Marseille star Andre Ayew has been linked with a move to Liverpool many times in the past, and new reports this week claim that the Ghanaian striker is desperate for a move to Anfield.
According to reports over the weekend:
* Liverpool have offered €15m-rated Ayew a pre-contract agreement.
* Ayew is willing to accept the Reds' offer.
Ayew has preference for Liverpool, and when interviewed last season on French TV show Telefoot, he enthused:
"It [The Premier league] is a league I always think of. I am Ghanaian and an English speaker, and I have a strong preference for England. As for Liverpool - I followed them as a child"
Ayew's versatility probably makes him an appealing option for Brendan Rodgers. He can play as a winger, or a striker, but is he prolific enough, though? Stats for the last few years:
* 2010-11: 13 goals/3 assists in 51 appearances.
* 2011-12: 16 goals/4 assists in 39 apps.
* 2012-13: 13 goals/5 assists in 45 apps.
* 2013-14: 8 goals/4 assists in 29 apps.
* 2014-15: 5 goals/3 assists in 18 apps.
* Totals: 58 goals/19 assists in 182 apps.
* Goal/Assist every 2.3 games.
Former Ghana head coach Kwesi Appiah is convinced that Ayew is the real deal, and in an interview last year, he outlined what makes the striker such a special player:
“Ayew is a player of world-class level and tactically he is good. He is also a leader. When the team is in trouble he pushes all his companions to fight and not give up.”
Sounds like just the type of player Liverpool need, and the polar opposite of Balotelli. There's a world of difference, though, between scoring goals in France, and doing the business in the Premier League.
That said, Ayew is available on a free transfer this summer, so it's arguably a no-lose situation for Liverpool.
As usual, though, money talks; Ayew claims that he supported Liverpool as a child, but if another club comes in with a bigger salary offer, I have no doubt he'll take it.
Author: Jaimie K
According to reports over the weekend:
* Liverpool have offered €15m-rated Ayew a pre-contract agreement.
* Ayew is willing to accept the Reds' offer.
Ayew has preference for Liverpool, and when interviewed last season on French TV show Telefoot, he enthused:
"It [The Premier league] is a league I always think of. I am Ghanaian and an English speaker, and I have a strong preference for England. As for Liverpool - I followed them as a child"
Ayew's versatility probably makes him an appealing option for Brendan Rodgers. He can play as a winger, or a striker, but is he prolific enough, though? Stats for the last few years:
* 2010-11: 13 goals/3 assists in 51 appearances.
* 2011-12: 16 goals/4 assists in 39 apps.
* 2012-13: 13 goals/5 assists in 45 apps.
* 2013-14: 8 goals/4 assists in 29 apps.
* 2014-15: 5 goals/3 assists in 18 apps.
* Totals: 58 goals/19 assists in 182 apps.
* Goal/Assist every 2.3 games.
Former Ghana head coach Kwesi Appiah is convinced that Ayew is the real deal, and in an interview last year, he outlined what makes the striker such a special player:
“Ayew is a player of world-class level and tactically he is good. He is also a leader. When the team is in trouble he pushes all his companions to fight and not give up.”
Sounds like just the type of player Liverpool need, and the polar opposite of Balotelli. There's a world of difference, though, between scoring goals in France, and doing the business in the Premier League.
That said, Ayew is available on a free transfer this summer, so it's arguably a no-lose situation for Liverpool.
As usual, though, money talks; Ayew claims that he supported Liverpool as a child, but if another club comes in with a bigger salary offer, I have no doubt he'll take it.
Author: Jaimie K
a good deal for lfc next season..
ReplyDeleteI agree with you, If they are his true stats I recon that makes him a better deal than Sterling.
ReplyDelete25 is a good age too. Experienced, but not old.
ReplyDeleteIn the video he scored a few tap ins, nothing of his overall play, does not look great to me, but who knows?.
ReplyDeleteThis evening, we are ball number 1 in the FA cup draw, lets hope we get drawn first against ball number 2 which is Arsenal, what a great draw that would be, I would rather beat them at Anfield than Wembley.
Fine player and does support Liverpool????..........................very good player!!!
ReplyDeleteA minor upgrade on Borini perhaps? Honestly, he's not super special but as a squad player he might do just fine. Liverpool will continue to need 4 decent strikers available on rotation and Borini and Lambert just haven't cut it. Origi is coming in, maybe Mario will stay ... someone is going to have to leave for sure but how many strikers would we sell in the summer? If we got some money for Borini then maybe it's a good overall deal to bring in Ayew as a replacement. Lambert will be bottom of the pile I'm afraid, he should consider moving on so as to have at least one more good season for a top flight club.
ReplyDeleteOnly 58 games in 5 years?
ReplyDeleteOn a free there is no risk what so ever. I'm sure he wont be on ridiculous wages either. Good guy to have should we need to bench Sterling for being a gobshite about his contract.
ReplyDelete182 games, according to Jaimie.
ReplyDeleteI fear Lambert is here for the long haul,
ReplyDeletethen maybe drop into the Championship,
he is living his dream with LFC, he has finally made it with the club he has adored since his childhood.
My bad...i saw the wrong figure.
ReplyDeleteIt's sometimes hard to resist a half decent player when they're free. However it's not the sort of player we need and he's not going to greatly improve us. We don't want to bring in too many players, 2 or 3 players max plus players back from loan
ReplyDeleteIts a pity that Lambert did not leave in Jan to Villa for 5m and Liverpool did not get Ings for 3m
ReplyDeleteIMO Lambert has no intention of "deserting" his beloved LFC until his contract expires, and he is then a free agent.
ReplyDeleteI done that once and nearly ended up with a Ladyboy.
ReplyDeleteStirling PLEASE!
ReplyDelete'Emre Can in midfield is better than sex wrapped in bacon'
ReplyDeletehahaahaha..
Ybe will get a much better player than Stirling
ReplyDeleteI have heard this Ayew rumour a hundred times over the years except now we dont need him and will not buy him there are other areas need addressing with quality.
ReplyDeleteGreat. Can't go wrong with this. Ayew can play as a creative central midfielder, too.
ReplyDeleteNow for Konoplyanka... :-)
He is very skillful, actually.
ReplyDeleteIf you disregard spelling, you are actually right. Right?
ReplyDeleteSorry no can do .
ReplyDeleteWe have Ibe and Origi. As Liverpool co-owner whats his face Warner , said he values the academy a lot , he even praised Origi as the next big thing.
Sturridge,Balotelli,Origi, Lambert and Sterling as emergency striker seems good enough to me .
Sturridge will take the main man role that Suarez had last year while Origi will take the apprentice role Sturridge had.
If Sterling leaves .
ReplyDeleteSing Lacazette and Depay/Mane and Panjic .
There is no point in singing Lacazetter and Depay/Mane and Pjanic if Sterling leaves. Doesn't make any sense.
ReplyDeleteAnd CM Punk will have a tough time at UFC, hope he surprises us all.
Absolutely not interested in any way what-so-ever!!
ReplyDeleteThe amount of "world-class" players that Africa has produced EVER IN THE HISTORY OF FOOTBALL can be counted on one hand.
Put simply.....HE'S NOT GOOD ENOUGH......FULL STOP!!!
He isn't particularly pacey. I'd say he's moderately skillful.
ReplyDeleteAs a squad player he would do fine IMO
ReplyDeleteI have to fully disagree with you there mate, Africa has produced many great players and as for 'World Class' players that can be 'counted on one hand' think about:
ReplyDeleteDrogba
Pele
Kanu
Zidane (Played for France but 'produced' by Africa )
Evra (Same as Zidane)
And Yaya Toure
There are more but this seems enough to put your theory to bed.
He's not that pacey, true. Well I guess we just interpret his play differently :-) I'm a fan, and think he's good enough to be part of the squad as a semi-regular player.
ReplyDeletethey don't call it bangkok for nothing
ReplyDeletedon't we have more than enough offensive squad players?
ReplyDeleteGeorge Weah...
ReplyDeleteWord!
ReplyDeleteAccording to some (no names) Liverpool have also misread the stats a few times and ended up with pampered overpaid ladyboys,
ReplyDeleteHow do you know he will not improve us. He scored against Germany in the World. He is the upgrade on Sterling in front of goal. But Liverpool don't want players on free like him and Konoplyanka. Both 25 and exprerinced on international level.
ReplyDeleteThey will end up in Italy or in Spurs, Newcastle or Swansea. Later we will offer 20mil.
Offensive is a bit harsh '-)
ReplyDeleteZidane was born in Marseille, got his education there and has never been playing for any African club. Same with Evra. While I completely agree with you that Africa has produced really good players those 2 are bad examples.
ReplyDeleteis players that can produce Aspas-esque corners better ;-) ?
ReplyDeleteWhy can't we do once what Chelsea or italian clubs did. Buy on cheap or free and if he is not that good sell him for 5-10 mil.
ReplyDeleteNow, he was offensive - except the corner was not!
ReplyDeleteAgree, those 2 players want to play for us and are free in summer.
ReplyDeleteTie them with pre-contract until Mourinho is busy. He will do it just because he hates Liverpool. He has a power and money in Chelsea to do anything, He showed he was interested in Salah last winter just because of LFC.
Like we lost because of Aspas corner. We did not sign anybody last winter and in that match we could not replace Sturridge and Henderson with quality. I have a feeling a good dribler like Konoplyanka would be helpful against the parked bus.
ReplyDeletePerhaps a bit harshly put as there are more than five world-class players coming from Africa over the years. Let's see, at least these players could be classified as world-class at one point or another in their career:
ReplyDelete-Abedi Pele (Champions league title in 1993 as part of "magical trio")
-George Weah (Ballon D'or and Champions league top scorer in 1995)
-Samuel Eto'o (Multiple time Champions League winner, multiple time La Liga winner and two time La Liga top scorer)
-Kolo Touré (Two time EPL winner, considered as one of the best defender in EPL at his peak)
-Didier Drogba (Multiple time EPL winner and two time EPL golden boot)
-Michael Essien (Two time EPL and Ligue 1 winner, one of the most sought after defensive midfielders at his best)
-Yaya Touré (Champions League winner, multiple time winner of EPL and La Liga)
There's seven world class African players. Granted that their time as world class players were rarely really long lasting. However, there are many that came really close to world class status at their peak such as: Adebayor, Okocha, Alex Song, Seydou Keita, Kanu, Bony, Benatia, Hadji, Samba, Kuffour, Kanouté etc.
The judgement for Andre Ayew is still out there. I can see that there is a chance for him to become world class, but he is long way from there.
Yevhen Konoplyanka is the best player available on a free transfer this summer.Liverpool should get him!
ReplyDeleteOne thing you failed to realise is that France purposely tapped into the African contingent big time (former French colonies). The likes of Cameroon, Morocco, Algeria etc produced players like Makalele & Pogba. They did this to tap into West African genetics of pace & power. This of course led to public outcry of the the national team being to dark.
ReplyDeleteBelgium are doing the same. England to a lesser extent. Note the Afro-Carribean based players eg Sturridge,Sterling,Ox. If you're old enough Laurie Cunning ham. , Tony Daley.
Well say 10 million may be the difference in getting what we desperately need the club needs top class talent and we wont have oodles to spend on luxuries.
ReplyDeleteThere is difference between world class players and players who played on world class teams. A world class player can carry a team. And in the list above only three have done that: Ya-Ya, Eto'o, and Didier the diver.
ReplyDeleteThat means England has never had a world class player, perhaps Michael Owen might be considered.
ReplyDeleteI'm sure Benzema is of Algerian descent too
ReplyDeleteBut he will not cost 10 million, He is free, i thought we will able to sell him for that amount if it's not work out.
ReplyDeleteThink of the challenges facing young footballers across Africa as a continent? Do you really think there are no world class players in Africa or do you think it might be that if you're born in the Congo or Central African Republic for example, there isn't really a natural progression to becoming a footballer. In fact it's next to impossible for millions of Africans to even contemplate professional sport but there are undoubtedly plenty of very talented sportsmen amongst them, they'll just never get the chance. I'm sure if there was the same kind of footballing infrastructure and facilities available to African players as there are for Europeans and to a lesser extent South Americans, there would be shed loads of brilliant players coming through all the time
ReplyDeleteThere's quite a few free agents this season that we could snap up...
ReplyDeleteTough one, he does not look too fast but he is skillful.....good stats. Don't know about this one. (Did anyone see Suarez brilliant bicycle goal last night?)
ReplyDeleteKevin Keegan, Wayne Rooney, Steven Gerrard, Robbie Fowler, Paul Scholes, Frank Lampard, Sir Bobby, David Beckham, Gazza...and those are just the recent English guys. There are a host of Welsh, NI, and Scots that, while not English, were brought up in the English game.
ReplyDeleteBy the way, that is called exclamation mark...
ReplyDeleteAgreed. And Hopefully the Salah tragedy deters players from choosing Chelski over Liverpool. :-)
ReplyDeleteHahaha, you tell him, Orme.
ReplyDeleteI know about their origin, but still I wouldn't count them as African players. As you said pace and power is genetically determined
ReplyDeletebut the ability to play football isn't. Zidane, Makelele, Pogba, Evra,
Benteke - even though some of them were born in Africa - never played
at any club there.
Darovar said: "Africa has produced many great players", which isn't true IMO because those players didn't have their footballing education in Africa...
Jamaica didn't produce Sturridge or Sterling, Marocco didn't produce Zidane and Kongo didn't produce Benteke...
Nevermind you could add a lot of other players to Darovars list, for example: Rodger Milla, Eto'o (who used to be world class) and many more...
I'm afraid none of those players made any significant impact on the international stage & did not carry England. Therefore according to your own definition they're not world class.
ReplyDeleteMy own opinion world class should be based on impact made on the international stage which is why only Owen & maybe Gazza. The rest great club careers but not good enough on the world stage.