Liverpool Signings and General Rumours Thread

el rabitos

hey man dont get me wrong, i've played championship manager and wanted pertridge to turn into the player everyone wanted him to be, but in reality the guys a twig. players like joe cole and owen might be small but they are not skinny guys, they have the strength to hold players off them.

partridge was always way too 14 year old looking to ever hold down a regualar place in the team.

tel922001

Figo said liverpool is his dream destination , just give them 2m quid for the guy i think he is even worth that but if the pool can pull it off for free , would be a steal, and sissoko nice to swipe him from under the nose's of our rivals , he is a class player and he is strong on the ball, i know where benitez is goin with him, future replacement for didi hamaan

tel922001

FIGO
Dominic Fifield

Saturday July 9, 2005
The Guardian

Liverpool hope to complete the signing of Luis Figo from Real Madrid over the weekend, with the Portugal international nearing an agreement with the Spanish club to leave the Bernabéu on a free transfer.
The 32-year-old midfielder was under the impression that he could leave the club he joined for £37m five years ago for nothing after being told by the president Florentino Pérez that he was surplus to requirements. However, his hopes of moving to Anfield were frustrated when Real reneged on that agreement and instead insisted that Liverpool, as potential rivals in the Champions League this season, would have to pay a £2m fee for him.

UPSON
Reds step up Upson chase


Liverpool manager Rafael Benitez is reportedly set to launch a £5m move for Birmingham defender Matthew Upson as he seeks a long-term replacement for Sami Hyypia.

Benitez is busy reinforcing his squad ahead of the new season and has already brought in five new faces in recent weeks, while Steven Gerrard and Jamie Carragher have both signed new deals.

Mohamed Sissoko is on his way from Valencia but a defender is still high on Benitez's list for strengthening his squad.

Chelsea's Williams Gallas was linked with a move to Anfield on Sunday but long-term target Upson seems a more realistic option for the European champions.

The England international believes playing European football will enhance his World Cup chances, while he has turned down the chance to sign a new deal at St Andrews.

The 26-year-old still has three years left on his current contract and manager Steve Bruce is desperate to keep the former Arsenal defender.

"We want to build around our best players - and Matt knows what we think of him," said Bruce.

Birmingham chairman David Gold added: "Matt is an important player for us and he is staying here."

However a source close to the player told the Daily Mirror: "Matt had a great season but knows it will be tough to get into the England side unless he plays for a club involved in Europe."

SISSOKO

Skysports.com understands that Liverpool have succeeded in hijacking Everton's move for Valencia star Mohamed Sissoko.

The Mali international midfielder had seemed poised to join Everton after The Toffees had thrashed out a €7.4 million deal with their Spanish counterparts.

Sissoko was preparing to fly to Goodison Park to put the finishing touches to the deal, but, as had been predicted in some quarters, Liverpool have sneaked in and trumped their Merseyside rivals with a counter-offer.

Rafa Benitez is a confirmed admirer of the 20-year-old having signed him for Valencia two years' ago from Auxerre.

The Reds boss submitted an €8 million offer for the African and Sissoko has decided that a move to Anfield is more appealing.

His agent Jose Segui confirmed the news, telling skysports.com: "Valencia have taken the decision (to sell to Liverpool) and Momo is happier now."

Sissoko is expected to sign a four-year contract with Liverpool and should arrive in England early next week for a medical.

NUNEZ
The Spaniard arrived from Real Madrid last summer as part of the deal that took Michael Owen to the Bernabeu, yet he endured a torrid start to his time in England with a knee injury.

Nunez eventually made 27 appearances for the Reds, yet failed to convince and manager Rafael Benitez is said to be willing to listen to offers for the player.

And according to reports in Spain, Celta Vigo are lining up a bid to take him back to his homeland.

Villain

Looks like the pool are set to bid for Upson:http://footballmsn.skysports.com/list.asp?hlid=290881&lid=2&cpid=8&title=Reds+up+Upson+chase&channel=football_home

StickyMcGinty

i'd prefer gallas to upson, but i wouldnt mind upson!

any word of figo as of this mornin?

ianomccabe

el rabitos wrote:

hey man dont get me wrong, i've played championship manager and wanted pertridge to turn into the player everyone wanted him to be, but in reality the guys a twig. players like joe cole and owen might be small but they are not skinny guys, they have the strength to hold players off them.

partridge was always way too 14 year old looking to ever hold down a regualar place in the team.

no offence mate but you obviously don't know what your talking about. To say Partridge is a twig, its obvious that you've never seen him before apart from championship manager that is.

Yes he is small but is built, at least as much than Owen or Joe Cole would be. Fair enough he never got a run in the team but plenty of 6 footers dont get first team football in the premiership

Mitch Connor

Is the liverpool vs TNS game on tv this week?

yom 1

yeah its on TV3

StickyMcGinty

good stuff, is the shels game on RTE on wednesday aswell?

There were rumours floating about that partridge was only at the club for so long because he's marryin micheal owens sister, an after owen left partridge was going to be released this year!

he was a handy player nonetheless, never got his real chance. He played a stormer when on loan with ocventry and still never got a look in. another victim of houlliers bad buys

ianomccabe

VinnyL wrote:

There were rumours floating about that partridge was only at the club for so long because he's marryin micheal owens sister, an after owen left partridge was going to be released this year!

So he was the clubs longest serving player behind jamie carragher because a couple of years ago he got engaged to Owen's sister?????

Really.......

galwaydude

vinny get your facts right mate

Partridge was very unlucky as he got injury after injury so could never make the breakthrough.

Hope he goes to a good team team and rebuild his career.

StickyMcGinty

i SAID it was a rumour! popular belief a while ago, was in the newspaper and all! i never said i believed it, i was as confused as iano when i heard it. where did i say it was a fact?

and galwaydude, i hope he moves on to a good club and makes the most of his career too, he didnt have any injuries when he got back from coventry! houllier never gave the man the chance he deserved

galwaydude

relax vinny!!! my apologies mate

Im sure richie will land a good club somehwre, maybe even back to coventry

ianomccabe

VinnyL wrote:

i SAID it was a rumour! popular belief a while ago, was in the newspaper and all! i never said i believed it, i was as confused as iano when i heard it. where did i say it was a fact?

and galwaydude, i hope he moves on to a good club and makes the most of his career too, he didnt have any injuries when he got back from coventry! houllier never gave the man the chance he deserved

I'd love to see a newspaper article where it states that a premiership club are only keeping a player on its books as he is engaged to another players sister.

He did do his cruciate when he got back from coventry though. It was the second time he did it

galwaydude

You shouldnt believe everything you read in the newspaper.Richie was very unlucky with injuries plain and simple, nothing to do with houillier.

StickyMcGinty

relax in work!! on a monday!!! ah!!!!

seriously though, i was really annoyed that houllier never gave him a proper chance, does anyone remember the goals he scored for coventry, where he ran past about 5 defenders starting at the half way line and then buried the ball in the top corner? must have a look for the vid somewhere! just a taste of what he was capable of.

galwaydude

we all should have a day off considering the weather we are having today

ianomccabe

aaaah and we all love richie again

StickyMcGinty

ianomccabe wrote:

aaaah and we all love richie again

ha ha. i do love my richie!

sissoko is doin his medical today! : http://www.football365.com/news/story_156682.shtml

and awww... its figos dream to play for liverpool!

http://www.football365.com/teams/liverpool/story_156661.shtml

the last line is really corney!

redspider

tel922001 wrote:

Figo said liverpool is his dream destination , just give them 2m quid for the guy i think he is even worth that but if the pool can pull it off for free , would be a steal

Figo, even if coming on a free, will cost Liverpool 60k stg a week (3 m a year) for a 2 year contract, so thats 6 million. Liverpool set up this deal on the premise that he would be on a free. With Real asking for 2m, a cost-neutral result for Liverpool would be if Figo dropped his salary requirement to 2m a year. I cant see him doing that. Real/Perez are nasty when it comes to deals and perhaps are nastier when it comes to Liverpool, I dont know.

I wouldnt be a fan of Upson. Was he not nearly invisible when playing for Birmingham alongside the better Cunningham? Younger perhaps, but not a brilliant CB for Liverpool, I would have thought. At least Benitez is recognising that there is a CB problem.

Redspider

p.pete

redspider wrote:

Figo, even if coming on a free, will cost Liverpool 60k stg a week (3 m a year) for a 2 year contract, so thats 6 million. Liverpool set up this deal on the premise that he would be on a free. With Real asking for 2m, a cost-neutral result for Liverpool would be if Figo dropped his salary requirement to 2m a year. I cant see him doing that. Real/Perez are nasty when it comes to deals and perhaps are nastier when it comes to Liverpool, I dont know.

I'm not sure why they should be nasty, they've gotten players from us for next to nothing and nothing in the past. Also they managed to off-load Nunez on us last year so I'm happy to see us not budging with them at the moment.

In fairness to Figo he'll already be dropping his wages considerably to come to Liverpool and also he has more lucrative contract offers from other clubs. He wants to come to Liverpool because he wants to play in the world cup, which means we're getting a motivated player and on only a 1 year contract, so it's pretty good business on our part, if Perez budges.

Jivin Turkey

http://skysports.planetfootball.com/list.asp?hlid=291040&CPID=21&CLID=&lid=2&title=Inter+enter+Figo+chase&channel=football_home

Looks like Inter Milan are showing an interest too.

StickyMcGinty

have a look at this...

LFC.TV Awards

http://www.liverpoolfc.tv/news/drilldown/N149305050711-1406.htm

what do you think? i tihnk alonso should be ahead of garcia (maybe because of the long term injury he's not) but besides that i think its pretty much the same that i'd pick!!

tel922001

redspider wrote:

Figo, even if coming on a free, will cost Liverpool 60k stg a week (3 m a year) for a 2 year contract, so thats 6 million. Liverpool set up this deal on the premise that he would be on a free. With Real asking for 2m, a cost-neutral result for Liverpool would be if Figo dropped his salary requirement to 2m a year. I cant see him doing that. Real/Perez are nasty when it comes to deals and perhaps are nastier when it comes to Liverpool, I dont know.

I wouldnt be a fan of Upson. Was he not nearly invisible when playing for Birmingham alongside the better Cunningham? Younger perhaps, but not a brilliant CB for Liverpool, I would have thought. At least Benitez is recognising that there is a CB problem.

Redspider

i agree with u , he will be expensive to keep but just his experience on the field will help so many other players aswell, his experience will boost so many others, 60k a week is alot but f**K it he is class and just cause he is old doesnt mean he is over the hill, might be alot slower but imagine him wipping in balls from all over to mori and cisse , i think we should go for him even if it does cost 2m quid extra, madrid a just pissed cause of the gerrard saga ,

p.pete

Jivin Turkey wrote:

http://skysports.planetfootball.com/list.asp?hlid=291040&CPID=21&CLID=&lid=2&title=Inter+enter+Figo+chase&channel=football_home

Looks like Inter Milan are showing an interest too.

Well that could be bad - he may not even need to take as big a pay-cut to go to Milan and they would be as high a profile club in terms of him trying to get his world cup place.

Nevermind

woodyg

Fair dues to Jamie Carragher well deserved winner.
Best player by far over the season.
Shame he aint Irish.

The Figo deal is dragging at the moe not a fan an answer by the end of the week is needed.

Any word on Upson or Milito?
A center back is a must

galwaydude

jesus_thats_gre

VinnyL wrote:

There were rumours floating about that partridge was only at the club for so long because he's marryin micheal owens sister, an after owen left partridge was going to be released this year!

Bannor actually said this originally I think..

seabee

bad news linkage

Maybe Rafa just has bad english and he wants to buy a COUCH and he heard southampton had one for sale......

StickyMcGinty

seabee wrote:

bad news linkage

Maybe Rafa just has bad english and he wants to buy a COUCH and he heard southampton had one for sale......

i hope to god your right!

galwaydude

we dont need him,we have ciise, baros, nado and pognelle and then young la tallac as well.
Oh and mellor too
So we dont need another donkey like crounch who had one good season at southampton and they still got relegated.

p.pete

How much did Southampton pay for Crouch? it wasn't that long ago as far as I remember...

kaimera

£2 mill on Jul 9 2004.

Space Coyote

Originally posted By seabee

Maybe Rafa just has bad english and he wants to buy a COUCH and he heard southampton had one for sale......

You could probably get a pretty decent couch for 350 squid or so in Southampton, 6.5 mil would be a bit much though!
The only explanation for this Crouch business is that Houllier has sent a telepathic transfer suggestion to Rafa, either that or he performed an illegal mind-meld ! :eek:

ianomccabe

That gossip about richie only being kept on at Liverpool because of who his girlfriend is is absolute rubbish.

He had the option to stay on this year at Liverpool although was told he would struggle for opportunities. So where this bull is coming from is beyond me. Give the lad a break, he's done both his cruciate knee ligaments and he's still playin

uberwolf

None of these signings have had the wow factor me at all.

The first Half dozen times I saw Morientes play for pool, I'd a grin plastered across my face, couldn't believe that such a high profile player had moved -especially given our circumstances.

But eh, Figo - might be a smart signing - but he'll not set the world alight. Crouch, God help me.
Zenden - bought for the bench.

Our first 11 always had something of a quality spine, but needs finishing, none of the touted targets fill that role IMO. Militio aside

milltown

el rabitos wrote:

hey man dont get me wrong, i've played championship manager and wanted pertridge to turn into the player everyone wanted him to be, but in reality the guys a twig. players like joe cole and owen might be small but they are not skinny guys, they have the strength to hold players off them.

partridge was always way too 14 year old looking to ever hold down a regualar place in the team.

I've watched him in Championship Manager too and he looked to be exactly the same size and shape as Patrick Viera and Duncan Ferguson.

Villain

Heard a rumour that Morientes wanted a player like Crouch thats why Rafa is signing him, appartently Morientes loves to play off a player like crouch. Probably a load of bullsh*t but there has to be some reason for his desire to sign him.

Space Coyote

In targeting Luke Chadwick-On-Stilts, Rafa must be thinking of the John Carew factor at Valencia, the big awkward forward causes mayhem in the defence....leaving the human-sized striker to bag the goals.

eirebhoy

redspider wrote:

I wouldnt be a fan of Upson. Was he not nearly invisible when playing for Birmingham alongside the better Cunningham? Younger perhaps, but not a brilliant CB for Liverpool, I would have thought.

I agree. If all we saw of Andy O'Brien was his games beside Cunningham he'd be rated higher than Upson.

el rabitos

I've watched him in Championship Manager too and he looked to be exactly the same size and shape as Patrick Viera and Duncan Ferguson.

i'll be sure to add a sarcasm warning to future posts i make.

i forgot half the soccer forum still had a hard on for partridge, the amout of people jumping to the defence of the guy anytime someone speaks ill of his name is always good for a laugh.

Davei141

I wouldnt be a fan of Upson. Was he not nearly invisible when playing for Birmingham alongside the better Cunningham? Younger perhaps, but not a brilliant CB for Liverpool, I would have thought.

Hes a solid player. Whats wrong with being nearly invisible as a centre back? I believe only outsanding and media hyped players are visible when it comes to defence. Jamie carragher performed solidly for atleast 6 years, it wasnt until he had an outstanding season this year and the other defenders were somewhat just below par, that the media and people alike, went nuts. Hes had outstanding seasons before at left back but it was the hyypia/henchoz (mainly hyypia) partnership that made him 'invisible' so to speak. Then when hyypia got all the praise from people and the media, nobody could spell henchoz.

ianomccabe

el rabitos wrote:

i'll be sure to add a sarcasm warning to future posts i make.

i forgot half the soccer forum still had a hard on for partridge, the amout of people jumping to the defence of the guy anytime someone speaks ill of his name is always good for a laugh.

It's not that people have a hard on for partridge as you put it. It's just that a lot of people have followed his career (9 years at Liverpool only outstayed at the club by carra)and want him to do well but unfortunately there is always that irish mentality of finding fault with anyone who does well.

Fair enough he didn't cut it at Liverpool but i doubt many players would after those injuries. To say that he is kept on at Liverpool cos of who he is goin out with has to be the pettiest that i've heard though

Villain

Reports this monring say Liverpool will pay 7 Million for Crouch!!!

I really can't get my head around Rafa spending that much on another striker when he hasn't bought any defenders.

jcoote

that 7 millionwould be a total waste given the current squad.... unless he's plannin on floggin baros or somethin..rafa also said he's not gonna bother wit figo...its bad enough tryin to fit the couple of lads we already have in never mind 2 more strikers

seabee

Space Coyote wrote:

Luke Chadwick-On-Stilts

Classic

StickyMcGinty

http://www.liverpoolfc.tv/mediawatch/drilldown/MW8541050712-0920.htm

whats that about a fool and his money?

The Clown Man

I still say you'll all be biting your words about Crouch. I think the guy has huge potential to do damage in the box. I hope he does join LFC and shows what he can do.

RE*AC*TOR

The Clown Man wrote:

I still say you'll all be biting your words about Crouch. I think the guy has huge potential to do damage in the box. I hope he does join LFC and shows what he can do.

I agree... a big hard working donkey is always a useful tool.

jcoote

oh yeah crouch is deadly i really think he has potental... but its no use buyin him when theres a rake of lads on big wages there already in his prefered position