All-Aboard to Moscow?
It is highly likely that Rafa will again have to raise his own funds in the summer transfer window if he is going to have the advantage of bringing fresh faces into the club. With Liverpool in a vast amount of debt and with warring owners Tom Hicks and George Gillett still not in a position to sell the club, Rafa may again have to pick the bones of what is already a paper-thin squad in terms of suitable back-up in all area’s of the pitch. Here I take a look at which three Liverpool players should be shown the door in order for Rafa to generate the cash he so desperately needs.
1) Albert Riera – Needs little or no explanation as to why the Spanish winger should be shown the Anfield exit door. His comments describing Liverpool as ‘’a sinking ship’’ should have been kept to himself, in order to save his own football career if nothing else. The Spaniard was signed from Espanyol in the summer of 2008 for £8m. Riera may want to look at his own performances as one of the factors in why Liverpool’s ship may have sailed in what has been a turbulent season. Riera enjoyed a good end to the last campaign playing an integral part in Liverpool’s title push scoring a wonderful goal against Aston Villa but certainly that alone does not do any justice to the £8m that was spent on him. Look’s destined for a summer move to Russia. Let’s pray Riera’s ship does not sink on his journey to Russia.
2) Lucas Leiva – This choice may prove a little more controversial than what it might have been six months ago. The Brazilian has been the victim of frequent abuse by some Liverpool fans who have savaged the midfielder for not being good enough. ‘’Ultra defensive’’ might be the most commonly used phrase when it comes to describing the Brazilian. He has not helped himself with his frequent sideways passing and plays a very similar role to Javier Mascherano. Lucas however has shown that when allowed the opportunity to get forward, he can do a job which he has proved in the Europa League games against Lille and Benfica where his bursting runs resulted in both a penalty and a goal for himself. It raises the question as to whether the manager has hindered the midfielder’s progress by playing him in the wrong position. Never the less the Brazilian has had long enough to shine and his time may well be up.
3) Alberto Aquilani – There is no two ways about the validity behind this choice. Aquilani has been a total waste of the £20m that was spent on him and he has simply not done enough during his time at the club to make any Liverpool fan believe he is as good as he were made to believe. The Italian has been plagued by recurrent injuries, and when its not injuries its viruses. On the few occasions that the midfielder has played during this campaign, he has looked way out of his depth and looks like he is struggling with the pace of the English game. Was seen as the player to fill the void left by Xabi Alonso who left to join Real Madrid but judging by his first season in England – and I for one hope it may be his last, Rafa may not find ample excuses to let the £20m flop walk out of the Anfield exit door.
Riera will go (obvious)
Yossi will go (good price)
Aurellio will go (injury/out of contract)
Insua SHOULD go (will never have a football brain)
Babel lacks vision and often makes me feel like jabbing him in the backside with a cattle prod! Just does not give enough effort over 90 minutes, but will sulk and blow up again if used as a squad player so I feel has to go!
Ngog just not got it. I know his knees let him down but how much better did MELLOR ALWAYS look than he ever has!!
Degen, Plessis, El Zhar etc? well the problem is we will be looking like we need 10 different players with mine and many others comments which just is not manageable so some will stay!!
And if our main crop fall foul of injury we will be relying on them again next season.
LIVERPOOLS main player problems over the last several years is we have not bought ONE out and out class winger. We have had the strikers.
For the rmainder of the season, drop Ngog, use Kuyt/Pachecho and of course leave Dan at left back!! for now.
sell insua and u will be kicking yourselfs in 2yrs buy another lb ok but keep insua on bench he will develop. To those who write crap about Gerrard u know nothing about football inter and Real after him why??? he along with torres are our spine build around them any team would do anything to have those 2 and we have them so think before u type fools
ha ha funny…sell one of our best performing players this year (lucas)…didnt we do that last year (alonso), and you guys probably lambasted rafa for that too (despite the facts regarding the alonso story)…aqua, jeez the guy has shown touches and glimpses, give the guy a chance…riera is gone…and rightly so
Players to sell : Reira, Bable, Carragher (sorry i am not an English Reds), Kuyt. Players to buy : Van der Vaart, Forlan, Taiwo, N’Zogbia, Di Maria. Youbg players to be promoted : Pacheco, Kelly, Ayala, Nemeth
Wouldnt sell aqua just yet, not even had a season to play lol. Be stupid but not surprizing as liverpool have a history of buying big then selling them on the cheap 😀 terrible business people at Liverpool
I would definately sell the following:
Kuyt,Insua,Babell,Aurellio,Riera,degen
If good money was received i would also sell the following. Lucas, Benni,ngog,Gerrard. Gerrard is getting on now and his heart is not at the club like before. Dont get me wrong hes still a player any team would want. The problem is hes tired of picking the team up always.Liverpool lack confidence every where. He knows next season will be worse than this year. In fact everyone knows. RBS giving liverpool a 6 month extension will only end in disaster. By the time new investers are bought in etc liverpool will be struggling even more on and off the pitch. They are a sinking ship, no question about that.
Liverpool actually need about 6 world class players to make it a winning team. Then they might be able to go for the PL. Plus rafa would need to go, not suited for english game.
Cettainly believe Riera should go, as for Lucas and Aquilani, the latter hasn’t really had time to settle in, judge him at the end of next season. I’ve always rated Lucas, just needs to play a more advanced role, people would rave about him if he was playing in a different league. We’ll probably sell him and he’d be a revalation somewhere else.
Personally, I think Benny Moon, N’gog,Insua, Aurelio, Babel, Maxi should go..
Kuyt would still be a good squad player, Carra hasn’t got long left.
Still need a world class striker, two wingers and a decent left back, although Agger has looked comfortable there recently.
Out- Riera, Ngog, Babel (will never develop under rafa), Insua, Benayoun (will get nice payoff for him) Degen
In- Taiwo, Jovanovic, Turan, Sissoko, Aguero
This team needs very little tinkering, a few solid buys would have us at the top of the table
Johnson Agger Carra Taiwo
Kuyt Lucas Gerrard Turan
Aguero Torres
Sissoko Masch Jovanovic Maxi Pacheco Kelley Skrtle
+
New ownership
=
a chance
About September time Roma put on their website details of the Aquilaini deal. He was signed for an initial fee of 5m euros so that is less than £5m at least it was then in the summer when the rate was better than now. We paid another 3-4m euros in January the rest is on appearances and success. Added to that Pompey offset about £7m of the Johnson fee against money owed for Crouch. Last season we sold Alonso for £30m + Arbeloa for £4m Leto for £3.5m and also the Keane money around £12m from the winter transfer window. It is clear where this money went. Yanks out!!
Gaga no-one needs 6 world class players to make a winning team. The term world class is far too overused in football these days. In Torres and Reina and possibly Gerrard although not on his current form we have three truely world class players maybe another 1 then the rest should be made of top class players, it is here we struggle we don’t have enough of that calibre of player.