Many reports have been coming out today about a swap deal involving Liverpool and Tottenham for Yossi Benayoun and Roman Pavlyuchenko. It has been claimed that Spurs have offered the Russian striker to the Anfield club and want Benayoun plus £2million in exchange for the player. Pavlyuchenko was of interest to Liverpool back in the January transfer window and Benayoun has stated recently his uncertainty about staying at the Merseyside club:
“Personally I don’t know whether I will be here or if I won’t. A lot of things can happen. It depends on a lot of things. It will be very clear soon.”
So if such a deal was really on the table, would the exchange represent value for money and would we be getting the better end of the deal? In my mind, it is questionable that we will. Although we are in desperate need of a new striker, to lose one of your most creative players is not a price worth paying.
Earlier on in the season, Benayoun’s form was phenomenal and he was one of the only players in the Liverpool team who were really on the top of their game. In fact, he kept the team’s head above water on many occasions and scored some important goals and made some important passes to ensure that our bad patch of early season form didn’t turn into a disaster. With his close ball control and his excellent balance, the Israeli international carved his away through some pretty decent opposition defences and was really the only effective creative player in a team bereft of ideas with Gerrard and Torres intermittently out injured. Certainly injury and a loss of form affected his late season performances, but out of all the players who played for Liverpool in such a disappointing season, he would be one of the last on the list selected to be sold.
For me, he would be far more valuable as a player than Pavlyuchenko. Although I believe the Russian is a decent player and at 28 years of age is going into the prime of his career, he does have problems with consistency. Even though he was afforded little time on the pitch by Harry Redknapp early on in the season and hit a rich vein of form when given his chance to start, for both Russia and Spurs in the last two seasons he goes through hot and cold streaks. One minute he fires every shot into the back of the net, while the next he is missing sitters from six yards.
For me, if we get another striker, we must ensure he is consistent enough and reliable enough for the money we pay for him. We can’t see another striker take x amount of games to get off the mark. He has to hit the ground running and a clinical goal poacher with the instincts of a Robbie Fowler is required. I don’t see that in Pavlyuchenko and that’s why I believe it is not worth sacrificing one of our best creative players for such a striker.
Difficult decisions will have to be made on transfers in the summer as Rafa has to sell before he buys and some of the decisions will not please Reds fans. Whether Benayoun is leaving is another question, but I cannot see how a swap deal for Pavlyuchenko would dramatically improve the quality of the side and the fortunes of the team next season.
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I would sell Yosi and buy someone new. Karim Benzema would be great, and probably available for 25 mil.
Way buy Pavlyuchenko I’d rather see Ngog play, Liverpool needs top quality striker and a winger that can create chances.
I’d be happy if Liverpool just sells Yossi now when the price is right, and Riera and buys Mata and Benzema.
If there is cash left replace Aurelio to.
yossi is far better to keep, if we sell yossi to spurs i will just give up, its getting beyound a joke, the only thing that would make the deal better is if we are to replace yossi with the same type of player and that my friends is david silva who is bound for real/ inter or barca.
then you have mata.
sell yossi to spurs what a fcuking joke,,,,,,
I agree about Silva, but that ship has sailed…
Mata could actualy be signing for Liverpool.
Yossi has been so inconsistent his season and thats the hub of Liverpools problems! I’d sell him not swap him for Paluyuca
some on here talk as if we have money sitting ready in the bank. we will have to do some deals this summer. this is not a bad one if you think about it. players we could get with some dealing are babel and 5 million for turan. swap riera and some money for banega. some money will be given to rafa, probably enough to get a top class left back(kolorov).that would improve the balance of the team. with the loss of only 3 players, 2 of which only play bit parts anyway.
dj is right, there is no real money for Rafa to spend & we have a lot of very average players. We need to sell swap some. Swapping Yossi for Pav is risky in my book – the real benefit would be that he is a striker in some form and used to the prem but the obvious risk is two fold: 1-Pav struggles for us (like Keane) and 2 – Yossi sets Spurs alight and we’re left ruing the day we did the deal.
I’d say keep the powder dry and try to sell off as many of the poorer players eg El Zhar, Riera, Babel et al. With the money raised & some spending money from the Yanks I think Rafa will prioritise a striker – better than Pav.
We also need a LB and a quality one at that – that won’t be cheap. The creative midfielder we need could very well be Aqua next season but I’d go for Banega anyway as we can’t afford to risk Aqua getting injured or just not settling well enough.
In short don’t consider swapping Yossi for Pav rather keep it warm but on the shelf, just incase…..we have other priorities and anyway Yossi does want to stay.
Once again, partial quotes are used to throw a slant on a story. The rest of his quote read: “Liverpool is a great club and I enjoy it but a lot of things are happening in this moment. If it depended on me, I would stay here and retire in Liverpool. The fans are the best in the world but it depends on a lot of things. It will be very clear soon.”
So yes there is uncertainty, which we all know anyway given that the club is for sale, but he also states clearly that if it were up to him he would stay there and retire.
Any reason this wasn’t inluded in your article other than it serves to discredit what is a ‘good story’?