Liverpool continue to be linked with a summer move for Porto attacker Juan Iturbe, who is currently on loan at Serie A side Hellas Verona.
According to Italian newspaper Corriere Di Verona this week:
* Liverpool, Real Madrid, PSG, Chelsea, Sevilla, and Roma all want the coveted Argentinian forward.
* Porto value Iturbe in the €30m range.
In March, Sky Sports Italy journalist Gianluca Dimarzio claimed that lots of 'big European clubs' are watching Iturbe, but insisted that Liverpool want him the most. He observed:
"Juventus are watching him, as are Inter Milan and Roma, but Liverpool is the most interested team."
When asked soon after about Liverpool's interest, Iturbe - nickname 'El Messi Paraguayo' as a result of his dual Paraguayan/Argentinian citizenship - told another of Sky Sports Italia's Journalists:
Iturbe is obviously playing the game here. He's not going to admit in public that he wants to leave, so he pledges lifetime allegiance to 'Italy', but also opens up the possibility of leaving.
Hellas Verona President Maurizio Setti is a huge fan of Iturbe, and wants to keep him next season, but concedes that his club has little chance of being able to afford the 20-year old. Earlier this week, Setti told Tuttosport:
“He [Iturbe] will certainly end up at a top club. We want to keep him, but no Italian club has the economic capacity to buy him. If a set of circumstances allowed for him to stay in Verona then it would be another dream come true"
Info about 20-year old Iturbe:
* Rejected a move to Barcelona in 2010, opting to join Portuguese giants Porto instead.
* Part of the Argentina "sparring" squad, formed by the most promising youth players in Argentina, taken to the 2010 FIFA World Cup to train with the senior squad.
* Chose to play for Argentina at the U-20 level.
* Part of the 20-player squad for the 2011 South American U-20 South American championship, during which he scored the winning goal against Brazil.
Stats for the last three years:
2013-14: 6 goals/4 assist in 31 apps (so far)
2012-13: 3 goals/2 assists in 18 apps.
2011-12: 6 goals/2 assists in 32 apps.
In December, Verona boss Andrea Mandorlini hailed Iturbe's 'incredible quality', and outlined the attacker's strengths on the field. He told Tutto Mercato:
"Iturbe [is] good enough for the big clubs. [He has] amazing quality and is a good guy. Iturbe's strengths are technical quality, impressive speed, and game intelligence. He's a great player"
Worth €30m? No way, IMO.
Author: Jaimie K
According to Italian newspaper Corriere Di Verona this week:
* Liverpool, Real Madrid, PSG, Chelsea, Sevilla, and Roma all want the coveted Argentinian forward.
* Porto value Iturbe in the €30m range.
In March, Sky Sports Italy journalist Gianluca Dimarzio claimed that lots of 'big European clubs' are watching Iturbe, but insisted that Liverpool want him the most. He observed:
"Juventus are watching him, as are Inter Milan and Roma, but Liverpool is the most interested team."
When asked soon after about Liverpool's interest, Iturbe - nickname 'El Messi Paraguayo' as a result of his dual Paraguayan/Argentinian citizenship - told another of Sky Sports Italia's Journalists:
Iturbe to Sky Italy: "Liverpool and italian clubs on me? I would like to stay in Italy for all my life. But let's see what will happen" #LFC
— Fabrizio Romano (@FabRomano21) March 13, 2014Iturbe is obviously playing the game here. He's not going to admit in public that he wants to leave, so he pledges lifetime allegiance to 'Italy', but also opens up the possibility of leaving.
Hellas Verona President Maurizio Setti is a huge fan of Iturbe, and wants to keep him next season, but concedes that his club has little chance of being able to afford the 20-year old. Earlier this week, Setti told Tuttosport:
“He [Iturbe] will certainly end up at a top club. We want to keep him, but no Italian club has the economic capacity to buy him. If a set of circumstances allowed for him to stay in Verona then it would be another dream come true"
Info about 20-year old Iturbe:
* Rejected a move to Barcelona in 2010, opting to join Portuguese giants Porto instead.
* Part of the Argentina "sparring" squad, formed by the most promising youth players in Argentina, taken to the 2010 FIFA World Cup to train with the senior squad.
* Chose to play for Argentina at the U-20 level.
* Part of the 20-player squad for the 2011 South American U-20 South American championship, during which he scored the winning goal against Brazil.
Stats for the last three years:
2013-14: 6 goals/4 assist in 31 apps (so far)
2012-13: 3 goals/2 assists in 18 apps.
2011-12: 6 goals/2 assists in 32 apps.
In December, Verona boss Andrea Mandorlini hailed Iturbe's 'incredible quality', and outlined the attacker's strengths on the field. He told Tutto Mercato:
"Iturbe [is] good enough for the big clubs. [He has] amazing quality and is a good guy. Iturbe's strengths are technical quality, impressive speed, and game intelligence. He's a great player"
Worth €30m? No way, IMO.
Author: Jaimie K
No chance!!.
ReplyDeletewho needs every overrated player when you have better players like suso and ibe
ReplyDeletePorto are having a laugh €30 for a player who is out on loan in the Italian league, it's one of the worst league's in european football at the moment and he's playing for a shite team into the bargain. Yes the kid looks a good player but seriously porto will be lucky to get £8'mil for him, good luck to porto if they think their going to get €30 for him. It certainly won't be us who will pay that sort of silly money. His stats for the last three years aren't very good for the leagues he's been playing in. Raheem sterling is playing in the toughest and hardest league in the world and scoring fot fun at the moment, so i suppose he's worth at least £60'mil.
ReplyDelete£10 million take it or leave it.
ReplyDeleteHe looks like a promising player.
Will be a top player I think, and could be worth that money in four or five years time when he has shone at the top level for a couple of seasons, but to shell out 30m on a player who has accomplished very little would be pure madness.
ReplyDeleteHave said it time and time again how boring the Serie A is and the history of Serie A players coming to the EPL whether they are Italian or not is a complete and utter failure.
ReplyDeleteWould rather Giovinco from juventus
ReplyDeleteLike United spending (if it happens) 30 odd million on Luke Shaw and 100 grand a week wages. He could be a great player, admittedly, but that kind of money for a relatively inexperienced 18 year old is pure lunacy.
ReplyDeleteHave to agree. Physically, the Premier League is a big step up from the comparatively pedestrian Serie A.
ReplyDeleteSeriously, these transfer rumours stopped being exciting about 2 years ago. They were only exciting for a while after FSG injected money into Liverpool, which made us linked with every player under the sun. It's lost it's novelty!
ReplyDeleteExactly. You're also taking a big risk that a young player like Shaw will not turn out to be injury prone when he gets his first serious one.
ReplyDeleteGood player like you said, but you spend 30mil for quality AND consistency, which these players are yet to demonstrate.
Have to admit I would make an exception for Lallana though.
30 mil is almost as ridiculous as Luke shaw's valuation
ReplyDeleteJust read this after posting above :)
ReplyDeleteI would probably be happy enough to shell out for Lallana. I know he has pretty much only had one good season, but I look at him and think he has something really special, not just potential.
But like you say, we're Champions elect and Champion League team next year, so the 6-7mil signings will be at a minimum this year surely, by all means take one or two punts to unearth a Coutihno, but we need proven player also.
I would say even more ridiculous. At least Shaws position of left back is a notoriously hard one to fill, and any player showing potential at that position would be somewhat of a rarity.
ReplyDeleteBut young attacking players with potential are a dime a dozen. For 30mil he would want to be Johnny Goals with a side order of assists.
Who is available by the way...
I'm a big fan of Suso and I rate Ibe but Iturbe is out of this world. His stats mean little considering the team he's playing in. Torres didn't score more than 15 goals a season during his time at Atletico although I'm pretty sure he'd be happy with that record right about now hehehe. Anyway, Iturbe is a sensational player. The thirty million you can take with a pinch of salt. I remember Arshavin had to cost 30 million too and then he signed with Arsenal for 12.
ReplyDeleteWith Cissokho going back to Valencia and Enrique with his knee problem, I can see us going all out to sign a top LB.
ReplyDeletei have watched this guy on youtube (where players look super stars) and still he was not good enough so i will take konoplayanka or adam lallana any day of the week
ReplyDeleteDefinitely. It's an area we really need to strengthen. As do most teams really. Chelsea in the same boat as us playing a right back there. But I still don't see us spending 30mil on a teenager.
ReplyDeleteDon't get me wrong, I do think he will be world class, but there are too many variables at this stage to justify that outlay, especially to owners who have already been burned by a young 30mil+ english signing :(
English football is littered with a long list of cautionary tales - promising young footballers who have had thoroughly disappointing careers through lack of development, poor decision making and injury (Michael Branch, Michael Johnson, Francis Jeffers, Danny Caramarteri etc etc). You pay big money for established, proven quality, not potential. It's a crazy world, football.
ReplyDeleteI've really come around to the young Swiss fullback Ricardo Rodriguez at Vfl Wolfsburg, who was linked to all the big clubs in the last window but apparently decided to stay at Wolfsburg to try and qualify for the CL with them. His form this season has been incredible. He has similar qualities to Shaw, is perhaps not as imposing defensively (I've seen some criticism of Shaw's defending lately which seems daft to me), but has some more direct goal threat.
ReplyDeleteThe Wolves are currently 5th in the Bundesliga, a point off qualification for the CL: it looks like Rodriguez will be available this summer, and for any number of reasons I think we might be wise to pass on Shaw and go in hard for Rodriguez from the start. There are some scouting videos of him on YouTube which are worth a look if you haven't seen him.
He doesn't just have playing potential, but massive commercial potential: both in terms of his footballing value, and more importantly his marketability as a young, white, clean-cut, fairly handsome Englishman. He'll bring enhanced commercial exposure to whatever club he signs for. That £30m buys you not just a good footballer, but 10 years of milking rights to a well-fed cash-cow.
ReplyDeleteYou're right, assuming he doesn't incur persistent injury problems, go off the rails when he tastes the massive wage increase, find the demands at a big club at such a young age too much, feel the pressure of his price tag and under-perform, or simply think he has made it and stops improving.
ReplyDeleteNot saying any of this will happen, but there are plenty of cautionary tales out there to suggest it could, and for me 30mil is too big of a gamble.
Yeah I've seen him but only on Bundesliga highlights. He does look the part and I wouldn't argue if we were to go for him.
ReplyDeleteOne that always caught my eye was Oczipka for Frankfurt, pacey enough, great with the ball, excellent passer and shock horror of them all he can cross a ball, something we have been sorely lacking at LB for years.
Granted frankfurt are struggling but I would love to see what he could do in a decent team.
Moyes greatest legacy, helping to tie down an already Debt laden club to a noose of a contract for a footballer in decline.
ReplyDeleteMy jaw hit the floor the day I read that.
Nice one, yeah, tidy player. One of the problems with looking at players from the Bundesliga is that it's hard to see them under the kind of sustained pressure they'll find in the Prem, isn't it. What I like about Rodriguez is his hunger for confronting the opposition with the ball at his feet, his tactical aggression, his competitiveness. Oczipka looks a classy player -- but the kind that can find England a bit too quick, maybe?
ReplyDeleteWhat have you seen of Plattenhardt? He looks like a prospect to me, but again, is a rather neat and tidy player; the kind I like, but who often come unstuck in the Premier League.
This is based on the supposition that he continues to develop and improve and continues to be clean-cut. A £30 million price tag and 100K a week is a huge burden to bear for an 18 year old, surely? What's more it pushes us further towards the unedifying overpricing of youth talent and obscene wages which is hardly good for the game.
ReplyDeleteI agree, actually, and I hope we don't go in for him; just trying to make sure we all remember what a player's transfer value represents -- how good they are at football is only part of the story.
ReplyDeleteHe's adorable!
ReplyDeleteI've just watched a couple of these. Damn my ignorance. I wouldn't mind us going back in for Guilherme Siqueira; still very good, and probably still cheap (relatively).
ReplyDeleteSo the news on Luis Alberto? nothing new for a professional footballer? maybe he's on a internal punishment for bad attitude for some time now.
ReplyDeleteHe has not done himself any favours...
ReplyDeleteYeah it took a while but Rooney got his own back in the end.
ReplyDeleteYes he's let himself down and the manager, the club and his team mates but most of all he's let Jaimie down :-)
ReplyDeleteThat's the Nurmberg youngster. To be honest I've not really taken any notice but I'll look out for him next week.
ReplyDeleteYeah your right, its hard to tell how they will make the transition, but I would say it's probably the closest measure to the PL out of all the European leagues.
Italy-poor
France-farcical
Spain-totally different priorities.
Dutch league isn't too far off the style of play either.
Anyway, one things for sure we need a LB more than a striker at the moment, lets hope BR delivers this transfer window.
Well...now who's gonna drive the team bus?
ReplyDeleteNot good enough for Liverpool.
ReplyDeleteRather give Suso and Ibe a chance, and should we spend we can do much better.
noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo
ReplyDeleteAh you watched him on Youtube...well then I stand corrected. How could I know anything only by watching him actually play really...But I'd take Kono and Lallana too...just not in stead of but on top of
ReplyDeleteLet us go for Juan CUADRADO and Rakitic
ReplyDeleteAnother a another linked player to liverpool. Pretty soon, the team will need to charter a train not a bus to get around.....
ReplyDelete