Liverpool's 3-1 home defeat to Aston Villa in December is one of the major low points of the season so far, but the game was notable for an impressive attacking performance from Christian Benteke, who destroyed Liverpool's defence with pace, power and clinical finishing. Since that game, Benteke has (inevitably) been linked with a move to Anfield, and according to his Agent, the 22-year old will definitely consider leaving the Midlands this summer.
A couple of weeks ago, the Daily Mail claimed that Liverpool are 'weighing up a move' for Benteke:
"Manchester City, Tottenham, Liverpool and Arsenal have all had their interests piqued by the Belgian’s impressive start to his Premier League career"
In an interview with The Telegraph last night, Benteke's Agent, Eris Kismet, hinted that the Belgian would be more than happy to consider a move at the end of the season. He said:
"If players do well, other clubs will show an interest...so why not take the step up to the next level? At the end of the season, interested clubs will talk to Villa, but it has to be right for Villa, the buying club and Christian. If all three parties are agreeable, something could happen"
Paul Lambert - who signed Benteke for £7.5m - will not want to lose the striker, but he may have no choice, especially if Villa get relegated. In an interview with ESPN a couple of weeks ago, Lambert made it clear how much he rates Benteke. He enthused:
"He [Benteke] has been absolutely terrific. He has just turned 22 and gone into a new league and adapted. He does not seem to have had a dip. His performances have been at a really high standard. He has been top-class for us."
With 15 goals and 8 assists in 32 starts for Villa, Benteke's creative return for the club is superb, but is he worth £15m? I sincerely doubt any club will pay that much for someone with only one year's experience in the Premier League. Additionally, if Villa get relegated, they won't be any position to demand £15m for a player who will probably want to leave anyway.
Liverpool definitely need another striker at the club. Fabio Borini is out for the season now, and I suspect he's probably played his last game for LFC. Fiorentina have been heavily linked with a summer move for the Italian, and I have a feeling a return to Serie A is on the cards. Sturridge and Suarez will score plenty of goals between them, but (IMO), they need extra competition to keep them sharp.
Worth a bid?
Jaimie Kanwar
NOTE: Please stick to the Comment Policy (Click to read)
A couple of weeks ago, the Daily Mail claimed that Liverpool are 'weighing up a move' for Benteke:
"Manchester City, Tottenham, Liverpool and Arsenal have all had their interests piqued by the Belgian’s impressive start to his Premier League career"
In an interview with The Telegraph last night, Benteke's Agent, Eris Kismet, hinted that the Belgian would be more than happy to consider a move at the end of the season. He said:
"If players do well, other clubs will show an interest...so why not take the step up to the next level? At the end of the season, interested clubs will talk to Villa, but it has to be right for Villa, the buying club and Christian. If all three parties are agreeable, something could happen"
Paul Lambert - who signed Benteke for £7.5m - will not want to lose the striker, but he may have no choice, especially if Villa get relegated. In an interview with ESPN a couple of weeks ago, Lambert made it clear how much he rates Benteke. He enthused:
"He [Benteke] has been absolutely terrific. He has just turned 22 and gone into a new league and adapted. He does not seem to have had a dip. His performances have been at a really high standard. He has been top-class for us."
With 15 goals and 8 assists in 32 starts for Villa, Benteke's creative return for the club is superb, but is he worth £15m? I sincerely doubt any club will pay that much for someone with only one year's experience in the Premier League. Additionally, if Villa get relegated, they won't be any position to demand £15m for a player who will probably want to leave anyway.
Liverpool definitely need another striker at the club. Fabio Borini is out for the season now, and I suspect he's probably played his last game for LFC. Fiorentina have been heavily linked with a summer move for the Italian, and I have a feeling a return to Serie A is on the cards. Sturridge and Suarez will score plenty of goals between them, but (IMO), they need extra competition to keep them sharp.
Worth a bid?
Jaimie Kanwar
NOTE: Please stick to the Comment Policy (Click to read)
definatley worth a bid but with all the competition that we will get for his signature doubt he will choose us if thats the case i really hope we go for darren bent who i think is just as good as beneteke and has been severly under used he just needs a run of games and some confidence and he is more than capable of getting 20-25 goals a season add sturridge and suarez to the mix and thats 50-60 goals a season
ReplyDeleteI'd prefer lukaku
ReplyDeleteHe be worth the bid, we need to add to our front line, we only have two good strikers Suarez,strruidge, borini needs time but will come good, benteke looks a beast would be a good signing.
ReplyDeleteNot worth £15m after 1 season in the premier league? One name. Andy Carroll. 6 months. £35 million.
ReplyDeleteIf Carroll was worth 35 million and Torres 50 million - you can at least double that predicted price tag and then we might see Villa consider an offer. Its hilarious that people think this lad will go for 15 million. 22, not near his prime, barely a year into his current contract, already one of the hottest strikers in Europe. Dream on chaps!
ReplyDeleteBenteke will be leaving for £20m +,and he'll be going to London or man city,this kid is the new Drogba !
ReplyDeleteFSG will want a fire sale before they buy any more strikers. And as far as I'm concerned defenders are a priority before any more forwards. Coutinho looks capable of filling that role.
ReplyDeleteNo way is he going to yesterday's team. You can't even finish top 4 anymore. Benteke wants to join a CL team preferably in London if not then he's of to man city. Liverpool arn't good enough to attract Benteke. 30 years ago yes but not now.
ReplyDeleteWe should go for as many strikers as possible so we can at least land one or two good players like Benteke and Lukaku. If we focus on just one or two players, and then miss out, we're f**cked aren't we? Then we have to panic buy someone for 35 million pounds.
ReplyDeleteKD's worst mistake was the panic buy of Carroll. Liverpool just needs the kind of beast with pace, power and bit of skill in front of goal. BR should go for either Benteke or Lukaku to rotate with Sturridge. These players just suit the 433 or 4321 formation of BR with Suarez and Coutinho at both flanks. Carroll and Downing should be sold to fund the purchase of one of them.
ReplyDeleteC.Benteke is good player but i think he cannot fitt into LFC team.The owner of LFC too stingy and they will cannot fullfill high demand fee over than 15 milion.Stingy and too stingy....what a shame.
ReplyDeleteJaimie, we did pay someone else much more for another play with around the same amount of premier league experience! If BR still have got some brain cells left, he will go for a big name player but on hindsight, who in the right mind will still come (even though Ian still insist we are top draw)? I hope the picture at the end of the season will look better but it is bleak...as it stands we may lose our best striker and our leader supreme is planning a clear out. I just hope we are not only buying players from his limited list of players he worked with.
ReplyDeleteAbsolute crack of a player, but then there the problem starts - even in Championship, there are better scouting team than LFC & most importantly there is no Ian Ayre. Benteke 'll cost much more than 15mn & our soccer ignorant owners have burnt hands once on 1 season wonders (No way I am comparing Stallion with Donkey). CL is not a problem, because Benteke isn't playing in CL now either & can wait 1 more year if the prospect is good. 20mn+ & 75-80K/week, he 'll be a Red; however, my biggest fear is, if Villa is relegated, we might go for Bent & be successful.
ReplyDeleteAside from maybe the likes of RvP, Ba, David Villa or Drogba, most strikers are who they are because they play in their teams or with particular strike partners. Torres is nothing without Gerrard; Berbatov isn't the same player without Keane or Voronin who were ironically both with us at the same time; Suarez needed a Cavani or Huntelaar type player to be trully effective and we've got that in Sturridge, who wasn't quite the threat he is with us at Chelsea.
ReplyDeleteKevin Nolan made Carroll look very good for Newcastle and Weimann and Benteke combine brilliantly. I'm really not sure about Benteke for 15m. Bent for less than 8 however would be a very different proposition because despite his age, he can come on off the bench to be a game changer. Bent has been proven over many seasons at a few different clubs, so that is a no brainer. He also excels in the lobe striker role which gives us other tactical options.
What Benteke can do and does is something everyone in Belgium knew for a couple of years already. What shocks me is that no one at Liverpool seemed to know seeing as our interest started only this year. We have a partnership with Genk for crying out loud and we weren't aware of their best players? That may explain how Courtois, De Bruyne and Benteke were signed by rival Premiership clubs without us even putting in a bid. One thing that worries me about Benteke is that he seems to have journeyman written all over him. Spent his youth at Genk, then went to Standard for two years because he thought he'd a better chance of getting into the first team, then went back to Genk crying he was happy to be home only to leave after one single season. On top of that I can't really say what he adds to our game. You have to pick a strategy and stick to it. You don't see Barca or the Ajax of old changing their system to lumping it up to the big guy if it's the 80th minute and they haven't scored yet.
ReplyDeleteno way so what if he destroyed us lets bid for the oldham striker he destroyed s as well;-)
ReplyDeleteI think you're dreaming if you don't think he will be jumping ship at the end of the season!
ReplyDeleteOne season and they are going to ask 15 mill plus there is better young players out there Benteke is over rated.
ReplyDeleteThe new Drogba, really? Didn't notice Benteke fell over acting as if he'd been shot every time an opponent gets near him.
ReplyDeleteWell, in that case we'd have to wait another year to sign him. Benteke probably would be disillusioned after not getting much playing time at Chelsea/Man City and try to jump ship again.
ReplyDeleteFSG can't "fullfil high demand fee over ... 15m"? Like 35m Carroll or 20m Downing, or 16m Henderson?
ReplyDeleteRodgers didn't sign that many players he had worked with. Only two to be precise.
ReplyDeletehahahahahahahahahha no chance even for a journeyman you say he is would ever go to Lfc, he wants to play football, not hoof it up the pitch, definetly wouldnt want to play alongside im not passing saurez, you are all in dreamland take away gerrard and your just an average middle of the table team
ReplyDeleteSo that's Chelski's strategy! They replace Drogba with the new Drogba Lukaku and the new Drogba Benteke! If they do that with every player they will end up fielding 22! Not sure that's allowed though...
ReplyDeleteHoof it up the pitch? Time for your tablet, lol
ReplyDeleteNope, its 3. Fabio, Daniel and Joe. Not including Gylfi, Vorm and Williams who were linked to us in his time, thats quite alot. I'm not saying its entirely bad since Daniel looks like a good signing and Joe will get better and its not necessary wrong to go for ppl he knew when he came in fresh with no scouting but it does not sit well with anyone to hear him over praise these players. Joe was supposed to be the Welsh Xavi, Williams supposed to be the best CB now in the league and Gylfi was supposed to be the best attacking midfielder we could lay our hands on.
ReplyDeleteI mean how long can he beautify everything he does? I think we are forgiving enough to understand we went for some of them becoz we do not have the funds to buy better ones and if thats the case, say so!
Love how you think we'll sell him on the cheap, it'll be closer to 20 than 15 and thats for sure. Remember Downing chaps? Also even if we go down, Fletcher was sold for 15million and Jarvis from Wolves, bog standard players.
ReplyDeleteHere's one for your next blog, Jaimie, for all the BR haters.
ReplyDeleteLiverpool are the first team in Europe's top 5 leagues to have 500 shots on goal.
Liverpool's 35 attempts yesterday were the highest that any team in the Prem have achieved this season.
Liverpool have scored more league goals in 2013 than any other team.
From MOTD2 last night.
We're getting there!
I stopped reading your comment after the first sentence. Please do some research concerning the careers of Rodgers and Sturridge before posting ill-informed stuff on the internet.
ReplyDeleteRogers had left before sturridge arrived
ReplyDelete*Hangs head in shame. I didn't know we had a partnership with Genk. Those 3 played for Genk. Why am I not surprised not one of them is here. Pfft :( . Courtois looks good from what I've seen but to be honest, I'm useless at judging young keepers.
ReplyDeleteWhen did i say i dont think he'll be jumping ship? I think he more than likely will, whoever buys him however will be paying some seriously silly money. Dont be so eager and try to read before attempting a witty remark. It might save you from looking like an idiot again in the future.
ReplyDeleteYou've made some excellent points on a number of threads mark and I wondered if anyone would post these stats after I also heard them on motd2. It's been a poor season based on results but I'm sure the realistic fans amongst us were expecting a difficult season under the circumstances which are well documented. We now have the same amount of points as this stage last year but only took another 13 from here on last year so I'm confident we will better that. All this while removing high earning average players and replacing them with talented young players that can take us forward. We play some fantastic attacking football, backed up by those stats you reference and will have scored far more than last season come the end of this. Our defence has been poor but largely due to individual basic errors, which by no means excuses it, but does at least suggest these can be cut out which will have a huge affect on our points total and momentum. It's plain to see the type of game br is striving for which has not been the case since rafa left. While we must of course improve in all areas only those blinded by a dislike for br and his methods could fail to see any progress which should afford the manager more time
ReplyDeleteI wonder how last season's figures compare?
ReplyDeleteBid??? Really??? Why???
ReplyDeleteLukaku
ReplyDeleteGo get Big Bad Ben-he's everything Carroll will never be, real power, real pace, can work the flanks good control! Funny people say Carroll will be a great plan B, Benteke's is ABCD!
ReplyDeleteHe'll go to a Champions League club, that is not Liverpool, despite worldwide appeal, Liverpool are now just a mid table team nothing else would be a sideways step for him, no point in Christian going to you as you can no longer attract the players.
ReplyDeleteHaha if we are nothing but a standard mid table club as you say, why are you on one of our websites? The amount of trolls from opposing teams that spend all there time on LFC websites genuinely makes all LFC fans laugh. It is clearly a backhanded compliment! And we managed to attract Suarez without being in the champions league so I'm sure benteke wouldn't rule us out lol
ReplyDeleteBy the same token then we must also look at lukaku because he outmuscled our defence too! Nevertheless dont really see a role for them in our type of play. What we are missing is perhaps a mo diame type of player in midfield and probably one of stoke's wwf defenders!
ReplyDeleteNevertheless we're missing an athletic & physical presence. Wishi we had Momo Sissoko! Why don't we scout African players anymore?
ReplyDelete