Liverpool defender Andrea Dossena's proposed move to Napoli has been delayed due to the player's wage demands. The Reds have accepted a £4million offer for the Italy international, who failed to make an impact in his debut campaign in England. Napoli sporting director Pierpaolo Marino insists there will be further talks with the full-back, but his £2million-a-year salary at Anfield is a problem. Marino said: "Dossena? We have taken a break in order to reflect on this. The move is therefore on hold. "There are no immediate prospects. The president [Aurelio De Laurentiis] has spoken to [Rafa] Benitez, but there is some distance with the player."
By the looks of it, Alonso's transfer is inevitable now. I am hoping that we get a good £30 million from Real Madrid and spend it wisely. I was just looking at the Spurs Forum, and it made me realize how unwanted Pavlyuchenko would be, after Peter Crouch's signing. I always thought he was decent and if we get him for a low price, he could offer us another dimension in attack. In my opinion, he is way better than Benjani and as good as Carew, who gets first team football at Villa and I can't see him moving. But, most importantly, we need a decent replacement for Alonso. Sure, Gerrard can play alongside Mascherano, but I would prefer to keep the Gerrard-Torres partnership going up front. I would prefer someone like Javi Martinez or Jeremy Toulalan or Aquillani to replace Xabi Alonso to Cambiasso, who I feel is slightly overrated. Cambiasso is almost 30 too, and spending around £20 million on him wouldn't be the best idea, in my opinion.
Cambiasso is only 28 but imo isn't as good as Alonso. De Rossi from Roma might not be a bad shout but to be honest there's not many players out there that we can sign to replace him, it's very disappointing but I can't blame him considering Rafa wanted to sell him last summer.
I would expect us to step up our transfer activity now that Alonso is going I would expect one biggish name to have signed before the big kick-off against spurs.Plus another one before the end of the transfer window!
I pretty much feel the same. Not that I feel that Rafa has to always stick to the 4-2-3-1 that he likes. But I do feel that this formation has been key to our success in the Champions League. Other teams hate playing us, claiming we are the hardest team to play,... saying we don't allow teams to play. That's mainly due to the fact that we stuff the midfield with two midfielders behind the ball. But I feel that this formations is only successful (or at least most successful) when the midfield combination is a gritty, hard tackler (Mascherano) and skilled passer (Alonso). So I feel we definitely need a replacement for Alonso. Good shout to Pavlyuchenko. Didn't think about him and the fact that Spurs may be looking to off-load him with Crouch there (Defoe, Keane, & Bent as well.) Though Bent looks headed to Sunderland. And it's not like that are in Europe, so they shouldn't need such depth.
http://www.skysports.com/story/0,19528,11661_5465933,00.html I wish we could get De Rossi instead. I think Real Madrid tried this year though instead of Alonso and were told what they could do. Seems like a great, loyal player who will never leave his beloved Roma. Shame. No questioning Aquilani's obvious ability but injury record is abysmal.
Pavlyuchenko has the touch of a rapist. Better than Benjani - yes, but not Carew. Any of them good enough even as a backup? Not really. I'd accept Carew at a push as I do like him.
It's looking like Aquilani is a Liverpool player already,we are just waiting for the Alonso move to go ahead and it will be confirmed IMO Then we will bring in one more player before the end of the month.Either a striker or an attacking midfielder.This is if a Madrid player isn't involved in the Alonso transfer(coming to Liverpool).If he is,this will be the end of our transfer activity this summer,IMO. (EDIT)...this is if nobody else leaves of course.
BARCELONA - NO CASH TO SPLASH ON MASCH LIVERPOOL star Javier Mascherano’s hopes of joining European champions Barcelona ended yesterday. The Argentina international has been a summer target for Nou Camp chief Pep Guardiola, who last week completed a £40m move for Zlatan Ibrahimovich from Inter Milan. Mascherano, 25, is keen to follow Real Madrid-bound Xabi Alonso out of Anfield to Spain. But after landing Ibrahimovich, Barca boss Guardiola last night ruled out any more big-money signings. He said: “The market is open but very complicated. All the signings are very expensive and one of the options is that there won’t be any more reinforcements. We are rich but not as much as others. Everyone, for whatever player, is asking for a great deal of money. “That wise man Sir Alex Ferguson was definitely right when he said that this isn’t a year to sign.” He added: “What is certain is that we’re not going to bring in someone just for the sake of it.” The news will come as a major relief to Merseyside boss Rafa Benitez, who is desperate to keep Mascherano with Alonso on the verge of joining Cristiano Ronaldo in Madrid. http://www.dailystar.co.uk/football/view/91882/Barcelona-no-cash-to-splash-on-Masch/
Liverpool set to sign Alberto Aquilani Liverpool officials expect Xabi Alonso to complete a deal to Real Madrid within hours and Rafa Benitez has already found a replacement for the Basque player. Roma midfielder Alberto Aquilani is thought to have already agreed a deal with Reds, and now the two clubs need to agree on the transfer fee. Liverpool are waiting for Alonso deal to come through so they could focus on signing Aquilani. Rafa Benitez has finally come to terms with losing Xabi Alonso but he needs to sign a replacement as soon as possible as the season starts in two weeks. Latest reports from Italy suggest the Spaniard managed to convince Aquilani to join Liverpool, with the player agreeing to five-year deal worth €4 million per season. Roma are prepared to sell as they are in poor financial situation and the asking price is thought to be in the region of €20 million. 25-year-old Aquilani is the product of famous Roma youth academy and he’s been tipped as one of the hottest prospect in Italy. He has already made a handful of appearances for the senior national team but spent most of last season on sidelines and this will be an opportunity for a fresh start. http://www.soccerpie.com/premier_league/liverpool-set-to-sign-alberto-aquilani/ http://www.goal.com/en-india/news/2...a-ace-alberto-aquilani-agrees-liverpool-terms So if this is true if the player has already agreed a deal to join Liverpool then he will be a Liverpool player by next week i guess.
Good news that, Barca themselves contributed to the market with that daft transfer of Ibrahimovic. On Aquilani, fair enough to get him to replace Xabi, but I'd still like another midfielder in addition to him, because his injury record is so abysmal and if he were to break down again Lucas isn't good enough to command a long term first team place.
I find that Zlatan thing unbelievable. He is the most overated, sulky peice of crap I have ever seen. When I heard Inter were swapping him for Eto'o I thought - what a great deal for Inter....THEN...I heard it was like 40m + Eto'o. I couldn't believe it. Inter must be laughing all the way to the bank. How did they negotiate that?!
Don't give shit, the good thing is.... Barca are now skint, so Mascha is going nowhere, but yes! Inter must be laughing their arse off.
Sould be the other way round if anything 40m + ibra for eto'o Eto'o is top class The transfer of the year
To be fair to Barca, Eto'o was in the last year of his contract and wasn't signing a new one, so if Barcelona were to cash in, they wouldn't have got any more than 10-15 million. To me, Ibrahimovic is slightly better, overall, than Eto'o and even though the transfer seems way over the top, it is justified to an extent.
I thought he was Real's replacement if the Alonso deal fell through? Hes a great player, i remember him from last year, he only 21 and the captain. also.
I'd be quite surprised and disappointed if Lucas left, this is going to be a very big season for him.
