10 Jan 2013

'He has great talent' - LFC chase exciting 'Player of the Year' award winner. Bid?

Liverpool are reportedly tracking Roma attacking midfielder Alessandro Florenzi.

According to reports in Italy, Liverpool are tracking the 21 year old Italy international, who scored against the Reds during last summer's USA tour.

In an interview last night, Sky Sports Italia quizzed Florenzi's Agent, Alessandro Lucci, about Liverpool's interest, and he simply replied:

"I do not know, I honestly do not know".

This is the first time I've heard of Florenzi being linked with Liverpool, and if there's truth to the rumour, it seems a little like the Oussama Assaidi deal, i.e. arriving out of the blue without any previous speculation.

During the 2011-12 season, Roma sent Florenzi on loan to Crotone, and grabbed 11 goals in 20 starts for the Serie B team, and his performances earned him the Serie B 'Player of the Year' award.

Florenzi returned to Roma last summer, and with 19 appearances this season, the 21-year old is now a regular for the GialloRossi, and so far, he's chipped in with two goals and three assists for the club.

Florenzi's debut goal for the club came in Roma's shock 3-1 victory over Inter Milan earlier this season, and after the game, Inter Milan boss Andre Stramaccioni was full of praise for Florenzi. He said:

"I worked with Alessandro Florenzi in the Roma youth academy, so perhaps he owes me a percentage after this goal! Joking aside, he scored a great goal and he has great talent, which is only going grow. He has my compliments"

The midfielder made his debut for the national team last November's during Italy's 2-1 defeat to France, and he recently signed a contract extension with Roma until 2016.

Florenzi's goal against Liverpool:



Goal against Inter Milan:



Jaimie Kanwar


38 comments:

  1. I presume the word 'Aquilani' will feature prominently in the following comments.

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  2. Not really heard anything about him before. But we could do with some creative midfielders, and ones who can score goals. 

    I dont know what it is about our midfield at the moment, but I dont feel all that good about it. Gerrard is doing pretty well, but is obviously aging. Allen hasnt set the world alight (has he got an assist yet?). Lucas is obviously not an attacking player. Shelvey is to hit and miss at the moment.
    We need someone who can keep things ticking over, and move the ball forward quicker.

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  3. we need proven talent with experience to help the youngsters. for me Sniejder is a no brainer which is why we probably wont get him. 

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  4. I think it will be a nice addition to our midfield. Yes we need some one to keep pressure on the opposition.

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  5. I'm guessing Wesley won't come to us due to lack of CL football. Would love to see him at LFC but not being in the CL is hurting us. I wonder if his agents have made it clear he wouldn't come to us, otherwise surely it is worth a 9m bid?

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  6. Not for the wages he wants... and even if we did offer that, I doubt he would come to Liverpool.
    But it would be amazing if it did happen.

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  7. Dream on.  I've heard Barca were after this guy with bids of €25m+ being thrown around.  Not in our realm of possibility unfortunately..

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  8. We've offloaded £100k a week Joe Cole and if we can get Sahin off the books as well surely FSG can afford his wage requests. Getting a player of his ability can help us push for champs league. we're in with as good a chance as Arsenal or Spurs and i'd like to think we are still a bigger draw than both those clubs. LFC is huge in Holland and there is a lot of respect there for us as a club.

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  9. Saw him in that game against Inter - dominated the midfield and outperformed everyone, including De Rossi.  Already been capped by Italy at 21 years old too...

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  10. Thats a good point.
    I would love it to happen, I just dont really see it though.
    It would also be an amazing statement to other players that we could attract a player of his quality.

    I dont see the harm in trying to get him.

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  11. I`m not a fan of players from the Italian league. There is the odd exception, but they don`t seem to fit to well into the Prem. I`m guessing this is down to how slow the pace of the Italian league can be, so they struggle when trying to play at a much faster pace, and being give a lot less time on the ball. 

    I don`t know enough about this guy to judge him.

    One concern for me though, is we need to get some more experienced players in, otherwise the way we are going we will have a team all under 22. Arsenal tried this route, with some much better youngsters, and did get top four, but have failed to win anything for Seven years.

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  12. it was 18 years old Marquinhos, and it was €28m.

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  13. I totally agree with this point. JH spoke about the model at Arsenal as one to follow but Arsenal have basically proved that all this really achieves is to line the pockets of the shareholders...oh wait..i see now. 

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  14. Given that many fellow Reds don't rate the last player we've bought from Roma (Borini) he can't be any good, can he.

    That aside, and me admitting that I know nothing about him but the snippets to be found on the internet, it's always good to be linked to players who may be up and coming stars. So, at the right price, why not. We won't be signing Neymar any time soon anyway. Problem with Florenzi is that not even his agent has heard of rumours about interest from Liverpool, so this may be a story entirely engineered by the media who have to fill columns.

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  15. No, not a single assist from Allen yet, but he tops the table for possession won.

    Given how young most of our midfielders are, we probably would be better advised to sign someone more experienced, someone who's able to perform on a regular basis.

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  16. Isn't Sneijder on 200k per week? While he is an exciting player, I think these kind of wages are prohibitive.

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  17. To be fair, I think Wenger simply prefers younger players over proven talent and is rather prudent in the transfer market. He's signed some more experienced players last summer, but that obviously didn't work as well as they may have expected down there either. And they pay off their brand-new stadium, too.

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  18. Well he's on a par with Downing at the moment then ;-P

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  19. Don't want to destroy the fun, but Downing has, as it stands, three goals and five assist to his name this season (all competitions).

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  20. I meant for his first season.

    Go Downing lol!

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  21. Therefore Downing has improved immeasurably this season. :-)

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  22. He is actually better than Allen.

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  23. He has more goals and assists to his name for sure. But Allen probably isn't as bad as some people make out he is. He actually tops the league table for possession won.

    Well, I won't outline and compare all the aspects of their games as you could easily do that yourself on the official site if you wished to do so. :-)

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  24. I like Allen, and I think he is a tidy player. I think he will get better. Plus he is young which helps.

    Also when he has played in a slightly more advanced role like he has in a couple of games recently he has looked much better, and could quite easily have opened his scoring account.

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  25. thank you Anteater71. We need a good mix of old and experienced players. We need some folks who can come in an be more influential to the squad today and not next season.  A couple of older players is just what the doctor ordered. Let's get some one in for whom the learning curve is not as long as it is for the rest of our starlets. Yes experienced stars might demand more wages but a good run in the league will lead to higher place finish and more money in the long run for the club due to better earnings from prestigious tourneys. 

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  26. You are spot on concerning higher finishes and better tournaments to compete in. Unfortunately I just don't see us signing any experienced player right now. I mean, which team would let an experienced player go half way through the season. Hopefully we'll add a senior player or two next summer.

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  27. By the way, what are you thanking me for?

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  28. While I agree with you, you better let this not see Jason. He'll be fuming. :-)

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  29. Liverpool for Life6:35 pm, January 10, 2013

    Its a bit crazy to lump all players together just beacuse the come from a certain league . Some adapt better than others , some have a style of play suited to the Premier and some dont.

    To start judging the players from the league they come from is shortsighted in the extreme. Ravenelli was from er .. was it not Italy . Zola was from er .. umm Italy , yeah .

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  30. i remember watching Allessandro Florenzi in the game Liverpool played against Roma in their summer tour of the United states. On that day Liverpool played at Fenway park. A place where Family Sports Group (FSG)'s other team the Boston Red Sox play base-ball. In what was supposed to be a special treat for Red fans living in at Boston they got to watch Liverpool dismantle by the goal of Allesandro Florenzi. I am not surprised that he is being linked to Liverpool since he does look like the kind of player that Rodgers would like. 

    Italians haven't really fared well at Liverpool in the past. I don't know if Florenzi will do any better. 

    Going back to 2007 we saw Rafa Benitez bring in Danielle Padeilla a keeper signed on loan from Sampdoria for the 2006/2007 season. Benitez wasn't impressed with him too much and especially after a howler he made in a game against Charlton. He was sent back not long after.

    A year later a man whom i watched a lot at Anfield was signed for 7million from Udinese. Andrea Dossena joined us as a replacement for the departed John Arne Riise. To call Dossena average is just being kind. His career never took off in England and he returned to Italy to join Napoli. He is always remembered for brief moments of inspired football when he found the back of the net in memorable Liverpool victory against Man united 4-1, and again in 2007/2008 season El Nino, Gerrard and Dossena embarrassed a star studded Madrid side as they put four in past Casillas in Madrid during a champions league fixture. Liverpool beat Real Madrid 4-0 in one of our last most memorable champions league fixtures to date. This upset had a hand in the sacking of Madrid coach at the time Jaunde Ramos not too long after.

    Alberto Aquilani became Liverpool's next Italian signing. Brought in by Benitez for about 18million. He was supposed to fill the gap left by the departing Xavi Alonzo in our midfield. Well we all know the story about Aquilani. Some have called him "the glass man" because it is said he is made of glass. The Italians stay at Liverpool saw him spending more time on the treatment table than on the pitch. He had a brief loan spell at AC Milan which saw Milan refuse to buy Aquilani outright at the end of his time there. He was later shipped off to by Brendon Rodgers and is currently wearing the number 10 shirt for Fiorentina. Good luck Alberto. I wish it had worked out for him. I really do. He is indeed talented just failed to adopt to the English game.

     Now we come to Fabio Borini, who has been in my opinion as far from "fab"-ilous as a player can get. Rodgers worked with him at Chelsea and again at Swansea and has expected to reproduce that same form at Liverpool. I would give him a failing grade based on his performance before his injury. He can always raise his game and silence his critics. So in his case we'll just have to wait and see.

    I would advise against our signing Florenzi just based on our previous signings from Italy. If we had to bring a player in from Roma I would prefere Micheal Bradley. I think he is a real talent regardless of the fact that he is American. He is top class and would be cheap.

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  31. for stating that we need older experienced players on the team. Everyone is hell bent on bringing younger players with who don't cost much and can be sold at a profit. What they call good sound investments just means longer time to become fully competitive. We need to pursue older players and do away with the silly policy of only bringing in youth. You openly commented on the problem we have at the club which is basically the fact that we do not have a lot of experienced players who have played at the highest levels

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  32. yes no experienced players right now as we are deep in a recovery period. With the club being on the verge of bankruptcy when acquired by FSG they are cautious of wild spending sprees. Especially after the Kenny Daglish experiment went south. Yes i am well aware of what life in this new era will mean for the club. It is just a little sad because even though i believe it is good to reset the clock at the club it will just take us too long to get to a position of being fully competitive as we were when we last finished in top four. By the time that happens again i feel we would have lost Steven Gerrard and Jaime Carragher to retirement. These guys do not have too long left to play and based on whom Rodgers is bringing in the growth period for the new players will take a few seasons. So no new trophies for Gerrard and Carragher.

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  33. It's the right blend we need. Bringing in only youngsters definitely won't lead us anywhere, but bringing in only seasoned pros isn't the best way forward either (on the long run).

    Our squad isn't that inexperienced, but two of our senior players (Gerrard and Carragher) are not too far away from the end of their careers. Therefore I'd like to see us signing an experienced midfielder and maybe another older player.

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  34. Well, Gerrard and Carra probably won't ever win a League medal as players with us. Personally I wouldn't rule out a cup medal for one or even both of them.

    You mention getting back to being as competitive as we were when we last finished in the top four. Looks like we will be the fourth season outside, so the rot obviously started some time back. My question is, what do you think how long it will take us to be back in contention for Champions League qualification (I know, it's really difficult to say, but I simply would like to know your opinion/gut feeling).

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  35. Anteater It is tough to say when we can get back to "real competitiveness." By "real competitiveness" i mean when we have multiple players on the pitch who can be considered real threats other than Luis Suarez or sometimes Steven Gerrard by any of our opposition. At this time we should have a team which is comprised of players who can score at will. Right now scoring duties mostly coming from one man alone Suarez. For us to become "fully competitive" in the real sense of the word more youngsters should take responsibility at creating chances for others and them selves. All this will probably happen in two seasons from now. Would happen sooner if we simply do two things start signing more South Americans or simply sign more marquee names who have played for the biggest clubs , scored goals for the biggest teams and played against the biggest players. That kind of experience is priceless. One day we will be destination for marquee stars again. In about two seasons from this one.

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  36. Anteater I will start off by saying that i am glad i don't have Rodger's job. It is not easy to build up a team and get it back to the level it was once. Liverpool is a victim of it's own past success in that it will always be measured against it's past record back when it was wining everything.

    I love Brendan Rodgers for what he is doing for the youth. We certainly need to develop more youth players from our academy. We need to promote more Micheal Owen's, more Danny Murphy's, more Steven Gerrard's etc. I like the changes brought about so far by Brendan Rodgers. This season with the lack of finances playing a major role in all our business dealings developing the youth suddenly make a whole lot of sense. I would like at least one major star brought in who is already established in the world of football. Someone who can shoulder the playmaking responsibilities with Suarez , Gerrad and Sterling. These three are easily our most dangerous players. If we got in one more really experienced footballer we would be a well balanced side. The virtues of an experienced individual on the team is felt most when things are going to hell fast and you are down by a couple of goals. These experienced heads usually spear head the campaign that bring your team back level or puts you past the opposition. The contribution of older players is invaluable in any team. Hope BR finds a good balance of the old and the young.

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  37. I think you are giving a really fair assessment of the situation here. Two seasons from now is realistic and you also acknowledge that right now we are not a likely destination for "marquee" signings. It's been some time since we last had more than one or two players our opponents would worry about. I don't understand how some people expect to change that trend within half a season.

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  38. Again, I agree with much of what you say here. Your views are fair and ballanced. Some folks on here could do worse than taking a few pages out of your book.

    Danny Murphy, though, wasn't a Liverpool youth product. He had played over 100 matches for Crewe when we signed him.

    As for play-making responsibilities, well, for all his runs and dribbles, Sterling isn't shouldering much of that responsibility, is he.

    If we were to sign a player to really make a difference, someone who would instantly improve our first team and give us a better balance, I'd like a defensive midfielder to be brought in. 

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