REPORTS in today’s Liverpool Echo indicate that Liverpool have lined up Kyriakos Papadopoulos as their number one defensive target for the summer.
The Greek international has replaced Swansea’s Ashley Williams at the top of Brendan Rodgers hit list and the club are preparing a £12m bid for the Schalke centre-back.
The 21 year old has missed the second-half of the Bundesliga season while recovering from knee surgery and the Reds are hoping to conclude a deal quickly to stave off competition from Chelsea, Manchester City and Atletico Madrid, who have all been linked with the 6ft defender.
Interestingly, the £12m valuation of Papadopoulos is the same price tag that Swansea have placed on their captain Williams who, at 29 years old, would be a deviation from FSG’s favoured policy of buying players for large fees in their early 20s.
Papadopoulos made his debut for Olympiacos back in 2007 when he became the youngest player to play in the Greek league, aged just 15. He moved to Schalke in 2010 and has made 92 appearances for them, scoring 7 goals and also featuring in the Champions League. He has 16 caps for his national side with an impressive tally of 4 goals.
Zenit St Petersburg reportedly had a £16m deal in place to take the highly rated stopped from Germany last summer but the player ultimately rejected the move.
Despite Schalke again reaching the Champions League this season, Liverpool are confident that a deal can be reached for the player earmarked as Jamie Carragher’s long term successor.
Various reports today also suggest that Rodgers will add further depth to Liverpool’s back line by signing Kolo Toure on a free transfer from Manchester City when the player returns from his club’s trip to America next week. This early movement in the transfer market for defenders casts further doubt on the futures of Martin Skrtel and Sebastian Coates.
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Doesn’t cast doubt over Skrtel’s future. Two defenders out in Carragher and Coates and two defenders in with kolo and another. Skrtel, Agger and a young incoming defender will fight for two places and kolo will provide cover and experience without moaning and bitching about not starting. As Kolo is on a free as well it leaves Brendan with more money to spend on other areas. Makes good sense.
Greek guy looks good but a big fat NO to toure. He has attitude problems and no character .
Shut up Dennis, you finger cats so what do you know
Simple Simon….thats not very nice . Are you a child ?
Kolo be good to have in squad wealth of medals and experience not only club but country aswell. Also not just cover at back can also give us a tough cover for Lucas occasionally in holding midfield as that was where he started for arsenal. In my eyes a no brainer as long as he takes a big cut in wages and buys into our new performance related contracts !!!’
Kolo will b a good signing not seen the Greek lad so no comment to make tbh scouts r excellent at Liverpool so he’s got to b pretty good
The thing is B Rodgers needs to ship out 8 deadwood average players this summer:
Five of them are defensive players and three are attacking players:
1:GK: Jones 2: RB: Flanagan 3: CB: Coates 4:CB: Wilson 5:DM: Spearing
6:RW / RWF; Assaidi 7:FD: Pacheco 8:FD: Borini
That on top of the other players Rodgers has shipped out since his reign (Adams,Aquilani,,Aurelio, Bellamy, Carroll, Cole, Doni, Kuyt, Ngoo and Rodriguez)
Yet only five players were brought in : Allen, Assaidi, Borini, Coutinho and Sturridge.
Carroll and Ngoo should be recalled to club., Ngoo should ply his trade in reserves and next year he should be given chance to shine in side.
But the tight owners need to wake up, we have a pathetically weak squad and some serious investment is needed in side for us to get back amongst elite sides the only manager to hae down considerably well without spending too much money in transfer Market is A Wenger, he has kept Arsenal in Champions league for so many years on end. But they do not win anything and are only now 8 years on A Wenger may change is stubborness and spend some serious money in the transfer window Arsenal to get back Challenging The two Manchester Clubs and Chelsea for the league title year in year out and not just a top 4 place. We need a good back up Gk to compete with Reina if he stays ( A Mccarthy(23) Of Reading should be brought for £4-£6M. But if Reina decides to leave then i think Mccarthy and M Vorm(29) Of Swansea should be brought for £2-5M and then both of them would compete against one another for that No 1 position.
I think these three centre backs should be brought to the club this summer:
1:Papadopoulos(21) Of Schalke should be brought in for £10-£14M to compete with Agger
2: M Richards(25) Of Manchester City for £10-£14M to compete with Skrtel
3: A Pearce(24) Of Reading on a free Transfer
I think it will take two good class quality centre backs to replace the whole Carragher will leave behind. And in Papadopoulos and Richards the club would have that. Then we could have 5 good class centre backs at club: Agger, Pearce, Papadopoulos, Richards and Skrtel. 5 Centre backs to match Uniteds 5: Evans, Jones, Rio, Smalling and Vidic.
4: We also need a good solid Left back to compete with Enrique, i feel Samuel Umtiti(19) Of Lyon for £5-£7M should be brought in to offer Enrique some hard quality competition for his place.
5:DM: We are desperately in need of a tough tackling defensive midfielder in the De Jong, Essien, Mascherano, Makele and Momo Sissoko Mould to compete with Lucas, As against Powerful centre midfielders with a physical presence Lucas struggles. I think Rodgers should go all out and bring E Capoue(24) Of Toulouse to club for £6-£9M, Capoue is tall strong mobile physical and loves to get stuck in and challenge he would love the physical duels against Yaya Toure, Mikel, M Sissoko, Tiote, Parker, Mulumbu, Jakob, Sandro and Cattermole. And those are the 6 places needed to strengthen at the back
denis D, just how much money do you think liverpool has to buy all your dream signings.. be a bit sensible will ya?
Scara, Our club needs to spend between £90- £120M to get back amongst the top 4 again, let alone competing with the two Manchester clubs and Chelsea for the league.
At end of day, the season just gone 6 teams who have much better squads than us Now will all strengthen considerably during the summer , and we have finished in the last five years either between 6th and 8th position. And until some serious investment is pumped into playing staff , we will fall further and further away from our champions league rivals competing 3rd to 4th position in league.
Chelsea will spend £100m this summer again, Arsenal will have to spend a good amount of money if they aim to stay ahead of Tottenham. And Tottenham will have to spend a huge amont of money if they aim to compete with Arsenal again this year and to show G Bale that they mean business. So Those three sides who all finished in front of us for the last five seaons, who all have much better squads than us now will all strengthen in the summer , So you think ourr club does not need a huge overhaul? If the owners think £20M is going to get us back amongst the top 4 then they are more clueless and stupid than i could ever as even the newly promoted clubs are spending £20M PLUS ON PLAYERS TO TRY AND STAY IN PREMIERSHIP FOR ONE YEAR. Let alone trying to compete for top3rd and 4th position in league when your squad is a considerably weaker and lacks as much class, quality and depth as your main rivals competing with you for those positions. And have finsihed ahead of you consecutively for last five seasons
let just watch bR for what he have in mind to do.
each top side has 4 center backs and that is clear.
each top team has to then have younger or good replacements that are progressing well to aid the whole squad.
As good as Agger is.
As good a prospect Kelly is.
they both are made of glass, agger had to have the last two games off ready to start new treatment in order to be fit and strong for next year.
Kelly has not kicked a ball in how long? so who
knows with him.
coates is not cutting it even though its hard on him.
Really we have johnson, enrique skrtel agger as players that knwo the club and are settled at least in how we play.
I would like to see-
wisdom and kelly for extra cover, ie fa cup games , etc.
skrtel as a squad player,
agger, johnson, enrique being used for the 1st team with us buying two more center backs with one being able to fill in at right back of left back.
id buy –
Toby alderweireld who can play at right back like he does for Belgium and then a center back to cover come in for skrtel and have competition for that place and then add a free like Toure. job done.
Nibidy cares wot u think Denis d mpfhahahaha waste of time writing all that nonsense
this kid is amazing signing….but dont overpay him…
defender is the department we need to improve most…
we needs the good in the air defender…\the reason why we always conceeding the goals against the physicall approach opponent like west brom , stoke and etc.
im delighted to see this line up next season hopefully
reina
johnson
agger
skrtel
enrique
lucas
gerrard
coutinho
sturidge
sterling
suarez
subs
mccarthy
kolo toure
luke shaw
mcmanaman
borini
We need world class palyers Jaodo. The team you picked has got the same players from this season. I Would replace Skrtel, enrique and Sterling with three new class players. Thats the only waywe can finish in top 4.
We need to spend big if we want get back into the top four