Liverpool FC Forum

by **Penguins** » Mon Jul 09, 2007 11:54 pm

Wilhelmsson wrote:Rafa could sign Babel and send him back out on loan to Ajax, this would make sense wouldn’t it? It’s a win-win situation for all parties involved. Rafa doesn’t get competition from Arsenal and Babel gets more first team experience.

I’m hoping that Rafa announces the capture of Chippen next summer.

That would be a terrible alternative for Liverpool.

So we are going to invest a staggering £13 million in a winger and then send him out on loan??

There are so many reasons why that would be bad I don't know where to begin.

by **Doeboy** » Mon Jul 09, 2007 11:56 pm

Wilhelmsson is not good enough, done nothing at Roma or Nantes. No thanks we are better then that. Don't think Babel is worth £13.5million. 5 goals in 27 appearences fror Ajax in the Dutch league is dissapointing. A lot of hype around him but i've seen nothing which impresses me to be honest. His dutch colleague Royston Drenthe is a far better player and has one hell of a left foot. Much better player in my opinion.

by **Wilhelmsson** » Tue Jul 10, 2007 12:03 am

Penguins wrote:That would be a terrible alternative for Liverpool.

So we are going to invest a staggering £13 million in a winger and then send him out on loan??

There are so many reasons why that would be bad I don't know where to begin.

It’s not an ideal scenario and I am not a fan of it myself, but this seems like the most pragmatic situation to have been raised in this topic. Babel is only 18; therefore it isn’t likely that he will play in a majority of Liverpool’s matches.

£13m IMO is far too much money, if this is the fee than I would rather it was spent on someone who is more proven than Babel. Chelsea has just signed Malouda for a similar price, so it’s bad business in any sense of the word.

I was merely advocating that if Babel isn’t going to be able to execute a regular first team starting place with Liverpool than why not loan him out to Ajax where he will receive a majority of playing time?

It’s not an ideal situation, I know this, and however it’s not ideal leaving him as a fringe player when he has a lot of potential which can only be extracted from regular first team matches.

by **StefanoAFCA** » Tue Jul 10, 2007 12:05 am

Wasnt Sneijder set on valencia but ajax wanted more that valencia would pay?

Do Ajax fans expect the title and are they shocked or disappointed in the lack of success in Europe since the mid 90's. I know u guys lost so much talent back then and a lot went for free due to Bosman

Correct, Valencia didn't wanted to pay the price, was something like 17 million euros.

If we start the season with the same players we have now, then I think we can win the title. If we lose some players and can't get any good replacements, then Feyenoord and PSV will have better squads.

Most Ajax supporters aren't that shocked that there is a lack of european succes. That's the risk when you trust on your youth, we'll just have to wait when a group of great talents come through. But I really believe that if Ajax can keep this team together, some good things can happen next season. It would be the best squad since the mid 90's squad.

Babel Huntelaar

Sneijder

Davids Gabri
Maduro

Emanuelson Heitinga Stam Ogararu

Stekelenburg

by **StefanoAFCA** » Tue Jul 10, 2007 12:09 am

Wilhelmsson is not good enough, done nothing at Roma or Nantes. No thanks we are better then that. Don't think Babel is worth £13.5million. 5 goals in 27 appearences fror Ajax in the Dutch league is dissapointing. A lot of hype around him but i've seen nothing which impresses me to be honest. His dutch colleague Royston Drenthe is a far better player and has one hell of a left foot. Much better player in my opinion.

Believe me, you will love Drenthe, I'm sure he will become a crowds favorite at Liverpool. He is made for your club.
But he has only played one season in the eredivisie, so I would wait at least another year before buying him.

by **europian-kings** » Tue Jul 10, 2007 12:13 am

i know this is going off subject slightly and i know alot of you may disagree with me but i think we should have kept pongolle. i think we didn't give him another run outs and i could see some quality there.

by **puroresu** » Tue Jul 10, 2007 12:17 am

europian-kings wrote:i know this is going off subject slightly and i know alot of you may disagree with me but i think we should have kept pongolle. i think we didn't give him another run outs and i could see some quality there.

I think Pongelle is going to go on to be a terrific little player. His got plenty of ability. I dont think he would of stayed anyway as he wanted 1st team football.

by **europian-kings** » Tue Jul 10, 2007 12:22 am

yeah i suppose so.

i would have liked to see him stay in the premiership though to see how he coped :cool:

by **adamnbarrett** » Tue Jul 10, 2007 12:40 am

from the Independant (who don't talk sh1t)

Benitez trumps rivals with £6.75m deal for Babel

By Sam Wallace
Published: 10 July 2007

The Ajax winger Ryan Babel is due in Liverpool tomorrow for a medical with a view to completing his £6.75m move to Anfield. The deal to bring the Dutch international to Liverpool is understood to be worth up to £10m according to the success he achieves.

The signing of Babel represents something of a triumph for Rafael Benitez, who has secured one of the most highly-prized young players in European football. Coming barely a week since Liverpool's £27m signing of Fernando Torres the acquisition of Babel, 20, was sealed despite serious interest from Arsenal, Tottenham and Newcastle.

Babel has been played as an orthodox striker for Ajax but it is as a wide player that Benitez intends to use him this season. The Liverpool manager may yet move again in the transfer market for another winger before the window closes. He already has a quartet of strikers in Torres, Peter Crouch, Dirk Kuyt and Andrei Voronin and, after his attack on the club's transfer policy in May, next season's squad is taking shape.

While Babel's agent Winnie Haatrecht claimed yesterday that he was yet to negotiate personal terms for his player that is not understood to be a stumbling block to the deal. Babel was one of the stars in the Netherlands Under-21 team that was victorious in the European Championship earlier this summer but had come to the attention of the Premiership's leading clubs long before then.

Babel has already scored four goals in his 14 appearances for the Dutch national team and Arsène Wenger has been a long-time admirer. However, with the Arsenal manager prepared to concentrate on signing the Croatian Eduardo Da Silva, the Liverpool manager has taken his chance.

Having put pressure on his American owners Tom Hicks and George Gillett to back him with money, it would appear that Benitez had been given his wish. When the Babel deal goes through, only Manchester United will have spent more than Benitez this summer.

Djibril Cissé has signed a five-year contract with Marseilles after leaving Liverpool.

Steve McClaren has not given up on persuading the Liverpool defender Jamie Carragher to continue making himself available for his country. The England manager has spoken to Carragher twice, and intends to talk to him again before he names his squad to face Germany on 22 August.

Carragher's decision was prompted by being omitted in favour of Ledley King against Estonia, and he said: "I'm 29, and I have to accept if I'm not a regular starter now, I don't think I ever will be. Playing the odd game here and there is not enough. Four or five years ago I was happy to have that role but not now."

Yesterday he hit back at the talkSPORT presenter Adrian Durham, who accused him of lacking the stomach to play for his place. He said: "Don't ever call me a bottler on radio with all those thousands of people listening."

:buttrock

by **Scottbot** » Tue Jul 10, 2007 1:01 am

Just about to paste that up myself Adam. I don't read too much into the majority of tabloid stuff (unless they all run it) but the broadsheets tend to get their facts a little straighter. Glad to see the price talked about in this article is considerably less than the some of the figures everyone has been getting (unnecessarily as it turns out) upset about.

Still looks a strange signing but my guess would be (if it goes through) that Rafa is pinning his hopes on Kewell staying injury free and being the main man out on the left again this season with Babel in a reserve role as a left-mid and also through the middle.

by **The_Rock** » Tue Jul 10, 2007 3:09 am

i have actually seen babel play on tv....and all these comparison with henry is off the mark. No..wait. Let me put it this
way....WAY OFF MARK. He isn't the outstanding player at ajax. He isn't even the outstanding player for the dutch in the U20
world cup.

He looks to be in the "ordinary to above average" category. He isn't that a good a striker...He isn't that good a winger.
He looks to be the typical "jack of all trades...master of none" type of player.

Let me put it this way. If we sell bellamy for 9 million (who is way better) and sign babel for 10 million... that is
just daft.

by **lfcseb** » Tue Jul 10, 2007 4:05 am

would be a good signing

by **cpc4eva** » Tue Jul 10, 2007 4:34 am

alxy wrote:With so much money being promised by our new owners; as well as all that cash from the sales of Bellamy, Cisse, etc... why can't we go for both?

Imagine our team with both Babel and Quaresma prowling on our flanks. We really do need to add some flair into our side, more so now with Luis gone. Though I would hesitate to say Luis added that much flair. More unpredictability than outright flair.

i thought we were going for both.... ?

reports suggested we had bid for quas b4 we bid for babel....

porto wanted us to up our offer on quas i believe cause athletico also wanted him... but then athleticos bid hit the rocks cause they didnt want to spend ....

so i thought we were in gfront running for quas

also remember rafa saying he wanted 2 new wingers and a defensive player....

:buttrock

by **Lee2k6** » Tue Jul 10, 2007 4:37 am

i just don't get this at all, for years we've been talking about wanting more money and being fed up of settling for second n third choices, now we have the money and we're goin after some unproven kid? surely there is nobody out there who rates him higher than the likes of Mancini or Queresma, and for the prices being quoted either one of these two would be better options for the sake of a few extra million.

just think goin after this lad would be a major mistake and a potential waste of money when there's so much more quality out there. come on Rafa do the right thing plz :bowdown

by **The Manhattan Project** » Tue Jul 10, 2007 4:43 am

Benitez trumps rivals with £6.75m deal for Babel

-in Mortal Kombat voice-

Excellent!

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