Friends of Liverpool FC: RAFA GIVEN £20 MILLION TO SPEND ON NEW PLAYERS BY BROUGHTON AND YANKS

Saturday, May 22, 2010

RAFA GIVEN £20 MILLION TO SPEND ON NEW PLAYERS BY BROUGHTON AND YANKS

It appears that things are, at last beginning to stabilise at Liverpool FC.
Martin Broughton, on the instructions of the Americans, have given Rafa Benitez a transfer kitty of upwards of £20 million to spend on new players this summer.
It seems that Rafa has managed to strengthen his position at the club for next season, at least.
With his high four year salary of £16 million, sacking him was never an option for the cash-strapped club and with the breakdown of talks in a possible move to Juventus, the club and the manager have formed an uneasy alliance to continue working together for next season.
With Benitez's relationship with MD Christian Purslow getting frostier by the day following a dismal season for the club, the manager is now dealing directly with new chairman Martin Broughton.
Several things were discussed in the two meetings including the 7th place finish last season, who Rafa wants to buy this summer and what players he is willing to sell.
The American owners have accepted that they will have to invest between £20 and £30 million in money to get the club competing again at the top tier of the Premiership.
Without that, the chances of them selling the club will be that much more difficult.
Players being mentioned include Sampdoria striker Giampaolo Pazzini, Werder Bremen's young starlet Mesut Ozil and Valencia midfielder Ever Banega.
Players on the way out of Anfield may include Albert Riera, Ryan Babel and Phillip Degen.
Posted by john toher at Saturday, May 22, 2010

8 comments:

  1. please spend it on david silva
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  2. is that all the yanks can come with thats a bitter blow for the liverpool fc football club iam shame of it yanks
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  3. well yanks its time you both lelfed from day one just one thing after other come on with all the fans going week after week keeping your pockets full its time to go now
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  4. That's certainly better news than I was expecting so I have to say I am pretty happy with that. I actually think that we are in need of a bit of a squad revolution this summer - Benayoun, Babel, Aquilani, Degen, Riera, Skrtel would be welcome to leave as far as I am concerned.

    That would hopefully raise somewhere in the region of £40m to be added to the £20m which would give us £60m to spend. I think the players we are being linked with are encouraging - Ozil is a big prospect, Pazzini would hopefully signal an intent to move to 4-4-2. We were linked a lot with Arda Turan in the past too.

    I think all this talk of "please buy David Silva", etc.. is exactly the sort of approach that has caused a lot of the trouble for us. When Torres is injured we rely too heavily on Gerrard, when Gerrard is off form we usually struggle. What we need to do is add more options of a high standard - I would rather have a squad of 16 high standard players than 1 or 2 marquee players with up to 5 or 6 players in the squad simply not being up to it.

    I think if we got rid of Skrtel and Degen then we wouldn't need to replace them. Kyrgiakos was a welcome surprise last season for us and Martin Kelly and Stephen Darby have showed they have promise at right back. Similarly, Daniel Ayala is highly rated at centre back so I would have no qualms about him being our 4th choice.
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  5. Matt, I wouldn't sell Skrtel, Benayoun or Aquilani, they are important members of the squad in my opinion.
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  6. If, and it is a big if, we do switch to a 4-4-2 as I have stated I think we might be then Gerrard would be reverted to a traditional central midfield role. Therefore the preferred partnership would be Gerrard and Mascherano with Lucas backing up.

    As for Benayoun, I like him but I think that Benitez is looking to sell him. If we could replace him with the likes of Ozil or Turan then I would be happy - both can play on both flanks.

    As for Skrtel, I was a big fan up until the game against Chelsea in the Champions League - he had Drogba in his pocket all night until he got injured. Since he has come back I don't think we have seen the same level of performance and I am not sure whether or not he will get back there.

    I guess it is all a matter of opinion but after such a stale season I think it will be difficult for the same bunch of players to pick themselves up enough to get where we want to be. Sometimes a mini revolution can provide the injection that is needed.

    I might be wrong, and probably am, but it is clear that our attacking potency is not what it should be for a team looking to challenge for the Premier League and Champions League, especially if Gerrard or Torres or both are missing.
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  7. Well, the main thing is we do need new players and it looks like we will get them, so its all good.
    Matt, you write well, do you have your own blog? if not you should consider creating one.
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  8. I do as it happens:

    http://the-fa-premier-league.blogspot.com

    I have also just started writing for a website:

    http://www.insidefutbol.com
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