The 2010 Summer transfer thread

[Hobo]

As for the players being brought in, I dunno, I just feel that whenever I've watched Liverpool these past few years, they lack any depth. Not saying these players are going to suddenly change anything, but the fact is that the team Liverpool was putting out when players like Gerrard and Torres were out were pretty ineffectual. Whether these signings will change anything, who knows? But something had to be done, surely?

It's not depth, it's decline. If Aquilani, Kuyt, Mascherano, Benayoun, Insua etc. were still in/going to remain in the squad. Then the players signed would add depth. However these players are going out of the club and the players coming in are nowhere near the same calibre.

[Adam]

Re: Steven Taylor.

Footballers are money grabbing dicks.

Never!

He'll be Liverpool's next English signing as Roy continues this 'look how much I love English players, woundn't I be great for the England job' kick he's on.

Or, maybe he's doing it because Benitez left Liverpool's squad too short of homegrown players to even qualify for the Premier League!? He MUST sign english players because there's only about 4-5 at the club over 21 and you need to have at least 8.

[Hobo]

Re: Steven Taylor.

Footballers are money grabbing dicks.

Never!

He'll be Liverpool's next English signing as Roy continues this 'look how much I love English players, woundn't I be great for the England job' kick he's on.

Or, maybe he's doing it because Benitez left Liverpool's squad too short of homegrown players to even qualify for the Premier League!? He MUST sign english players because there's only about 4-5 at the club over 21 and you need to have at least 8.

I'm going to let rockbox take this one...

[stokeriño]

The rules are not that you "must have 8". You can have a maximum of 17 senior foreign-trained players, and *up to* 8 senior homegrown players to make a senior squad of 25 at most.

If you have only 7 senior HG players, you can still have 17 foreign ones and your maximum senior squad size is 24.

If you have only 6 senior HG players, your maximum senior squad size is 23, and so on.

ALL OF THIS can be supplemented by however many thousands of U21 players you like (of whatever nationality), so if you feel that your young players can do the job as the remainder of your squad then you're fine.

For reference, here is the direct quote from the Premier League's official website on the matter:

Clubs do not have to name a full squad of 25 if they do not have that many contracted players and in this instance they may add free agents outside the transfer window. However if they have 25 eligible contracted players, they must be named.

Similarly, clubs do not have to name eight home grown players if they do not have that many but that would mean operating with a reduced squad.

Oh, and supposedly:

Chelsea back in for Neymar, despite not wanting to meet Santos' valuation even before they had him sign a new 5 year contract for triple his previous wages last week

There are no words. Only this face: :/

[Twist]

Re: Steven Taylor.

Footballers are money grabbing dicks.

Never!

He'll be Liverpool's next English signing as Roy continues this 'look how much I love English players, woundn't I be great for the England job' kick he's on.

Or, maybe he's doing it because Benitez left Liverpool's squad too short of homegrown players to even qualify for the Premier League!? He MUST sign english players because there's only about 4-5 at the club over 21 and you need to have at least 8.

I'm going to let rockbox take this one...

I'm bored, I'll take it.

The players DO NOT have to be English. They need to be home-grown. There to be eight players that were trained in England (this counts as having spent three seasons in England before their twenty first birthday). There also needs to be four home-grown club players, who have to have spent three seasons before their twenty first birthday at the club. They can be from wherever the hell they like. Yes, signing English players is a much easier way of making sure they are home-grown, however, it isn't essential.

[Crybaby Bunting]

It's starting to look a lot like the highest bid has already been made for Mascherano.

Barce don't really need him at all, I don't think he'd really fit into the starting eleven anyway whilst Xavi, Iniesta and Busquets are still in the team... so surely they only wanted him as a semi-backup player that they're not too bothered about if they don't get.

Without Barcelona then who exactly do you trust to come in with a £20m ish bid? Inter don't really NEED a player like Mascherano, Manchester City have already packed their midfield, Real Madrid can't sign another foreigner because they have to offload one of theirs to fit the Spanish squad criteria thingy, AC Milan are broke (they're relying on Genoa to loan the BOATENG because they can't afford his pricetag outright), Juventus have spent loads this summer and I don't think they can afford to splash out ANOTHER £20m

Mascherano was always going to leave this summer, and if he's still refusing to play by Sunday then Liverpool will be forced to sell him to the first club they can. That club will be offering LESS than the money offered so far by Barcelona.

[Adam]

Re: Steven Taylor.

Footballers are money grabbing dicks.

Never!

He'll be Liverpool's next English signing as Roy continues this 'look how much I love English players, woundn't I be great for the England job' kick he's on.

Or, maybe he's doing it because Benitez left Liverpool's squad too short of homegrown players to even qualify for the Premier League!? He MUST sign english players because there's only about 4-5 at the club over 21 and you need to have at least 8.

I'm going to let rockbox take this one...

I'm bored, I'll take it.

The players DO NOT have to be English. They need to be home-grown. There to be eight players that were trained in England (this counts as having spent three seasons in England before their twenty first birthday). There also needs to be four home-grown club players, who have to have spent three seasons before their twenty first birthday at the club. They can be from wherever the hell they like. Yes, signing English players is a much easier way of making sure they are home-grown, however, it isn't essential.

Well, yeah, I knew this, hence the signing of Australian Brad Jones, who qualifies as homegrown as he's been on the books at Boro since he was about 18. This I know. Did not know however that you don't NEED to have so many homegrown players in the squad quota, thought it was different. Surely though most teams, if not all will try to meet the quota of 8 homegrown players if possible as they won't want to operate with a reduced squad...unless they have a lot of faith in several of the U21 players.

[therockbox]

Letting the Masch deal drag on for so long has just been another in a long line of ridiculous decisions made by the club. He wanted to leave last summer because his wife basically hated England, but was convinced by Benitez to stay for one more season on the condition that he'd be sold this summer. His wife and kid have already left the country, so it's hardly surprising that he's now doing anything he can to force through a move - he doesn't want to be here, his family has already left, and the club promised him that he'd be sold in this transfer window. Whilst I don't agree with him refusing to play this isn't a situation that came out of the blue, and the club should have been actively preparing for it. We should have set a deadline of a week or so before the season started, instead of deciding to play hardball when there's a few days in the transfer window left, because Barca know that they can get away with low bids - Masch doesn't want to be here, and he's only got 18 months left on his contract, so if we don't sell him in this window we won't get a 'big' fee for him at all. Once again we've got ourselves into the situation where everybody knows we're bent over and ready for them to slip it in.

As for the homegrown thing, it would make more sense if we hadn't been trying to bomb Insua out of the club, because he now counts as homegrown. As stok said, you don't need 8 homegrown players, and if Mascherano goes as expected the amount of non-homegrown players we'll have that need to be registered will be 16 (and I think that number includes Itandje, Plessis and El Zhar). Next year we'll piss the homegrown rule no problem, but this year it isn't absolutely vital to fill all the homegrown slots because we don't have enough non-homegrown players for it to make a huge difference, and a lot of our backup/squad players will be under 21 anyway.

[Crybaby Bunting]

I guess the most annoying thing for Liverpool fans is that it didn't REALLY have to turn out like this, had Liverpool accepted Real Madrid's offer of Robben and Van Der Vaart for Alonso instead of asking for money to buy Aquilani then Liverpool wouldn't have had the problem they're facing now. Part of the reason why Liverpool slumped into terminal decline last season was that they replaced Alonso with a youth player (I think?) until at least December because Aquilani wasn't fit.

Had they had a decent replacement in Van Der Vaart (and an improvement in Robben) then Liverpool could easily have turned a few draws and horrible losses (I mean really, Portsmouth?) into wins and would likely be in the Champions League place ahead of Spurs this year... well, provided they didn't sell a bunch of players and lose to Young Boys

Instead they're in a situation where MORE players want to leave, which means that Liverpool could well sell more players between now and the end of the transfer window.

Also, Barce have finally agreed a fee for Mascherano. It was a little rich for Hodgeson to say yesterday that he'll make the decision about Mascherano between now and Sunday when he might pick him to play West Brom... making it seem as though it's his decision for Mascherano to not play

[Pesci]

I guess the most annoying thing for Liverpool fans is that it didn't REALLY have to turn out like this, had Liverpool accepted Real Madrid's offer of Robben and Van Der Vaart for Alonso instead of asking for money to buy Aquilani then Liverpool wouldn't have had the problem they're facing now. Part of the reason why Liverpool slumped into terminal decline last season was that they replaced Alonso with a youth player (I think?) until at least December because Aquilani wasn't fit.

What?

Edited August 27, 2010 by Pesci

[Crybaby Bunting]

I'm sure that for a period at the start whilst Gerrard and Aquilani were unavailable they mixed things up with El Zhar, Plessis and Spearing getting a substantial amount of match time... and I don't know any of them enough to work out what part of the team they were on >_>

[therockbox]

a player-swap deal was never on the table. We needed the money from the Alonso sale to go towards the £100m Hicks and Gillett needed to raise to prevent RBS from seizing control of the club. That's why we got around £30m for him and only spent £5m up front that summer on his replacement, with the further instalments for Aquilani paid for by more sales.

Our central midfield for the majority of last season was Lucas and Mascherano, with Gerrard going back when one of those was unavailable. Spearing and Plessis got about four games between them last season, iirc.

[Crybaby Bunting]

Rumours are circulating today that Newcastle are on the verge of signing Ben Arfa and Robbie Keane.

Although, to be fair both players look out of our reach at the moment because I don't see either of them agreeing to our current wage structure (even if those players are a step up from the likes of Steven Taylor) Besides, Robbie Keane is 30 and at that age is a huge slap in the face of progression if we're going to panic and bring in a guy in the twilight of his career for big money.

[stokeriño]

The rumours I've read are that Robbie Keane would be loaned out to Newcastle, rather than sold.

[Herr Matzat]

Rumours are circulating today that Newcastle are on the verge of signing Ben Arfa and Robbie Keane.

Although, to be fair both players look out of our reach at the moment because I don't see either of them agreeing to our current wage structure (even if those players are a step up from the likes of Steven Taylor) Besides, Robbie Keane is 30 and at that age is a huge slap in the face of progression if we're going to panic and bring in a guy in the twilight of his career for big money.

Arfa is good i belive, Bremen was about to sign him but i guess they backed out after getting wesley for the midfield. I think the lease to newcastle is a pritty don deal.

[Colly]

Ben Arfa's confirmed on the website, loan with a view to buy. Don't know much about him but its nice to get a bit more creativity in the midfield. To be fair if we can put 6 past Villa, Wolves must surely be expecting 15-20 (/delusion).

[Sick N Twisted]

Raul Meireles is joining Liverpool and Huntelaar looks to be joining Schalke.

Also, just read that Lauri Dalla Valle and Alex Kacaniklic will be joining Fulham as Paul Konchesky heads to Liverpool. I know Konchesky was meant to be joining, but with Dalla Valle/Kacaniklic, is there any truth to that, or just a rumour?

Edited August 28, 2010 by Sick N Twisted

[therockbox]

On loan apparently.

In Dalla Valle's case it really, really shouldn't be permanent.

[Asuka's Gonna Kill You]

Zlatan to AC Milan on loan.

Should certainly be an interesting move and it's what he needed really.

[Sam]

Such a strange transfer, why pay all that money and give Inter Milan Samuel Eto'o just to loan Ibra out the next season!? I lived in Barcelona last year and I think Ibra was a bit like Berbatov at United, the fans could all see he's highly capable but just didn't ever know if he would produce. I think a second season at Barcelona would have been beneficial to him and would have seen him produce the goods more often, but I guess we'll never see him in a Barca shirt again which is quite sad as I think he really enjoyed being there.