SV Hamburg have reportedly lost interest in signing Dirk Kuyt after Liverpool slapped a 16 million price tag on the Dutch striker…
The Bundesliga club are keen to replace Rafael van der Vaart who has signed for Real Madrid and new boss Martin Jol made enquiries about Kuyt.
Rafael Bentez is keen to raise the funds needed to sign Gareth Barry, but it will be difficult to attract interest in Kuyt unless a more realistic valuation is made …
16m ?? If they get an offer of 10 they should bite their hands off. Cant fault him for work rate and i know he is an International, but ffs, get with it.
Maybe Alonso will be kept after all??
Despite Rafael Benitez and Benayoun himself both insisting the Israeli won’t be leaving Liverpool, Roma boss Luciano Spalletti insists he will sign the midfielder before the transfer window closes.
“There will be two new signings. The names? They’re the names you’ve heard. [Jeremy] Menez [of Monaco] and Benayoun are both top class players,” said the Italian
[quote=“therock67”]Alonso needs to stay to play in the CL doesn’t he because Gerrard is injured? Either that’s true or my Metro lied to me this morning.
16m for Kuyt would be ridiculous. 8m would be less ridiculous but still overpriced.[/quote]
Aye, with Lucas and Mascherano at the Olympics it leaves us a bit short. Much like Farmer’s penis the night he tried to ride the skanger in Tinnion’s.
Villa have agreed fees for Nicky Shorey and Luke Young.
They were ridiculously short on full backs so they needed those moves. Might free up Maloney to leave. They’re not in the same position or anything but Villa needed numbers, not attackers before they’d allow him to leave if the internet is to be believed.
I think Luke Young is a tidy enough player but not sure about Nicky Shorey. I reckon the latter might be one of those lads who was alright for a season but because he’s English and left footed he got far more credit than was warranted. Villa had nobody to play right back with Mellberg having joined Juve and then Bouma broke his ankle so they needed left back cover too.
Clarkey, I’ve been bitching about the Olympic football competition since eternity - it’s utterly pointless. Can you imagine Liverpool getting shocked by Standard Liege while Mascherano and them are fannying around against China U-23s or something? Truly ridiculous.
i wouldn’t rate nicky shorey too highly but i always liked luke young…didn’t he make his breakthrough at tottenham…always thought he had a bit about him and don’t think he would be too far off the england squad but playing for charlton and the boro wouldn’t help in that regard…
villa fan here lads. i was getting worried with the lack of signings.
finally a right back signed. we have never had a good one. not in last 15 years anyway. barrett, charles, nelson, watson, de la cruz, mellberg, gardner all pretty poor. delaney was the best but always injured. i reckon young could be a very good signing. we really should have gone for him last season as 6m is a big price for a 29 year old full back. he is strong defensively, very athletic and good going forward. any time i watched boro last season he looked their best player.
shorey is a good signing too. 27 so has a good few years left in him. he needs a good start as bouma had a fine year last year. shorey is good going forward and very handy on the ball. id worry about him when he is marking a fast wide man. ashley young annihilated him at reading last year.
friedel is a great sigining and o’neill obviously rates guzan highly. we will lack creativity in the middle of the park when barry goes and lack badly upfront as gabby is going back at an alarming rate. shocking first touch and no vision when it comes to passing the ball. raul tamudo and de la red would be great signings but o neill tends to have a weakness in attracting players from europe
[quote=“KIB man”]villa fan here lads. i was getting worried with the lack of signings.
finally a right back signed. we have never had a good one. not in last 15 years anyway. barrett, charles, nelson, watson, de la cruz, mellberg, gardner all pretty poor. delaney was the best but always injured. i reckon young could be a very good signing. we really should have gone for him last season as 6m is a big price for a 29 year old full back. he is strong defensively, very athletic and good going forward. any time i watched boro last season he looked their best player.
shorey is a good signing too. 27 so has a good few years left in him. he needs a good start as bouma had a fine year last year. shorey is good going forward and very handy on the ball. id worry about him when he is marking a fast wide man. ashley young annihilated him at reading last year.
friedel is a great sigining and o’neill obviously rates guzan highly. we will lack creativity in the middle of the park when barry goes and lack badly upfront as gabby is going back at an alarming rate. shocking first touch and no vision when it comes to passing the ball. raul tamudo and de la red would be great signings but o neill tends to have a weakness in attracting players from europe[/quote]
O’Neill rating Guzan highly should have ye very worried. O’Neill is a cracking manager with a couple of flaws - the most frustrating of these is his reluctance to spend money on players from outside England. On top of that he has an uncanny ability to buy the worst goalkeepers imaginable. Friedel has been in great form but Hedman seemed decent before Celtic bought him and he deteriorated rapidly. The other yank guy is supposed to be decent too.
Expect O’Neill to offer Raul Tamudo a trial on 31st August.
barry had an outstanding season last year culminating in him taking his place in the england side ahead of carrick and hargreaves both of whom cost 18m approx. this is the line being spun by o’neill and has been bought hook, line and sinker by the english media and rafa benitez.
in reality barry did have a very good year at club level but only played well in nothing games for england ie. friendlies and useless opposition. he was hopelessly found out in russia and taken off at half time against croatia in wembley. hargreaves was also injured or recovering from injury at the time.
barry is very good on the ball but hopelessly one sided. he has no pace and cant tackle so the idea of him being a defensive midfielder is a bankrupt one. i guess benitez sees him playing alongside mascherano and will give them greater balance being left footed. barry creates a lot of chances but is too slow to get into the box and didnt score too many for villa last season that werent penalties.
the only problem with selling barry now is that he is our most high profile player and captain. what kind of message does that send to the fans or the likes of davies and ashley young. with barry in the side and a few more signings i reckon villa could seriously have challenged liverpool this season. an injury to torres will seriously hurt liverpool and he had a hard summer remember. while villa are left at the moment with a central midfield of reo coker (who cant kick the ball let alone pass it), sidwell (missed a season last year) and petrov (so slow that he makes barry look quick and doesnt want the ball). creativity in the middle will be in very short supply. we badly need a replacement asap.
18m for barry is insane money but his star is at its absolute peak right now. similar to robbie keane in that respect. i predict the values of these two players along with rafa benitez will ave dropped significantly by the end of the season.
P.S. why benitez wants to sign two one paced players for a side already criminally short in pace - mascherano, gerrard and torres aside is beyond me.
Alright KIB Man. I read quotes from a spokesman for Randy Lerner saying he’s committed to supporting O’Neill in the transfer market and would be willing to spend as much as 30m on the right player. But O’Neill was always very conservative in the transfer market at Celtic, albeit he had bugetary constraints. Up to yesterday, am I correct in saying that he’d only signed the two 'keepers and Sidwell? Young and Shorey would probably fit into the solid rather than spectacular category and the standard of player he’s signing wouldn’t appear to be top 4 material. The signings so far are likely to consolidate them as a top 6-8 club but I don’t understand why he doesn’t really splash the cash on a bit of flair and class if the funds as reported are available.