January Transfer window 2012

[George Costanza]

I hope we don't panic buy like we did last January

[Iantn]

I hope we don't panic buy like we did last January

 

Suppose we have hugely longer knowing the problem than last year which should help.

[Funkasy]

I would expect the next club that buys Tevez would demand he fired his agent. i would if i owned a club.

[mike23]

Tevez would probably be great for a year or so then find some reason to want to leave and we wouldn't be able to afford to just freeze him out like City.

[Megadrive Man]

Jordon Ibe a done deal according to various sources.

 

Sounds like he won't join until the summer though.

[Joso]

No denying it. If we got him we'd be crushing teams for fun.

 

I live in fear he'll end up somewhere like Spurs but can't see it. He'll be off to Italy or something.

 

This happened to me in my FM save just after not being able to sign him because of his exuberant wages, he goes and fucks off to spurs. Now City keeps offering my Ade every day for free.

[Glock21]

A cheeky bid for Chamakh from Arsenal. I reckon given the chance he could score goals for us.

[The Tott]

A cheeky bid for Chamakh from Arsenal. I reckon given the chance he could score goals for us.

 

Jesus. Id rather hope we had a buy back clause on Ngog than buy that clown.

[Glock21]

Jesus. Id rather hope we had a buy back clause on Ngog than buy that clown.

 

Why is that you called him clown?

[The Tott]

Why is that you called him clown?

 

Hes garbage.

[Glock21]

Hes garbage.

 

 

Garbage, Clown.....

[JohnnyH]

Chamakh is a woeful footballer, thus why Arsenal are trying to chuck him. So why would we want him?

[Gym Beglin]

Interesting defensive player list. Can´t recall seeing Medel play. Leroy Fer is great talent though. I heard we´re linked with Fernando Reges of Porto as well who´d be a great addition to our squad. I wonder how Nigel de Jong is doing on the bench at city? Could he be an option? January comes closer and closer.......

 

Medel played at centre back for Chile in the last World Cup and was class, that's how good he is, just gets on with it. Hard as nails.

[Trucker Paddy]

A cheeky bid for Chamakh from Arsenal. I reckon given the chance he could score goals for us.

 

Cheeky as in Arsenal would be laughing all the way to the bank, he's terrible

[silverlining]

Garbage, Clown.....

 

Fuck off Glock, you cunt

[beejay]

Jordon Ibe a done deal according to various sources.

 

Sounds like he won't join until the summer though.

 

Looks like you may be right there

 

Jordan Ibe signs for Liverpool from Wycombe | Mail Online

[Megadrive Man]

The American lad Juan Agudelo who's on trial with us seems to be enjoying life here according to his twitter.

 

@juanagudelo17

Juan Agudelo

#anfield was nutts loudest stadium ever. Everything so closee. #YNWA song was wicked.

 

juanagudelo17 Juan Agudelo

Was just out and about with some lads, Liverpool's got some fit birds, neva reckended this at tall mate.

[Major Tom]

The American lad Juan Agudelo who's on trial with us seems to be enjoying life here according to his twitter.

 

@juanagudelo17

Juan Agudelo

#anfield was nutts loudest stadium ever. Everything so closee. #YNWA song was wicked.

 

juanagudelo17 Juan Agudelo

Was just out and about with some lads, Liverpool's got some fit birds, neva reckended this at tall mate.

 

I hope he plays football a lot better than he spells.

[Randy Marsh]

That Ibe sounds like a bit of a coup by the club. Just done a bit of background googleing and it seems City, the mancs, Arsenal, Chelsea and Spurs were all in for him and have been sniffing around him for months. Great to see how much the reserve/academy set up has improved in recent years since Rafa brought the Barca fellers in.

[Whelan]

That Ibe sounds like a bit of a coup by the club. Just done a bit of background googleing and it seems City, the mancs, Arsenal, Chelsea and Spurs were all in for him and have been sniffing around him for months. Great to see how much the reserve/academy set up has improved in recent years since Rafa brought the Barca fellers in.

 

Until he is in our team, he is filed under 'Wayne Harrison'!

 

That cynicism should ensure he makes it, and I don't get excited.

[Frankenhooker]

The Echo have said that no deal for Ibe has been done, but that we are hoping to tie up a deal.

[llego]

My gut instinct is against players like Poldi, but he has undeniable scoring talent...

 

'Prinz' Lukas Podolski reigns at Köln, but for how much longer? | Raphael Honigstein | Football | guardian.co.uk

 

'Prinz' Lukas Podolski reigns at Köln, but for how much longer?

 

The 26-year-old Germany striker was the star against Freiburg and his form suggests that he may now fulfil his huge potential after a few seasons in the wilderness

podolski

The Köln striker Lukas Podolski will be in demand when his contract reaches its final season next year. Photograph: Patrik Stollarz/AFP/Getty Images

 

Köln were rampant on Saturday, shooting down the bottom club SC Freiburg as if their coach, Marcus Sorg, had set up a particularly easy tin can alley in the Weihnachtsmarkt.

 

Christian Clemens and Lukas Podolski scored a brace each in a 4-0 win that lifted the Goats to 10th place in the table, close to the kind of place where dreams of Europe are legitimately being dreamt. And yet, "the sweat of fear" was on the brows of Köln officials, as Kicker magazine put it. Things are almost too good for comfort right now. Or perhaps one should be more precise: Lukas Podolski is.

 

The 26-year-old was the star of the show in the heaving RheinEnergie stadium, not just the best man on the pitch but on all pitches this past weekend. "He's playing the best football of his life," wrote Süddeutsche Zeitung, not unreasonably, and cited 13 goals in 14 Bundesliga starts, plus five assists. It's already his best season in the top flight and it's frightening to think where Köln would be without him: only eight out of 26 goals were scored without his direct involvement. The flip-side to his increased importance are new levels of anxiety, however. Podolski is out of contract in the summer of 2013. In days past, Köln were secure in the knowledge that the striker loved his home-town so much that a second move to another club was almost inconceivable; "Prinz Poldi" (Bild), was the assumption, could only function at one particular club in one particular city. A Köln version of Francesco Totti, if you will, with slightly less talent and self-awareness.

 

But things have changed. The Germany manager Joachim Löw ominously spoke of a "maturing process" recently and paved the way for plenty of speculation. Podolski himself has been deliberately ambivalent. The romantic notion of playing for your favourite team seems to be giving way to more pragmatic notions about the next, big contract and a need to play international club football.

 

The Köln sporting director Volke Finke certainly knows what time is. "We won't go into next season without extending his contract first, under no circumstances," said the 63-year-old. Köln can't afford to let their most valuable asset leave for free. Podolski, however, refuses to be pressurised. "Maybe they'll have to play in the reserves or put me in the stands then," he replied, a cheeky grin on his face. He's calling the shots right now.

 

And his agent Kon Schramm's phone has been ringing. Schalke 04 sporting director Horst Heldt openly admitted contact, dressing up his interest as a patriotic endeavour. "He has offers from 15 clubs, including from England and Turkey and so on," said Heldt. "But before he goes to Galatasary or somewhere else, everyone concerned should check whether he can be kept in the Bundesliga."

 

"Scheisse 04," the Köln fans chanted in reply to these advances. "Lukas Podolski can play in much better teams than Schalke," sneered Köln's Norwegian coach Stale Solbakken. But the topic won't go away in a hurry, even if Dortmund, the German champions, are reluctant to trade in the flat hierarchy of Jürgen Klopp's collective state for a monarchy ruled by the House of Poldi. "Lukas is an extraordinary player," said Klopp after the 1-1 draw with Kaiserslautern on Sunday, before twisting the knife. "But he is hyped up so much that it's hard for him to perform regularly. With his potential, he should be one of the Bundesliga's best strikers, if not the best – but he isn't. He can't perform often enough. Once every few weeks makes it too expensive for us."

 

"That's lovely from Mr Klopp," Podolski shot back. "Maybe he is sad because I've turned them down twice already. But I guess he's right. Now that they've finished last [in their group] in the Champions League, I'm really too expensive for them." The Borussia CEO Hans-Joachim Watzke, intriguingly, called Schramm to apologise on the behalf of his manager on Monday. "Poldi is a class act, that's also the view of Jürgen Klopp," Watzke said, explaining that the coach had been a little emotional after the disappointing Lautern result.

 

Klopp was nevertheless right in the sense that Podolski has never quite managed to live up to his tabloid billing; on the contrary his career seemed to owe more to a very fortunate timing than anything else. "The mercy of a late birth" was a controversial term popularised by former Chancellor Helmut Kohl in the 1980s, in relation to those Germans who were too young to become complicit in the crimes of the Nazis. Podolski, less controversially, simply enjoyed the mercy of an even later birth. Born in the Upper Silesian town of Gliwice, Poland, in 1985, the son of a football professional (Waldemar Podolski) and a handball player (Krystyna Podolska) was allowed to emigrate to West Germany as a two-year-old due to his father's German ethnicity. Less than two decades later, his date of birth was a decisive factor in his ascent to national hero, too. "Poldi", as the teenage striker from the city of Cologne became to be known, was one of only a handful of young players coming through just in time for Jürgen Klinsmann's 2006 World Cup revolution.

 

Podolski and Bayern's Bastian Schweinsteiger, who was incongruously seen as his soul-mate once, did deliver on the pitch, to be sure. But both were also able to take advantage of a distinct gap between the generations. There was simply no competition after the established thirtysomethings group of Michael Ballack and before the Müllers and Ozils, still hopeful adolescents at the time.

 

Poldi fitted the bill. He soon moved to the golden cage of Bayern Munich, were he spent most of time in suspended animation, on or off the pitch. He'd moan about his successive coaches not believing enough in him and reminisce about Cologne with the heart-felt sorrow of a slave who'd been upended and forced into exile. Only jaunts with the national team provided relief from the pain. Stationed out wide left, the quick and trigger-happy Podolski was the perfect player for Löw's "transition play" tactics. In his mind, he was a free-roaming shadow striker but Germany made his pitch smaller and gave him less space to get lost. "The touchline helps him with his sense of direction," one Germany staff member explained.

 

But there were still issues, there always were. "Capitano" Ballack got irate with his lack of running in a World Cup qualifier against Wales (April 2009) and got slapped down in response. Literally. When Löw refused to punish Podolski against the insubordination, it hastened the process of disenchantment between manager and captain.

 

Poldi, meanwhile, went back to Köln for €10m (£8.5m) and was hailed as the messiah. A measly return of three goals in the 2009-10 season was not enough to damage his popularity. "The team is not good enough for me," became the new narrative. Things picked up a little bit in 2010-11, when Podolski scored 13 goals but this season's Podolski looks – the occasional lapse into self-deluded laziness on the pitch apart – a very different beast. So Klopp is both right and wrong. The hype is still a problem but much less so. Despite his considerable wage demands, he's much less of a gamble than five years ago, when Bayern's bratwurst magnate Uli Hoeness bought into the sizzle but mostly got the wrong kind of brownish sausage in return.

 

On Tuesday night, his side are taking on Mainz 05 in a match that was rescheduled after the referee Babak Rafati tried to take his own life. Irrespective of the outcome, the main question will be the same. Where will he go? The fraught relationship between Köln and Schalke makes a move to the Royal Blues politically difficult. Bremen can't afford him, Dortmund apparently don't want to. "Abroad" looks the most likely destination but only after the Euros, where Podolski (95 caps) will try his hardest to add to his international following. No wonder that Löw is talking up the emancipation of his Prinz. Köln's anxiety is his joy.

[neopulian]

The American lad Juan Agudelo who's on trial with us seems to be enjoying life here according to his twitter.

 

@juanagudelo17

Juan Agudelo

#anfield was nutts loudest stadium ever. Everything so closee. #YNWA song was wicked.

 

juanagudelo17 Juan Agudelo

Was just out and about with some lads, Liverpool's got some fit birds, neva reckended this at tall mate.

 

Americans don't say "fit birds" when we can say "hot chyks"

[18-5]

Did not read the above article about Podolski but the rumour is that he is off to Schalke.

 

One of Huntelaar, Farfaan and Raul to leave. Will be interesting to see.

[llego]

Americans don't say "fit birds" when we can say "hot chyks"

 

Youre right, he seems to be trying his hardest to pretend hes british.