22 Feb 2015

BR's Top Target: 'Genius' €50m playmaker responds to Liverpool rumours and confirms 'no contact'

Earlier this month, Liverpool boss Brendan Rodgers spent several days in Italy on 'club business' in an alleged bid to lay the 'groundwork' for the Reds' proposed summer move for 'genius' Roma star Miralem Pjanic. Rodgers reportedly held a meeting with Roma, but is there any truth to reports that Pjanic is LFC's number-one choice to replace Steven Gerrard?

This week, The Mirror claimed that:

* Rodgers 'held talks' with Roma director of football Walter Sabatini during his recent trip to Italy.

* Pjanic was the principal topic of discussion, and Roma confirmed that he will cost £37m (€50m).

* The midfielder wants a £160k per-week salary to sign for Liverpool.

When asked on Friday about the Liverpool transfer rumours, Pjanic told reporters:

"It's not time to talk about a transfer, but there has been no contact [with Liverpool]. I am only focused on Roma."

If the Reds are merely in the exploratory stage of a deal then it's hardly surprising that the club is yet to make contact with Pjanic, but that doesn't mean that Liverpool are not actively pursuing a transfer.

Roma are definitely willing to sell, though, and President James Pallotta confirmed that in a recent interview, when he told reporters:

"We're businessmen. If someone comes in with a stupid number for a player, you have to listen to it. You can't just say no, no matter what"

Well, £37m fits the description of a 'stupid' offer, and in order to sign Pjanic, Liverpool are going to have to break the club's transfer record AND it's wage structure.

Is Pjanic good enough to fill the Steven Gerrard void?

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25 comments:

  1. If we are going put a stupid offer out there, may as well put down 80 mill for Pogba... He could influence us like Yaya.

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  2. There's a lot more good you could do by spending the £43m on another top class player to go with Pjanic...

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  3. I just feel we need absolute quality now, not quantity. How many millions have we waisted on 5-15 mill players we we could have just bought a guaranteed star instead a load of filler. Look at Ronaldo he cost Real £80 mill but in actual fact that is cheap as he has won them so much, its good business.

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  4. Agreed but we need top quality in a few more positions so can't blow our wad on one star player just yet..

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  5. I think Liverpool need a defensive midfielder to play alongside Henderson. Any good defensive midfielders?

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  6. true, no more crap tho. Ibe has showed that the academy can step up

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  7. He wouldn't have won anything on his own in an average squad with no depth which is what we've been in recent years. Now we actually have strength in depth, we will be able to concentrate our transfer budget on adding proven quality.
    Anyway Ronaldo has spent most of his Madrid career playing second fiddle to Messi and Barca. It's not like they spent 80 million on him and that was the answer. They also spent 86 on Bale, 24 on Kroos etc etc. Ronaldo is not a good example for the point you're trying to make

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  8. Next season liverpool should be signing quality players not potential. In my opinion i would stay clear of the italion league as the pace of the game is far slower tan the prem.

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  9. 5-20 mill players like Couthinho, Can, Moreno, Marcovic,Mignolet, Sturidge and the likes are the main reasons Liverpool are fighting for 4th theese days.
    1 or 2 megastars would hardly have had the same impact as those waisted millions have bought us!

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  10. Yes, we have depth now which is what I said in the last artical. This is exactly why we should be buying quality now. I think we are on the same page, just you made it clearer then what I was getting at.

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  11. Yes, this is where my argument falls down slightly, I could list 10-15 players that cost the same and made no impact tho... What I'm saying is now we have a good squad, we need top quality now, the Yayas and ZIdanes in their prime type. We might not get them, but we should be going for this... It's not like they are out of our budget if we can pay 35 for caroll 25 for adam and 20 for dejan. These were not stars and we paid over the odds for. That's 75 mill for 3 non starters to go and get one player like Pogba who would have Suarez type impact on us.

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  12. I think that is what we'll do. For years we've been making reactive signings - trying to replace players we'd lost. Now we're in the position of being able to analyse the squad and see what's required to take us to the next level. This group of players will grow over the next couple of years and with a couple of quality additions we're a force again

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  13. Over the next 2 windows I expect us to sign a deep-lying playmaker, a striker, a right back, a new no2 goalkeeper to compete with Migs and a right sided centre half. Not sure if we'll sign a defensive midfielder as I think Can will operate that role next season and I think we should try and keep Lucas for at least another year.

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  14. Sign 5 players make difference to make us challenge likes of Chelsea next season .... Navas song Nainggolan Pjanic and Ings.... Maybe even clyne if we could afford it selling Lucas Coates, and especially balotelli , Borini etc give us cash to pay for it.... Good young players out on loan who can also return wisdom and Origi. Some really good prospects in youth ... Branagan ... Wilson ... Liverpool under Rodgers can hit heights of last season again. Top four this year will give our young players even more confidence for future. In Rodgers believe !

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  15. I don't get why this guy is supposed to be so good as the one guy to replace a legend. Is he replacing SG the attacking MF or SG the holding MF or SG the Captain? It doesn't make any sense. 37m would buy Rakitic I think. If we wanted leadership and talent then Rakitic would be a better choice.

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  16. RM won the CL and the Cops last season...second fiddle...really?

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  17. I said for the majority of his Madrid career...

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  18. I'm going to keep saying this: we can't replace Steven Gerrard. It's not possible. Everyone needs to stop thinking of new players in this way. It's not fair on those players and it will ultimately just set us up for disappointment. Gerrard is truly one of the very best players to play for Liverpool and considering the history of the club that's some very very high standards. So we might get some new players in and a midfielder is now a must-have, but any inbound players will need to be judged on their own merits and perhaps against other midfielders in the game.


    Pjanic looks like a good play maker who can also get back and defend and do the hard work required. In Coutinho we're missing the defensive side of things while in Henderson, Allen and Lucas we're missing that level of class and ability in attack. Pjanic is more in the mould of a Gerrard TYPE of player and that's as close as the comparison should get. He can do the same types of things, play box to box, effect a good tackle but also make a killer pass or be on the end of play to slam home a strike from the edge of the box. That's the kind of player we need to add some balance in midfield and not have players finding themselves in positions where they can't do what is required of them at any given moment.


    The price is too high, Liverpool won't pay that. If a deal can be done for a bit less than 30 million with potential add-ons then maybe. If the final fee eventually rose to 37 million after the player performed brilliantly, scored a bunch of goals and was part of a successful Liverpool team then that's probably OK. Who knows. It could all be just a fantastical rumour but the notion that Rodgers went to Rome to specifically talk about this player is intriguing.

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  19. Well, Jamie k ~ where is that or any money going to come from with Liverpool up against the FFP wall? Its just nonsense…...

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  20. I'm not quite sure that's the point he's trying to make...

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  21. Spot on. With everything.


    We can't replace Gerrard, at least not in the traditional sense. What we can do though is distribute his influence around the squad and hope that certain players step up, along with a "stylistic" replacement for Stevie's squad place. Thankfully, it seems BR has already started this process.


    The more experienced players (Toure, Lambert, Johnson, guys like Milner or Lavezzi) will be looked upon to lead in the lockerroom. The guys with talent (Sturridge, Skrtel, Coutinho, etc) will be looked upon to lead on the field. Hendo and Lucas have finally taken over the metronome of the midfield, and the hollywood passes have slowly been phased out of our game. The less our reliance on Gerrard is by the end of the season, the less we will need to "replace," or noticeably lack once Stevie leaves.


    As for Pjanic, he's not the answer. Too expensive, too high wages, not enough influence, and risky simply because he's coming for Italy.

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  22. Well... Aside from CAN, there's Nainggolan, Illarramendi, Casemiro, Kramer, Song, among others...

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  23. Also come the summer we'll not be up against the FFP wall as you put it

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  24. Roma wont sell Pjanic nor Naingollan to us they are cruising in Italy and Pjanic has stated hes happy to stay.
    There is cheaper and better value options out there 37 million pounds what a joke.

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