Busy end to the week for the Reds?

WITH news on Wednesday that ‘big’ Andy Carroll completed his protracted £15 million move to West Ham, it appears that the week is already gearing up to be a busy one for the club.

The constant back and forth over Carroll and his transfer fee/contract negotiations has been as tiring as Suarez’s transfer saga is likely to become before it gets resolved and while many of us would have probably hung on to Carroll (at least for one more season), it’s just a relief that that particular bit of weekly tedium has ended.

Speaking of Suarez, his daily bleating to the press about wanting to move to the heavenly confines of the Bernabeu have shown no signs of abating but it’s good to see that the club are holding firm and making it fairly clear that it is the player instigating this, not the club.

It will be highly disappointing should our one, true, world class player depart, but as I always say – if you want to go, don’t let the door hit you on the way out. It’s possible that Suarez’s transfer could be wrapped up by the start of next week, depending on Uruguay’s fortunes against Nigeria on Thursday, so that could be a further £40+ million to swell the coffers.

Which means that it isn’t all outgoings and bad news. With reports on Tuesday indicating that Armenian star Henrikh Mkhitaryan was on his way to Anfield to sort out his medical ahead of a £22 million move.

It would appear that Brendan Rodgers has realized that it would be next to impossible to replace Luis Suarez (and more so, his goals) so the answer is to go for more goals from midfield to complement the January signings of Philippe Coutinho and Daniel Sturridge.
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With Mkhitaryan having finished top scorer in the Ukrainian Premier League last season with 25 goals, as well as having a proven goal-scoring record as a midfielder, he would certainly give the Reds that edge they’ve lacked in the midfield department in the past season or two, since Maxi and Dirk departed.

The acquisition of goal-scoring midfielders appears to be a major theme this summer and the courting of the frequently scoring winger, Luis Alberto, from Sevilla would further bulk up the squad in that department.

Losing a 30 goal a season striker is one thing, but bringing in a couple of midfielders that notched almost 40 goals between them last season for less than £30 million would look like a sensible move by the club, on paper.

With the signing of Iago Aspas hopefully done and dusted by the time you’re reading this (and hopefully both of those mentioned above), it will begin to look like the club are doing some serious business early this summer, whether you agree with the players brought in, or not.

The important thing is to do the deals and allow them time to bed in before pre-season starts, so in that regard the club are showing that lessons were learned from last summer.
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