With nearly every major news outlet believing that Liverpool midfielder Javier Mascherano told Roy Hodgson yesterday that he wants to leave Anfield, it had been thought that the only club interested in signing the Argentinean captain was Inter Milan. According to an ESPN source though, two clubs maybe in the running for his signature. The source described the meeting:
“The talks were extremely amicable. It was all done in a very nice way. Javier made it clear that he wanted to leave a year ago when he had the chance to go to Barcelona. He was asked to stay on for one more year [last year], he agreed, so now it is time for him to go. It was all very pleasant and it is now a question of the two clubs who are interested in him making an acceptable offer to Liverpool.”
If there are two clubs interested in signing him that can only be good news for Liverpool as they could then demand a higher price for the 26 year old.
I dont think he should be sold for anything less than about 27.5 million, taking into account Toure went for 29!
The two clubs are likely Inter and Barca, Inter have postulated that they won’t spend more than £25M and that won’t be on the table for long when they’ll likely wait till last few days of window & offer less. Barca are known not to have the funds for a big transfer particularly when are still after Fabregas.
We need to sell him pronto & for as much as we can get (Rafa claimed last year that he wouldn’t sell for £50M so with that in mind I think £30M is a reasonable amount!).
Sell Masch & use funds to buy Parker from the Hammers and while we are at it buy Ireland from City. That’ll bring up our homegrown quota and provide us with quality premiership blooded players ready to start.
Hodgson still needs to bring in another striker whilst, in my opinion buying in two LBs one needs to be an accomplished player (eg Salcido from PSV) and the other needs to be younger and prepared to fight for his first team birth from the start (eg Drenthe from Madrid or Figueroa from Wigan).
Striker? I’d go for Carlton Cole, why? He’s already used to the premiership, he’s big/strong/fast, he’s young and he’s English. No more reasons needed.
Benitez needs to fork out 30 mill or 25mill plus Krhin is acceptable i reckon Milan will get him.
We could do a swap for some of their players…mash+10m for ibrahimovic
Pigeon neck….
re: Anock:
Ibra’ch would not be a good signing – he performs too infrequently at the top level. I’ve watched him nay times in the C/League and found him all too often off the pace & often disinterested. We need a striker in the same vein as Torres but younger, whilst he does not compare easily Carlton Cole is big/strong and can hold the ball up well, his pace a real benefit too….
agree with a lot of what jim said, i would like parker but NOT at the price the hammers want, the half of it would be plenty and i would also rather have the youth of drenthe as salcido.
as for JM, he said his wife needed to go to a spanish speaking country, so if he ends up in milan he will just confirm what we all know….he’s a little bollocks! but if bungling benny rates him at £50m, then he should consider £30m a bloody steal!
put up or shut up benitez! oh and roy, please bring in turan!
If he goes to inter, it will be interesting to see the price bearing in mind Rafa’s valuation of ‘£50m’ last season, since then he has gone on to captain his country in a decent WC performance by his country.
Not surprising news in terms of his moaning and his performances last season, lets hope we can get a decent sum for him and re-invest on quality reinforcement and more attack minded players. Players have been banded about about left right and centre but we deffo need quality wingers another World Class striker, another midfield general and some left backs! – Not much to ask really is it!!
Turan would be a great signing but we would then be heavy in the attacking-midfield area & would need to sell off the likes of Babel & one other….(kuyt?).
Sell them two, bring in Turan (he’s right footed isn’t he?) & go for CCole….
Not sure about Cole guys although I do see where you are coming from – what about Darren Bent? – Another option Enlish, strong and can finish?
Turan, class and wants to come here, Melo would be an ideal and better replacement for the little Argie, and maybe Drenthe and Van de Vart. Hope he doesnt go back raiding Fulham for Bobby Z though, although Duff and their centre back Hangeland may be good alternatives?
Rafa slapped that £50 million valuation on him a year ago because we’d just lost Alonso and he didn’t want both cms to leave. It was a price designed to scare buyers off. If the club indeed promised Masch he could leave in a year it would hardly be ethical to slap an impossible price on him now. Bear in mind we only got £30mill for Alonso because Real Madrid had to come up with Spanish signings. Juventus refused to pay 15 million for him the year before. Getting another 30 mill for Mascherano would be unbelievable!