Premier League: Liverpool Transfer Rumours – The Bid for Loic Remy, Wayne Bridge
The Manchester City rumour mill is running in over drive for sure, but another rumour mill that is also churning faster than it should is that of Liverpool. They have just completed the signing of Joe Cole, and are now in the market for another striker and a left back.
Liverpool have offloaded both their established left backs from last season, as Emiliano Insua joined Fiorentina and Fabio Aurelio has also moved on (after his contract with Liverpool expired in June 2010, he is a free agent).
Liverpool are now in desperate need of a wingback and have turned their attentions to Manchester City’s Wayne Bridge. Bridge has not been a regular in the City’s first team, and since the arrival of Aleksander Kolarov from Lazio for 17 million pounds, he is even less likely to be featuring in the first team. Liverpool will present the perfect opportunity to the ex-English left back for first team football and also offer continental football in the Europa League.
Bridge only just signed for the Citizens in 2009 for 10 million pounds and with no free flow of funds at Kop, Liverpool will surely struggle to land the defender.
Liverpool are also facing competition from West Ham and Tottenham to sign Loic Remy from OGC Nice. Liverpool are busy in the transfer market as Roy Hodgson is trying to sell the players he considers won’t be necessary for the team in the coming season, and with the money generated from these transfers he is buying new players. However, at the moment, the future of Albert Riera and Javier Mascherano is still uncertain and with West Ham already making a bid of 13 million pounds for the striker, Liverpool might struggle.
Liverpool, although, have offered a player exchange to Nice, as they are offering Nabil El Zahr and Damien Plessis, who are both rated at 7 million, for the striker who is valued at around 14 million by his parent club.
Liverpool are in desperate need of a back-up striker, as their injury prone front man might not be able to meet the demands of a gruelling English season and might require some rest, and with Liverpool also playing in the Europa league, the season’s fixture list is bound to be a very congested one. A back-up striker is a must, as Ryan Babel is also linked with a move away from the Kop (he is on the AC Milan hit list) and that only leaves Fernando Torres as the established striker in the team. However, Hodgson is wary of that situation and is trying his best to sign Remy.
Another front where Hodgson’s life is not easy is the central midfield department, where Argentine national team captain Javier Mascherano plays. Mascherano is not happy with the state of affairs at the club, and has expressed his desire to join his former manager, Rafael Benitez at Inter Milan. However, Liverpool are not going to let go of their midfield lynchpin for cheap, as they value the Argentinean skipper at around 30 million pounds. Inter’s evaluation of the player, on the other hand, is somewhat short of that at only 20 million pounds.
Another man who is deemed surplus to requirements at the club is the Spanish winger Albert Riera, who after a public outburst at his then manager Rafael Benitez, backtracked to attempt to win back the love of the fans, but has failed miserably in doing so and is now linked with a 7 million pound move to Greek giants Olympiacos. It is believed that the Greek side has already made an offer of around 4.5 million pounds, but Liverpool are in desperate need of money and for a player that they bought for 8 million pounds in 2008, they are not going to accept a 4.5 million pound bid.
Finally, one player that Liverpool has secured the services of is Danny Wilson of Rangers for an undisclosed amount of fees. Experts believe that Liverpool have paid 5 million pounds to ‘The Gers’ for the services of the centre back, who is Scotland’s leading talent.
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