Since the beginning of last week when we signed both Joe Cole and Danny Wilson within a day of each other, I had been anticipating a surge of more new signings to strengthen the squad, especially since Liverpool have already lost four first team players since the end of last season (not including the outbound Javier Mascherano).
My wishes haven’t come true obviously as it’s not that easy to sign players for fun in the short space of time (unless you’re Man City of course), but what is concerning me now is that we are losing too many first team players and today’s reports that Maxi Rodriguez is close to leaving Liverpool for Espanyol has left me feeling gutted to be honest.
One of the very few positives from last season was how well Maxi seemed to adapt to life in the Premiership and after a couple of understandably shaky starts he really did begin to blossom. He seemed to always be on the same wavelength as our more creative players like Gerrard and Aquilani, and I had been looking forward to seeing Joe Cole and Maxi Rodriguez on the same team sheet for Liverpool next season.
One thing that winds me up is the minority who for some reason believe Maxi isn’t a good player. One article on Maxi’s apparent transfer in the Daily Mail refers to him as a ‘midfield misfit’, and it’s this kind of journalism which takes away the credibility of some of the stories these publications produce. What makes Maxi Rodriguez a misfit? Were they watching the same games as the rest of us last season? In the second half of last year’s dreadful campaign, we actually showed decent consistency in our home league form, winning seven out of a sequence of eight. One of the reasons for this form was the intelligent play of Maxi Rodriguez, who for me really cemented his place in the squad as a first XI player.
After losing Aurelio, Benayoun and Riera, I was hoping to hear positive news about the players replacing them, yet instead we’re hearing of more departures in the shape of our two Argentine World Cup stars. With Mascherano it was a foregone conclusion that he wasn’t interested in being with us any more so I definitely won’t shed any tears for him, but this Maxi Rodriguez news has come as a real shock. I just don’t see the point in selling yet another one of our first team players this close to the start of the new season. When you consider that he’s an experienced Argentina international who started most of their World Cup games it makes it even more of a bizarre decision to allow him to leave. I don’t know what Roy’s thinking is behind this if it’s true but for him to be comfortable with losing a player of Maxi’s quality he really must have a big signing or two up his sleeve.
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Those who don’t rate Maxi should be delighted we are about to make our record signing of the season; a 31 year old pensioner, hot off the Villa bench, right back to play at left back. Who needs an Argentinian first teamer then? So we have two free Bosmans, Jonjo for 1.7, Wilson for 2 and now the massive outlay of 2.75 on Young! Torres urged Rafa to sign Maxi because at Athletico, Maxi provided the maximum number of assists to Torres. But what does Torres know about football????
those of us that don’t rate Maxi will be delighted if/when we pick up a quality winger to replace the pensioner that we plucked from the Atletico bench…
And Luke Young, fresh from the Villa bench and onto ours to replace Degen – works for me!
I sure hope Hodgson already has some big signings up his sleeve. Money from Masch is going to come in, and he’d better spend it before it goes to fund some other causes (like debt!). We don’t want to be stuck with players like Maxi or Masch leaving just before the end of the transfer window and no time for a replacement till Jan. We all know from previous seasons if things get really bad the season could be over before January ever rolls around.
Enormous mistake if we let Maxi go, I totally agree. Remember Stevie G’s comments last season about it being a pleasure to play with Maxi because of his quality and game intelligence also Torres spoke glowingly about his presence, these 2 do not throw out unwarranted praise and should be listened to when talking about quality players already at the club as we do not have that many anymore.
Why sell a starter (who in my opinion is a good player) when we are short of players in the squad? He performed well in the last couple of months last season so we should keep him 🙂
I too think Maxi should stay.
I’m not very immpresed with his preformances, I know he did well for the team but he is not the player whose presence could turn around the terrible season Liverpool had.
With the likes of Cole and Liverpool players injuring a lot it would be good to have him in the team, as I dont think Liverpool is getting Mata or Ashley Young this season.
So 9 outta 10 want maxi to stay…
Let’s keep him!
nice to see the daily mail give it it’s usual we hate Liverpool (and any North West teams bar Utd) campaign. Awful journalism. Until I hear Woy say something, I just ignore all this speculation.
@RedSteve, you appear to be the sole voice and are watching different Reds games. Maxi was a great signing given the condition of our balance sheet. he worked hard and played intelligently. in such a short period, he is already clicking with gerrard. i feel he played better on the right. we will need maxi as i don’t see any great signing from roy so far. milan & wilson don’t count as roy’s. i’ll hold my verdict on joe given his form last season.
RedSteve: Mate, you are obviously not watching closely. I also thought Maxi was very decent at the WC – he oozes class, and has better ball skill & control than the entire England side at the WC. And I thought he was pretty good for LFC last season. He has a footballing brain as well (can’t say the same for you?).
Roy says he is leaving all the selling & buying up to Pewslow. Maybe that is why we are after Young?
Maxi is the subject of cheap press scribes continuing in their attempts to splatter mud and excrement on LFC. Idiots buy these rags and intelligent people avoid them. Daily Mail, Sun etc they reek with class don’t they???? Put your money elsewhere. Maxi stays!
If it helps the club yesterday completely denied he is going anywhere and they are not interested in losing him.
and i’d agree with the article, thought he was an excellent addtion to the squad…and he was also a major part of the Argentinian world cup squad…getting plenty of time on the pitch in what was one of the best attacking sides of the tournament…the kind of player who adds value to the squad and hope he’ll be staying.
while i’m on a role commenting on this 🙂 can’t believe i let the comment go without a stab at the Daily Mail…this paper writes nothing but made up rubbish…there attempts at selling every Liverpool player they can and unsettling the side are a disgrace and this paper should be avoided by all reds…
this summer, Gerrard, Torres, Kuyt, Mascherano have all been definitely leaving accourding to this rag…with the exception on Masch they have been proven to be just making things up…to be fair Masch wanted out last summer…so no great journalism there…they are now looking at who else they can sell…
this paper is pretty much a joke..and you should laugh at everything they write!
All Roy needs to do is sell:
Mascherano £30m
Reira £4m – gone
Benayoun £6m – gone
Degen £1m
Insua £5m
Ngog £4m
£50m + 15m transfer kitty = 65m
Buy
Turan £15m
Crouch or Pavlychenko £10m
Milner £25m
Defour £8m
Figeroa – £5m
Wilson £2m – Got
Jovanavic – got
Cole – got
Total – £65m
A better squad more depth and options !! all these signings are possible !!
Milner – wants out
Defour – would move to us
Turan – has said he wants to join us
Crouch or Pavlychenko – Harry will offload strikers if he gets bellamy.
Figeroa – all but signed.
I cannot understand this either. He only arrived in January and was beginning to look the part. There was a time when we gave players time to settle (e.g. Pires, Henry, Ronaldo all took over TWO seasons to adapt).
And today, I hear we are linked with Petrov from Villa. WHAT???!!! I hope this is not true or we will be considered a joke. Am glad the Luke Young deal fell through too, he is pants.
I really think something needs to be done about the Daily Mail, every single article they write is negative and usually false, how can these people keep getting away with it, surely there are rules about printing false stories