The Happy Rumour Mill (Takeover bids, transfer talks etc) Part 2

[PaulMcC]

except he's shit and lightweight, had one good game years ago and people still think he's boss?

 

Quaresma fans will love him.

 

There's a reason he's ended up at Newcastle.

[Pidge]

N'zogbia would be a quality signing imo.

[CWD82]

except he's shit and lightweight, had one good game years ago and people still think he's boss?

 

To be fair, he's at the same level as Aaron Lennon was a few years ago.

 

He has similar pace, similar ability and is similarly inconsistent with a billy big bollocks attitude.

 

Some of the learned posters on here were saying Lennon was shite had no end product etc. Now he's the best right winger in the league. Bale could be a similar example.

 

The Ben Arfa signing would have been a gamble that if it came off we would have a £25m player.

 

He's gone to Newcastle now so I hope it goes tits up for him and he bombs. Would have liked us to have a go for him, especially on loan

[danperkins]

Be delighted with Nzogbia

[PaulMcC]

Didn't he do a 'Mascherano' to Wigan?

[JermainePennant]

Ben Afra is class and better then any winger we have at the club, he has attitude problems but we should have took a risk as it is only a loan.

[Il Fenomeno]

Didn't he do a 'Mascherano' to Wigan?

 

Ben Arfa did a 'Mascherano' to Marseille aswell.

[StevieH]

Be delighted with Nzogbia

 

Me too. Wigan won't want to keep an unhappy player and Birmingham need an alternative now that the N'Zogbia deal has fallen through.

 

Offer Wigan £9m for N'Zogbia (or a lesser amount and offering Plessis and El Zhar as part of the deal) and sell Babel to Birmingham City.

[PaulMcC]

Me too. Wigan won't want to keep an unhappy player and Birmingham need an alternative now that the N'Zogbia deal has fallen through.

 

Offer Wigan £9m for N'Zogbia (or a lesser amount and offering Plessis and El Zhar as part of the deal) and sell Babel to Birmingham City.

 

If we broke even on that, it'd be a class deal.

 

We aren't actually after N'zogbia, though. Are we?

[Barrington Womble]

To be fair, he's at the same level as Aaron Lennon was a few years ago.

 

He has similar pace, similar ability and is similarly inconsistent with a billy big bollocks attitude.

 

Some of the learned posters on here were saying Lennon was shite had no end product etc. Now he's the best right winger in the league. Bale could be a similar example.

 

The Ben Arfa signing would have been a gamble that if it came off we would have a £25m player.

 

He's gone to Newcastle now so I hope it goes tits up for him and he bombs. Would have liked us to have a go for him, especially on loan

 

I wouldn't thank you for lennon either. ben arfa has some talent inside him somewhere but he's shown it about as often as bruno cheyrou did for us. i noticed on a thread somewhere the other day someone had put a bet on at 7500/1 for us to win all 4 competitions we are in this season. That would be a great gamble too if it came off, but it's not going to happen. i am not worried in the slightest that we have missed out on this player, in fact i am quite relieved.

[Guest PurpleNose]

Me too. Wigan won't want to keep an unhappy player and Birmingham need an alternative now that the N'Zogbia deal has fallen through.

 

Offer Wigan £9m for N'Zogbia (or a lesser amount and offering Plessis and El Zhar as part of the deal) and sell Babel to Birmingham City.

 

Think it might have to be £10m plus Plessis and El Zhar.

[Kobayashi Maru]

Not sure if its been posted, but Daniel Ayala has gone to Hull on a season Loan. Good move for the lad and should get him plenty of games to allow him to develop.

[Lee909]

Good move that

should have been done last year

[Pidge]

Hull City are lining up a move for Liverpool defender Daniel Ayala, skysports.com understands.

 

Ayala is currently well down the pecking order at Anfield and Reds boss Roy Hodgson is thought to be ready to send him out on loan.

 

The 19-year-old has made five first-team appearances since his arrival from Sevilla in 2007 and Liverpool are keen for him to get some first-team action under his belt.

 

Ayala is expected to sign a season-long loan deal at the Championship club as he searches for regular action this season.

 

Hull boss Nigel Pearson has moved for Ayala after losing Paul McShane to injury and he is hoping to tie up the move before the transfer window slams shut on Tuesday.

 

 

from the offal

 

Good stuff if it happens, good loan for him.

[ali]

Roy Hodgson shows forward thinking by signing Raul Meireles for £10.7m

By the hyper-inflated standards of football's age of excess, the £10.7 million Liverpool will pay FC Porto for Raúl Meireles is barely enough to cause a ripple in the transfer market. Its impact, though, could be seismic.

 

By Rory Smith

Published: 11:00PM BST 28 Aug 2010

 

Three months after Rafael Benítez was deposed from his Anfield throne, Roy Hodgson's template for Liverpool's renaissance is becoming apparent.

 

To assert that Meireles, a Portuguese international of considerable repute and, at 27, in the prime of his career, will be a success in the Premier League is to indulge in astrology, but his arrival does at least indicate that Hodgson has identified the weakness which ultimately cost Liverpool their status among Europe's elite and his predecessor his job.

 

What Liverpool have lacked in recent years – even when the midfield axis of Javier Mascherano and Xabi Alonso was at its destructive, creative best – is dynamism.

 

Moving Steven Gerrard into an advanced trequartista role behind Fernando Torres elicited the best from the England international, but came at the cost of robbing Liverpool of impetus from deep, of the thrust particularly vital in the frenetic world of the Premier League.

 

That is exactly what Meireles provides. First for Boavista, then for Porto and Portugal, his role has been to prompt attacks, not with the range of passing that makes Alonso such a rare gem, but with his relentless energy, his movement, his thrust. Whereas the Basque controlled space, Meireles fills it. If he can replicate the form which earned him the move, the Portuguese will bring an end to the sight of Liverpool lost in stasis.

 

It is too soon, of course, to suggest that a pairing of Meireles and Christian Poulsen, another new arrival, are suitable heirs for the players so long – and, judging by their new employers, rightly – proclaimed by the Kop as the best midfield in the world. As a duo, though, they possess the characteristics to thrive.

 

Whereas Mascherano is an attack dog of a midfield player, hunting down and ruthlessly eliminating his targets, Poulsen exists to guard, patrolling in front of the back four, positioning himself and picking off danger. The Dane will control Liverpool's shape, switch the angles of attack. He will play in the horizontal. Meireles adds a vertical element.

 

Despite the failed flirtation with 4-4-2 at Eastlands, Hodgson seems likely to employ his two most recent signings in the 4-2-3-1 with which the bulk of his squad are familiar. Gerrard will return to his role behind Torres, with the bustle of Dirk Kuyt or the finesse of Maxi Rodríguez on the right.

 

Joe Cole will, nominally, be stationed on the left, but it is an article of faith with Hodgson to allow his wide players a degree of fluidity. There will be no restrictions on the England player's freedom of movement, as there were in those days at Chelsea where he struggled to impose his authority on games. Liverpool's most naturally gifted technician ought not to be sacrificed.

 

Yet while the capture of Meireles – and Paul Konchesky, who arrived on Merseyside for a medical on Saturday ahead of a £3 million move – provide an answer to where Liverpool are heading on the pitch, they serve as a reminder that only questions remain off it.

 

Most poignant, as the transfer window draws to a close, is the inquiry as to why Hodgson's revolution did not begin to take shape until the final weekend of August. He was, after all, supposed to have £12 million to spend upon taking the job, plus whatever money is raised through sales, currently £16 million.

 

When Mascherano, who arrived in Barcelona on Saturday for his medical, signs for the Spanish champions, the total sum supposedly available to Hodgson should stand at £50 million. Yet the captures of Meireles and Konchesky take the club's outlay this summer to £24.2 million. As always at Liverpool, something does not add up.

 

Since Benítez decided to sell Robbie Keane back to Tottenham for £16 million in January 2009, Liverpool have recouped some £80 million in sales.

 

Mascherano's departure will take that figure to £102 million. The Spaniard and Hodgson between them have spent just £59.8 million, when Meireles and Konchesky are factored in, in the last 18 months.

 

At a club where both Tom Hicks, the co-owner, and Christian Purslow, the managing director, have asserted that the "player fund" is sacrosanct, in theory Hodgson should have £40 million burning a hole in his pocket. It is safe to assume he does not.

 

For all that Meireles represents a coup for Liverpool, a putsch is required before Hodgson's renaissance can truly take hold.

 

Roy Hodgson shows forward thinking by signing Raul Meireles for £10.7m - Telegraph

[piscinin]

I don't know why people keep harping on about 4231, we've pretty consistent played either 442 or 4411 every game so far. Just because Cole is in between the lines doesn't change that fact. 4231 is gone.

[Ian Sea]

I don't know why people keep harping on about 4231, we've pretty consistent played either 442 or 4411 every game so far. Just because Cole is in between the lines doesn't change that fact. 4231 is gone.

 

I agree, it's definitely been 4411 for the most part this season, especially when we're defending.

[llego]

I agree, it's definitely been 4411 for the most part this season, especially when we're defending.

 

I thought our 4-2-3-1 was usually characterized by 2 banks of 4 when defending?

[Seemann]

HODGSON TO KOP A SECOND COLE

Mereiles and Konchesky to seal moves

 

COLE: West Ham will sell for £10m

 

By Andy Dunn

Follow me on Twitter

 

 

ROY HODGSON will make a last-ditch attempt to take Carlton Cole to Anfield as he embarks on a late transfer window spending spree.

 

The Liverpool manager has already committed over half of the money generated by the sale of Javier Mascherano to the signings of Raul Meireles and Paul Konchesky.

 

 

And his sights have now turned to bringing in top-class striking reinforcements.

 

 

Peter Crouch had become his No 1 target but it is now clear that Tottenham boss Harry Redknapp will not part with the England striker.

 

 

Kenny Dalglish was despatched to watch PSV forward Ola Toivonen last weeked but there is a feeling that - at the Dutch club's asking price of £13million - the Swede is over-priced.

 

 

Toivonen is still on the club's radar but Hodgson will now focus on Cole, who has endured a tough start to his West Ham season.

 

 

Hodgson will offer cash plus a couple of players and might even be prepared to do a deal that would take Ryan Babel to Upton Park.

 

 

Midfielder Lucas is certainly one that would be available to become a makeweight in any deal.

 

 

West Ham have said Cole is not for sale but the News of the World understands they would take a fee of around £10million.

 

 

Hodgson could get that sort of money together as he has been given licence to spend the Mascherano fee - in excess of £20m - and a bit more.

 

 

But the Liverpool chief would prefer to offer West Ham a player-plus-cash deal for the 26-year-old striker. If that was accepted, Hodgson would have funds to add another player or two to his squad.

 

 

As well as a striker to provide much-needed assistance for Fernando Torres, Hodgson believes that he needs another midfielder - especially as they have now reached the demanding group stages of the Europa League.

 

 

That is why he did not countenance a possible sale of Dirk Kuyt, even though the Dutch player's agent had clearly been busy with his European contacts.

 

 

Liverpool were upset with former Kop boss Rafa Benitez for unsettling Kuyt.

 

 

The Spaniard's original Anfield contract - seen by the News of the World - included a specific clause, outlawing him from 'directly or indirectly' soliciting Liverppol players for a six-month period after his departure from the club.

 

 

 

 

KUYT: Unsettled by RafaAnfield sources suggest the clause remained even after he signed a new deal.

 

 

Kuyt could still yet leave Anfield. It will not be in this transfer window but Liverpool might be tempted to sell at the right price in January.

 

 

A bid in excess of £10m would certainly test their resolve to hold on to the Dutchman.

 

 

As Argentine midfielder Mascherano was completing the formalities of his move to Barcelona, Hodgson wasted no time in beginning his late outlay.

 

 

After enquiries about Real Madrd midfielder Mahamadou Diarra came to nothing, Hodgson turned to 27-year-old defensive midfielder Meireles, whose arrival from Porto should be rubber-stamped today - along with the £4m signing of Konchesky from Hodgson's former club Fulham.

 

Indeed, Liverpool have confirmed a fee has been agreed for Meireles with a routine medical set to be completed soon.

 

------

 

 

Would be ace if we could send Lucas to West Ham, get Cole and then another central midfielder.

 

Tha paper may not be the best, but what about Andy Dunn? Would you believe anything he wrote?

[Rex Banner]

Cole to me is a guy who has all the attributes to be a great player except his finishing.

If somehow he could become more clinical I think he could be very good but if he doesn't he's just another big donkey up top.

[shaunstrudwick]

i don't want Cole

 

would rather go for Huntelaar for a similar fee

[4YRstrong]

CC is decent player, he'd give us alot more than Huntelaar imo. We need someone like Cole at times, N'Gog is lightweight alot of the time and Cole could be a decent signing to come off the bench against your Blackburns and Boltons and hold the ball up etc.

[sir roger]

CC is decent player, he'd give us alot more than Huntelaar imo. We need someone like Cole at times, N'Gog is lightweight alot of the time and Cole could be a decent signing to come off the bench against your Blackburns and Boltons and hold the ball up etc.

 

I agree 4YR , while I quite like Huntelaar he would not fit in so well in and around Torres and don't think he would be much good on his own up front in the Prem.

 

Cole could play on his own if needed , could also form a decent partnership with Nando when required ( taking some of the physical stuff from the centre halves who can concentrate on kicking Torres at the moment ) & also adds a much needed presence on attacking & defensive dead ball situations.

[cole7]

Get him in and give him number 7 for obvious reasons

[Vivaldo]

N'zogbia would be a quality signing imo.

 

Agreed gave it to Mongo too.