3 Jul 2012

Revenge! Should LFC 'gazump' Spurs for this 'worried' £9m Belgian star?

Ajax defender Jan Vertonghen is a worried man. His proposed move to Tottenham seems to have stalled, and with Spurs in the midst of a major transition after the departure of Harry Redknapp and the arrival of Andre Villas Boas, the defender's immediate future is unclear. Could this represent an opportunity for Liverpool to step in snatch Vertonghen away from Spurs?

Speaking to the Ajax official club website yesterday, Vertonghen revealed his fears that the move to Spurs could collapse:

"There's still no clarity. We're talking about my future here - I can't say that I'm not thinking about it, and it obviously worries me.

"There's no agreement yet, so I'll have to accept that. It's impossible to say when this will become clearer, but the most important thing for me right now is regaining match fitness with Ajax.

"It's a shame - I’m hoping for a solution, but I’m not expecting a solution"


Liverpool were strongly linked with a January move for Vertonghen, but since then, Spurs have moved into pole position, and if the London club can get the Belgian for the reported figure of £9m, it would be a major bargain.

With the delay over completing the deal, surely this would be a great time for Liverpool to get in there and gazump Spurs? Clearly, there are ongoing issues over the completion of the transfer, so the Reds should capitalise on that, and give Spurs a taste of their own player-snatching medicine.

There may be an agreement in principle between Spurs and Ajax, but as Vertonghen says himself, there is no concrete agreement, i.e. no contract has been signed, and as long as that is the case, he is still available.

I'm still not 100% convinced that Skrtel-Agger is the right long-term solution for for the club. Despite improved form, Skrtel is still prone to concentration lapses (and we saw quite a few instances of that last season, specifically headed goals that shouldn't have been conceded), and Agger's injury issues are an ongoing concern. Additionally, I may be in the minority here, but I haven't seen much to suggest that Sebastian Coates is the answer either.

As in the Gylfi Sigurdsson situation, it may transpire that Vertonghen's wage demands are too high, or that he prefers to live in London, but you never know until you try.

Worth a bid?

Jaimie Kanwar


98 comments:

  1. He's from Belgium, mate.

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  2. He is from Belgium you dope

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  3. he is Belgian not Dutch 

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  4. Flanagan Robinson Coates Carragher Skirtel Agger Kelly Enrique Johnson we are well covered in the defensive department. If we spend money it should be IMO attacking Midfielders (2) in particular RHS plus a alternative to the Suarez/Carroll strike (I was tempted to say force at this point !) team >?><!!!

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  5. I suggest if you want to gazump spurs for him you take note that he's not Dutch he's from Belgium. Just saying.

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  6. Get the facts right!11:11 pm, July 03, 2012

    He's from Belgium you muppets!

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  7. Don't think we need this guy. He does look like a good player but no better than what we've got. The Agger-Skrtel looks pretty good to me and Coates will improve with experience. Carragher is coming towards the end but we have Wilson, Wisdom and Samba coming through. At some point we will have to give these lads a chance.

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  8. You realise the only reason he has not joined us yet is because Ajax owe him money. So not sure you would get close to nicking him from us if you tried. He has agreed terms and everything is sorted minus his own contract clause!

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  9. his only choice is spurs only reason why the deal is held up is between him a ajax not him and spurs,he said today hes still expects the deal to go tru but it will just take longer then expected de boar said the deal to spurs is close

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  10. Yeah, he's the answer to all you problems.

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  11. LFCSense, Jan Vertonghen is miles better than every name you mentioned, but there is no way he would step down from joining Spurs to Liverpool!...

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  12. Ha stupid article, he is not confused about spurs' interest! He is confused about where he stands in the "15% of my transfer" agreement. He is trying to scare Ajax into paying up otherwise he'll leave free next year.

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  13. he`s signed personal terms and the clubs has agreed a transfer fee....only problem is the 15% of the transferfee that vertonghen is entiltle to which is holding up the deal. so you`ll lose out on this one too....lol

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  14. Nothing is decided until he signs on the dotted line. Vertonghen made these comments yesterday, and he specifically said:

    "I'm hoping for a solution, but I'm not expecting a solution"

    Those are not the words of someone who is confident that the deal is going to go through. It may still go through, but until he's signed, he's available to be poached.

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  15. Errm.Perhaps the writer might do the minimum of research. Beside the fact that everyone ,apart from the writer, knows he a Belgian international, most people have read the FACT that the clubs have AGREED terms, the player and Tottenham have AGREED terms and  Ajax are stalling by refusing to pay him the 15%of the fee he is entitled to. Come on Jamie. Tell us how Liverpool can gazump the deal. Back here on Planet Earth it ecsapes us humans. Most cretinous,ill-thought out article of the day and no easy task given the competition. Pure Gold.

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  16. I see. So you basically know more about the deal that Vertonghen himself, right? In his statement on the Ajax website he said:

    "There's no agreement yet".

    If there's no agreement, how can he 'signed' personal terms. He's signed nothing, and that's from the man himself. Agreeing personal terms is not a contract.

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  17. Pointless article you clueless tool!

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  18. He's shit n it's all hype n speculation. 18 titles n 5 European cups! Spurs are shit! We wouldn't be seen dead trying to sign that clown! YNWA

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  19. Tottenham never gazumped Liverpool for Sigurdsson. He just chose them, Liverpool actually offered him more money.

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  20. Very funny article, very poorly researched and smells of envy to me.

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  21. I've edited out the personal insults. If you can't discuss without being a child then please go elsewhere.

    Perhaps you should stop regurgitating unsubstantiated paper talk and look at the facts:

    *No official source has confirmed that the clubs have 'agreed terms'. If either Spurs or Ajax have confirmed this, post a link to the evidence.

    * Vertonghen himself states that 'there is no agreement'.

    Those are the facts, so it is you who should do your research. I don't deal in unsourced paper talk; I deal in facts, and in this case, the fact is that Vertonghen has NOT signed any Spurs deal, and he is still available.

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  22. Try looking up De Boer's comments. Of course you have more facts than the Ajax manager. Compounding a poor article with deflection and now misrepresntation. How about an answwer to my original question.How???

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  23. hahahahahahaha  good luck. hes come out and said he likes spurs because the way they play, they are attacking and exciting.. liverpool are no longer exciting or attacking.. its dull and now a midtable team as for the past... how many years?

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  24. and the answer to all your problems is......you need about 14 new players, thats all !!!!

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  25. i lol'd why would he join a side on the decline when he has already agreed to join the Real DEAL

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  26. Wilson will never be good enough for the prem L mate

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  27. he is not better than Agger Skirtel or Johnson get real Really?!

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  28. Hawkeye you are yet another victim of the media. At this time of the year there are made up stories flying around because there are no real stories to write about. He may eventually sign for Spurs but he has stated there is no agreement yet and clarity is needed.

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  29. spurs will have him they are knacked in defence, i reckon the new look spurs team that AVB would like for 2012 / 2013 will be lloris, walker, verthagen,rolando, kaboul,k noughton, Gallas, dawson, ekotto, bale, gyfi, lennon, parker,huddlestone,sandro, mountinho, rodreguez,iturbe or oscar, defoe,hulk .

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  30. you must be a Spurs fan trying to make yourself feel better or superior most spurs supporters do this. they have an inferiority complex .....................wonder why ? could it be that you are inferior?

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  31. The alleged hurdle seems to be that it is in his contract that he gets a cut of the transfer fee. He apparently said this last month in relation to newspaper reports regarding the percentage he gets from the transfer fee: ''I’m shocked. The percentage is correct — it’s unbelievable.I know that at Ajax a lot of things are leaking. When you hear it about other football players, you don’t feel it. It’s different when it’s about yourself'


    So maybe there is a disagreement between Ajax and Vertonghen.

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  32. Vertonghen has already decided on Spurs. Why do you think no other clubs have been interested for the past few weeks... If any other club that wanted him had a chance of signing him then they would have made their interest known by now.

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  33. hahah how much spurs have to spend?£150M?hahaha

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  34. I've seen nothing to suggest that Flanagan or Robinson would be anything other than liabilities at the top end of the game, Coates comes with a good reputation from Uruguay but seems pretty raw still and unfortunately Dalglish didn't give him the necessary game time to develop in what was a wasted season, Carragher has been well past his best for a couple of years now, Skrtel has had one good season in all his years at Liverpool, Agger continues to pick up injuries at a worrying rate and Enrique has no legitimate competition at left back.

    Our defence isn't quite as well stocked as some may argue, imo. I agree that two pacey wide-men should be a priority though, but I also think that another ball winning central midfielder is important, unless we want to continue wasting time with Spearing, or playing Gerrard/Adam out of position back there when Lucas is out.

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  35. jheeze, Spurs fans again. 
    What have you really achieved that has you guys flapping away so much???

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  36. Funny how you have lots to say about speculation, but never talk about games as they finish

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  37. Your missing the point.......the no agreement is with Ajax. They accepted the fee from spurs but then realized that he was entitled to 15% of the fee. Ajax already accepted the offer from spurs so they cannot re-negotiate with them. Ajax are pressuring him to drop the clause....he won't so they are still trying to negotiate........I think he is trying to convince them he will reluctantly stay and leave on a free next year and they get nothing...........just waiting to see who blinks first!.....COYS!

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  38. He might be a Spurs fan...but he's just reporting what actually happened...LFC offered more but he still went to Spurs...go figure...
    And...you can quibble all you want about language - agreements, signed...whatever -  the delay over Vertonghen is, as someone said above, due to a dispute over a clause in his contract with Ajax. Even if you could "gazump" - that clause what still be there.

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  39. LFCSense, you must be trying to make yourself feel better or superior, most LFCSense' do this. they have an inferiority complex.
    ...................wonder why ? could it be that you are inferior?

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  40. Great post, Jay. The club's defence is in no way fit for purpose. There are other priority positions to be filled in the team, but an experience centre-back and another experienced left back are required at some stage.

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  41. Revenge for what exactly? Sigurdsson? He's not gone anywhere yet. I really can't believe BR will allow Sigs to slip away for a few thousand per week. We need to pay him market rate, or come close to it.

    0 chance we will move for Vertonghen. Spurs need defenders, we don't.

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  42. I still can't believe that Wilson cost us £4m. 
    Or that he was young player of the year in Scotland.
    Pretty bad times up there if he was a stand-out... 

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  43. I'm a spurs fan and think he would be an amazing signing for us...I think with the Gylfi situation, the main issue is that Liverpool are not the side (still a great club) that they used to be. If the money is similar then the attraction for most players these days is to live in London. Vertonghen has stated he doesn't want to join any other team in PL and for that alone Spurs should just give him te payment Ajax owe him. Some of the comments on here need a reality check though. Not one o the defenders in the Liverpool side is in the form to take a position at Tottenham. Liverpool really need to keep GK, RB, Stevie G and Suarez and make some major changes to the rest...paying silly money for Henderson, Downing and Carroll doesn't make them PL stars, form does...you have the perfect players in Gerrard and Reina that prove that. Sorry for the truth all as I actually want to see Liverpool challenging again

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  44. Rubbish, spurs have offered 50% more money in wages, obiviously all things being equal the player wud of picked 5 times champions of Europe Liverpool and Rogers rather than empty cabinate spurs who had no manager at the time. Its all about money and rogers knowing that the player isnt worth improving the offer. Plenty of better players out there. Nowhere near as good as the departing modric. No king, adebayer or any quality striker, spurs in big trouble this year. heading back to their normal bottom half league position.

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  45. Sorry I think he is already a Yid...
    http://www.cleansheetsallround.co.uk/2012/07/belgian-vertonghen-to-wait-for-tottenham-hotspur-move? 

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  46. Mr Bob Dobalina1:25 am, July 04, 2012

    As stated above, Vertonghen's beef is with Ajax refusing to honour the clause in his contract that stipulates that he gets 15 per cent of his transfer fee. He's appointed a lawyer to force the deal through.

    http://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/transfer-news/ajax-defender-jan-vertonghen-in-legal-946947

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  47. The hold up has nothing to do with Spurs, Ajax are holding out on the 15% that he gets from the transfer. Get your facts right! And why would he want to live in Liverpool, what a shit hole!

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  48. there's never ususally much strife between spurs & liverpool.

    no need to start it now :)

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  49. I just think the colour transition from white to red was too hard to him...

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  50. revenge? how old are you :)

    just buy what you need. professional footballers are people too.....

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  51. Don't need him!!!!

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  52. Liverpool should ditch 'Walk On' and use Jethro Tull's Living In The Past.

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  53. You mean 2 finals last season then????....................dahhhhhhhhhhh

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  54. Jonathan Husband7:12 am, July 04, 2012

    Great post???? whats great about slating two 19 yr olds?? Here is a newsflash.... not every young footballer rolls off the production line playing perfect football. Its impossible.

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  55. flanagan as we saw against blackburn can be mistake prone however when he had his debut aginst city the year before he showed he can be useful and in the same year and robinson i would keep him just because he can run faster than theo walcott he could be our problem to our left wing problem anyway for the first europa qualifying to see how good they are but liverpool needs a striker bellamy and suarez will be involved in the olympics so with kuyt gone liverpool first game may look like

                  reina
    johnson agger skrtel enrique
               lucas aqualani
      gerrard shelvy sterling
                 carrol
    subs:
    doni
    coates 
    carra
    kelly 
    robinson
    henderson
    pacheco/spearing

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  56. don't quite get this living in the past, do you mean the 70's and the 80's or from this last decade? Since 2000 we've been in 2 champions league finals winning 1, (Spurs have a party for finishing 4th), 3 FA Cup finals winning 2, 4 League Cup Finals winning 3, a UEFA Cup Final and won it. Add on the Super Cup and Charity Shield if you really want to! Remind me again what Spurs have done this last decade.

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  57. avb liverpools 1st choice chooses spurs gylifi liverpools 1st choice chooses spurs deal completes 2day the winds av changed get used 2 bein in the yids shadow

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  58. No. It was reported in the media that the deal was finalised with Ajax, that personal terms had been sorted and that the only sticking point was the 15% of the fee that he claims Ajax owe him as part of his contract.

    The 'no agreement' part is related to that, not to the whole deal.

    Just google 'Jan Verthongen' and 'personal terms' and you'll see quite clearly that the transfer is all but done. Also google 'Jan Verthongen' and 'Spurs' and 'only club' and you'll see why Liverpool stand no chance of signing him.

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  59. jay football is as much abour opinions as it is about the game and IMO Flanagan and Robinson will develope into fine footballers in particular Robinson. Unfortunately at the moment Flanagan is Rash in the challange but he will learn. These 2 players also play with pride and passion.
    If we spend money during this transfer window just think it could be spent more beneficially in other areas

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  60. Lucas may not be fit enough just yet I havent seen an injury update for a while.

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  61. The Agger/Vertonghen partnership would perhaps be tactically imbalanced as they are both ball playing centre backs....then again Spain didnt do to badly with 2 ball playing centre backs, 6 playmakers and no striker!!!

    Sell Skrtel for £22m to Napoli and buy Vertonghen (£8m), Vargas (£8), Andre Schurrle (£12m), Gaston Ramirez (£16m) and Huntelaar (£15m).

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  62. and London isnt mate !!!! People in glass houses and all that. I went to wembley twice this year and I was astounded at the dereliction of the surrounding areas. You are Living in a bubble if you think London isnt a shit hole!

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  63. good one mate. for the record we only made 1 job offer that was to BR. AVB was interviewed but dismissed as not good enough you are welcome to him. Gylifi hasnt been anounced yet. Whats it like being the 4th best team in London ?

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  64. laughing at that! See above. - Funny thing seeing all the Spurs fans now saying they're happy with AVB, 5 months ago they were calling him useless and a clown, what's changed? Oh yes that's right, he's their manager now!! 

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  65. Who's going to buy Skrtl for £22m? And where's the £37 million coming from to buy those extra players, not to mention the wage bill.

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  66. i would honesty play henderson as a ball winner when Lucas isn`t playing, He has the attributes and is underated there in my opinion.

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  67. Aquaman is a Luxury. Doesn`t score enough goals and is poor defensively.

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  68. We need a good centre back if not him then someone of real quality, but we are not most players 1st choice club. We thing that really annoys me is the lack of african players, we have dealt with them in the past and had a few bad buys but u could say the same about any player from any nation, do we scout africa?? another thing, this media hypin of players puts lfc in a bbad barganin position. also any news about promoting a few youth players, 1 or 2 for at least

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  69. Hard to buy direct from Africa for English clubs because of work permit issues. Can still buy them direct from there but end up loaning them out straight away so that they can fulfil work permit criteria later, etc. But obviously buying Africans that are already at European clubs is somewhat easier I would imagine but not always the case as seen with Yaya Toure (he was with a Belgian club at the time) and Arsenal. 

    Even someone as established as Dejan Stankovic is rumoured to be having work permit issues to play in PL recently (West Ham said to be interested). 

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  70. How can you agree to personal terms with another club before the club who owns your contract agree to terms of your release.
    That would make the contract between Vertonghen and Spurs null and void.

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  71. Mate you have no real idea what was offered like the rest of us that is a load of rubbish.

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  72. But if we dont make efforts the situation will never change, we dont bring thru youth very well or often, and we r terrible in the transf. market in terms on long term quality buys.. rafa the wheeler/dealer did his best but not gd enuff. i understan the french citizenship thing but feel that england and lfc r so far behind that we will never unearth a yaya/eto/adebayor etc. Ochan what about our midfield for next yr, i mentioned on here that if a decent bid for Lucas came id accept, the replies i got was that i must be mad wehich cud b tru im a lfc lol even a few mates dont agree and think hes the answer to our problems, i do rate lucas mind u (hes the b.knees on pes120 i just dontlike the thought of playin with an extra defender who specialist (can only do) in tackling a player then passin five yrds, is that the min.req. for a midfled plyer?

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  73. Is there any player you think we should keep. Carrol, Suarez, Skirtel, Reina, Downing, Agger, Adam.......

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  74. Why would you want us to sign a player that you clearly know nothing about!?

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  75. and you know this how??

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  76. If we go back to our 'normal bottom half league position' (twice in last 10 years and that was 11th position) then we'll still be above the bin dippers!

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  77. I'm a Spurs fan and even I find this post funny. He would like Messi too but it ain't gonna happen.

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  78. signed for Spurs -official! lol - believe it now?

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  79. If you remember BR was cold on the Liverpool job at first and that was because he was holding out for the Spurs job. When he knew that he wasn't gonna get it he went for second best. It's a well known fact!

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  80. LFC need at most four new players to become a real force once again imo. If Brenden Rogers keeps Aquilani, buys A.Johnson, Demba. Ba, and Gaston Ramirez, we will put the fear of god into any team we play. Last season if not for the missed chances we created (thirty something that hit the woodwork) LFC would never have finnished in 8th possition. So explain why we LFC need 14 new players? In my opinion we have sufficient cover for our back line Kelly who can play CB or RB, Coates who can play CB who im sure will show his pedigree this season if called upon, Robinson who i think is a good covering player for Enrique. So thats the backline sorted. Midfield Gerrard, Aquillani, Luas, Henderson, Hopefully A, Johnson, and a big hope Gaston Ramirez,(with cover from C, Adam, JJ, Shelvey, and R, Sterling,) not so bad is it? then front men L, Suarez A,Carroll, and hopefully Demba Ba? So really three good signings will be all IMO we need to challenge for a "Champions League" spot this forthcoming season do you not agree?

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  81. I am not happy with the appointment - A Very Big risk if you ask me.

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  82. yeah, it was so well known nobody else had heard that before! You Spurs fans have ideas well above your station don't you, even Everton (nearly) got into the champions league one year, you've been in it once and think you're the real deal. All those mind the gap Arsenal jokes must have hurt when they came back to haunt you eh?

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  83. http://www.sportinglife.com/football/news/article/165/7868089/lucas-i-feared-for-my-career 

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  84. It's not my intention to slate the kids, more to slate the idea that these kids are good enough to step up into the Liverpool first team as so many are suggesting (without Liverpool continuing to be a mediocre team that is).

    Of course there are some players that develop later than others, but I'm seeing a lot of talk about fans advocating Flanagan or Robinson as first team players for this upcoming season! Then again, those same fans were probably arguing how Spearing was a more than adequate backup last year too. 

    Simply put, I've never seen either defender stand out in the reserves from all the games I've seen, so I just don't understand this idea that they're ready to step into the first team any-time soon. 

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  85. Henderson is better suited to the role than Gerrard or Adam, but he has a weird tendency where he closes the opposition ball player down, and then just stops about 5 yards away from them from where he has little to no impact on what the attacker is doing. 

    I like him as a player as like you say he has all the attributes to be a top quality CM, but he needs to get some confidence and either get stuck in defensively, or start trying to impose himself on games more with the ball. 

    Unfortunately for him (and us) we bought him at a point in his career where he is not fully developed the sense as to how he can consistently impact games yet, but we don't have time to patiently wait for him (or anybody else) to learn how to play the game, else the gap is just going to continue to grow even wider to the elite.

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  86. 1 signing down 7 to go!

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  87. No one thought Steven Gerrard would be what he is today when he made his first appearance. From what I have seen of Flannagan and Robinson, they were improving, and with a bit more work in the gym and BR, they could be crucial to Liverpool in the future. I'm not saying they will have the same impact Gerrard did, but with players at 19-21 years of age you never know what you're getting out of them unless you try. 

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  88. spot on about sktrel having concentration lapses, and considering it was his best season to date, id say cash in on himif the ice s good hes been a liability most seasons, and an he get better?
    as for sig joining spurs, i think its down to gerrard still being the main man and he probably feels intimidated and didnt fancy playing second fiddle to him.
    also top 4 is anyones this season, maybe spurs slight favourites. think it will be, city,chelsea then united.
    we need propper wingers is the main thing forget about other positions for now. not like the ownes are going to dish out the cash

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  89. In your house, maybe.....

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  90. wasnt Gylfi revenge by AVB for not being named l'pool-manager?

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  91. Hmmm. And this from someone who gets damp listening to the bleeding Sideboard Song.

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  92. We dont need him we have alot of defenders at the moment better if was an attacking mid field or winger better still attacker goal poacher!!!

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  93. I like Flannagan. I like the fact that he has no respect for 'established' opponents and I like the way he's sending out a clear message to the opposition - 'Don't let me catch you with the ball in your possession because you won't like it."

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  94. 2 down 7 to go ! messi word have approached spurs but apparently hes not a keen lover of the white shirt reminds him of real madrid !!!!!!!!

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