A small update on the Liverpool transfer front: As I said earlier this month, a number of players have been let go including Teixeira, Toure, Enrique, McLaughlin, Vigouroux, Rossitter, Sinclair, O'Hanlon, Williams, Polgar and Cleary. Soon they will be followed by Alberto, Bogdan, Jones, Ilori, Benteke, Balotelli, Allen, Canos, Skrtel, Yesil, Dunn all permanently while Ward, Allan, Awoniyi, Ibe, Kent and perhaps Brannagan and Smith on loan. Markovic want guarantees of regular first team football and LFC will not give him that guarantee. He will play lots of pre-season friendlies to be in the shop window.
Joe Allen has attracted interest from Swansea, Bournemouth, Leicester, Celtic, Sevilla, Lille and Southampton. Swansea could have bought him for 10 million pounds before the Euros started but their dick of a Chairman tried to be clever, and it has blown up in his face, and now Liverpool want 15 million for Allen, though they will accept 12.
Yesil is expected to sign for Trabzonspor, Skrtel has Fenerbahce, Besiktas, Galatasary, Roma and Inter interested in him, Canos will join Brisol City, Ibe is wanted by Watford, West Brom and Bournemouth, Allan has clubs in Netherlands, France, Portugal and Belgium interested in taking him on loan while LFC await his work permit requirements to be met, Awoniyi has 2nd division clubs in Netherlands and Germany interested in him on loan. Ilori has interest from Spain and Portugal, but Porto, Benfica and Sporting cannot sign him unless for a significant fee until 2018. So they are out of the picture unless LFC release the player. Luis Alberto has interest from Deportivo and Espanyol, while Lazar Markovic has interest from Turkey, Portugal and Italy.
Benteke is on the lest of targets for West Ham, Crystal Palace, West Brom, Juventus and Chelsea but he is not the first choice for any of these clubs. I would not be surprised if Swansea showed an interest too. Liverpool are asking 25 million for the player.
Balotelli's situation is frustrating and Liverpool have once again been screwed over by an Italian player who flops and the Italian clubs who take advantage of this situation. Milan, Crotone and Lazio want to have the player, but on loan with LFC paying his wages, as they look to rip LFC off again (see Aqualani). LFC have no interest in being taken for a ride by these Italians and will rather pay off the contract of Balotelli than let him go on loan. And this is what will happen if they cannot find a buyer for him towards the end of the transfer window.
While there is interest in Firmino from Man City, Coutinho from PSG and Barca, I expect LFC to keep hold of them.
Liverpool's targets are now well defined. Karius, Matip, Grujic and Mane are done, and a left back (Chilwell now their only target; Robertson was never a target and he is in the papers as LFC try to put pressure on Leicester to sell) and Zielinski expected to compete the transfer ins (Dahoud will be staying at Mochengladbach as they don't want to sell this summer).
I expect the squad to be something like this after the window is closed: Karius, Mignolet, Clyne, Flanagan, Gomez, Lovren, Sakho, Matip, Chilwell, Moreno, Lucas, Henderson, Stewart, Can, Zielinski, Grujic, Milner, Coutinho, Lallana, Ojo, Mane, Frimino, Ings, Origi and Sturridge with Brannagan, Awoniyi, Ibe, Allan, Ward and Kent out on loan.
There is nothing comical about the 34 million pounds LFC paid Southampton for Sadio Mane. It is the fee S'oton would have accepted and the fee LFC were prepared to pay to land the player. The new TV deal means that players all over the PL and coming into the PL will be overpriced. This is the norm these days and the transfer fee will continue to increase exponentially every year until the European breakaway league happens in the future. To put it into perspective, Arsenal paid 35m for a defensive midfielder, Leicester are going to bid close to 30m for Troy Deeney, Crystal Palace bid 32 million for Batshuayi, West Ham have bid 35 million for Lacazette, Man Utd have got Baily for in excess of 30 million, Shaw for 32m recently, Lukaku is going for closer to 55 million etc. The transfer fee a club pays for a player is not reflective of the ability of the player, but the money that is required to make the player part company with his previous club.
As for Aquilani, now that was a comical deal. Benitez, after pushing Alonso out of Liverpool (to bring in Gareth fucking Barry because he was Gerrard's best mate) turned to the injured and injury prone Aquilani for over 20m back in 2009. Aquilani was never quality, but a little turd who didn't turn up for training, complained that the training was too "hard" and physical for him, feigned injury to get out of training and eventually LFC had to pay fucking Fiorentina to buy the little prick from LFC. Imagine that, paying a player to leave the club, after Milan and Juventus (both of who could have bought him for 4m Euros but refused after his loans there).
I have sympathy for Carroll, Downing, Benteke, Keane for things not working out but I have no sympathy and only apathy towards utter morons like Aquilani and Balotelli.
What you have said about aquilani is Benitez version of the story....he didn't fit into Milan (where they finally settled on Montolivo) & Juve ( who were still in a flux then) doesn't mean he was not good...he seems to have done reasonably well at Fiorentina and Liverpool need that kind of player who can great something
What I have said is the correct version of the story, not the Benitez version. The fact of the matter is, Milan, Juventus, Fiorentina could all have signed him for almost nothing but chose not to because he was injury prone, and not as good as he thought he was, and because he was a wimp. In the end, Liverpool had to pay off his contract to let him join Fiorentina because they were not ready to take the risk of spending even 4m Euros on him.
The person I know who gave me this information was working for Liverpool in their medical team then, and told me of the alarming number of excuses he came up with. Today, we see Daniel Sturridge being hounded for not being confident to play if he is not 100%, take that and multiply that with a 1000 and you get the general idea of what sort of player and person he was.
Going for that sort of a player in the first place was part of the reason why Liverpool took a nose-dive down the league, and Liverpool certainly don't need a player like him by any stretch of the imagination anywhere near their squad. He couldn't handle the PL and that is the truth.
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Joe Allen has attracted interest from Swansea, Bournemouth, Leicester, Celtic, Sevilla, Lille and Southampton. Swansea could have bought him for 10 million pounds before the Euros started but their dick of a Chairman tried to be clever, and it has blown up in his face, and now Liverpool want 15 million for Allen, though they will accept 12.
Yesil is expected to sign for Trabzonspor, Skrtel has Fenerbahce, Besiktas, Galatasary, Roma and Inter interested in him, Canos will join Brisol City, Ibe is wanted by Watford, West Brom and Bournemouth, Allan has clubs in Netherlands, France, Portugal and Belgium interested in taking him on loan while LFC await his work permit requirements to be met, Awoniyi has 2nd division clubs in Netherlands and Germany interested in him on loan. Ilori has interest from Spain and Portugal, but Porto, Benfica and Sporting cannot sign him unless for a significant fee until 2018. So they are out of the picture unless LFC release the player. Luis Alberto has interest from Deportivo and Espanyol, while Lazar Markovic has interest from Turkey, Portugal and Italy.
Benteke is on the lest of targets for West Ham, Crystal Palace, West Brom, Juventus and Chelsea but he is not the first choice for any of these clubs. I would not be surprised if Swansea showed an interest too. Liverpool are asking 25 million for the player.
Balotelli's situation is frustrating and Liverpool have once again been screwed over by an Italian player who flops and the Italian clubs who take advantage of this situation. Milan, Crotone and Lazio want to have the player, but on loan with LFC paying his wages, as they look to rip LFC off again (see Aqualani). LFC have no interest in being taken for a ride by these Italians and will rather pay off the contract of Balotelli than let him go on loan. And this is what will happen if they cannot find a buyer for him towards the end of the transfer window.
While there is interest in Firmino from Man City, Coutinho from PSG and Barca, I expect LFC to keep hold of them.
Liverpool's targets are now well defined. Karius, Matip, Grujic and Mane are done, and a left back (Chilwell now their only target; Robertson was never a target and he is in the papers as LFC try to put pressure on Leicester to sell) and Zielinski expected to compete the transfer ins (Dahoud will be staying at Mochengladbach as they don't want to sell this summer).
I expect the squad to be something like this after the window is closed: Karius, Mignolet, Clyne, Flanagan, Gomez, Lovren, Sakho, Matip, Chilwell, Moreno, Lucas, Henderson, Stewart, Can, Zielinski, Grujic, Milner, Coutinho, Lallana, Ojo, Mane, Frimino, Ings, Origi and Sturridge with Brannagan, Awoniyi, Ibe, Allan, Ward and Kent out on loan.
As for Aquilani, now that was a comical deal. Benitez, after pushing Alonso out of Liverpool (to bring in Gareth fucking Barry because he was Gerrard's best mate) turned to the injured and injury prone Aquilani for over 20m back in 2009. Aquilani was never quality, but a little turd who didn't turn up for training, complained that the training was too "hard" and physical for him, feigned injury to get out of training and eventually LFC had to pay fucking Fiorentina to buy the little prick from LFC. Imagine that, paying a player to leave the club, after Milan and Juventus (both of who could have bought him for 4m Euros but refused after his loans there).
I have sympathy for Carroll, Downing, Benteke, Keane for things not working out but I have no sympathy and only apathy towards utter morons like Aquilani and Balotelli.
The person I know who gave me this information was working for Liverpool in their medical team then, and told me of the alarming number of excuses he came up with. Today, we see Daniel Sturridge being hounded for not being confident to play if he is not 100%, take that and multiply that with a 1000 and you get the general idea of what sort of player and person he was.
Going for that sort of a player in the first place was part of the reason why Liverpool took a nose-dive down the league, and Liverpool certainly don't need a player like him by any stretch of the imagination anywhere near their squad. He couldn't handle the PL and that is the truth.