Despite scoring 30 goals last season, FC Twente striker Luuk De Jong spent Holland's ill-fated Euro 2012 campaign on the bench, watching on as his countrymen fell at the first hurdle. It's no secret that the 21-year old is available this summer, and his Agent emphatically reiterated that once again last night.
In an interview with TC Tubantia, Louis Laros - De Jong's Agent - outlined the the Dutch striker's requirements for his new club:
"Luuk has taken the decision to move on. He wants to leave and develop as a player in a bigger league. It doesn't need to be a top club, but a good club in a big league where Luuk can play regularly.
"The important thing for us is the development of Luuk. Not the money, but the way of playing and the amount of playing time he will get will be decisive. If the right club comes along then he will happily make the move. "
Worrying for Liverpool - who have been 'closely following' De Jong for some times - Laros also confirmed that Newcastle have expressed interest in signing De Jong, with reports alleging that the Magpies had put in a £12m bid.
Looking at Laros' comments, Liverpool would seem to be the perfect fit for De Jong:
* The Premier League is undoubtedly a 'bigger league' that the Eredivisie.
* De Jong clearly has realistic expectations about where he'll end up, and Liverpool's current level (transition) seems right for him.
* After last season's goalscoring woes, De Jong will almost certainly get more playing time at Anfield than he would at Newcastle, where he would have the arduous task of displacing either Demba Ba or Papiss Cisse.
* De Jong fits Brendan Rodgers' style of play a hell of a lot more than Andy Carroll, which could work in his favour.
At £12m, De Jong is a realistic target for Liverpool; let's hope Rodgers is interested in the striker, and is making active moves to try and sign him.
Jaimie Kanwar
In an interview with TC Tubantia, Louis Laros - De Jong's Agent - outlined the the Dutch striker's requirements for his new club:
"Luuk has taken the decision to move on. He wants to leave and develop as a player in a bigger league. It doesn't need to be a top club, but a good club in a big league where Luuk can play regularly.
"The important thing for us is the development of Luuk. Not the money, but the way of playing and the amount of playing time he will get will be decisive. If the right club comes along then he will happily make the move. "
Worrying for Liverpool - who have been 'closely following' De Jong for some times - Laros also confirmed that Newcastle have expressed interest in signing De Jong, with reports alleging that the Magpies had put in a £12m bid.
Looking at Laros' comments, Liverpool would seem to be the perfect fit for De Jong:
* The Premier League is undoubtedly a 'bigger league' that the Eredivisie.
* De Jong clearly has realistic expectations about where he'll end up, and Liverpool's current level (transition) seems right for him.
* After last season's goalscoring woes, De Jong will almost certainly get more playing time at Anfield than he would at Newcastle, where he would have the arduous task of displacing either Demba Ba or Papiss Cisse.
* De Jong fits Brendan Rodgers' style of play a hell of a lot more than Andy Carroll, which could work in his favour.
At £12m, De Jong is a realistic target for Liverpool; let's hope Rodgers is interested in the striker, and is making active moves to try and sign him.
Jaimie Kanwar
It almost seems like the agents response was molded to fit the Liverpool speculation!
ReplyDeleteYou mention playing time at Newcastle being an issue due to Demba Ba and Cisse but how about Carroll and Suarez at Liverpool? You Mention Carroll doesnt fit Rogers style of play but he is not going to replace Carroll with De Jong, that is just not going to happen.
ReplyDeleteNot happening unless Liverpool can manage to sell Carroll.
ReplyDeleteWith Carroll in squad we may need only a young striker who is ready to play substitute role for a year or two.
I disagree - Ba/Cisse is a far more sold and stable partnership than Carroll/Suarez, and in any event, both of those players need competition because at the moment, it is only really those two challenging for the striker spots. To go into the new season relying on Carroll and Suarez - who scored a grand total of 14 league goals between them last season - would be utter negligence, and I'm sure Rodgers can see that. If someone like De Jong comes in and does well, I have no doubt he would keep Carroll out of the team.
ReplyDeleteThe idea of this makes me sick to be honest. Liverpool's progress is going to be stunted by Carroll; we need more mobile, pacy and technical players to fit into Rodgers' preferred style, and because of Kenny Dalglish's negligence in the transfer market, LFC will be stuck with Carroll for the foreseeable future.
ReplyDeleteAC may continue to start not by merit but simply because of price tag. He is obviously anything but a finished product. If this boy is to come in to LFC, chances are he will share the load with AC, who is obviously not the 'number 9' to lead the attack for LFC.
ReplyDeletewhat are we waiting for
ReplyDeleteActually quite a number of fans place high hope on AC this season. But from what I can see in the last season, where he scored 4 paltry league goals and 9 goals in 47 games for us, it is going to be hard to expect him to be a 20 league goals per season player. He just doesn't have that with him at the moment. It is not his fault entirely but catastrophically, some genius in LFC grossly overpaid for him. That price tag of 35 mil pounds, the 8th most expensive player in history, hinders his progress, definitely. Given his present ability, he should be coming off the bench in games while learning his game from another established striker. I don't know this boy, Luuk de Jong is the right candidate to lead the attack for LFC, but I am positively sure that AC is not. JK is right, we will be stuck with him for the foreseeable future. This may not be the worst. The worst part is it seems like KD had spent the transfer budget for the next few seasons on at most, mediocre players. So given our league position, the set of players we have right now and the amount of money we can spend, I don't see how we can find a masterful striker that can put the ball into the net on a regular basis.
ReplyDeleteI don't know what we are waiting for on this one. Hopefully behind the scene it's happening
ReplyDeleteBe patient as BR know's what he wants, good players at the right price..........................that will do for me!!!
ReplyDeleteDon't think anything is happening behind the scene. It is clear that the club is not going to make any big signing. Brandon will probabbly bring in one or two players to replace Kuyt and Bellamy, if he leaves. Brandon thought that he had conviced Siggurdson to join his Anfiled revolution. But obviously the player thinks he is better off elswhere and can also earn more. Liverpool are probably looking at some bosman signings or players who are in the last year of their contract to get a bargain deal. He can only buy players if any of the current first team player wishes to leave e.g. Skertl, Lucas or Pepe. There is no such a thing as getting the right player at the right price as Gano 1 mentioned above. Simply because good players will always be priced out from Liverpool's reach by the other top clubs. Brandon has to promote some of the reserve players e.g. Coady, Morgan, Sterling and Susso who have been knocking on the first team doors already.
ReplyDeleteWe cannot let the chance to sign this lad slip away, we all know that Carroll is not good enough to play with Suarez, lets get De Jong and pray
ReplyDeleteHope to GOD is happening Nige, JK got it right
ReplyDeleteWhy do we neeed to spend spend spend when we got one of the best academies in the EPL? Its time we pushed players up into the first team, BR has worked with young players and its time we use them players we have invested in and trained, the kids deserve a place, put the flops aside, let them fight 'fairly' for a place in the first team and by the end of the season we will be rocking.
ReplyDeleteluuk de jong is not very moblie and certainly not pacy. worse, he tends to go missing in games when the balls not played to him. he's not a hard enough worker for a tiki-taka style of play.
ReplyDeleteseydou doumbia would be a better option
exactly right- kd's+commolli mistakes in the transfer window have set us back five years at least.
ReplyDeleteif we sign this lad we should sign their left winger as well. They look to have a good understanding. I haven't seen too much of this kid but he doesn't look quick enough. He'll only really come to the fore if he is flanked by players of genuine pace, but the same could be said of Carroll. Surround a target man with pace and anything is possible. If he walks into LFC 2012 as it is as one of the "one or two new signings" Rodgers spoke about it is potentially a career damaging move.
ReplyDeletethb rodgers plays 4-3-3 so i think it could work with all three, i know the partnership of carroll and saurez hasn't hit the heights that alot of ppl thought it would but i think they were just getting used to the way eachother wanted to play...... the other thing that alot of ppl keep going on about is the amount of goals we scored last season. lets face it we play some great football yes chances never got taken as much as they did but can anyone really think we are going to hit the post/crossbar 44 times again alot of it was bad luck and i can honestly see a big improvement when it comes to chances taken....... no doubt we need some extra bodies coming in a striker in a must to push for a starting place or play along side carroll and saurez with downing plus one other backing up the wider positions.im not sure about C.M i think we have some good players i personally think it will/hope it will be gerrard,lucas,gaston ramirez/aqua i think it would be solid with alot of creativeness in the side and as backup adam,spearing and hendo are perfect defence/GK is solid so nithing needs changing there 3 or 4 signings would be great...... De jong,sturridge/walcott,gaston ramirez we should defo be looking to sign wouldn't mind joe allen but that cant happen because of the agreement rodgers has.
ReplyDeleteMust say with the amount of comings and goings in our club (I know every club has them!) but still the Dutch names that come to mind are: dirk Kuyt, Ryan babel, jan kromkamp, just on the tip of my tongue.
ReplyDeleteNone of these guys even including dirk set the world on fire; they just didn't translate their form from Dutch league to premiership, so either we've been unlucky with Dutch players or they don't suit LFC or something.
Either way it's a scary fact that it would be a serious 'punt' and certainly not the same difference in level of his play against the opposition in the video as there was when the enemy bought van nistelroy.
Also why is he priced at 12odd million? Even Torres when not 'totally proven' was, I think, 20odd mill?
Back then it wasn't even as if we were seen as mugs coming at them as we are now!
Oh well, roll on the speculation and let the drama unfold.
If you watched Newcastle play, you would realise that since signing Cisse. Newcastle have played with a front 3. Likewise, Liverpool will play with 3 forwards next year. De Jong would get plenty of opportunities at either club, due to his flexibility - he can play across any of the 3 frontline slots, an advantage over many players - such as Carroll, Ba and Cisse who play best centrally or even the likes of Suarez & Ben Arfa, who play best their best football in wider areas of such a setup.
ReplyDeleteApart from having a cheap shot at Carroll - there is little of value or insight in your opinions in this article. Indeed, your 'analysis' is simply flawed, misleading and removed from any actual logical application. Furthermore, why would he be replacing anyone? Someone has to leave to be replaced - He (de Jong) would provide excellent competition at either club, where no-one has a god given right to start.
if we can fit carroll into the formation br wants to enrol at anfield then watch him he will shine this yr the poor lads just about found his form it may have taken a while b ut you cant blame him for the ppl around him sending in medeocor passes give the lad a chance he will out shine suarez next yr
ReplyDeletealso us ppl like us fans asking for us to get rid will just make him want to leave then we have another aqua do on our hands were we pay 100g a wk till his contracts up weres the logic in thatgive him playing time and get rid of suarez hes good but you dont get a name of being a diver for nowt he suarez needs to up his game and realise when to really fight for the ball as most of the time he gets nr goal then drops hoping for the free kick
ReplyDeletei can really understand what Rodgers is doing and if at all the club owners gave him (Rodgers) the sum of 30mill.pounds and if so i believe such money could have gave us atleast three player am talking of three strikers that can give us what we need in the attack.
ReplyDelete