Potential Summer Transfers in and out

[Edward224]

Downing would be a good addition and I will tell you all why.

The balance in our midfield currently is not really all that good. An authentic left winger like Downing would offer us that balance similar to what Riera did in 08/09 but Downing for me is better than Riera.

Downing is fast, has great delivery and also has a good shot on him. True he isn't a dribbler in the true sense of the definition of one, but he has assets in his game that would be very useful for us.

I think anywhere between £16m - £19m would be a reasonable fee because we would be buying a player in the prime of his career where his next 2-3 years should be the best for him.

So I am all for signing Downing. Definitely.

[Martinmarx]

There's time yet, Martin, but I know what you mean and how it 'appears'. Soto has signed for another year, so all is well. 

True, tes there's still time. Question is tho, will there be any money left?

[Tes]

True, tes there's still time. Question is tho, will there be any money left?

According to reports we're in negotiations with Moussa Sissoko, along with Newcastle and Inter. At 21, he would be an excellent buy, but unless there really is a huge warchest, then we could find ourselves short of the required fees to land both a top class left back and a centre half. When you look around the potential first eleven, and then beyond that to the wider squad, we are needing quite a few players, both to add depth and quality.

It would be interesting to know how Dalglish and Comolli have prioritised things and what positions appear where in that list. 

[Tes]

I think the other reason that we're prioritising English players is due to the quota system.
On most people's 'to sell' list would be Cole, Konchesky and Brad Jones. That's 3 less English / homegrown players we can name in our 25 and the likes of Kelly, Flannagan and Robinson aren't included due to their age.
Spearing now would be a named player.

The idea of Martinez and Mata is great, in theory, however, what happens when Barca or Real come calling in 2 or 3 years. Even if we were competing for the league and matching the performances of at least one of them (Real most likely) in the CL every season, winning La Liga for a Spaniard would mean more than winning the PL and even if they were paid the exact same salary, they'd keep much more in Spain due to the more beneficial tax rules.

Maybe Dalglish has looked at what happened to our team that included Alonso, Mascherano and Torres (Reina has also been close to being added to that list) and decided that we can plan long term for stability and continuity if we run the risk of some of our top players being tempted to 'return home'.

I guess we will always be at a disadvantage over Chelsea and Arsenal (the London factor) and the Salford Mancs in attracting and keeping hold of our players. The generation of players we are looking at and will be looking at for a number of years yet, have grown up with the Mancs being the biggest team in England, both in terms of success and financial performance. Unfortunately a club's financial situation seems to play an ever increasing role in the media deciding and pushing who's a 'big club'. Look at how quickly Chelsea have been propelled to 'big club' status in the minds of the media and a lot of players.

[Kopite999]

Spot on Tes with regards to Spanish lads. They will always see playing for Real and Barca as the ultimate. But if either were to sign we'd spend 20 million and in 3/4/5 years time hopefully we'd make a huge profit on them. But we're Liverpool so should we really be buying players that we know will want a move sooner or later

[Gurdeep]

Spot on Tes with regards to Spanish lads. They will always see playing for Real and Barca as the ultimate.

May be but the same could be said of McManaman or Owen and they were English 

And what's happening on the transfer front?  We're now being linked with Aaron Lennon (get ready for a shafting by Arry) and some fella named Sissouku.  Adam, how long??  Whilst the Mancs seem to be getting their business done swiftly.

Mata now being liked heavily with the bottom, Tiago Al 'whateverhisnameis' with MU whilst we're still trying to tie up Downing and Adam.  Reminds me of the Parry days all this malarchy......

[Tes]

Gurdeep, Moussa Sissoko is a top class player, seen as Gerrard's replacement. Has a bit (well actually more than a bit) of everything. Tackle, pass short and long, times his runs well into the box, quick and strong.

It does seem like we're taking forever but as each transfer is different and it depends on the value to a club our target holds both financially and football wise and then if the chairmen is dick to deal with like Oyston's proving to be and like Perez and Jean-Michel Aulas of Lyon and Maurizio Zamparini, president of Palermo.

As for Owen, Macmanaman there are few English/British players who really fancy trying their hand abroad or who are actively wanted by foreign clubs.

[Juan]

I agree to an extent about foreign players after the whole Mascherano, Alonso, Torres debacle. I would also like to see a core of British players complemented by some top foreign talent. However I think we are over talking the Real/Barca pull factor. Alonso left us because Rafa tried to sell him. If we are to be honest with ourselves Torres and Mascherano left because of broken promises and our inability to compete in the league. As much as I hate to say it Mascheranos move has been justified by the fact hes now in the Barca team and hes won the double.

I think it will be wrong of the club (whoevers controlling transfers) to buy British for the sake of buying British. I understand we are looking for proven Premiership proven quality but we also have to look at the likes of Suarez to see what good value foreign players can be. If he were english he'd have cost 50 million. So although I understand the need to buy English I still think we should be signing the best players wherever they are from.

[Tes]

It's all a tough balancing act. Juan, I totally agree that the player's technical ability is paramount as is his particular qualities that would allow him to fit perfectly into the team, complementing others' qualities and flaws.
Unfortunately, we do however have to provide 8 homegrown players out of our named 25 and under 21s don't count essentially, in that we can have as many under 21s as we want and naming any of them to make the 8 would be a waste of a place. Having 8 'established' qualifying players + as many suitable under 21s would be the best usage of the 'squad' within the rules.

Also the lack of any European football is a hurdle. It's become a bandwagon a lot of players have jumped on to claim they want Champions League football. It's not just the 'names'. Gervinho and Payet are the latest pair to play the card. That was the reason Young gave for wanting to leave Villa. It seems winning a domestic championship title, especially if it's a foreign one, doesn't seem as important as playing in the Champions League.
Do we really want those sort of players?

[Tes]

Wickham to have Sunderland medical 'within 24 hours' after £13m bid accepted by Ipswich

By Colin Young   28th June 2011



Connor Wickham was in Sunderland on Tuesday night to complete his £13million move from Ipswich.

Sunderland boss Steve Bruce has seen off competition from  Liverpool, Arsenal and Tottenham to put together a package which will land the England Under 21 striker today. Wickham was having a medical last night and concluding talks over personal terms.
Ipswich have accepted a down payment of £8.1million, which will rise by another £5m dependent on goals, appearances, European qualification and future England appearances. Only Liverpool are believed to have made a bid for Wickham since the end of last  season but their offer was £2m lower.

Wickham, who became Ipswich’s youngest-ever player at 16 years and 11 days when he came on as a substitute against Doncaster in April 2009, scored the winning goal in England’s Under 17s European Championship final win against Spain last summer.

The 6ft 3in teenager fell out of favour during Roy Keane’s tenure at Portman Road, but Paul Jewell brought him back into the side when he took over in January and the striker repaid him with nine goals.

Bruce is also hoping to seal a £5m deal for  Birmingham City’s Craig Gardner. The midfielder, expected on  Wearside for a medical and talks today, is set to be Bruce’s fifth signing since Jordan Henderson was sold to Liverpool.

The Sunderland manager, armed with cash from the Henderson and Darren Bent deals, has also added Sweden international Seb Larsson and Republic of Ireland keeper Keiren Westwood on free transfers. He is waiting for a work permit to enable South Korea teenage striker Ji Dong-won to complete his £2m move from Chunnam Dragons.

Bruce is still interested in making Manchester United trio Darron Gibson, Wes Brown and John O’Shea part of his squad, along with Wigan’s Charles N’Zogbia and Liverpool striker David Ngog.

But it is the landing of Wickham ahead of three clubs from the top six which will delight Bruce.

The promise of regular first team football has given Sunderland the edge over their rivals, as well as their ability to match Ipswich’s  asking price.

Wickham first caught the eye of the top clubs three seasons ago and former Sunderland and Ipswich Jewell was resigned to losing the teenager after Ipswich’s failure to win promotion last season.



http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-2009203/Connor-Wickham-Sunderland-medical-24-hours.html

So they're using the Henderson money we gave them to beat us to one of our targets. Seems a good deal, if true, only £8M up-front. They've got a better deal in terms of a larger amount in add-ons and a small percentage up-front out of a lower total fee than we negotiated with them for Henderson.
Whoever handles Sunderland's negotiations is playing a blinder this Summer.

Still we've got Adam Morgan, who is different to our other strikers and should hopefully be ready as Dirk is bowing out. Wickham is reasonably similar to Carroll, so at least Morgan offers something different and we haven't duplicated on striker types.

[Juan]

It's all a tough balancing act. Juan, I totally agree that the player's technical ability is paramount as is his particular qualities that would allow him to fit perfectly into the team, complementing others' qualities and flaws.
Unfortunately, we do however have to provide 8 homegrown players out of our named 25 and under 21s don't count essentially, in that we can have as many under 21s as we want and naming any of them to make the 8 would be a waste of a place. Having 8 'established' qualifying players + as many suitable under 21s would be the best usage of the 'squad' within the rules.

Also the lack of any European football is a hurdle. It's become a bandwagon a lot of players have jumped on to claim they want Champions League football. It's not just the 'names'. Gervinho and Payet are the latest pair to play the card. That was the reason Young gave for wanting to leave Villa. It seems winning a domestic championship title, especially if it's a foreign one, doesn't seem as important as playing in the Champions League.
Do we really want those sort of players?

It is a bit of a balancing act with the new homegrown quota rule alright Tes. But in fairness with Comolli on board there should have been and should be going forward plenty of time to identify what exactly needs to be done on that front.

Saw a tweet from Rory Smith suggesting that missing out on Jones Young and Wickham would suggest we are the same old Liverpool at getting deals done. Question marks will be raised about the effectiveness of Comollis role if we continue to miss out on top targets. I dont want to over pay for players nor do I want to make rush decisions and buy players that dont suit the club but for some reason or another we tend to get caught up with long drawn out transfer sagas. Whatever about the downing deal but why we havent the Adam deal done and dusted now is baffling.

I understand the need for quality British players but I have never been a Downing fan. For me hes a mediocre English player who we look like paying way over the odds to sign. Id sooner gamble on Mata or even try for Adam Johnson.

As for the whole debacle with Marveaux. Im not saying we should over pay these guys but there seems to be an emerging trend of not matching clubs value for a player or player wages. Its not like we are millions apart but we seem to be haggling over every last penny. In some instances I think the club is right, the Doni transfer for instance, he seemed more interested in cash. We also seem to have missed out on Payet whose going to Lille for 8 million. 

As for the likes of Gervihno hes clearly a player who only wants CL football at all costs, I would prefer we didnt sign players like him. We need players to come to the club for what it is and where its going again , if they cant see what is currently going on at the club then we are better off without them.

[Tes]

It is a bit of a balancing act with the new homegrown quota rule alright Tes. But in fairness with Comolli on board there should have been and should be going forward plenty of time to identify what exactly needs to be done on that front.

Saw a tweet from Rory Smith suggesting that missing out on Jones Young and Wickham would suggest we are the same old Liverpool at getting deals done. Question marks will be raised about the effectiveness of Comollis role if we continue to miss out on top targets. I dont want to over pay for players nor do I want to make rush decisions and buy players that dont suit the club but for some reason or another we tend to get caught up with long drawn out transfer sagas. Whatever about the downing deal but why we havent the Adam deal done and dusted now is baffling.

I understand the need for quality British players but I have never been a Downing fan. For me hes a mediocre English player who we look like paying way over the odds to sign. Id sooner gamble on Mata or even try for Adam Johnson.

As for the whole debacle with Marveaux. Im not saying we should over pay these guys but there seems to be an emerging trend of not matching clubs value for a player or player wages. Its not like we are millions apart but we seem to be haggling over every last penny. In some instances I think the club is right, the Doni transfer for instance, he seemed more interested in cash. We also seem to have missed out on Payet whose going to Lille for 8 million. 

As for the likes of Gervihno hes clearly a player who only wants CL football at all costs, I would prefer we didnt sign players like him. We need players to come to the club for what it is and where its going again , if they cant see what is currently going on at the club then we are better off without them.

The thing with all these transfers we're involved in or 'missed out' on is that we don't know what the selling club are asking, what we're offering, what the player wants in terms of salary and length of contract and what we're offering them.

Payet is a shame. £8M seems a decent price. Granted he's not PL tried and tested like Johnson, or universally regarded like Mata but he is quality, a full French international and has an excellent scoring and assist record. Still, if CL football was an issue then we simply don't stand a chance ATM.

With the Jones / Henderson transfers the Mancs appeared quicker off the mark with Jones than with Henderson. Why? Who knows, but their interest appears to predate ours.

Would we be happy paying £19M for Jones? £16M for Young, who only had a year left on his deal?

So far it does 'feel' like nothing's changed too much and Sunderland and Villa are outperforming us, but I guess with having at least 5 positions, possibly 6 that we're looking to strengthen, with multiple targets for each position, then there's a lot of juggling to be done and whilst we're working on certain deals others will pass us by.
   

[Juan]

Apparently Sammy Lee has left the club......

[the dude abides]

kenny wants room for another midfielder.

[Tes]

Apparently Sammy Lee has left the club......

I didn't know Sammy was a drinker. A bad example to young Mr Carroll.