (over 100 shirts, a collection of trophies and medals and other personal belongings) stolen. I am happy to report that today after a police raid his champions league Shirt and medal have now been returned, and his car was found a few days ago, but unfortunately much of his collection is still missing.
Finally I wanted to add something here about the Liverpool board. A lot of people have recently been slating them for lack of funding, or somehow not sharing Rafa’s ambition.
I have to admit I have never really been able to share this view. Yes we haven’t been able to buy the £20+million pound players but this tends to be because we have so many needs throughout the team. Clubs like Manchester United who have been able to buy the Wayne Rooney’s and Rio Ferdinand’s have tended to do very little else in these years.
This year alone with Gonzales, Alves, Agger and Bellamy the board have already coughed up over £20 million and with another 2 or 3 signing on the horizon I don’t think we can have too many complaints.
Reports of the spending habits of the top Premiership clubs this week have backed this up, as Liverpool seem to have spent more in the last 2 years than any Premiership club apart from Chelsea. I don’t have the figures to hand but I seem to remember we have spent around £50 million, whereas Manchester United (in 3rd place behind us) have spent just under £40million!!
Rafa is building a young and much more rounded squad, at Liverpool right now so soon we should be back in a place where we only need one or two players a year. This is when we will see the big names coming in!
YNWA
Comments
Well written article here Akzoony :]. A good and relaxed read indeed. It's nice to see an article that relates more sensibly to facts rather than loose rumours for a change. (Silly season can be a bit too much at times..)
Regarding Rafas future composition, I look upon this with great anticipation. Since his arrival, he's been forced to root out the misfits, as Houllier clearly didn't buy too wisely when given the chance. As you mentioned above, there have been a bunch of players going through the doors at Anfield and a couple more are yet to follow. It's becoming more and more clear that these changes were necessary for the team to rejoin the race for the title. What Rafa has accomplished with what (little) was given to him, in what little time he's had on his hands, only confirms the fact that one of the best managers in football today is in charge at LFC.
As stated, he wants to find the players that suit his style of football the best, and Alves, Gonzales, Aurelio and Bellamy will surely fit the bill, in my opinion. After all, a pacy and attacking side with good defensive qualities is a must these days. (The only team that doesn't quite understand this is Real, it seems. Think how good they would have been with Rafa behind the rudder :S. Luckily, the Great Spaniard is a man of respect and integrity, and doesn't jump ship for seemingly bigger treasures.)
All that remains for now are what the fans debated the most at the end of this season - a right winger and a striker. Like you, I'm also curious about Rafas plans for Alves.
His pricetag surely labels him as a first team regular, but in what position? As a right back, with the well-preforming Finnan reduced to a mere backup? - Or is he meant as a right wing, with the somewhat unstable Garcia as a good number two?
I guess only time will tell on this one. Little over a month ago, Guily was linked as a possible solution for the right winger at around £3 mill. Should this prove to be realistic, then I would gladly see him sign at the expense of Kromkamp. Alves would then be used as a right back, most likely.
As for the striker, Kuyt and Defoe are two possibilities named, but you never know who Rafa has his eye on. With funds running out, he might have to go for a cheaper option, but that doesn't stop him from pulling a rabbit out of his hat.
All in all, things are looking good for next season.
Your thoughts on this please! :]
Hi John, thankyou for your comments.
I'll be honest watching this world cup and keeping an eye on what a lot of other top flight managers have been upto this summer has only added to my feeling that we have one of the best managers in the world.
Just thinking about what he has achieved with someone else's players makes me quite excited to see what he can do with some of his own.
I came across another article on the web since writing this which gave me a new idea as to what Rafa is thinking about with regards to Alves. Another LFC fan was pointing out that they had been watching some footage of Alves recently and he is a lot stronger than a lot of European players and looks much more of a natural right winger than right back. With this in mind I can't help but think that Rafa may be attempting to hark back to his early days at Liverpool and make us play much more of a 4-5-1 formation (that actually flows much more like a 4-3-3) with pacey attacking wing backs and a lot of strength and speed through the middle! 2 years ago we didn't have the personnel to pull this off but with the new confirmed and proposed signings it looks a little more realistic.
I haven't really thought this one through yet but seems to me to be the best explanation for £10 million spent as that one signing could be the lynch pin for this whole new formation. The strength and width we have lacked down the right this year would be supplied, and we would be able to start Gerrard, Alonso and Sissoko in the same line-up.
Like you I was very excited about the idea of Guily but read a few comments he released to the press that showed he was less than keen on joining us. As we know there is no bigger turn off for Rafa so unfortunately I don't see this one happening. He's such an exciting player though -with such a burst of acceleration on him- that i also I would have loved to see him in a red shirt.
I'll be honest I’m quite keen on Kuyt and less so on Defoe, as you say there are rumours surrounding both, but personally I’m not convinced we'd get either. I'm fairly sure that Rafa is not overly keen on Defoe for the £12 million asking price (had the Cisse sale gone through he may have risked it but everything we've seen has shown that Rafa wont pay more than what he feels a player is worth).
I thought We could do something with Kuyt, but now Newcastle have joined in the fray i can see us losing out again to the 'bar-codes' for the second year running!
Doubtless Rafa as you say will have something else up his sleeve and it is early days at the moment (Kuyt for example has stated he wont look at anything until after the world cup) but just with the men we have brought in already, its starting to look like a very interesting season!!
What do you make of the possibility of us landing Sabrosa (at last). I have a link here to the story? Do you think he would be a useful addition to the squad now since we seem to have our sights set on other right midfielders or wingers?
http://www.newsnow.co.uk/cgi/NGoto/148424543?-11194
Little or none im afraid Samuel. The only way we would i think would be if the Alves deal doesn't go through and i suspect Rafa has set his heart on him now!
To be honest as good as he is, he could well be a bit of a risk as he could well struggle to get used to the Premiership. Hes not the strongest and could get pushed off the ball quite easily!
Obviously only Rafa knows for sure and he is clearly a fan but i guess we'll just have to watch this space!
im not a liverpool fan but if they are going to sell cisse then why dont they do a swap deal for frank ribery he is just as good and he is young
there were loads of rumours last year about joaquin. he's proved he a good player in the world cup and i have heard rafa is a keen admirer, do you think he is still a possible target??
rafa is almost certain to sign a new striker. apart from kuyt or defoe i havnt heard many other names that we have been rumoured with. do you know any other strikers we may be linked with??
I have Dave but am loathe to mention them as i don't think they will happen. names like David Villa spring to mind as well as some even more obscure such as Raul and Ronaldo, and plenty of others that i would have to look up again.
I think with Defoe and Kuyt you have to most likely two for now, which is to say we probably wont get them and will get someone none of us have ever heard of who will be great! good ol' Rafa!
im a Lfc fan tell me realy Rafa has not signed any serious striker to assist crouch while other clubs are signing what is he on? i would love to say that better he goes in 4 players like torres, vill, kuyt,en other Hit strikers
Hi James, thanks for your comments. I would argue that Crouch, Fowler and Bellamy will be a much more successful strike combination than anything we had last year.
Most of our goals last season came from Midfield, so with a few more from up front we should be a much potent threat next season.
Having said all that I agree it is painful not having a big named signing up-front yet. Watch this space however, remember there is still plenty of time left in the transfer window, and most big named targets have been off at the world cup and as such have not been able to negotiate any deals. I expect another 2 to 3 players to come in before next season so don’t worry!
I'm a life long kop fan, and in my opinion,i think the way raffa's mind is going, he's boxing the midfeild off,so it releases gerrard to do what he does best and that's to double up as a striker.So i think as for more strikers coming in,it looks bleak.If you look at the strikers we have already,it looks like he's going along the way of a heskey and owen role.Don't get me wrong another striker would be great cus at the end of the day you need four or more but it's not bad news if we don't,cus if we're all honest the heskey and owen role on paper works well,it's just a pitty that heskey couldn't put them away but we all know that crouch and fowler can.So i think we are in for a great season and there's more signing to come,it can only get better.COME ON YOU REDS! You'll never walk alone, unless you support another team, then you're on your own!
I agree Tony, on top of that i think that Bellemy will be a very interesting signing.
My only worry is with 3 strikers, if we have an injury we have a problem.
Also i worry if Fowler will last the season. I think he will be fantastic and as i've said before on this site i am his biggest fan; however i am not comfortable about relying on him as a season long staple!
Flo-Po, Mellor and Le Tallec wont stay and be a number 4 so one more please Rafa!
This is my first time here,i think i need permission first .
Of the latest transfer targets including PENNANT, KUYT and ALAVES the one that RAFA the GAFFER has set his sights on is PENNANT what a prospect of playing PENNANT and GONZALES on the wings youth and pace i like this idea of the RAFALUTION but you must say most of his signings have been well worth watching in a RED shirt ALONSO, SISSOKO, GARCIA and now BELLAMY, GONZALES, AURELIO, I gotta say i am releshing the start of the season COME ON YOU REDS.
i think liverpool should sign frank ribery from marseille and tevez from corinthians they would b great signings!!!
RAFALUTION is the best. I would like to congratulate him for a job well done.but I think he should try to get Torres.RAFA please try to keep the squad together and help the players understand that everybody cannot play in a game because it has to consist of just 11 players.
