Liverpool Star Set for Shock £11m Barcelona Move!?
by YNWA on August 17th, 2009 294 words | 23 commentsDidn’t see this coming!
Barcelona director of football Txiki Begiristain has said that the Blaugrana might not make any further signings this summer, but 27-year-old Liverpool winger Albert Riera is now a target, according to Sport.
Barca coach Pep Guardiola has said that he wants to make further additions to his squad, but it appears that Begiristain will make the final call.
Guardiola said last week, “We like to work with a small squad so everyone can participate, but this year, with so many games, we need [another] player. We haven’t even covered [Aliaksandr] Hleb and [Martin] Caceres, so we are missing players.” (Goal.com)
Now this I didn’t see coming and not sure what to make of it either. Barcelona do have a relatively small squad, just 22 players, for a club competing on several fronts and could probably do with a couple of new faces, but would one of those faces be Albert Riera?
I have mixed feelings about the Spaniard. On his day he can be effective but on many occasions his final ball into the box is poor and he doesn’t easily beat his man, in many ways he is a winger who falls between two stools. He is not an explosive customer like say an Aaron Lennon and he is also not the world’s greatest crosser but he does have the ability to do both when performing to the best of his abilities.
If we were to allow the Spaniard to leave it wouldn’t be the end of the world and in many ways I would much prefer Yossi Benayoun to be played out on the left, he proved at White Hart Lane in just a 20 minute spell, that things happen when he is around.
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Bruce - August 17th, 2009 at 1:21 pm
In many ways Albert is more suited to Spanish football and if we could get that kind of money for him i think Rafa wouldn’t think twice.
fred - August 17th, 2009 at 1:28 pm
i think he is good but losing him wouldnt be the end of the world. price tag should be more around 14 mil and i wud rather silva on theleft than him
liverpooldian - August 17th, 2009 at 1:42 pm
barca, pay us 15 -18 mil pounds and he is yours..
we can add some money and buy silva then..
5 times - August 17th, 2009 at 1:46 pm
Wonder when Torres will going back to Spain.
Alonso..Reira.Reina and Arbeloa were all fringe players for the Spanish team now they are all regulars.Looks like they using LFC to get recognized and leave when they are established players.
If only all players were like Torres.
Paddy - August 17th, 2009 at 1:50 pm
Only agree to that if we are guaranteed that Silva will be playing for us this season!!!
And i know it’s nothing to do with Riera but Johnson was a class act yesterday!!!
Anyone agree???
Paddy - August 17th, 2009 at 1:51 pm
And Reina is just as commited to Liverpool as Torres 5 Times!!!!
middle aged gent - August 17th, 2009 at 2:14 pm
Agree Paddy Johnson was very impressive sunday his attacking qualities have never been in doubt and he was prob liverpools man of the match my only concern with johnson is his defensive qualities although im sure these will be improved. Just a footnote on our defence my concern with both johnson and insua is that they are both attack minded fullbacks and could be left exposed if playing in a back 4 there qualities may well be suited to playing with three centre halves and them being used as wingbacks in a five midfield just a thought .
Kida - August 17th, 2009 at 2:14 pm
NOOOOO!!!! We dont bloody need Silva, Riera is picked ahead of him on the left wing for Spain in pretty much every game. We dont need Silva!! We need a striker and a defender, thats it!! We’ll have to suffer in midfield whilst aquilani recovers.
liverpooldian - August 17th, 2009 at 2:30 pm
hey kido, we all know that silva has more quality than riera..in fact, silva also play when spain played against macedonia..he don’t play as much as riera in spain bcoz he was injured then..
silva also can be played as second striker..thing that riera cannot do..
IsraeliKaka - August 17th, 2009 at 2:31 pm
Riera’s the best winger we’ve had since Steve McManaman! He’s excellent.
Losing him, without a better player arriving and we can kiss the Prem away. Again.
Jt-1995 - August 17th, 2009 at 2:50 pm
to 5 times
reina is not a spanish regular and still playes for us
BREAKING NEWS - August 17th, 2009 at 2:55 pm
Steven Gerrard has broken his leg!!!
THE CHOSEN ONE - August 17th, 2009 at 2:57 pm
our goal keeper was our best player by far. He kept us in the game closely followed by johnson. we did`nt play as a unit in my mind and lacked fluidity. we dont look dangerous and we played too deep giving them alot of space. 2-1 loss was very flattering and improvent needs to be immediate. Our midfield was having alot to cover and Gerrard was playing too deep in my opinion. it was a poor team performance and It can`t get any worse.i expected a draw.
spurs always raise their game against us.
But we`ll come back fighting. rafa if u r going to play babel. play him on the right or as a striker. Benyeon played well he looked the part when he came on.
god I got phone call and stick all day from my buddies. Still hoping for the last laugh.
THE CHOSEN ONE - August 17th, 2009 at 2:58 pm
by the way hell only go if we have a replacement ready thats better. personally i think hes better at home games.
man - August 17th, 2009 at 3:03 pm
to breaking news, where you get that news??
SHHHHHHH - August 17th, 2009 at 4:05 pm
reina was man of the match and i thought yossi was class when he came on
Anonymous - August 17th, 2009 at 4:58 pm
Does anyone seriously believe ww are gonna win the title this year when all we seem to buy are defenders and defensive midfield players.
We clearly need more creativity in the side and unless there are major signings coming selling another of our creative players seems to me to be taking another step backwards.
We need to strengthen not weaken if we don’t then by the time Aquilani is fit we will be out of the title race and struggling to make the top four.
Anonymous - August 17th, 2009 at 5:13 pm
Riera is vital to the team as he is our only natural winger that gives genuine width to the team and the likes of insua thrive by being able to link up excellently which is something that isn’t possible to do with the likes of the hapless babel and to a much lesser extent the excellent benayoun.
Kop King - August 17th, 2009 at 5:13 pm
Above comment from me.
LFC "Supporter" - August 17th, 2009 at 5:32 pm
Liverpool’s play is based on a good solid backline. After the collision between Carragher and Skrtel, they both looked shaky, leading the team to have a more defensive mentality. After the first 30 mins most of our players were in our own half even when we’ve got the ball.
Tottenham were playing really rough and were lucky the ref was young and extremely lenient.
dibbler - August 17th, 2009 at 7:31 pm
Reira not a chance mate he does ok for us but at the moment ill take ok over the TALENTLESS moron you all keep giving chances to Babel he is the biggest pile of shite ive seen playing for us in a long time he is almost olympic standard runner and still cant beat a man i think we should go and pay usane bolt 10m and he can cover on the left at least he will pass a man. On saturday yossi came on and was more penetrative in 10 seconds the babel was in 63 minutes i am sick of people saying he has potential i wish we would sell him to the highest bidder not bothered how much for just as long as i dont have to watch him play any more.
Also all the people on here saying sell players to raise money your joking we have just sold alonso for 30 m but still no signings except for an injured player who by the time he is fit the league could be finnished for us, johnson was a good signing but then we sold our cover for that position and we are back to square one if he gets injured the only thing i can sympathise with is the centre half injuries in normal cases we would have ample cover.
But the biggest gripe is up front if its not working there are no options again and we will end up drawing a lot of games again this year i predict because not just injuries but limited options to bring in, when rafa brought voronin on sat i felt sick.
Anyway thats my rant over but ill still be there wednesday night dont worry singing my heart out but hey thats football.
YNWA
TEDSUZUKI - August 18th, 2009 at 1:27 am
Dibbler…I share your views. Many argued that Babel was either underused or ‘mispositioned’. I have always maintained that Babel’s problem is his ‘head’! His sense of awareness around his very poor. He could choose to run towards a player and beat him rather than going for an easy option of passing it out to someone in a clear good position. Once he gets the ball, he only has one trick and you know he is going to try to either beat or out run what’s infront of him. He doesn’t look around to see how crowded that area may be. The worse part is he can’t hold the ball as what Riera could do. Anyway….I think selling Riera would be a tragic decision because….
1. We already lacking in the left sided midfield. He is the only one who offers genuine penetration and balance by playing on that side.
2. Who are you going to get? I can bet you nobody is going to sell you their good players unless you can immediately come up with some ridiculous offer. With our owners, no way! You’d be happy if he doesn’t use the money Rafa raised.
3. Like many rumours, this is just that – paper talk! Barca already said they are not buying more. Real Madrid has also declared that. So I don’t think any of this has any weight in it.
appledave - August 18th, 2009 at 9:00 am
sell riera and get milner instead as well as shawcross