I would say that this is one of the very few pro's for signing him. Along with being relatively young and quick, he does have experience at playing at the top level so the weight of expectation should not get to him as much as it did with Carroll, Downing etc. Furthermore - Diame, Sigurdsson and Kalou for a combined fee of £6.8m?
Combined fee that aint too bad. I know it is not the names we want but it gives us some more depth, power, pace, and with sig someone with an eye for goal, good at set pieces ( please not Adam mark II!!!), and some pretty good service as well. I hope to see at least one 20 mil signing that is not an overrated player but someone of some pretty high quality. That would be a nice lift.
Come on boys! Look at his Premiership performances. He flatters to deceive, scuffs many of his shots and often picks the wrong option. Chelsea have allowed him to run down his contract and, for me, that speaks volumes. If I were to take any Chelsea forward then it would be either Sturridge or Malouda.
Is it me or does this sound like Kuyt? If you compare the two now I'd take Kalou, especially if it's on relatively low wages. Not knocking Kuyt in anyway, but Kalou could be a younger , cheaper replacement.
My thing with kalou is, of course he is not the greatest and if we had CL and shed loads of money then we could get muhc much better, but we don't ( not sure on the money thing though). If getting Kalou on a free means we can spend 20 mil on a top quality player then I wouldn't mind it at all.
Bluff, it's not the money that worries me. Whoever we bring in has to add quality and Kalou does not do that.
I agree Dave, the only thing I guess I am saying is that if he can come in to help with depth and this allows us to turn around say sign, Van Wolfswinkel or something for 16 mil then that is OK by me. I would prefer a number of players ahead of Kalou. Trying to look at it realisticly as opposed to what I want to happen. :/
Bluff, got a funny feeling that events are going to overtake many club plans this Summer. The Greeks vote on Sunday with the likelyhood that they will treject the bailout plans. Spain's bond prices have risen to an all time high and are pushing Italy's prices up too. It's almost getting passed squeeky bum time for the Euro. In that case, we will see fire sales after the internationals have finished. FSG would be prudent to bide their time.
all i can say is those 3 players don't arrive for a combined "price" of 6.8million. you can add on 3 signing on fees which could double that amount then put 5-70k per week onto wages for each. Now ok if we get shut of cole and aquilani there you have the wages for two of these guys... but it doesn't offset the money that goes into a signing. 6.8mil for sig will be more like 10mil upfront and then his wages. kalou free is more like 5mil upfront to him and his agent and 90k wages or some such... over 5 years that 90kx52x5 = 23.4mil... would you pay 23mil in wages to a SQUAD player? ...... now on the other hand... the guy is light years ahead of degen, voronin or jovanovic which are jokes but I hope the idea comes across..... just cos he's free is not a good reason to fill a spot in the team with him ahead of the RIGHT guy who make be trying to ge tout fo barca right now and playing for haolland and could cost <7mil! who knows... but the message must be don't get the warm body, get the RIGHT body.... we waited 5 years to get the right CB, hyppia. we got him and got 10 years out of him, and he cost half nothing... downing, adam and carroll look very much like grabbing warm bodys to fill spots don't they?
I'm with you on this ( didn't know about the financial thing) in terms of waiting, being patient and doing it right. Some are already wanting us to sign players now but why sign someone in a rush when you might be able to wait? Buying someone quickly for me is when they start to express interest ( Moussa Sow in january) and you wait too long, that ****ing sucks, but we have a large summer still to look at players that fit what we want.
We also have to remember that a lot of the players are out on International duty so Rodgers hasn't really had a great deal of time to assess his team and identify strengths and weaknesses. The new Sporting Director role has gone a bit quiet as well ...
Disagree - Rafa's downfall was that he couldn't get his 'right' player and had to settle for 'any' player in the same position.
Apparently they are getting the guy who does the job at Citeh a guy called Dave Fellows,bit of a disappointmnet after bein linked with Txiki Begiristain, LFC NOT getting there 1st choice again
As the squad is at the moment I would take him to add depth in attack but only if he were to accept modest wages. At the end of the day we are currently not strong enough in attack and could do with more options. Dont get me wrong, he is not a first choice signing imo but he has has to remain an option to look at until we have got someone better in.
I'd be concerned about his weekly wage. But if it was reasonable I'd have him in the squad / team. He scores goals, is quick, is good on the ball (which BR would like) and is still fairly young. A conditional yes for me.
