Part 4: Premier League Transfers
Liverpool: Liverpool, had formerly been one of the teams that formed the big four in the Premier League and were voted to be amongst Europe’s elite clubs. However recently the team has done its level best to fall from grace. The team finished at the seventh sport last season, which was well out of the minimum requirements needed to qualify for the Champions League. The team however did manage to make it to the play offs of the Europa League.
However this lack of form and poor track record saw several key changes occur at Anfield. Firstly Rafa Benitez was fired and Roy Hodgson was brought in to replace him and take over as the new manager of the team.
Then there was the age long saga of Fernando Torres, Steven Gerrard and Javier Mascherano leaving the team. After a long summer and all three players being linked to numerous clubs, Steven Gerrard and Torres decided to commit their future to the team. Whereas Mascherano completed his move to Barcelona this past weekend.
The reason for two of those players deciding to stay at the club was the addition of, Joe Cole to the squad. The player was heavily linked to various other teams but eventually it was Liverpool who were willing to meet the players wage demands and hence he joined the team. This addition of the England international led to more players committing their future to the Anfield team, however Mascherano was not one of those players.
The players that were brought into Anfield this summer include: Christian Poulsen, Brad Jones, Danny Wilson, Jonjo Shelvey, Iaia Embarlo, Joe Cole, Milan Jovanovic, Raul Meireles
Whereas the player that were allowed to leave the club were: Yossi Benayoun, Albert Riera, Kristin Nemeth, Diego Cavalieri, Mikel San Jose, James Ellison, David Martin, Ray Putterill, Robbie Threlfall, Alberto Aquilani (L), Philipp Degen (L), Francesco Manuel Duran, Christopher Oldfield, Javier Mascherano
Roy Hodgson immediately went in and brought in replacements to play in the holding midfielder position at the team. The two players who he brought in for that specific position were, Poulsen and Meireles. Both the players had been tremendous for their clubs and countries prior to joining Liverpool and the manager was hoping that they would be able to continue that run of form at the club.
Hodgson also went on to say that he felt that his squad was now complete and that the team didn’t need much further strengthening to have a good season. However the manager also concluded by saying that if he was to add a player, then that would be a world class striker to help partner Torres up front. His current back up to Torres is N Gog who is still quite raw on his talent and has a lot of developing to do.
The manager was previously believed to be holding talks with West Ham regarding a player swap which would see Ryan Babel going to West Ham and Carlton Cole going the other way to join Liverpool. However if the manager wishes for the move to go through he would have to act fast since the window is due to close shortly.
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