Liverpool interested in PSV Eindhoven forward Ola Toivonen
There is one thing that has been stable at Liverpool since the arrival of Roy Hodgson at Anfield, and, that has been Roy Hodgson himself.
He had promised that the Merseyside would witness a revival of Reds and he has delivered that promise. After the dismissive performance last season, all fans and experts were expecting a poor show from Liverpool. But smart thinking and prudence from Hodgson has brought contrary results.
Hodgson has been able to produce an average performance during the summers but that was not his paramount success in the pre-seasonal drama. He was able to contain many players that were on the verge of leaving Kop. He convinced Fernando Torres and Steven Gerrard to stay at Anfield. Their stay at the club was crucial for the club’s revival in the coming season.
Apart from containing many players the club has been able to make some clever signings. For instance, the signing of Serbian star from the FIFA 2010 World Cup in South Africa, Milan Jovanovic, along with Scottish Danny Wilson. They both have a promising bright future with the Reds.
Along with them are two other vital signings that will make a great difference this season and those are of former Chelsea player, Joe Cole, and the Danish international, Christian Poulsen. Joe Cole came for free, after Chelsea refused a renewal of contract, while Poulsen transferred from Juventus.
Hodgson is confident that his choices will help Liverpool regain former glory. However, he stated earlier, that the Reds are not out of the market yet. They have now claimed interest in the PSV Eindhoven striker, Ola Toivonen.
Reports have it that Liverpool has made a 9 million pound offer to the club and negotiations have started. This seems to be a wise decision from Hodgson, as he is planning to have a starring shadow striker to assist the coveted Spanish striker, Fernando Torres.
Recently Torres’ performance has been poor. He was found lacking in all departments during the World Cup and got himself demoted from the starting line-up. Then he got injured in the closing moments of the Final.
Nevertheless, the world class striker has always been valued and Hodgson wants the Spanish international, Ola Toivonen, to join the Liverpool assault. Toivonen plays as a shadow striker, which would be perfect to assist Torres.
The 24-year old Toivonen, also has experience playing as an attacking midfielder. Therefore, he would give the Scousers additional options of shuffling around their players and trying out new strategies.
However, there would be a catch in the transfer. The Swedish star has played against Sibir Novosibirsk in the Europa League Cup match. As he has already played in Europe with another team, he will not be able to play for Liverpool in the continent, but would be available for other fixtures.
The signing of the player also depends upon QSL, the Chinese company that was willing to buy the club, but they have now claimed that they are backing out from their bid.
They have claimed that Liverpool board’s incompetence to sit on at a table and resolve the matter has led to their change of heart. There were two obstacles preventing the deal from taking place.
The first one was the price of the club. While the second one was Liverpool’s demand to know where the funding or rather the money the Hong Kong based company was using to buy the club was coming from.
Two years back, the Merseyside was producing excellent results with their value reaching up to 700 million pounds but now it’s around 400-500 million pounds. Mainly because of their dismissive performance last season which ended with the club finishing 7th in EPL.
They are also facing a financial crisis, being in debts of around 350 million pounds. Kenny Huang, the man who was leading the bid, had offered around 350 million pounds. The American owners had however disagreed and wanted 700 million pounds.
Additionally, it was rumoured that the Chinese government was funding the company project which was actually true as the company planned sporting arrangements for them. When the organization went to Royal Bank of Scotland for loans that further complicated the process and therefore the deal went stale.
Nevertheless, Liverpool is set for a comeback this season and their players do look in good form. If Hodgson guides them well and the players put in a bit of effort, with the company of lady luck, they might just end up winning the title this season.
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