THE Daily Star believes that Liverpool FC are poised to launch a bid for Southampton’s forward Jay Rodriguez in the summer.
Liverpool are currently looking at a number of players and Rodriguez appears to have crept onto their short-list after a scintillating season at St Mary’s under Southampton’s new boss, Mauricio Pochettino.
One of Rodriguez’s more recent goals was his fantastic solo effort to help Southampton to their 3-1 victory over the Reds.
It appears that Liverpool boss Brendan Rodgers’ aim is to field youngsters with a lot of potential and at 23 years of age with plenty of time to improve even more, Rodriguez does possess all the qualities that Rodgers is looking for.
The one stumbling block Liverpool may encounter however is how desperate Southampton will be to rebuff Liverpool’s advances, as Rodriguez was only brought to St Mary’s from his hometown club Burnley last summer, and cost a then club-record £7 million.
The deal Rodriguez signed with Southampton was for four years, meaning that if Liverpool were to make an attempt, they would be in a weakened bargaining position as the player will still have 3 years left on his contract.
Rodriguez has notched up 20 appearances for Southampton this season, and has bagged 8 goals.
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You’re dreaming if you think Southampton would sell him.
Saints also have Lambert and Lallana~~~ I thing the RED wanna buy them together – –
Not good enough!!! Only 8 goals this season!!”
No offence guys but his next move is going to be a champions league team – which rules you out. Don’t be mis lead by his stats, at thr start of the season he was played out of position on the left wing. Now he’s playing up front he looks a top player.
Whether Saints will sell any player will be purely based on economical and strategic issues. Southampton no longer NEED to sell players to keep their balance sheet in the black and so it would be naive to think anyone can just come in and buy any player at a half decent price.
Indeed, I believe every player has their price and that goes for even the richest teams, but Rodriguez does appear to be integral to Saints mid-term plans of being a top half/Euro team. A lot of people will snort at the point of them being a Euro team but all the signs are there.
Consequently, I dont believe it will be so much of a case as ‘not for sale’, but a case of ‘can anyone afford the inflated asking price’ of any Saints player that is part of 2013/14 plans. Rodriguez is most certainly part of that plan.
The amount of profit from Rodriguez sale, whether 15 or 20 million (8 or 13 mil profit) will be totally academic. It will be a case of whether they can replace him with someone of equal potential for less. Its as simple as that. There simply isnt a need to sell players and Cortese wont allow the sale of someone that reduces the possibility of achieving the goals next year.
I think this point was also corroborated with the talk about spending caps in the Prem. Cortese was vocal about not having spending caps, though has one of the lowest wage bills in the Prem and indeed made a profit in the first 6 months in Prem – something very few clubs can match.
So, the result is if anyone is looking to buy any of the upcoming stars in the Saints lineup they will need to dig deep to pay for them. This not only for Rodriguez, but also Lallana, Shaw, Clyne, Schneiderlin, and a few others making their way up the youth ladder. Saints are top in U18s and in top 3 of U21s. Only Man Utd have a record to equal. Rodriguez has an awful lot of ‘utility’ in the Saints lineup. He is seen as a real bargain, real value for money right now. Less so for Ramirez as his bill is higher and ROI is lower.
In my opinion a team would have to fork out 18MM+ to even have Cortese take notice. Chances are it would go 20+ before a deal is done.
Saints pushed Liverpool all the way for the signing of Courtinho, pushing the price up in the process, and their wealthy owners seem keen on spending money if the right targets are available.
J-rod has 3 years left on his contract, and has proved to be worth every penny. There’s no way they will sell him for the 7M they paid for him.
Saints won’t entertain offers for him of less than £15M-20M which will probably push Liverpool’s resolve too far.
There’s not a hope in hell he move to one of England’s yesterday clubs. He’ll stay with the Saints, end of story.
He is not Liverpool class. If these rumours are true , it’s another example of Rodgers trying to buy more average players
RODGERS OUT