Liverpool Close to Sealing Mascherano Deal: Barcelona £30m Offer On Table?

Stillontheperch - December 7th, 2009 at 11:21 am

Great player, like to keep him but sign up or jog on.

Retryboy - December 7th, 2009 at 11:55 am

Has been one of our best players this season only reina, benayoun and johnson have been as consistently good we can’t lose any more quality players this is sounding good the reports are saying we are pricing him out of a move to Barcelona he is playing well so obviously its not affecting him. Barcelona should have been charged with tapping up and got away with it. Always worrying that they can have messi working on him on international duty too

Ryan - December 7th, 2009 at 3:09 pm

I’m hopeful we can get a new deal agreed and keep him at the club. I’ve read a lot of articles now from YNWA this season and I think he’s singled out Mascherano unfairly at times. Yes he had a few sub par games towards the beginning of the seaon but over the last month or so he’s looked as good as anybody and certainly hasn’t been as bad as has been made out.

We need to be keeping hold of our best players and adding to the squad instead of ditching them and hoping to find something better.

RyanO - December 7th, 2009 at 3:18 pm

Mascherano was not anonymous on Saturday, he was playing his position very well thanks.

Warren Bloggs - December 7th, 2009 at 3:19 pm

Things are looking up for Liverpool fc now, the defense looked sound against Blackburn, although i am aware that we should have won. We just lack a little more creativity and clinical finishing in front of goal. Lucas is steadily improving and Mascherano is likely to sign a new contract, at least this is the sings we are getting. We have Aquilani who will no doubt be like a new signing in itself when he makes his long awaited full debut against Fiorentina. Things are looking up!!

‘….Rafa is going to have no money to spend in January, but he can use money brought in from sales. Andriy Voronin will return to the Bundesliga with Hamburg for £3m. Philipp Degen will move to Greece with AEK Athens for £2m. Andrea Dossena will return to Italy with either Napoli, Milan or Roma for £5m. Ryan Babel will move to Stuttgart for £8m. Albert Riera will join Atletico Madrid for £4m plus Maxi Rodriguez. This will give Rafa £20m to spend in January. He will use £5m to tie up Goran Pandev to a four and a half year contract worth £70k per week. Eljero Elia will sign for the Merseysiders in a £12m deal for four and a half years worth £45k. The final £5m will be spent on Bruno Manga as cover for Rafa’s injury prone centre backs….’

Now this is the lastest set of rumours that have been squezzed from the internet, but i think this is even more realistic. After all, players such as Goran Pandev and Eljero Elia have been linked with the club for some time now, and i would not be surprised – in fact i would be delighted – if they sign in January. Now, this Maxi Rodriguez offer? I have seen this posted countless times now and although no major media oricles are claiming such a deal is in the offing this is one rumour that seems to be plentiful on the ‘net’. Could it be possible? i think so…..after all Riera has been dire so far this season, injury or not. He has expressed he is not happy at the club and would love a return to Spain especially with the world cup coming around the corner. At 30 Maxi is reaching the last few fences of his career but i think he is in fact a better player than Albert and if Rafa is given an offer of the argie plus £4m i think he would bite Athletico’s hand off! May help the Masch deal as well with yet another international team-mate at the club. However, i am not aware of any ‘Bruno Manga’? I will go and search now……

Donavan Ried - December 7th, 2009 at 4:54 pm

Would love him to stay, but can,t see it myself

RyanO - December 7th, 2009 at 6:00 pm

I have to laugh at the “Wife Theory” thats been kicked around for months now. Since when do millionaire footballers cater to their significant others?

kermit - December 7th, 2009 at 6:19 pm

i would value essien at 25 and there is no way mascherano is better than essien

kermit - December 7th, 2009 at 8:01 pm

nah it ll go into an alonso situation where masch leaves next summer and benitez spa thta he is buys an injured replacement and fucks next season up aswell, sign defour now, everyone has a fair idea masch willl be gone by the summer so sign defour have him bedded in the team so we can actually hit the ground running next year instead of hitting the ground on crutches like we did this year

Retryboy - December 7th, 2009 at 8:45 pm

DCM is one of those positions a lot of the good work goes unnoticed covering while the likes of johnson and insua get forward. Have seen him many times when it looks like we are in trouble out of nowhere mascherano is there with the tackle. Also think his passing is better than people give him credit for he can and does spread the play to the wings and if other players with more shooting ability took the responsibility that he does in trying to push the offence when its not his job things would work a lot better. We don’t need anyone else holding with him in the team. He is the best at what he does including essien who is better offensively but its a lot easier getting past him. Said on every one of these mascherano stories where Ynwa likes to have digs at the argentine. Would stevie g fancy trying to get past him in a Barcelona shirt probably be the one person he wouldn’t fancy his chances against. If Barcelona got him they would use him like we should so all their other midfielders can concentrate on breaking the other team down. It used to work great with hamann and he isn’t half the player mascherano is and at 25 being the best in the world in his position he is priceless to us £30m is an insult.

dibbler - December 7th, 2009 at 9:08 pm

Evening all i would be gutted if mash goes he is a in the top 3 players in his position in the world imo and there is no way we should even be thinking about selling him. If you think we look frail in midfield without alonso you wait and see if we lose the monster. He is a born winner and even when it is not going for him you never see him dragging his chin round the floor like some i could mention but you see him put more effort in and always gives you 110% every single game.
Oh and kermit if essien is worth 25mil i will show my arse on the town hall steps he is a class act and you would pay at least 40m, mash is not as forward thinking but my god he is better in the tackle if he is coming you are not leaving with the ball simple as that i hope we nail contract down asap i think the lad just wnts paying accordingly i have heard he is only on about 30k a week!!!!!!!!!

Retryboy - December 7th, 2009 at 9:31 pm

Think someone is yanking your chain dibbler he is on 60k a week will be on 90k with the new contract and worth every penny. If you think about it probably a bit of risky strategy on our part leaving it till now to start contract talks saying it was till he got back to the same level as last year probably to save us 500k along the way. Other questions are do the pay hikes of him and reina come out of the players due to be sold as some are reporting?

Retryboy - December 7th, 2009 at 9:55 pm

Good clear up interview from babel on goal.com saying he would never talk to the sun he gave an interview to a dutch magazine a month ago and a lot of things he didn’t say. He says he wants to stay and feels he is good enough to earn a regular first team place here. He also says he is very close with kuyt so the comments about him are laughable. He said as well how disappointed he was to pick up an injury at city when he had a start. Also that he was worried that his team-mates who he would never talk about would believe the article…their reaction? “It was the sun, we know its been twisted!”

Aquaman - December 7th, 2009 at 11:33 pm

Kermit, you forget who is making the offer. As soon as Barca come a-calling then prices sky rocket. Sure Masch is probably worth 20-25 mil to us (put it this way, I’d be unhappy if we paid more than 20 for him if we bought him now), but he’s worth 30 easily if its Barca. Was Ibra worth Eto’o plus cash? Not on your life! But since its Barca you can take them for a ride and everybody’s happy.

Masch is a seriously underrated player. Lots of people say that he doesn’t score enough. True, but firstly that’s not his job, and secondly he’s been very unlucky. I remember him taking a spectacular shot against Real at Anfield which could only be saved by someone like Casillas. Similar story against Newcastle. He should have around 4-5 goals were it not for ridiculous saves (or unfair ones).

After looking at our net spend figures since the yanks came to town, I’d might not be sad to see Masch go in the summer for 30. It would mean that we wouldn’t have to sell anyone else to make up our spending budget so the rest of our fringe players (ala Riera, Babel, Dossena etc) will become our squad rather than scrapped on mass.

I still don’t think we’ll be doing anything in Jan. Not unless the Yanks have a morality transplant with the Pope.

Glad to hear that from Babel. It’s strange how the players don’t seem to be all that depressed when they give interviews, but on the field they look broken. It’s a funny thing, this form business.

Aquaman - December 7th, 2009 at 11:38 pm

As an after-thought. Think about this for a second. If we sell Masch then that means that we’ll only have one defensive midfielder that Rafa trusts enough to play. That could cause many seemingly impossible things to happen! Like Rafa changing the formation! Or playing more attacking players than defensive ones. Or even (I know that this is going seriously overboard but it may just be possible) Aquillani getting a game!

redrob - December 8th, 2009 at 12:06 am

reading all these players who we are reportedly going to buy. but i think who would want to sign for liverpool at the moment? they want to play every week, but would they realy get to play every week. pressumably we want world class players, who are looking forward to the world cup. they aren’t going to sign for us because they rarely get to play 90 mins. this along with not playing in the champions league.
my word, i hope that i am wrong.

redrob - December 8th, 2009 at 12:10 am

i was side tracked from the story for a min. masch on his day is as important as steve g and el nino. i hope he stays even if we are offered 40 mil.

Retryboy - December 8th, 2009 at 1:18 am

Its always the big teams everyone notices what he does more. He isn’t playing any worse against the lesser teams just he is mopping up potential danger a lot more easily. Offloading to lucas just slows things as does spreading play to the right with kuyt thats why he needs to be able to offload to a gerrard or aquilani instead a ball carrier or creative player the speed of the attack changes then and we aren’t trying to break down 2 banks of four.

THE CHOSEN ONE - December 8th, 2009 at 11:45 am

RETRYBOY
Other questions are do the pay hikes of him and reina come out of the players due to be sold as some are reporting?

WELL SPOTTED IT WOULDNT SURPRISE ME ONE BIT, SELL VORONIN AND USE IT TO HIKE UP THE WAGES. CAN I ALSO ADD THAT BABELS INTERVIEW WAS A WEEK BEFORE THE CHAMPIONS LEAUGE GAME. I READ ALL PAPERS ME BUT NEVER BUY ANY AND TAKE EVERYTHING WITH A PINCH OF SALT.

OK LORDS LET GET REAL. TO BUY AN ANCHOR MAN IS THIS CURRENT CLIMATE IS IN THE PRICE RANGE OF 20 MIL PLUS OR MINUS 5 MIL DEPENDING ON AGE AND CLUB HE GOES TO. YES ITS THE MOST UNDERATED POSITION ON THE PACK BUT LETS BE HONEST ITS A POSITION THAT MANY PLAYERS CAN A GO ON. ITS NEVER A POSITION THAT CLUBS TEND TO WACK OUT 30 MIL FOR. i AGREE MASCH IS VERY GOOD AT BEING THE WATER CARRIER BUT HE DOESNT ADD ALOT TO OUR OFFENSIVE PLAY HENCE HIS VALUE COMES DOWN.I THINK ONLY CITY AND BARCA WOULD PAY 30 MIL FOR HIM. THE REST WOULD USE A 10 MIL PLAYER. IN MY VEIEW ANYTHING OVER 35 MIL HE CAN GO AND LUCAS CAN PLAY THERE WITH THE YOUTH COVERING AND THEN WE CAN GET A TOP QUALITY CREATIVE WINGER WHO CAN PLAY BOTH WINGS, JUST MY OPINION.

THE CHOSEN ONE - December 8th, 2009 at 11:52 am

BTW THE SAMUEL ETO DEAL TO INTER DEFIES BELIEF. ITS NOT LOGICAL AND THERES A HIDDEN AGENDA THERE. BARCAS GONE COOCOO

kermit - December 8th, 2009 at 1:09 pm

aquaman the ibrahimovich eto o deal was brillaint, theres no way ibra is worth 40 millino plus eto o,

for me eto o not messi or iniesta won the champions league for barca last year, his goal was the decisive moment of the game.
i say let the price skyrocket to thrity five million, sell and sign defour for fifteen million, and we have 20 million in the kitty to sign someone else and not a great deal lost overall.

i would advocate keeping masch if we are to play a system involving one defensive midfielder, because i think a he operates better on his own in this position and b cannot offer us enough in a system with two defensive midfielders, as regards his ball winning and tackling qualities there is no one better, but in our current system he is expected to do more than his limitations as a footballer allow

rumours has it this morning zola is looking into adriano on a free transfer,
q why is benitez not looking into adriano on a free transfer?
he would be very useful to us, big strong powerful can lead the line on his own is left footed attacker could i think play alongside torres, what a powerful front two that would be.!!!!!!

regarding babels interview , he sounded really up for battling and winning his place in the team in his interview if you ask me, i think there could be some bright times for babel around the corner. against city he was a serious threat before he had to come off, and our attack was noticeably more pedestrian and easier to defend against without him. lets hope senor benitez gives hima run of games when he is fit again, prefereably up top with torres, but this is unlikely to happpen
i d like to see it though.
if this all went well, we d have adriano torres and babel and kuyt as strikers, a far more healthy scenario and a lot less reliant on torres s fitness.

kermit - December 8th, 2009 at 1:10 pm

and thanks nick

kermit - December 8th, 2009 at 1:17 pm

i would still be looking at the diamond formation with masch at its base gerrard and aquilani ahead and yossi in the hole behind torres and babel or torres an adriano and even in that lineup yossi starts to look like the weakest link, so perhaps it is even time we cashed in on him and got someone younger and better, the same could also apply to kuyt, who i really feel for, he really is a tryer, i just dont think his general play to goals he scores ratio warants a place in the strrting lineup, ps we should have bought tevez, he played in gerrards position against chelsea and literallly ran the show.
so my ideal line up

—————————————–mascherano———————————–

——————–gerrard————————————–aquilani—————-

——————————————–tevez——————————————-

————————-torres————————-adriano/babel—————–

what a front five that would be, it wont happen , but we should have made it happen during the summer, masch and tevez are best mates

kermit - December 8th, 2009 at 1:18 pm

tevez would cost us a fortune now and there is no way city would sell.
but adriano for nothing is still a possibilty

kermit - December 8th, 2009 at 1:22 pm

essien at 40 million, then football has just gone to ridiculous levels that would make fabregas worth sixty million , torres seventy, these figures are stupid.

i would welcome the introduction of salary and transfer caps say 40 million tops and a maximum salary limit of 150 000 a week, that way is isnt gonna keep spiralling out of control, the games comes back to being about managerial skill skill than financial muscle.

Scouse Magic - December 8th, 2009 at 2:40 pm

Masch has got to stay, he is class at what he does. If we need to sacrifice a midfielder then it has to be Lucas, anyone that thinks he has improved is obviously wearing blinkers, he gives the ball away too much, he always passes to the side or backwards and can’t attack either!!!!!
I do agree that we need to play 1 Def Mid, but i would play it with two wingers and Stevie just in front of Masch, with the license to attack when we push forward. This would allow us to play with two up front also, giving our opposition something else to think about rather than just Torres, we could then have 5 all out attackers with Stevie picking up the pieces when it comes out.

Retryboy - December 8th, 2009 at 3:01 pm

Chosen one.. Lucas couldn’t do the job permanently would get found out against the big teams we would leak goals he isn’t quick enough and his tackling isn’t in the same league. Agree with scouse magic if anyone should go it should be lucas, spearing has more potential in the defensive role to be mascherano’s back up. If we could get £8/10m for lucas should take it. Would play 4-4-2 personally. That way you only need one of gerrard/aquilani fit for CM one of yossi/aquilani/riera for the left and babel/yossi for the right. Torres and kuyt up front with ngog/nemeth back ups guarantee as soon as nemeth got a chance alongside torres though he wouldn’t be out of the team again.

THE CHOSEN ONE - December 8th, 2009 at 3:50 pm

RETRYBOY
4-4-2 doesnt go well in europe. ill agree that we are too defensive in play. I think we look stagnant and lack free flowing football. Im not a big fan of adriano and lucas has proved he can do that job there.
I loved watching utd of the old days with keane and scholes in the middle playing with wingers but lets face it they won the euro cup by luck then. Munich played them of the park and taggot changed his system to go on to 2 other finals. I think gerrard plays very deep and that doesnt help and riera isnt clicking as much. benny isnt as good on the right to at the moment and more importantly we are not taking our chances, its depressing.

THE CHOSEN ONE - December 8th, 2009 at 7:30 pm

RETRYBOY
4-4-2 doesnt go well in europe. ill agree that we are too defensive in play. I think we look stagnant and lack free flowing football. Im not a big fan of adriano and lucas has proved he can do that job there.
I loved watching utd of the old days with keane and scholes in the middle playing with wingers but lets face it they won the euro cup by luck then. Munich played them of the park and taggot changed his system to go on to 2 other finals. I think gerrard plays very deep and that doesnt help and riera isnt clicking as much. benny isnt as good on the right to at the moment and more importantly we are not taking our chances, its depressing.

RyanO - December 9th, 2009 at 12:09 am

Adriano to Anfield on a free. COME ON RAFA!