Liverpool Signings and General Rumours Thread

Jesus Wept

Very few teams seem to win the premiership without finishing up at least runner up the year before.

ZENER

Stky10 wrote:

Well maybe if it was backed up with some evidence it might have been more readily accepted. But no, no evidence that Rafa had said in the past that he didn't rate Torres, no evidence that Hicks/Gillette had said in the past they were looking at players who like Beckham might be brought in almost purely to sell shirts and raise the club profile etc.

So instead all it was was unsubstantiated rubbish, and it got the reaction it deserved, ie the counter argument that showed what rubbish it was.

Did you even read my post ? Did you ??

At no point did I suggest that Rafa didn't rate Torres, at no point did I say Hicks et al were looking for a Beckham. As usual what I said has been twisted to provide ammo for bitter 'pool fans to take a swipe at someone whose fault it is ye can't win the PL.

Get a life ffs, wear the jersey as a show of support for your team not as a weapon to attack the supporters of others. I could have a more reasoned discussion with fans in a pub than here with faceless know it alls armed with Google and a history book.

ZEN

sweetie

The Muppet wrote:

Bit of flawed logict there al. I assume united would have been aloud replace ronaldo with another player , maybe fergie would have picked someone that would have scored a few goals or got a few assits.

Show us another winger who has scored anywhere near that this season though?

Aside from that, it's unusual for a player to sign a 6 year deal, is it not?
Seems to show commitment on his side and cleverness on the pool side,
as he probably wouldn't have devalued if he isn't a success after a couple
of years if he needs to be offloaded.

RE*AC*TOR

you're just playing silly buggers now.

Zapp Brannigan

Torres signs a 6 year contract. Whoooo!!!!

mike65

I see its confirmed as a 6 year deal which at 20 million means Torres is costing 90 grand a week and 3.2 million a year, I'd say that was pretty cheap if he only does as well as we hope (as opposed to feverish wet dreams level of achievment!). Heck he'll proberly make that back for Liverpool in shirt sales in Spain.

Mike.

The Rooster

mike65 wrote:

I see its confirmed as a 6 year deal which at 20 million means Torres is costing 90 grand a week and 3.2 million a year, I'd say that was pretty cheap if he only does as well as we hope (as opposed to feverish wet dreams level of achievment!). Heck he'll proberly make that back for Liverpool in shirt sales in Spain.

Mike.

£90k per week = £4.68m per year

Thats obviously a paycut from his €150k a week at Madrid, but isnt he getting some lump sum for leaving/signing that will make up the difference.

In any event, very exciting news for Liverpool fans.

Jesus Wept

lets have a whip around for the lad and help him out

Drag00n79

The lad has just been unveiled with the jersey on the pitch and at the 'This Is Anfield' sign for the photographers.

RE*AC*TOR

Stky10

ZENER wrote:

Did you even read my post ? Did you ??

At no point did I suggest that Rafa didn't rate Torres, at no point did I say Hicks et al were looking for a Beckham. As usual what I said has been twisted to provide ammo for bitter 'pool fans to take a swipe at someone whose fault it is ye can't win the PL.

Get a life ffs, wear the jersey as a show of support for your team not as a weapon to attack the supporters of others. I could have a more reasoned discussion with fans in a pub than here with faceless know it alls armed with Google and a history book.

Sadly I did actually read your post. Such is life, some posts are good and interesting, some are pointless rubbish. ie

ZENER wrote:

It'll be hard for Liverpool fans to take me seriously I know and I really do hope it works but in this instance I think the Americans have gone purely for a name and havn't thought about the ethos that is Liverpool. To me this looks like Chelsea over again, has the manager requested this player or has he been told to take him ?

So what you've actually said is that the Americans went for a big name over the head of the manager. Fine thats your opinion. As I said though, with no facts or articles or anything to back it up. You might as well have said that Hicks/Gillette/Benitez spend their mornings clubbing seals for pure sport. It has the same basis in fact as what you've come out with.

I might have just come up with the "opinion" that Ferguson doesn't pick the team at ManU, that the Glazers do instead. But as a Liverpool fan I don't go in to the ManU thread to express this "opinion" without something to back it up.

So why don't you head back to the ManU thread, and take your hissy fit with you. There's a good lad.

Thanx 4 The Fish

That was bloody quick, guess that's why they call you Reactor..

yom 1

anyone have spanish for dummies lying around

Òla Fernando et adiòs Luis

PHB

Good sıgnıng for Lıverpool, not a fnatastic one, but good. I thınk that Lıverpool need a Drogba style player rather than a Torres style player, so he won't be as good as he ıs for say Spaın. I thınk he'll put ın 10-15 goals next season, and from that, we'll be able to tell ıf he can step up.
Stıll a bit away from challengıng ımo. Weak ın central defence (only Carragher and Agger realıstıcally), weak on the wıngs clearly (personally I thınk they need two, unless Gerrard ıs gona be the full tıme rıght wınger) and stıll could do wıth another strıker, but I doubt that'll happen.
Stıll, the summers early, but ın terms of wıngers, Malouda seems to be wantıng to go to Chelsea or Real, so ıt could be Sımao, who whıle an ımprovement, ısn't as good as Malouda. Eıther way, ıt's the rıght type of sıgnıng

Drag00n79

Ha ha brilliant RE*AC*TOR!!

RE*AC*TOR

PHB why no dots on your "i"s?

PS - hope Rafa keeps the beard.

Jesus Wept

RE*AC*TOR wrote:

http://img525.imageshack.us/img525/8454/picture1wy8.jpg

I'm still loving that smig.

Sajan

Rick Parry has his fair share of doubters and knockers but it seems as if he has signed a player cheaper than what was expected. And he has taken a pay cut. A lot of reports in Spain were shocked at how quickly the negotiations were completed so far that hats off to Rick. Maybe Rafa's rumblings have given him a kick in the rear end and smartened him up a little.

mike65

Jaysus is it Sky or Liverpool who are teasing us so?

Mike.

Drag00n79

press conference on now.

zing

mike65 wrote:

Jaysus is it Sky or Liverpool who are teasing us so?

Mike.

Press conf still hasn't started then ? Can't understand why the club aren't streaming it themselves tbh. Planning to launch a tv channel next month but can't manage to stream a press conf..

Thanx 4 The Fish

Probably get more money form SkySportsNews to do it exclusively, are fully capable of live streaming, do it for friendlies and the like all the time.

Mr Alan

Think i heard that Rafa got his own lawyer to broker the deal in relation to Torres and that Parry had nothing to do with it.

could be wrong though

Thanx 4 The Fish

I had heard the same thing. Although you can guarantee that Parry had something to do with it.

zAbbo

I'd love to still be in contention for the league come November

In fairness to the Utd fans who are posting here, what do you want us to say, Torres is an overpriced flop, sure we won't know how good/bad he at least gets to play a few games. And with ZENERS hoop talk about the Americans effectively buying a marque player without Rafa having a say is utterly fooking ridiculous.

And then you have The Muppet shouting about freedom of speech, gimme a break pal, We've just made a huge breakthrough - buying a top name player who has commited his best years to us in a 6 year deal, smashing our transfer record in bits, and then some random ManU fan comes on and starts saying that the yanks are doing an Ambrovich ! and Rafa doesn't have control of his transfers.

As well as PHB predicting how many goals he'll score, and how he's not a 'fantastic' signing.

Obvious trolling, and in the interests of discussion it's probably best to stay off this thread as it's already turned into an Us v You debate which is shadowing a momentus day for all Liverpool fans.

mike65

Bye bye Craig!

Mike.

Mr Alan

his little part in it probably delayed it! - could have had it all wrapped up last week if he had have stayed out of it!

only joking, good work rick.

(i really hate that man)

Drag00n79

Some quotes from the lad at the press conference (via a translator). Typing as speaking so sorry for any typos:

"From the moment I first spoke with Rafa it was clear he had great confidence in me"
"When you sign for Liverpool you have to be ready for all pressures that brings"
"The settling in process will be made much easier with the Spanish players here".
"I'm looking forward to playing alongside all my teammates here"
"I'll be working from day one with a humble attitude here".

Rafa now:
"We had to work hard to buy Torres but he was not as expensive as reported"

"Id prefer 4 strikers with 15 goals than one with 25."

"He played first division at 17 so i think he can manage with the pressure."

"Power pace win in the air different to anything we have at the moment. can with voronin make a big difference."

"Difference with him and Morientes is he's younger and desperate to win trophies. He said it was a dream to come here. He's also faster than morientes was"

"We are working to sell a striker. Crouch is one of our strikers that's clear.
Bellamy knows my ideas at this moment. When asked was Bellamy in his plans he said "Im really happy to have Torres here" and laughed.

"Heinze is a man utd player and is at the Copa America."

"We are especially looking for wingers"

redzerdrog

mike65 wrote:

Bye bye Craig!

Mike.

lol got in before me

mike65

The moment he mentioned Crouch as needing to fight for his place like Fernando and nothing about Bellamy I knew it was curtains. Kuyt was'nt in any danger of course.

Mike.

~Rebel~

The press conference should be up here; http://link.brightcove.com/services/player/bcpid595963054?cpid=&channel=football_home&clid=
fairly shortly id say.

Didnt get to watch it myself so cheers Shamrok!

Rafa said exactly what i wanted him to - looking for wingers now, Crouch stays and bellers goes.

missingtime

http://home.skysports.com/list.aspx?hlid=475192&CPID=8&clid=14&lid=2&title=Reds+seal+Torres+signing

'Bout time too. Now for Mancini...:)

The Muppet

Shamrok wrote:

Rafa now:
"We had to work hard to buy Torres but he was not as expensive as reported"

How Much was he reported to cost, ? He was reported to have had a £27 million buy out clause £20 million plus garcia who cost €6 million is not very far off that figure..

Cyrus

PHB wrote:

Good sıgnıng for Lıverpool, not a fnatastic one, but good. I thınk that Lıverpool need a Drogba style player rather than a Torres style player, so he won't be as good as he ıs for say Spaın. I thınk he'll put ın 10-15 goals next season, and from that, we'll be able to tell ıf he can step up.
Stıll a bit away from challengıng ımo. Weak ın central defence (only Carragher and Agger realıstıcally), weak on the wıngs clearly (personally I thınk they need two, unless Gerrard ıs gona be the full tıme rıght wınger) and stıll could do wıth another strıker, but I doubt that'll happen.
Stıll, the summers early, but ın terms of wıngers, Malouda seems to be wantıng to go to Chelsea or Real, so ıt could be Sımao, who whıle an ımprovement, ısn't as good as Malouda. Eıther way, ıt's the rıght type of sıgnıng

a load of nonsense! Liverpool have had one of the best defensive records in the league every season in recent memory, that wont change.

The rest is more of your opinion, malouda better than simao, i suppose you are a studious follower of both french and portugese football?

why would we need another striker, we have crouch, kuyt, torres and voronin if bellamy is sold, apart from spurs no other team has as many first team centre forwards.

im sure rafa will make at least 2 more 'first team' signings so stop making baseless predictions.

Cyrus

The Muppet wrote:

How Much was he reported to cost, ? He had a £27 million buy out clause £20 million plus garcia who cost €6 million is not very far off that figure..

for someone so interested in what liverpool are doing you arent reading the posts.

We paid am 20m for torres, independently they paid us 4m for luis garcia

mike65

Net cost of Torrres is 16 million pounds now can we leave it at that please!?

Mike

The Muppet

Cyrus wrote:

for someone so interested in what liverpool are doing you arent reading the posts.

We paid am 20m for torres, independently they paid us 4m for luis garcia

Thanks for that, I'm always interested in the old enemy.

Initally £20 million but £26.5 million if he reaches the targets according to the beeb..

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/europe/6239286.stm

zing

http://home.skysports.com/list.aspx?hlid=475192&CPID=8&clid=14&lid=2&title=Reds+seal+Torres+signing

He will be wearing the famous No.9 shirt next season, which was Robbie Fowler's last term.

And there was me thinking Robbie's school boy days were well behind him..

zing

mike65 wrote:

Net cost of Torrres is 16 million pounds now can we leave it at that please!?

Mike

No - the cost is 20m. Now you can call that 16m + Garcia if it'll keep you happy but it is still 20m. To me calling it 16m completely writes off the value of Garcia & what he has contributed over the last 3 seasons. Yes we have gained a quality player but we've also lost one and lets not overlook or forget that.

Drag00n79

Torres is likely to make his Liverpool debut against either Werder Bremen or Auxerre when the Reds travel to Switzerland later this month.
From LFC official site

Kanney

Will he play in the Asian Cup? Hopefully, its on Sky. I was so excited about the press conference, was totally satisfied with Torres and extremely with Rafa. Craig out, now looking for wingers, which is priority in my book.
Still can't believe that Fernando Torres signed. He's going to be great.

Drag00n79

Kanney wrote:

Will he play in the Asian Cup?

I expect he will. The Werder Bremen match is Tuesday 17th July (k.o. 7.15pm), Auxerre is Friday 20th July (k.o. 2pm) and the Asian Cup begins Wednesday 24th July (k.o. 2.15pm).

Kanney wrote:

Hopefully, its on Sky.

Yes it is and the Auxerre and Bremen matches are live on Setanta.

mike65

No - the cost is 20m. Now you can call that 16m + Garcia if it'll keep you happy but it is still 20m. Yes we have gained a quality player but we've also lost one and lets not overlook or forget that.

We have sold a player, it remains to be seen if he is replaced though. Still my main reason to knock the price down was to annoy Man Utd fans

Mike.

The Muppet

mike65 wrote:

We have sold a player, it remains to be seen if he is replaced though. Still my main reason to knock the price down was to annoy Man Utd fans

Mike.

Another plan bites the dust Mike.:p


The deal is £20 million possibly rising to £26.5 million according to the BBC.

So £20 million it is then.;)

Pepe LeFrits

mike65 wrote:

If he has attitude, Rafa will simply lean in his direction and draw a finger across his throat (or has he shaved the goatee already?)

Mike.

Indeed, saw the goatee earlier and chuckled - I love it! Very dapper.

Zapp Brannigan wrote:

Yup everything I've heard about him mirrors what Tusky has said. Don't know where you heard all the other stuff Pepe?

Mostly guys who I'd consider reputable and reliable on the Arsenal forum I read. There has been a lot of discussion of Torres there over the past few years. Back in march a Spanish fella said this about him:

Torres once missed a game because he was drunk in Ibiza the night before the game and lost the flight. Enough said, he is an idiot. Adebayor behaved badly, Torres is simply an idiot. He is a player I've come to hate almost as much as Cristiano Ronaldo, and I'd hate him to come to Arsenal.

Here's a bit I wrote about Torres in the anti-wish list...

"An embarrassment to football, he is an hormonal teenager that has a record of skipping practices and even missing games due to partying and drinking in excess. His on-the-pitch antics are not a bit more impressing; he dives all over the place, has a tendency to insult opponents, is always running around the referee and pushing him into decisions that favour his team, and he never passes the ball unless a team mate asks him to, in which case he will still try to make a run by himself, and make the pass if this goes wrong."

It's not only his private life, his antics on the pitch are disgusting, and I'd much prefer an honest player, or even a not-so honest player with class, than a classless twat like Torres. If you people have been angry with Eboué, then you will end up shooting that boy Torres.

There are others who agree, I can send you the link if you like. It's a long thread and the opinion is divided on him - it's by no means all negative.

mike65

What extras? Could'nt find any mention on bbc.co.uk/football

Mike.

Pepe LeFrits

mike65 wrote:

What extras? Could'nt find any mention on bbc.co.uk/football

Mike.

They've fixed it I believe, it definately said £26m earlier but now says £20m.

Pighead

9000th post made by a Liverpool hater from Dundalk.

Pepe LeFrits

But this is reply 9000!

Drag00n79

Interview with Torres on the official LFC site:

You've just put pen to paper Fernando, how does it feel?
I am very, very happy. This was the biggest decision of my footballing life but I've come to a winning club. This is a club of champions - one of the biggest there is. I now want to play my part in that and be a champion too and help the club progress.

How much do you know about Liverpool Football Club?
Obviously growing up in Spain you are aware of all the big clubs there, but you also keep an eye on Europe, and Liverpool always catches the eye. It always did for me. I had older brothers who'd tell me about the likes of Keegan and Rush, but the first players I remember seeing as a fan are players like Robbie Fowler. My main memory is seeing Liverpool's incredible record in Europe, and I certainly followed that closely.

When did you first hear of Liverpool's interest in you?
It was just a couple of weeks ago, it's all happened very quickly. I was aware of offers from other clubs but as soon as I knew Liverpool were interested I said to Atletico: "Look, please listen to this offer." There were many clubs being banded around. Offers go directly to Atletico, so I wouldn't necessarily know about them, but as soon as I heard about Liverpool, I told them that Anfield was the only place I was interested in.

Why did Liverpool stand out for you?
I'm aware of the history and how special this club is. The tragedies that have happened have made the bond between the fans and the club so strong. Liverpool just ticks all the boxes for me. There's team spirit and a desire to win instilled by Rafa, and then there's my new teammates like Pepe and Xabi. They, as well as Luis, have always spoken very positively about life here in Liverpool. I didn't speak to them directly before signing because it all happened so quickly. I've been getting planes here, there and everywhere. My other half has spoken to Pepe's other half though. She said: "We're here for you. Let us know if there is anything you need."

Tell me about the captain's armband you displayed during a game against Real Sociedad last season, with You'll Never Walk Alone written on the inside?
There is a group of my mates, about five or six of us, and we've all grown up supporting Liverpool. Because they are all so committed to Liverpool, they've had We'll Never Walk Alone tattooed on their arms. It's changed slightly because it's a symbol of our friendship as well as our support for the club. Obviously I couldn't have that tattooed on my arm playing for Atletico, but they gave me this armband as a present for my last birthday.

Why have you decided to leave Atletico now?
The time is right because Liverpool have come in for me.

Was it a difficult decision to make?
You have certain chances in life. You can't afford to miss them because they only come around once. I've been with Atletico since I was 10, I've grown up as a person and a player there. But we haven't been getting the opportunities to play in Europe and I think I now need to take that step up.

How big a factor was Rafa Benitez in your decision to come to Merseyside?
The first time I spoke to him, I was convinced. Just to know Rafa has confidence in me and trusts me is massive. I feel honoured because Liverpool are such a big club, they could have signed anyone. I am very pleased they have chosen me!

What do you know about the fans here in Liverpool, and how much are you looking forward to playing in front of the Kop?
I've spoken to many people about it and watched many DVDs, but you can't possibly know what it feels like to play at Anfield until you have experienced it. I am dying to play in front of the Kop.

Have you set yourself a goals target for your first season?
Not really, but I suppose the first target is to beat what I got in Spain. My average there was 15.

Finally, what message would you like to send to Liverpool fans?
I just want to say thank-you, because from today, day one, people have been trying to meet me at Melwood. I've also seen some at the airport. They all seem to be behind me, so I want to say thank-you very much.