Liverpool Banter Archive February 05 2014

05 Feb 2014 20:12:19
Eds and Reds.

What potential do you believe Sterling and Ibe have? International? World Class?
Sterling. for me, in the last 3 months has kicked on maturity-wise and seems to be making much better decisions and utilising his talents in more important situations for the team.
I've always liked Jordan Ibe, simply for his physical attributes, and thought he'd be heavily involved within the squad this season, yet he doesn't seem to be getting too much of a look-in. Does anyone know how highly he is regarded by the club?
Thanks, YNWA

Think Sterling definitely has international quality in him but dunno about world class, though hard to tell! He has loads of talent but one think that impresses me is he seems very mature for a player his age. As in doesn't just run at defenders (Townsend), seems to try play the game properly and impressed with his defensive contribution Though think he still needs to work on his decision making in the final third (often tries to pass when he can shot or vice versa) and dunno how his athleticism (size and strength) will limit him, know it isn't essential just unsure if he ability will compensate for it, though has pace so hard to tell. In fairness think a lot depends on attitude and commitment, if he applies himself and keeps working hard who knows could easily be a world class player! Haven't seen much if Ibe though!

I think he has been excellent for us this season. He has stepped up his game and has continuously proven to be one of our main attacking threats.

For me, he will be world class. At only 19 years old he is already showing world class qualities. He knows when to get forward and he knows when to defend. You would expect someone of his stature to be easily shrugged of the ball, but he is strong and knows how to use his body effectively. Playing alongside Suarez, Sturridge and Gerrard will only help him improve all aspects of his game and I am confident he will be a key player for years to come.

Under Rodgers we have seen Cole, Maxi, Kuyt, Downing, Assaidi* and Bellamy depart leaving Sterling and Ibe our only natural wingers. We do have Moses, but thankfully only on loan. A lot of faith has been placed in Sterling and he is repaying that faith with excellent performances week in week out. We have a significantly smaller wage bill too.

Red Rum

And what do people think of Ibe? Personally I haven't seen enough of him mostly just preseason. But from what I've seen I think he has great promise, certainly better physical attributes than Sterling. Previously I thought he had more promise than Sterling and I did doubt Sterling after his drop off last season, but since December he has been exceptional and the best thing is he will improve. So what do people think of Ibe?

Sterling's strength has impressed me this season. For such a small guy, he doesn't get bullied off the ball very easily, and he's always willing to try and win the ball in 50-50's, and does it pretty well. Been very impressed with how he has played, and it's meant the big January signing everyone was desperate for won't be terribly missed.

05 Feb 2014 18:15:54
IBTimes UK can exclusively reveal that Mohamed Salah wanted to move to Liverpool in January, but chose Chelsea because he felt the Reds disrespected him.

. just read this and although I'd promised to move on it does become an itch you can't scratch. The article goes on to confirm what fans feared; Liverpool dissing the player by their low offer and dilly dallying until Chelsea came in and by that time it was too late. WHY? WHOSE IDEA IS IT TO BID LOW? DID WE BID LOW ON PURPOSE?
The same newspaper report Kono being resentful for not having moved to Liverpool.
The worst points of note of this whole stinking episodes are the fact that BOTH PLAYERS WANTED TO COME TO LIVERPOOL!

Sorry to bring these up, but I do think the club owes the fans an explanation, and perhaps a private inquest by JH and Werner to find out (if they don't already know) what actually happened.

Sorry again guys, Promise not to mention it again.

Lfc bid what they valued the player at. Its that simple.

I fail to see how placing a bid for a player regardless of the value is disrespectful to him. The value is something agreed between the clubs, so if anything it's disrespectful to them. If he's that much of a sensitive flower then perhaps it's best we missed out!

That said, whilst I applaud the principle of not over-paying, some of our negotiating tactics are very amateurish. And I'd like the owners to address that in whatever capacity they see fit during the summer.

{Ed001's Note - I find it a bit strange that a player could claim to want a move to one club, while stating at the time that he wanted to join Man Utd or Chelsea. Seems like it is just a load of bull to me.}

Fanatic, don`t be fooled by these players. They are like politicians who want to take credit for everything BUT take the blame for nothing. Salah wanted to come here YET he said he wanted to go to the mancs, RM or any CL club. Us disrespecting him is a load of s***t. S`hampton offered more money than we did for coutinho BUT he demanded the Lfc move and Inter had no choice but to sell him to us because they needed the money. If he REALLY wanted to come here he could have done a "coutinho" and made it happen. Basel CANNOT force him to go where he doesn`t want to go. He`s trying to have it both ways and justify his motives like Gylfi and the rest did and where are they now? He should shot his gob and take his place on the Chavs` bench.

Well first of all of this is paper talk. But if we can agree to rely on paper talk then what would everyone make of Brendan Rodgers words today. "I think for us, as a team, it's too early for that [the title]." Rodgers told ssn. "I was at the Manchester City-Chelsea game the other night and I look at the squads they have, which they have built up over the last few years, and it's very difficult for us, even though we have competed right the way through the season. So, I wouldn't say for us this year, no. We wouldn't be challengers for it." What happens when the injury prone Sturridge gets injured again or Coutinho's form dips AGAIN. If there was a British boxing champ out there who was ready for a shot at the title would anyone be bitter with him for pursuing that title shot? These players want to play in the Champions League. Suarez feels the same way. Sturridge has scored 24 goals in 30 games so we could realistically be looking at the next Eto or Henry here. I wouldn't be surprised if Arsenal or PSG come in for him in the summer. Can Lfc really compete. Is it that Salah is only good enough for Chelsea's bench or is it just sour grapes?

Two words for Mr. Salah and his agent:

Who cares?

Enjoy London. You will have plenty of energy to do so, after a day spent sitting on a bench.

I posted yesterday stating my opinions on some of the failed dealings, below is some of what I posted.

Are we really that inept at transfer dealings to make offers to clubs way under their valuation and expect to sit back for 2 ½ months and wait for the phone to ring, (Salah)
I think you'll find as a rule of thumb the selling club prices their own players not us?Do we do enough to make the player feel wanted (by drastically under valuing them)?

A lot of supporters would like to believe otherwise, But I for one knew this would come out sooner or later.

If we think 11m is drastically over priced then when why get involved with a silly offer?

{Ed001's Note - or perhaps we just didn't want to pay any more for a player making public statements about how he wanted to play for Man Utd or Chelsea? This story in the papers is complete fantasy bull. He never wanted to come, so we didn't push the move as hard as we could. If he had been so desperate to come as the nonsense alleges, the club would have pushed harder to get him.}

This reminds me a lot of torres's comments after he left us. I agree with the poster above, this is just a political comment.

06 Feb 2014 15:28:34
There you have it folks. The news papers are full of fantasies. News paper's objective is only to draw your attention so that you can see the advertising on the page. Its commercial. No respect for the truth.

Does he offer anything Sterling doesn't?

05 Feb 2014 17:06:03
Interesting quote from International business times

"Salah was disappointed with Liverpool", the source told IBTimes UK.

Liverpool cooled off on the negotiations because they wanted to force Basel's hand with the timing of the deal. Then, in early January, they launched a new offer, "which exceeded the previous but still was not enough to consider acceptable".

The Egyptian and his entourage were worried that Liverpool were not taking the deal seriously, while Bayer Leverkusen, Borussia Dortmund and Atletico Madrid showed interest in the player.

Salah immediately ruled out a move to either of the German sides as he did not like the Bundesliga, and although he was very attracted to the idea of ​moving to La Liga, Atletico manager Diego Simeone did not want to do the deal until the summer, while Salah was keen to move immediately.

Fearful that offers from other teams could tempt Salah, the Reds approached the player again. "Despite his initial disappointment, Salah was still dreaming about playing for Liverpool" IBT's source said.

However, the bid, around £11m, was once again too low for Basel.

Meanwhile, Chelsea decided to sell Juan Mata to Manchester United and Jose Mourinho asked his officials to sign Salah as a replacement for the Spaniard.

The Blues launched a bid to hijack Liverpool and "only then, knowing that they were set to suffer a huge setback, Liverpool made a serious offer" according to our source.

YWN. He should be quiet and enjoy the bench.

05 Feb 2014 15:51:04
stephanie caicedo Go on Andre La!

05 Feb 2014 14:40:11
Solve our 3rd striker problem by selling Aspas & selling Borini to Udinese plus money from selling Aspas for Luis Muriel.

Keep both for another year well at least borini, fighting hard at Sunderland he's getting a run of games at last and playing well, we should give that man a chance!

05 Feb 2014 12:42:21
Eds, what do u think of gerrard playing the holding midfield position? I think he will succeed then we can let go of someone else and bring in a world class box to box midfielder to partner gerrard .

{Ed001's Note - even if he does succeed, it is still only a temporary situation as he is not going to be there for more than 5 years. Plus we still need cover for injuries and illness.}

05 Feb 2014 12:18:48
One good thing came of the West Brom game; I finally don't have Martinez's whining voice on repeat at the top of the page anymore!

YNWAdam

True.

05 Feb 2014 11:04:17
Paul Ince reckons we missed out on Tom in the window. Errr ok then Paul, must be terrible being out of the game and doing your best to be important
YNWA JFT96

05 Feb 2014 12:16:33
Ince is a good player, but just the fact his dad would be around the place again means we've dodged a bullet!

YNWAdam

05 Feb 2014 09:27:12
Following on from the optomistic posts for top 4, I feel 10 plus points from our next five games and we're in a great spot for top 4.

Personally wins agains Fulham swanswea and Sunderland will be key.

Personally in this time on a unbiased basis I see Tottenham and Everton getting 8 points a piece with the teams dropping points against each other this week and away against Newcastle and Chelsea who they both have in the next 5.

All assumptions of course but this will give us a minimum of 4 and 5 points respectively gap over the two teams going into the last 9 games which imo would be a fantastic place to be in!.

Thoughts reds?

Its possible? The thing is though were thought to be having a good to great season? Whereas if you talk to spurs fans they think/know/believe their having an atrocious season! Yet they are still on our coat tails! Arsenal could still yet catch a cold? Everton I think already have?

Chiswick compared to last season we are having a good season and if we beat Arsenal on weekend we are then on the coat tails of the leading 3

Yes and we thought we were a shoe in for 3 points against West Brom and look how that fiasco turned out.
Let's stop with the 'we need x points' and let's just take it game by game and see what happens.

Mate, Everton are still very much in the race. The Spurs fans clearly need to have their ambitions put in check if they think that 3 points off top 4 at this point is a bad season. West Brom away was always going to pose problems, however we caught them at a good time to take all 3 points. Think of it an opportunity missed but we are still in the driving seat.

05 Feb 2014 00:06:00
Hello Ed's,
Heard that Seydou Keita said he was near a move to Liverpool as a free agent this January but chose Valencia instead. What type of impact do you think his signing to lfc would have made and do you think these are the right types of players to be targeting?

{Ed001's Note - I don't rate him at all. He is quick and tall, but awkward on the ball. Never understood why on earth Barca wanted him, until I found out how bad their finances are and that he was initially very cheap.}

So I guess it seems like another desperate last minute attempt from lfc to sign someone. ed 001 do you think there will be any changes to the way the transfer committee aproaches business in the summer? Do you think John Henry will have a talk with them and Ayre about transfer negotiations. I assume this summer will also be a difficult market due to the world cup and players will not want to move until afterwards.

{Ed001's Note - it wasn't a desperate last minute attempt at all. It was a player available on a free being targeted to provide some cover in midfield due to Lucas being injured. Not a player I personally like, but I would say he is better than another player we had considered in Diame. They are very similar, gangly, awkward players who run around a lot and look like they are doing a lot more than they actually are.}