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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.”

Would we have even tried to sign joe cole, if rafa was still here? Would joe cole have come to liverpool if rafa was still here?! Would we have got danny wilson if rafa was still here? the player rejected a contract when we offered it to him under rafa, all this talk of 5 million back then was bullshit.....he knew he wouldnt player much under benitez....so didnt want to take the risk of coming here to play in the reserves. Would we have got rid of degen so quick if rafa was here? or would rafa have kept trying to give him a game to proove he didnt make a bad signing in the first place? Would we have got rid of insua, who rafa over used becuase his other buy dossena was so shit. and thus meant he put to much pressure on the kid to perform and this resulted in his lack of confidence at times...not to mention how much of the opposition targetted him and tried to attack as much down his side as possible? he was a known weak link in liverpools defence last year, many teams after christmas identified this. would gerrard and torres stayed if rafa was still here? From the evidence we have, via ex-players talking, something wasnt right about rafa and the way he went about his business. yossi, pennant and arbeloa have all recently slated rafa and teh way he handled players. rafa had become too big for liverpool, his ego had out grown the club. his refusal to change and his stubborness, especially last year, fucked our club up....we lost 19 games last year. now we have a man, who hasnt come here shouting for demands and isnt moaning about the lack of money. he is also getting transfers done with very quickly and away from the media eye. yet he doesnt have full control over the trnasfer like rafa did?...... yet he is making bigger moves in a shorter time the benitez ever did? is it just possible, that rafa wasnt the right man for liverpool????..i bet many fans on here right now are calling me many names, but just think..... we knew many of the players supposidly roy is being "told to get rid of" by christian purslow are fucking shit and not good enough for liverpool. rafa fans used to put up with the shit he sent onto the pitch becuase they loved rafa and truly belived in him. i didnt if he kept his mouth shut 2 years ago, and didnt have a pathetic, embarassing rant at fergie.....we might have won the league. he didnt change much from houllier, same defensive boring football. watching liverpool at times under rafa was the lowest id got as a football fan.....let alone a liverpool fan. the fact we had 6-7 wingers at the club yet they all were fighting for one place.....left wing....as he never ever dropped dirk kuyt.........who is the only player in the world that can control a rolling ball on the floor......with his shin. what a joke that was. he over used lucas and insua....and has damaged their confidence, probably forever. roy is no fucking puppet and purslow isnt selling players from beneath him.....maybe he has fucking eyes.and can see what many liverpool fans do.....that most of the shit benitez brought into our club......were poor players. im so glad rafa has gone, we wouldnt never have won the league under him, stop dreaming guys, he was spreading a cancer inside our club and only the fans with their eyes open can see that. im glad roy is here and already getting rid of many of the players we all knew were shit. he has brough in joe cole and what a signing. roys arrival meant gerrard would stay and now torres will to. i just hope rafa takes kuyt with him to milan as dirk isnt good enough for liverpool, and deffo not in the prem........his first touch is about as good as titus bramble's roy hodgson has done more in 4 weeks than rafa did in the last two year....... sold some shit players and brought in a quality attacking player, yet many of you still dont get excited?! you will see a great attackign liverpool next year, have you on the edge of your seats again. have you waiting for kick off, abotu what might on fold....not knowing what will unfold, what minute we would make a change. who would come off and who would come on........fuckin hell we were predictable under rafa..... it wont be like that anymore....we have our liverpool back! im excited.

There seems to be some major panicking and knee-jerking going on at the moment because of player sales and I'm baffled by it. So, we have sold Benayoun and Insua so far. Benayoun was an average player who used to run down blind allys and didn't have the intelligence to know when to pass or shoot. He always chose the wrong choice. £6.5 mil for him will do thanks. Insua,yea, he was young, but he was also a fucking liability and shit at times. We're not in a position to hold on to youth players that could become good in the future, especially when a £5mil bid comes in for him. We are also set to sell Riera. He had a good three or four months, then was completely shit. Will not be missed. Around £4.5 -5 mil thanks. Kyrgiakos. He started off completely shit then settled down towards the end of the season. He done ok, but he's nothing special or worth crying about. £2.5 mil would be decent business. As for the replacements, we've already signed Jovanovic, so thats Riera covered. Plus, can play as a striker. Joe Cole is pretty certain by the looks of things, so thats an upgrade on Benayoun. We've been linked to that Wilson from Rangers who is meant to be shit hot, so he will be replacing Kyrgiakos. I am also sure we won't be starting the season with no left backs. Not to mention, we are heavily linked to that Loic Remy. Basically, people need to calm the fuck down. We have the replacements lined up and we'll be bringing in new, and better squad players in the coming weeks. We finished 7th last season, so it was obvious some of the shit has to leave first. I'm not complaining about the shit that has been shipped out so far.