1 Mar 2012

Chairman confirms: I *will* 'listen to offers' for £70m strike-duo. Good for LFC?

Napoli strikers Edinson Cavani and Ezequiel Lavezzi are among the most coveted players in Europe at the moment, and you would think that their club would be fighting tooth and nail to keep hold of the exciting duo. However, according to Napoli Chairman Aurelio Di Laurentis, both players are for sale, along with everyone else in the squad...for the right price.

Liverpool's interest in Lavezzi and Cavani has been widely documented over the last couple of years, with Lavezzi's agent, Alejandro Mazzoni, confirming in 2009 that Liverpool had already made an offer for the Argentinean:

"I reiterate that a Fifa agent presented Napoli with an offer from Liverpool for Lavezzi. This was a formal procedure as the player cannot be contacted directly because he is under contract with Napoli"

Speaking to The Mirror after Napoli's 3-1 Champions League victory over Chelsea last week, Di Laurentis made it clear that all of his players - including Lavezzi and Cavani - are available at the right price. He said:

"If they [other clubs] have the money to pay, I am waiting for the offers. There is never a real price. The price is what the clubs need and what is the hot moment of negotiation.

"But if somebody wants to make an offer, we are here to listen. You never to close the door to anyone because we are polite.

"In life, there is a always a price for everything. It is just a question of the right moment and the right people".


Di Laurentis's honesty is admirable, but such a cavalier attitude to important players will surely not engender a feeling of loyalty towards Napoli? Why can the likes of Cavani and Lavezzi be comfortable at the club if they can be sold to the highest bidder at any moment?

This is great news for other clubs though, including Liverpool; if the club finish in 4th place this season the Kenny Dalglish may be able to compete with other elite clubs for their signatures.

Having said that - making an offer is one thing, but making the right offer is what matters, and given the figures being bandied about the strike do - £40m for Cavani, and £30m for Lavezzi - it's doubtful that Liverpool will have the spending power to secure either player.

Jaimie Kanwar


30 comments:

  1.  Don't know about swapping those players but if we had not brought Carroll and Downing and kept the money in the bank(After all we wouldn't missed the goals from them)  we would only have to put £15mill to the pot to buy both of them and imagine
    Lavezzi, Suarez and Cavani as your strike, defenders would be putting out the white flag and heading for the hills. I'm sure John Henry will KK the funds he needs to build again next season.  

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  2. Its not rocket science to realise we will definately have money to spend and big money.

    In order to improve the starting 11 and compete with the big 5, we need 3 £20m+ players at least, these players were not available in Jan hence why we wait utill the right moment (summer window) to acquire them.

    I expect Kuyt, Maxi, Poulsen, Cole and Aquilani will be moved on by the end of the summer window. This frees up significant cash for salaries.

    After the Euros there will be a frenzy of transfer activity and Liverpool will likely be one of the big spenders.

    Its impossible to predict which players we will buy but I would expect we will be priced out of buying Cavani by massive bids from either Inter, Real Madrid, City or Chelsea. Lavezzi looks more likely but Commoli may be keener on alternatives. 

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  3. No one knows how they will fit in over here so wasting that kind of money on two players from Serie A would be crazy, considering how much Kenny has wasted already. Nearly 100 million on attacking talent in over a year and he has got barely 20 goals out of the lot of them. Kenny should not be allowed to sign any new players with his record on transfers. A better use of that 100 million and the club would be challenging Tottenham and the next lot of spending would be to create a title challenging side. But the amount wasted has put us back another year, maybe two.

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  4. Grab it, we cant hesitate cos we are in this business.

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  5. "we need 3 £20m+ players at least"

    don't say that lol, thats what we needed last year and look at our poor acquisitions of Henderson, Downing, Carroll, have they really added anything to our team or realistically, stunted our progress with their mediocre performances and lack of talent.
    I would personally like to see Aquaman get a chance to play, he had a great pre-season i really can't fathom why we loaned him out again, as for strikers, we need an out and out goalscorer and please please, a winger with some pace, its shocking that Bellamy is probably our paciest player and he's 32 and has bad knees!!

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  6. We will end up buying some young average British players for stupid amounts of money.

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  7. I dont honestly see  your point here. He is saying  what every manager thinks. And if I am not mistaken does the player not have a contract with the club so excepting an offer does not mean the player goes.

    I am shaking my head again. He is merely looking for the highest bidder but the player will decide not the club when the fee is matched.

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  8. Do yourself a favour lad and do some research before you comment on things you obviously don't know anything about. Go and look at the UEFA rules that are coming in and then you will understand why, that way you wont look a complete buet

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  9. Hi Gab
    Unfortunately we are simply not going to get any better & Tottenham are already looking to strengthen their squad for next season, unless we buy quality players we will not even get back in the top four. I was one of the lucky ones at Wembley, as you know you see the whole picture and not just what Sky or ITV cameras follow, I am sad to say Henderson was incredibly useless, on that performance he would not make the reserves. I am sure he is a very nice lad but so is half of Liverpool but they don't play for LFC.
    As Steve Smith says above we need pace down the wings, personally I would try & lure Robin from Bayern. He has already fallen out of favour with his manager & with Shaqiri waiting in the wings to start next season he might just be the answer even short term. I am sure KK will get the best out of him ( p.s - I hated this guy when he played for Chelsea). The other one would be Johnson from City & English as well, the lure of playing regular first team football in front of the Kop should be enough for him to hand in a transfer request that is assuming somehow we are able to get 4th spot. 
    YNWA

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  10. Can we allow KD the responsibility of spending big money after his questionable spending last year? If I was the chairman, then I would be very cautious.

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  11. the lavezzi link is stronger than the cavani one, with lavezzi's agent making those LFC comments recently, in addition to the heavy link with LFC in 2009.

    either way lavezzi is having a really good streak, napoli's best time to sell is now before he gets cold again.

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  12. I would love to see Cavani at Anfield. As we already have Suarez, maybe he can influence Cavani to join us in the summer. 

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  13. And what if Henderson approves his game. He is still developing as a player. Most players hit their level around 23 so give the guy a chance. You only have to look at Lucas to see what I am saying. Although I have to agree that Downing isn't great. It seems like to me that he picks and chooses the games he wants to put effort in, for instance his debut vs Sunderland, return vs Villa, final vs Cardiff. And Carroll is not a gifted player, paying 35 million for a brute when there are plenty of English players like that around is mind boggling. But I think all this would have been masked if Lucas was still in the team. We have no legs in midfield. Gerrard doesn't have that overdrive to track down players, and Adam is a jogger. winger, midfielder, and striker should be on the shopping list this summer. 

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  14. LFC only have themselves to blame for these prices, do you think for one second that these other clubs don't see the money LFC are paying on average players 20mill Hendo, 35mill Carroll etc... then they want to chase some real quality players and this is why the prices are so high. Good luck with getting some real quality footballers.

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  15. ObservationalTragedy12:54 pm, March 02, 2012

    There are some terribly ill-informed and reactionary "Reds" fans commenting on this site.

    The impending home-grown player rules has impelled LFC to stock up on the best of the available British talent to add to those coming through the ranks.  We couldn't/can't get Young, Jones, Ox-Chamberlain, McKeachran, Wilshire etc so got those bought other coveted young lads. 

    Need I remind you that Jordan and Andy were impressing for their age, showing scope and hunger for improvement and coveted by most of the top clubs.

    They are playing only their 2nd PL season, their 1st with their new club and on top of that they are youngsters.  They need support and encouragement, not the attitude many (now proven) idiots showed towards the similarly-positioned Lucas two seasons ago. 

    We have the following H-G payers:  Johnson, Kelly, Flanagan, Carragher, Robinson, Spearing, Gerrard, Adam, Henderson, Downing, Bellamy and Carroll.

    The vast majority are young and can make up our H-G quota for years to come, particularly with Sterling, Coady and co coming through.

    That means one thing:  Future funds will be spent sprinkling the squad with players like Suarez, Cavani, Lavezzi, Hazard.

    Get it now?

    The hard work has been done.  We have shown in the mass-televised games (that top players watch) that already this season we can take on and beat Utd, City and Chelsea.  

    People with a footballing brain - including those who would love to link up with Gerrard & Suarez in front of a passionate Kop - have seen that we are playing a lovely passing style, frustrated this season by nothing more than the woodwork, excellent 'keeping, wayward finishing, the banning of a star player and the loss of our midfield anchor.

    Have faith.  The club is undoubtedly moving in the right direction and the 9 additions have strengthened us in areas we were short (CB,LB,LW,S,CM) - remember our bench at the start of 2010/11??

    Now to buy a bit of gold-dust.

    YNWA

    PS those talking of Aquilani but failing to acknowledge post - Hodgson LFC did all they could to keep him.  He had been let down by previous regime and wanted home.  Please drop it.

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  16. Hi Sharde
                 We have been a team lacking pace for some time now and I also think that, as Tottenham have shown, more pace on the flanks creates more space in the middle for the creative players to play. Teams can easy stay narrow against us and know they will have the pace to cope with Downing and Kuyt if we play it out wide. Would definitely agree about Robben, if he is out of favour at Bayern, wish we'd bought Shaqiri, to be honest. But would be happy to see Glen Johnson moved forward to the right side, with Kelly as right back, as an experiment at this point in the season. We need to start creating more chances and winning games, all these draws will not do us any good from here on in. Henderson bottled it when he played for England as well, and I wonder if he has the heart to play for a really big club. He seems like a good lad, though, so I hope i am wrong because he does have talent as well and could be an asset for years to come if he starts to believe that he belongs at a club like ours. 

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  17. How much did Lucas cost compared to Henderson? And Lucas was playing in a different style and position, I always thought he deserved more time. Henderson's example is different, apart from moving town, he should have been able to cope with this transfer and, at the price, we are right to expect more.

    I think the entire attacking side of the team needs looking at, it really has not been good enough, from any of them, and the number of draws that we have been involved in, against weaker teams, is testament to that. We simply cannot beat team who set out to keep it tight against us.

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  18. Henderson 16 million, Downing 20 million, Carroll 35 million. Somehow, I reckon that Chelsea, Arsenal, Man Utd and Man City will find a way to put teams out for European competion and will not spend 70 million on 3 players like this. And it hardly makes it worth spending this kind of money, with Europe in mind, on players who cannot get you 4th place in the league. Getting into Europe is the priority, worry about the rules afterwards. If we have to chuck Sterling and Co into the odd game because our 3rd place league side does not qualify to play in the champions league, fine. Chamberlain cost less than this lot, and looks better, Jones cost the same as Henderson and looks better than all of them, as did Smalling, as do players like Hoillet, who, although Canadian, will qualify as home grown soon, due to the amount of time he has been here.

    Its long been the case that we can beat Man Utd and co over a one off game, they fancy their chances, have a go, we then have space to play in. But we've long had problems putting away weaker, less ambitious sides. This season, and that outlay, was meant to fix that and it clearly has not. Qualifying for Champions League involves knowing how to steamroller weaker sides. Man utd's success over the last 20 years has been down to being a flat track bully that flattens the weaker sides, even if their record is average against the best sides.

    The 'we've been unlucky' excuse is peddled by our supporters far too much. Very rarely are the best sides THAT unlucky and if we have progressed so much, why are the jobs of Wenger and Vilas Boas under scrutiny and yet we trail both sides?

    If Kenny wanted Aquilani to stay, he could have been prepared to go down on his knees and kiss ar$e, as he has for Suarez and Gerrard, to the point of feeling sorry for Gerrard's cousin (when he would normally say 'that doesn't concern us) after he missed a penalty. I'm sure he could have turned Aquilani around with a bit of effort. Every player knows that a new manager changes things. He also happily let Meireles go, so as not to pay him what Henderson was getting, go figure. If that decision costs us 4th place, then the money Chelsea paid us for Meireles is hardly worth anything, is it? 

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  19. ShardeYNWALFC4EVER6:48 pm, March 02, 2012

    Hi Gab

    I agree with you.We simply need to be in the top four to
    1- attract quality players English or otherwise, (Young & Jones chose manure over us).
    2 - Increase Revenue through CL
    3 - Raise & maintain our profile even higher & further.

    We are ALL only too aware of the new regs coming in, as ObersvatioinalTragedy mentions, however he overlooks the  fact that the best of the home grown players opted to go with the likes of Manure or Arsenal etc (the current t4 teams).
    In order to even attract those players we need a top four finish ( chicken & egg situation). This can be achieved if the service from the midfield to the front players created goal scoring opportunities as well as our forwards actually putting the ball in the back of the net. We can go on about how many times we have hit the bar, post, keeper made a brilliant save etc the FACT REMAINS THAT WE HAVE SCORED ONLY 29 goals in the league. Swansea have scored 28,QPR 27, Wigan 23 & Blackburn 37 (!!!!), these are all teams in the relegation battle for god sake!!!!!!!!!!!! Apart from Everton & Stoke who have scored 26 each we have scored less goals than all the other teams in the PL. I think there is a very loud & clear message here.
    Again I refer to the Carling Cup final, had those who profess to know it all been there , they would have seen HOW MANY RUNS SUAREZ MADE WHICH WERE TOTALLY MISSED & IGNORED BY OUR MID-FIELD, ( YOU WOULD HAVE NO IDEA simply watching what was shown by the TV cameras which follow the ball ). The only one that really picked Suarez's run  & only once was Pepe!!!
    I am all for young players coming in & being brought up playing the Liverpool way, BUT ONLY WHEN THEY ARE READY and on merit & I do not wish to dwell on this point too much. This has nothing to do with "reactionary reds" , it is an extremely simple fact. Best 11 start the match.
    Our problem is that the so called lesser teams come to Anfield and defend in numbers, so what? it is up to us to break them down, that is why we need world class quality players to do a job, players who would choose us over Man City, manure, Chelsea etc. But which do we buy first the chicken or the egg? and please don't say chicken omelette!

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  20. Didn't you post this drivle on another article?? Way to be creative...

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  21. Lets not get it twisted... He wanted Aqua and Merieles gone. They are not Brits and they would have been taking minutes from his golden boys as they are leagues better in quality! This was Dalglish at his nationalist 1980's best....

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  22. GM - 

    Either post a comment that suggests you know something about LFC or quite frankly, Fuck Off.  

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  23. Please make a point.  Otherwise you just come across as a sad little troll.

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  24. Henderson is versatile and suffering because of it.

    Ronnie Whelan got stick in the beginning - no position, they said - turned out to be invaluable.

    Patience please.  The lad is 22, FFS

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  25. observationaltragedy2:51 am, March 03, 2012

    Please make a point.

    Otherwise you come across as a Manu fan trying to score points.

    I love debate, hate trolls.

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  26. observationaltragedy2:55 am, March 03, 2012

    You utter utter prick.

    Aquilani wanted back to Italy after the treatment he received from Hodgson and co.

    Raul wanted a pay-rise to put him close to Gerrard and way more than Carroll, Lucas, Agger, Reina and Suarez.  That simply was not going to happen for a 28 yr old who shirks a tackle.

     You suggesting they were gotten rid of due to some kind of 80s "British" nostalgia is insulting to both Kenny and us Reds.

    GM - i'm calling you out, pal.  Manc twat!

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  27. GM - please stop.  your bitter manc droolings are an embarrassment

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  28. 'i love debate'

    er no, you don't, you just like to come on here and dictate & bully.

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  29. We could have the Nelson statue out there when it was 22 years old after it was made and you would still say 'patience please. the lad is 22, FFS'

    You cannae polish a turd

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  30. Drop the personal insults. Once more, and you're banned (as per the comment policy)

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