After speculation in recent weeks over Yossi Benayoun, there have been many rumours about possible midfielders who could replace him on Merseyside. One of the most recent is the possibility of Atletico Madrid winger Simao Sabrosa coming to Anfield. The Portuguese winger was subject to a £12million bid back in 2005 by Liverpool but the move was scuppered by Simao’s then club Benfica when they increased their asking price. The winger eventually moved to Madrid in 2007 and has had an inconsistent time during his spell in Spain. He is now said to be unhappy at Atletico after the Spanish club finished ninth in the table last season and is looking for a new challenge.
Simao had been somewhat of a young prodigy and had made his debut for Sporting Lisbon at the age of 17 after coming through a youth system that had already developed Luis Figo among others. After just two seasons he was transferred to Barcelona for a massive €15million in 1999 but he failed to impress in his two years at the Catalan club. He returned to Portugal with Benfica for €12million in 2001. Here he made a name for himself scoring double figures in all six seasons he was with the club. The most successful campaign came in 2004/05 when he scored an impressive 22 goals in all competitions as Benfica won the league title for the first time in 11 years. Such performances brought him to the attention of Rafa Benitez but after the deal fell through with Liverpool, he came back to haunt the Reds after scoring at Anfield to knock the title holders out of the Champions League last 16. After his move to Atletico though, the higher level of opposition saw his goal return reduced, although he still managed 10 in his first season at the club in the 2007/08 campaign. His performances in the last two seasons however, have been less spectacular and he scored 2 league goals this campaign.
So what sort of player would he be for Liverpool if Rafa decided to make another move for the winger? He is 30 years of age, a fantastic dribbler of the ball and is predominantly right footed although he does play frequently from the left hand side. Sound familiar? In many respects he is very similar to Yossi Benayoun although he is the best part of 6 months older than his Israeli counterpart. One thing Simao does have over Benayoun though is his capability from set-pieces and he is an expert free kick taker who can threaten any opposition goalkeeper within 30 yards of goal.
Like Benayoun, Simao does still possess pace and acceleration alongside his dribbling skills and he is a creative force in the Spanish club’s midfield picking out passes for Diego Forlan and Sergio Aguero. He is not an out and out winger though, similar to Benayoun, and when he plays on the left hand side he loves to cut inside and attempt a long range shot or offload to a fellow team-mate. He does switch with fellow winger Jose Antonio Reyes but manager Quique Sanchez Flores seems to like both players cutting in from the wings and crossing or shooting from distance.
So if we did try and buy Simao we would be getting a similar player to Benayoun although the Portuguese international is slightly older than Benanyoun and might cost as much as £9million to buy, probably £1-2 million more than we would get selling the Israeli. He has also scored 3 less goals in all competitions than Benayoun this season and that maybe a concern considering we are looking for more goals from our midfielders next season. As talented as the Atletico winger is then, my thoughts for any prospective winger signing would be to find one who is willing to stretch defenders out wide, providing greater width to provide openings for others. A pacey, out and out left footed winger would be my ideal player.
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He’s on about the same level as Maxi and a downgrade from Benayoun. He wouldn’t have offered the pace and natural width that we needed when we were linked with him years ago, and would offer even less now. Leave him alone and move on.
If we want to get a forgotten Portuguese winger, let’s resurrect the interest in Quaresma who seems to have been dumped on the scrap heap in recent years for whatever reason, so could be available on the cheap and happy to fight for a his place in the squad.
He showed that he has the ability to cut it in the Prem when at Chelsea so I’m really not sure what’s going on with him behind the scenes
Simao didn’t impress me at all when we played Athletico. Like Jay has said, he’d be a downgrade from Benayoun and it would probably be at poor bit of business if we brought him in and shipped Yossi out, but how about a straight swop for Riera.
Nop..suddenly not my choice only if he come to Liverpool for free. I would rather spend the money to buy Arda Turan, Krasic or Bentley…
Well hopefully this season and summer, we can actually bring some much needed width and pace and creativity on either wing/flank which can stretch teams.
We need the two Greedy Americans to sell up as soon as possible and we need new investment in sharply and we also need to send Rafa on his way, enough is enough and i think he has taken us as far as he can.
We need new manager, new buzz, new start and new excitement for the future of club.
All the dead wood and players who cannot cut it playing for the club as last year clearly showed needs to be sold: sell
Itandje should be sold £1m Cavalieri should be sold £2m
Krygiakos Should be sold for £2m
Degan should be sold for £2m
Insua should be sold £3-£5m
Plessis should be sold £2-£4m
LUCAS should be sold for £5-£8m
El Zhar should be sold £2-£5m
Riera should be sold for £6-£9m
Bennayoun could be sold for £6-£10m
Kuyt should be sold £7- £10m
Ngog should be sold for £5m
And then we need to bring in young, quality, hungry, class players with the potential to being world class in the future.
And bring in:
W Hennessey of Wolves £3m GK to be Pepe’s Understudy
Simon Kjaer of Palermos £10m CB
Micah Richards Of Man City £7m RB To battle it out with Glen Johnson for Right back position
Taiwo Of Marseille LB £5-£*m
Belhadj Of Portsmouth LB £2-£3.5m
Bring back Momo Sissoko Of Juventus to compete with Mascherano For DM position £9-£12m
S Ireland Of Man City £7-£8m more attacking creativity to club
Jesus Navas of Seville £10-£17m RW to bring speed/pace/trickery/creativity/excitement/quality/class and to stretch teams on the right hand side.
Diego Capel Of Seville £9-£12M to bring speed/pace/trickery/creativity/excitement/quality/class and to stretch teams on the left hand side.
Bring in Adriano on a free transfer: To help create and score goals for the club and to partner Torres.
Bring in Lukas Podolski of cologne £8-£12m: Great left foot, good speed/pace, strong, would create and score goals for club.
These are the players who need to brought to club, these additions will complete the solid/strong spine we have at the club: Spine: Reina, G Johnson, Carragher, Skrtel, Agger, Mascherano, Aquilani, Gerrard, Babel, Bennayoun and Torres.
And then the club will be able to move forward and challenge on all fronts season by season.
Simao has had lots of opportunities to come to lfc.
Houllier went after him a couple of times.
He was quite derogatory about the country and the league.
He has not got the right attitude. Way too precious.
A tipical benitez transfer,he love to splash money on useless players like him,or Riera or Lucas.Why don’t we go for Cole or invest in Turan?
Dennis, you should face reality. Or maybe I am wrong and you can answer following questions:
Kyrgiakos wasn’t our worst centre half last season and he didn’t really look out of place. Why sell him?
Who will pay £5m for N’Gog? Or £2m for Plessis?
Why make losses on Lucas and Kuyt?
Benayoun, dead wood? Are you all right, mate? He is one of our better players and one of very few who can actually beat a man.
Kjaer has a buyout clause of £12m I’v read. Why would they let him go for less?
Micah Richards for £7m? Don’t you think that there will be a few more clubs monitoring his situation and probably offer much more than that? Same goes for Steven Ireland.
Why would Juventus sell Sissoko for less than they have bought him? Would Benítez even consider getting a player back he has sold before?
Taiwo for £5m? Is he close to the end of his contracts? If not they won’t let him go for that kind of pocket-money.
Jesus Navas, well, he allegedly is so homesick that he can hardly make away trips. Why would he consider leaving his country when leaving his city poses huge problems to him already.
As for Lukas Podolki, well, we could even try to re-sign Sean Dundee then. Milan Baros was a headless chicken, but genius compared to Podolsky.
Where do you get your ideas from?
Let’s not knock each other for compiling our pet lists of ins and outs with the transfer fees we make up ourselves. I do these lists from time to time myself, and a few months later find them and feel embarrassed. As long as we remember these lists normally bear no relation to the real world (as we are basing them on rumours in the press rather than what is true) and as long as nobody mentions Quaresma, we should leave the people alone who are making them. Let them/us have fun!
i agree with jay,
Quaresma wouldnt be such a bad shout, not too old, insanely fast and and creative – good ball skills prem experience
and since not being publicised like a few years back.. could be very cheap.
Like Alan Hansen said we only need 3 good players added to current team , We should go for Arjen Robben on the left wing and Joe Cole on the right wing , and a get top left back, I reckon with the above additions we will be back in business competing for a 3 rd or 4 th spot and win the F.A.Cup.
And how much do you think robben will cost? Our main priority should be a left back (an old guy with some talent left who we can get for cheap) and a proper striker
i agree wiv most that we need a gud left back and 2 quality wingers but instead of wasting money why not look at our younger players like maboo he has bags of pace very confident lets get him out there and terrorise the prem defenders. they say if there gud enuff then play em trust me he is gud enuff. then that wud give us an extra ten million on a decent left winger. oh as wiv benayoun play him behind torres and drop gerrard in mid wiv macherano problem solved i reckon.
Already missed out on Adam Johnston who was a bargain for money bags city rafa too interested in second rate foreigners than putting the fans hard earned money into local players who understand the premiership and what it means to play for the greatest club in the world Liverpool Football Club!!! If inter are mad enough to want him let him go and get kenny back to guide us back up the table and back to the champions league!!
I would love to see our starting line up next season as follows
Reina
Johnson Skrtl Carragher Agger
Mascherano Aqualani
Joe Cole Robben
Gerrard
Torres
I reckon we can win the title with above line up.