Summer Transfer Window

[Tes]

Pow! Liverpool to battle United and Arsenal for Crewe starlet Powell

By Alan Nixon   4 Jun 2012



Liverpool boss Brendan Rodgers is ready to fight Manchester United and Arsenal for Crewe whizkid Nick Powell.

New Kop chief Rodgers is prepared to top the offers from United and the Gunners for the young attacker.

Powell is going to be cleared for talks with United chief Sir Alex Ferguson after his bid of £2million-plus down and installments that could take the total value to £5m was accepted by the Railwaymen.

Arsenal have offered more money for Powell, but Crewe surprisingly snubbed their approach.

Now Rodgers hopes he can step in and win the race with a better bid.

The auction has begun in earnest for an 18-year-old who is tipped for greatness, although Tottenham have dropped out because of the 'extras' that take his total fee beyond their valuation.

Powell will also have a say on his move - he wants to play first-team football and will want that chance either at his new club or by being sent out on loan for additional experience.

Ferguson has been working overtime to land Powell, who would also like to stay in the north-west of England - a factor which makes Rodgers' arrival in the hunt a real threat to United's plans.

* BUSY Liverpool have also won the race to sign Birmingham starlet Foday Nabay.

Chelsea, Arsenal and Manchester United were also chasing the midfielder, who has been playing above his age group in Blues' Under-18s side.

Anfield scouts had been eyeing Nabay long before Rodgers' appointment last week, and watched the Sierra Leone-born prospect play for England Under-16s last summer.

Liverpool will have to pay Birmingham only £70,000 in compensation, due to a loophole in Nabay's contract at St Andrew's.


http://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/transfer-news/liverpool-want-nick-powell-the-crewe-862573


Good to see Rodgers competing with the Mancs and Arsenal for top young talent.

[barticus]

I see we're being linked with Adam Johnson...

Liverpool are reported to be lining up a £17 million swoop for Manchester City winger Adam Johnson.

Talks are set to move forward in the coming days and the Kop outfit are hoping the Blues will do quick business on the England star who narrowly missed out on Roy Hodgson's Euro 2012 squad.
New Reds boss Brendan Rodgers knows he also faces stiff competition from both Sunderland and Newcastle for Johnson, but the Merseysiders are understood to be willing to match his City wages.
Former Anfield boss Kenny Dalglish set the wheels in the motion last season and Liverpool scouts have been tracking the tricky 24-year-old ever since.
Rodgers is also a huge admirer of the player and has been told the funds are there to push through a big deal.
Johnson is now looking for more first-team opportunities to further his England claims and Liverpool are confident they can provide them.
http://www.clubcall.com/manchester-city/rivals-eye-johnson-move-1436675.html


around the 10-12 mil range would be more realistic for a player who can't even get a game...a couple of years ago he was excellent and if our new style would get him playing well again then it could be a decent bit of business...

[Ageing Stick Insect]

I've always been impressed with him. He'd certainly get more game time with us than languishing at City. And at 24 his best years are ahead of him.

[the dude abides]

adam johnston has never impressed me.

he'll be another downing type purchase - i.e. over-priced, average, only ever on periphery of england side.

[barticus]

adam johnston has never impressed me.

he'll be another downing type purchase - i.e. over-priced, average, only ever on periphery of england side.

To be fair dude, i once saw johnson pass a decent ball more than once a season...so if we got him for 10 mil or so then in comparison with the downing/henderson/carroll index he would be pretty good value...

[Ed]

To be fair dude, i once saw johnson pass a decent ball more than once a season...so if we got him for 10 mil or so then in comparison with the downing/henderson/carroll index he would be pretty good value...

I too saw him belt one in early last season, tbh though, I'd prefer to get him
on loan. Unless we're bringing in genuine class, I can't see the point in going
through all the hassle of giving these players 3 year contracts, ordaining them
Liverpool players and basically stocking the squad full of maybes or mediocre
chuggers who lack consistency and marvel at finishing 8th.

Following this route, what's to stop us hitting the glass ceiling of 6th (Villa under O'Neill)
and becoming a selling club on the fringes, until the stadium is built, with an energetic
manager doing the best he can (and of course, playing attractive football). Maybe that,
as opposed to the Barcelona one, is the carousel we're about to get on with this newly
bussed in transfer strategy.

[Ed]

Crikey, the way this kid Powell strikes a football, don't think I've
seen a sweeter striker of a ball:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/teams/manchester-united/9328449/Nick-Powell-the-goals-and-skills-that-made-Manchester-United-manager-Sir-Alex-Ferguson-sign-Crewe-youngster.html

Kind of depressing...

[Tes]

Adam Johnson has a bit of an off-field reputation.


I'd rather see Rodgers take his time and see what he can do with the existing squad.
Player for player, our squad was vastly superior in terms of experience, international caps etc than Swansea's squad, which was made up mainly from the same squad that gained them promotion.

You wouldn't know that looking from the league table though. If he could get 90% out of our squad of what he did out of Swansea's then we would challenge for fourth with adding a single player.

[Tes]

Liverpool FC in talks with Hoffenheim over signing Gylfi Sigurdsson

Jun 16 2012


Brendan Rodgers is eager to make the Iceland international his first capture as Anfield boss and Reds officials were yesterday believed to be negotiating a price for the midfielder with the German club.

Hoffenheim are understood to have quoted Liverpool more than the 9 million euros (around £7m) fee Swansea had agreed for the former Reading man.

Sigurdsson had been set to join the Swans, where he spent the final months of last season on loan, after the South Wales club agreed to pay for his services.

However, Rodgers’ switch to Merseyside prompted the player to rethink his future, with Sigurdsson now reportedly eager to link up with his former manager.

But the Northern Irishman yesterday said: “First and foremost, Gylfi is a Hoffenheim player.

“I wanted to sign him for Swansea but, like I’ve said to him and his representatives, that has to be his first port of call.

“If he comes into the market for whatever reason – and I’m sure there’ll be a number of clubs interested in Gylfi – then of course I would like to be in a position to put our case here at Liverpool to sign him.

“But I’ve always said I think he’s a player Swansea have had an agreement with and they have to have every chance to try to sign him. That’s only right.

“If anything changes from that, we’ll look at it from there.”


http://www.liverpooldailypost.co.uk/sport/liverpool-fc/liverpool-fc-news/2012/06/16/99623-31196750/

Swansea may have been able to arrange a lower transfer fee as Hoffenheim may have taken into account the loan fee.
Rodgers should know how much both the agreed transfer fee and the loan fee were. Therefore, I would hope we don't pay more that the sum of the two. They've set the valuation through those two sums agreed with Swansea.

I wonder who will be doing the transfer negotiations this Summer. Hopefully it won't be the same person who messed up so spectacularly with valuations last Summer.

There have already been some 'good value' signings made by clubs home and abroad this Summer. The market seems to have been set lower than in previous years. We need to continue that trend, not buck it.

[Tes]

Aquilani appears to be playing up. Apparently he wants his contract cancelling so he can move on a free but wants a pay-off equivalent to his two remaining years.

So we pay him two years salary, a two year period for which he'll also be paid by his new team and we also forego a transfer fee, just so he can play in Italy and doesn't have to come back to England.

By all means cancel his contract and let him go on a free, but he gets not a penny more in wages. He'll get his free transfer, a signing on fee from his new club and in all likeliness a slightly higher salary.

We get rid of him and save two years of his salary.

Otherwise, let him rot at home on matchday. 

[Tes]

Mathieu Flamini has left AC Milan after they failed to agree terms on a new contract.

This would be the perfect free transfer signing as cover / competition for Lucas. He's 28, massively experienced, knows the PL and still has a good few years ahead of him.

[Tes]

Cardiff City consider Craig Bellamy bid to Liverpool

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/18569484

I still think he has something to offer for another year. We need to keep some experience within the squad, especially with the loss of Dirk and the probable loss of Maxi.

It would be nice to see that position covered by a combination of Bellamy and Maxi, both who have offered goals and chance creation. Between them they could cover most games, certainly the league programme, whilst the cup games could be used to blood their replacement, if we have one already at the club.

[Tes]

Strong rumours that Sigurdsson is joining Spurs.

There's only one reason why a player joins a club whn he doesn't even know who the manager is - money. Maybe a bullet dodged.

But how has it happened. We're still taking forever to conclude a transfer deal. It's like Parry's still there.

The owners need to get a proper CEO appointed or one of them needs to drag themselves away from Boston and their rounders team and live and work in this country. Either that or sell us to someone who will be interested full time and apply themselves permanently to the job.

I'm getting sick of absentee owners not putting in place a system that means their absenteeism isn't affecting us, which it appears to be. Afterall, we're losing out to a managerless club.

[Martinmarx]

Strong rumours that Sigurdsson is joining Spurs.

There's only one reason why a player joins a club whn he doesn't even know who the manager is - money. Maybe a bullet dodged.

But how has it happened. We're still taking forever to conclude a transfer deal. It's like Parry's still there.

The owners need to get a proper CEO appointed or one of them needs to drag themselves away from Boston and their rounders team and live and work in this country. Either that or sell us to someone who will be interested full time and apply themselves permanently to the job.

I'm getting sick of absentee owners not putting in place a system that means their absenteeism isn't affecting us, which it appears to be. Afterall, we're losing out to a managerless club.

Very well put that , Tes. I completely agree and would say this absenteeism may be the biggest culprit in re-buildning a successful system that unites all parts of the club and make it more cohesive from top to bottom. This I think is the first thing that needs to happen befor we can dream about estalishing ourselves as a top-4 team again, let alone serious titlecontenders.

[Tes]

With the uncertainty over Skrtel, Carragher nearing pension age and Agger showing no signs of being less breakable we ought to be looking at one or even two centre backs.

Yaroslav Rakitskiy and/or Jan Vertonghen (as his Spurs move looks to have stalled) would be a good starting point. I wouldn't want to rely on Kelly because he's as breakable as Agger and he's had no first team, top level playing time as a centre half (despite what Hodgson may have thought).

Kelly, if fit, should start getting time at centre half (if Rodgers sees that as his ultimate position) in the three cup competitions.