25 Sept 2014

Yes Please: LFC to make €45m offer for 'lethal' Argentina star with €100m buyout clause. Better than Balotelli?

Liverpool are reportedly planning huge January transfer bid for Argentine striker Gonzalo Higuain.

According to Eurosport today:

"Liverpool have set their eyes set on Napoli's Gonzalo Higuain and are ready with a €45m offer"

The Reds were linked with a move for Higuain during the January 2012 transfer window, and at the time, Anfield legends John Aldridge and John Barnes were massively in favour of the idea. Barnes told TalkSport:

"Liverpool need someone like Gonzalo Higuain. If you get the ball in the box he can score, he can play outside the box and he’s the kind of player that Liverpool should be going for".

In his column for the Liverpool Echo, Aldo added:

"I like the look of Gonzalo Higuain. He doesn’t play an awful lot at the Bernabeu but he would be brilliant for us. But would he come? And how much would be cost?"

Napoli - managed by former Liverpool boss Rafa Benitez - have endured a nightmare start to the season, with the low point being an ignominious early elimination from the Champions League.

Reports in Italy suggest that Higuain - described by Andrea Pirlo as a 'lethal' striker - is unsettled at the club, and speculation over a rift intensified this when the striker specifically requested to sit-out Napoli's game with Palermo. Addressing questions on the issue, Benitez told reporters:

"Higuain asked not to play that's why he was on the bench. He told me that he was tired after playing three games in a row and playing a fourth could have caused physical problems."

Higuain's stats for Napoli so far are pretty formidable, especially for Serie A:

* 26 goals/13 assists in 53 appearances.
* Goal/assist every 1.3 games.

The Argentine's stats at Real Madrid were also excellent:

* 122 goals/56 assists in 264 apps.
* Goal/assist every 1.4 games.

According to Benitez, Higuain's biggest assets (apart from scoring/creating) are 'opening many spaces, and working continuously for the team', Suarez-esque qualities arguably lacking up-front right now. Balotelli has his strengths, but constantly being on the move, and opening up space for others are not his forte.

€45m may not be enough to land Higuain, though. According to Napoli President Aurelio De Laurentiis, the striker has a stupendous buyout clause, designed to scare away potential poachers:

“I’ve heard some people saying that we inserted a clause of €70 million into the contract of Higuain, which isn’t true. Therefore, I would like to state that we inserted a clause of €100 million last summer.”

Still, if Higuain is unhappy, that could change things somewhat. And if Benitez gets the bullet at some point soon, then it could be open season.

Author:


79 comments:

  1. £35 MILLION TOPS - He is no Suarez for sure

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  2. hes very good but no suarez

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  3. a worldclass goalie and a top notch Dm should be our priotity

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  4. BR just bought Balo,,,,I dont think we need a striker but a DM and a Goalie would be good

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  5. He's a target man how many times must we be bitten by the curse of the target man? They havent worked for us since Toshack and to a certain extent crouch.

    Lets take a look at our previous target mens' league performance:


    Riedle 60 games 11 goals,

    Dundee 3 games no goals,

    Meijer 24 games 2 goals,

    Heskey 150 games 39 goals,

    Crouch 85 games 22 goals

    Morientes 41 games 8 goals,

    Ngog 63 games 9 goals,

    Carroll 44 games 6 goals,

    Mellor 12 games 2 goals,

    Kuyt (up front: difficult to say but not good)

    and Lambert so far 4 games no goals



    total games: 486 games ........ .total goals: 99


    thats a league goal every 4.91 games for our target men. So no thank you. They dont work well here.



    We need mobility skill and speed up top, historically this has been the type of forward who has been a success for us. He'll be an almighty flop if he joins, but he wont :) so there is no problem.

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  6. some good points but im finding it mind bogling how you would address the fact that Agger and Skrtel will never win us a title. How is it possible for them to work on being battered by Benteke or Lukaku. Every season it has been the same. If they have the desired strength, guile, pace or reading of the game at 29 then the game might be up.

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  7. To be fair, Higuain is on a completely different level to all the players you listed

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  8. You play far too much football manager. Have you even seen El Shaaraway play recently? He's been exceptionally average for quite awhile. You remind me of the people that say "We should sign Luis Muriel" - another player who began well but has stalled big-time. How can you say based on the few games that Suso has played and the even fewer games that Markovic has played, that Suso is "way better"? You can't, you just want to believe it to support your not so hidden agenda. Since when is Diame so good? How is he better than Emre Can? Well he must be amazing if he's scored two goals! Jesus Christ, at least give Can a chance. Oh, but that would completely go against your agenda. I'll agree with you RE Isco, he'd be a great addition - but how do you know he'd even come to us? How do you know we didn't try for Isco? I think we signed relatively well. But maybe that's just my agenda speaking...

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  9. With Balotelli yet to bed in, Lambert yet to be fully fit and Sturridge out injured, not to mention Borini... yeah best not, we haven't even gotten started in that department and already we're talking more money? A competitive goalkeeper and a midfield general are more pressing needs if you ask me.

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  10. I hear FIFA 15 is being released today, probably a good buy for you.

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  11. Maybe we can do a direct swap for Balotelli and Borini

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  12. For me apart from Ronaldo and Messi ,Liverpool cannot find any other strikers around the world as lethal as Suarez. Reporters keep on misleading us by using words such as " top striker" "lethal striker" and " world classstriker" All propoganda talking by newspapers and websites. Liverpool let Suarez go now we have to play as a team to win. I dont see anyone can replace Suarez.

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  13. Totally and fully agree with u . BR always buying midfeilders and not strikers. What a waste of money.

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  14. Nevergonnacrackthecode7:43 am, September 26, 2014

    morgan schniderlin is the top notch dm you want no other option


    asmir begovic could be the top keeper you want or hugo loris or maybe joe hart


    a right back as well , i would want clyne but cant see us signing 5 southampton lads in 4 months
    maybe ward from crystal palace

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  15. in Balotelli and Lambert BR bought 2! strikers

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  16. Agree. We also need to bed in the new players especially in defence.

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  17. I have heard that Morgan (shidderling) is thinking of changing his surname to Jones :-)

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  18. you clearly know nothing about football if you want to sign that waste of space. did you watch the world cup?

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  19. What makes you think Balotelli is a striker?

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  20. So you base your knowledge of a player on what you saw in a World Cup? Diao and Diouf looked like world beaters in a world cup and look how they turned out.

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  21. New players will take time to bed in, we couldn't just buy 1 or 2 "world renound" players with the money as our squad was worryingly thin as year. Even with bulking the squad out we are struggling with Injuries.


    It is also those injuries that are hampering our play this year, im sure BR idea was that the 1st team would be pretty much the same as last year apart from one or two swaps and others then gradually introduced to win a place but injuries have forced him to play the new players straight away before they have settled and adapted to the philosophy.

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  22. he ain't better than Balotelli
    stop with that Yes Please gimmick

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  23. what brain cells do you lack to not know the factual thing that he is a striker for club & country?

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  24. What do you mean? Diouf was a legend.

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  25. why should we swap balotelli ?

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  26. IMO Crouch and Kuyt did a good job playing up front

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  27. I hate to feel a little on the down side of this but I simply don't think BR has the ability to sign a super star.

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  28. Saying he's no Suarez is like saying he's no Messi. Seriously...

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  29. I know he plays one on TV...

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  30. Because we shouldn't have signed him in the first place

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  31. Higuain was actually pretty good at the world cup...

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  32. Not for me and even more so at the prices quoted. Lacks the pace of a real top striker and as we are seeing with Balo no pace in behind makes us very ordinary.

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  33. Even if its true, cant get him before january, by the time we will be out of top 4 race, never mind the league trophy. Lets enjoy balotellis hairstyles now, and of course the legend who captained lfc on tuesday lambert. We must look for a suarez type player, any other than that will be a failure. Luckily most of top teams arent doing well as well like us but thats no relief at all, sooner or later they will get better and we dont seem to get any better atm, just worse and worse.

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  34. Did you change your pic, or am I going crazy? Guess it might be a little of both.

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  35. Suarez wasn't pacy. Decent acceleration, but not pacy. It's the lack of movement in behind that is the issue. Balotelli isn't a lone striker, in my opinion. Not enough variety in his runs. He just holds the ball up and occupies the space in front of the 18-yard box.

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  36. Nope, same picture as before.

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  37. Dude you've got a total man crush on Schneiderlin, he's a decent player but he's not THAT good

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  38. shouldn't you be working on your law blog ?

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  39. Suarez wasn't lethally fast but his movement was the best I've possibly ever seen and he wasn't exactly a slouch either. When he had the ball at his feet he seemed to become even faster. We've replaced him with a very static player in Balo who just doesn't suit our style in the slightest. Everytime I've watched him he's trying to drop deep rather than get in behind and as a result we are left with no one up top.

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  40. Nobody is going to replace Suarez. that is how good he is. We have however shown vs Spurs how deadly we can be without a player like Suarez. Sterling is the closest we have to Luis. Napoli can keep Higuain.

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  41. I think it is only a matter of time before Balotelli starts banging in the goals. He has shown some glimpses of brilliance. Luckily there has been no behaviour issues as yet. The goals will come.

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  42. I've got to disagree with you on this one Logan I honestly don't believe Balo will ever bang in the goals for us. Sometimes players just fit and sometimes they just don't... I've thought from day one with him he's just not the right fit for LFC. Time will tell but I would be very surprised if he scores much more than 15 goals a season.

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  43. I've heard a lot of people harping on about the spurs performance... I just don't get it. Spurs were awful, worse than awful, absolutely shocking. We played ok, not great by any stretch of the imagination. It is possibly the best we have played this season but in my mind we've been pretty poor ourselves every game so far. I don't doubt we will improve considerably as the season progresses but I didn't see this deadly performance against spurs you are referring to.

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  44. Suarez 1st season 13 matches 4 goals. 2nd season 31 matches 11 goals. 3rd and 4th season BOOM!


    Balotelli needs to find his feet, that is all.

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  45. Our pressing and penetration gave Spurs no chance whatsoever. That is how good we were on that day.

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  46. You really just went there didn't you?!? I think every LFC fan saw Suarez play against Sunderland on his debut and knew we had unearthed an absolute gem. Ok his first few years he wasn't at the level he is now but he was still our best player during that period regardless of his goal return. I know you like to defend BR and his signings and I am generally in the same boat but for me Balotelli will never be a great footballer.

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  47. Have you watched spurs since? They're a poor team at the moment and I don't think we will have many easier games this year than we did that day. It was our best performance of the new season so far but if that's still considered one of the best performances come the end of the season we are in trouble IMO. I get the vibe we are more or less back to the standard of BRs first year.

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  48. I was actually totally against signing Balotelli but guess everyone deserves a chance. He is super talented, just has not shown what he is really made of. Nobody is going to replace Suarez's ability but Balotelli will start scoring goals sooner or later.

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  49. Alex Song from barca.. Practically any above average cdm from the Bundesliga.

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  50. What is the bet that if we played vs Spurs like we did vs Southampton, City, Villa and West Ham then Spurs would have destroyed us.


    Spurs had 20% more possession than us but never knew what to do with ball due to the way we pressed and got into their faces. We destroyed them.

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  51. I guess your just looking at this from a different angle to me. Personally I think it was more a case of how bad spurs were rather than how good we were whereas I think Southampton, City, Villa and West Ham all turned up and showed us to be very mediocre at the moment. I think we will improve a lot but at the moment we haven't been given much hope.

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  52. What is the bet that if we played the way we did vs Spurs vs all the other teams then we would more have more than 6 points this season.

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  53. Hmmmm not sure about that. Might have got a result against Villa other than that not much difference for me.

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  54. Agreed everyone deserves a chance but he needs to make more of an effort to run in behind and cause problems for the CBs rather than dropping deep all the time looking for the ball. With him constantly dropping deep we are left with no one up top, lose all momentum and end up going sideways and backwards.

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  55. The way we played vs Spurs this season is the we we trounced them last season. The we trounced Arsenal and many of the other teams.

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  56. Nowhere near that level in my opinion. The closest so far yes but last season we were in a completely different league.

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  57. Let;s agree to disagree.

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  58. Ha yes I'll agree on that!! What's your thoughts for tomorrow? Personally praying we have Studge back but not looking likely.

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  59. I am also a bit confused as to why Rodgers thinks 4-2-3-1 is working.

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  60. Yup with you all the way there. I think he was hoping to play that way this year with the new signings but for me diamond and 2 up top all day long.

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  61. If we press as well as we did vs Spurs then we have every chance of winning ;-)


    If we let them come at us like we have vs all the other teams bar Spurs then we are dead in the water.

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  62. Been a funny old start for both teams this year I fully expected Everton to be up there challenging the top 4 again. Really rate Martinez. I've got a feeling it might be a score draw.

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  63. Doesnt make sense to me

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  64. Yes both:-) At least it's ok for me to be barking

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  65. Doesnt make sense to me

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  66. You can say that again

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  67. Dorsolateral prefrontal probably

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  68. He wasn't so lethal in the World Cup final, was he? What a miss that was!

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  69. I had seen Markovic playing before BR signed him and knew full well he was a total no-no. When I mentione this I was laughed at. Some half-wit said he would beat players for fun and score over twenty goals! The bad news is that the guy we left at Lille is not even as good as Markovic. VERY POOR signings, the Spanish full-backs apart. Unfortunately, the top men will not go to Liverpool - no chance of signing the likes of Di Maria, Sanchez, Falcao etc.They want a chance to win things and know that will not happen at Anfield. Sad but true.

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  70. I agree that Balotelli's movement is the issue. if you read my previous post, you'll see that is what I said. It's not a matter of pace, it is about the quality and variety of movement. That is why Sturridge and Suarez complimented each other. They had complimentary movement.

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  71. It says 20 mill not 50 and knowing us we will lose him cheap.

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  72. Pieter Engelbrecht7:05 am, September 27, 2014

    there is only one suarez. stop comparing other players.we have to get over and adopt or die...............

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  73. 20 million aye right

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  74. Just how many golden chances does he need before he puts the ball in the net? Even Heskey would have buried a few by now. Heskey, even N'gog.

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  75. Aye right England's most important player is gonna go for 20 mil. If Luke Shaw is worth 27 then Sterling would go for double that at least

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  76. My sister, Barb, is taking care of it in my absence.

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