Liverpool Signings and General Rumours Thread

StickyMcGinty

babel would walk into the first team, i mean, its not as if a whole range of quality wingers

Stky10

Tusky wrote:

Would you lot be happy with this -

Lucas
Veronin
Torres
Babel
Benayoun
Heinze (or similar defender)

Im not sure I would. At the start of the transfer season I wanted Rafa to buy two players that would walk into the first 11. I only see one (Torres) there.

I'd have to agree with you. I still think we're lacking down both wings. I can't see Pennant improving much on his form from last year, and I don't see any of Kewell/Leto/Babel/Benayoun being consistent enough to make much of a difference on the left. The right side isn't such a big thing as I think Gerrard will probably play there again, but the left side needs sorting.

copacetic

Tusky wrote:

If the transfer fee of 13.5m is true then this is almost as major a turning point for Liverpool as the Torres transfer. The fact that we can pay 13.5m (only 500,000 off our biggest transfer pre-Torres) for a 20 year old with lots of potential who is unlikely to be a first team starter next season is great.

When I read up about the guy and heard that he is creative, direct, pacey, can run with the ball and score, play on both wings, as stiker or in the hole I thought that he must be a replacement for Garcia and that we would drop our interest in Benayoun. However it looks like we are interested in signing both. Does this mean that we wont be signing a new established LW ?

This shows firstly that Rafa has a lot of faith in Kewell. Secondly, he has stated that he wanted to bring in two or three new faces after Torres (Babel, Benayoun, Heinze or another defender) and after having supposed bids turned down for Malouda, Mancini and Quresma all for around 13m which is the price Babel is quoted at, it certainly looks as if he is being brought in for the LW position instead of the named players.

If Torres, Babel & Lucas reach their potential over the next couple of years it could prove to be a very successful summer of transfers for Liverpool. Would you lot be happy with this -

Lucas
Veronin
Torres
Babel
Benayoun
Heinze (or similar defender)

Im not sure I would. At the start of the transfer season I wanted Rafa to buy two players that would walk into the first 11. I only see one (Torres) there.

i'm pretty happy if you throw mascherano in there as a recent buy (which has to be the best value buy in years.) So in 6 months buying we have 2 definite starters and what looks like 4/5 high quality players who could well be all be starters for certain games based on rafas usual policy.

Certainly we are starting this season with a much improved squad. I would like to see another quality defender come in, but not Heinze, I intensly dislike that guy, how he isn't sent off everytime he goes up for a header I'll never know.

Tusky

Stky10 wrote:

I'd have to agree with you. I still think we're lacking down both wings. I can't see Pennant improving much on his form from last year, and I don't see any of Kewell/Leto/Babel/Benayoun being consistent enough to make much of a difference on the left. The right side isn't such a big thing as I think Gerrard will probably play there again, but the left side needs sorting.

Well I would disagree with your assessment of Pennant. I wasn't a fan of him last season but in the last few months he played his socks off. He was our best attacking player and lets not forget he just got 3 assists in the recent friendly against Wrexham. I certainly see him improving next season. I don't know enough about Babel to say that he wont be consistent enough but from the reposts Ive read he seems to be a little raw. Kind of like Walcott, bags of talent but not ready to start for a title challenging team week in week out.

If Kewell can stay fit I think the squad (including the left side) is pretty solid. I also like the fact that we are now buying young talented prospects(Lucas, Babel) as back up instead of squad players (Josemi, Krompkamp).

---

Reina/Carson

Finnan/Arbeloa

---

Carragher/Paletta----Agger/Hyypia---- Riise/Aurelio

---

Alonso/Sissoko---Mascherano/Lucas


Pennant/Gerrard/Benayoun

---

Gerrard/Veronin/Torres

---

Kewell/Babel/Leto

---

Torres/Kuyt/Crouch/Veronin/Babel

or as a 4-4-2

---

Reina/Carson

Finnan/Arbeloa

---

Carragher/Paletta----Agger/Hyypia---- Riise/Aurelio

---

Alonso/Sissoko---Mascherano/Lucas


Gerrard/Pennant/Benayoun

---

Kewell/Babel/Leto

---

Torres/Veronin/Babel

---

Kuyt/Crouch

copacetic wrote:

i'm pretty happy if you throw mascherano in there as a recent buy (which has to be the best value buy in years.) So in 6 months buying we have 2 definite starters and what looks like 4/5 high quality players who could well be all be starters for certain games based on rafas usual policy.

Certainly we are starting this season with a much improved squad. I would like to see another quality defender come in, but not Heinze, I intensly dislike that guy, how he isn't sent off everytime he goes up for a header I'll never know.

I really hope Rafa extends on the Mascherano loan deal. With the extensions of Sissoko, Alonso & Gerrards contracts + the arrival of Lucas it looks a bit unlikely. We shall have to wait and see I suppose.

PHB

What exactly is the deal with Mascherano anyway, has it ever been made fully public, particularly in relation to what fee they will have to pay at the end of this season?

zing

PHB wrote:

What exactly is the deal with Mascherano anyway, has it ever been made fully public, particularly in relation to what fee they will have to pay at the end of this season?

Nope. A fair bit of speculation but that's it.

Tusky

PHB wrote:

What exactly is the deal with Mascherano anyway, has it ever been made fully public, particularly in relation to what fee they will have to pay at the end of this season?

Theres been numerous amounts thrown around. The two that have been talked about most are -

Bought outright for 10m

18 month loan deal with the first option to buy for around 16-18m. They are both great bits of business when you consider how young and talented he is.

sweetie

I really hope Rafa extends on the Mascherano loan deal. With the extensions of Sissoko, Alonso & Gerrards contracts + the arrival of Lucas it looks a bit unlikely. We shall have to wait and see I suppose.

Surely the reason they got Sissoko to sign an extended contract was so he'd be worth more if it came down to selling him when the mascherano deal is made permanent.

missingtime

I'm very suprised that we held onto Sissoko to be honest. Would prefer to have kept Mascherano permanently.
Although, should Sissoko learn how to pass....

Mitch Connor

Tusky wrote:

Theres been numerous amounts thrown around. The two that have been talked about most are -

Bought outright for 10m

18 month loan deal with the first option to buy for around 16-18m. They are both great bits of business when you consider how young and talented he is.

And should be illegal in light of the Premier League pissing on the Tevez to United deal... but who does Barwick support?

Zapp Brannigan

As Tusky said I wouldn't be too happy if our spending ended with Benayoun and Babel plus another defender. I want an established winger. Babel or Benyoun, neither of them are an out and out winger.

zing

Tauren wrote:

And should be illegal in light of the Premier League pissing on the Tevez to United deal... but who does Barwick support?

Why should it be illegal ? Do you know the exact details of it because no one else seems to. Given how long the Prem League scrutinised the paperwork for I'd say that they were satisfied with it and that it's all above board.

They are two separate transfers.

But you're entitled to your own conspiracy theories

Thanx 4 The Fish

Tauren wrote:

And should be illegal in light of the Premier League pissing on the Tevez to United deal... but who does Barwick support?

Why alwasy with the little digs ? Liverpool had his registration and were not allowed to play him un til the premier league finished the probe into his transfer. What liverpool did, just as United plan to do was legal, if it was not then it would not have been given the green light in the first place.
Do you leave the house with that tinfoil hat of yours on ??

BTW, even though he was touted as having three assists, he only had two, the first was passed by somebody else when it got into the box IIRC before Bes got to it.

~Rebel~

Far as i can tell the main problem now comes because West Ham have since claimed they own the player to the league, while money being passed onto Joorabchian would prove otherwise.

To be honest Tauren id say ye're grand, id be amazed if the FA/PL do in fact stop the move. They'll just faff around for a bit and make it look like they're to be taken seriously, and then they'll let the deal go through.

The Rooster

Tauren wrote:

And should be illegal in light of the Premier League pissing on the Tevez to United deal... but who does Barwick support?

I thought you'd have to be an idiot not to see the difference between the Tevez and Mascherano deals.

Its already been explained on the manc thread.

The Rooster

sweetie wrote:

Surely the reason they got Sissoko to sign an extended contract was so he'd be worth more if it came down to selling him when the mascherano deal is made permanent.

Perhaps, but Sissoko is now at 4th choice central midfielder, perhaps 3rd choice if Stevie G is on the right, perhaps 5th choice if Lucas proves to be decent soon.

£10m was the rumoured bid we turned down from Juve for Momo. After a season spent mostly on the bench, that valuation can only go down and fast, no matter how long he has on his contract.

Hope I'm wrong but I think we'll losing one of Mascherano or Alonso at the end of next season.

Mitch Connor

Thanx 4 The Fish wrote:

Why alwasy with the little digs ? Liverpool had his registration and were not allowed to play him un til the premier league finished the probe into his transfer. What liverpool did, just as United plan to do was legal, if it was not then it would not have been given the green light in the first place.
Do you leave the house with that tinfoil hat of yours on ??

BTW, even though he was touted as having three assists, he only had two, the first was passed by somebody else when it got into the box IIRC before Bes got to it.

This is kind of my point - if what liverpool did is legal (with NO money going to west ham) then why are the PL making a fuss over money going to west ham with the tevez deal. West Ham owned/own neither Mascherano nor Tevez - so why is it they helped Liverpool sign Mascherano, but are blocking United.

God damn incompetent idiots in the PL....

Mitch Connor

The Rooster wrote:

I thought you'd have to be an idiot not to see the difference between the Tevez and Mascherano deals.

Its already been explained on the manc thread.

Can you explain it to me then - cause i haven't seen a satisfactory explanation of why the deals are different.

The Rooster

I think the squad as laid out by Tusky looks pretty impressive. Certainly wouldnt need another left winger IMO. Riise and Aurelio can also play there.

In my opinion the only areas of weakness are at left back (not weak in fairness, but neither are brilliant defenders) and more importantly cover for centre back. Heinze would be the perfect remedy IMO. Will be very interesting to see if we follow-up on this and try to get him to invoke the buy-out.

~Rebel~

Tauren wrote:

This is kind of my point - if what liverpool did is legal (with NO money going to west ham) then why are the PL making a fuss over money going to west ham with the tevez deal. West Ham owned/own neither Mascherano nor Tevez - so why is it they helped Liverpool sign Mascherano, but are blocking United.

God damn incompetent idiots in the PL....

I dont know about this, since the details of the Masch deal was kept very quiet, but is there any chance we took him on just paying his wages with an option to sign at the end for a decent price, not actually giving a cash bonus for taking him? Just thinking this since he wasn't playing and wasn't wanted. It might make some sense under the circumstances as money going to MSI wouldnt occur till next summer. Man U on the other hand will def be paying money, even if its on initial loan deal since he's very much sought after

Kimbot

~Rebel~ wrote:

I dont know about this, since the details of the Masch deal was kept very quiet, but is there any chance we took him on just paying his wages with an option to sign at the end for a decent price, not actually giving a cash bonus for taking him? Just thinking this since he wasn't playing and wasn't wanted. It might make some sense under the circumstances as money going to MSI wouldnt occur till next summer. Man U on the other hand will def be paying money, even if its on initial loan deal since he's very much sought after

Masch was a set 18month loan with an 10-15mill price if we decide to keep him at the end of the loan!!

~Rebel~

is that definately the case? As i've heard a few different scenarios

But anyway if thats the case, my point was more about if we paid West Ham a fee for taking him on loan, or if we just took him off their hands and pay his wages with option to buy next summer.

If its the latter then we could see why there is hassle for Utd but the pool deal went through, because money wouldn't/wont be exchanged until next summer if we decide to take the option of buying him.

marco_polo

Tauren wrote:

Can you explain it to me then - cause i haven't seen a satisfactory explanation of why the deals are different.

It's all about timing, mostly to do with all that Sheff Utd relegation. Big difference, mostly to do with the PL trying to figure out how to explain West Ham now own the player, but yet would have to give the entire transfer fee away.

Jazzy

id stick babel in the first team tbh. i dont see why not. utd. threw ronaldo in when he was "raw", arsenal have done the same with van persie, fabregas and even reyes to some extent, they all came good. id like to rafa have faith and conviction in him, which tbh, i think he will. rafa benitez does not spend £13m without thinking about the first team. that, sum1 up the thread has said, is £1m off our previous record signing, and if rumours are to be believed - £5-7m off the torres fee.
If babel is signed, i want to see him play as much as possible. i want to see him work the kinks out of his game against premier league teams and i want to see him working with and learning from players like gerrard, alonso and co.
there are some things you only learn on the pitch so its best to put him on it. if hes ****, oh well - we've signed an expensive turkey. but what i dont want to see is a reluctance toplay him cos he is "raw". thats a bs excuse and probably means the player will never be any good anyway.

heres what i wanna see next season as a starting XI
4-5-1:

---

Reina/Carson

Finnan/Arbeloa

---

Carragher/Paletta----Agger/Hyypia----Riise/Aurelio

---

Alonso/Lucas---Mascherano/Sissoko


Pennant/Gerrard/Benayoun

---

Gerrard/Veronin/Torres

---

Babel/Kewell/Leto

---

Torres/Kuyt/Crouch/Veronin/Babel

or as a 4-4-2

---

Reina/Carson

Finnan/Arbeloa

---

Carragher/Paletta----Agger/Hyypia----Riise/Aurelio

---

Alonso/Lucas---Mascherano/Sissoko


Gerrard/Pennant/Benayoun

---

Babel/Kewell/Leto

---

Torres/Veronin/Babel

---

Crouch/Kuyt




i like crouch better then i like kuyt as he is a skillful player who provides plenty of options. he can scoe a variety of different goals and despite his heigt, has a natural flair when it comes to football. i think he will make the perfect foil for Torres to work his magic and he is also a nightmare for defenders, especially in europe. his presence will let torres do what he does best and with gerrard and alonso on the pitch, u are gnna get the passes.

I feel sorry for momo sissoko. i think he will leave next summer as Im sure that Mascherano will cement himself in that CMF posistion alongside alonso. wont be too big a deal tho as we will get a goo price and if lucas comes along well, we wont need him anyway. i like him, i think hes a good player with plenty of strong points, but his passing and simple balls let him down too much in important matches.

if you look at the back we are solid. we do need an "everyman" defender in the way Heinze would be as he can play CB aswell. carra is too valueable in the centre to fill this role aswell. tbh, im just not sure who that should be... william gallas perhaps?

the last piece to the puzzle once/if we get babel is a right midfielder. with rafa's tendancy to play 4-5-1 we need sum1 better then pennant there. but in a 4-4-2 gerrard always plays on the right so u can never look for sum1 completely world class as it will shove one of mascherano or alonso off the pitch to accomodate stevie. that is not something i want to see happen because as andy gray says, if you have two CMF's who know their game and posistion then you can build the attack around that. thats what utd are doing with Carrick & Hargreaves and imo, we copy them.
its irritating the fact that we have too many good CMF'rs as it means we will never have an out and out quality right winger (gerrard aint a winger). imo, its the main weakness when u look at the team sheet. we are stuck in a catch 22 and if things dont work out this season then rafa may have to bite the bullet and sell one of our midfielders to accomodate a quality right winger.

The Rooster

The Rooster wrote:

Will be very interesting to see if we follow-up on this and try to get him to invoke the buy-out.

Far as I know he had to inform United he was gonna do it at the end of last season. Also think it only applies if he wants to go abroad. Not 100% sure on this but think thats the case

zing

Tauren wrote:

This is kind of my point - if what liverpool did is legal (with NO money going to west ham) then why are the PL making a fuss over money going to west ham with the tevez deal. West Ham owned/own neither Mascherano nor Tevez - so why is it they helped Liverpool sign Mascherano, but are blocking United.

God damn incompetent idiots in the PL....

The obvious difference between the two situations to me is that West Ham allowed Mascherano to leave and relinquished his registration whereas they are claiming to still hold Tevez's and don't want to release him. There's obviously loads of contractual stuff and who own's who or what, etc.. behind all that which no one knows the details so everyone is just speculating on.

With Mascherano it seemed to be a case of club X is allowing player Y to leave who in turn wants to sign for club Z - pretty straight forward move. With Tevez is seems to be club X currently holds the registration for player Y - Y wants to move to club Z but X doesn't want them to. Different scenario and the PL would understandably expect X to be compensated as a result (that West Ham may not have paid a penny doesn't come into it as that was part of the original contract and has no relevance on the move - do the PL care too much when payments are made between parties when a player signs for a club ?). Odds are West Ham could make this whole thing go away by allowing the player to leave which they probably will do for a few quid.

Oh wait - isn't that just more speculation ?

btw - are they actually blocking Utd from signing Tevez or have they even received the transfer documentation yet ? And did they help Liverpool or did they satisfy themselves with the paperwork ?

mike65

west ham are fairly spending the bucks these days

The next Leeds Utd in my book.

Mike.

The Rooster

Deleted User wrote:

Far as I know he had to inform United he was gonna do it at the end of last season. Also think it only applies if he wants to go abroad. Not 100% sure on this but think thats the case

Having read up on it, I believe that going abroad has nothing to do with it. I read the FIFA regulation and couldnt find anything about going abroad (not the easiest read granted) but also read about Matthew Upson potentially using the regulation to join West Ham this summer, so he was sold at Christmas instead.

If you leave in the summer then you have to give notice after the last game of last season, which clearly Heinze didnt do. He could still choose to rip up his contract in the summer (as Webster of Hearts did) but it would lead to higher compensation to be paid to ManU (Webster had to pay 1.5 times his salary rather than just the 1 years salary that was left on his contract) and the player could get banned (Webster got a 2 week ban I think).

But I dont think there's any reason why Heinze couldnt give his notice (15 days) straight after the first league game of this season. You can do it at any time, doesnt have to be in the summer. It would be messy though and I think a player would only do it in desperate circumstances.

Pepe LeFrits

mike65 wrote:

The next Leeds Utd in my book.

Mike.

If there's any justice in the world.

The Rooster

Tauren wrote:

Can you explain it to me then - cause i haven't seen a satisfactory explanation of why the deals are different.

The initial West Ham deals were both illegal because a third party retained an interest. West Ham were fined for this.

West Ham's interest in Mascherano was ended and Liverpool then arranged a legal deal for Mascherano. The Premier League approved this deal. West Ham played no part in the Mascherano deal.

West Ham persuaded the Premier League that they have full rights to Tevez, so he was allowed to play. Unlike the Liverpool/Mascherano deal, West Ham have to be the other side of the deal for Tevez.

Regardless of how little we know of the legal complexities, it is easy to see how the deals are now totally different.

Unless the whole Tevez/West Ham deal is unravelled and shown to be the falsehood that most of us think it is (which would have to result in big punishment for the Hammers and in a worst case scenario could even result in a ban for Tevez for playing illegally) then there will be difficulties for ManU.

The obvious way around it is for ManU to pay West Ham to buy the player outright and for West Ham to pay Kia the money out as compensation. But this would mean risk for United as they're making a big initial outlay and risk for Kia if West Ham try to do him out of some/all of the money. I'm not sure if a loan deal with option could work in a similar way with West Ham as intermediary.

The Rooster

Jazzy wrote:

Gerrard/Pennant/Benayoun

---

Babel/Kewell/Leto


i like crouch better then i like kuyt as he is a skillful player who provides plenty of options. he can scoe a variety of different goals and despite his heigt, has a natural flair when it comes to football. i think he will make the perfect foil for Torres to work his magic and he is also a nightmare for defenders, especially in europe. his presence will let torres do what he does best and with gerrard and alonso on the pitch, u are gnna get the passes.

Is it correct to put Leto as a serious option for this season - or should he be treated like the two new Hungarians, an hope for future years?

Personally I think Kuyt will be a far better partner for Torres. I think he'll be better at holding the ball up and then releasing the pace of Torres. I do agree that Crouch is a good option for Europe where they can't handle his gait.

Stky10

The Rooster wrote:

The initial West Ham deals were both illegal because a third party retained an interest. West Ham were fined for this.

AFAIK its not the third party ownership that was illegal, its that Joorbachian had a clause in the contract allowing him at any time to move the players onto some other club. Thus a third party had control over team selection, ie theoretically (if the agreement had not been ripped up - the farce that was) before the last game of last season, Sheffield United could have paid Joorbachian to move Tevez to another club, thus making him ineligible for the game against ManU that he scored in and that kept them up.

Thats what was illegal..

The Premier League has dug itself a hole on this in trying not to get West Ham relegated, and its going to come back to haunt them. Too many blind eyes being turned.

Stky10

mike65 wrote:

The next Leeds Utd in my book.

Isn't there an Icelandic billionaire backing them??. I know the millionaire biscuit magnate is the face of the consortium that took them over, but I think its the billionaire that put up most of the money.

PHB

So in conclusion, nobody knows what the story is with Mascherano, except that Liverpool probably have to pay something at the end of this season?

zing

PHB wrote:

So in conclusion, nobody knows what the story is with Mascherano, except that Liverpool probably have to pay something at the end of this season?

Yeah - and it only took us close to 30 posts to come to that conclusion

And "probably" is a good word there - everyone who believes it is a loan deal believes it's a loan deal with an option to purchase which of course may or may not be the case.

PHB

Does that mean that if Mascherano wants, he could leave Liverpool next season, or is the option only on Liverpools side?

marco_polo

PHB wrote:

So in conclusion, nobody knows what the story is with Mascherano, except that Liverpool probably have to pay something at the end of this season?

Succinctly put. You could have saved us all a couple of hours if you had posted earlier

marco_polo

PHB wrote:

Does that mean that if Mascherano wants, he could leave Liverpool next season, or is the option only on Liverpools side?

I would assume so. If it is like most first options there would be an agreed price for the player subject to agreement of terms. If the player doesn't agree terms then the deal is off. I would assume that any club worth their salt would have clauses to recoup any first option/loan fees paid out in such a case.

Looking to reunite the Argie twins the season after next PHB?

Mitch Connor

PHB wrote:

So in conclusion, nobody knows what the story is with Mascherano, except that Liverpool probably have to pay something at the end of this season?

BUT - who is that money going to be paid to; cause if it doesn't go to West Ham......

jesus_thats_gre

There is little or no difference between the Tevez and Mash deals except for the fact that West Ham werr happy to give up the registration rights for Mascherano because it suited them while they are unwilling to do with the same for Tevez. They do not own the player but hold the players registration. As far as the PL are concerned, the club that holds the registration rights should see the transfer fee. That is the only stumbling block in the Tevez transfer to United as far as I can see.

And yes, Mash is on loan and could leave in 12 or 18 months time - whenever the loan deal is up. Liverpool have first choice on signing him on a permanent basis though in the same way as United will have first choice on Tevez at the end of the "loan" deal.

marco_polo

Tauren wrote:

BUT - who is that money going to be paid to; cause if it doesn't go to West Ham......

They will get a £30M fee for him.

....And in a curious co-incidense the petty cash column in the accounts ledger will rise by the exact same amount.

PHB

marco_polo wrote:

Looking to reunite the Argie twins the season after next PHB?

Thought had crossed my mind :P Although I was just wondering whether or not if Real Madrid or something come in for him, what Liverpool could do about it.

Mr Alan

ha ha ha, more chance of tevez and masch lining up for liverpool than for United.

afraid that central midfield of yours is going to have to remain sub-standard for some time yet

PHB

maybe

Daemonic

But Babel's agent Winnie Haatrecht has issued a note of caution as he considered any possible impact a move may have on the winger's career.

"The route is very clear," said Haatrecht. "First Liverpool and Ajax need to get an agreement about a transfer, that's step one.

"After that we want to know what the technical staff of Liverpool has planned for Ryan.

"The sporting perspective must be totally clear. Only then can Ryan make a good choice.

"Of course Liverpool is a great club. But it must not be that he needs to fight with eight strikers for two positions. We must also look at the development of Ryan."

Everyone has Babel listed as a winger, his agent seems to think different. Hopefully its not another FSP job of trying to get a striker to play on the wing.

Stky10

PHB wrote:

Thought had crossed my mind :P Although I was just wondering whether or not if Real Madrid or something come in for him, what Liverpool could do about it.

At the end of the day (to quote roy), mascherano himself will have the final say on where he goes. If Joorbachian sent him to Madrid, he could refuse any contract Madrid offered him. And Mascherano has been particularly full of praise for Rafa since he has joined (being rescued from West Ham reserves will do that do that to you).

But we're all realistic enough to realise that money doesn't just talk.. it screams..

PHB

So if Joorbachian got a bid from Real for say 100 million, Mascherano would have the choice between Liverpool who would pay the pre-arranged fee or Real?

marco_polo

Daemonic wrote:

Everyone has Babel listed as a winger, his agent seems to think different. Hopefully its not another FSP job of trying to get a striker to play on the wing.

Do positions mean much at Ajax? You know total football and all that sort of thing?

Having no clue about what formation Ajax play or where babel plays, I would stab a guess that he is usually on the right or left of a front three, so it wouldn't be a stretch to see him as a winger. Their main concern is probably to do with Rafa's rotation policy moreso than the system he actually plays in.

Stky10

PHB wrote:

So if Joorbachian got a bid from Real for say 100 million, Mascherano would have the choice between Liverpool who would pay the pre-arranged fee or Real?

Real usually only spend big money on stars... not defensive midfielders.. (besides they already have Gago.. )

Would depend on the fine print of the contract they signed I presume, whether Liverpool get first choice on whether to keep him or not for a set amount of money. I'd imagine they'd have that in the contract, but then it wouldn't surprise me what ridiculousness Rick Parry would get up to.

marco_polo

PHB wrote:

So if Joorbachian got a bid from Real for say 100 million, Mascherano would have the choice between Liverpool who would pay the pre-arranged fee or Real?

Only Real or Chelsea or Peter Risdale would be that stupid. I'm pretty sure the owners would be obliged to reject all other offers for the player.

In real life what would happen is Real would let it be known that they were interested through some unoffical dodgy channels and if Mascherano wanted he could then refuse to make the deal permanent. Real could then bid roughly the same amount as Liverpool a few weeks later and sign him up.

How long the ensuing compensation battle would be is anyones guess, depends on the fine print in the contracts I suppose.