Craig Bellamy recently urged new Liverpool manager Brendan Rodgers to sign 'special' Swansea City midfielder Joe Allen, and judging by Michael Laudrup's latest comments on the the Welshman's future, it seems that the Reds could definitely be in with a chance of securing Allen's signature...if he wants to leave Swansea.
Speaking to Wales Online yesterday, Laudrup confirmed that Liverpool had not been in contact over a potential transfer, but, interestingly, he also seemed to suggest that if Allen wanted to leave, the one year transfer embargo between Liverpool and Swansea might not be a barrier after all. He explained:
"I don’t know about the agreement [between Swansea and Liverpool] but if it comes to more then I am sure I will talk to the chairman about it.
"I haven’t heard anything from Liverpool, but it's a part of football to accept sometimes that people leave when the an offer is too big. You have to deal with it, talk to the player and see what he wants.
"I want him [Allen] to stay here because I think he is very important for the team, but we will have to deal with that if it becomes something more"
With 90.3% passing accuracy, Allen was Europe's sixth most accurate passer last season, only 2% behind Xavi, and 1% behind Sergio Busquets and Philip Lahm.
Craig Bellamy is a massive fan of his fellow countrymen, and he recently told reporters:
"He [Allen] is special. He has made so many key plays for Swansea last season. He’s a Brendan Rodgers player, he fits Liverpool to a tee. If Liverpool are able to secure him, they will have a real gem of a player. I would be shocked if Liverpool did not go for him this summer. "
Having watched Allen play for Swansea many times last season (including an excellent performance in the 0-0 draw with Liverpool at Anfield), I would love to see this happen, and I would definitely take Allen over Jordan Henderson in central midfield.
What do you think?
Jaimie Kanwar
Speaking to Wales Online yesterday, Laudrup confirmed that Liverpool had not been in contact over a potential transfer, but, interestingly, he also seemed to suggest that if Allen wanted to leave, the one year transfer embargo between Liverpool and Swansea might not be a barrier after all. He explained:
"I don’t know about the agreement [between Swansea and Liverpool] but if it comes to more then I am sure I will talk to the chairman about it.
"I haven’t heard anything from Liverpool, but it's a part of football to accept sometimes that people leave when the an offer is too big. You have to deal with it, talk to the player and see what he wants.
"I want him [Allen] to stay here because I think he is very important for the team, but we will have to deal with that if it becomes something more"
With 90.3% passing accuracy, Allen was Europe's sixth most accurate passer last season, only 2% behind Xavi, and 1% behind Sergio Busquets and Philip Lahm.
Craig Bellamy is a massive fan of his fellow countrymen, and he recently told reporters:
"He [Allen] is special. He has made so many key plays for Swansea last season. He’s a Brendan Rodgers player, he fits Liverpool to a tee. If Liverpool are able to secure him, they will have a real gem of a player. I would be shocked if Liverpool did not go for him this summer. "
Having watched Allen play for Swansea many times last season (including an excellent performance in the 0-0 draw with Liverpool at Anfield), I would love to see this happen, and I would definitely take Allen over Jordan Henderson in central midfield.
What do you think?
Jaimie Kanwar
Can we pay Swansea to take Henderson? Would 5 mil be enough?
ReplyDeletedude, he is not for sale, and Laudrup and the club have said that he is not for sale, signed a new 4 year contract last year, does not want to leave, and you could not afford him.
ReplyDeleteIf Henderson is worth £18m, and Carroll £35m, then Allen is worth £50m.
Added to that Rogers/Liverpool cannot bid for any Swansea player for a year, unless Swansea accepts bids from other clubs first.
This is off-topic, but HOW THE F*** DID TERRY GET NOT-GUILTY!? From my understanding this looks like double standards to me, Evra won the case based on his own word, Ferdinand had the evidence of his own word plus a witness from the crowd, yet Terry is not guilty. I don't understand...
ReplyDeleteGet Allen and give them £6-7M plus Adam!
ReplyDeleteHave you read the the the piece all the way through??? IT IS SOMETHING THEY COULD TALK ABOUT!!!!!!!!!!!!
ReplyDeleteDon't be naive Harry.
ReplyDeleteSwansea are not Barcelona and Allen is not Messi.
I have huge respect for you, but this is kinda lazy, old story.
ReplyDeleteNow whether we get him or not is another thing all together. And I also like Allen. He is a good player and would love him in the team.
But this is old news
Could somebody please explain to me; how did Liverpool finish above and score more goals than Swansea last season, with an inferior manager, an inferior playing system and most importantly, inferior players all over the pitch??
ReplyDeleteAllen is decent but not the player the team needs right now. £10 million should be used to improve other positions.
ReplyDeleteThe club already has Gerrard, Lucas, Aquilani, Henderson (Rodgers stated he will improve him), Adam, Shelvey Suso etc..
Liverpool had better players... just some players didn't perform and the manager also made some goofs. Did you have to ask that??
ReplyDeletewe don't need Allen right now. We've loads of options in central midfield. Borini is a good start but we need to build on that. Ramirez would be my choice very time but BR's not going for him. Maybe Sturridge and swap Adam for Dempsey. Also need a midfield enforcer to back up Lucas.
ReplyDeleteI would think that reading between the lines of Rodgers' comments after Borini was bought when he said he was not going to throw money around that Borini is the one and only purchase he will make.
ReplyDeleteMy translation of his comment : I have spent all the money that FSG were prepared to spend on the football side of the business and there will be no more players brought in. The money for Borini has come from the savings we made by letting players go and clearing their salaries from the books. As the bosses said when they bought the club "we are not going to spend our own money on this thing if we can help it!.
Good one....
ReplyDeleteReckon BR has Hendo earmarked to cover
ReplyDeletefor Lucas.....
He looks the business. We don't need big name players. We can make him a big name player though.
ReplyDeleteLiverpool can buy Swansea players, we can't make a first approach. If a player requests to leave or another club opens the bidding, then Liverpool can join the bidding..................this is 100% true!!!
ReplyDeleteTo nick1811, Terry got found not guilty in a court of law, which needs a higher burden of proof than any fa hearing. he was credible as was ferdinand, so it was word against word. terry claimed hi did say the words but in response to a question, tho if the fa do reopen it he will face a ban for even saying it i reckon. or else it will be rediculously unfair to suarez
ReplyDeleteHenderson is good when played in the right position, he was brilliant for Sunderland and he will be brilliant for Liverpool.
ReplyDeleteQuite simple really, the police need actual hard evidence whereby the FA can do what the fuck they like, which in this case was believing Evra over Suarez. Shocking but true!
ReplyDeleteWould love to buy allen! class young player!
ReplyDeleteHope he comes and replaces the most overrated player in our squad, lucas leiva...
ReplyDeletebwaahahaha Liverpool have not been in contacted. Well written.
ReplyDeleteliverpool are crap
ReplyDeleteJoe Allen and Jordan Henderson can easily play together.
ReplyDeleteAllen will be a good replacement for Reina.
ReplyDeleteWe should play 4-3-4 ... No need goalkeeper .. Allen to replace Reina and we go all out attack. If opponent attack, ask Suarez run down, save the ball, bite the opponent, make some offensive remark or do something ... we sure can win with Suarez, Borini and Allen in the team. Then we have Bellamy who can use golf stick and beat player who try to score against us. Yes, way to go.
ReplyDeleteYou don't know the first thing about football. Lucas is great!
ReplyDeleteWishful thinking Harry, it happens to us all. Toores et al.
ReplyDeleteHow also is it when pictures of the incident are shown ,what terry is saying is blanked out.Another massive cover up at the request of the moronic clowns at the FA.
ReplyDeleteDo you know anything about Football or are you from where they call it soccer? Lucas was the best player season before last, broke up the most plays from the opposition and was Fans player of the season. You must be a crack pot!
ReplyDeleteIts a gentlemans agreement ghat Rodgers won't tap up players, but that's not to suggest that Rodgers who has a good relationship with the owner can't enquire, every player has a price, as does every owner
ReplyDeletehave u see ur doctor today?
ReplyDeleteyeh really mature
ReplyDeleteLaudrup made these comments yesterday, so how exactly is it old news?
ReplyDeleteGosh, how can I face the world with my head held high after such an embarrassing typo. The shame of it!
ReplyDeleteSo you paid £20m for Henderson and you think you can get a superior player for half that?
ReplyDeleteHeh.
The english are the first people to call the beautiful game ' soccer.' Learn the history of your own game fool!
ReplyDeleteYes I do - everybody seems to keep arguing that Swansea were a better team, and that their players were better than Liverpool counterparts in pretty much every position last season (with only Suarez and the defenders avoiding negative comparisons so far), but the argument just completely falls apart when you consider the fact that we still managed to score more goals and accumulate more points than them over the season.
ReplyDeleteDon't bother wasting time to reply my post, better get yourself a bit educated
ReplyDeletehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucas_Leiva
Can't help, if a 8mn player is paid double by a biased Manager. 10mn is good for Allen, when specially Cabya cost 4mn & Borini around 10mn.
ReplyDeletehands off liverpool ....u must have your own local talent with all your history and standing in the game
ReplyDelete£10m for one of the best young British midfielders around, someone already well versed in the style of play that you're going to be using and who will only get better from here on in is taking the piss.
ReplyDeleterodgers said he likes what he sees with henderson
ReplyDeleteHe may not be local, but Suso counts as homegrown and I'd rather see him promoted to first team squad duties than see £10m spent on another central midfielder that doesn't contribute much in the final third.
ReplyDeleteThere should be one more option ...not both henderson and allen..liverpool need 2-3 extra ordinary player..players with sixth sense
ReplyDeletecharlie adam sees dead people
ReplyDeleteliverpool n swansea only have a gentlemans agreement about a 12month stay away from players, also with laudraup ntaking over as manager at swansea, no1 knows if he wants to keep allen, as for him signing a 4 yr contract harry, that was b4 BR left to go to liverpool and nowadays all a 4yr contract means is the team who owns the contract have a chance of getting more for the player
ReplyDeleteUnderstand that if the player (Allen) puts in a transfer request then Swansea have no power over the player and will have to accept an offer, who wants a player who doesn't want to play in your team? Come to Liverpool Allen, help us to the next Level! YNWA!!!
ReplyDeletehenderson is not 'worth £18m', nor is Carroll 'worth £35m'. If they were worth those prices, then currently liverpool would be gearing up for a title challenge, and we'd be playing champions league football. The whole reason they're getting stick is that we paid more than they are worth.
ReplyDeleteAllen would be worth at most £15m, a 'rough diamond'. Given Swansea's level, and given Rodgers has overseen his prominent development, theres a good chance that he could end up going through the gentlemens agreement, and for cheaper than that price I quoted, for around £7m I'd predict.
Ultimately, it will come down to Rodgers, and whether he wants us to be full of his tried and trusted young prospects (Borini already here, Allen), or if he wants to test and improve what we have at the moment (Carroll, Henderson).
because we didn't have inferior players, and the rest weren't that inferior. We simply were inferior to the standard we should be at. Swansea were superior to their expected standard. Hence, we finished 'just' above Swansea
ReplyDeleteJust watching the MOTD 3 vid above these comments. Interesting that Rodgers, speaking as then Swansea manager, picks his all-time Prem League team. No Gerrard. His reasoning? Players he has chosen are solely on whether they fit into his system! So expect Stevie to be transfer listed soon then .. . .Not being serious, but interesting to think at the time BR never dreamed he would one day be managing SG
ReplyDeletejust give adam away, full stop!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
ReplyDeleteand i don't see a talented footballer in charlie adam!
ReplyDeleteYeah Jaimie but be fair - you DID get a hard on for Charlie f***king Adam too. And look how far THAT got you.
ReplyDeleteAh now. Don't say things like that, pet - you'll hurt our feelings.
ReplyDeleteI see fat cat.
ReplyDeleteAdam cost 8m, and for that fee he's done IMO. He actually contributed with goals and assists. He's the least of LFC's problems.
ReplyDeleteSent from Samsung Galaxy Note
-------- Original message --------
Subject: [liverpoolkop] Re: 'Make us a big offer' - Boss hints £10m star could join LFC for the right fee. Bid? | Liverpool-Kop.com
Idiotic comment...........LFC had their worst season in something like 50yrs and as u said we still finished above Swansea. Regardless of this Liverpool are still considered a huge club, Swansea are in the top flight for possibly the 1st time ever i think. Yes Rodgers worked miracles last year and had them playing a style of football that surprised everyone and did it with no real household names in the squad. Liverpool on the other hand are/were in a transistional period, still recovering from the mess the previous owners left us in. As for inferior manager?!! ok it didnt work out but Kenny's reign did help to stabalise the club and the fella has won major honours as both player and manager. I honestly cant fathom your last comment.....inferior players?! you think swansea's players are better than Liverpools!!! I wouldnt take a single one of swansea's squad over any LFC player. Ok there is big hype over Allen, but i think its a case of big fish in small pond at swansea and if he moved to LFC he'd be a small fish in a big pond. Another Charlie Adam. When he was at blackpool he was immense, and most people thought it was a great transfer. So far it hasnt worked out for him.
ReplyDeleteThiago Silva signed a extension to his Milan contract until 2017 couple of weeks ago and now he is at............. PSG.
ReplyDeleteDifferent and tougher standards. FA go by probabilities whereas the courts go by beyond reasonable doubt. No real surprise at the outcome, considering how the case went.
ReplyDeleteGreece won the Euros a while back, apparently with a inferior manager, inferior playing system and most importantly, inferior players all over the pitch. Football is full of surprises.
ReplyDeleteBritish players cost a premium especially when they get hyped before hand which was the case with Hendo and Carroll, so bit harsh to bring in the likes of Cabaye as they are foreign, who was a bargain for sure. Hear Newcastle are picking up Debuchy for £7m.
ReplyDeleteJoke??
ReplyDeleteAhh...Popo the clown. Not even close to funny. pathetic.
ReplyDeleteNot sure but is Joe Allen a holding midfielder, someone there to break up play?
ReplyDeleteBecause he was doing alot of that in the video and if so isn't he just the kind of player we are crying out for as cover and kick up the arse, watch over your shoulder, don't be complacent kind of competition we need for Lucas Leiva?
He also seems to be on some other type of 'speed' he's sooo hyper!
He seems to look for the very simple head up pass to get things ticking again after the 'break up' play; very intelligent.
I'm sure we were lacking this last year with Lucas out but I'm sure I'll get corrected by someone of I'm mistaken.
That's no typo, u meant that
ReplyDeleteNo you're right - in terms of local burger sales, the bloke's priceless. He's been a revelation for Merseyside's recession-hit fast food industry.
ReplyDeleteSadly however, I heard that rumours that KFC were going to erect a Shankly-style statue of him outside their St John's Square branch are wide of the mark.
In all seriousness though, I'd like Allen. He's a good player - creative and mobile. I like how he'd fit into the team quickly and more effectively than last year's signings. He's young too and it's just nice to see that we're linked with (and signing) players with evidence of some thought and brainpower having gone into the selection process. After Kenny's Lads Holiday, this is very encouraging.
ReplyDeleteadam cost 7.5m and has 2 goals and 8 assists he has 80% pass accuracy in the league
ReplyDeletewe need to sell first cant c us havin much in the kitty and the likes of hendo , carrol , downing they will perform better under roders tactics adam 2 we have a good squad but think spering should go gud heart but not goood enough
ReplyDeleteknobhead
ReplyDeleteAs i have said before rodgers is only after players that he has managed cut price manager cut price buying and have to get ridd off henderson downing cole is in he has number 10 given to him and the yank owners want dempsey. if you all look at the premier league stats last quarter off year henderson was most passes given an completed.
ReplyDeleteNeither of you two have clue....just like with Lucas, Henderson will prove to be a massive fans favourite in time. ...he is quality, it's just a shame people compare young CM's to Stevie G....
ReplyDeletePut your cocks away lads, not gona happen!!
ReplyDeleteBeing successful in cup competitions and being successful in a league are two totally different things. You're MUCH more likely to get a surprise with underdogs succeeding in a knockout competition than throughout a league campaign
ReplyDeleteYou've misread my comment Alex - everybody else keeps saying how much better the Swansea players are than their Liverpool counterparts (with Allen vs Henderson here following countless other comparisons from Reina vs Vorm to Carroll vs Graham), and that our management was so useless, so I want to hear from those ppl how it is that we still scored more goals and picked up more points than Swansea.
ReplyDeleteAnd expectations/price tag shouldn't come into it belatedly, as in every pretty much every case, the argument has been framed as in this article - that the Swansea player is simply better than the Liverpool player.
For some reason my earlier response is being held by the moderator and I can't be bothered to retype it...
ReplyDeleteTrue, I agree in relation to tournament v league, in terms of likelihood of surprises. But in relation to Swansea and Liverpool, it is possible for a lower team to have some better players. Football is a team game, as well as one must take into other considerations when a team finishes above another but that doesn't necessarily rule out the strong possibility that a team can finish below another whilst having some better players and a more attractive playing style. I would take Allen over Henderson all day long, even if Henderson was part of a club finished above Swansea. I don't think I've read anyone saying that their entire team is better than ours but some saying some of their players are better, which I think is plausible. Just because a team finishes above another, doesn't mean that all their players are better.
ReplyDeleteYes I agree that lower achieving teams can easily (and regularly do) have a few better players than teams that achieve more throughout a league campaign, but my point is that I've seen ppl continually comparing the majority of Swansea players favourably to their counterparts at LFC (e.g. Reina vs Vorm, Henderson vs Allen, Gerrard & Adam vs Allen & Britton, Gerrard vs Siggurdsson, Sinclair & Dyer vs our wide-men, Graham vs Carroll etc comparisons have all been made with the Swansea player apparently being better in each case). Aside from our defenders, Lucas & Suarez are the only players that I've seen avoiding negative comparisons so far and only one of those was an attacking player.
ReplyDeleteCombine that with the common opinion that Swansea also had a much better playing system than us, and you would've expected their team to score more goals and/or finish above us right?But that was clearly not the case though, hence my original question...
(fwiw anyway, my opinion is that Rodgers' system got the most out of Swansea's more limited players last year, covering up their weaknesses and allowing them to play to their strengths as much as possible, whereas Liverpool's system wasted the talents of many of our players.)
'combine that....' but you could combine many other variables, non? Such as their small squad and how their performances dipped in the second half of the season, such as for all their possession play but they still had a somewhat soft defence when got at, such as for all their creativity and passing they still had a average striker up front who wasn't all that prolific, etc. You can have all those weakness and yet have some better players as well as a more attractive style. Still possible to have some better players, some weaker players, some problems with productivity, more attractive playing style yet still finish lower. To conclude my view, I just think there are too many variables and factors to view it simply like you did.
ReplyDeleteI agree to a certain extent that the playing style helped them, especially with the weaker players in their team as keeping the ball means less pressure on the defence. But still possible to have a complimentary playing style as well as still having better players, regardless. Just like regardless of the playing style, Downing should have done much better, Suarez should have put away the chances he did have, etc. There is only so much the playing style of the team can hide. It won't be able to hide the limitations of a small squad over the long term, the ineptitude of a winger, the poor finishing of a player, etc. You got to have some serious technical and tactical awareness to play the game the way Britton and Allen did. Yep, the playing style was complimentary for them but still need a solid foundation of ability.
Those other variables wouldn't really impact the argument seeing as they didn't really suffer significant injury problems last season to take away their preferred options, and supposedly their 'average striker' was better than ours, as were their other attacking options, so they should've scored more goals.
ReplyDeleteAs I said I can agree with a lesser team having some better players, but not to the extent that ppl are going on about when comparing our squad to Swansea's. And I'm not saying that Britton, Allen or anybody else from their squad were poor players. But I will say that Liverpool have players capable of matching their productivity, including Henderson
In relation to the first paragraph, in my view those variables do possibly impact as long its plausible, its valid. Graham might be better in some other people's eyes, he weren't in mine, so its certainly plausible. Just like you saying how our playing style hampered our players is a plausible factor. Its all ifs, buts, maybes, subjectivity, what you and I are on about, so I'll leave it there and just simply wholeheartedly disagree as this will go round in circles as one can spin either way.
ReplyDeleteAnd I'll say that the likes of Henderson are simply rather too mediocre at a technical and tactical level to be as good as or better than Allen or Britton, as I even doubt Gerrard's ability to play the patient probing orchestrative passing game from the heart of the midfield to a quality standard and without getting the urge to go all hollywood. To put it simply how much I rate him, I think Henderson is the stereotypical result central midfield result of our much-criticised football development in this country. That aside, funnily enough the likes of Henderson, Shelvey, Enrique, Carroll and Downing were bought from teams that finished lower than us (the last completed season before they were signed). So much for teams that finished lower than us, I guess eh.
I love subjectivity and I'll leave it on that note :)
It is not valid when such a variable did not actually impact Swansea in reality - Liverpool had to rely on depth in the squad far more than Swansea did.
ReplyDeleteYou're not even arguing my point anyway if you're just saying that Swansea had one or two better players anyway, rather than saying that Swansea had a better midfield and attack (barring Suarez), yet still scored less goals and finished below us, which was the central premise of my original statement
In my view, it is valid as it did impact them, just not as much as you think and I'll leave it at that. I have argued your point validly but you don't like my opinion, so instead of disagreeing with it, you just simply childishly tar it as not valid, which is bemusing. Football is about subjectivity, I have a different and valid opinion to your opinion, which, bemusingly, you don't seem to comprehend as there is no exact science/formula behind what we are on about! Bloody hell. Agree to disagree mate. I'll leave it at for sure, in relation to this particular debate and reading anymore from you on it. Cheerio.
ReplyDeleteif joe allen ever leaves us he will sign for a major club for big money,not a once great side who have lost their way after a succession of very poor managers.i can see a player power chelsea style problem for rodgers when he starts to demand possession football and accurate passing,sadly liverpool have not got anyone who can do that-not even gerard who just bumps 50/50 balls all over the park-pass to each other boys its simple-best of luck to liverpool in their quest to become the best team on merseyside this year
ReplyDelete