Liverpool Signings and General Rumours Thread

mike65

Stop willy waving!

Mike.

PiE

Or at least take it to the Utd thread for a change. Lord knows it could use the post-count boost.

Babel did look decent in the final, didn't see any other games though.

Pepe LeFrits

Sajan wrote:

I watched all the Dutch games and most of the other games as well and in my opinion he was the outstanding player in the whole tournament. This would be a really good signing by Rafa. And I have been in contact with my cousin who is Arsenal mad and he claimed that there was a real buzz amongst Arsenal supporters about the possibility of signing him. Hopefully we can get him on board before the club goes on it's travels.

He's been linked to Arsenal for quite some time but Wenger seems to have decided against going for him this summer, the rumours suggest that he's gone for a similar player from France instead. The word from the Dutch Arsenal fans I know is that Babel is talented but very raw. He isn't so much as a winger as a wing-forward, as he plays 4-3-3 for club and country and doesn't do much defending. Very unpredictable and likes to take first time shots, but has a very inconsistent first touch. They reckon he could be a good player in a year or two, but would be an impact sub for Arsenal, so the same for Liverpool.

mike65

I see the sale of Bellamy won't be completed until some internal contract between him and Liverpool is dealt with.

Mike.

PHB

He isn't so much as a winger as a wing-forward, as he plays 4-3-3 for club and country and doesn't do much defending.

That's his real position, kinda like Robben in terms of playing style. A buy for the future, but is likely to be a very good player in a couple of years

Zapp Brannigan

If he's one for the future I'm not too happy with the potential tranfer then. I'd rather a proven article or proven/potential (a la Torres).

Pepe LeFrits

Zapp Brannigan wrote:

If he's one for the future I'm not too happy with the potential tranfer then. I'd rather a proven article or proven/potential (a la Torres).

Getting both from the sounds of things

jesus_thats_gre

A very attacking minded winger would be nice imo.. I feel that we are going to see Liverpool play 4-5-1 and 3-5-2 alot this season, esp in Europe, and players that will support the strikers are very much needed if this is to be successful.

Zapp Brannigan

Pepe LeFrits wrote:

Getting both from the sounds of things

But like you said in your previous post he'd be a good impact sub. Before an impact sub we need a proven winger who he can come on for (if you understand what I'm trying to say)

Vokes

BBC says its £10mil bid for Babel. Is he worth that? Haven't seen him play before

Would prefer a few extra mils put towards a Quaresma bid.

Pepe LeFrits

Zapp Brannigan wrote:

But like you said in your previous post he'd be a good impact sub. Before an impact sub we need a proven winger who he can come on for (if you understand what I'm trying to say)

Yeah, I mean that from the sounds of things Liverpool are going to buy 2 wingers.

SofaKing wrote:

BBC says its £10mil bid for Babel. Is he worth that? Haven't seen him play before

Would prefer a few extra mils put towards a Quaresma bid.

Strange, it's been regularly reported since January that Babel has a £6m release clause. Perhaps not. £10m sounds extremely steep!

Zapp Brannigan

Pepe LeFrits wrote:

Yeah, I mean that from the sounds of things Liverpool are going to buy 2 wingers.

Ah right, I was just worried after Babel we might be done in the market. Hopefully we bring in a real quality winger and then see how Babel does in a Cup run or something. Like I've said earlier if Wenger rates him, it's a very good sign.

zAbbo

I'd be worried if the '2 players' turn out to be Babel and Yossi Ben, who knows what's happening.

The Babel deal looks to be close to done, with his agent using the 'phase 2' comment.

The Rooster

Sky had interesting stats on teletext over the weekend regarding our strikers' conversion rates for the premier league last season.

The figures are: attempts at goal they had from inside the box - goals scored from those chances - conversion rate:

Kuyt 55 - 11 - 20%
Bellamy 39 - 7 - 18%
Crouch 47 - 8 - 17%

copacetic

how do those stats compare to other strikers?

mike65

Liverpool v Wexham highlights

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x2hhhs_wrexham-23-liverpool-highlights

Mike.

Stky10

zabbo wrote:

I'd be worried if the '2 players' turn out to be Babel and Yossi Ben, who knows what's happening.

Completely agree. We need players we can be pretty sure will make a difference. Babel I'd give the benefit of the doubt to because I do think he has a special talent, Yossi I wouldn't.

zabbo wrote:

The Babel deal looks to be close to done, with his agent using the 'phase 2' comment.

Yeah the BBC reckon it could go through as soon as wednesday

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/teams/l/liverpool/6285040.stm

zAbbo

I'll not claim to know much about Babel, apart from him being decent in Pro Evo, I've not checked Footie Manager, so I'll hold off on that

If Rafa thinks he's the player needed, thats good enough for me, and I can reserve judgment until I've watched him play a few games for Liverpool.

spockety

Jamie Carragher phones into TalkSport tonight to face down the tosspot calling him a 'bottler' for retiring from international football. Legend.

http://www.alexgodden.com/rawk/carra.mp3.zip

mike65

Good man Jamie, no-one fups with Carra. On the issue at hand I can perfectly understand his feelings. He would be better to save himself for his club.

Mike.

Jesus Wept

zabbo wrote:

I'll not claim to know much about Babel, apart from him being decent in Pro Evo, I've not checked Footie Manager, so I'll hold off on that
.

maybe that is how Rafa scouted Gonzales

~Rebel~

Fair ****s to Carra. He's one of those players who transcends club ties, im sure all fans of all clubs would respect him. Real passion for the game rather then money.

Zapp Brannigan

Get in there Carra!

darkskol

Fair play to Jamie, not one to be messed with.

Mitch Connor

fair player to Carra, i do wonder how many people backing Carragher, were loving slagging scholes' off for retireing from international football.

Drag00n79

Carra, what a legend! An incredibly honest phone call. Great listening. Adrian Durham, what a spanner.

Guy:Incognito

I'm never a fan of players retiring early, but again I'm looking at it from a fans pov, where I'd love to get capped by a country. But from Carra's pov he's down the pecking order (unjustly) and not getting younger. He has a good few caps and is happy with that, so no problem. I could never understand Shearer, although maybe he wanted to bow out in his prime, btu he had a good few years left and would most likely have broken the scorign record. He was a guarenteed starter

Drag00n79

Tauren wrote:

fair player to Carra, i do wonder how many people backing Carragher, were loving slagging scholes' off for retireing from international football.

To be honest Scholes' retirement meant nothing to me either way.

Drag00n79

I heard rumours earlier today that Gallas might be coming our way but thought it extremely unlikely he would leave the Goooners. But according to tomorrow's UK Independent he wants out. Same paper also stating that Babel is coming for £6.75m but it might reach £10m with add-ons.

zing

Shamrok wrote:

Babel is coming for £6.75m but it might reach £10m with add-ons.

A decent bit of business if that's the case imo.

Who's next of the list then Rafa ?

Stky10

Shamrok wrote:

Adrian Durham, what a spanner.

Thats putting it politely...

Thanx 4 The Fish

Just watching the Liverpool highlights again there and Bes certainly looks to be a cracking young player, tries things as well which is always nice to see (that flick up and volley on the spin was nice). Pennant hopefully keeps that kind of game going into the start of the season too, a good start is essential if we are to compete this season.

Vokes

BBC reporting that the bid has been increaseed from £10mil to £13.5mil.

zAbbo

SofaKing wrote:

BBC reporting that the bid has been increaseed from £10mil to £13.5mil.

Thats a lot of wedge for Babel, I wonder was he a 1st choice signing.

RE*AC*TOR

From the reports, Liverpool seem to be pulling out all the stops for Babel. From the few clips I've seen of him, he looks like exactly what I thought we needed - fast and direct.

However, as we know, I'm sure you could make some youtube clips for Djimi Traore to make him look good.

As I said already though, if its the case that they are going after Babel over Simao (on the wane?), Quaresma (dancer), Malouda (?) or Mancini (also a bit of a dancer), then it indicates that Rafa is looking for unfinished products he can mould as he wants.

I will say one thing though - Dutch player by and large settle better in England than Spanish/Portugese/French etc.

The Rooster

Yeah it seems to be a fact that Ajax turned down Liverpool's bid of £10m, and said they'd sell for €20m (£13.5m). Liverpool have gone back with an improved offer but its unclear whether they've gone with the full £13.5m

Quotes in 'AD Sportwereld' from Ajax's technical director Martin van Geel:

Liverpool is willing to pay a huge sum for Ryan.

We have told them what we want, and that's 20 million euro. That is our price.

We would like to see Babel play here next season, it's not for nothing that we have extended his contract until June 2010.

But if these kind of clubs want to pay us these figures it says something.

We will see if we can reach a deal in the coming days.

zing

And Bellamy has officially left the building ...
http://home.skysports.com/list.aspx?HLID=476072&CPID=8&title=Hammers+nail+Bellamy+deal&lid=&channel=Premiership&f=rss&clid=14

gucci

zing wrote:

And Bellamy has officially left the building ...
http://home.skysports.com/list.aspx?HLID=476072&CPID=8&title=Hammers+nail+Bellamy+deal&lid=&channel=Premiership&f=rss&clid=14

good to get a million more than we spent on him, considering he scored in the nou camp which was probably worth a million to the club too!! west ham are fairly spending the bucks these days :eek:

Sizzler

spockety wrote:

Jamie Carragher phones into TalkSport tonight to face down the tosspot calling him a 'bottler' for retiring from international football. Legend.

http://www.alexgodden.com/rawk/carra.mp3.zip

Fair play to him cant think of any other England player doing that! Credit also to the Talksport guy when he said "Woodgate is better than you", Carra wasnt happy lol!

marco_polo

Stekelly wrote:

I'm never a fan of players retiring early, but again I'm looking at it from a fans pov, where I'd love to get capped by a country. But from Carra's pov he's down the pecking order (unjustly) and not getting younger. He has a good few caps and is happy with that, so no problem. I could never understand Shearer, although maybe he wanted to bow out in his prime, btu he had a good few years left and would most likely have broken the scorign record. He was a guarenteed starter

Not sure about Shearer breaking the record, he was only on 30 goals when he retired still well short of bobby Charltons record of 49. It would probably have taken him another 4 years or so to break the record, thats a hell of a long time to keep going if you are sick of international football already, I think he may have been concerned abouut injuries too.

marco_polo

Sizzler wrote:

Fair play to him cant think of any other England player doing that! Credit also to the Talksport guy when he said "Woodgate is better than you", Carra wasnt happy lol!

*STOPP PRESS:*
Talksport presenter in poor footballing knowledge shocker!!! :rolleyes:

Don't want to diss Woodgate but how does he know? Woodgate has only played about three games a year for the last three years.

zAbbo

Sizzler wrote:

Fair play to him cant think of any other England player doing that! Credit also to the Talksport guy when he said "Woodgate is better than you", Carra wasnt happy lol!

Talksport guys are twats, I mean Carra has played in 2 CL finals, top club player for the last 8 years, what exactly has he got to proove ? if McLaren want's to trust someone like King (has he ever played in Europe?) let him.

I felt sorry each time Jamie was played out of position for his country (holding midfield wtf?)

It's relatively simple, pick your players in their best positions !

Carra is good enough to play CB for England, personally I think they could switch to a 3 at the back formation.

No amount of getting his head down and working hard is going to earn himself a starting role in his best position when the inempt manager puts sicknotes Woodgate & King in front of him.

spockety

spockety wrote:

Jamie Carragher phones into TalkSport tonight to face down the tosspot calling him a 'bottler' for retiring from international football. Legend.

http://www.alexgodden.com/rawk/carra.mp3.zip

I cant listen to this right now but does it include the link where he asks ur man down to his estate to sya it to his face? I can only imagine the reaction on here if Gary Neville had done that, it was unprofessional and goes to show that footballers shouldnt bite the bait and ring into this crappy shows. But in fairness to him, hes only human and its a natural inclination to defend yourself. But when you're in the public eye and talkin on a radio show that Liverpool supporting children listen to, its not a very good exaple to be setting. Im sure people will blindly defend him on this, which is fair enough but imo u cant do that, and the Neville thing stands. Theres a vid on youtube of Neville being pranked on his PRIVATE phone by a Liverpool fan and he tells the guy to get fu**ed and under the vid the Pool fans are on in droves complainin about how he's unprofessional etc, that was his private cell for nobody else to hear as opposed to a public radio station....same set of rules guys.

As for the comparison to the Scholes thing, ive heard some Pool fans I know criticise Scholes for retiring early, personally I have no problem with it. And I had no problem with Scholes doing it either. Nor Shearer. Why risk your future earnings after a certain point in your career?? Good look to Jamie, he deserved more caps than he got.

RE*AC*TOR

Well Craig is gone now. I'm amazed that even at his dream club, the club he supports, he could not conduct himself properly for one year. Its a real pity, for him, more than for Liverpool.

zAbbo

Deleted User wrote:

I cant listen to this right now but does it include the link where he asks ur man down to his estate to sya it to his face? I can only imagine the reaction on here if Gary Neville had done that, it was unprofessional and goes to show that footballers shouldnt bite the bait and ring into this crappy shows.

No, he invited the guy down to Melwood(training ground) or Anfield for a Champions League game.

When Shearer & Schole retired, they both had been long time servants to their national team, Jamie has 30 odd caps where he played out of position after being one of the top CB's in the country over the past few years.

In particular Scholes, who is good enough to still be playing for England right now, of course if he hadn't of retired, he might of even been playing club football at this stage.

zing

Deleted User wrote:

I cant listen to this right now but does it include the link where he asks ur man down to his estate to sya it to his face? I can only imagine the reaction on here if Gary Neville had done that, it was unprofessional and goes to show that footballers shouldnt bite the bait and ring into this crappy shows.

It was come down to Anfield or Melwood but it wasn't really confrontational imo. Maybe he shouldn't have risen to it but at the same time you've got to give him credit for standing up for himself, try and put across his side and put the record straight.

As for Neville I've no problem with him, Carra or anyone else deciding to call quits on their international careers - it's a personal choice to represent ones country or not.

zabbo

zabbo wrote:

No, he invited the guy down to Melwood(training ground) or Anfield for a Champions League game.

When Shearer & Schole retired, they both had been long time servants to their national team, Jamie has 30 odd caps where he played out of position after being one of the top CB's in the country over the past few years.

In particular Scholes, who is good enough to still be playing for England right now, of course if he hadn't of retired, he might of even been playing club football at this stage.

My bad, I thought it was his estate, my mistake. Same difference though. Why does he need him to say it to his face? is he gonna assault the guy?? get real.

I dont agree, sure Scholes could still be playing but its not the point. Plus Scholes was played out on the left a lot in his England career. You cant apply different sets of rules for these things. Its either acceptable or it isnt. Carragher is good enough to still be playing also which negates your point.

PHB

I think this sort of decision is the sign of how the club is becoming more important than country. In this situation a player is picking club over country very clearly, despite being well able to do both, without seriously damaging his career (like say a player who retires when they are older)

Fair enough imo, if he ain't getting his game, why would he bother going to the training camp. He is clearly at best 3rd choice defender, maybe 5th choice, so whats the point.
It is the first real sign of a radical change in outlooks of players though, which could get interesting.

StickyMcGinty

babels pretty good stuff, i saw him there in April when Ajax played Sparta Rotterdam and i have ot say he looked like a lively player, great turn of pace and a decent shot on him too. i'll be happy if we land him

zing

zing wrote:

It was come down to Anfield or Melwood but it wasn't really confrontational imo. Maybe he shouldn't have risen to it but at the same time you've got to give him credit for standing up for himself, try and put across his side and put the record straight.

As for Neville I've no problem with him, Carra or anyone else deciding to call quits on their international careers - it's a personal choice to represent ones country or not.

It was Scholes, my point about Neville was that he got pranked by a Liverpool fan who somehow got his number, and he went mad at the guy demanding to know how he got his private phone number, which is a fair enough question to ask. The way he asked it and the later revelation that the guy was 15 was out of line sure, but in fairness how was he to know he was 15.....but the poinbt i was makin was theres countless comments on that vid saying "he's (insert banned forum word here!!)" etc etc, and the same posters will be guaranteed to be on youtube when the Carra vid is on sayin fair play to him, hes a legend.