Today’s round up of the Liverpool gossip mill including Michael Owen, Garcia exit, 3rd for Europe and City take on red reject.
Owen move dead
Rumours have been persisting for some time on a potential return to Liverpool of Michael Owen. A release clause of only £9 million – a good Premiership scoring record, and the Liverpool board are apparently keen on the idea. However, Mr Benitez is not a fan. Owen departed shortly after Benitez arrived, failing to believe in the aspirations the new manager had set for Liverpool. It seems Rafa is a man not to be crossed, and despite the relatively low transfer fee it looks likely that Liverpool will leave Owen to participate in Sam Allardyce’s unique brand of football.
Love you long time, Luis
Little Luis Garcia could be the makeweight in the Fernando Torres move if rumours are to be believed. The release clause is now believed to be £27 million, and a swop for Garcia and roughly £20 million is the kind of deal under discussion on LFC forums. Too much? I would be interested in your thoughts.
Certainly Luis has been a good little buy for the reds, playing an important role in our European campaigns. However, in the Premiership I personally feel he lacks the guile to be a regular starter, and I have always preferred him in the home games only.
Another conflicting report suggested that ‘no way’ would Atletico sell Torres.
In football language, that means ‘let’s get this deal done – just give us an extra couple of quid.’
Reds ranked third – now we just need to qualify
As discussed in the forum a number of weeks ago, the news has today filtered out to the rest of the planet that Liverpool are ranked third for the Champions League. AC Milan are seeded first, with Barcelona second. Both Chelsea and United are also in the group of top seeds, which has an impact when the draw for the group stages are carried out. The reds still have the two legged qualifying tie to get through which will take place early in the season.
Danny does Bolton
Liverpool squad member Danny Guthrie has moved to Bolton on loan for a season. The 20 year old reds midfielder is part of the first team squad but has seen his opportunities limited to League Cup appearances and 3 Premiership substitute appearances. Hopefully the midfielder will gain vital Premiership experience and maybe break through as one of our next home grown talents. With Liverpool’s strength in the middle of the park, you have to wonder if he will ever return. We wish Danny the best of luck next season.
Football 365 – problems with numbers
The big story from Football 365 today was a real thriller…
‘Reds set to spend £45 million in Spain’. How exciting… But hang on – this ‘story’ was that Liverpool are interested in Fernando Torres (£24-£27 million they say) and Diego Forlan (£15 million they say). If anybody has a spare calculator to send them I’m sure they would be thrilled.
Manchester City in Thai tie-up… 😉
Thaksin Shinawatra (87 points in Scrabble) is set to purchase Manchester City. The former Thai PM came close to securing a 30% stake in Liverpool in May 2004 for £66 million with the promise of injecting £50 million in to players until corruption charges against him scuppered the deal. By paying an extra £15 million he can buy the entire club down the M62. Sven is lined up to take the reins. It is unclear if Thaksin intends to bring a bit of Bangkok in to the Manchester City dressing room, but Sven won’t mind.
It is likely that at the moment news from
Liverpool can confirm everything except for
the coming of big names…
liverpool need to br quick and buy some world class players before they all go to the other big boys we will just end up missing out to them and sell the flops
Real Madrid will get Tevez
Barcelona will get Thiery Henry
But Liverpool which is without
the premier trophy for almost two
decades will get Benayoun…?
You will never win the title
if you don’t have really big
signings!
Pre season rumours!here we go again needing a twenty goal a season striker.We had Owen (20+ a year remember 2001!),Cisse(19 goals),Morientes( top scorer for Valencia this year),Anelka(top scorer for Bolton,(GOD)Fowler,all goalscorers. This year we had Crouch( scores 18 in 28 odd starts)Bellamy(6),Fowler(4) and Kuyt(12), all scored loads goals at previous clubs,and cost £££££millions, problem at Liverpool is too much rotation, and not enough attacking midfielders in the box to help strikers, only Gerrard.Chelski keep playing Drogba (30+) this year, get continuity.Crouch scores a hat-trick one week then gets dropped, then when Bellamy and Kuyt( small players) up front we play with wide men, no chance in the air!!!Doesnt matter if we buy Torres, Tevez,Villa or any other top striker in Europe, if Rafa keeps rotating too often why waste millions on someone who will only get 10 goals, might as well get Billy Sharp from scunthorpe for peanuts!!!Rafa get away from being too defensive in the Premiership and attack teams, that`s alright in LA LIGA, not in the ENGLISH game, we want the TITLE.
If Rafa failed to sign Kaka or Tevez or Eto’o,
any of his signings will not deserve to be
labelled as ‘big’ at all. Liverpool is too
slow. Even though you have money, it doesn’t
mean you will get big names into your club.
I myself never think that Torres’s signing
will be better than Tevez. Tactically, Tevez
is better than Michael Essein of Chelsea.
Rafa should seriously look to sign
Tevez seriously. Without some big names,
your dream to win the premiership title
is empty.
owen, dont wont him any were near the club and thats it……….
Rafa is an excellent manager. Liverpool spent
less money than Chelsea and Man United, which
is obviously the reason why Liverpool never
climbed up to go first in the premier title.
You may win all other teams except the two
because their teams have best players in
every position. Tactics alone is not enough;
you need to have players with best quality in
every position. Why not trying to sign either
Kaka, Ronaldinyo,or Tevez. I think the three,
particularly Tevez has all the qualities to
co-play with Gerrard and makes midfield position
even more dangerous.
As a Thai, I don’t think that Thaksin will be able
to buy the club. It has been proved that he did many
corruptions while serving as the premier. His assets
have been frozen, and he will be finally caught by police
when the investigations in Thailand are finished. I think
he lacks the suitable quality of an owner of a club
of the Premiership.
I can’t believe they want to spend so much money on such a useless player like Forlan,please you can do much better.I would welcome the arrival of Torres,it would be a pleasure
Satha you cant say that they send the ball high and wide because look at the goals gerrard, riise and alonso have, alot of them the keeper has had no chance of even getting a finger on it.
theres no proof owen didnt believe in rafa because he was linked with a move to madrid before he had even taken over and if rafa didnt want him then why has he tried to resign him in the past.
We should focus on fernando torres. he is a young and capable striker. We should offer more for his talent. he could offer liverpool a very good attack. I must also admit the i like michael. i m his greatest fan. In fact, he is my number 1 player. Michael is getting a little old now and wasn’t like what he was when he was young. I think liverpool should buy torres. I am sorry if i offended anyone. I really like michael too. you all most remeber he is 28 this year.
I think that RAFA has a well structured long term plan . From day one he never said give me 1 or 2 or 3 years and i will win the premiership title which as our godfather of anfield once said ( Shankly ) the title is our bread and butter . We have kept our core the like of riena , carra , stevie , alonso are all here and will stay for a long time . Before we buy RAFA has to trim the squad in my opinion to make the room not just for this season but long term . He needs to let go and sell the likes of Kewell , Bellamy , Momo , Sami , Gonzalez ( maybe ) , Cisse ( for good ) , and any player he does not see being there for the next 3 years . Only then when the sqaud is trimmed cam we build the team and challenge the rest for the title . In europe we can play day in day out but the title is long term and consistency counts . We need Torres , Mancini is good and can provide crosses , Carson should stay and remember our youth policy both ocal and the kids rafa has bought will challenge in the next season or two . I love Owen but can he prove to be one of the deadliest strikers as before his pace has gone a bit but he still can finish . Kuyt is great as he hussles and can play just behind the main striker . Forget forlan lets get Torres even at £27M he will be a good signing as long as he gets the service he needs but Garcia could be sacrificed . Veronin i think will surprise alot of people given the chance he can play in Rafa’s system and that is why we got him . I am mainly interested in what the new final stadium plans look like and what the future will look like for our historical glorious KOP .
IMO, Owen for £9million is a good bargain but Rafa knows the cost of bringing him back to Anfield. Would you like to spend £9M on a player who’s going to seat on an operation table more than running on the pitch? And we all know Rafa employ lone striker in his formation, Owen will struggle to perform. Then where should he put Owen? Left or right wing? Torres should be a good addition to the squad but his price tag is somewhat ridiculous.
YNWA
The major problem with Liverpool is not getting Toress or Owen.
The major problem is the inability of Liverpool players to strike the ball with POWER & PRECISION.
For example, in the CL final against AC Milan (as in many other matches), what did Gerrard, Pennant and Alonso do? Instead of striking the ball at goal, they PUSHED the ball with the inside of their right foot!
Then we have Risse, Gerrard, and others who, even if they strike the ball, they send it high or wide off the mark.
I wonder what they do in training! If these basic skills are not mastered no new forward can help Liverpool because the new ones also might learn in training to PUSH the ball towards the opposition goalkeepr!
I must admit, I’ve always been a Michael Owen fan (well, until he held us to ransom)and departed for ‘Champions league glory’. But give the lad a break, he made an error signing for that poor team in Spain and obviously missed out on that special (once in a lifetime) night in Istanbul! He must be privatly gutted at what he coud`ve achieved had he stayed and sampled the glory with his mates Stevie and Carra.
However, I do believe its time Rafa, buried the hatchet and brought him home as I think he would jump at the chance of returning to his `home`, and at a cheap £9 million pounds, far better than the likes of that Manc reject Forlan!!! THINK ABOUT IT RAFA!!