Simon Mullock in the Daily Mirror reported over the weekend that Juventus are only willing to pay £5million to sign Liverpool midfielder Alberto Aquilani on a permanent basis next summer. Of course, it is not wise to take what the Mirror says at face value (it only has a 17% success rate for Liverpool transfer rumours according to Football Transfer League), but the murmurings coming from Juve and the player himself suggest that the €16m (£13.5m) buyout option in the loan agreement is too high for the Turin club to meet. (OFFICIAL Juventus PDF document of the agreement here).
Certainly if we look at how Juventus ripped up their first team last summer and spent heavily on rebuilding the squad only for them to play equally badly this season, suggests that the Italian club are out of pocket. With a new stadium being built after the demolition of the Stadio Delle Alpi, the absence of Champions League football after last season’s seventh place finish, as well as this season’s equally bad showing (currently lying 6th, 7 points behind fourth placed Lazio), it looks as if Juve’s declaration of poverty could well be true.
According to the Mirror, Juventus are only able to pay £5million and even that will have to be paid in instalments. Last week Italian newspaper Gazzetta Dello Sport suggested that Juve were even struggling to pay the wages that Aquilani will demand with a £2.5m year salary a maximum compared to Aquilani’s present wages of £3.5m. If the £5million fee is true then, Liverpool would have to reject the bid out of hand, especially after paying such a hefty sum for the 26 year old only a year and half ago. On top of that, Aquilani has now had 6 months of injury free action in Italy, and so it would be fair to say that his price should be above the £13.5million buyout clause set by Liverpool last summer anyway.
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Juve and Aquallani planned this from the start – pull him and tell him he will never now be sold to juve.
£5m ???? that has got to be a joke…
i’d rather sell him to some other club as he is too gud a player to be on the bench..his wages are high and wud be a waste of money as a squad player…
do Juve have anybody LFC would want so they could part ex the deal.
maybe amauri..
Krasic
melo
If they can’t pay then bring him back. It will give us more quality and deapth to the squad, even though his position is covered.
It’s not good business to sell him for 5mil. Would be better of in the Liverpool squad.
F.O. Juve its as simple as that pay the going rate or F.O.
And Charlie Adam was different because…?
for 5M they can have Polson (spelling ?) back. Pay up or he returns, full pre season and he may be strong enough for the PL, he is tallented but hate they way he hides when covering back and allowing players get away. I would see him in the current Merilles role in a more advanced position. if we get the full amount, let him go.
He was , give him credit, favouring a serious ankle defect when he began his re-habilitation with us. The past season has , probably, restored his confidence and should see his abilities return.
Bring him back and get £20mill from City or Chelski
Why keep player with no hearts for LFC…
Juventus have lied to get a free, getting a player they do not intend to buy unless it is ridiculously cheap.
Juventus will spend up this season and have quite a few expensive flops which they can sell.
Aquilani will have to be sold elsewhere, there would be many other clubs in Italy interested after the season he has had.
increase his price to £25mil.
Who can blame Juve for thinking we’re idiots? We paid 6 mill for a 31 year old “past his best” midfielder, and in turn loaned them a world class midfielder who we paid almost 20 mill for, but we didn’t seem to think we needed in our deep squad {thank you Purslow and Hodgson}. We need to grow some balls, learn how to negotiate properly, and be prepared to take a hit financially if we fail. It’s 13 mill or Aqua comes back. IMO he’d be good in our squad anyway, he never really had time to settle last season and still began to show his class in the games he played.
They tell us they will only pay £5M yet they are still looking around Europe to buy others in the £12m to £15m bracket!! It was they who made the contract agreement when they thought they had a “bargain” yet now cry poverty. We should not be interested and bring Aquilani back where he belongs. He is a class player and would enhance the mid-field under KD guidance.The guy has flair, style and football intelligence and is just ideal for us and our future. Naturally he says he likes Italy – He’s Italian for God’s sake!
Never should he have been loaned out.
I would love to see Aquilani back at Anfield. He provides the creativity the team if craving for and squad depth at midfield, which in my view is essential for clubs like Liverpool to perform at the expected level in all competitions.