Serbian forward Milan Jovanovic spoke to the official Liverpool website about his excitement at playing at Anfield. Jovanovic, a recent free transfer from Belgian side Standard Liege, told liverpoolfc.tv:
“I can’t wait to play at Anfield and hear ‘You’ll Never Walk Alone’ – the best song in the world. I also can’t wait to play with players like Torres, Gerrard, Kuyt, Mascherano and Reina – some of the best players in the world.”
How many of those players Jovanovic will be playing alongside next season remains to be seen, but one thing that is certain is that the new Liverpool number 10 could be vital to the Reds during the first few weeks of the season. Liverpool’s attack is looking a bit thin on the ground at the moment, and Jovanovic will provide a timely boost to Roy Hodgson’s offensive options.
The squad obviously needed some new faces after the disaster that was last season, and Jovanovic brings a number of positive attributes. Firstly, he is versatile. During the World Cup, he mainly played on the left side for Serbia, but he also has plenty of experience operating as a striker. This means that when Fernando Torres recovers from his injury, Jovanovic will not simply be relegated to the bench, and should get plenty of game time to show what he can do.
He also gives Liverpool a more experienced striking option. Whilst David Ngog looks to be a good prospect for the future, last season was his first sustained run of regular first team football, and he still needs time to develop before he can be considered first choice. Jovanovic had a decent goalscoring record in Belgium, and should provide an able deputy to Torres up front when required.
Jovanovic showed his effectiveness for Serbia during the World Cup, and looks like he could have a great impact on Liverpool’s season, and with no transfer fee to justify, there will be less pressure on him. For all the money that will be spent by Premier League this summer, it is not often a club can bring in an experienced, versatile international on a free transfer, and if Jovanovic can adapt quickly, he might just prove to be the bargain of the season.
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sell reira insua, that will be enough to get in a better left back,
sell mascherano- yes i have had enough, we need to know asap if he wamts to stay or go, if he wants out, then thats life – move on and so we can have as little as unrest as possible.
sell the greedy prick of a argie to the higest bidder and get around 35 mill, end off.
buy eva banega turan and mata.
sell degen, itandge, darby, el zhar and plessies and any other dead beat that would help with money coming in.
GET CROUCH WITH THE 12 MILL KITTY THAT THE CON MEN HAVE GIVEN ROY
get joe cole on a free, we should have been all over this player ever since we knew he was on his way out!
NEW LIVERPOOL
REINA
JOHNSON CARRAGHER AGGER D.PRANJIC
J.COLE GERRARD BANEGA TURAN
TORRES CROUCH.
he looked ok in the world cup hope it turns out well for us and samual we do not want the bean pole back at the club as he moaned he wanted a move goes the same with other players who else moaned dont want at the club ever again
samuel charles shouting at people again and presenting his fantasy football team. Please not that he has now changed his left-back according to todays rumours.
IF Mascherano wants out and wants to be disloyal and disrespectful to the club, the new manager and the fans, he should be sold as clearly his heart is not in it and there is no need keeping hold of him.
Liverpool should sell him for no less than £35 million, with that 35million we could bring in 3 midfielders who will make the centre midfield solid, hard to break down and also very creative and a match for teams.
Bring back Momo Sissoko From Juventus
for £10-£12M DM
Bring in M Flamini Of A.C. Milan
For £10-£12M
Bring in E Banega from Valencia
for £10-£11M
Liverpool should Sell mascherano for no less than £35 and bring in the 3 players above on the cheap as soon as possible:
M Sissoko, M Flamini, S Gerrard, A Aquilani, E Banega that would be great to have them players in our squad, Hodgson will be spoilt for choice and talent.
And we should start playing with 3 midfielders in middle, Then with them class, world class midfielders our engine room will be solid and creative and a match for any oppositions midfield.
Then we need to sell Itandje and Cavalieri and bring in W Hennessey of Wolves to be Pepe’s understudy.
And we need to sell DEGAN and we should bring in M Richards to compete with G Johnson at Right back.
We need to get rid of Krygiakos and bring in B Hangeland Of Fulham, G Cahill Of Bolton Or S Taylor Of Newcastle.
Then we need to sell: Insua and Bring in two Left backs: M figueroa Of Wigan And A Dawson Of Hull so we have 2 options for Left back.
Then we need to sell Plessis, LUCAS, El Zhar, Riera, Ngog and Kuyt.
And Bring in A Sanchez Of Udinesse or A Turan Of Galatassary to play On the right wing.
And Bring in D Capel Of Seville Or R Drenthe Of Real Madrid to Play on the left wing as we have lacked out and out width, speed, pace, creativity on the flanks for years now.
And then to bring in C Cole of West Ham and L Podolski Of Cologne to help Torres score goals at the club.
Then our new look team could look like this:
Reina GK
Johnson RB Hangeland CB Agger CB Figueora LB
Sissoko DM
Aquilani CM Gerrard CM
A Turan RWF LWF D Capel
Torres CF/FD
Subs: A Dawson,M Skrtel,J Carragher, W Hennessey, M Richards,L Podolski, C Cole, R Babel,
M Rodriguez, E Banega and M Flamini.
put kelly right back move johnson to the wing, two problem positions filled – next
San Jose: 2.5m SOLD
Yossi Beneyoun: 6m SOLD
Albert Riera: 5m
Cavalieri: 3m
Fabio Aurelio: FREE
Emiliano Insua: 5m
Damien Plessis: 1.5m
Itadje: 1m
El Zhar: 2m
Stephen Darby: 500k
Philip Degan: 2m
Javier Mascherano: 25m
Total: 53.5m
Bring in;
Jonjo Shelvey – Charlton: 1.7m, DONE
PRANJIC – bayern Munich: 6.5m
Milan Jovanovic – Standard Liege: FREE, DONE
Joe Cole – Chelsea: FREE
Royston Drenthe – Real Madrid: £6.5m
ArdaTuran – Galatasary: £12m
Ever Banega: Valencia: £8m
Oscar Cordoza: Benfica: £12m
Total: 46.7m
@samuel charles and Dennis
PLEASE get real!
If you think that we are going to get more than two thirds of mascherano/riera/insua’s transfer fees to respend on players then you are very wrong.
our best option is to lose as few people as possible and keep steady until the yanks leave. we can see that we have sold more than we have bought over the last 4 transfer windows.
If this transfer happens means v will have greater Squan depth also we can challenge for title……
outs;
Masch = 35 million
Riera = 5 million
degan = 2 million
insua = 5 million
kuyt = 14 million
cavilieri = 2 million
plessis = 1 million
babel = 10 million
Total = 74 million + Initial 15 million
Ins;
Defour = 9 million
remy = 13
turan = 12
banega = 9
M.johnson = 5
taiwo = 8
Jones = 10
Mcgeady = 9
taylor = 5
Wickham = 8
Total = 89 million
Anything BUT whatever Dennis says.
Actually I stopped reading after “Bring back Momo Sissoko From Juventus for £10-£12M”.
riera and masch buh-bye, defour yum turan yum banega yum taiwo yum pranjic yum richards yum mata yum yum. drenthe god no what a waste podolski fat chance haha sissoko no flamini pls dear god no, crouch indifferent m johnson indifferent cole indifferent but we might have to take one b/c of the ‘buy british’ philosophy/ after that world cup performance I’d be looking elsewhere
unrealistic. initial 15mil is non-existent. yanks promised 20mil for transfer kitty every time. what they really meant is only 15mil raised from sales is available, the rest will be pocketed. next, all the suggestions here are selling reserve & starting players to purchase only new starting players. we will have insufficient reserves for the season.
Thing is, we need to buy English players, but don’t have much money. Now, the average English players are expensive, so all we can afford… well… But something similar to this should give us a good shot at 4th.
Sell:
Yossi (£5.5m)
Riera (£6m)
Insua (£5m)
Mascherano (£30m) if he wants to go.
Cavalieri (£2m)
Total: £46.5m
Sign:
Jovanovic (£0)
Joe Cole (£0)
Warnock (£6m) – I actually thought he was a decent player.
Bentley (£10m)
Toulalan? (£17m)
Simonson/Ashdown (£2m)
Nicky Shorey (£4m) – Stop laughing for a moment. He IS experienced, English, and would be good as second choice until a younger LB comes through the academy.
Total spend: £39m
First XI:
————Reina————–
Johnson-Carragher-Agger-Warnock
———-Toulalan———
Rodriguez-Aquilani-Joe Cole
——–Gerrard————
———-Torres———
Substitutes:
——-Simonson/Ashdown——
Degen-Kyrgiakos-Skrtel-Shorey
Bentley-Lucas-Plessis-Jovanovic
——–Kuyt–Babel———
I don’t feel the squad needs a massive overhaul, just a bit more quality in the first team and a bit more strength in depth. This 22 has at least 8 players that qualify for the new rules, which I believe is the minimum? Plus we have youths we could put into the mix. This is hardly breaking the bank and gives us more options. If, like me, you don’t want to see Plessis in the team then Gerrard or Cole could always come into the middle. Maybe even two up front now? Who knows. I’d be happy with this squad though.
Haha everyone been playing champ manager too long! You shud send it to Roy and hopefully might give him some ideas on who to buy with his 75p in his pocket. And whoever said buy sissoko back, you ever been the game and seen him play? Runs round like a headless chicken kicking people, no thanks, rather keep Lucas (that was hard for me to say)
Anyways boys, don’t beat yourselves up on who’s coming to the club or not!
Look at what we still have for each position:
Reina/cavalieri
Johnson/degen. Carra/skrtle. Agger/kyrg
Masch/Lucas
kuyt/rodriguez. Gerrard/aquilani. Jova/Riera/babel
Torres/ngog
to me that’s not as doom and gloom as everyone is making out, in an ideal world we could have all the players peopl are mentioning above, but the way things are we probably won’t get them.
So we need a left back, I think hodgson will go for konchesky or figheroa, hopefully the latter. Then if masch is sold, he will need to be replaced. We then need another striker or two!
I think the positions mentioned above are a priority, anywhere else on the pitch, improvements would be an unlikely luxury.