With Steven Gerrard leaving at the end of the season, the race is on to find a midfielder capable of partly filling the huge void in the team, and reports today claim that Real Madrid star Sami Khedira is Brendan Rodgers' preferred choice to replace Gerrard.
Liverpool were linked with Khedira during Kenny Dalglish's second spell in charge, but the speculation stopped after FSG terminated the LFC legend's contract.
Rodgers then reportedly made a €19m offer for Khedira last summer, and according to German newspaper Sportbild:
* Khedira's contract expires in June, so he's free to sign a pre-contract agreement with any interested club.
* Brendan Rodgers wants to seal the deal 'quickly' to see off interest from Manchester United, Chelsea and Bayern Munich.
What is it with Liverpool and injury-prone players? In recent weeks, the Reds have been linked with perpetual sicknotes like Yoann Gourcuff, Jack Wilshere, and Micah Richards, and now it's Khedira.
The German - who Franz Beckenbauer claims is a 'perfect' signing for Bayern Munich - is an excellent player, but like Daniel Agger, he is massively prone to injury:
* Two cruciate ligament injuries in four years.
* Missed 87 games as a result of 11 separate injuries in the last 4 years.
* A grand total of 20 injuries since 2008 (105 games missed)
* Averaged only 23 league games a year since 2006.
In a recent article, I argued that Gourcuff has the worst injury history I've ever seen, but I take it back; even he can't touch Khedira, and if Liverpool sign the midfielder, it will be transfer negligence of the highest order.
I just don't see the sense in risking big bucks on players with huge injury histories. There are lots of players out there for similar fees whose careers are not littered with endless injury set-backs.
The fact Khedira is free shouldn't come into it. Gerrard's replacement has to be someone who will play most games, and have a regular impact on the team, and Khedira's history proves that he isn't capable of doing that.
Unsurprisingly, Khedira - reportedly the subject of a €25m bid from Arsenal in the summer - is injured right now! He's suffered three separate injuries this season alone, which just goes to show that he is totally unreliable.
Avoid like the plague.
Author: Jaimie K
Liverpool were linked with Khedira during Kenny Dalglish's second spell in charge, but the speculation stopped after FSG terminated the LFC legend's contract.
Rodgers then reportedly made a €19m offer for Khedira last summer, and according to German newspaper Sportbild:
* Khedira's contract expires in June, so he's free to sign a pre-contract agreement with any interested club.
* Brendan Rodgers wants to seal the deal 'quickly' to see off interest from Manchester United, Chelsea and Bayern Munich.
What is it with Liverpool and injury-prone players? In recent weeks, the Reds have been linked with perpetual sicknotes like Yoann Gourcuff, Jack Wilshere, and Micah Richards, and now it's Khedira.
The German - who Franz Beckenbauer claims is a 'perfect' signing for Bayern Munich - is an excellent player, but like Daniel Agger, he is massively prone to injury:
* Two cruciate ligament injuries in four years.
* Missed 87 games as a result of 11 separate injuries in the last 4 years.
* A grand total of 20 injuries since 2008 (105 games missed)
* Averaged only 23 league games a year since 2006.
In a recent article, I argued that Gourcuff has the worst injury history I've ever seen, but I take it back; even he can't touch Khedira, and if Liverpool sign the midfielder, it will be transfer negligence of the highest order.
I just don't see the sense in risking big bucks on players with huge injury histories. There are lots of players out there for similar fees whose careers are not littered with endless injury set-backs.
The fact Khedira is free shouldn't come into it. Gerrard's replacement has to be someone who will play most games, and have a regular impact on the team, and Khedira's history proves that he isn't capable of doing that.
Unsurprisingly, Khedira - reportedly the subject of a €25m bid from Arsenal in the summer - is injured right now! He's suffered three separate injuries this season alone, which just goes to show that he is totally unreliable.
Avoid like the plague.
Author: Jaimie K
I have backed the idea of signing Khedira on a free for a few months now. The fact he is on available on a free DOES come into it. The chance to get a world class player for free, albeit injury prone, means it might just be worth the risk. It all depends on wage negotiations and the signing on fee etc, obviously appearance incentive based wages would be ideal. If the club deems his demands too high and not worth the risk considering his injuries then fair enough we move on and look for alternatives
ReplyDeleteTotally agree Jamie. Would be a fantastic addition fully fit, but if he was fully fit he would be off to Chelsea or City for £30 mill or so.........avoid!!
ReplyDeleteI completely agree, for us its kind of a win-win situation. If he plays well and injury free then that's great, but if he plays only 20-25 games a season and plays decent then that's still not bad. Even if he does play bad then we can get a fee for him to cover the wages we paid for him. I just can't see where it goes wrong.
ReplyDeleteHowever he shouldnt be considered as Gerrards replacement. He is a, genuine, world class talent and even if he doesn't play much at least we have him to help attract other good players. We could even put him on a 'Play as you go' contract where if he doesn't play because of injuries then he gets wages halved or something.
Worth a punt or steer clear?
Rumors are that Yaya is leaving Man City in the summer... I think it's a good time to consider buying him.
ReplyDeleteIts possible he could get better with age (like a fine wine), like Robben?
ReplyDeleteThat's it Darovar, he might be injury prone but it's about judging that risk against the wages etc. He's still going to want a good basic wage, "pay as you play" can only be top-ups obviously not the total terms. There will still be others in for him so it's not going to be easy to negotiate and seal the deal
ReplyDeleteSign Nainggolan and Pjanic
ReplyDeleteso we can rival chelseas midfeild
Sterling,Coutinho,Nainggolan,Pjanic,Can,Henderson,Lallana,Markovic
vs
Hazard,Oscar,Matic,Fabregas,Mikel,Ramiers,Willian,Cuadrado
should be a good battle
Why do we focus so much on transfers , how about we stop speculating and let Rodgers do what Rodgers does .
ReplyDeleteAll i hear are transfer rumors what is the point of speculating only 1% come off .
Here is to ten years of no transfer speculating , lets be grateful for what we have.
Cheers .
Arsenal losing 2-0 at home to Manaco, they've been absolutely shambolic. They're there for the taking in the league. Hopefully they'll put in a mammoth effort in their away fixture and qualify cos the more games they've got the better. Don't really want them AND United having no European games at this stage of the season
ReplyDeleteA player with that many injuries wants guaranteed money, which we would almost certainly not offer.
ReplyDeleteShambolic is being generous
ReplyDeleteI have too much confidence in our management's new found businesses acumen to think there is any truth in these rumours. That's not to say we wouldn't take him under any circumstance. I believe the terms would have to be so favourable to us that they wouldn't interest his management team, anyway
ReplyDeleteThat's 2-2 or 2-3, final score then?
ReplyDeleteÖzil has to be the walking definition of a flat-track bully. Has never, ever turned up for a big game in club competition. Ever.
ReplyDeleteTheir run in march could see them drop some points. They play Everton, West Ham and Newcastle in the league as well as playing United in the FA cup. Two games a week as well as trying to make up that deficit against Monaco will weaken them I am sure. Having said that, like us they tend to do quite well second half of the season. Does the FA cup go to replay or pens at this stage? Just hoping they and United draw.
ReplyDelete'Free' transfer, star struck Brendan, this is not a good option, our current midfield is short and they are not exactly an injury prone bunch of players. This is another Darren Anderton, there must be better options.
ReplyDeleteReplay.
ReplyDeleteExcellent. Fingers crossed then.
ReplyDeleteI think it's pens mate
ReplyDeleteJust noticed Johnny's post. He's probably right
ReplyDeletePens wouldn't make sense anyway
ReplyDeleteI disagree. We have good MF's who can't get enough games as it is. Cripes we have an excellent MF who is too good to sit so we play him at CB. We have ZERO reliable strikers. We have ONE who is world -class but tends to get hurt often...which is his unreliability factor. We have 3 bench-warmer strikers. We have 1 make-shift striker who is really a winger. We should not be looking for the next Gerrard. We should be looking for the next Suarez. We may already have him in Ibe or Texeira but they are still projects. We need a second world class striker this summer. Khedira isn't the answer. A young, sturdy, prolific striker is the answer. Martinez or Lacazette would do fine. There is way too much emphasis on finding a replacement for an icon whose iconic status springs much because of his great talent but also because he's a local boy made good. I just wish Gerrard were a legendary striker.
ReplyDeleteThe repeat cruciate injury is horrific for a player. The first time you do it you often don't know how bad it is, the event itself can seem quite innocuous. The second time you know it for sure and it's a sickening feeling. I feel for the guy, it can ruin careers. But at the same time I've seen plenty of players come back after horror knee injuries and actually be better players in the long run.
ReplyDeleteHe does seem like a bit of a risk and I'm not comfortable with this spate of rumours regarding similar players i.e. talented and promising but ruined by injury. Hopefully it's just agents spreading nonsense to try and beef up the value of the player. Both he and Gourcuff are free agents this summer and linking a player with Liverpool is a sure fire way to get some free press and generate some interest.
I can tell you without a shadow of a doubt that Liverpool have contacted Khedira's agent. If he's free, then I'd go for it.
ReplyDeleteI thought you'd left.
ReplyDeleteWhen I did my ACL in I didn't even realise that it was my knee that had popped; only felt something weird in my shin. I was floored for a few minutes, but more out of shock because the real pain only started after I'd been carried off the field (to my dismay, because I'd wanted to get up and keep playing). Innocuous, indeed.
ReplyDeleteDid you ever do it again? I had a similar first up experience, just felt like I came down to hard on my knee, but then a few weeks later I went to push off my leg and my knee kind of wrenched out of joint. I did it once more a few weeks after that. It's a horrible feeling, like your knee joint collapsing beneath you. Those second and third times were much worse that the first actual injury. Needless to say at that point my ACL had disintegrated.
ReplyDeleteThankfully it's never recurred. The closest I came was a week or so after putting the crutches down post-op. I slipped and fell in a tiny bathroom and felt a similar knee-joint collapse plus immediate pain, and felt that horrible sense of dread, too. Luckily my surgeon saw me a couple of hours later and assured me that the joint was fine, and would only set my rehab back by a few weeks. I've had a few of those since then. But the trauma with those is more mental than anything; actual joint's stayed in place. Nearly six years on I haven't finished my rehab, so mine is a watching brief now haha.
ReplyDeleteJeepers man. Sorry to hear about yours. Must be absolutely gutting. Did you ever get it operated on? I found the post-op pain to be immeasurably worse than the weeks I spent limping before that, although twice and thrice is something else entirely!
Didn't have the op until quite a few years later. Kind of ruined my basketball "career". All that time later the operation itself wasn't such a big deal. Did all the hard work and I have a pretty solid knee now although it's not really 100%. It makes noises. I really should see my physio about that.
ReplyDeleteRough deal, mate. Yeah you probably should. Me too; and I still need to finish my hard work. Probably too late for my sporting 'career', too, but hey I would settle for outrunning my anti-fitness hombres at this point.
ReplyDelete