Benayoun and Babel boost Liverpool spree
By Jason Burt
Published: 11 July 2007
Liverpool will today complete the double signing of Yossi Benayoun and Ryan Babel as they reshape their squad for the new season. It means that their manager Rafael Benitez, following the acquisition of Fernando Torres, will have spent £42m inside a week.
Both Benayoun and Babel were due on Merseyside for medicals after their clubs, West Ham and Ajax, agreed fees with Liverpool last night. Benayoun is expected to cost £5m * £1m less than West Ham hoped for * and Babel £10.8m.
Benitez yesterday recouped £7.5m with the sale of Craig Bellamy to West Ham which, added to the £6m for Djibril Cissé and £3.5m for Mark Gonzalez, will allow the Spaniard to balance the books a little on his transfer dealings.
However, his signings will come as a serious statement of intent from Liverpool, especially after they missed out on one of Benitez's original summer targets, Florent Malouda, who yesterday completed his move from Lyon to Chelsea after his asking price escalated.
Benayoun has agreed a four-year deal and will be paid £45,000 a week, slightly less than the £50,000 a week he was offered by West Ham at the end of last season. However, after shaking hands on a new contract at West Ham, where he had threatened to hand in a transfer request, the Israeli decided he wanted a buy-out clause inserted once he was made aware of Liverpool's interest.
The dispute led to an irreconcilable fallout with West Ham, especially as the midfielder then threatened never to play for the club again. It quickly became apparent that he would have to leave, with the London club initially offering to do a deal involving Bellamy moving to Upton Park.
Eventually that transfer was concluded separately, with the striker yesterday agreeing a five-year deal, through which he will earn £75,000 a week, after sorting out a contractual dispute with Liverpool over a bonus payment for reaching the European Cup final.
After signing for his new club, Bellamy claimed that he had been forced to consider his future at Liverpool because of Benitez's rotation policy. " I'll be turning 28 this season so I want to start playing football now," Bellamy said. "I think I played 10 or 11 full games last year. I want to try and improve on that and play every week."
In reality, Bellamy was told by Benitez that he had no future at Liverpool at the end of last season, even though he had arrived only last summer from Blackburn Rovers for £6m. Liverpool had hoped to receive more than £10m, but West Ham were the only serious bidders.
Liverpool had offered £2m and then £4m for Benayoun, who first came to Benitez's attention when he played for the Spanish club Racing Santander, before finally coming close to West Ham's valuation after protracted negotiations yesterday.
Babel's fee is more surprising. The Dutch international had held talks with Arsenal in January, but they had decided not to bid for the 20-year-old, with their manager, Arsène Wenger, believing he was not worth the price being demanded and fell some way short of commanding a place in his first team. But Babel, who starred in the Netherlands' triumphant Under-21 European Championship campaign and is a full international, is rich in promise and can play anywhere across the forward line, although Benitez has identified him as a left-winger.
Benayoun will compete with Jermaine Pennant for the role on the right of midfield but, like Babel, is also versatile enough to play in other positions.
http://sport.independent.co.uk/footb...cle2753324.ece
I'm sure Bascombe will give us the breakdown of the Babel fee tomorrow (probably based on achievments etc).
Who says Parry can't multi-task???
Do we need 1 more winger or is that enough?
