Liverpool FC Forum

[Happy-Punter]

Excellent buy. We cant have 24 World Class players in the squad and keep the peace. And he will start some games, i think its a bit out of order saying he is just "backup".

[adamnbarrett]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G1xXMQ4Uzd8

someone ALWAYS posts a youtube clip 

[Reg]

Benayoun at that price is a great deal, overlooked and underated because of where he is from

its not cool to be from israel

I hope he's better than Ronnie Rosenthal ffs.........  I guess he wont be giving away possession easily either.

[matrix]

Benayoun and Babel boost Liverpool spree
By Jason Burt
Published: 11 July 2007
Liverpool will today complete the double signing of Yossi Benayoun and Ryan Babel as they reshape their squad for the new season. It means that their manager Rafael Benitez, following the acquisition of Fernando Torres, will have spent £42m inside a week.
Both Benayoun and Babel were due on Merseyside for medicals after their clubs, West Ham and Ajax, agreed fees with Liverpool last night. Benayoun is expected to cost £5m ­ £1m less than West Ham hoped for ­ and Babel £10.8m.

Benitez yesterday recouped £7.5m with the sale of Craig Bellamy to West Ham which, added to the £6m for Djibril Cissé and £3.5m for Mark Gonzalez, will allow the Spaniard to balance the books a little on his transfer dealings.

However, his signings will come as a serious statement of intent from Liverpool, especially after they missed out on one of Benitez's original summer targets, Florent Malouda, who yesterday completed his move from Lyon to Chelsea after his asking price escalated.

Benayoun has agreed a four-year deal and will be paid £45,000 a week, slightly less than the £50,000 a week he was offered by West Ham at the end of last season. However, after shaking hands on a new contract at West Ham, where he had threatened to hand in a transfer request, the Israeli decided he wanted a buy-out clause inserted once he was made aware of Liverpool's interest.

The dispute led to an irreconcilable fallout with West Ham, especially as the midfielder then threatened never to play for the club again. It quickly became apparent that he would have to leave, with the London club initially offering to do a deal involving Bellamy moving to Upton Park.

Eventually that transfer was concluded separately, with the striker yesterday agreeing a five-year deal, through which he will earn £75,000 a week, after sorting out a contractual dispute with Liverpool over a bonus payment for reaching the European Cup final.

After signing for his new club, Bellamy claimed that he had been forced to consider his future at Liverpool because of Benitez's rotation policy. " I'll be turning 28 this season so I want to start playing football now," Bellamy said. "I think I played 10 or 11 full games last year. I want to try and improve on that and play every week."

In reality, Bellamy was told by Benitez that he had no future at Liverpool at the end of last season, even though he had arrived only last summer from Blackburn Rovers for £6m. Liverpool had hoped to receive more than £10m, but West Ham were the only serious bidders.

Liverpool had offered £2m and then £4m for Benayoun, who first came to Benitez's attention when he played for the Spanish club Racing Santander, before finally coming close to West Ham's valuation after protracted negotiations yesterday.

Babel's fee is more surprising. The Dutch international had held talks with Arsenal in January, but they had decided not to bid for the 20-year-old, with their manager, Arsène Wenger, believing he was not worth the price being demanded and fell some way short of commanding a place in his first team. But Babel, who starred in the Netherlands' triumphant Under-21 European Championship campaign and is a full international, is rich in promise and can play anywhere across the forward line, although Benitez has identified him as a left-winger.

Benayoun will compete with Jermaine Pennant for the role on the right of midfield but, like Babel, is also versatile enough to play in other positions.

i think benayoun will be good for us,  now that we lost garcia...

hot off the press-  late last night babbel agreed to join liverpool for around 11 million...

i just want to say  this is to early to be confirmed...

babbel would be a great signing for us,  he has it all,  he can play on both wings or as a striker...

but its well known that benitez will use him as a left winger... 

[hello_red]

15 mill for the both ofthem seems like good busniess to me. leaves us with enough money to buy someone else.

also i dont think Babel is Rafas second choice or some like that, Rafa likes to buy young budding talent Babel is a fine example of this... Its well publicised that he wanted Malouda, hes not that great. Another Cisse in my opinion also he is a poor mans Ribery.

[god_bless_john_houlding]

Babel for the left Yossi for the right, that means Gerrard back in the middle at least 2 international centre mids will be dropped. Pennant and Kewell will also be bench players by the looks of things despite this rotation system. I think Rafa needs to pick his best 11 and keep it at that, you don't see other clubs ponsing around with their better players. 1 system week in week out, if it isn't working that's where your subs come into a game.

[The_Rock]

if you asked me which is the better deal? malouda for 13 million or benayoun for 4 million? its benny every time

Without a doubt.....

Benayoun is a very talented player. 4 million is really a bargain ..... If he was english, his transfer would be around 10 million.

He can play on the wings, in the hole behind the strikers.....

He can run with the ball, dribble...close control of the ball is good..

He doesn't lose possession easily....

He is capable of scoring goals ....

All-in-all....a good signing.

[lfcseb]

would rather spend money on someone else, but hope he proves me wrong

[Lando_Griffin]

Here's something to mull over:

I believe, with the current squad, Benny will be in the first-choice line-up next season.

Miles better than many seem to think.

[The Specialist]

I'm severely disppointed with the (potential) signing of Babel....

[LittleHobo]

yeah the potential signing of babel worries me

hes a bit tall and lanky to be a winger (he himself wants to be a striker), he cant really cross and is hardley the type of wide man to provide real width

i really hope we ditch the babel thing and go for quasimodo or simao or dani alves

[LittleHobo]

Excellent buy. We cant have 24 World Class players in the squad and keep the peace. And he will start some games, i think its a bit out of order saying he is just "backup".

thats correct

no team has 24 world class players, its not realistic

but as i said i still want a world class winger to come in 

quasimodo or simao please

"o the bells the bells"

[redsince2001]

I'm severely disppointed with the (potential) signing of Babel....

f.uck off ..

[stmichael]

Benayoun is a very talented player. 4 million is really a bargain ..... If he was english, his transfer would be around 10 million.

I agree.

£4m is a good piece of business, especially when you consider that reo-coker went for over double that to aston villa.

[tommycockles]

as much as i'd like us to sign Queresmo (sp?) i watched quite a bit of the U21s championships and although I had no knowledge of our interest in Babel i actually thought he was very good. I remember him playing well against England and we had a lot of Premierhsip players in our squad.

It's a shame we're not going for our first choice (i assume) but i don't think he's a bad second choice and is still very young. You never know Rafa may still have something extra up his sleeve (or in his wallet). If we end up with another winger then he's another good striker option.