Liverpool Signings and General Rumours Thread

evil_seed

The Heinze deal is looking more & more likely

http://icliverpool.icnetwork.co.uk/0500liverpoolfc/0100news/tm_headline=gabriel-heinze-see-you-in-court-fergie%26method=full%26objectid=19485967%26siteid=50061-name_page.html

~Rebel~

eirebhoy wrote:

El Zhar did look good. Who is he anyway?:o

French kid who plays for Morocco (parents Moroccan). Was impressive at 2005 youth championships and then for St Etienne so pool bought him about a year ago. Was always good in the reserves. I've only seen the hour or so he played in total last season and now today, but he definately looks impressive alright! Could see him going out on loan maybe this year.

missingtime

evil_seed wrote:

The Heinze deal is looking more & more likely

http://icliverpool.icnetwork.co.uk/0500liverpoolfc/0100news/tm_headline=gabriel-heinze-see-you-in-court-fergie%26method=full%26objectid=19485967%26siteid=50061-name_page.html

Ahh i'm totally sick of it now. I like the player but, surprisingly enough for me, the inherent dislike of manchester utd has come out.

PHB

Once/if he joins the pool he will go from a cracking player (according to some Man U fans) to a rubbish third string player....

It all depends on whether you get Heinze pre-injury or Heinze post-injury. post-injury Heinze hasn't been great, but I think with a full pre-season ahead of him, he should be able to get back to his old strengths.

In terms of the letter thing, I'm pretty sure there's no way that could be viewed as a legally binding contract. I guess the foreign interest has dried up for him, but as far as I can discern, nobodies quite sure whether it's his agent or it's him who is trying to drum up a move.

Dont be at yourself

Either way, his position at Man Utd is quickly becoming untenable, and they may just have to cut their losses at this stage.

PHB

Possibly, it all depends on where it's coming from, his agent or him. Considering he helped convince Tevez to join United, he can't really be that far away from United. He still could have a big role in the squad. I'd say it'll become settled very quickly, not because of United, but cause Rafa will find somebody else.

mike65

Anyone know of any MU fansites?

Mike.

Daemonic

mike65 wrote:

Anyone know of any MU fansites?

Mike.

Mike is going over to the darkside???:eek:

PHB

mike65 wrote:

Anyone know of any MU fansites?

Mike.

Two decent ones are:

www.redissue.co.uk

www.redcafe.net

mike65

Just wondering what the faithful are making of the Heinze business. Ah cheers PHB

Mike.

zing

PHB wrote:

Considering he helped convince Tevez to join United

Tevez had a choice ? Must have been a very strange feeling for him to not have had Joorabchian pulling his strings

For those that aren't too sure - yes I am being sarcastic

zAbbo

mike65 wrote:

Anyone know of any MU fansites?

Mike.

some that I've read have been a bit anti-heinze now, in a kind of 'we dont want him he's rubbish anyway' type way (similar to a few posts round here)

Haven't read any mention about who's their left full backup (JOS )

PHB

It'll be Johnny Evans actually after Heinze, but that's for the United thread.

Since all the focus seems to be on getting a new defender, and Rafa said he was looking for one more player, does that mean that's the end of improving the atttack? Are you happy with the attacking options you have?

zAbbo

PHB wrote:

It'll be Johnny Evans actually after Heinze, but that's for the United thread.

Since all the focus seems to be on getting a new defender, and Rafa said he was looking for one more player, does that mean that's the end of improving the atttack? Are you happy with the attacking options you have?

Don't think I've seen much of him, obviously not as reliable as an International player of Heinze's experience, but trust in youth an all that.

Attack wise, I'm happy, Lose Garcia, God, Bellamy, Gonzalez, Zenden, replaced with Benayoun, Torres, and Vorinin as well as the lesser experienced players like Babel and Lucas.

It's the old summer time trade up from Rafa, ala Footie Manager

Thanx 4 The Fish

Well in fairness baz the united fans don't see him as all that good any more anyway so probably no loss to them and the new young lad is the best thing since the last best thing.

mike65

God lands 2 year deal with Cardiff.

Mike.

PHB

zabbo wrote:

Don't think I've seen much of him, obviously not as reliable as an International player of Heinze's experience, but trust in youth an all that.

Youth is what it's all about imo, even if it means weakening our overall squad in the short term. Any club that wants to challenge Chelsea in the long run needs to be able to develop their youth.

gary the great

Surprised God has signed for Cardiff, think he could of done a job at a newly promoted team.

As for the Auxerre game, man that was borng.
Again, Babel looked astonishingly poor. Terrible first touch and didnt really seem to bothered. i know its pre season but he should be trying to impress in his early days. At the moment its looking like day light robbery for 10mil, his touch reminds me of Troares.

El Zhar on the other hand, he looks good. Good first touch and not afraid to run at players. Would do him good to go out on loan for a season.

As has been said, Benyoun looked our most lively player and looks well up for it. i reckon hes going to be a really valuable member of our first team over the season.

~Rebel~

looking at our performances so far our best wing partnership could be Pennant right and Benayoun left, this of course depends on the fitness of Kewell, obviously if he were to come back in great shape he'd be right up there.

On Babel the more i think about it, its probably not too bad the way he's playing. Yeah he's been poor, but he has only been there a week, doesn't know anyone (bar kuyt a bit probably) and is probably a bit out of practice after his hollidays. id say he'd have been doing next to nothing since the U-21's finished. If he's still poor in the friendlies coming up to the start of the season in a few weeks, say the Feyenord match, then it might be a worry. He just looks a little sluggish, like his feet aren't doing quite what he wants them to, which is anything but what he looked like in the U-21's.

griffdaddy

I'd say Babel's fairly knackered to be honest, give him a while to recover and he'll be grand. How many of the games did he play in the u21's?

Stky10

Don't suppose there is a stream for the Peterborough match?.

Its only going to be youngsters playing.. but still...

~Rebel~

i think he played 5 games over about 14 days. was man of the match in the final.

I was watching a Huntelaar compilation recently and Babel seemed to be involved in a lot of his goals.


<EDIT>

Just found a great link there;
http://www.uefa.com/competitions/under21/teams/team=200095/index.html

If you scroll down to the fixtures and click on the DATE of the match, it takes you to highlights of each match. Only about 2 mins each, but its possibly a better reflection of what Babel can do with the ball at his feet then we're seeing currently.

looder

gary the great wrote:

Babel looked astonishingly poor. . At the moment its looking like day light robbery for 10mil, his touch reminds me of Troares.

NO

his 1st touch can't be as bad as Djimi's

copacetic

just a note that in weds game babel displayed some very neat touches and wasn't on long enough to get going. He beat 4 or 5 men on the edge of the area with quick feet to make room for a shot that he scuffed. He didn't look great on Fri but Wed was fine, so it's one poor game, if you could call it that. Lets not get carried away.

Daemonic

Just checked the highlights from the Uefa site. Obviously a 2 minute highlight package isn't a lot to go on but Babel did seem to be involved in about half the Dutch goals and looked good running at defenders. Even managed a couple of step-overs ala Ronnie.:D

copacetic

Daemonic wrote:

Just checked the highlights from the Uefa site. Obviously a 2 minute highlight package isn't a lot to go on but Babel did seem to be involved in about half the Dutch goals and looked good running at defenders. Even managed a couple of step-overs ala Ronnie.:D

whelan?

dardoz

copacetic wrote:

whelan?

haha, that was my first thought as well

Lex Luthor

Babel will need time to recover from the tournament and settle in. I think after Xmas we will start to see why we paid 10m for him

p.pete

copacetic wrote:

whelan?

Rosenthal maybe?

mayordenis

he looked more than decent against bremen,
and i thought he just looked completely knackered against auxerre,
time and a little rest before anyone makes judgements.

Thanx 4 The Fish

p.pete wrote:

Rosenthal maybe?

Moran ???

copacetic

p.pete wrote:

Rosenthal maybe?

maybe if it was blazeovers rather than stepovers

RE*AC*TOR

mayordenis wrote:

he looked more than decent against bremen,
and i thought he just looked completely knackered against auxerre,
time and a little rest before anyone makes judgements.

Jaysus, its yourself, welcome back.

The Rooster

copacetic wrote:

just a note that in weds game babel displayed some very neat touches and wasn't on long enough to get going. He beat 4 or 5 men on the edge of the area with quick feet to make room for a shot that he scuffed. He didn't look great on Fri but Wed was fine, so it's one poor game, if you could call it that. Lets not get carried away.

A tad of an exaggeration to say he beat 4 or 5 players! He didnt go by anyone. He did well, in that he did a little trick and made room for himself to get a shot in. Up to that he was anonymous, but he was only on for 15 mins of so.

Against Auxerre, he was dire. And worse, disinterested.

Great comment by McManaman at half time, which went something like:
"That was Babel's best piece of work for the half - got out of the way and left it for Stevie"

Early days of course so you can't read a whole lot into it.

Benayoun looks quality. And El Zhar looked good in comparison to Babel, mainly because unike Babel he was playing with enthusiasm!

That was some sitter Crouch missed. If only he could head the ball....

Thanx 4 The Fish

Although another reason El Zhar looked better could be because he is not wrecked out after playing so many games of late and has probably just come back from holidays himself.

PHB

It's early pre-season! If you base anybody's performace on that you're just being silly. Even later pre-season it's still hard to judge, wait till the new season.

copacetic

The Rooster wrote:

A tad of an exaggeration to say he beat 4 or 5 players! He didnt go by anyone. He did well, in that he did a little trick and made room for himself to get a shot in. Up to that he was anonymous, but he was only on for 15 mins of so.

well maybe a little but he was surrounded by 5 of them, went to go one way, then the other, back the other way and then went right, lost them all and got a shot in. He didn't go by them, but he did 'beat them', it looked like there was absolutely nothing on, so was pretty impressive.

Stky10

Argentina (and Insua who started all the games) just won the World U-20 tournament.

Second youngest in the squad.. he looks a decent prospect

zAbbo

He's only on a 18month loan, not sure of the exact details after that.

Stky10

zabbo wrote:

He's only on a 18month loan, not sure of the exact details after that.

Wikipedia (Yeah I know) says he'll cost a million to make it permanent

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emiliano_Ins%C3%BAa

Thanx 4 The Fish

If he is progressing as well as it sounds then I would say we will be happy to pay it

The Rooster

Thanx 4 The Fish wrote:

Although another reason El Zhar looked better could be because he is not wrecked out after playing so many games of late and has probably just come back from holidays himself.

Do you really believe that?

If he's wrecked now, whats he going to be like at the start of the season after a couple more weeks of training and friendly games!! If he's wrecked, do you not think Benitez might have given him a week or two off like he's giving Mascherano? Or maybe Rafa will re-assess and give him a week off now....

I think Babel's struggling to fit into the system at the moment. He looks lost when he's playing. In the few minutes he's played for Liverpool, he's been on the left, on the right and up front. I guess he's been moved around to try and get him into the game, but it probably just confused him more.

And by no means am I saying he won't come good. Just that he's been poor so far.

RAFA ON HEINZE

"We made an offer which they rejected. The lawyers are now working on it and so we have to wait. He's a good player."

Sounds like Liverpool believe that ManU are obliged to accept the offer - therefore the lawyers are on the case!

zing

Finn gets a new 3 year deal
http://www.liverpoolfc.tv/news/drilldown/N156452070723-0739.htm

Not bad for a 30 year old and very well deserved considering how well & consistently he's played over the last few years

Thanx 4 The Fish

Has been one of the most solid players in the premiership for the last two seasons now, fully deserving the contract.

Chardee MacDennis

you know i dont really believe all this hype in asia for the team - how come other teams actualy show pics of these 'loads of screaming locals'. dunno the whole thing seems a bit weird.

~Rebel~

The Rooster wrote:

Do you really believe that?

If he's wrecked now, whats he going to be like at the start of the season after a couple more weeks of training and friendly games!! If he's wrecked, do you not think Benitez might have given him a week or two off like he's giving Mascherano? Or maybe Rafa will re-assess and give him a week off now....

The U-21 tournament finished on June 23rd. The Copa America finished on July 15th. Thats why Masch is getting his extra break and Babel isn't. Im still sticking with my reasons for his less then dazzling performances. He's just after holidays which in turn followed a very long season so is a bit wrecked and will take a little bit of time to get back into it. It was his first week in a new club, in a new country and he's not exactly settled comfortable and confident yet. Also as you said, he's being shifted around every 10minutes. Bit of time and im sure he'll be fine.

Lex Luthor

The Rooster wrote:

RAFA ON HEINZE

"We made an offer which they rejected. The lawyers are now working on it and so we have to wait. He's a good player."

Sounds like Liverpool believe that ManU are obliged to accept the offer - therefore the lawyers are on the case!

another reason why Rafa is a legend...

don't think any other Liverpool manager in recent years would have the balls to put in an offer for one of Man U's top players

The mind games have already started and its only July

~Rebel~

Lex Luthor wrote:

don't think any other Liverpool manager in recent years would have the balls to put in an offer for one of Man U's top players

I dunno about that, seems like they're quite happy for him to leave, just ideally not to us. He seems to be out of Ferguson's thoughts for the first team with Evra and some of the youth players. Im sure they'd be happy to keep him if things turn around but I dont see hiim as one of their top players anymore, especially after being backup for 2 years (i know through injury the year before last)

Mr Alan

Think Utd fans vastly over rate Evra and i'd be happy to see Heinze join us.

Can't believe PHB is being the voice of reason with the Babel issue. True he didn't look good in either of the games, but i wouldn't be too worried about that at all, wait till the season starts.

One thing that would slightly worry me is that in the Auxerre game, his attitude seemed to be pretty poor. Hope Rafa,Stevie and Carra pay him a visit and sort that out!

RE*AC*TOR

I think in an ideal world Ferguson would like to keep Heinze, but Heinze's estimation of his place in the team, and Ferguson's are different. At the moment Evra is first choice.

I rate Heinze, I think he has a great work ethic. He can play centre half and left back, and he is argentinian. All things Benitez likes - versatile and argentinian. However, if the transfer proceeds this way - with lawyers involved, its only going to cause problems for Heinze with the angry ManU fans.