Christian Poulsen and David N’Gog have also left the club. Poulsen was signed by Roy Hodgson last year as a replacement for Javier MAscherano, who joined Barcelona. The Danish international has played for big European teams such as Juventus, Sevilla and Schalke and it was thought his experience would stabilize Liverpool’s midfield. But as a result of the consistently high performances of Lucas and good form of Raul Meireles, Poulsen hardly featured in the squad. Liverpool were right to let him go as he was surplus to requirements at Anfield.
David N’Gog was signed by Rafael Benitez for £2.5m in 2008. He played 94 games for the Reds in total, mostly coming off the bench, and scored 19 goals. The Frenchman started very few games for Liverpool because Fernando Torres was used as a lone striker before he was sold and replaced by Andy Carroll and Luis Suarez. N’Gog would have had very limited opportunities in Liverpool’s first-team this season and for £4m the Reds had to let him go.
Craig Bellamy was signed as the replacement for David N’Gog. The Welshman played for the Reds in the 2006-07 season and scored 9 times in 27 games- a record of 1 in 3. However, Bellamy’s time at Liverpool was marked by an incident with team-mate John Arne Riise where he attacked the Norweigan with a golf club and was sold to West Ham United in the summer. Since then he has played for West Ham, Manchester City and Cardiff, joining the Welsh club on loan last year, before returning to Eastlands. He was behind Sergio Aguero, Edin Dzeko, Mario Balotelli and Carlos Tevez for a place in the Manchester City side and manager Roberto Mancini made him available for transfer. Bellamy’s career statistics are impressive, 152 goals in 435 games, so for Liverpool to sign him on a free transfer- especially after selling N’Gog to Bolton for £4m- is a real coup. However, Bellamy is now 32 and approaching the end of his career, but as back-up striker to Carroll and Suarez he should have a few seasons left and will hope to play an important part at Anfield.
Uruguayan international defender Sebastian Coates is the second major signing Liverpool have made from outside the Premier League after Alexander Doni joined from Roma. The central defender was signed from Nacional, who play in the Uruguayan Primera Division. He impressed at this summer’s Copa America alongside team-mate and Reds star striker Luis Suarez and was awarded best young player in the tournament. He is a tall, strong and imposing central defender who is good in the air and on the floor and rarely mistimes a tackle. Despite having no Premier League experience, Coates looks to be a shrewd piece of business by Dalglish especially as Liverpool were desperate for a new central defender having allowed Sotirios Kyrgiakos to join Wolfsburg on a free transfer last week. He will probably not feature too heavily in the first-team this season but should be an Anfield regular in years to come.7
So was it good deadline day business for Liverpool?
Yes. The Reds offloaded fringe players such as Christian Poulsen and Joe Cole and signed a talented young central defender in Sebastian Coates. They even managed to make a £4m profit by selling David N’Gog to Bolton and recruiting a better, albeit older, striker to replace him in Craig Bellamy. Although there may be question marks over Liverpool’s decision to let Raul Meireles join Chelsea, he did not want to play for the club anymore and as far as Liverpool are concerned was only a squad player so to get £12m for a squad player is great business! It should be an exciting season ahead at Anfield.
This article was written by Will Piper, and is courtesy of our partner website ourkop.com. Read the latest news and blogs about Liverpool FC at Our Kop. – ed
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This week it is former LFC WAG Joanna Taylor!!
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Yup,Coates and Bellamy for N’Gog and Meireles?Anyday of the week.Bring Adam Johnson in January and the squad is very strong.YNWA
Reina
Johnson Carragher Agger Enrique
Lucas Adam
Henderson Gerrard Downing
Suarez
YNWA
Or
Reina
Johnson Carragher Agger Enrique
Lucas Adam
Kuyt Gerrard Downing
Suarez
kuyt would be in my team every game. absolute grafter
No, Liverpool didn’t have good deadline day.
They sold Meireles without getting anyone but Bellamy. Useful he may be but not the player we look forward coming to the club.
Wage bill has been reduced but still, Liverpool is paying Cole’s wages!
So I guess he will mature in a great player while there, being young prospect and all.
Coats is not deadline day transfer as it has been agreed days before deadline.
I was hoping LFC is getting a winger if both Raul and Aqua leave, as I’m sure many fans did.
Adam Johnoson, Affelay, Marko Marin… any one of those would do it for me.
“Many Liverpool fans feel that Cole was not given enough games to be able to gel with the rest of the team. ”
You have to be kidding. He wasn’t fit enough to play for the reserves. Overweight, out of breath and out to line his pockets with his feet up. He didn’t give a monkeys about his Liverpool career.
I knew he was finished before him came here and always disliked the person he is. Good riddance. Only £60,000 a week we’re still paying him and he’ll return from France next year to collect more wages from us.
Thanks Purslow.
not really he’s gone once his loan finishes, hes already moved back to London aswell and sold his Liverpool home. He was saying he may commute from London to Lille every week but i doubt that