Diego Forlan is a name in England who was synonymous for his failure during his time at Manchester United. It was certainly not the happiest two years of his footballing career when he arrived in this country from Independiente in 2002, but since he left these shores, he has never looked back and he has won the European Golden Boot 2 times.
After leaving Manchester United, he joined Villarreal in Spain. It was a remarkable turn around in fortunes for the Uruguayan as in his first season in Spain, he was La Liga’s top goalscorer with 25 goals and was awarded both the Pichichi trophy and the European Golden Boot Award for being the joint top goalscorer in Europe alongside Arsenal’s Thierry Henry. The 2004/05 season had also seen Villarreal achieve qualification for the Champions League for the very first time in their history, something Forlan played a major part in. He became a consistent goalscorer for the “Yellow Submarine” in subsequent seasons, feeding off the excellent service from Argentinean international Juan Roman Riquelme.
Such performances sparked rumours of a move to a bigger club and both he and Riquelme were subject to interest from Atletico Madrid. When Fernando Torres was sold to Liverpool, Atletico seized their chance to get their man and bought Forlan for €21million. Their money was certainly not wasted and Forlan was named the Pichichi and awarded the European Golden Boot for the second time last season, scoring an impressive 32 goals. Despite Atletico struggling this campaign though, he has still scored 17 goals in the league and with the Madrid club unlikely to achieve qualification for the Champions League, the Uruguayan may want to seek employment elsewhere. A lethal finisher with both feet and a tireless worker, he will no doubt be a player that Rafa Benitez will be looking at as a prospective striker to shore up a very light frontline.
A strike force of Forlan and Torres seems very appetising indeed, and it doesn’t seem as unlikely as you would first believe. New Liverpool chairman Martin Broughton has stated there will be money made available for transfers this summer:
“Well there’ll be money available for transfers but obviously I’m not going to go into how much.”
Whether this will be enough to buy Forlan, who could be worth as much as £16million, remains to be seen but his capabilities in front of goal are undoubted. Certainly the pace of the Premier League maybe a stumbling block but he is well aware of what is required to play in this country after his spell with Man U. Forlan loves playing off the shoulder of the last defender, and a goal poacher like him doesn’t come around every day. We may also get him at the prime of his career too and perhaps at 30 years of age, the optimum age for an international class striker, he is looking for a new challenge and a return to a league which he failed to shine in, nearly eight years ago. This time, if he did decide to exorcise his demons, I have no doubt he will be an all together different player.
Agree,it’s worth a good try,and frankly instead of Ngogg could be a great change.For the money..10Mil.plus Riera could do the trick.
Unless its a swap deal for him we should not be interested in buying him he is nearly 30 yrs old we should buy some young forward or aspiring forward rather than a player who is 30 yrs old and will cost us 16 million. In 16 million we can find much younger and better option than him such as Huntelaar or bojan krkic who will be younger than forlan and will serve us no of years to come.
Let’s look for younger and better…
I think we should go and get that brazillian kierrson who we was after last summer, also bring back kristian nemeth on loan. we could have torres, nemeth. keirrsson and jovanovich. i think more than enough for next season.
🙂 ill be a happy guy lol
We should look at Fernando Llorete Torres the fourth highest scorer this season in Spanish Primiera.
38 appearances 21 goals and 5 assists this season.
He is 6 foot 5 inches a beast in the air.Would lead the line and also complement Torres perfectly.
If Liverpool could get him and offload Rieara, than please, by all means. I tought he was good for United in his time there.
This should keep Jovanovic on the bench and prevent Voronin-situation to repeat.
I dont want to jinx it, but I hope that new owners will buy Liverpool in time and give Benitez enaugh cash to bring one other Athletico player who goas by name Sergio Aguero.
After this season I think Liverpool fans deserve some joy in transfer market at least.
Mkop, you seem to be hopping from website to website slagging off a new signing that hasn’t even played for the club yet. “Supporters” like you are a total embarrassment. How about backing the players, as long as they’re committed to the club?
As for Forlan, he isn’t “nearly 30” as someone said above; he is in fact 31 in May. For that reason it would be a very unwise signing. I’m not doubting Forlan’s ability, even though many people in England still scoff because of his failure at United. But we need to rebuild the squad and spend money wisely. Buying a 31-year-old, who’ll have no resale value and has already flopped in the Premier League, for £16m would not be worth it. He could come and score 30 goals for the next 2-3 seasons, but i don’t think it’s a risk Rafa can afford to take.
If we’re going to spend good money we absolutely should be looking at players in their early-to-mid 20’s. If we have money to spend then Llorente as mentioned above would be a really good addition and a great deputy for Torres. “Deputy for Torres” may not sound too appealing to a striker whose as in form as Llorente but, lets face it, Torres won’t manage more than half a season. Every game he didn’t start he’d be used as an impact sub, also, and could probably start alongside Torres in some games too.
Alternatively, Kevin Kuranyi is of a similar mould and has a 2 in 3 goal ratio in the Bundesliga this season, whilst is available on a free. I wouldn’t say he’s as good as Llorente and he’s three years older, but he’s out of contract in the summer. If we’re stuck for money it could be an option.
I dont think Liverpool will get Forlan, he costs to much and Liverpool is not Barca to spend 16 mil. on a player that will be usefull for 2 years.
As for new signing’s Liverpool is getting for free I’m just trying to be realistic, if any one of them can prove me wrang than please do so.
We are all banging are had ageinst a wall trying to understand why Babel’s form in Liverpool has been so frustraiting, when United has a player who they paid 12 mil. aut on loan -Tosic, and Babel was worth 11.
If he got one more season in Ajax his situation might be diffrent now, but Liverpool needed player right-away.
All teams apart from Arsenal are spending a lot money to get players, and Arsenal was always investing in their youth team.
Tottenham and City are not looking to get barrgains as Liverpool does, they will spend money but get players they really need.
Now that torres is out for the season i hope he recovers for the w.c and is firing to go next season. I think benitez needs to bring the youth in next season nemeth, and pacheco, kelly. Will give cover to the team.
All we need is a left back and left/right mid
dirk kuyt, riera,benayoun, aurelio. should be sold will bring some money.
can get a decent strike partner for torres.
and play 4-4-2 formation or 4-1-3-2
come on guys 16 million for 30 years old ?? get out of here
we should look his fellow country men, Luis Suarez from Ajax. He’s flying high in the past 2 season.
He’s younger, faster and more skillful than Forlan
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