In December, Hamburg sporting director Oliver Kreuzer confirmed Liverpool and Arsenal's interest in exciting attacking midfielder Hakan Calhanoglu, one of Turkey's rising stars. The Reds are reportedly still monitoring Calhanoglu, but is there any chance of a summer move?
Prior to the recent January transfer window, Kreuzer told German newspaper BILD:
"Liverpool and Arsenal are interested. We do not want to sell him, but every player has a price. "
When asked this week about ongoing interest from Liverpool, Chelsea, and Juventus, Calhanoglu's agent, Bektas Demirtas, told Hamburger Morgenpost:
"He [Calhanoglu] only signed a new contract in the winter until June 2018. He has a future plan, and that is to be a success at Hamburg in the next few years. There are rumours, but they will have no impact on Hakan"
Signing a new deal doesn't mean much these days, and oftentimes, it's a strategy to ensure the club gets a decent transfer fee. In any event, Calhanoglu - ludicrously dubbed the 'new Mesut Ozil' - is definitely amenable to a move, and confirmed this recently when he told Turkish media outlet DHA:
"My goal is to play at Hamburg and eventually join a club in England or Spain in the future."
Calhanoglu is inexperienced and untested outside Germany, but his creative output is very good for a 20-year old:
* 2012-13: 14 goals in 31 apps for Karlsruhe
* 2013-14: 9 goals/3 assists in 32 apps (so far)
Hamburg have allegedly slapped a £15m price tag on Calhanoglu's head, which is clearly ridiculous, and it's highly unlikely Liverpool would pay even a third of that price for an untested teenager.
For a fair price, though, would Calhanoglou be worth a punt? He's 20 in February, and Reds boss Brendan Rodgers has proven in the past that he'll spend money on similarly-aged attacking players (Alberto, Coutinho etc)
Author: Jaimie K
Prior to the recent January transfer window, Kreuzer told German newspaper BILD:
"Liverpool and Arsenal are interested. We do not want to sell him, but every player has a price. "
When asked this week about ongoing interest from Liverpool, Chelsea, and Juventus, Calhanoglu's agent, Bektas Demirtas, told Hamburger Morgenpost:
"He [Calhanoglu] only signed a new contract in the winter until June 2018. He has a future plan, and that is to be a success at Hamburg in the next few years. There are rumours, but they will have no impact on Hakan"
Signing a new deal doesn't mean much these days, and oftentimes, it's a strategy to ensure the club gets a decent transfer fee. In any event, Calhanoglu - ludicrously dubbed the 'new Mesut Ozil' - is definitely amenable to a move, and confirmed this recently when he told Turkish media outlet DHA:
"My goal is to play at Hamburg and eventually join a club in England or Spain in the future."
Calhanoglu is inexperienced and untested outside Germany, but his creative output is very good for a 20-year old:
* 2012-13: 14 goals in 31 apps for Karlsruhe
* 2013-14: 9 goals/3 assists in 32 apps (so far)
Hamburg have allegedly slapped a £15m price tag on Calhanoglu's head, which is clearly ridiculous, and it's highly unlikely Liverpool would pay even a third of that price for an untested teenager.
For a fair price, though, would Calhanoglou be worth a punt? He's 20 in February, and Reds boss Brendan Rodgers has proven in the past that he'll spend money on similarly-aged attacking players (Alberto, Coutinho etc)
Author: Jaimie K
Nah. Nonsense this!
ReplyDeleteCheck out the goal he scored against Dortmund recently: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q4q6kqRYQyM
ReplyDeleteHe is the only stand out performer in a piss poor hamburg side this season. Definitely a huge talent.
I remember being soooooooo excited when we signed Jari.
ReplyDeleteDidn't he score a class long ranger v Van der Saar at Fulham
Houllier made some shocking decisions, not playing Jari enough, choosing Diouf over Anelka..... Because he was too proud to take his close friend Wenger's prodigy to Anfield. What a shame
Soooo apparently he is good at free kicks...didn't see much else to excite me and we already have a couple of guys who can score off free kicks.
ReplyDeleteTo say Liverpool wouldn't pay a third of that is silly. Remind me how much we paid for Alberto who was playing for barca B? This kid has got real potential and is delivering for hamburg's first team in a top quality league. 5 mil would be a steal. If we can get this guy for 7-9 mil I think he'd be a good buy
ReplyDeleteLitmanen was a top class player for who ever he wore a shirt for Liverpool Barca Ajax but when at Liverpool he suffered with injurys for the time he was with us he never once played bad wish is stay was longer
ReplyDeleteIDIOT.......... Sponsors pay money to LFC for the name to be on the shirt, Therefore they need to sell shirts to make money back dont they..... MAN!
ReplyDeleteThe kid would be wise to stay where he is right now. Maybe not Hamburg since they could be on their way down but in the Bundesliga at least.
ReplyDeleteRemember how well Alberto turned out for us?
ReplyDeleteIt's beautiful. A shirt worthy of champions. The yellow away strip is great too and what's better, since we will be champions, we can call it GOLD rather than yellow :-)
ReplyDeleteSaw last night that Sevilla's warmup shirts are our tattoo shirts from the first batch of Warrior stuff. I still regret not getting one of those. They looked great.
By that logic, the sales and marketing of any product is a rip-off. No one forces anyone to buy these kits do they? And don't give me kids are forcing their parents because I have three kids and they still run around in Adidas kits.
ReplyDeleteThere you go..
ReplyDeleteThe ripoff is that the current jersey is now back on 45 quid whereas it cost 30 quid last week
ReplyDeleteSpot on, Jaimie. Tragic misuse of a master.
ReplyDeleteInteresting facts, Jamie.
ReplyDeleteThe mass goals/assist in 45 games is totally incredible.
I love reading your articles and am a regular visitor.
Can you can speak about our fixture with Chelsea that will be played at Anfield as they'll be playing us in between the Champions League with Atletico Madrid.
- Can you explain how they'll able to cope since the first leg is in Spain and they'll be quite tired once they travel back to England?
- Do they have enough quality players at their disposal to cause an upset to Liverpool?
- What are your thoughts about that game? Title decider? How will it go down the wire?
It'll be such a pleasure if you respond :)
The jury's still out on Alberto. The difference between them is that Alberto looked good in the reserves whereas this guy is performing week in week out in hamburg's first team
ReplyDeleteIf I'm not mistaken he scored a worldie the other day.. he looks like a real talent, sprt of person you'd probably want to get in quick before his value completely inflates and we're out of the running.
ReplyDeleteWouldn't be surprised if BVB has an eye on him, looks like he'd be a great fit there if Gundogan were to leave..
yeah we want that artcle also but before that we'll like preview vs city
ReplyDeleteThe first legs at chelsea isn't it?
ReplyDeleteVideo clip not impressing enough. This guy seems to specialise in penalties and dead ball situations. We got those. What's he like in open play???
ReplyDeleteWhat happens at Chelsea is what happens at every club that has too much money. A lot of money is wasted on the flavour of the week. But how much success does that get you really? Sure you need money to some extent but looking at the league champions in the bigger leagues and CL winners over the past decade, the financially sound clubs who combine development with smart buying definitely have the edge over the moneypits of this world. For all their money spent since 2014, Chelsea still have as many CL titles to show for it as we do.
ReplyDeleteThe first leg is at the Vicente Calderón. The guy who made the draw said something along the lines of the fixture being reversed as two teams can't play within 24 hours of each other in the same city or on the same pitch? I think he was under the impression that atletico and real shared a stadium. But he did say after that he misinformed and that Los Colchoneros will play the first leg of the tie at home.
ReplyDeleteSturridge isn't a Londoner, he's a brummie.
ReplyDeleteThose clips were from two years ago when he was playing in germanys 3rd division (limited tv coverage--> less highlights for usto see). He carried that team to promotion and has since been a revelation for HSV in his first top-flight season. Who knows how much better he can get? All I can say for sure is he's a threat anywhere within 30 yards of the goal if he's given space, his longs shots and set pieces are no joke.
ReplyDeleteBundesliga and BPL are obviously two different stories, but he has displayed good creativity for a relegation battling side that is almost always dominated on possession stats. I'd imagine he'd have a lot more to display on a stronger side. He also has shown good defensive discipline.
http://m.youtube.com/results?q=hakan%20calhanoglu&sm=1
ReplyDeleteThis video is more recent but hes scored some beauties since that one as well.
Nothing surprises me about Chelsea. They were too busy pandering to Torres, desperate not to have spent 50 mil for nothing, that they ignored the excellent young striker they already had at their disposal and allowed him to stagnate and become totally demoralised. Their decision to loan lukaku was baffling at the time and it's still baffling. Long may their mistakes come back to haunt them
ReplyDeleteThank you to mister Abramovich for his generosity over the years u can add Mereiles and Benayoun who he got nothing from either and cost him a bit.
ReplyDeleteSturridge tho was a great get and i am pretty sure Liverpool would not have been the only club chasing him.
He has good free kick skill but how about passing and dribble ball?LFC must get sign the talent who iscmuch better than Phillipe Coutinho.Not only an attacker player but creative,power,faster and genius player like Luis Suarez.I think only Koke,Isco and Leandro Damiao is very2 best answer for foward issue.I don't think he can able operate as a winger player.Just good to replace PC10 only.PC10 good signing but need time adapt with LFC.
ReplyDeleteI think you'd be hard-pressed to find convincing evidence showing that Sturridge plays any more centrally than Suarez. Maybe because Suarez gets more touches it seems like he plays more of a roving role while Sturridge is more of a finisher. That's probably a more accurate description than saying Sturridge doesn't play out wide. Both players go left and right as part of build up play with Sturridge mostly working on the right. The real contrast would be if you compare to Sterling who is a consistent touch-line player when given that kind of role. It's quite obvious the difference and I'd agree that if Sturridge was expected to play that kind of football it would be a waste of his talents.
ReplyDeleteI'd be interested to know what games you're referring to when you say Sturridge was used as a winger for Liverpool. I can't recall them and a quick browse of most of those games in early 2013 shows nothing significant. Worst case scenario is when he gets asked to stay "a bit wider" as a tactical adjustment. It means maybe being wider about 10% more of the time. It's nothing compared to a true wide role and I doubt you can provide any actual example of Sturridge being asked to do that for his current club. Minor adjustments are for the benefit of the team and I don't agree at all that they are a "mistake" by the manager. If the team got a result from the game then it was the right decision.