Liverpool FC Forum

[account deleted by request]

I have tried to be patient (honest) but the D.Duff transfer has got me worried. Its not the fact hes gone to Newcastle but that we actually went for him and he went to Newcastle!
            We need a right winger/r.midfield player and the first rumours seemed promising SWP,Joaquin and Pennant. Next up was Alves,Trebelsi and Queudrue wing backs/full backs who could possibly play r.midfield. Now Duff a left winger that can play on the right.
            We need another striker again first rumours were promising M.Owen coming back (He fkd that one up by breaking his foot/knee)Torres,Villa,Aguirro,Kuyt, Bent then RVN,Trezeguet, Anelka etc.etc.
            It seems to me that we are having to settle for way lower than our first choice transfer targets, either through lack of funds or players being overpriced,which wouldnt upset me too much. What does upset me is none of these players except maybe Anelka have come out and said that they are desperate to play for Liverpool, and made it clear to their clubs that they had better get something sorted quickly.
           This is the chance to play for Liverpool for fks sake! Is it that they have no ambition, or that they know that their clubs want so much more for them than Liverpool will offer that its not worth their while. I would have thought they would be falling over themselves to sign for us. I for one dont want Liverpool to sign players because they are the only ones we can afford or even worse they are the only ones that will come! I can understand players having reservations about going to say Wigan but Liverpool no way.
          Rafa deserves better than this. I understand there are financial restrictions and im not expecting Ronaldinho but most of the above players should be in our price range and if they are overpriced by their clubs, its up to them to tell their clubs that. Players should be fighting to come to Liverpool ,not Liverpool fighting to get players to come.
          I am trying to be patient but im also starting to worry that we are leaving things late......maybe too late. FFS Rafa buy someone good quickly and put me out of my misery!

[The_Rock]

I think, we being interested in duff is just paper talk.

I 'm sure rafa wasn't interested in signing him seeing how "loaded" we are in the left flank.....

[joko]

[PureLoneWolf]

I think the problem boils down solely to the media.  We get linked with thousands of players, but most of the time they don't even link an offer - Just the possibility of an offer.

As as been said, I can't see the point in us getting Duff anyway, so I for one am pleased that our interest seems to have been nothing more than paper talk.

The interesting one for me is Del Horno going to Valencia - Is this the sort of move that could re-ignite (if it was ever put out) the Alves transfer?  At least that is a player we KNOW for sure that Rafa wants....

[dawson99]

Wheres the worry?
We needed a winger, we got a couple, we needed a striker, we got bellamy.

I never read a single quote anywhere saying we wanted duff.

Rafas knows what he is doing, and hes doing it well. Its all going to plan if you ask me. We needed a little stregthening over the summer, and thats what we have done, maybe another striker would be nice, or a right winger, but we NEVER said we wanted duff.

Maureen wanted it to look that way. Now all the papers are saying we lost out on a player we were never quoted as saying we wanted.

please come on the season so this transfer nonsense can disapear!

[woof woof !]

Even if we were interested in Duff , would Maureen let him go to his arch rivals ? LFC are the team Maureen fears most ,can't see him doing anything that might strengthen Liverpool.

[Hotrod]

We all want to see more signings but as the boys said Rafa knows what he is doing. The Duff thing has got to be a load of rubbish, whilst being a very decent player we have too many left sided players as it is. Regarding Alvez I think thats gotta be finshed by now, like Simoa we are being overcharged for him and I can't see Rafa being held to randsom however good a player he is,Pennant looks like he wants to stay with Birmimigham(fair play to the kid they stuck by him) so I can see how your getting impaciant but hopefully Rafa will pull someting out the bag but the transfer window just opened so we got time

[Sabre]

Wheres the worry?
We needed a winger, we got a couple, we needed a striker, we got bellamy.

To be honest I'm a bit worried (1) because in my book the best thing is a player start the preseason with all the team mates.

In the forward line we've lost Cisse and Morientes, and we got Bellamy, I wouldn't say that line is stronger than yesteryear to be honest (even recovering Pongo).

Alves, is a good player, fast (he was the unique RB that matched Gonzalez in Speed in the matches I saw) but I'm not sure how is he as a pure RW.

Fabio Aurelio is a left sided player, so I still think we need somebody on the right

Sabre

(1) I mean bit worried, not paniqued or very worried

[tubby]

Theres still time yet....I think we are all a bit anxious now to make sure we dont drag it to the last minute and then get left with nothing but im posative Rafa and Rick have been slogging away every day to get new guys in.

[red37]

saint, i know where you are coming from m8. last season things were left way too late, re:figo/owen etc.. and yes its true there is still time. any new acquisitions are likely to be better served by having a full pre-season under their belts, with their new team-mates. this is true (though not imperative). it'd be a better scenario for them to be on board as early as possible anyway, though in reality that always cant happen.

what narks me is, the position of RW and to a lesser degree Striker (out and out ones anyway) have been crying out to be filled for 2 years or more? where is the plan going wrong?

i cant believe for one minute there isnt a viable option out there somewhere...but, rafa benitez will not suffer fools gladly, whereas other gaffers have less integrity, or more financial clout whichever the case maybe. our manager on the whole seems reluctant to throw money away. and quite right too. but in saying that, there has to come a breaking off point. or at least compromise if you like, eventually. none of us can say for sure with any wisdom, the goings on at board room level, in terms of targets and their availability, other than that we all digest or dismiss in the media. and even they have to make a crust somehow, however mercenary their intentions. they are the real issue here, not whether benitez is ambitious enough...

the market currently is driven mostly by the aspirations of real madrid and chelsea's at the moment. and true, it does appear the rest of us are underneath the table picking up any scraps that may fall off. in the eyes and ears of the media, more or less that means every last crumb. some of us are willing to believe every word of it..others wont have any of that talk until the red shirt is displayed with the name and number of the player for all the world to see.

but to differentiate between those morsels that do become 'open season'  for speculation. versus the ones that are truly pin-pointed as realistic targets that may fit into the 'masterplan' as devised by rafa, you have to carry around a rather large 'pinch of salt' approach. along with, it seems, a threshold of virtuous patience that only a namesake of your good self could attest to...

in hindsight though, liverpool fans have always had that level of trust with the club. and nine out of ten times it has been repayed with interest, largely, usually, hopefully!

but

it aint over til the fat lady sings they say.. well, either she better get a move on before the cupboard is completely dry.
or we are bound to spend the majority of this coming season, playing some of our best hands out of position, again.

i still believe rafa benitez will not let that happen for a third time. and so should you.   

[Kash_Mountain]

I think, we being interested in duff is just paper talk.

I 'm sure rafa wasn't interested in signing him seeing how "loaded" we are in the left flank.....

Precisely.

s@int mate,  take a couple of happy pills and don't worry.  I know we are 4 weeks away from the start of the new season but 4 weeks is still a long time.  Rafa will be working all hours to get the players he wants. 

Patience is good, a slow but steady pace at the beginning which picks up momentum then the final bit ...............

[Rafa D]

In Rafa we trust.

   Come on guys trust the big fella. He has proved himself to be very astute in the transfer market and I think its a good thing he is not prepared to waste our money like a certain french manager.

  Everyone is stating that the right wing is the most important position to fill, yet who is out there that is really worth the £10m - £14m we are supposedly spending? Simao - Mourinhos rentboy. Joaquin? If he is that good why does he only play for Betis?

Neither of them did anything to impress me against us or in the World Cup, there all hype.

Alves? A good performance against Boro in the UEFA Cup, a 2nd rate cup, and suddenly he's world class RW even though hes a right back in Spain? WTF?

Trust Rafa

[Raoul]

S@int, I'm with you.  I'm already getting a sense of deja vu - all the so-called 'paper talk' that everyone tells us to ignore reminds me a lot of the 'paper talk' that left us without the players we wanted last time we went through this.

And I'll admit to sometimes wondering if the problem is not that players are overvalued, but that we are not prepared to pay the going rate for the quality of players we are looking for.

And red37 asks a very good question:

"what narks me is, the position of RW and to a lesser degree Striker (out and out ones anyway) have been crying out to be filled for 2 years or more? where is the plan going wrong?"

[GOAT]

In Rafa we trust.

   Come on guys trust the big fella. He has proved himself to be very astute in the transfer market and I think its a good thing he is not prepared to waste our money like a certain french manager.

  Everyone is stating that the right wing is the most important position to fill, yet who is out there that is really worth the £10m - £14m we are supposedly spending? Simao - Mourinhos rentboy. Joaquin? If he is that good why does he only play for Betis?

Neither of them did anything to impress me against us or in the World Cup, there all hype.

Alves? A good performance against Boro in the UEFA Cup, a 2nd rate cup, and suddenly he's world class RW even though hes a right back in Spain? WTF?

Trust Rafa

But then if they are not good enough and overpriced whos a class RW who is worth 10-14mil that we can afford?

[Cool Hand Luke]

I have tried to be patient (honest) but the D.Duff transfer has got me worried. Its not the fact hes gone to Newcastle but that we actually went for him and he went to Newcastle!
            We need a right winger/r.midfield player and the first rumours seemed promising SWP,Joaquin and Pennant. Next up was Alves,Trebelsi and Queudrue wing backs/full backs who could possibly play r.midfield. Now Duff a left winger that can play on the right.
            We need another striker again first rumours were promising M.Owen coming back (He fkd that one up by breaking his foot/knee)Torres,Villa,Aguirro,Kuyt, Bent then RVN,Trezeguet, Anelka etc.etc.
            It seems to me that we are having to settle for way lower than our first choice transfer targets, either through lack of funds or players being overpriced,which wouldnt upset me too much. What does upset me is none of these players except maybe Anelka have come out and said that they are desperate to play for Liverpool, and made it clear to their clubs that they had better get something sorted quickly.
           This is the chance to play for Liverpool for fks sake! Is it that they have no ambition, or that they know that their clubs want so much more for them than Liverpool will offer that its not worth their while. I would have thought they would be falling over themselves to sign for us. I for one dont want Liverpool to sign players because they are the only ones we can afford or even worse they are the only ones that will come! I can understand players having reservations about going to say Wigan but Liverpool no way.
          Rafa deserves better than this. I understand there are financial restrictions and im not expecting Ronaldinho but most of the above players should be in our price range and if they are overpriced by their clubs, its up to them to tell their clubs that. Players should be fighting to come to Liverpool ,not Liverpool fighting to get players to come.
          I am trying to be patient but im also starting to worry that we are leaving things late......maybe too late. FFS Rafa buy someone good quickly and put me out of my misery!

RUMOURS RUMOURS RUMUORS!

That’s the problem, fans believing trashy newspapers and sly people claiming to have “sources”. As far as I am concerned we didn’t make any approach for Duff. Most the rumours you listed are just agents and lazy journalism as far as I am concerned.

I think that Rafas top targets were Kuyt and Alves, and both have opening expressed their desire to play for Liverpool, so I don’t know where you have got this notion from that good players don’t want to join us.

Also, in my opinion, this new policy of not paying the odds is more likely to be coming from Rafa than the Parry and Co, if they had their own way we would have matched Newcastle’s silly bid last season and got Owen in and that would have been a bad thing. Rafas policy is spot on, he is setting a long term precedent for Liverpool football club so that agents and selling clubs will know the score in the future, it may mean on occasion we will miss out on a player we want but we will always archive value for money, how many times has Rafa failed us in the transfer market so far?

Transfers are complicated, especially before August when players, agents, etc are not around and a lot of games are being played, waiting to see if any alternative offer come in, etc. Looks at Man Utd, they have bought no one, Arsenal have only bought 1 players, even Tottenham with all their money and need for players have only bought 2 first team players.

Ideally we would have made all our signings before pre season training started but its not realistic. Mark Gonzalez, Fabio Aurelio, Gabriel Paletta and Craig Bellamy were all new faces to join us for pre-season, that not bad going if you ask me, and we still have nearly 6 weeks before the transfer window shuts.

Obviously the big 2 targets remain, a right midfielder and another striker, but Rafa is working on it and is determined not to get ripped off, if worst came to worse and went into this season with this squad we would still be in a very healthy position with a very strong squad and money in the bank.