It has been known for over a year that Liverpool’s Javier Mascherano has wanted to leave the club. It has been rumoured that Masch was promised last summer that he would be sold if he stayed another year, and sure enough when he returned to Melwood to train at the start of the month he said to Roy Hodgson that he wanted to leave. Roy, at this point, still believed there was a possibility of Argentina’s captain staying, after all he believed the 26 year old was professional enough to continue playing for Liverpool as long as no satisfactory bid came in for him. He felt during this time he may be able to persuade Masch, just like Fernando Torres and Steven Gerrard, that it is worth staying at the club a while longer.
Mascherano was however not moved by such overtures and although he played against Arsenal in the opening game of the season, he was omitted for the match against Manchester City after becoming aware of Barca’s interest.
At his press conference yesterday in Turkey, Roy Hodgson sounded rather irritated about both the Mascherano transfer and the rumoured interest from Inter Milan in Reds forward Dirk Kuyt:
“We have not received any offer. Dirk Kuyt has not told me he wants to go. We don’t want an offer and at this very late stage in transfer window it would be remarkably unusual for us to accept an offer for a player we don’t want to lose and for money we don’t want. I need the player, I don’t need money.”
I totally understand what Roy’s saying here. There’s no point losing a player and receiving money with no time to spend it on a replacement. However, it is a situation which may happen if Javier Mascherano is sold to either Barca or Inter Milan by the Sunday deadline. Effectively Hodgson has backed himself into a corner in this situation. Not so much over Dirk Kuyt whose interest from Inter has only become concrete in the last week after the sale of Mario Balotelli freeing up funds for a move for the Dutch international. Roy is right to feel aggrieved about certain agents trying to negotiate a deal so late at the end of the transfer window.
The Mascherano debacle could have been handled better though. In hindsight the best thing to do would have been to transfer list Mascherano as soon as he said to Roy that he wanted to leave, and then invited offers over the last month for the player. It may still have led to a deadlock which is apparent at the moment but it would have allowed Roy to go out and look for potential signings in view to buying them once Masch’s future was sorted out. Roy has had the mindset that Javier would be staying and has therefore not considered what he would do with the money, predicated of course of the full amount being made available to him
In regards to the statement, “I don’t need money,” he may not want the money now but if both player’s futures had been sorted out earlier, then he would have had time to utilise it and improve the squad. Something which will be very hard to do now. In fact there is a big possibility that the squad will be weaker by September 1st with both Alberto Aquilani and Javier Mascherano plying their trade at other clubs. We shall see what happens in the coming days and whether new players come in for those tipped to depart.
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With the clubs probable sale the yanks will keep the dough as profits,but surely Roy is smart enough to spend 30 to 40 mill in a hurry and wisely.
Surely he should have some idea i know Rafa wouldn’t have hesitated.
Roy is not stupid do you think he hasn’t been lining up a replacement if Mascherano leaves, the problem is if he transfer lists him it gives player and buying club room for negotiation, if we play hardball like we did with Alonso, then you normally get what you want.
i am so disappointed to hear that dirk kuyt is staying because now roy won’t feel the need to buy a QUALITY winger! so now we are just going to have to put up with more of the crap we witnessed from dirk kuyt in turkey tonight!
if roy hodgson believes that kuyt, lucas and ngog are first-teamers, then he’s not the man I thought he was! this trio are just pure dirt! c’mon roy, you have to get rid of the “fulham” mentality, you’re at a big club now with huge expectations!
@daboy 30 to 40 mill???? where from?
THERE IS NO MONEY……and is this the same Rafa that’s hesitating until the last possible minute with Mascha now???
roy is right we dont need the money for kuyt because macherano is going
so rafa has no say in who he signs, not like the rafa we know is it?
it pains me to say it lads but i think woy needs to splash the cash on a new central defender. i have the utmost gratitude and respect for jamie carragher but i think he is simply past it, sadly, he has become a predictable hoofer and i believe the only reasons he is in the side are sentiment and a false sense of loyalty! woy needs to be man enough to appoint carra player/coach, using him occasionly but giving agger and a new man a chance to start a new era, perhaps steven taylor or blood young wilson now.
Poulsen is Masch’s replacement! So the pressure is off Roy to get a replacement.
And of course he’s saying we don’t need the money. It’s up to the buying club to pitch an offer we can’t refuse. If he was to say, “Actually Barca, Inter, or whoever, we really need some money, any money, now” they’d know we wouldn’t refuse even a small offer. If they believe we don’t need money (I don’t actually think Roy’s convinced anyone about this) their offer will be higher.
If mach can’t get his move, we actually don’t need the money for now as the takeover will hopefully be done before next transfer window. Then, we can splash money for signings. Therefore, we need to get at least 25mil for Mach, if not then it is a bad business.
Tough choice for Roy; keep the best combative midfielder in the world in his squad or sell him for a bag of money he won’t be allowed to use.
Chris Purslime’s player account should have a balance of some £50m but we have yet another negative transfer budget for the window.
Depressing times at Anfield.
@jason, 2 years left on Masch’s contract, end of next season he’ll be worth what, 12mill max?
@steve mcauley, sory mate but you talk utter s***e, Carra is still our best and most reliable defender,
Kuyt is class, Ngog (21) 1.3mill and Lucas (23) 5mill what more can u expect from them? We spent 5mill on 30yr old Poulsen! We have not had/do not have money get it into your head!!! You can’t buy a mini and expect the performance of a Ferrari.
@Matthew agree totally, I just hope Purslow follows Hicks and Gillete out the back door.
the result in turkey was one of the best in our history yet it is being treated as nothing – give the manager and the team the credit they deserved – THE LIONS OF TRABZON
OUTS
16m Robbie Keane
0.25m Paul Anderson
3m Leto
3.5m Arbeloa
30m Alonso
4.7m Dossena
1.8m Voronin
1.5m Mihaylov
2.6m San Jose
6m Yossi
3.3m Riera
3m Diego
1m Nemeth
(16-22) Mascherano
Cavalieri should not be forgotten unless we got nothing for him.
TOTAL: 92.65m-98.65
INS
17.5m Johnson (money still owed from Crouch for the majority)
17.1m Aquilani (As good as gone for 17mEur next summer)
2m Kyrgiakos
0.16m Ayala
1.7m Shelvey
2m Wilson
4.55m Poulsen
2.3m Jones
TOTAL: 47.31m
NET: Anywhere from -51.34 to -45.34
what a tranfer fund?
out’s and in’s since summer 2009
What an article!!!
The statement above is for Dirk Kuyt ant not Masch, so please don’t just get us all worked up.
He knows Masch is leaving and he has surely planned for replacements or what to do with the money but he cannot afford to loose Kuyt now when he can’t find a replacement which he didn’t plan for, the money becomes useless when the transfer window closes and the yanks may as well take it all.
OKAY!!!
Y.N.W.A
i thought live4liverpool was unbias? strange they deleted my response to paul! so i’ll try again.
@paul if you consider someone who edges the ball forward a metre before launching it 50m in the general direction of a lone striker as our best and most reliable defender, then perhaps it is you who are talking shite mate! like i said before, i have a lot of respect and gratitude for carra and consider him a legend but, and again i am sorry to have to say it but in my opinion he has become a liability!