http://www.skysports.com/story/0,19528,11675_7135993,00.html?utm_source=sky&utm_medium=spurs According to SSN Livermore is being offered to West Ham as part of a deal for Parker. I hope that if this is true, that it is only a loan deal as Livermore looks a good prospect and we shouldn't be selling players like him to championship sides. I'd be reluctant to even let him out on loan, he has looked good in the EL and could be an important part of teams in the other cups as well as in the PL. Is Parker worth parting with him permanently? No IMO, but a loan deal is possible nevertheless.
I'm sure it'll be a loan deal. The upshot of this is that surely there will be more central midfielders coming in. Diarra anyone?
How many central midfielders do we need? I know that the two we used were poor today but if we get Parker then we have plenty of depth, even assuming we lose Palacios. We are having problems because of injuries and Harry's leaving of both Thudd and Livermore on the bench today and persisting with Kranjcar in the middle in the PL with no 'strongman' to back him up. I agree that a loan deal is the only viable option, selling Livermore to get a 30 year old in return is a decidedly dubious bit of business.
I hear you SuperPav9. I think these last two games have proven how weak we become in the middle once our main guys, Sandro especially, Modric and Huddlestone become unavailable. Hudd is looking more and more like a sick note waiting to happen, as is Modric. It's all about depth. Plus we have many competitions to fight in. I think a third 'hard man' option is necessary to keep us competitive. Diarra, Parker and Sandro would complement Modric, Krancar and Huddlestone IMHO. That's just me though.
I think, looking at the way we have played in the two leagues games, a leader is a must. Diara and Parker look vital and I think we missed a trick with Barton. The way we look at the moment so-called lesser teams will fancy it against us, especially if we don't score early doors. We need a buffer against the physicality they will undoubtedly use to get amongst us, sometimes two anchors. Nobody on our books, save Sandro (three months?) offers this. If we do manage to keep Modric, his motivation to keep the ball must be affected, (I imagine he is out the door in the next window, if not the next two days,) so we will need somebody to win it back when we lose it.
I think livermore is going to be a good player, but I just don't think he's ready yet and a season long loan move to someone like the hammers will be a good move for him. Like you guys have said, how many midfielders to we need? completely agree with Lock stock and Chirpy's points above. - especially chirpy's point on a leader.
Why loan him out now? He's been on loan several times already and to me doesn't look out of place in our squad. Surely it's better for him to be involved with our 1st team even if he does play often than slumming it at Wet Spam in the Championship.
but a fully fit squad is not going to give livermore much playing time KH. we've got so many midfielders and we're bringing more in (supposedly.)
It puzzles me as to why we sold Jamie O'Hara. He is just the type of player we missed yesterday. We talk about spending £6m on an ageing injury prone player like Parker who is on massive wages when we had a younger player on sensible wages who could go on to be just as good. I know O'Hara wanted regular football but if Harry had done what other decent managers do and rotate his squad then I'm sure we could have kept him happy. Another lazy piece of transfer dealing from a manager only looking at the short term as he knows he won't be here past the end of the season.
If the rumours about Diarra and Parker coming in are true though, then he won't get anywhere near the first XI, King. Sandro and Huddlestone still have to get back to full fitness, but we'd then have so many options that Livermore would be pretty redundant.
Ageing - yes, but still good 3 years left in him Injury prone - WTF are you on about? he's played well over 30 games a season for the last three years. I am assuming you were not impressed with 'Arry when he took you from 2 points in 8 games to CL football in what 2 years? Perhaps if your Chairman had stuck to his word with Modric, then you would have had 30+ million in the bank that 'Arry could have re-invested weeks ago and you wouldn't have got off to this humilating start to the season?
I've followed Parkers career since he was at charlton and have always rated him. He is rumoured to be a Spurs fan and i have aleays looked out for him because of this but I know that he has missed a good proportion of games throughout his career due to injury. Players rarely get less injury prone with age so even if he has played 30 games a season for the last couple of years, I will be pleasantly surprised if he does that for the next 3 years. The other thing that bugs me is that we are helping west ham out of a hole. Their board made a huge mistake in signing Parker on an extended contract last season on huge wages when they always looked likely to go down. If he signs then I hope Parker is taking a shorter contract on lower wages for us as otherwise I think we should be looking to sign a younger player like Diarra.
