Rafa Benitez has been in talks with Liverpool chairman Martin Broughton over the last few weeks. High on the agenda would have been the scale of the transfer budget afforded to the Spanish manager. Benitez has no doubt been trying to guarantee that all money from player sales is reinvested straight away into the playing staff. If he does get his way in this regard, how much money could he accumulate by selling unwanted players? I have listed a few potential sales below that could bring in a fair amount of money to build a transfer war chest for Rafa:
sssssssssssssssssssssssssssssss
Ryan Babel – £9millionYossi Benayoun – £8million
Albert Riera – £6million
David Ngog – £3million
Mikel San Jose – Sold for £2.6million to Athletic Bilbao
Diego Cavalieri– £2.5million
Krisztian Nemeth – £2.5million
Jay Spearing – £2million
Nabil El Zhar – £1.5million
Philipp Degen – £1million
Charles Itandje – £500,000
Stephen Darby – £500,000
Although I may have overestimated and underestimated some of the prices here, I think we could get at most £40m from the 12 players listed above. The question remains though, doesn’t it leave a big hole in our squad if we sell all of these players? In some respects it does but I have highlighted those in bold above that I believe need replacing. In regards to the others, there are many youngsters in the ranks who could very easily fill the roles vacated. In the goalkeeping positions, Cavalieri and Itandje could very easily be replaced by Gulacsi and Bouzanis, Jay Spearing has been replaced already in the reserves during his time on loan at Leicester by Steven Irwin, Stephen Darby and Philipp Degen’s right back slot can be filled by Martin Kelly, while Nabil El Zhar’s wing role could easily be filled by both David Amoo and Alex Kacaniklic. As Krisztian Nemeth has been on loan at AEK Athens this season, a striker replacement is not really required and both Dani Pacheco and Nathan Eccleston can more than make up for his sale.
The four in bold highlighted above means we would need to find 3 midfielders and a striker for that £40million. That might prove to be the difficult and the solution maybe found in Javier Mascherano. Masch has stalled on signing a new contract until after the World Cup and he has stated in recent weeks that his family is not happy on Merseyside. If we estimated his value at £30million, that would boost the transfer fund up to £70m. Whether this is an option for the manager is another question. Would he want to sell all of these players and would he actually get all of the money back from the board?
In any case, the list above is what I believe could be the solution to Liverpool’s lack of spending power to rebuild the team in the summer. Would you sell these players and who would you spend the money on?
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Kuyt £12m
Lucas £6m
Insua £5m
Dont really see us selling Babel and Yossi for that amount.
And i dont really think Rafa will be selling Babel at all, tho Yossi looks like he will end up in Chelsea for £5m. ~
What will make or break our budget this season is how much we can get out of a Mascherano sale.
kuyt 10m,riera 6m,lucas 5m,benayoun 8m,el zhaar 2m,degen 1.5m,
i think rafa wont sell lucas
Nice one Lee, but I think you overestimated for the carthorse, 12 mill?
70million transfer budget=
at least 30+ will have to go into a mascherano replacement so already making a loss on a less talented midfielder.
25million will have to be spent on either a winger or striker.
leaving 15million for a talented winger and back-up striker and winger
I say dump riera, kuyt, lucas, ngog and the reserves you mention spend it on a left wing-back and back-up striker.
move to a 5-4-1 formation with johnson playing as attacking wing-back with possibly insua although a lahm type player may be required, agger plays attacking sweeper role. midfield 2 ball players in midfield protected by masc. second striker more likely to ball quicker more often to realise torres.
babel as back-up for torres maybe
Reina
carragher agger skrtel
johnson insua/lahm etc.
Masherano
Aquilani Gerrard/Maxi
Gerrard/Benayoun/aqualani etc.
Torres
I’ve been thinking exactly the same mate.Plus you can throw Plessis as well there.
Say Benitez did raise a 70m war chest, would you trust him to spend it wisely? Lucas, Riera,Babel, Dossena,Pennant,Keane Aquilani etc was money well spent wasn’t it.
Time to build a new generation guys, and this will include some big name sales:
Babbel – 10m
Insua – 5m
Kuyt – 8m
Gerrard – 28m
Masch – 22m
Torres – 65m
Aquilani – 15m
Lucas – 6m
159m
Richards – 12m
Martinez – 14m
Dzeko – 25m
Milner – 25m
Mata – 16m
Barry / Parker – 12m
Banega – 12m
Navas – 14m
McCarthy – 7m
Wilson – 3m
Pay off Benitez – 16m – hire Hiddink or O’Neill
156m
I agree with your sentiments. One big problem £30M was raised from Xabi Alonso last season. Sadly it wasn’t reinvested in the team. If it happens again the manager walks.
mascherano – 30 milion
kuyt – 10-15 million
benayoun – 8 million
reira – 6 million
total: 54 – 59 million
this seems more likely.
(except benitez would never sell kuyt)
ever benega 5 million
arda or mata 15 million (confirmed prices)
milner 30 – 40 million.
60 milion total
This i believe will really help the squad. Milner i know is pretty overpriced, but maybe within the talks with milner keen for a switch for liverpool the price can be brought down to a reasonable price. Milner looks to me as the next gerrard so let’s snap him up.
babel can be the sub for the left wing with lucas the sub for benega. rodriguez and milner on the right and torres and jovanovic as the strikers in the squad. and gerrard and aquilani as the attacking midfielders in the squad. This is a reasonably good side to claim the title. Possibly another striker if we can squeeze the money out.
this players can be switched around so if we need another strong side for a another competion then it can happen.
if we sell/ give away Insua,ElZhar,Lucas and Kuyt we will be a better team !!they are the deadwood!
Or the new owners take over after the world cup and have the money anyway?? first of all look at the team we have already…Reina(one of the best goalie around) Johnson carragher agger (we have good players to replace these like kelly ayala skrtel) the problem is left back?? so we get a top draw left back to complete the defence. in midfield Gerrard mascherano maxi Aquilani have to stay…i wouldnt sell babel kuyt either. i would sell ngog el zhar benayoun riera cavalieri lucas(reason for lucas is he has had enough time to prove his worth had many more minutes than babel etc an he isnt a bad player but he just isnt good enough)Gerrard should play centre mid aquilani in the hole we should push for joe cole then put the money up for silva or milner…spend the last bit on a back up striker and a left back…we could even change to a 4 4 2 and buy edin dzeko. its going forward creating and keeping possesion controlling the game what have been our problems this season putting more pressure on the defence. if we dont have enough money and mascherano wants to go and we can get 25 30m id let him go…hes a great player but players like him are easily replaced compared to xabi alonso
I am fed up of all this next season “it will happen”, 20years plus is a long time to wait for our first Premiership title we should roll back the clock to 25 years and bring back Barnsey, Rush, King Kenny, Pete the midget,(Beardsley),Aldridge, Whelan, Hansen, Gillespie, Beglin, Bruce, and anyone at his peak when we won the last Division One Championship, at least they showed really pride wearing the Liverbird.
lucas must be a secret love child by rafa keeps playing him when he is terrible
If we sold Benayoun, Riera and Babel we wouldn’t need 3 more players to replace them. Maxi has alreaady come for free, and Jovanovich is another free transfer who can play on the left. i think we just need 1 more left-wing option (plus a left-back and back-up striker)
How about…
In
Joe Cole – £0 (midfield)
Scott Parker – £12 (midfield)
Stephen Ireland – £12 (midfield)
Stephen Pienaar – £0 (right midfield)
Jose Goncalves – £0 (left-back)
Robert Koren – £0 (midfield back-up)
Reuben Noble-Lazarus – £1.5 (forward)
Thierry Henry – £3 (forward)
Out
Javier Mascherano – £25
Dirk Kuyt – £8
Ryan Babel – £8
Yossi Benayoun – £6
Nabil El Zhar – £1.5
Albert Rieira – £6
Sorry guys…gotta go. Martin Broughton has just seen my post and wants me to replace Rafa…Thankyo and Goodnight!
lovely idea. get real rafa doesn’t get to spend what he sells, get used to it.
yanks out.