EPL - Liverpool’s transfer window activity
The most-talked about transfer in the English Premier League this season was of Joe Cole joining Liverpool. His former club Chelsea announced before the World Cup that his contract would not renewed and speculations were rife that he could join Manchester United, Arsenal or his former coach Harry Redknapp at Tottenham Hotspurs. The new coach Roy Hodgson was understandably very excited in getting his man, as Cole has all the credentials to bring back the lost glory days to Anfield.
However, Cole did not have the best of starts to his career at Liverpool. He was shown straight red in his club debut against Arsenal in front of the Kop and then missed a spot-kick the same week against the Turkish outfit Trabzonspor in a Europa League qualifier.
Javier Mascherano looks set to exit the Anfield gates before the current transfer window ends. The former Liverpool boss Rafael Benitez has already made an offer of 20 million pounds for taking the player to his new club and current Champions League holders Inter Milan. Barcelona are interested in adding the player to their ranks, as they have lost Yaya Toure to Manchester City this season and could not make Arsenal agree to sell them Cesc Fabregas.
Hodgson has already brought in cover for Mascherano. The Danish playmaker Christian Poulsen has joined from Juventus in a 4.5 million pounds move. Hodgson has worked with the 30-year-old player before during his days at FC Copenhagen and gave him his first professional contract in year 2000. Last year’s 20 million pound signing Alberto Aquilani has moved in the opposite direction to Juventus on season-long loan.
The biggest challenge for Liverpool and Hodgson in this transfer window was to keep hold of their talisman skipper Steven Gerrard and star striker Fernando Torres. Some may also argue that both the players chose to stay at Liverpool only because they could not get a better option from any other club in England or the rest of the Europe.
The only realistic option for Gerrard could be Real Madrid but both he and Kaka cannot play together in the same team (should sound familiar to the England supporters with regards to Gerrard and Lampard) so it is thought that the La Liga giants opted not to pursue for Gerrard, although their new coach Jose Mourinho was keen to take him to Santiago Bernabeu like he also tried to do so in his days at Chelsea.
Torres, on the other hand, had reported interest from Manchester City (who actually seem to be interested in any footballer out there) but it would have been a step downward for him. Apparently, he is unwilling to join Real Madrid as they are the big city rivals of his childhood club Athletico Madrid, Barcelona had purchased his Spanish national team strike partner David Villa at the end of the last season and Chelsea already have two prolific strikers in shape of Didier Drogba and Nicolas Anelka.
Another major reason for other clubs not pursuing their chase for Torres could be the ever-increasing concerns over his general fitness. Before his move to Liverpool in the 2007 summer from Spain, he had wonderful fitness levels and was virtually ever-present for his club Athletico Madrid.
In his six full seasons with the club, Torres played over 92% of the La Liga matches (which include featuring in all 38 league matches in 2004-05 season) but this percentage has gone below 70% after his move to England. Surely, the physical demands of the English Premier League are taking its toll on El Nino, as he was known by the Athletico Madrid faithful, meaning “The Kid.”
Still, Torres remains an extremely important player for the Anfield club in their hopes of revival. Despite being on and off in terms of injuries, Torres scored 18 goals in his 22 league appearances in 2009-10 campaign. Liverpool supporters must be wondering what they would have achieved if Torres was playing regularly in the disastrous last season.
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