3 Apr 2013

'They'll study offers' - LFC chase €18m goal-machine who broke Falcao's record

Porto goal-machine Jackson Martinez is in revelatory form for the Primeira League giants this season, and according to reports in Portugal this week, Liverpool, Manchester United and Borussia Dortmund are keen on signing the striker this summer.

Portuguese newspaper Jornal Record claims that the Reds are monitoring Martinez's situation.

Liverpool have been linked with Martinez many times last year, and prior to joining Porto in the summer, the Colombian striker Jackson Martinez confirmed the Reds' interest. He told Nuevo Estadio:

"I am not in any advanced negotiations with Liverpool but I know they are personally interested"

Since arriving at the Estádio do Dragão, Martinez - nicknamed 'Cha Cha Cha' - has scored goals for fun, and overall, his goal record for Porto is pretty formidable:

* 26 goals in 26 games.
* Recently scored in 10 successive games.
* 16 goals in the last 14 games.
* Recently broke a Falcao's record by scoring 11 goals in 12 matches for Porto.

A report earlier this year in Portuguese Sports newspaper A Bola claimed that the Reds are willing to pay up to €18m for Martinez, and given his superb form for Porto, that sounds like a fair valuation.

The Colombian recently responded to speculation about his future when he told Portuguese newspaper OJogo:

"Sincerely, I have not spoken with anybody but this is a good thing for my performances in the Portuguese Liga. Rumours are normal because I am working with success in Porto and scoring goals but I am calm, if there are offers, it does not worry me"

In mid-March, Martinez's Agent, Giovanni Fiore, confirmed that Porto would consider offers for the striker, and claimed that top la Liga clubs are in the hunt. He told reporters:

"There's a strong interest from Barcelona [and] an important team from Madrid. A few other clubs have inquired about his availability, too. Porto will study offers, but we're talking about big bids here given the player's importance to the club."

If Barcelona want him, that pretty much rules out a move to LFC (!)





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29 comments:

  1. Barcelona along with every other well known club will be linked with any player of note around the world. This is the nature of the beast that is the UK media and some European ones, I would also include Jaimie in this list as he often comes up with some strange suggestions.

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  2. On a positive note, Really liked this player for a while and secretly have him in my wishlist. Never thought it possible, but if we do get him; Great!

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  3. 18 euros??? I wouldn't call that a bargain, a steal more like........

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  4. The business model of Porto as a soccer club is definitely one that I admire most. They can always get good and cheap players from South America and after a season or two, sell them off at 10-20 times or even higher the amount they paid for. Not forgetting that they are no whipping boys in the champions league.

    It is worth noting for LFC how not to buy high sell low in the future. When you spend 1-3 mil pounds on players, you can afford to cast them aside when they are not good enough or not to the manager's liking. It is not so in the case when you spend 10 mil pounds upwards on one player. The manager should be sure that he wants to play that particular player in a specific manner or position. Buy high and rot on the bench, after a season or two, sell the guy off at multiple times lower than the amount paid. Isn't that what LFC has been doing all these years, all the way from the reign of GH till present days under BR? We are no Mansour City or Chelski, so no such luxury can be afforded. After these many years, we have fallen behind the leading pack of teams chasing the league championship, with no new stadium and now, not even playing in the Europa competition. That's something really sad to mention.

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  5. Fernando Torres?

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  6. 18 million that will be the starting price hes out of our range unless fsg are going to sanction big bids again

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  7. The way they, Portuguese clubs, act as a vehicle for third party owners/companies, I'm glad we don't have such a business model, even if it makes financial sense or not, as I heavily dislike the involvement of such 3rd party owners in football. It is wrong, imo. If British clubs didn't have strict work permit and 3rd party ownership rules (probably the reason why Chelsea/Spurs didn't get Moutinho/Hulk as having a 3rd party owner puts a even bigger premium on the fee and the Eastern Europeans can afford it now, hence Alves, Hulk, Witsel, etc), they'd be doing the same and I'm glad they aren't allowed to do so. Buying a truck load of South Americans and hoping one or two per season make it big in terms of selling fee is a way of doing things but I don't admire that, especially now with how they are at the beck and call of 3rd party owners. But I do like the way they pick up cast-offs on the cheap from European clubs and try to turn them into good players in the long run such as Salvio, Rodrigo, Witsel (stock went down after that ridiculous tackle in Belgium), etc.

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  8. Why do we need more strikers when we have the likes of Borini and Samed Yesil and assadi? . I dont know if BR is looking for gems out of nothing or cant seem to spend well but here is my view of his current signings:

    Borini - Gamble - Brouhgt in due to BR working with him before, In my view Not good enough, absolutely shocking!

    Allen - BR told the papers ' I would pay millions more for this Kid' - seriously, this kid needs to step up his game!

    assadi -done well in Holland, can he bring it, do not know as he has gone missing!

    Yesil - Gamble - next big thing - still time for this one but where has he been?

    Coutinho - Gamble - Looking to be the salvation of BR signings and stops us being too critical

    Sturridge - Gamble - Started well and again gives BR more credibility

    Total Approximate Spend: 49m

    In conclusion, BR first 4 signings and loan signing (Sahin) where pretty shocking but in his defence he had 6 months in post and signed the latter 2 of Sturridge and Coutinho so you never know he may be good in the transfer market in the future. The big thing for me is the type of players he is signing they are below the age of 25 and the average age across them all is 20-21 and for most they had potential but either where not playing first team football for top sides or where star players from mid table sides. I think this will be a trend that continues so i would not expect the likes of Falco or Martinez which is a little disappointing but if he keeps finding the likes of Coutinho type players we will be better off all round. On the other hand i could be totally wrong and he signs Martinez and Xabi Alonso, debunking my theory but making me more than happy at the same time!!

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  9. Bad bit of business considering he was available for less than half that a year ago when LFC were tracking him along with Porto - instead we opted for the might Borini at the same price!

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  10. maybe they would consider a swap for borini lol

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  11. I'm with you 100% on your analysis. Only DS and PC have show signs of promise and PC needs to work on the defensive side of his game or else the better teams will tear us apart on that left side. A lot of gambles, and a lot of money spent, can only hope they start justifying their price tags. Still not convinced by his transfer policy tho. He hired our two top scouts from City. Their experience is limited and they both bring the same idiology to the table (I've always believed in scouts having different backgrounds in order to be more critical of players). And I'm also convinced Assaidi has fallen out with the boss over something. He's been frozen out of the team for so long and you could see his confidence was not the same in the last game he played in (cant even remember when that was). I think he can be an great impact player like yossi was, but if this trend continues, he'll be out of confidence and another wasted transfer at LFC.

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  12. or else we will be bored.

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  13. Yes I do understand a little of the nature of soccer game in Portugal. But whether it's business model is to one's preference, what we should not deny is that leading Portuguese clubs like Porto will be hardly in any financial trouble despite the way their players are being owned/managed or not being owned/managed. Their league status in Europe is not high so tv and sponsorship deals may not be enough to see their clubs through financially. So having this 'mode' for survival sounds perfectly legitimate to me, though. Imo, producing positive results year after year, be it on or off the pitch is what matter most.

    My point here is rather simple. I'm equally not impressed the way English clubs are being managed. Rich owners are allowed to bankrolled their toy club all the way to success. Clubs with less-than well-off owners, like FSG, are slated off by many for being money sucking, stingy to invest or anything fans can think of. What about the responsibility of a business owner to ensure his/her business is being self-sufficient? I really hope FFP can come into play asap. When this happens, LFC is not a club that is able to get away from it given the way it has been managed all these years. LFC is just a wannabe 'rich' club where the managers for the last 10 years is being as wasteful as any other top clubs in EPL, if not more than so. Being a failure in the transfer market all these years has cost the club dearly. We are closer to the bottom of the league table than top for the past few seasons. So are you impressed with this?

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  14. I was expecting to be able to refute your claims by saying that LFC have lost a lot more money on other players than the 23.5mil net they made off Torres. But then there was Xabi who was a 20mil net profit for us and most of the big name players we bought we were able to sell at the same price or make a little profit. We lose 14mil net on Aqua and 8mil on Diouf (the most I could make out brousing quickly) but for the most part the loses we did make were relitively small; between 2-4mil per player. Having said that there is still Downing, Hendo, Allen, Carrol, etc on our books who (currently) would be valued staggeringly less than they were. We might do well with allen ,hendo, and even carrol as they are still young but Downing, although playing well, will definately be sold for less unless he continues to shock us and becomes the deadly winger we all hoped he would be way back when
    http://www.transferleague.co.uk/premiership-transfers/liverpool-transfers.html

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  15. For every Torres, there is a distant El Hadji Diouf, Ryan Babel, Robbie Keane, Alberto Aquilani, AC, Stewart Downing, Jordan Henderson and Borini. Sorry I can only list players that cost 10 mil pounds and upwards. For those under 10 mil pounds, the list is just slightly too long for me to type out their names.

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  16. For every Torres, there's a distant El Hadji Diouf, Ryan Babel, Robbie Keane, Alberto Aquilani, AC, Stewart Downing, Jordan Henderson, Borini. I'm not going to list players that cost less than 10 mil pounds, the list will be too long for me. :)

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  17. Is this based on the idea that Suarez is going ?
    So let me get this straight what would our front 3 be with Suarez Sturridge Martinez?

    Where does that leave Coutinhio?
    Jaimie do you think Martinez will come to warm the benc of replace Suarez ?
    I'm much more interested in the defense we need at least two QUALITY centre backs and a QUALITY replacement keeper.

    Borini has done nothing and I can see Jordan Ibe being promoted to the 1st team as will Suso.
    Downing SHOULD be moved on or be a starter, he's a journey man nothing more.
    I'm really not worried about scoring goals given the amount we have this season.

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  18. jase the only reason big bids where sanctioned is because we got 56m off torees and babell and they underpaid for the club

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  19. yesil is injured...but shows real promise

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  20. i know that you know that but i think iam becoming brainwashed next thing i will be calling for rodgers to have another 3 seasons at least;-)

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  21. At last year in Feb, Porto recorded a loss of 6m Euros. In a filing to the Stock Exchange in last October, they announced a 35.8m Euros loss for last season. So considering such figures and your weak attempts at why you admire their business model, I'm sure you'll understand that I disagree with your admiration, as well as your claim as to what we should not deny.



    Sporting Lisbon is another club that deal in third party ownership and they are doing really badly financially. Hence why they have already sold Ricky van Wolfswinkel (they only owned 35% of him) to Norwich as they needed the money immediately to help pay the clubs' wages, despite the transfer window being closed. Without CL money in the last few seasons, Sporting have suffered big time financially. Not a good business model. Porto's business model also relies on CL revenue too. Imagine how much bigger the losses of last season would have been if they weren't in CL.



    Call me traditional but I believe only clubs should own players, not companies, and deals should be done solely between buying club and selling club. Hence, my biggest gripe with third party ownership.

    I haven't said or implied heavily anywhere that systems elsewhere are just, flawless and wonderful but that doesn't make it right or just for the Portuguese clubs to exploit the system as well as the other clubs in other leagues. So no, I'm not impressed with other systems (after all, I did bring up Gazprom, TV money distribution, the dodgy use of sponsorship to evade FFP punishment, etc. If I was impressed with them, I wouldn't have brought them up in the first place in the manner I did, so need to ask that question at the end, if you had read well between the lines) but one wrong system doesn't make it right for another to have a wrong system too, as that is just childish logic. No system is perfect and there are many things wrong with the British, Italian, French, Spanish systems but that doesn't mean the Portuguese system is immune from criticism. So no need to go on about other systems, as I haven't denied they are heavily flawed too. I am simply disagreeing with your admiration for such a system like Porto's.


    It may be a legitimate (it is at this moment in time) but doesn't mean I have to like it. I find it immoral and unethical (just like I do the Gazprom situation, FFP loopholes, distribution of TV money, manipulation of sponsorships, etc).

    My point is 'rather simple too' and has been from my initial post: I disagree with your admiration of the Portuguese model. Nowhere in my posts do I approve heavily of the other systems and nowhere in my posts do I pretend other systems are flawless. To explicitly answer your question, no, I'm not impressed but 1) I never said anything to the contrary 2) I don't know how you can admire Porto's business model, considering they recorded over 35m Euro loss last season but like you say, its one's preference and so each to their own.

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  22. JK, where did my reply to this post, go???

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  23. Good back-up for Suarez in case he gets distracted next January and hands in his request in a manner not too different from Torres...

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  24. Gonzalo Higuin and Edison Cavani is the real name all fans want to hear joined LFC.Jackson Martinez also good option,why not bring him to Anfield? Maybe he can help to reduce burden goal scoring for suarez,coutinho and sturridge.Carroll and Borini only just come to honeymoon.

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  25. 1.they wont sell him
    2.he wont come no cl
    3.fsg cant offer the money.
    4.suarez will go to munich wheather you like or not and gamerio will came if you heard that ibrahimobich just give messeage to wayne facking rooney to play along his side so no room for gamerio and will leave for just 10 million

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  26. If that ever happens jase I'll skip 'gangnam style' down to lakeview retirement home in a cowboy hat and mankini and proceed to slap my girlfriends nan across the face with my bell end in time to the beat of prodigys fire starter

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