16 May 2013

Joke Offer? - LFC bid €5m for coveted record-breaker with €30m buyout clause

New central defenders are a huge transfer priority for Liverpool this summer, and Reds boss Brendan Rodgers is not wasting any time in trying to bring in new players. With Jamie Carragher still one game away from retirement, Rodgers has reportedly made an offer for Sporting Lisbon centre-half Tiago Ilori.

According to a report in The Mirror today:

"Liverpool manager Brendan Rodgers is making a £4m [€5m] bid for Tiago Ilori.

"Rodgers tabled his offer on Wednesday, and he is desperate to have him in a major defensive revamp"


The 6'3 defender reportedly has a €30m buyout clause in his contract, and if that's true, LFC's derisory €5m offer will probably be laughed out of the Estádio José Alvalade.

Ilori is only two games into his senior Sporting career, but he has already tasted success at Sporting - he played in the Sporting B team that won the national title last year; the same team also competed in the NextGen tournament against Liverpool, and beat the Reds 3-0.

Despite his height, Ilori is one of the fasted players in the Portuguese League, and in tests conducted at the the club's Alcochete Academy, he recently broke the club's sprint records previously held Nani and ­Cristiano Ronaldo.

Liverpool have a good relationship with Sporting - The club already poached Joao Teixeira, and the scouting team is also tracking Ilori's team-mate, Bruma.

If Ilori signs, where does that leave Sebastian Coates, who has barely got a look in under Rodgers? Also, what about Martin Kelly and Andre Wisdom, two massively promising players who can play at centre-back? Surely, the signing of another young centre-back would be a strong indication that Rodgers doesn't see Kelly and Wisdom as future central defensive options?





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31 comments:

  1. I have a 20 million release clause on my contract! you have 20 million, its not monopoly idiots,4 million is enough for a no-name.

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  2. I wouldn't call it a joke. It's obviously a "feeler" offer.


    He's still young, relatively unproven on a senior level. There's nothing wrong with trying to negotiate and see how the market reveals itself.

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  3. liverpool4life5658:32 pm, May 16, 2013

    So if we bid low its a "joke" if we over pay we get slaughtered, lol. End of the day that club has financial problems if we make a lower bid they might accept can go either way

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  4. Headline's a bit silly. Joke offer? really? £5 million is more than enough for a relatively unproven player who has only broken through in the second half of this last season. The 30m EUR buyout clause is irrelevant in this case.


    Ilori would suit Rodger's ideal style of play more than those players mentioned. His pace, physique and education at the famous Sporting Lisbon academy lend himself favourably to a high defensive line - much more so than Coates, whom I have no doubt he would be seen as a replacement for.

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  5. good signings i think that we should stop looking in england , and go for fashionable players like the spanish , argentines and brazillian.
    They bring style,technicallity and an ego , and that is what we need more stylish players, if rodgers wnats tiki taka why not look at players that have been breeded with the way of tiki taka
    rather than the kick and rush english and the no hopers like scotland and wales (bar bale ).
    the equation is simple , go for style , flair and ego.
    that is what we need.
    no more players like allen,adam,ince,mccarthy and koncheskey.

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  6. and please it is a bit annoying looking at the release clause is ronaldo worth a billon players, release clauses will always be woth 4 times worth the player no one wats to lose their best player on the cheap.

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  7. Paul.Philosophy8:38 pm, May 16, 2013

    I don't believe signing this player would be a bad sign for Kelly or wisdom, both tend to be used as RB's ... and if that happens to be their better position, we are in need of a CB or two.

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  8. I don't think 4 mil is derisory for a largely unproven player. As we see all players in Spain and Portugal have buyout clauses because its a legal requirement over there. It doesn't necessarily means that the players are worth the value of there clause it's just that teams don't want potential stars to be bought out for peanuts so why not inflate the clause if it has to be put in there. For a club with financial difficulties 4 mil for a reserve team player is very good so you just never know.

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  9. You're over thinking it mate.

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  10. Didn't Wisdom and Kelly just sign long term contracts? As did young Lloyd Jones? Surely we are allowed competition or should we have sold Kelly as soon as we bought Coates? IMO we should be buying an experienced and accomplished winner with a strong organisational mentality but those kind of players are thin on the ground.

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  11. Not that bad an offer and Sporting aren't in a great financial state. One of the reasons why they got the Ricky Van Wolfswinkel deal done with Norwich well before the summer window opens is they needed to sort out financing the wage bill. They didn't even own 50% of him. According to an audit in February 2012, they had made losses in 12 out of 13 years and was in over 350m euro debt.

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  12. Yawn. slow day is it Jamie?

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  13. Don't know if it means anything but was just re watching the kit launch and seen Skrtel modelling the new kit, don't know why they would have him there if it was a dead cert that he was gone. My guess is he will still be about next season

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  14. liverpool4life56511:58 pm, May 16, 2013

    Yeah but Carroll done that last season and he got flogged to west ham on loan lol

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  15. Guess they have to cover their back with the kit launch. Just think and hope he can turn it around. I always liked him, feel BR just wanted to give carra a good send off.

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  16. I think anyone who knows anything about football understands that clubs are required to have a buy out clause in Europe and therefore they don't have to be and are often not very realistic.Sloppy and poorly thought out article. Apparently he enjoys "fasting" too. Maybe give it a quick proof read in future too:)

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  17. With Kelly and Wisdom ready to step up, Skrtel apparently still in favour, do we really need to bring in more central defenders? Carragher has retired but at the beginning of the season we never expected him to play many games anyway. I think a LB to put Enrique under pressure is more pressing than a CB.

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  18. If coates and skrtel leave as most expect then why does it mean that rogers doesn't see Kelly and wisdom as cd options? Given the fact Kelly is injury prone and wisdom is being used as cover at rb home. It make sense with Carr retiring to have 3 cbs using either wisdom or Kelly as alternatives for rb a

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  19. I think you suggested even lesser amount last time you wrote an article on him.

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  20. Watch him ....... he's not very good. He may well improve but I think even £4m is over the top. Papadopolous ( might have spelling wrong ) is a different proposition ..... superb young defender. The only problem is his injury.

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  21. The only outstanding player in this clip is Jackson Martinez. I have to say I wasn't too impressed when we were linked to him last year because of his resume so far but it looks like Porto got themselves a player there. The kid in defence gets bailed out by his goalkeeper more often than not or makes half arsed clearances. From this clip I don't see much to get excited about.

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  22. From what I see in this clip, the real joke is the release clause. I wouldn't offer ten percent of his clause if he Always plays that way. AT first I though, skinny guy, maybe he'll be like Carvalho. You know, good vision, Always getting ahead of players staying on his feet etc. Not even close though...

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  23. Another problem with Papadopoulos might be his transfer fee. Guess he would cost in excess of 15m.

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  24. Yeah in a mad world he would or if Citeh or PSG buy him. To us he is an injured, unproven 21 year old that should not be worth more than the likes of Agger or Skrtel when we signed them.

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  25. Unproven? I beg to differ. Ok, he hasn't played a few hundred games so far, but he is a regular for his current club (when not injured), who have a big stadium and tend to qualify for the CL, where he's played, too. At the age of 21 he already has 16 caps to his name. No, he is not unproven and he plays in one of the strongest leagues on this planet, too, very much unlike Agger and Skrtel when we signed them.

    If we offer something around 5m for him, as you suggested, Schalke won't be able to laugh at us. Difficult to tell how precise they are, but the transfermarkt website value him at 18m Euros.



    I stand by what I've claimed. If he moves anywhere this summer, it will be for at least 15m.

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  26. It's a know fact that more or less buyout figures are usually ridiculous. Poor article JK

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  27. I remember one article on him in the mirror a few days back, which sai he is worth one or two million. I think 30 million is a joke!

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  28. Jimmy Squarefoot12:58 pm, May 17, 2013

    So you think a player who has only played 2 games for the first team is worth €30m?


    You contradict yourself in your own article.


    In addition, I bet you criticised the club for spending over the odds on other players. Hypocrite.

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  29. If he really that fast, chances he will be converted into midfielder or winger

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