22 Apr 2015

Next Transfer? Liverpool negotiating to sign £15m 'warrior' BR wanted instead of Balotelli

Liverpool continue to be linked with a move for Borussia Dortmund striker Ciro Immobile, and new reports suggest that the Reds have taken the first steps in trying to seal the deal.

According to the Daily Mail today:

* Liverpool have 'made contact' with Dortmund's sporting director Michael Zorc.

* The discussions are related to establishing Immobile's transfer fee.

Liverpool have been regularly linked with Immobile this year:

* Jan: German newspaper Bild claimed that Brendan Rodgers is 'lining up a deal' for Immobile.

* Feb: The The Mirror reported: "Liverpool will make a bid for [Immobile] in the summer. Brendan Rodgers was interested last summer but ended up signing Mario Balotelli instead"

With a comparatively poor 13 goals/assists in 28 appearances this season, Immobile is under pressure in Germany, and is one of the main scapegoats for Dortmund's stunning fall from grace earlier this season. Indeed, in January, influential German newspaper Die Welt ran with the following damning headline:

'Immobile is a big part of the problem at Borussia Dortmund'

Dortmund boss Jurgen Klopp has also added fuel to the fire. In a recent interview, he hailed Immobile as a 'warrior', but then proceeded to publicly criticise his performances. He told reporters:

"What is really going wrong is that we make the wrong decisions at crucial moments, and Immobile is a prime example when it comes to making wrong decisions"

I doubt Immobile enjoyed reading those comments from Klopp, and public scapegoating of this nature is precisely the kind of thing that pushes players towards the exit door. That said, when asked recently whether he wants to leave, the striker told reporters:

“Borussia Dortmund spent a lot of money for me and I want to repay their trust. Could I return to Italy? No, last summer I made a clear decision. Besides, I wouldn't leave the team in this moment of hardship.”

In March, though, Immobile's agent, Marco Somella hinted at a move this summer. He told reporters:

"No-one expected this slump [at Dortmund] but we’ll make our evaluations at the end of the season. Ciro is an international striker, and if he was on the market there would be some interested teams".

Immobile has four years left on his contract, but Dortmund are allegedly willing to let him go for £15m, which is comparatively low for a decent, international-class striker.

Having said that, £15m is close to the fee paid for fellow Italian Fabio Borini, and look how that's turned out. Plus, there's no guarantee that Immobile will perform in the Premier League, and given Liverpool's (historical) bad luck with Italian players, signing him is a big risk.

Immobile by name, immobile by nature? If LFC sign him, let's hope not!


Author:


51 comments:

  1. Pieter Engelbrecht5:15 pm, April 22, 2015

    could not agree more

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  2. i say no to Immobile. i want Vietto. its clear the whole club want Vietto to bring back the Suarez feeling and he is better than Immobile. we need to strengthen in Strike with 2 quality strikers, a defensive commanding midfielder, a quality right back, and 2 pacey wingers with end product consitstently and possibly turn Sakho into a left back, keeping Can at centre back and having a solid back line.


    the club want Depay but we should not dwell on him, as we know everyone is in for him. we need to make sure were not in the same situation like last year with Sanchez, if we lose our main target, make sure there are backups. Konoplyanka for free is a backup target or even first choice target if we dont get Depay. we elevate as a club with Lallana, Lambert and Markovic. we need to aim higher. Firmino and Yarmolenko.


    i cant believe after all the scouting of Cristian Eriksen how we spent £25M on lallana and not £9M on eriksen who was a champion many years in Ajax. and even then, if we would spend £20M on markovic why not Eriksen? who had superior stats in Champions League and for Ajax than Markovic had at Benfica.


    theres a really weird transfer commitee along with BR but it must stop. we cant have spent £216M and were only seeing the benefits from Coutinho and Mingolet

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  3. we wnt elevate with Lallana, Lambert and Markovic. we will finish 5th or 6th every year.

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  4. italian and portuguese league players dont suit the Premier League except Ronaldo, Carvalho, Nani and Bosingwa. Mangala and Fernando have turnt Man City into a joke and from champions theyve gone to 4th, possibly 5th. David Luiz get embarrased all the time now and when he was in the Premier League. Di Miria and Falcao useless at united. Markovic was useless at Benfica and useless in england.


    Italian league players. Cuadrado useless at Chelsea and will never mak there first team unless injuries. De Bruyne and Schurlle far better players. Aqualani, Borini, Giaccherini, Shevchenko? any other top players you want me to name from serie A? unless your south american and your from Serie a then you can play in the premier league. like Sanchez and Coutinho. if not, stay in Serie A.

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  5. the kind of players we need at LFC to compete for the league title are:
    1. marco reus (BVB) to replace sterling if he leaves or keep both
    2. marco veratti (PSG) to replace Gerrard
    3. Dani Alves (FCB) to replace Johnson
    4. Konoplyanka (Dnipro) to replace Lallana or backup
    5. Papalodopolous (Schalke) to replace Kolo and support central defence

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  6. Whatever be the transfer; but BR is finally staying?!!!!
    He'll never ever win us a european trophy because he has neither the essential european experience nor is he up to the level to win us a european cup.
    We are just part of his learning curve and when we'll realise it, that'll be too late for us;
    but then, he'll leave us to get another club to prosper because of all he'll have learnt from the time he will have spent on the merseyside.

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  7. does that mean that you wouldn't want Paul Pogba ?
    Henry played in serie a and did quite well in the pl if my memory serve me right.

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  8. Every single signing no matter who is a risk.....The one thing for sure is that for Borussia Dortmund to sell him after just 1 season tells me that this risk may be bigger than most.... No Thanks... We already have Sterling and Sturridge for the bad decision making....

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  9. We've been 10 years without a Euro trophy, and 26 years without a Premier League trophy.... At what point do we consider it too late....?

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  10. I hope and pray the abymal transfer committee and B Rodgers this summer is shipped out along with his Love Child J Allen. And the owners need to back the next manager or if for some mad reason they still have faith in B Rodgers they need to give him £70-£80M net spend on Transfers.
    On top class quality players, if we are ever to get back regularly competing for trophies year in year out and challenging the best and tops in league and Europe year in and year out then the owners need to stop talking the talk and walk the walk. And the wage cap they have on players needs to be re assessed as if we aim to genuinely compete with Arsenal, Chelsea, Man City and Man United year in year out for the league we need to be bringing in world class players like they are season in season out.
    C Immobile should not be brought to club at all he is simply not good enough.
    This summer the 12 dead wood average players that need to be shipped out as soon as season ends are as follows:
    B Jones GK K Toure CB S Coates CB G Johnson RB
    A Wisdom RB J Enrique LB J Clue/Useless Allen CM L Alberto AM
    F Borini FD I Aspas FD R Lambert FD M Balotelli FD
    And those 12 players should bring in £30-£45M to club in on sales
    And these need to be the first 6 class quality signings made :
    GK: A Begovic Of Stoke for £10-£14M to compete and Cover S Mignolet
    CB: T Alderwierld Of A Madrid Or S Kjaer Of Lille for £10-£14M to compete with M Skrtel
    DM: L Bender Of Bayer Leverkusen Or M Schneiderlin Of Southampton for £18-£24M to compete with L Leiva
    Marquee Signing: S Gerrard's Successor: One of these three world class Centre Midfielders as J Henderson is not in that class or calibre:
    T Alacantara Of Bayern Munich
    M Verratti Of PSG
    Koke Of A Madrid
    One of those CM's should be brought to club for £25-£35M
    FD: C Benteke Of A Villa for £17-£23M to replace R Lambert and M Balotelli and to compete with D Origi
    FD: L Vietto Of Villareal for £10-£15M to replace I Aspas and F Borini and to compete with D Sturridge

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  11. Marco Reus has all the top team at his feet, no chance he'd come (maybe with klopp but even then i doubt it)
    why would verrati come ? biggest salary, cl every year at psg and they want to keep him
    Dani Alves is the past, i'd rather look for someone in his prime.
    Konoplyanka is average
    Papadopoulos is injury prone

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  12. Dani Alves, seriously, He'll maybe have 1 season left.... What then.... And Papa, is so injury prone, we'll still need a CB

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  13. Did you watch Thiago last night? Regal performance.

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  14. No Alves, M Montoya should be scooped up from Barcelona this summer for £8-£14M he should be brought to compete with J Flannagan for next 3- 5 years at club.
    No Papadopolous either, We should bring in T Alderwierld Of A Madrid or S Kjaer Of Lille for £10-£14M

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  15. Is Klopp one of those managers who would never throw a player under the bus? He and loads of others who would never do it despite actually doing it.

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  16. I share with you the idea that the top class players will not come especially as we are not likely to make top 4. But we can look out for players with similar qualities even in Championship. For instance Britt Assombalonga of NottmF is a fantastic striker, and much more better than Borini & Lambert combined. He wont cost up to 10m GBP.

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  17. I get a hard on thinking about an LFC team fearturing Roberto Firmino.... I'd chuck in Johannes Geis for some steel aswell...Mattia Perin in goal, and Mattia De Sciglio for RB...

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  18. Ok then....

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  19. let him fire us to the top for that one year and win us a trophy. we will move on from there

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  20. He was Knighting people and that?

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  21. Sounds like he did just that with Immobile...

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  22. A right back is going to do that?

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  23. Verratti isn't going anywhere, he is the heart and sole of PSG, great player tho.

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  24. I have seen Thiago Live three years ago when was Security Response Steward at Stamford bridge. He came on as late sub and totally changed tempo of game, he is awesome little player. He was playing as AM yesterday, we have Coutinho and Lallana for the AM role.
    But in CM we need world class ball player and one of the three players I have mentioned should be brought to club.

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  25. Have you seen the players PSG are after this summer, there will be some casualties and he could be sold. If was choosing I would say Alacantara would be best signing for our club than M Verratti and Koke . He would dictate tempo in centre of park and he is just very smart footballer, J Allen and J Henderson would get nowhere near him.

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  26. we have 0 chance of singing any of thiago, veratti or koke... forget it

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  27. Tell me the tune and I'll give it a go...;-)

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  28. don't get it :>

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  29. head, shoulders, knees & toes

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  30. Simply going off what Jaime has written, the public slating during Dortmunds tough start to the season.... as in calling out his repetitive bad decisions costing them...

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  31. Or did you mean signing not singing? - sorry ;-)

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  32. One more flop will be suicidal...i will say no to Immobile....Lacazette will be my first option and Carlos Bacca will be second option

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  33. Well, If the likes Of Fabregas, Matic , Fernandinho, Yaya, Silva could not hurt teams like Barcelona or PSG ?


    How the hell do the owners think we will be able to challenge or compete against those teams seriously with J Allen , Can and J Henderson in our centre midfield?

    Your having a laugh


    We need world class Midfielders in, if S Gerrard had the energy, mobility, pace and speed he had 7 years ago. He would be three times the player Allen and Henderson are: But he does not. But he is still much better than both, just his lack of energy, mobility, pace and speed teams just nulify his threat.

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  34. i thought we signed immobile last summer in balotelli?

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  35. I see, my misstake ;-) typical typo

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  36. Oh.. I don't read whole articles any more..

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  37. Redboondocksaint10:50 pm, April 22, 2015

    In my opinion Liverpool should trade Sterling for Yaya Toure & Dzeko plus 20m. Then sell Bolatelli(13m) , Borini(10m), Lambert(3m),Enrique(3m), llori(5m),Coates(5m),Alberto(5m),Allen(13m) and FSG to invest 60m. This will give us a total of 137m to spend in the market.


    Players brought in: Konoplyanka(free) , Milner (free) , Dzeko(part Sterling trade) , Yaya Toure (part Sterling deal) , Vietto (20m) , , Hamsik (40m) , Howedes (25m) , Begovic (20m), total spent on player coming in 105m still left with 32m to spend


    Begovic Howedes Skrtel Emre Can



    Yaya Toure Henderson


    Jordan Ibe Hamsik Coutinho


    Vietto Sturridge


    Bench: Mignolet , Sakho, Milner , Konoplyanka, Lucas , Dzeko, Origi
    Squad players: Lallana,Markovic,Flannagon,Lovren

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  38. Redboondocksaint11:01 pm, April 22, 2015

    Begovic has premier league experience, so does Dzeko Yaya Toure and Milner so they have adapted. Yaya Toure and Dzeko And Milner still have 2 good seasons left in them. Combined these 4 players have over 600 pl games experience.

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  39. If he played Game of Thrones, Joffrey wouldn't have made it past episode 2.

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  40. i said before dortmund got him when he was scoring for fun for a mediocre team like torino that we should have bought him but look what happened. with the amount of quality strikers out there how is it possible we sold suarez for 60 mil + and ended up with balotelli and lambert; anti-rodgers style players if ever i saw one. maybe this summer we should ignore the likes of depay, lacazette, vietto and dybala and get glenn murray. i see he's been in great form. plus he's british. lets also raid palace for bolasie too and pay 25 mil + because they know liverpool are stupid enough to

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  41. Zola? Di Canio?

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  42. If FSG are going to stick with Rodgers for next season then they need to ensure he has the very best experienced players in his squad. Signing young players with potential playing under a young manager with potential is not going to achieve major success any time soon. This Summer window has to be all about top quality experienced players, we have enough youngsters in the squad, we need real quality or next season will be the same again if not worse.

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  43. Barca has a ban on buying players. Since Alves is leaving there is no shot at Montoya. Little to no players are going to be allowed to leave barca. People need to realize this.

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  44. How about we swap for Balotelli? :-)

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  45. Very apt analysis, totally agree. People are getting all hyped up about Kono, but he is in a league that just isnt comparable to the EPL. Papa is a good defender, but terribly injury prone and the only way I'd want Dani is on a free and with a wage cut. He is still class, but wouldnt last more than 1 season.
    Ditto on Reus too

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  46. Montoya looks more and more like he is leaving, despite the transfer ban. It's been said amongst the Barca community that he is trying to force a move away as he doesnt see a future there, despite the fact that it will be just him and Douglas (who is awful, by most reports). Monty aint that great anyway, no better than Flanagan, probably on par with Manquillo.

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  47. Players can try to force a move but as we all saw with Suarez, clubs own the rights and have the final say. Without somebody coming in to replace Alves I doubt they will allow Montoya to leave. Clubs just tend to not want to keep players that show a lack of commitment, which is unbeatable but barca is kinda of screwed on this one.

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  48. Montoya will be leaving Barcelona this summer and he is better than G Johnson, Manquillo and A Wisdom. He should be brought to compete with Flannagan

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