12 Oct 2014

Done Deal? LFC close to signing 'terrific' £9m star who loves Liverpool & idolises Gerrard

Liverpool are reportedly close to sealing a deal for MK Dons midfielder Dele Alli, who is also being pursued by Manchester United and Arsenal.

According to the Daily Express this weekend:

* Brendan Rodgers has 'prioritised' the signing of 18-year old Alli.

* Liverpool are negotiations with MK Dons, and a deal with 'various add-ons' is expected to reach £9m.

* The Reds want to complete the deal in January, and then loan Alli back to MK Dons for the rest of the season.

Last season, Liverpool boss Brendan Rodgers made a personal scouting trip to watch Alli in action, and in a recent interview, the youngster dropped a very strong hint that he's open to playing for LFC. He enthused:

"I am actually a Liverpool fan and Gerrard is someone I look up to massively"

Alli has grabbed 6 goals (including a hat-trick last weekend) in Dons' first 8 league games this year prompting his boss, Karl Robinson, to endlessly fawn over the 'sensational' midfielder, Brendan Rodgers style.

In the past, Robinson has hailed Alli as the 'most gifted youngster the UK has ever seen', and over the weekend, he gushed:

"He [Alli] is on another planet. He’s a terrific individual, and to be a top player you have to conduct yourself in the right way and he certainly does that"

Like Rodgers, Robinson seems prone to effusive, overwrought praise, and he regularly heaps exaggerated praise on Alli. This may be counter-productive, though; Robinson claims he wants to keep the youngster at the club, but if he keeps fawning over him, top teams are sure take note, which could ultimately hasten Alli's exit.

Some info about the youngster:

* 6'2
* 14 goals/6 assists in 57 apps for MK Dons so far.
* Made his debut at age 16 in 2012.
* 9 apps for the England U17 side.
* Top scorer for the U18s last season with 17-goals.
* Signed a three-year professional deal in the summer of 2013.
* 10 yellow cards in 55 apps.
* Personal motto: "Don't practise until you get it right. Practise until you can't get it wrong".

Liverpool are bursting at the seams with young talent, and the arrival of yet another teenager seems, to me, like overkill. However, the club lacks - even in the youth ranks - big, tall, combative midfield players, so he'd clearly bring something different to the table.

Additionally, in an age of grossly inflated transfer fees for British players (Luke Shaw, anyone?) £9m is a comparatively reasonable transfer fee.



Author:


43 comments:

  1. If we had a big, tall, combative midfielder in our team like Toure and Matic, then that'd be great...

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  2. Yeah, when you look at the physicality of City and Chelsea (moreso City) you see that we really fall down on that front.

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  3. When you hear about these seemingly exorbitant fees, you can take a certain solace in that usually, for young players like Alli, they're heavily incentivised and based on clauses, rather than the full fee.

    Look forward to seeing him, if we do get him. We could do with a better variety of technical and physical players.

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  4. Let's hope it's a relatively small up-front fee and then lots of add-ons. That's fair for any young talent - if he never makes it then they don't get their money.

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  5. I reckon Chelsea definitely match it with City for physicality. Arsenal struggle against Mourinho so much because they're too airy fairy to cope with Chelsea's physical strength. We'd leak so fewer goals with a big combative DM or box 2 box.

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  6. If he is cranky, physical and box to box, then yes.....

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  7. Airy fairy sounds like us up front as well...nice term. I hoped Mario would fix that but he hasn't moved much let alone actually imposed his will on the other team.....

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  8. Well it's not like he has to go around knocking people over, he still does a great job at using his physicality to hold the ball up. Balotelli and Sturridge up front is not too lightweight.

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  9. Off topic. Yesterday was the inauguration of Indian Super League (ISL), a 3 month short league to promote football in India. The opening match was Kolkata vs Mumbai. Luis Garcia was captaining Kolkata side which has partnered with Atletico Madrid and hence named Atletico de Kolkata. It was pleasure watching Luis Garcia, he still had that touch and looked extremely fit. He helped Kolkata to 3-0 victory in first ever ISL match. The highlight was a superb volley from Borja Fernandeze to make it 2-0.

    .

    Mumbai City FC had a bad start but they have Anelka and Ljungberg joining them from next match as they were among the spectators due to suspension.

    .

    Today is Northeast United vs Kerela Blasters. David James is player/manager of Kerela Blasters while NorthEast have the likes of Joan Capdevila and Koke, among others.

    .
    It was amazing yesterday as stadium was full packed (100,000 capacity) due to low price tickets and atmosphere was amazing. Indian fans can finally watch good quality football and I expect some Indian players to shine. We have some terrific goalkeepers in Subroto Paul and Subhasish Roy. Looking forward to see Luis Garcia again. :-)

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  10. I think that's what Emre Can was bought to be. A midfield of Can, Hendo and Gerrard isn't going to be bullied by anyone.
    Juries still out on the lad due to his injuries but if he can play, he's a massive guy too

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  11. I think your right just hope he's a real gem of a player

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  12. How many times have you rotated this article?

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  13. Mr. Point Of View9:27 am, October 13, 2014

    another story like WIll Hughes ?

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  14. Yeah, what happened to him?

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  15. Yeah I really hope so!

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  16. I hope you haven't been carried away by Costa's performances (for Chelsea that is). Not every strong striker needs to be built like him!

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  17. from what i've seen, and a friend of mine (whos a bayern supporter) told me he is indeed a real gem, but a very raw player that is far from the finished article at the moment...
    a few years back he was seen as germanys biggest prospect, but last season he had to accept a lot of criticisms. However his physical strengh and his general attributes can certainly make a huge difference!

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  18. i personally think we could do really well with some strengthening in the DM area
    Haven't seen to much from this guy, but if he's really that good and his heart is set on joining liverpool then bring him in!

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  19. from what i've seen, and a friend of mine (whos a bayern supporter) told
    me he is indeed a real gem, but a very raw player that is far from the
    finished article at the moment...
    a few years back he was seen as
    germanys biggest prospect, but last season he had to accept a lot of
    criticisms. However his physical strengh and his general attributes can
    certainly make a huge difference!

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  20. A question that you might answer,

    Is loaning players taboo in Germany?
    The question comes from all those buy back clauses we heard of(like Can) when selling, not loaning players..

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  21. Let`s hope it is Sterling `loan moment`, his last season..

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  22. I'd suggest that boy not to come over here. We're probably the worst team on giving the youth chances. Look at our academy, only Sterling has made it to the first team as a standard player, the others just come and go and Im not going to name them all now because they are too many! Just hope Suso leaves asap, such a cruel treatment he is reciving from BR, cant even get a start vs boro, says it all I think. Teixeira? No, we dont need them, we have top class markovic and allen and a true lfc fan lambert.

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  23. Flannagan has made it as well. Please do not say we do not give youth a chance. Wisdom, Robinson, Suso and man others have been given debuts. Even Arsenal, the supposed mecca of youth have not given that many debuts.

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  24. Barely played mate.

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  25. I said 'standard' players who made it, which mean those who are regular, wont miss a game unless injured. So thats sterling only. Flano has been called due to many injuries we had with enrique and johnson otherwise he wouldnt get any minute. Wisdom robinson really? Where are they now, come on! Suso? Think he already agreed to join ac milan.

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  26. I think its more of a way of thinking. Loans are very good for the team making the loan, but not so much for the team sending a player out. Its a try before you buy, but what if the try goes wrong? Then you're stuck with a player you don't want and no one will buy. If its for development, and the player plays really well, then suddenly the price and interest skyrockets and that player might see his future elsewhere. Selling with buyback clauses keep the price at about the same level as you sold the player for, and if in the end you don't want to keep him, there's no stress to sell something you don't have anymore.

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  27. Thank you my alter ego.
    I kinda knew those things, just wanted him to answer it to see if German clubs deal with it often because he watches their football so much..
    Or am I your alter ego..

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  28. If it is like that than no player is ever going to make it. Sterling was also not a 'standard' player and he only came in because of injuries. He was one of those special cases that became amazing. If these guys are not going to make it at Liverpool, they aint making it anywhere else great.

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  29. me is absolutely right (that sounds weird doesn't it?)

    What i'd like to add is that Bayern (especially Rummenigge and Sammer, who often make these kind of deals) are playing hardball with every other team in the Bundesliga...

    it's a win win situation for them! Either they get their cash straight up for a player that won't progress any more, or they just buy a player back for almost the same price they sold him for. Given the fact that almost every player in the bundesliga would like to play for bayern (because they win all the time) they will always get their players back.

    +it took LFC a long time to sign Can, because we had to agree a fee with Leverkusen and a fee with bayern for their buyback-clause to get cancelled (again they got about 2m for doing nothing)

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  30. That is one reason I am worried about Can. Maybe we did an amazing deal and got a potentially world class player on the cheap or maybe we bought a dud who Bayern wanted to sell off. It can work either ways. Right now at this moment Can is not the solution. He might be in the future but not now and we need it now..

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  31. Just wanted to know if that is standard procedure in Ger...

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  32. I'm a sucker for potential so why not! Obviously we clearly have some issues in the team but who knows, might turn out to be a superstar!

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  33. not really, there aren't to many clubs that accept these buyback-deals.
    most clubs in germany loan out their players just like the english clubs

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  34. Care to try writing 2-3 articles a day every day?

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  35. I knew it was him. Clicked on the score and there it was. Scorer Luis Suarez. The one from Uruguay. Don`t know why, but I smiled...

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  36. we had one in shelvey then sold him on for peanuts

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  37. Then you shouldn't write them or get some help. My totally appropriate comment was deleted, guess criticism of the author is not allowed here.

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  38. Then you shouldn't rotate them or get some help. My totally appropriate comment was deleted, guess criticism of the author is not allowed here.

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  39. Be careful, big brother is watching. 1984.

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  40. If you ever watch our games the number of quality crosses into the box are few and far between...

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  41. I ever miss a game......crosses have been poor but that's because Countinho has been 'missing' most of the time and Henderson has spent too much time deep in defense. Lallana is supposed to be a playmaker but haven't sen much there either. That all said, there have been tons of passes through the middle to Mario and enough crosses where he could / should have 3-5 goals by now.... Can't wait for Sturridge to return. Also, missing in action is Markovic who seems afraid to maintain possession, beat his man or even shoot. Don't know why....

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