Chelsea and Porto have reportedly settled on a £38 million transfer fee for striker Hulk, with a move set to be wrapped up in forthcoming days according to The Guardian.
The west London club have been splashing Roman Abramovich’s money in a bid to revamp their squad ahead of next season, with deals for Eden Hazard, Marko Marin and Kevin De Bruyne already in place.
With Didier Drogba leaving the club on a free transfer the Stamford Bridge side are eager to bring in a replacement frontman, with the burly Brazilian earmarked as the next big-name signing.
Chelsea are thought to have initially offered £30 million for the South American, however Porto were keen to recoup £40 million for the star.
However, with the help of financial facilitators assisting in the negotiation process, a fee of £38 million is said to have been agreed.
Hulk now only has to agree personal terms with the Champions League winners, which is said to be a formality, and pass a medical in west London.
Similar to the Hazard deal, owner Abramovich is said to have taken a hands on role in securing the transfer, with technical director Michael Emenalo assisting in the absence of a full-time manager.
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Liverpool are said to have agreed a fee of £12 million with Roma for the potential transfer of striker Fabio Borini, Mirror Football report.
Brendan Rodgers is keen to bolster his new squad this summer, with the contingent’s attack in need of a revamp after a poor goalscoring display in 2011-12.
The Northern Irish coach knows the Italian forward well, as Borini spent a loan spell at Swansea when Rodgers was in charge at the Liberty Stadium.
With Andy Carroll appearing to be surplus to requirements at Anfield, Rodgers has moved quickly to try and bring Borini to Merseyside.
The sprightly marksman spent last season on loan with Roma, and the capital city side bought his full ownership rights from Parma earlier this summer.
Despite this, the Serie A outfit are seemingly willing to listen to offers for their striker with Liverpool now given access to talk to the player after a fee was agreed.
A deal for the forward is thought to be close to being wrapped up, which would make Borini Rodgers’ first signing as Reds boss.
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Liverpool defender Daniel Agger has been the subject of some serious interest from Manchester City the past week or so, but how crucial is he to Brendan Rodgers vision at the club? Can you really put a price on such a key player?
The 27 year-old centre-back is now entering his eighth season at Anfield, during which he’s feature for the first-team just 167 times, which works out at an average of 24 games in the seven seasons to date so far. This little fact in itself partly explains why Rodgers is thought to be considering an approach for the Danish international – at no point in his career has he ever played more than 30 league games, so with that in mind, isn’t a figure around the £20m mark perfectly reasonable?
It certainly is, although you’d hope that Liverpool, even with their famed poor negotiating skills and ability to get a decent price for most of their players would be able to push that up a few notches, such is City’s need to add strength in depth to their defence, or generally just sign anybody, such are Roberto Mancini’s frustrations in the transfer market.
Nonetheless, this completely misses the point of how important Agger is to the future of this Liverpool side and how key his partnership at centre-back is alongside Martin Skrtel. In Agger’s absence last season straight after he picked up a rib injury in the Carling Cup final triumph against Cardiff City, the side managed to pick up just three points from a possible 18 in the league; they kept just one clean sheet and shipped 11 goals in the process, which sums up rather neatly just how integral he is to the back four.
That is no coincidence and Skrtel plays far better alongside an authoritative partner, willing to dictate the back four and as he’s matured, Agger has increasingly become that sort of player, taking over the mantle from Jamie Carragher, who has seen his role in the side reduced.
You also have to take into account that if Liverpool did actually sell Agger this summer, who on earth would they replace him with? It’s hardly like ball-playing centre-backs with proven international and European experience are growing on trees and any proposed switch could have the potential to disrupt the balance of the entire side.
Names such as Ashley Williams, Diego Godin and Simon Kjaer have all been mooted in the past, but you’d take Agger over any one of them at the moment, and talk of luring Mats Hummels from German champions Borussia Dortmund is fanciful at best, with the club not willing to offer the defender Champions League football at present, while the Bundesliga side obviously can.
Agger is an experienced member of this squad, which is a lot younger than you’d initially think. Rodgers clearly wants the side to play the ball out from the back, as was clear by their reluctance to hoof it forward on the few rare occasions when they were actually put under any pressure by FC Gomel at Anfield, and Agger fits this style down to the ground.
So far, Rodgers has adopted a very pragmatic approach to interest in the club’s players, rather reasonably stating that every player has their price – most manager would obviously never say such a thing as it provokes a media storm, but it’s definitely true and at least Rodgers is willing to admit it.
It appears as if there’s just not the funds and he may have to sell before he buys, stating earlier in the week: “The reality is we don’t the money that was here. I don’t have a bucket-load of money to go and get in a load of players. We have to be strategic.” Strategic can be used as a byword for ‘skint’ in this instance and alongside Suarez, Agger is one of the club’s only real saleable assets, but unless there’s a replacement of equal ability available, which there isn’t, then there’s simply no point in giving any move the green light.
Before the Europa League game, Rodgers had this to say: “Of course you might lose a top player but if it benefits you going forward and you can make two or three steps because of it – you may have to consider it” but after the win he offered this: “For me there’s no update because we don’t want to sell him. He’s a player who’s very important for me and will remain that way.”
Both are rather contradictory remarks and Rodgers is playing a canny game, emphasising his importance to the side, while he’s stated in the past that it would take a ‘ridiculous’ offer to tempt him to sell – we all know that given recent history, Manchester City are somewhat prone to ridiculous offers for players they desperately want.
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Nevertheless, there is no real inclination that Agger actually wants to move and while it may seem like a bit of a silly point to make, he does have a ‘YNWA’ tattooed on the knuckles of his right hand, which would indicate a degree of loyalty, which someone like Skrtel would do well to follow suit on, given his previously cryptic remarks when confronted with similar speculation earlier on in the summer.
Agger is a hugely integral figure to this current Liverpool side, just as much as Steven Gerrard, Luis Suarez and Lucas Leiva are and if the club have serious ambitions of having a real go at cracking the top six again in the coming campaign, then they need to keep hold of their best players and the cultured Dane certainly falls into that category and then some.
Manchester City boss Roberto Mancini has admitted that he wants to strengthen his squad before the end of the transfer window, but will have one eye on the future when selecting his targets.
The Premier League champions have been surprisingly quiet in the transfer window this summer to date, with no additions at the Etihad Stadium to report.
However, the Italian trainer has revealed that he wants a number of new faces at the club before the start of 2012-13.
“We are a young team because we have played together for only two years,” Mancini told Sky Sports.
“We won after 50 years. We need to work harder than last year and we need to buy the players that will help the team to improve.
“We don’t need big changes. We don’t need 10 players like maybe two or three years ago.
“But we need three or four or five players and in these five players will be young guys for the future because it is important to put young players in the squad and make them as good as the players that we have.” he finished.
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During Manchester United’s opening game of last season, alarm bells started ringing.
United led West Brom 1-0 at the Hawthorns, courtesy of an early Wayne Rooney strike, and looked in cruise control. Until a speculative effort from Shane Long slipped under the hands of United’s new number 1, and then from nowhere West Brom had pulled themselves level.
Welcome to English football David De Gea.
United went on to win the game 2-1, but all the talk after the game, from press, pundits and fans, was how was this young Spaniard going to replace legendary goalkeeper Edwin Van der sar?
De Gea looked nervous on crosses and somewhat lightweight. West Brom could sense it, the fans could sense it, and even Ferguson was chewing his Wrigleys faster than usual on the touchline.
After all, it was his decision to gamble £18 million on the 20-year-old Spaniard, who had impressed during his time at Atletico Madrid.
The West Brom error seemed to stick with De Gea for some time. Errors followed in the Champions league against Benfica and Basel, and the Spaniard had to pick the ball out of his net six times as United were mauled 6-1 by rivals Manchester City in October.
However, De Gea still found he had the backing of his manager, as Ferguson fumed there was an ‘agenda’ against his young goalkeeper. He told reporters last September:
“There’s obviously an agenda on De Gea. We’ve experienced that in the press for some reason. They seem desperate for the boy to fail.
“That’s the impression I get and I don’t understand it. It’s nothing to do with his age. They never did that with Petr Cech.”
Things were going to get worse before they got better for the young goalkeeper.
Perhaps the most glaring error of all came during the New Years Eve fixture at home to Blackburn Rovers, as De Gea wished Fergie a happy 70th birthday in the worst possible fashion, by getting brutally out muscled from a corner to allow Grant Hanley to bundle home a Blackburn winner.
It seemed Ferguson’s patience had finally run out, and Anders Lindergaard was drafted in as De Gea took his place on the substitutes bench.
At this point De Gea’s dream of being mentioned in the same breath as Edwin Van der Sar, had turned into the nightmare of being mentioned in the same breath as Massimo Taibi, until an injury to Lindegaard saw him re instated. He has not looked back.
De Gea went on to record nine clean sheets in his next 18 games, and produced a man of the match performance in the 3-3 draw with Chelsea at Stamford Bridge. A spectacular late save from a Juan Mata free kick was described by many as the save of the season.
De Gea ended the season with a 78% save percentage, which was in fact the highest of the 2011/2012 Premier League season. It begs the question as to whether De Gea was to blame for United’s defensive frailties in the early part of the season, or whether he was let down by his defenders on too many occassions.
United seemed to miss the physical presence of Vidic last season on some occasions more than others. They ended the season with their second best defensive record in Premier league history, but had days where they looked especially vulnerable.
They conceded three goals at Chelsea, three at Newcastle, three at home to Blackburn, another three at home to Atletico Bilbao, and of course six at home to Manchester City.
And David De Gea proved his worth on several occassions, making several fine and crucial saves during the second half of the season.
Ferguson’s ‘agenda’ comments are perhaps not entirely inaccurate. There was always going to be a bedding in period for De Gea, as there is with any foreign player.
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The £18million price tag and the fact he was replacing a legend in Edwin Van Der Sar, was an exceptionally heavy burden to carry for a 20-year-old during his first few months in a foreign country.
Rival fans wanted him to fail, and the cruel world of goalkeeping meant every error was greeted with ironic cheers, and chants of ‘dodgy keeper’.
The statistics show that De Gea proved his worth in the second half of the season. With a year behind him, now is the time for Dea Gea to show everyone he is the “outstanding replacement for Edwin Van Der Sar” that his manager told everyone he would be.
You also feel he can only benefit from the return of Nemaja Vidic, and the opportunity to play behind a consistent centre back pairing. Rio Ferdinand, Chris Smalling, Jonny Evans and Phil Jones seemed to alternate on a weekly basis last season.
Everything seems in place for De Gea to build on the promise he showed in the second half of last season. The 2012/2013 season, is the time for the real David De Gea to stand up.
Wales captain Aaron Ramsey has stated that Gareth Bale is an important man for the nation ahead of their World Cup qualifier against Belgium.
The Celtic nation are expecting a tough game against the emerging central European nation, with Premier League superstars such as Eden Hazard and Marouane Fellaini in toe for the Belgians.
However, Ramsey has stated that Bale has the ability to outshine any of the opponents’ attacking players.
“This is the first game to actually qualify for Rio – that’s our target,” Ramsey told Mirror Football.
“Belgium is going to be a good test as they have some talented players playing at the highest level.
“But I personally wouldn’t swap Gareth for any of their lads. He is always a threat creating and scoring goals.
“He has that quality to whip in a ball or come inside and shoot from distance and cause a problem for the goalkeeper.
“You can’t say he has got off to a slow start, he’s created a few opportunities in the games I’ve seen on Match Of The Day.
“Spurs have had a tough start to the season but he has definitely shown on the training field he is as good as ever.
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“He has a few hat-tricks, like against Inter Milan when he tore Maicon apart. He is definitely a player who can be the key for us to unlocking defences,” the Arsenal midfielder concluded.
Arsenal continued their strong start to the season smashing six past Southampton who still searching for their first point since returning to the Premier League.
The Gunners were unbeaten in their first three games and had yet to concede a goal whilst their newly promoted opponents had endured a difficult start to life back in the top-flight.
It didn’t get any better for Nigel Adkins’ men at the Emirates Stadium as they were comprehensively outplayed by the home side and found themselves behind after just 11 minutes courtesy of a Jos Hooiveld own goal. Hooiveld was hauled off a minute before the Gunners scored again just after the half hour mark with Lukas Podolski curling a stunning 25-yard free kick past the despairing Kelvin Davis.
That kicked off a spell that saw Arsene Wengers’ men score twice in two minutes with the first coming courtesy Gervinho’s fierce strike before Nathaniel Clyne turned Kieron Gibbs’ cross into his own net. However the Saints were to have the last word in the first half as a mistake from Wojciech Szczesny gifted Danny Fox the opportunity to reduce the deficit.
Despite their dominance in the opening forty-five minutes Arsenal took their foot off the gas after the break and almost allowed the visitors a route back into the game but the usually reliable Rickie Lambert dragged his effort wide. That scare prompted the hosts to take control once again and Gervinho was on hand to make it 5-1 tapping in from close range after Aaron Ramsey’s effort came back off the post.
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Theo Walcott then came off the substitutes bench to apply the gloss with three minutes remaining latching onto Santi Cazorla’s through ball and finishing confidently past Davis to compound the misery of his former club who remain rock bottom.
Liverpool midfielder Jonjo Shelvey has been added to Roy Hodgson’s England squad for the upcoming World Cup qualifying fixtures against San Marino and Poland, Sky Sports report.
The Reds midfielder has grown in stature and importance at Anfield, and despite being sent off against Manchester United in a recent Premier League fixture, has impressed for Brendan Rodgers’ men.
Shelvey has scored a number of goals in the Europa League also, and has been promoted from the England under-21 side as cover for Frank Lampard.
The Chelsea man limped out of his side’s win over Norwich at the weekend, and at this stage is a doubt; Shelvey has been picked ahead of Manchester City’s Gareth Barry.
Meanwhile, Ryan Bertrand has also been added to the Three Lions’ contingent, after continuing his strong start to the 2012-13 campaign.
The versatile wideman comes in as a straight replacement for Arsenal’s Kieran Gibbs, who has dropped out with a thigh injury.
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Tony Pulis’ post match interview on Sunday afternoon was particularly hard to stomach for Liverpool fans.
The Welshman stood in front of the camera’s, clearly eager to get something off his chest. “I was disappointed with the number of bookings we received, and thought Liverpool should have had some more of their players cautioned.”
As soon as he was given the slightest push as to who he thought should of been carded, the Stoke boss launched an angry tirade against Luis Suarez for diving, in a rant that anybody who saw Sunday’s match will know, screamed hypocrisy.
“I’ve been on about and banging the drum about people who fall over,” said Pulis. “It’s an embarrassment. The FA should be looking at this.”
Pulis than had the audacity to claim Suarez should receive a three match ban, in a bid to stop him from “falling over.”
This is the same man who two weeks ago was praising Peter Crouch for scoring against Manchester City, despite a blatant handball in the build up.
Suarez was cheating to get an advantage for his team in the same way Crouch had done, something Pulis had advocated just 14 days previously.
Don’t get me wrong, the Suarez dive on Sunday was pathetic and it is something that needs to be stamped out of the game. Gareth Bale’s wasn’t much better on the same day, and it is fast becoming ridiculous.
But Pulis had clearly instructed his side to kick lumps out of Suarez all game, and the Uruguayan striker got little to no protection from referee Lee Mason.
Within four minutes Robert Huth had made a clear stamp that left a mark behind on the strikers chest. Mason ignored it, and despite video evidence there will be no retrospective punishment.
This was not just an isolated incident, Huth continued to cynically foul the Liverpool number seven at any given opportunity, and it remains a mystery as to how he stayed on the pitch.
The same could be said for many of Stoke’s players. Everyone knows they are a physical side, and they get results from playing to their strengths.
But Sunday was particularly brutal, with smaller, young players such as Raheem Sterling, Joe Allen and Suso being targeted time and again alongside Suarez.
Listening to Tony Pulis take the moral high ground after watching his players kick lumps out of Liverpool for 90 minutes was simply unbelievable.
One of the things most people want stamped out of the game is the fake card brandishing we see from players in an attempt to get others sent off.
Pulis has done exactly the same thing from the safety of his post match press conference, and should focus his energy on looking at his own players thuggery before criticizing Suarez.
It is especially disappointing as everyone knows Suarez is an easy target, and Pulis has simply jumped on the bandwagon to disrupt one of the most exciting if not controversial talents in the Premier League, something that is far to easy to do.
Whilst what Suarez did was wrong, you feel for him to some extent and saw it as an act of desperation after being kicked from pillar to post by Huth and co all afternoon, and continue to be ignored by the referee. Lee Mason actually laughed at his appeals following the Huth stamp.
There was no word from Pulis’ counter part Brendan Rodgers on the incident.
“They are a bunch of big men who make it difficult for you and there is no right or wrong way to play football,” he said.
“What I was proud of is our young guys stood up to that. It was a physical game but no complaints from us.”
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Rodgers take on the game has just made Pulis look all the more foolish.
I am not sure when the Stoke boss became the spokesperson for fair play in the Premier League, especially since his side have finished bottom of the fair play league three times in the last six seasons.
It would be nice to see an apology for his words and his own players actions on Sunday. But following his delusional comments on several occasions this season, it seems about as likely as a game going by without Luis Suarez making the headlines.
What do you think of Tony Pulis’ words? Is he being hypocritical or does he have a point? Follow me on Twitter @LukeGreenwood89 and let me know your thoughts.
When Brendan Rodgers sat down to his pre match press conference, he no doubt would have been expecting the first question to be about a certain Andy Carroll.
The saga involving the big striker has been the focal point of Rodgers Anfield reign thus far, with his decision to allow Liverpool’s record signing to leave on loan sparking controversy and confusion amongst the clubs supporters.
This has been compounded by the news summer signing Fabio Borini will be out for three months with a fractured foot, leaving Liverpool with Luis Suarez as their only available senior striker. This has led to speculation Carroll may be recalled from his loan spell as early as January, speculation Rodgers was quick to dismiss, as sure enough the first question centered around a possible return for the former Newcastle man.
‘I haven’t considered Andy coming back,’ Rodgers said somewhat dismissively. ‘He has gone to West Ham to get games under his belt. We have people watching when he plays and reporting back on how he does.”
The whole saga has been very strange from the off, and Rodgers hasn’t covered himself in glory during it. The current situation is that Liverpool have just one victory and six points from their opening seven Premier League games, and just one fit striker until January. Anything less than a win against Reading at Anfield tomorrow will see the knives sharpened once more.
Rodgers must secretly if not publicly wish he could walk to East London right now to bring Carroll back, such is the desperation surrounding Liverpool’s lack of attacking options. But his stubbornness in refusing to give the big striker any sort of first team chance has come back to haunt him.
It begs the question as to whether Rodgers decision to isolate Carroll, and subsequently go on to publicly criticize Stewart Downing, has shown a real flaw in his management style? Liverpool need all the goal scoring help they can get, and Rodgers has got on the wrong side of £50 million of Liverpool’s attacking talent before the end of October. Whether that’s an overpriced £50million remains irrelevant, Liverpool could do with a fit and firing Downing and Carroll as they search for crucial Premier League points.
There are those who will say Rodgers is a coach who knows exactly what he wants, and will admire his no nonsense approach to players who don’t fit into his ideas. Every top coach needs an element of stubbornness, an absolute confidence and belief that their way is the right way.
But his treatment of Carroll and Downing could also be viewed as an act of inexperience. It is almost comparable with Andre Villas-Boas’ tenure at Chelsea last season, an example of a young manager coming in and trying to stamp his authority on proceedings too quickly.
The turning point of Villas-Boas’ Chelsea reign came during a Champions League tie with Napoli, where both Ashley Cole and Frank Lampard were left out of the side. Following a heavy defeat, Villas-Boas had to somewhat sheepishly turn back to the players he left out.
Rodgers has been slightly naive in first shipping out Carroll, and then publicly criticizing Downing. Firstly these situations should have been dealt with in house, and not out in the open for the press to dissect. Secondly, you never know when you are going to need these players. The subsequent injury crisis and failure to bring in transfer targets has left Rodgers in desperate need of attacking talent. One is in East London, and one is ‘upset’ at his managers public criticism of his performances.
The likes of Raheem Sterling, Jonjo Shelvey and Suso have shown enough to suggest Rodgers may just about get by until January, despite the striker crisis. Rodgers is convinced the owners will back him in the next transfer window, and told the press he already has a list of strikers drawn up on a transfer wish list. But although he won’t admit it publicly, you must wonder if the Liverpool boss holds regrets over the early treatment of two of his most attacking players. Results from now until January will only tell.
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What do you think of Rodgers handling of the Carroll/Downing situations? Follow me on Twitter @LukeGreenwood89 and let me know your thoughts.