1 Jun 2015

I want LFC: Bundesliga attacker confirms he'll sign for Liverpool 'immediately' if the 'conditions are right'

Switzerland star Tranquillo Barnetta has announced that he is leaving Schalke this summer, and in an interview over the weekend, the 30-year old confirmed that he wants a transfer to Liverpool.

On Saturday, Barnetta confirmed:

"After eleven years of Bundesliga I want to try something else. Because of the unrest at the club, we are no longer in contract negotiations, so I finally decided to leave".

When asked about his next destination, Barnetta told Watson.ch:

"The Premier League is very interesting. Liverpool and Tottenham are traditional clubs. If the conditions are right there, it would appeal to me immediately.

"If offers from [Liverpool and Tottenham] were on the table, it would be a nice decision to make."


Some info about Barnetta:

* Primarily a left-winger, who can also play on the right, and as an attacking midfielder.

* This season: 9 goals/assists in 27 apps for Schalke.

* Career total: 43 goals/73 assists (116) in 318 apps (Goal/assist every 3.2 games)

* 10 goals in 75 apps for the Switzerland national team.

* Description on FIFA's official website: "Though primarily a creative footballer, Barnetta covers ground and closes down opponents on the football pitch with the sort tireless energy and dogged determination one might expect from a tigerish central midfielder"

* Barnetta's assessment of the 2014-15 season: "The last six weeks were not so good. When I returned to Schalke [last summer], I hoped for more playing, But I fought back into the team, and played well up until the last few weeks"

I'll be honest: I know very little about Barnetta, but I have fond memories of him score two goals against England during the Euro 2012 qualifiers, and any player that sticks the knife into the England national team gets my seal of approval ;-)

But seriously: Barnetta is clearly not prolific enough for Liverpool, and it's highly unlikely he'd be able to command a regular first-team place. That said, Liverpool have a history of bringing in average squad-fillers, and the long list includes the likes of Victor Moses, Aly Cissoko, Oussama Assaidi, Philipp Degen, Josemi, David N'gog, Milan Jovanovic etc.



As such, it wouldn't surprise me in the slightest to see Tranquillo at Anfield next season. On the plus side, there are, admittedly, a few positives:

* Free transfer, so no real financial risk.

* 11 years in the Bundesliga, which is one Europe's highest quality leagues.

* Impressive international pedigree, with experience in major international tournaments.

* Regular experience of the Champions League, and Europa League.

* 30 years old, which means Barnetta is a seasoned, experienced pro.

* No significant injuries (i.e. more than 20 days on the sidelines) since the 2011-12 season)

As a squad player on a free transfer, Liverpool could do worse (and have done worse many times!)


Author: Jaimie K


76 comments:

  1. We need to take a leaf our of Juventus book and how their hierarchy has been extremely shrewd with their signings etc...

    ReplyDelete
  2. If we want to sign a free attacker then why not Konoplyanka?

    ReplyDelete
  3. I have a feeling he'll end up at Soton and destroy us next season

    ReplyDelete
  4. Not sure about Dybala. 40mn sounds a bit too much.

    ReplyDelete
  5. And then will buy him from Southampton. ..obviously

    ReplyDelete
  6. Agreed. But it was much easier for them as Serie B was always gonna be a walk in a park and then had no pressure of winning anything in Serie A. Also no rivals for top 4 or three, and to be honest for titles too. Constant CL gave them experience and patience with managers, and tough not being competitive with Euro giants in transfer market always had the best in Italy.. So many things going their way, though great'nose' for players..

    ReplyDelete
  7. Now they are in position where everybody know they can and will spend big. Sounds familiar..

    ReplyDelete
  8. For £26M and BR will refer to him as player who "fights for the team" and who shows "character".

    ReplyDelete
  9. Rodgers now slightly odds on to leave this summer. BBC reports Werner & Henry be in Liverpool tomorrow

    ReplyDelete
  10. It's not as easy as it sounds though, they had to have a solid plan. It does help that heavy weights like Inter and Milan are now playing at a similar level to Southampton.


    How the mighty have fallen.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Liverpool seems to be keen on very Tom ,Dick and Harry .
    It really feels like Liverpool does not have a clue as to what type of players they are trying to buy ?

    ReplyDelete
  12. Klopp looks out of the picture so that leaves us with Ancelotti.


    I got a strong feeling BR will keep in job.

    ReplyDelete
  13. Inter had two seasons with Moaninho and that's it. Milan is falling harder than Liverpool, Roma is Italian Arsenal of the last decade and Napoli is Totenham. No real competition..

    ReplyDelete
  14. Southampton and Liverpool

    ReplyDelete
  15. We need world class players. Vietto 20 goal young striker, higuain 30 goal striker, kovacic and clyne. In total that will be 75m. Benteke is top class but I would rather spend 30m on higuain who has the experience to turn us to champions.

    ..........'................mingolet
    Clyne......skrtel.........sakho.......moreno
    ................. ... .......can
    .........kovacic.................hendo
    ......................coutinho
    ........higuain...................vietto

    Personally for me if we could sell sterling borini lambert balotelli aspas coates lovren alberto for approx 90m. And then add pirlo, nani , konoplyanka and kolarov all on free transfers. We can be champions.

    .......................mingolet
    Clyne......skrtel......sakho....kolarov
    .............kovacic......pirlo
    Nani...............coutinho.....konoplyan
    .........................higuain

    ReplyDelete
  16. That's so true.


    Milan and Inter are really bad though, they've bought some really poor signings in recent years. What is clear is that one of them needs to leave then San Siro into their own stadium.


    They both have some good players but they need to stop being a retirement home for players, Milan love to sign fading players on big contracts.

    ReplyDelete
  17. Me too. He'll be given until Christmas.

    ReplyDelete
  18. Kovacic, Clyne and Vietto are not world class tbh. Vietto has scored 12 goals in 31 la liga games. IMO Epl will be much tougher for the kid. I don't see Vietto getting enough games in Liverpool to shine. If he don't score in couple of matches...he will be dropped by BR. I am also not sure of Kovacic, not for 22mn definitely. Clyne is good but I think LB should be a priority if Enrique leaves.

    ReplyDelete
  19. Milan will leave. It is Giuseppe Meazza anyway..

    ReplyDelete
  20. I think that should give Klopp enough time to rest up :)

    ReplyDelete
  21. Hinguain will be too costly and age is a factor too. I think we should try signing Tevez for low fee high wage (if possible) or someone cheap like Demba Ba.

    ReplyDelete
  22. Would'nt read too much into Klopps quote. Whats he going to say "i'm actively seeking a new job" Sounds desperate. I we did sack Rogers, he's bound to at least listen to us. Can then roll out "Could'nt turn it down" ect.
    Just carn't see us interesting Ancelotti.

    ReplyDelete
  23. That's what I'm thinking, as well. Hopefully, though, BR can get us back to the highs of 13/14.

    ReplyDelete
  24. Oh yeah, San Siro sounds better though ;0P...their proposed new stadium looks amazing though!

    ReplyDelete
  25. Looks awesome. Hope it will stay empty though...

    ReplyDelete
  26. Klopp will say "Offer was too good to refuse."

    ReplyDelete
  27. Vietto scored 28 goals overall this season...amazing stats for a 20 year old...who has a £14.2M clause.....

    ReplyDelete
  28. He is going Juve apparently....and so is Khedira! What a team they are going to have!

    ReplyDelete
  29. I mean if the man does well of course I am going to give praise where praise is due, have no issues with eating humble pie.


    But it's the constant overpraise and poetic language he uses that drive me mad!


    + poor signings...

    ReplyDelete
  30. For his age that is a good return, plus 8 goals in europa....plus if we bought higuain he has the experience to nurture vietto talents. Vietto is better than all our current strikers. He scored goals against barcelona and atletico which aint easy.

    Kovacic is good and has alot of quality, but he needs the help of an experienced midfielder like pirlo.

    If we blend the players right we will be champions

    ReplyDelete
  31. Aspas also scored quite a few goals in cup competitions but had difficulty scoring in league. So am judging Vietto on his league performance.

    ReplyDelete
  32. Well the media a lot harsher here than in Germany so if he comes here he will definitely not a get a rest...especially with the tours we're doing this pre-season.

    ReplyDelete
  33. If Vietto joins then I hope he is given a good run of games unlike Borini, Aspas, Markovic, Lambert, and every other attacker bought by BR. Except Sturridge of course.

    ReplyDelete
  34. Doesn't look like a guy who would need/like rest. Lets hope for the best.

    ReplyDelete
  35. Understood, and completely agree.

    ReplyDelete
  36. Think Inter want to stay at the San Siro and renovate it their own way.


    Italian football is a funny old thing, they buy and sell players form rivals all the time...there are several players there that have played for all top clubs: Milan, Inter, Juve, Roma etc... Pirlo played for Inter, Milan and now Juve.


    They don't have any issues doing that, specially Inter and Milan, their rivalry is not serious in my eyes...they share the same stadium and constantly buy players from the other team...

    ReplyDelete
  37. Vietto number 7, higuain number 9, pirlo number 8, clyne number 2, kolarov number 3, nani number 11.

    ReplyDelete
  38. Hope not! Klopp would bring that wow factor again...Brendan does not bring that, that aura that managers that have won things have.

    ReplyDelete
  39. Do you think FSG will actually sack BR though?


    Looking at their past in Baseball and Football they can be quite ruthless.

    ReplyDelete
  40. We could do worse as a squad player. As the season has drew to and end I am becoming more and more disheartened with the supposed targets and the fact that Rodgers is still in the job, if he is still the manager we are in for a season of major disappointment in all competitions and a lack of ambition with the signings made....For the sake of the club the board need to act now and bring in a proven manager apparently Klopps off the radar again as he has said he is taking a 6 month break and Ancelloti is back in the frame in my opinion either of them would be suffice even De Boer is a far more experienced manager with trophies and a great footballing pedigree so even De Boer would be a better option than keeping Rodgers on Priority NO. 1 is getting shut off Rodgers and let the new manager access the squad and bring in the quality needed to take the club forward.

    ReplyDelete
  41. Vietto would be a superb signing for the reputed £14.2m fee

    ReplyDelete
  42. and that he's watched him for over 5 years now

    ReplyDelete
  43. Just read that Lyon boss said that Lacazette would "never" sign for Liverpool. Reverse psychology ??

    ReplyDelete
  44. My gut feelings for this coming summer is that the helm of management will remain as they are. Chief negotiator, BR and transfer committee will blow LFC's entire summer budget on Benteke, Clyne and Ings. For free agents, they will go English for James Milner, plus maybe one or two young players here and there. Again, absolutely no work for scouts, if the club has any to begin with. Then someone will declare it's again a season of rebuilding, now seemingly a never ending trend for the club, soon to be written into the proud heritage of the club.

    ReplyDelete
  45. I would expect him to say:


    I'm weighing my options, whether that's to take an extended break, or to pursue coaching another team this season.


    He said the former only.

    ReplyDelete
  46. Exactly what i'm thinking too.

    ReplyDelete
  47. I think it's about a 60% chance he'll stay. I think they'd sack him in a heartbeat. Any owners prepared to sack Dalglish wouldn't think twice about Rogers. If they look at 3 years down the line, has it progressed? They could look at Saurez's success at Barca & think maybe he really did carry them. Also i dont believe this rumoured 10m severance pay. The owners seem too savvy, the fact there're trying to incentivise player contracts I'd be amazed if Rogers has a no strings attached deal. The loosening of fair play might come into their thinking, they've been quoted as saying strong fair play rules played a big part in the decision to buy. We seem to be getting further & further away from the top 4. My opinion is BT sport will turn the top 4 into a closed shop. That deal means around double the amount will go to next years top 4, combine that with relaxing of fair play rules, the owners might look at Rogers & realise he's just not going to get us there

    ReplyDelete
  48. To be fair, buying suitable players is the responsible of the man guiding the playing squad. Too bad our manager cannot even a decide a formation, so let alone what kind of players he needs. Maybe he thinks all his players are supposedly utility players that can play in multiple positions anytime anywhere.

    This coming season is again a season of rebuilding. RB, attacker and DM, which are all concerns after last season. Despite being armed with a 100 mil pounds war chest, nothing positive was achived, I'm talking about absolutly nothing here. What were the concerns after last season are still concerns after this season. I really pity our good owner, FSG, and obviously, we loyal fans.

    ReplyDelete
  49. Considering Ings is going to cost maybe 5m (and that's up to the tribunal), I can't imagine he'll be blowing through a large portion of the summer budget.


    Combine that with Gerrard and Johnson's wages coming off the books, I have a feeling the club will be more inclined to go after a bigger splash because they'll be able to offer higher wages.


    Gerrard and Glen, combined, were earning around 250k per week. If we went out after one big player for say 175k per week, we'd still be ahead of where we were with those two.


    Not to say that will happen. Just a gut feeling on my part.


    Of course, that may very well turn into a punch in the gut.

    ReplyDelete
  50. The way I look at it... if there wasn't a concern, he wouldn't need to make a comment.

    ReplyDelete
  51. I think LS and DS were the main cast that brought us the heights of season 13/14. I'm seriously don't think BR is capable of repeating that feat after LS left us. Our very last world-class player in SG left us after this season. It will be dream come true if we can mount a decent challenge for fourth position in the coming season, which I deemed as more than an uphill task.

    ReplyDelete
  52. When someone is out of his depth it means a lot ...

    ReplyDelete
  53. It really looks that way at the moment !
    Unless the newspapers are just making up story's ?

    ReplyDelete
  54. There are free players out there who are miles better than markovic (20M), Lallana(25M), Lovren(20M). A total of 65M being flushed down the toilet

    ReplyDelete
  55. With Brendan's history when it comes to signing players, you don't need a reliable source to believe it

    ReplyDelete
  56. How good was Benteke on Saturday. (Not £32m good)

    ReplyDelete
  57. Maybe we can recoup a third of it after this season...

    ReplyDelete
  58. I think there is one of two things going on here, either this bloke has an extremely hih and a tad deluded opinion of himself, or he has Liverpools number and knows they are not all they should be.... They're the only reasons I can think of him thinkng he can walk into LFC....Give him a wid birth, especially if we are really trying to portray to the world that we have a standard we endeavor to reach.

    ReplyDelete
  59. What a team they already have...

    ReplyDelete
  60. Hard to say that Benteke isn't worth 35M when we paid 25m for Lallana.

    ReplyDelete
  61. That said he isn't worth it

    ReplyDelete
  62. Benteke alone cost 30 mil pounds, even though none of the top four EPL clubs and European big-guns has expressed any interest in signing, especially after the FA Cup finals. Moreover, I wont't see him wanting anything less than what Glen Johnson or Steven Gerrard is getting this season. Clyne will not be allowed to leave for anything less than 20 mil pounds, my guess of course. Then James Milner, at 29, rejected a 4-yr contract of 165k/week from Man City, supposedly. So I'm not expecting him to come to us happily collecting a 50k pounds pay cheque every week.

    Please, I hope I'll get a Tyson-punch at my gut after this summer. :(

    ReplyDelete
  63. Ian Rush P660 G3465:31 pm, June 01, 2015

    He said Tottenham too.
    He imo must know he's not good enough or the top teams so under that are Liverpool and Tottenham.

    ReplyDelete
  64. Well if they do decide to suck it and see with Rodgers until Christmas Klopp will be available then .... Also to get Ancelotti would be great and apparently he is going to give a decision to AC Milan on Wednesday mmm I wonder why ? After the FSG meeting with Rodgers perhaps ? i think that feelers would have been put out to both ..... We can only hope !

    ReplyDelete
  65. Sheshna Hauradhur5:52 pm, June 01, 2015

    should buy di maria,rooney,fellaini,.sell rodgers
    ,

    ReplyDelete
  66. Get a grip.
    We've sold "flops" with better stats than this guy.

    ReplyDelete
  67. Benteke - I don't think we'll pay upwards of 30m, at least all in cash. I can see us going in at 25m plus Lambert (as JK alluded to in his most recent post). There's also no way that we'd give him over 150k per week.


    Clyne - I don't think we get him as I think he'll be out of our price range.


    Milner - Supposedly, he's willing to take a little less money to play more often. My guess, based upon what I've read, is that he'll end up around 120k per week. Still too much in my opinion, but significantly less than what Man City would offer him.


    The whole wild card here is Sterling... if we sell him, that will increase the overall budget tremendously.

    ReplyDelete
  68. Rodgers staying is fast becoming my worst fear, he has wasted so much money which has had far-reaching consequences on any progress he may have made. Rodgers is a great coach that can't be denied but he's far from ready for the job and is still far from ready in my opinion, to many signings have had little impact, the team is spineless and can be roughed up easily Stoke The Mancs, Chelsea, Arsenal, Stoke, Aston Villa have shown how easily it's done to us, he has an annoying tendency to over praise almost like a nursery school teacher, he tinkers about far to much with formations 6-1 is a fine example of that and playing with no recognised strikers, he makes remarks that tend to leave him looking foolish to many but a few reason that shows he is still not ready for the job, in all reality he should never have been given the job in the first place as he still has a lot to learn about managing...




    YNWA

    ReplyDelete
  69. Just not good and not for us......which means we'll probably sign him

    ReplyDelete
  70. I always feel Tevez is very similar to suarez . We should go for him.

    ReplyDelete
  71. Lallana isnt worth 25 million though.

    ReplyDelete
  72. I'm just being mean....But Spurs are welcome..

    ReplyDelete
  73. Not many Bundesliga exports have done well for us - Voronin, Riedle, Sean Dundee?? Sure Didi played over there but he was already accustomed to the Premier League.

    ReplyDelete