Squad for sale - years to recover Rafa's damage

[coop]

Its Goal.com but still worth posting.

 

Goal.com Special Report: Nearly entire Liverpool squad up for sale - Goal.com

 

Only Gerrard, Carragher, Torres, Reina & Agger 'untouchable'

 

22 Jul 2010 09:24:00

EXCLUSIVE

By Wayne Veysey | Chief correspondent

 

Only a handful of Liverpool players are safe from the axe as the first-team squad faces its biggest cull in the club’s history.

 

A combination of the club’s £351 million debts and the inadequacies of the team that new manager Roy Hodgson has inherited from predecessor Rafael Benitez means that Liverpool are willing to listen to offers for more than half of the squad.

 

Lucas Leiva, David Ngog, Sotirios Kyrgiakos, Damien Plessis, Charles Itandje, Diego Cavalieri, Phillip Degen and Nabil El Zhar are all up for sale while Hodgson has not yet made up his mind on Dirk Kuyt, Ryan Babel, Martin Skrtel and Maxi Rodriguez.

 

Liverpool are also willing to allow Glen Johnson and £17m flop Alberto Aquilani to leave, although switches are unlikely this summer as the club accept they will not receive the fees they paid for the pair 12 months ago. A more realistic timeframe is for Aquilani to go back to Italy in January when he has had a run of games for the first team.

 

The only players who are deemed untouchable are Steven Gerrard, Fernando Torres, Jamie Carragher, Jose Reina, Daniel Agger and Javier Mascherano, although the Argentinian has made it clear that he wants to move to Inter Milan and link up with former boss Benitez.

 

With Yossi Benayoun and Fabio Aurelio having already moved on and Emiliano Insua and Albert Riera set to join them, an astonishing 18 senior players who were at Anfield at the end of last season have left, are leaving or face the prospect of being surplus to requirements.

 

“Everybody apart from Gerrard, Carragher, Torres and a few others are up for sale,” a Liverpool source told Goal.com UK. “Agents have been told to find new homes for all the fringe players and it is fairly obvious that big names will go too if they get the right offers.”

 

The astonishing rate of turnover among the Academy players is set to continue as the club seek to rectify some of the mistakes made after Benitez took full control of youth team affairs last summer.

 

The source added: “It will take years to repair the damage that Rafael Benitez has done at Liverpool in one way or another. If you look at the amount of money he spent, it is an absolute fortune. Some of the agents' fees are frightening. Five years of mismanagement has now come to fruition.”

 

Hodgson was told when he took the Liverpool job earlier this month that he would have a transfer pot of £15m plus whatever he could generate from player sales.

 

However, so grave are the club’s financial problems that Anfield sources are concerned that cash generated will be used to pay off the huge debt leveraged on the club by owners George Gillett and Tom Hicks.

 

Liverpool’s parent company Kop Holdings is £351m in the red with annual interest repayments of £40m while the club itself has debts of £237m.

 

Since the end of last season Liverpool have brought in four new players – Danny Wilson for an initial £2m, Jonjo Shelvey for £1.7m and Joe Cole and Milan Jovanovic on free transfers. The five-times Champions League winners have recouped £6m on Benayoun and are set to bring in another £9.2m by off-loading Insua and Riera to Fiorentina and Olympiakos, respectively.

 

Behind the scenes, there is confusion about who is actually sanctioning the incomings and outgoings. Managing director Christian Purslow and chief scout Eduardo Macia, Benitez’s former right-hand man and fellow Spaniard, who held the title of sporting director at Valencia, are understood to be heavily involved in decision-making as well as transfer negotiations.

 

“If Roy Hodgson is the person buying the players I will have far more confidence,” said the source. “Also, will he be allowed to use the money by the Americans? If Roy Hodgson gets it, he will use it well.”

[PaulMcC]

What a load of bollocks, especially the bit about Benitez wrecking the Academy in 1 year.

 

It was in a far worse shape than before he got control. Same with the reserves.

[The Dude Abides]

Its Goal.com but still worth posting.

 

In an ironic kind of way?

 

You can never know these days.

[Dan Vito Corleone]

It makes some point, because Benitez made a lot of poor signings from 2007 onwards when it comes to the squad, but he was also hamstrung by the owners. I see there's little to no mention of that.

[Anubis]

Excellent read.

[Gary Mac Legend]

a Liverpool source told Goal.com UK

 

 

Oh ok then, prizes to anyone who guesses who it may be!

 

Seriously though, what the 'Liverpool source' has said is so inaccurate, it's astonishing. I understand the part about Aquilani however. Also, Javier Mascherano untouchable? hmm I don't think so.

[Irishlad]

Every new manager wants to clear out his predecessors' dead wood, and bring in his own men.

Rafa did it to Houllier's squad & someone else will do it to Roys.

[PaulMcC]

I'd be gutted if we let Johnson go.

 

With centre backs who have a bit of paces, he'd be even better.

 

He's brillaint going forward so there'll be gaps when he does go forward, it's somone else's job to cover for him.

[Unrighteous]

Goal.com could tell me that immersing yourself in water will make you wet, and I'd still have doubts.

[Red Phoenix]

There's no way I believe he's after selling Aqui, Maxi, or Johnson. I think it's someone who can't let go of the Rafa hating that's written that/told that writer it, and just gone so far to one extreme that it's ridiculous.

[Wor Horse]

Load of absolute shite.

[Anubis]

Does anyone really think a source at Liverpool spoke to Goal.com? It seems to me they've raided the internet forums for all the arguments going on, and just cobbled this together, with a slant against Benitez.

[Ezekiel 25:17]

Regardless of the source there's plenty of truth in that article, nothing we didn't already know really is it though.

[mattyq]

That's a bad article. Wonder who the 'source' is? That's the only interesting point.

Half way down i'm thinking this is some Cecil based spin but the bit at the end saying Cecil and Macia are the ones making all the decisions made me think it's someone from Roy's camp

[t1971]

Regardless of the source there's plenty of truth in that article, nothing we didn't already know really is it though.

 

And even more bullshit in it

[Delmar]

And the leaks, speculation and spin continue. How surprising. Wonder who is going to branded the "bad guy" this season...

[Thants]

Goal.com

By Wayne Veysey | Chief correspondent

 

Goal.com have a Chief correspondent? Hahahahahahahahaha

And Wayne Veysey is so made up. 3 e's and 3y's - totally made up.

 

 

RAFA DUN SUM BAD PLAYERS

 

EXCLUSIVE

 

By Andy Thantatatron | Chief correspondant, just before being called down for lunch by his Mum

[T0RRES]

Oh ok then, prizes to anyone who guesses who it may be!

 

Seriously though, what the 'Liverpool source' has said is so inaccurate, it's astonishing. I understand the part about Aquilani however. Also, Javier Mascherano untouchable? hmm I don't think so.

 

What kind of prizes do you have on offer here, the answer is Houllier, what did I win?

 

Also it may be "Rye Lawn" the assistant to the assistant groundsman the big grass!

[TheResonator]

Great article: years to recover from Rafa's damage and yet they're stating that the reason our players are being sold is to pay down the debt?

 

Stupidity of the highest order.

[Newport]

I'm so tired of reading all the bollocks about Rafa in the media and by other people connected to the club. He won us an FA Cup and a European cup. On top of that he was closer than anyone in the last 20 years bringing the league back to Anfield and still it's made out like he was the worst manager we've had in ages. Fuck right off and get some perspective on how this club has been ran like a fucking cornershop for far too many years falling further and further behind the other top clubs.

[Guest TK-421]

Heh, I like a bit of comedy on a Friday.

 

Thanks Coop.

[Barrington Womble]

Great article: years to recover from Rafa's damage and yet they're stating that the reason our players are being sold is to pay down the debt?

 

Stupidity of the highest order.

 

i thought they were actually trying to say the debt is down to rafa not the other cunts. and we have plenty of stupid fans who will lap that up.

[JohnnyH]

That's some article. Very much coming from one side.

[ATXRED]

I read that earlier and remember thinking "What a shit article."

 

That bit about the academy was particularly awful. Who wouldn't want to model their academy after Barcelona, and have it done by someone who was developed by that coaching philosophy? That's all anyone can talk about these days.

[Tom Tucker]

What a load of shite, the clubs financial problems are nothing to do with Rafa