A big summer awaits Liverpool Football Club and during all the recent talk of who is going to be the next manager, a lot of people seem to have forgotten there is a transfer window upon us. Although the window doesn’t officially open until July 1st it is an almost defunct rule as Premier League clubs persist with signing players well in advance of the opening day of the two month long transfer window.
It would be a hugely detrimental mistake for Liverpool not to make the most of players that are available now and, in the meantime, afford other, rival clubs the opportunity to step in and get themselves some of the best talent the world has to offer.
Here, we discuss who we think should be Liverpool’s top five targets of the summer. Unfortunately, as money is a big issue in football, here at Live4Liverpool we are going to be realistic and won’t be including the likes of Lionel Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo or even Emile Heskey in this group.
So, in no particular order of importance, our five players to make the difference:
1. Clint Dempsey
The Fulham forward has been in blistering form this season for the Londoners and has managed 46 goals in his past two seasons in English football which, for a player who is not an out and out striker, is incredibly impressive. This form, coupled with the fact that he only has one year remaining on his Fulham contract and will therefore be able to be purchased for a cut price, means he should certainly be on Liverpool’s radar.
Proven Premier League class, a relatively cheap price and more than happy to make the move north to Anfield – surely a no brainer? Dempsey could well play in an attacking three, down the middle, just behind the big man Carroll – therefore allowing Steven Gerrard and the returning Lucas to pull the strings in the centre of midfield.
Estimated Value – £10-12 million
2. Gaston Ramirez
Uruguayan? Check. Skillful? Check. A handful for any defender? Check. We’ve already got him I hear you say? Isn’t that just Luis Suarez?
Not quite.
Gaston Ramirez is an attacking midfielder currently plying his trade at Bologna and looks a real talent. He’s made a huge impression on Serie A for the past few seasons and at the age of just 21, he could be a real astute piece of business for the Reds.
Valued at just under £20 million, despite recently signing a long-term contract at Bologna, Ramirez is a young man but has the ability to go straight in to the first team whilst having the luxury of being able to play right across the front line. The signing of Ramirez, who could potentially be purchased instead of Dempsey, alongside a world class winger could well be the final piece to a midfield jigsaw that has long to be completed.
Estimated Value – £16 million
3. Younès Belhanda
Having just received young player of the year in France after an excellent season for newly-crowned French Champions Montpellier, Younès Belhanda is not short of a few admirers. The pacy, direct winger, who has an eye for an incisive pass, could be the sort of winger Liverpool fans have been desperate to see for years at the club. With the big European teams’ attention on another of the French leagues exports, Eden Hazard, there is a definite chance available to Liverpool to make their move and try to bring in this exciting, explosive winger to provide the assists for the likes of Carroll and Suarez.
Estimated Value – £15 million
4. Mauricio Isla
Every club needs a utility man. The sort of player that excels in his favourite position but, when needed, does a job in an unfamiliar one too.
Mauricio Isla is that guy and, although this may come as a surprise to some of you, he would be a fantastic signing for the Reds.
Primarily a full-back, Isla can play anywhere across the back line, in the centre of midfield and has even been known to play just behind the striker also.
With Fabio Aurelio released from his contract, there is room for a full-back in Liverpool’s squad and competition would spur the likes of Jose Enrique and Glen Johnson on to perform better as both, particularly Enrique, suffered somewhat of a slump in form towards the back end of last season. Rated at just over £12 million, Isla would be an ideal acquisition for whoever the new manager may be.
Estimated Value – £12 million
5. Jermain Defoe
It was well documented that Liverpool tried to bring Defoe to Anfield in January but failed with a loan bid for the England striker. With his game time getting less and less frequent and with Spurs expected to sign Emmanuel Adebayor on a permanent transfer then now is the time for Liverpool to make their move. Defoe is a proven Premier League scorer, something which Liverpool sorely missed last season. The signing of Defoe would provide competition for Andy Carroll and Luis Suarez, forcing them into playing well, and would not break the bank either as Defoe is not valued too highly because of his age and lack of prominence in the Spurs side. A striker is a must this summer as we just did not score enough goals last season and with money not in huge abundance, the new manager has to be wise with his signings and Defoe, for Liverpool, would represent great value for money.
Estimated Value – £8 million
After adding all of those estimated values together, an amount of roughly £50 million would be spent on players this summer. If reports in the media are to be believed, the new manager will not get anywhere near that much from the owners to spend. However, the very minimum you would expect a Liverpool manager to get for a summer transfer budget is £30-35 million so that, coupled with a few Anfield exits, could potentially provide the funds needed to make these five signings however, as previously mentioned, it is a distinct possibility that not all these players will be signed or even targeted.
We understand that only one of these players are English and we realise that FSG’s policy in the past has been to look at the best of the English talent, we also realise that particular tactic did not work last season. As these five players are a mix of youth, experience, pace, goals and creativity these are simply the five players we at Live4Liverpool believe would make Liverpool a force in the Premier League for next season.
Follow me on Twitter – @ElliottTunstall
Live4Liverpool is recruiting columnists. For further info contact the site editor at live4liverpool@snack-media.com
Follow us on Twitter here: @live4Liverpool and ‘Like’ us on Facebook
[ad_pod id=”unruly-video” align=”center”]
Looked good ’till you got to Defoe, can’t get a place in the Spurs team! Should tell you something.
Ya Absolutely right
Exactly, good (well presented/researched) list, until you got to Defoe. LFC need to look forward to the next generation of footballers, not those that peaked 6 years ago and weren’t even that great back then.
Can’t even get in the Spurs team? You mean the one that is vastly superior to Liverpool’s.
He would walk into this team and unlike Suarez he knows where the back of the net is.
No, i was’nt demeaning Spurs, just pointing out that he can’t hold a first team place.
What you on about Defoe played 38 games and got 17 goals and allot of the time he cam on as a sub!
Vertonghen, Christian eriksen, gaston Ramirez, belhanda, giroud, kwado asamoah
Probably the most sensible list of targets for Liverpool I’ve seen online in a long time. If we could land these signings( minus Defoe 😉 ) i would feel we had a truly competitive squad to move forward with. All very well and good having players of 30 plus but it seems they always need some kind of managing in regards to their fitness, meaning players who need competition know they will be back in as soon as their is a run of games.
Not bad, Defoe probably wouldn’t be needed particularly with the other players. I think we have enough English players now with plenty of promise in the reserves.
Except for Defoe it’s a great list.
What the hell is Defoe in there for?
i would go for kagawa 20m,matias suarez 15m and ryad boudebouz 5m….get back aquilani…sell kuyt and maxi
team nxt year
reina
glen skrtel agger enrique
lucas
gerrard aquilani
suarez suarez
carroll
subs:doni,kelly,coates,hendo,downing,kagawa,boudebouz,bellers,sterling,suso,adam..
with these players,we can rotate our squad and adapt against any formation we are playing..
what do you think???
I wouldn’t have glen at right back as he can’t defend and made to many mistakes this season, I also wouldn’t even have downing in the squad as he has done f.all for us and should be sold.
your only allowed 7 on the bench. kagawa and downing will want starting births.not even barca can afford to have 60 million sat on the bench
There are 8 players club needs to ship out this summer 1ST and Foremost:
Then 8 players need to replace them: 6 class,quality players and two marquee/world class players also.
Outs:
1: J Carragher should retire. Amazing,Great,Loyal Servant but is three years past his best. CB
2: Doni should be sold for £1-£2m he does not offer pepe any real competition for his place, that is why pepe has been inconsistant all this season. GK
3: F Aurelio: Great player but Mr Injury Prone. LB
4: J Spearing: Is a championship player and not good enough to play for club week in week out, he should be sold for £2-£5m DM/CM
5: C Adams: Looks way out of his depth playing for club and is a top 9-16 mid table premiership player and club should sell him for £4-£7m CM/DM
6: J Cole: Never justified his wages at club and will struggle to get back to his best in the premiership again, he should be sold for £2-£5m. AM/LW/RW
7: M Rodriguez: Great, Quality player but due to his age and lack of game time over the years, he should be sold and given fair chance to play 1st team football again. He should be sold for £2-£4m AM/RW/LW
8: D Kuyt: Loyal, Hardworking Servant who scored some vital important goals for us over the years but Kuyt is past his best, he has never been blessed with pace, speed and skill what the club has desperately been lacking for many years now. And his time has come at club he should be moved on this summer for £3-£7m FD/RW
The Players needed this summer should be:
6/six Class, Quality players to increase quality and competition at club: In search of Top 3 to 4 position in premiership
1: Al Habsi Of Wigan should be brought to club for £2-£4M GK to compete with Pepe for GK position at club. GK
2: J Bennett Of Middlesborough should be brought for £1-£3m LB to compete with Enrique for the left back position at club. LB
3: B Matuidi Or Momo Sissoko Of PSG should be brought for £6-£12m to come compete with LUCAS for the defensive enforcer/midfielder role. DM
4: J Hoillet Of Blackburn should be brought to club for free transfer or up to £5M. RW
5: D Capel Of Sporting Clube de Portugal Or C Nzogbia Of A Villa should be brought to club for £7-£14m to compete with Downing for the Left wing Position. LW
6: M Phillips Of Blackpool,J Biabiany Of Sampdoria,V Moses Of Wigan Or M Susaeta Of A Bilbao, one of these pacey,quick right wingers should also be brought to club for £5-£12M to compete with J Hoillet for the right wing position. RW
Replacing rubbish with rubbish I see!
F Aurelio has left and clint dempsey at 30 for 12m doesnt fit in with the sell on rule kenny had to sign players on or english defoe 29 the only striker on the list for 8m i would take defoe everytime we have enough yanks at the club and doni played ok for us but pepe hadnt missed a game for 5yrs so doni will do for the league cup
We don’t want or need Defoe – a Tottenham reject – at Liverpool FC.
You said DEFOE???? LMAO!!! Stop with the British garbage already… it’s bad enough that we are stuck with carroline, downsyndrome, henderson and adam!! anyone that buys Brit trash deserves the relegation battle they will be in..
I think before we discuss personnel, we need to look at what is wrong with the existing squad. There are a good number of excellent players out there at very attractive prices for LFC to bring in this summer.
What I consider the LFC squad lacking is the following: pace, creativity, versatility, aggression and a winning mentality (exceptions are Suarez, Gerrard, Kelly, Lucas, Skrtel and lately Carrol). IMO, any new recruit to LFC should fulfill two or more of these conditions.
If I was to advise FSG, I would like to see players like Javi Martinez or Jan Vertonghen in the back who can also double as DM. As a minimum I will go for Musacchio (at 21 he is excellent).
I will snap up Diame on free to strengthen DM. If that is not possible, I would pay for Lars Bender or Kevin Strootman.
In the attacking midfield area, I will go for any two of the following: Belhanda, Canales, Maher (only 18), De Guzman, Hamouma and Rausch.
In front, I will go for Luuk De Jong and Niang (from Caen – only 17).
This means offloading Maxi, Kuyt, Cole and Aquilani and sending Spearing on loan and playing the rest of the youngsters regularly on cup runs and early Europa matchs.
If it’s true about City wanting Skrtel then we should make them pay £20 mill even tho he aint worth the price lol i was never the biggest Skrtel fan but credit where credits due he was one of our best players last season and deserved to be fans player of the season.
Maybe we could swap him for Adam Johnson, as i think his first team football will be limited even more nxt season if City get Hazard, Sneijder or Robben.
I thought Liverpool fans were deluded but they took it to a new level when they discredited Defoe.
Even stranger when you consider he has scored more goals than Carroll, Kuyt and Suarez put together – considering he played most of his games from the bench.
Three good. Two unneeded.
Ramirez, Belhanda and DEmpsey are excellent liverpool signings. Plus with another matias suarez we can have for 15m is just right for exchange of isla and defoe. Together with returning of joe cole this whole team can challenge for the top four no problems.
Reina
Johnson Skrtel Agger Enrique
Lucas
Dempsey/Belhanda Gerrard/Adam Ramirez/Downing
Suarez/JCole
Caroll/Matias Suarez
plus Maxi, Kuyt,Henderson, Coates, Bellamy, Kelly, Carragher, Robinson, Sterling
This list already has 25 players of the top most quality, and unless ramirez, msuarez or belhanda does not perform i see no reason we can’t WIN the premier league.
muppet
You think you are going to get anywhere with Adam in the team? The best of luck Mate!
Irrespective of who takes over at the liverpool’s hot seat very soon….watch out for the mighty reds next season…..the slump is over and a new chapter is beconing over the horizon….the dark clouds that sorrounded the glitering stars at the anfield will finally be blown away and the bright shines of the stars will lift the anfield.
Hope you’re right mate, i think they will do much better next season too. YNWA.
You lost me at “Defoe”!
Dempsey would be a terrific signing, which suggests to me we won’t be getting him. But even if he does come I presume he’ll underperform like all our signings normally do.
If Defoe stayed fit I think he would be a good partner for Suarez.
He’s a proven premiership striker.
Can’t understand what most of you are going on about. I was hoping he’d come to us a couple of years ago.
He’ll get goals, something we’ve been missing badly this season.
Defoe for 8 mil. ? Seriously ?
Anfield should have been a fortress, but the woeful, outdated and totally clueless Kenny Dalglish turned it into a circus after having acquired a donkey (Carroll), some mules (Henderson, Downing & Adam) to complement the ever-present jackasses (Carragher & Lucas). Let’s all pray that the new manager would bring in creatures with guile, pace, creativity and intelligence for a change.
the jackass you call Lucas was 1 of our best players of the season and he dnt play most of it coz of injury had he not got injured i think we would have been in a better position as woeful Spearing wouldn’t have been playing or Adam.