Liverpool Rumours And General Discussion 2007/2008

spockety

yom 1 wrote: »

Im more worried by the fact that Tony Barrett rates him as Rafa's number 1 target. If thats true then its a disaster and I think Utd Chelsea and Arsenal will widen the gap to us next season.

Smoke and mirrors.

Tony Barrett is obviously a co-conspirator.

RE*AC*TOR

Barry is a very decent player. Can cover a few positions - which Rafa always values. I'd be happy to see him in a red shirt. Just ask any Villa fans how good he is.

Mr Alan

Cheers Yom, i wasnt being cheeky, genuinely missed it when reading the article.

as for Barry, yes he is a very good player.

difference between a title winning team and non title winning team? doubt it (although carrick made the difference for Utd and i'd definately rate Barry higher than him).

But if there wasnt a couple of exciting other signings,i'd be disappointed.

zAbbo

Barry is an exceptional player, but I'd see him as part of a 3 man midfield, and I'm not sure if he's a player we desperately need?

Would he be happy playing LB?

He should easily have 50 England caps, if it wasn't for the fact that mangers often choose to shoehorn ego's into the team rather than pick the best team.

The fact that both himself and Gerrard made there débuts together, yet SG has 65 caps speaks volumes for all the managers since Keegan

Malice

Barry will surely be a contender for the Left Back/Left Midfield area of the pitch. The fact that he can play in the centre is just a bonus. I would definitely prefer to jettison Riise rather than Alonso!

yom 1

Mr Alan wrote: »

Cheers Yom, i wasnt being cheeky, genuinely missed it when reading the article.

No problem

spockety wrote:

Smoke and mirrors.

Tony Barrett is obviously a co-conspirator.

lol can just see himself and rafa sitting down cooking up some headlines

RE*AC*TOR wrote:

Barry is a very decent player. Can cover a few positions - which Rafa always values. I'd be happy to see him in a red shirt. Just ask any Villa fans how good he is.

I think he is too. But I was hoping for another big name top quality signing this summer. Someone to get excited about. But this seems to suggest another season of decent squad type players. I was hoping for a summer of less is more when it came to signings and not another clear out and rebuild season

Shaque attack

What do people think rafa's plans are for barry if we do get him?

Will we be saying goodbye to alonso and be having barry sitting in beside mascha, or will it be a case if him being out on the left to plug that very big gap out there?

Personally, i'd like to see Barry out on the left, i think he'd do a good job there

zing

IrishMike wrote: »

Think torres and gerrard should be basically told enjoy the next 2 weeks off.

Isn't Torres just 1 goal of RVN's debut season record ? If so I think Torres should be given every chance to better that record.

Would be great to see some of the reserves get a chance to impress and
see what they are actually made of.

Agreed but think we can expect a strong team this weekend for the last home game of the season. Maybe next week he'll tinker more but I'd be surprised to see too many 1st teamers rested this weekend.

jesus_thats_gre

I can't believe that people are complaining that we are singing Barry.. He is an extremely good central midfielder, a good left back and can also play on the left. You need players that can offer you stuff like this if you have any hope of competing.

NotWormBoy

jesus_thats_gre wrote: »

I can't believe that people are complaining that we are singing Barry.. He is an extremely good central midfielder, a good left back and can also play on the left. You need players that can offer you stuff like this if you have any hope of competing.

I think many people are wary that he would be taking up valuable transfer funds that might be spent better elsewhere - such as a good attacking winger. Not that he wouldn't do a good job on the left mid, mind you.

IrishMike

jesus_thats_gre wrote: »

I can't believe that people are complaining that we are singing Barry.. He is an extremely good central midfielder, a good left back and can also play on the left. You need players that can offer you stuff like this if you have any hope of competing.

He is a more versatile version of Alonso.
Thing is if we are keeping Alonso the money should be spent on a first choice fullback and a first choice winger before further strenghtening our strongest
position on the field

Helix

jesus_thats_gre wrote: »

I can't believe that people are complaining that we are singing Barry

ahaha for 10 million you wont be signing him anyway

PHB

Barry for 10 million would be a great deal. Considering though that Carrick as 17 and Hargreaves for 18, I'd be utterly amazed if he went for that low a price.

I don't think he's top top class, but he'd really help the squad, and a bit of competitin for Alonso might bring out the best in him.

evil_seed

I'd be real happy with signing barry. very versatile player and very good from set pieces which tbh we were very poor from this year

citytillidie

He could be a good buy but i would not spend 10M on him what about a swap deal with Carlson going to Villa.

PHB

I don't think Villa want Carson, his England chance seems to have ****ed him up.

MON say its something like Caron + Crouch for Barry or something, which wouldn't be terrible business. I'd say he'll try go for some cash (enough to fund his other keeper, apparently he's after some American dude) and Crouch.

Helix

citytillidie wrote: »

He could be a good buy but i would not spend 10M on him what about a swap deal with Carlson going to Villa.

lol

hes gonna cost minimum £14m

also, we dont want carson by the looks of it

Helix

PHB wrote: »

I don't think Villa want Carson, his England chance seems to have ****ed him up.

MON say its something like Caron + Crouch for Barry or something, which wouldn't be terrible business. I'd say he'll try go for some cash (enough to fund his other keeper, apparently he's after some American dude) and Crouch.

crouch plus £8m

Cyrus

Helix wrote: »

crouch plus £8m

wont be crouch + 8, maybe carson plus 8

the lad wants out of villa, and wants to join liverpool, itll happen and at less than villa value him at

Helix

Cyrus wrote: »

wont be crouch + 8, maybe carson plus 8

the lad wants out of villa, and wants to join liverpool, itll happen and at less than villa value him at

you seem to forget that therell be other clubs after him too, clubs who actually have money to spend and wont be relying on player deals


mon on the deal:

Liverpool haven't made a straight cash offer. They've made an offer involving a mish-mash of nameless player exchanges

we dont want carson, so it wont be him. if we wanted carson we wouldnt be after jaskalinnen and guzman

and here

http://www.birminghammail.net/birmingham-sport/aston-villa-fc/aston-villa-news/2008/05/02/peter-crouch-set-to-return-to-aston-villa-in-14m-gareth-barry-deal-97319-20854205/

GARETH Barry has moved a significant step closer to joining Liverpool this summer with Martin O'Neill set to take Peter Crouch in part-exchange. Barry is expected to join the Reds in a deal worth around £14million with Crouch and £8million coming Villa's way.

Cyrus

we'll see

doesnt matter who else wants him if he wants to goto liverpool

NotWormBoy

Helix wrote: »

we dont want carson, so it wont be him. if we wanted carson we wouldnt be after jaskalinnen and guzman

Unless O'Neill's trying to keep the price of Carson down by declaring an interest in other keepers. Just a thought.

Helix

Cyrus wrote: »

we'll see

doesnt matter who else wants him if he wants to goto liverpool

he never said he wanted to go to liverpool, he said he owed it to himself to make a decision on whether he wanted champions league football and to be challenging for honours next season

if arsenal, united or chelsea came in for him hed take any of them above chelsea

i have a feeling he'll be an arsenal player come august, we just havent heard anything coz wenger has a bit of class and doesnt generally discuss players under contract or use the media to tap them up for him

Helix

NotWormBoy wrote: »

Unless O'Neill's trying to keep the price of Carson down by declaring an interest in other keepers. Just a thought.

have you seen carson in the last 6 months?

2 clean sheets since december iirc

the chaps gone to the dogs after the england thing

yom 1

Is crouch really only valued at £6m. Considering Bent went for 16.5 last year I'd have thought we would get at least £10m for Crouch

NotWormBoy

Helix wrote: »

have you seen carson in the last 6 months?

2 clean sheets since december iirc

the chaps gone to the dogs after the england thing

Indeed, he does rather seem to have lost a bit of confidence alright.

yom 1

Helix wrote: »

i have a feeling he'll be an arsenal player come august, we just havent heard anything coz wenger has a bit of class and doesnt generally discuss players under contract or use the media to tap them up for him

If that's suppose to be a dig at Rafa its a pi$$ poor attempt!

Helix

yom 1 wrote: »

If that's suppose to be a dig at Rafa its a pi$$ poor attempt!

no its a dig at teams who use the media to tap up players, any team, any league, any country

PiE

Barry is not worth Crouch + 8m. A straight swap would be a fair deal. It's a strange deal though because unless Alonso is definitely gone, we don't really need Barry and Villa don't really need Crouch at all, since they have Carew. But if Alonso does go, surely there are better ways to spend the money raised. Like on Ashley Young :v

Helix

liverpool fans seem to be hugely underrating barry

the bloke is worth 14m easy in the current market

7 goals and 11 assists isnt particularly bad in a team thats not hugely consistent, especially when you consider he plays with stilliyan petrov in the middle. he can play left side, center, and left back and is a proven leader

great set piece delivery, decent crosser of the ball, doesnt give the ball away much, strong in the tackle

zAbbo

He's a good player, but we're not short of CM's at the moment, so either he plays as LB, or CM, or LM.

If it's LB, there are better, and it would be playing him out of position
If it's CM, we already have equal or better players, unless Alonso is going
If it's LM, we don't play with a LM...

It's also pretty disgraceful the way this news has come out, considering our season is over, but Villa still have something to play for.

Davey Devil

If Liverpool play Barry anywhere but central midfield they won't be getting the best out of him.

Helix

dead right

plus hes the perfect foil for gerrard as we saw for england

Chardee MacDennis

i would say Barry would fit into the 4-5-1 system and 4-4-2, one advantage of him over Alonso is he sits a bit further up the park which was really missing against chelsea on wednesday.

i would imagine though he is mainly being bought for improving our record against the top 3 clubs so we could go to united, chelsea and arsenal with a flat 4 man midfield somehting like this

Gerrard - Alonso - Masch - Barry

---

Babel

---

Torres

also he is another captain which benitez values and some cover for LB.

so there is a place for him in the squad but 8m plus crouch is too high, hopefully 6m plus Crouch.

Helix

Call_me_al wrote: »

so there is a place for him in the squad but 8m plus crouch is too high, hopefully 6m plus Crouch.

you seem to be under the illusion we'll sell him for less than we think hes worth

PiE

You seem to be under the impression that he's some sort of messiah.

He'd be a good squad player.

Chardee MacDennis

Helix wrote: »

you seem to be under the illusion we'll sell him for less than we think hes worth

we paid 7.5 million for Crouch - his value should not have dropped since he has signed and he is a better player now. Liverpool tend to get less than they should for most players they sell and i would expect 6-7m cash but i would say Benitez values him around the 8-9m mark. therefore the deal would be around 14-15m - which i think is a fair valuation of Barry.

Helix

PiE wrote: »

You seem to be under the impression that he's some sort of messiah.

He'd be a good squad player.

no i never said he was a messiah, i said hes worth £14m in the current market

hes a guarenteed first xi player if he signs for you btw

Helix

Call_me_al wrote: »

we paid 7.5 million for Crouch - his value should not have dropped since he has signed and he is a better player now. Liverpool tend to get less than they should for most players they sell and i would expect 6-7m cash but i would say Benitez values him around the 8-9m mark. therefore the deal would be around 14-15m - which i think is a fair valuation of Barry.

crouch has barely played and hasnt exactly been prolific when he has this season

£8m plus crouch is fair imo

id rather finnan + crouch + £5m tho

Mr Alan

Helix wrote: »

hes a guarenteed first xi player if he signs for you btw

You do know who Rafa Benitez is dont you?

Cyrus

Helix wrote: »

no i never said he was a messiah, i said hes worth £14m in the current market

hes a guarenteed first xi player if he signs for you btw

guaranteed first 11, not a hope

for a start theres only 3/4 liverpools that are guaranteed first 11

secondly he isnt as good as, gerrard, alonso or mascherano.

anyway reports from liverpool is that he has agreed terms in principle, which would explain why rafa is confident.

Helix

Cyrus wrote: »

reports from liverpool is that he has agreed terms in principle

howd he manage that then?

we havent accepted a bid

Cyrus

thro his agent i would imagine, how do you think these things actually work :rolleyes:

oh and benitez in an interview today

Gareth Barry is a player you have been linked with, is there anything in that at all?

I read about a lot of names and different players in the press. I also read about my own players, but we do not have any comment. We continue working and that is it.

Chardee MacDennis

you dont have to accept a bid, a team can give permission to a player to talk to another team before any deal is agreed.

Helix

yeah

we're definitely gonna give barry permission to talk to liverpool despite them offering us a deal we're not interested in and following them running blabbing to the media, which our manager was publicly angry about on the eve of a must win match for the club

of course we would

Cyrus wrote: »

thro his agent i would imagine, how do you think these things actually work

you cant talk to a player without the clubs permission, unless youre suggesting youve tapped him up?

Chardee MacDennis

Helix wrote: »

you cant talk to a player without the clubs permission, unless youre suggesting youve tapped him up?

admit to nothing Cyrus, Helix could be on to the FA....:rolleyes:

Helix wrote: »

yeah

we're definitely gonna give barry permission to talk to liverpool despite them offering us a deal we're not interested in and following them running blabbing to the media, which our manager was publicly angry about on the eve of a must win match for the club

of course we would

atletico gave us permission to talk to Torres without a fee being agree, as did Benfica with Simao.

EDIT: i may have missed it but could you show where Benitez has said something about Barry other than saying he is a good player.

Helix

Call_me_al wrote: »

EDIT: i may have missed it but could you show where Benitez has said something about Barry other than saying he is a good player.

liverpool use the echo to leak anything they want in the press in return for exclusives

everyone knows that

Helix

Call_me_al wrote: »

atletico gave us permission to talk to Torres without a fee being agree, as did Benfica with Simao

somewhat different things

1) we dont want to sell barry
2) mon wont let anyone talk to anyone til after the season, nor will he talk to any clubs
3) mon deemed the bid unacceptable
4) barry is club captain and has said hes not going to do anything until after the summer regarding decisions on his future

why would we let you talk to the club captain less than 24 hours before a must win game that could see us take 5th place in the league?

jesus_thats_gre

I originally thought that Barry would only be signed if Alonso was going. Having thought about it, I actually think he will be signed even if Alonso is staying. I think that it is going to happen as part of Gerard effectively being promoted to become a forward player and no longer considered to be part of the midfield.

Also, iirc, there were reports a few months ago that Gerard pleaded with Rafa to go for Barry after Barry's run in the English set up when Gerard and him played together when Lampard was injured.

Promoting Gerard to become what is effectively a forward, retaining Torres and Crouch would also take the pressure of signing a striker off somewhat. A quality striker is going to cost anything from £15 million upwards - closer to £25 or £30 million if we are realistic.

Along with signing Barry for between 5 and 8 plus a player, quite a bit of cash will remain free for wingers.

Alonso/Barry and Masch will playing against the tougher opposition. Alonso/Masch and Barry will play agaisnt middle of the road opposition the Lucas and whoever will play against the weaker opposition.

jesus_thats_gre

Helix wrote: »

liverpool use the echo to leak anything they want in the press in return for exclusives

everyone knows that

Helix wrote: »

somewhat different things

1) we dont want to sell barry
2) mon wont let anyone talk to anyone til after the season, nor will he talk to any clubs
3) mon deemed the bid unacceptable
4) barry is club captain and has said hes not going to do anything until after the summer regarding decisions on his future

why would we let you talk to the club captain less than 24 hours before a must win game that could see us take 5th place in the league?

You are making quite a matter statements there as if you know them to be facts.

Instead of getting ultra worked up and pointing the finger, why not take a deep breath and see what happens. For all you know, it could have been Barry telling Gerard that he would like to sign a few months back that has prompted all this.