As a die-hard red I’m absolutely gutted about Torres wanting to go, I can see why he feels let down as we haven’t been where he would've hoped we would i.e. challenging for the league and winning cups. The one thing that does p**s me off is the timing, why come out and say that you want to see out your contract then do this? Why wait till the end of the window to ask to leave? At least give us time to bring another striker in or else we are just back to square one! Personally I’d prefer him to go in the summer if at all, but something tells me he’ll be going in the next few days. Firstly you’ve got to wonder why NESV suddenly decided to increase the bid on Suarez. They’ve spent the majority of January trying to get him on the cheap then as soon as Chelsea bid they pay the asking price, no questions. Secondly the transfer request, Torres wouldn’t do this if he was willing to wait till the summer, it’s just going to make the next few months harder for him and he’s not going to be the most popular person with his team mates, for that reason I believe he’s confident the transfer is going through. So looking ahead to life without Torres, which is almost a certainty I would be happy if NESV decide to take say 30-40 million (or even 50mil but I don’t see that somehow) and then re invest on the front of our attack. I’d sign up Kun Aguero, who’s likely to go for a similar price as Dzeko I’d say, so probably 27 million, Then Id also sign up Fernando Llorente, he’s been scoring regularly for Bilbao and he’s likely to cost around 20-22 million maybe a tad more but depends on his form etc. Then I’d play Suarez -- Llorente -- Aguero As a front three. What do we reckon? Good or just nonsense?
I think you're estimates are way off. Chelsea put in a 54m for Ageuro and Godin, by that logic Atletico rejected a 35m bid for Ageuro. He'd cost ~40m to go I'm sure, and he has a large buy-out clause in his contract. Llorente also has a large buyout clause, and I wouldn't expect him to go for less than 28m. That takes it up to 68m. So if we can get torres out for 60m then sounds good, but I doubt it.
The thing is the majority of players have buy out clauses, wasn't it rumoured that Dzeko had a 40 odd mill buy out but he went for 27...? I think if we attempted to pay 12.5mil for Luis then NESV will likely offer similar money to the above?
But Ajax desperately needed the money. Of course it would be worth a shot; although I would much rather prefer some swap + cash deals for players like Kuyt and Maxi who are nearing the limit of what they can do for us, and we can upgrade them. We have a large enough squad if we bring through some youth, but we have too many mediocre players with us at the moment.
I agree regarding Maxi and Kuyt, i like Kuyt but I'd prefer some younger talent and players with potential to move on to another level. If in the summer we got rid of: Kuyt Maxi Konchesky Poulson Torres And bought in. Aguero Llorente Hamsik and a decent centre back who can head a ball... I'D BE A HAPPY BOY!
I'd like us to bring in a Turan and Honda too; they've already issued "come and get me" pleas. I would be very happy if we have a sort out.
Haven't seen anything of either Turan or Honda but Turan has been talked about for ages and if talk is anything to go by he's quite good! Where does Honda play?
Honda plays in Russia for CSKA Moscow, but has said all year he wants to leave. He was expected to come to us this january but it doesn't look like he'll leave until the summer now unless we have some secret talks with him. Honda plays in Midfield if thats what you mean, he's a bit of a playmaker for CSKA. Turan already said about a year ago specifically he'd love to come to liverpool, but we never did anything about it!
Aguero's buy out clause is over 200m so ive read. If we do sell nando i would hope our starting line up next season would look something like this: ------------reina--------------- kelly--shawcross--agger--contrea/cissokho -------gerrard-----meireles------------ marin/hazard/sanchez------elia ------------suarez----------------- -----------lukaku-------------------
I like the idea of another centre half, Skrtel hasn’t done it this year, Carragher is on the decline (not a dig either just a fact), Agg’s has been in and out the team with injuries. I’d have any from this list: Ryan Shawcross (as you mentioned) Scott Dann Gary Cahill Michael Dawson Simon Kjaer Micah Richards If any of them become available at a good price then that’ll do! We need to replace Masch as well, if we haven’t settled a deal with Juve for Aquilani I’d see if Felipe Melo is on the cards - Straight swap?
