25 Jan 2015

Last-Ditch Deal: LFC to make late offer to sign 'superb' £20m striker. Replace Borini?

In January 2014, Liverpool were linked with a move for £20m-rated Southampton attacker Jay Rodriguez, and with the talented striker on the verge of returning from a long-term injury, the Reds are reportedly back in the race to sign him.

The Reds were linked with Rodriguez once again in the summer, and according to The Mirror this weekend:

* Manchester City, Liverpool and Tottenham are planning to submit new bids for Jay Rodriguez.

* After 9 months out with a serious knee injury, Rodriguez is hoping to get the all-clear next week to resume playing.

Ex-Red Jamie Redknapp is a big fan of 'superb' Rodriguez, and in a recent column for the Daily Mail, he enthused;

"He [Rodriguez] is a smashing lad...with a continental style. He is more polished now...and can strike a ball with swerve and movement".

Despite his absence, Southampton are exceeding all expectations without Rodriguez this season. The South Coast club are currently sitting pretty in the Premier League's top four, and it's hard to see how he'll fit in upon his return. Still, Saints boss Ronaldo Koeman insists the striker is not for sale. He told reporters on Friday:

"Jay will come back and play in football and that’s our question, not about the rumours. He’s a Southampton player, he has a contract and he’s not for sale"

That's good news because it's a huge mistake to even consider signing Rodriguez:

* A serious cruciate ligament injury is arguably the worst injury a footballer can suffer.

* In many cases, it takes a very long time to recover previous form. Just ask Lucas. Or Falcao.

* Rodriguez has now been on the sidelines for 10 months, and in January, he suffered another 'setback'. Earlier this month, Burnley star Sam Vokes revealed: "I spoke to Jay in the week and he was here for the Liverpool game. He’s struggling a bit with his knee but he’s another strong character and I’m sure he will come through it.”

In my view, Liverpool's transfer policy should explicitly preclude the signing of players with recent cruciate ligament injuries.

The likes of Falcao, Valdes, and Rodriguez are fine players, but there's no guarantee that they'll ever recover their previous form, and with large sums of money involved, the risk just isn't worth taking.

If, after a full year of playing regularly, Rodriguez is injury-free and playing well, then that is the time to consider a transfer.

Rodriquez is arguably an upgrade on Borini, Balotelli, and Lambert, but signing him now - or even in the summer - would be an act of transfer negligence (IMO).

Author:


36 comments:

  1. Jamie is a fly in the wall of the football writers weekly booze up bar where they give out a bottle of scotch for the best transfer invention of the week.
    The Daily Star guy is mustard, very hard to beat. If fly's could join in Jamie of course would have a large collection of scotch.

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  2. Sorry the Metro guy is number one transfer story inventor.

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  3. disqus_YNi69ukcn08:08 pm, January 25, 2015

    Well they have to invent something to argue against...what say jk?

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  4. You keep using this phrase (or variations thereof) JK, 'an act of negligence'. My problem is that I can't work out if it sounds more like a John Grisham style legal thriller, a Tom Clancy inspired jingoistic tale of espionage or a whodunnit in the Agatha Christie mould.

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  5. It's not actually a guy. He's a computer program. A random rumour generator.

    It's only a matter of time until it becomes self-aware and morphs into a cross between Skynet and Jorge Mendes to become some sort of apocalyptic transfer market supremo.

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  6. Could even pass for a slice of semi-erotica in the 'squire and scullery maid' style of Barbara Taylor-Bradford.

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  7. Lennon/McArtney's 'Paperback Writer'

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  8. Say we win the Europa legue and finish 4th. Who gets that extra CL sopt, 4th from EPL or the EL finalist? And if it is the latter, what if that finalist qualifies through their championship? Anyone?..

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  9. 4th place finish takes priority and would qualify from that case.
    Not sure what happens to the UEFA finalists, I suspect they would make a decision at that time

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  10. Yeah, but who gets the extra spot?

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  11. With the depth of variation of a Michael Bay directed movie.

    Or the acting variation of acting ability of Keanu Reeves

    Or the WICKED LIE that Maggie Gyllenhaal is attractive.



    So on and so forth ...you get the idea.

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  12. You're thinking of "an act of negligee........"

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  13. If Liverpool finish in top 4 and win Europa League,nobody gets the extra spot. Neither the runners up in the europa final or a team outside the top 4 places

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  14. Hope Manu finish 5th then........on goal difference

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  15. we all know there wont be anyone coming in in this window, we already have to much dead wood without getting in more, a major clear out is needed, mig, jhonson, alan, borini, balo, enrique, need to be gone, my guess is nothing will change until the axe falls on br and a new manager is put in place

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  16. the bloke who comes 5th? I'd prefer we get the chance to sell it to the highest bidder..

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  17. 4th place still has to qualify, does a Europa league winner?

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  18. The admission of Brendan saying he wants to keep the likes of Glenn Johnson kinda seals the deal... LFC won't be buying squat, we have no interest in actual quality.

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  19. B Rodgers needs to first and foremost to get rid of these dead weight/ wood players currently at club this week:


    GK: B Jones(32) RB:G Johnson(30) LB: J Enrique(27)


    CM: J Allen(24) FD: F Borini(23) FD: R Lambert(32)


    FD: M Balotelli(24)


    And then the transfer committee and I Ayre need to be sacked as soon as possible and then B Rodgers should replace the 7 dead wood / weight players above with these five top class and quality players:


    1: GK: A Begovic(27) Of Stoke or Marc-Andre Ter Stegen(22) Of Barcelona for £10-£14M Upgrade on B Jones(32) and S Mignolet(26)


    2: DM: Mobile DM: L Bender(25) Of Bayer Leverkusen or M Schneiderlin(25) Of Southampton for £17-£22M Upgrade on L Leiva(27)


    3: CM: J Claise(23) Of Feyenoord for £8-£12M Upgrade on J Allen(24)


    4: FD: L Vietto(21) Of Villareal for £10-£14M Upgrade on F Borini(23)


    5: FD: L Adriano(27) Of Shakhtar Donesk for £3-£5M upgrade on M Balotelli(24) and R Lambert(32) combined


    B Rodgers should not even look at J Rodriguez(25) anytime soon, he should not be looked at until he has at least a season and a half back playing for Southampton.


    The only three players still at Southampton who will be upgrade on what we currently have in first team who B Rodgers should consider are:


    GK: F Foster(26) two times better than S Mignolet(26)


    RB: N Clyne(23) three times better than G Johnson(30) and J Manquillo(20)


    DM: M Schneiderlin(25) two times better than L Leiva(27)

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  20. ALEXANDRE LACAZETTE!

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  21. I assume you're talking about the play off qualifier rounds. By default the winner of the Champions league will go directly to the group stages and the winner of the Europa league will have to go into the play off round. If the champions league winner already automatically qualifies for the group stages through their domestic league position then the Europa league winner can go straight into the group stages without having to play a qualifier

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  22. According to Kevin Keegan, the phrase is "mole on the wall". As in " I'd love to be a mole on the wall in that dressing room"

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  23. jhonson might still be gone depending what kind of deal is offered, hopefully he will be gone, my heart sinks every time I see him start,

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  24. That is what I meant, cheers. I have a good feeling about the Europa League, with LFC's upturn and Sturridge nearing a return, I think we are well equiped to go all the way... I notice the commentators over the weekend seem to have forgotten we're in it.. With the big departures over the weekend, LFC have a really great opportunity to get into atleast the Europa League for next season through either cup or league position, but I have high hopes for the Europa title and automatic qualification into the CL...Fingers crossed.

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  25. Made me cringe when i saw his name on the team sheet over the weekend.

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  26. JK doesn't make the rumours.... he just reports them. Basically, he quotes the Metro guy then says what he thinks...

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  27. Yeah I've noticed nobody in the media seems to mention the europa league when talking about cup competitions we're still in. It's only 9 games including the Europa final and a champions league place can be secured. Technically you could only have to win 1 of the home/away ties for each round as long as you won one of the legs by a big enough margin and then win the final. So they could qualify for the champions league by winning just 5 games but there's barely a mention of it over the last month . Not saying it isn't going to be very hard to beat all the good teams left in it though

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  28. No point telling him what the phrase should be, he cannot even tell the difference between Jamie and Jaimie.

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  29. Apparently Johnsons signing a new deal.

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  30. Stranger things have happened...

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  31. That shows how useless B Rodgers is then G Johnson(30) has been abyzmal, comical and diabolical for two years and he is getting new contract.


    Yet our best player in side now by country mile( R Sterling (20) who is wanted by all the top teams in Europe we are haggling over his contract.

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  32. This is pleasing. We need more Saints if we're to defend our Fair Play trophy.

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  33. its actually a team of "jurno's" whose offices are the red lion public house. One has a hat with footballers names in it, another a hatwith the names of football teams...they appear to be working to the same theory as 1000 monkeys locked in a room with 1000 typewriters

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  34. Yeah, we defend our Fair play trophy by all means!!! Even if it means finishing in the bottom half

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  35. There's a game for this kind of thing yanno? Football manager, I highly recommend

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