Liverpool sign Denmark midfielder Christian Poulsen
Liverpool have signed Danish international Christian Poulsen on a three-year contract.
The 30-year-old moves to Anfield from Juventus for around £4.5million after spending the last few days on Merseyside undergoing a medical. He will wear the No. 28 shirt.
An experienced defensive midfielder with 77 caps, Poulsen played in all three of Denmark’s matches at this summer’s World Cup, and will link up again with Reds manager Roy Hodgson – who he played under at FC Copenhagen, winning the Danish championship in the 2000/01.
The Dane is likely to be followed through the Anfield doors by Middlesbrough goalkeeper Brad Jones, with the Australian set to complete a £2million move to Anfield in the coming days, but Javier Mascherano’s exit looks increasingly inevitable, with the Argentina captain admitting his desire for a move after his country’s friendly with the Republic of Ireland in Dublin last night. Both Barcelona and Inter Milan remain interested.
Carlton Cole, Stephen Warnock and Stiliyan Petrov all continue to be linked with moves to Liverpool, although all look unlikely.
Elsewhere, a potential triangle of goalkeeper moves has been mooted, with Arsenal’s Manuel Almunia interesting Aston Villa, whose current goalkeeper Brad Friedel is wanted by Fulham to replace the wantaway Mark Schwarzer, who is in demand at – conveniently – Arsenal.
Meanwhile, virtually half the Premier League had scouts in Oslo last night to watch the in demand Loïc Rémy play just 45 minutes for France against Norway. Still no bid is forthcoming though, but one man definitely on the move is Manchester United’s Danny Welbeck, who’s off to Sunderland on a season-long loan deal, presumably to make way for the 20-year-old Portuguese forward Bebe, who joined from Vitória de Guimarães for around £7million last night. Little is known about the forward, although he did once represent Portugal at the Homeless World Cup.
Roque Santa Cruz will always have a home with Mark Hughes around, and the Welshman is plotting a deal to sigh the Paraguayan for a third time, this time for Fulham, while the protracted James Milner to Manchester City transfer appears to stalling due to Stephen Ireland’s reluctance to move in the other direction, as he holds out for a switch to Spurs.
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