Rumour Mongering: Trading Places With Raul and Yossi

By: Noel | August 16th, 2011

You thought you could escape the summer transfer window when Premier League football returned? Well, you thought wrong. And on top of the expected rumours linking Liverpool to various English defenders, there’s a whole new round of rumours that just don’t seem to make sense any way you come at them to dig through as we rush towards September first and begin to scrape the bottom of the proverbial barrel…

Raul Meireles

With Liverpool reportedly turning down an £11M bid for Meireles from Udinese last week, new rumours have popped up linking the Portuguese playmaker to Andre Villas-Boas’ Chelsea. On one hand it makes complete sense, at least for a Chelsea side that is exceptionally weak in the centre of the park this season. But on the other hand it doesn’t quite ring true, as only last summer Villas-Boas was willing to let Meireles depart from Porto in favour of bringing through João Moutinho. Then again, with Meireles proving he could compete in the premier league last season—and arguably providing more than many of Liverpool’s own new signings—and Chelsea having far fewer legitimate options than Porto did, it could all add up to moderately plausible. Either that or the tabloids are doing the hard journalistic work of putting Meireles and Villas-Boas together and getting transfer.

Yossi Benayoun

Sticking with rumours linking Liverpool to Chelsea, with the Israeli midfielder having a hard time getting more time at Chelsea than he did at Liverpool—despite the London club’s aforementioned dearth of options in the middle—it seems as though the player may have realized that the grass isn’t always greener on the other side. Given his age, Liverpool’s packed midfield, and that it would take actual money to get him away from Chelsea, it’s hard to imagine a journey back north is in the cards for Benayoun. And assuming there’s even a hint of truth to the Meireles rumours, it especially wouldn’t make much sense for Liverpool to ship Meireles south only to spend—or give up—a portion of any transfer fee to bring Benayoun back the other way, while if there’s no truth at all to those Meireles rumours it wouldn’t be a sensible transfer for all the other, overpacked midfield reasons. Unless of course Chelsea wanted to take Joe Cole back in a straight swap. Then it would be totally awesome.

Paddy McCourt

A 27-year-old supersub winger from Celtic wouldn’t seem high on the list of potential Liverpool targets, or a likely improvement on the options currently at hand, but he’s one of the new players supposedly in the mix as the window winds down. Celtic reportedly have no interest in selling McCourt (left), though given that he’s failed to establish himself as a starter with one of the big two sides against the weak sisters of the Scottish Premier League as he heads into his fourth season with the club, it’s hard to imagine they’d turn down any half decent offer that would fund a gamble on somebody new. Though then it comes back to it being difficult to imagine Liverpool offering all that much for a fringe player in a weak league who should already be at or near the peak of his abilities. Of course, since he scored a stunner for Northern Ireland against the Faroe Islands—the Faroe Islands, people!—that had commentators talking in Messi-like superlatives for about five minutes, Liverpool should probably sign him right up. He can replace Stewart Downing in the club’s best eleven.

Ryan Shawcross

The Welsh raised but English born Stoke captain, still only 23, started his career in the Manchester United reserves. An imposing figure at 6′3″ and with a shaven head, his is an interesting, no nonsense name to add to the likes of Gary Cahill and Scott Dann as potential acquisitions at centre back, keeping with the club’s theme of sticking to players with Premier League experience who in theory should still be a few years off from hitting their peak as professional footballers. While Shawcross isn’t generally as highly regarded as Cahill, he’s younger than his Bolton counterpart and is arguably on a similar trajectory. Questions would have to be raised, however, about his suitability—at least in the short term—if Liverpool intends to play football from the back. Even if Liverpool’s scouts and management team see a ball-playing centre half begging to get out in Shawcross, it’s safe to say that isn’t what he’s been asked to be at Stoke City, where he has been a largely solid defensive presence in Tony Pulis’ agrarian set-up.

Christian Poulsen

It appears as though Danish national team manager Morten Olsen may have finally woken Christian Poulsen up to the realities of no first team football for two season in England. Namely, that he really for real won’t be part of Olsen’s set up at next summer’s Euros if he doesn’t make a change. And fast:

“My future needs to be resolved in August and preferably as soon as possible. I have to get to play matches regularly. It’s obvious that I would really like to play football.”

After months of Poulsen’s agent suggesting the player would be happy to sit at Liverpool, semi-retired and making more in a week than most of the club’s followers do in a year, the player himself coming out with such statements to the Danish press seems a complete about-face for the underwhelming defensive midfielder. One expects Liverpool would be happy to let him go for next to nothing, if only to get his wages off the books, and so the question now is whether Poulsen has finally reached the point where he will be willing to take a significant pay cut to move down a level and get meaningful first team football.

Elsewhere, Owen Coyle has told the Bolton News that, finances permitting, “I’d like to add another striker and a winger. You probably know who they.” And by most accounts that means David Ngog and Shaun Wright-Phillips. Also of note for anybody who missed it is yesterday’s confirmation that Daniel Ayala has joined Norwich City full time. Plus Philipp Degen (who is still alive) could be headed to QPR, just in case you needed a laugh.

Some Related Liverpool Posts:

Category: Premier League, Transfer News

« Hodgson For England, Gerrard’s Return, and Other Tuesday Notes | Home | Preview & Matchday: Liverpool U19s v. Sporting Lisbon U19s »

JeanRoqoa

-Please. Not McCourt. Get Nasri instead. He's available for 25M.
-Aquilani should go not Mereiles
Ryan

Oh my gawd my comments were longer than Noel's entire post. And I wasn't just making Joe Cole and Torres jokes like I always do....wait... Lack of tactical knowledge?!?! Never knowing when to shut up?!?!? Talking about Joe Cole too much?!?! I'm one Konchesky away from becoming Roy Hodgson!!!!!! *rubs face repeatedly*!!!!!!!
ShedYourYellow

Meireles for Benayoun - if ever there was an appropriate place for an 'LOL' in my opinion, it is here.
tony

Most of the liverpool fans want raul to stay but if he want to go do swap with sturridge
Suarez from the car park...

wow what a result if we get rid of that shower.
I would love for Ngog to come good, but I just don't see it.
Just Joe Cole to move on in addition to these and the cupboard will be clean enough. Surely he realises he's not going to get playing time.
Soto only has this one year left on his contract anyhow.
Time to get those 7 new boys from Saturday to gel .

There's lots of individual coaching to be done and some tactical work aswell (stop hoofing it) to get 90 minutes of good tempo football, and dealing with an organised opposition.
Ryan

It's hard to see N'Gog becoming great, but I just hate to see all the rumours about him leaving instead of rumours about our real deadweight. David has almost 100 caps at 22, been played under the 3 recent managers, he's cheap, and puts in the effort. I see no reason to let him go, besides the fact that his contract is up next summer. But just to make more money for a new player transfer is just wrong when there are worst suspects of getting paid on the bench.

Does anybody know how much Soto came in for? I did like 10 seconds of research and google didn't load so I give up.

Also, Some goofball doctor says Suarez is gonna have an exploding groin/more normal injury problems as well for being rushed into the lineup too early. I slightly agree, because I have vast medical experience having gotten a few physicals and asked the doc lots of questions about hernias and groins while he fondled me. Would it be so wrong to use our questionable-out-the-door-foreigner Aquaman to sprinkle some parmesan on our spagetti-haired dutchman, or teach our beer-pong champion how to savor fine wine? At least until Suarez is in perfect fitness once again. It would give Suarez a rest, give the fans hope that our best attacking midfielder might be staying even if its not true, and really give him some good advertisement to his possible future employers by dissecting the Arsenal defense single-handedly.

My preferred lineup for Arsenal:

----------------Reina-------------------
Kelly--Carragher-Agger--Enrique-----
-----------Lucas--Meireles-------------
Downing-----Aquilani-----Rodriguez--
----------------Kuyt---------------------

my reasoning behind this is that Arsenal's got some major midfield issues going on, with Fabregas gone, Nasri being a selfish asshole, Wilshere injured, Denilson loaned out, and Ramsey and Rosicky being no real match for Lucas and Meireles, and plus Song has that few match ban thing right? Downing is on the right and Rodriguez is on the left, so that Downing can be all midfieldish and cut in, causing them more problems, with Kuyt able to provide right wing width when needed or be our 6 inch goalscoring pro. Enrique would start over Aurelio not only because of injury, but the odds of Walcott skinning him and leaving him for dead are slim due to his awesome 2010-2011 record, allowing Rodriguez not to have to defend as much and give him privilege to bang in some goals with Kuyt. Assuming Arshavin doesn't take a CAM role because of the lack of anybody in that area of the field, he's up against Kelly, who doesn't bolt up down the line enough to allow Arshavin to make anything spectacular.

But, this is just a dream line up for me(without Suarez and the new mystery boy centerback), and I can take a guess that it will be more like:

--------------Doni-(lol)---------
Kelly--Carragher-Agger---Enrique
--------Lucas---Adam----
--Kuyt---------------------Downing
---------Carroll--Suarez-------
Suarez from the car park...

soto was £1m or maybe £1.5m. Ex greek international. Fine as a 4th backup but has ended up being used far more.
Degen was a free.
NotTooXabi

My name is Not Too Xabi, and I approve this message. Only addition: Carroll up top, just to watch him dominate Vermaelen & Squillaci like happy hour pints.

I'm going to be super excited about the Arsenal match-up, right up till Ed/Noel rain down logic and the "beware of the injured animal" thing. Nightmares of Arshavin and "4" will dominate my Friday night stupor.
Ryan

I'm super excited as well, but logic is also going to tell me Suarez isn't going to be given any rest due to the importance of beating Arsenal, which I can understand (will someone please talk some sense into me about whether Suarez needs to rest or not, I'm just worried about him, I want him to be the best player in the EPL of all time and I don't want a few games to ruin that).

Because of that sense of reality, how about this course of action with my lineup:

1.Suarez instead of Rodriguez to start.
2.Use Suarez's lack of stamina by going all out attack from the beginning before they can get good possession(like how Real Madrid go balls out against Barcelona recently).
3. starting at the second half, slowly and fluidly, morph into a 4-4-2, assuming we show some sort of dominance in the midfield due to our formation's insane sophistication and emphasis on midfield control(heh). Aquilani played left in a 4-4-2 at Juventus with good success, and Meireles played on the far right against our domination of Fulham last season, so with a little wing swap from Downing to widen the play(the opposite of what he was doing on the right) it'll go from...

this:

---------------Reina----------------
Kelly--Carragher-Agger---Enrique
-------Meireles---Lucas-----------
Downing-----Aquilani------Suarez
--------------Kuyt-----------------

to this:

--------------Reina----------------
Kelly--Carragher-Agger---Enrique
-------Lucas------Aquilani---------
Meireles---------------------Downing
-----------Kuyt------Suarez--------

4. If Suarez is not completely on fire and ready to go for another 90, give Suarez a little time to be Kuyt's Dutch bromantic, then sub him off for Carroll.
5. That time it took Suarez to get completely exhausted should have been enough time to gel into the 4-4-2 wide formation, which will increase Carroll's aerial threat with crosses.
6. again, this will be another time to put the foot on the gas with this new formation. 4-4-2 is nothing too tricky, so Liverpool has got to work hard and fast to make the tactical change the least bit confusing for Arsenal.
7. If our extra umphf in attack with the 4-4-2 prevailed, with Carroll scoring a nice little header by out jumping the Verm and using his beer belly to push him out of the way, we substitute Adam in for Meireles.
8. Kuyt, with his indestructable body and never-ending supply of energy, should move out to the far right to get some clean-up kills on the flank, while also providing some defensive work (that pitch-forked Henderson didn't do). This will shift us into another formation, a 4-3-3, with Adam taking his spot in the center with Lucas and Aquilani:

This:

--------------Reina----------------Kelly--Carragher-Agger---Enrique-------Lucas------Aquilani---------Meireles---------------------Downing-----------Kuyt------Carroll--------

To this:

-------------Reina-----------------
Kelly--Carragher-Agger---Enrique
--------------Lucas------------------
---------Adam------Aquilani------
Kuyt------------------------Downing
-------------Carroll---------------

This sounds difficult to switch formations twice in a game, but Adam's substitution will make a physical changing point in the formation for the game(like a cue to the players), Adam's captainness will help with the direction by barking orders and making motivational clapping motions, along with the fact that Kuyt is the one making the biggest change, and I have no doubt he can easily be taught to go wide.
9. Carroll can be used to good effect here as well, because we now have 3 good crossers on the field with Adam able to give good longballs from the center(not trying to pigeonhole Carroll as a heads-only guy, just realizing the fact that the only goals he scored last year were headers, long shots, and fumbles, with the last two types of goals requiring lots of luck). But for the most part, this formation is meant to be defensive, because our super-awesome strategy should have nicked us a few goals by now.
10. Aquilani's crappy use of the English language and the lack of an Italian translator on the field has probably got him confused the fuck out of his mind about what formation he's playing in, so after letting him be confused while still giving accurate short passes out to Adam and the wings, substitute Henderson on for Aquilani.
11. Henderson by now knows that he sucked major asshole in the last game, so he wants to have another run out. leaving him out of the game completely could have a negative effect on him, making him believe he blew his chance in the 11 by one shitty game. Hopefully he'll have a better game by playing in his preferred position, coming on to playing against a worn-out Arsenal, and any instruction he got over the past week from Dalglish.
12. Dalglish will tell Wenger to fuck off as Wenger stretches out his hand in a respectful manner.

Would you look at that! Every new player gets to contribute as a team player, the respected Kuyt gets his deserved starting place, the dutch-speaking partnership gets to have a good run out while still using the 30 million dollar ponytail, our beloved-but-maybe-soon-to-depart midfielders get to contribute to a title-deciding game before they quite possibly leave, the game could be studied to find out which of the 3 main formations works the best, Henderson's confidence could possibly be restored while getting a better reputation from the fans with pitchforks, and Dalgish gets to piss on everyone for successfully using every member of his overflowing center midfield minus Poulsen and Cole, and Shelvey and Spearing, who are trying to be sold, and who are young and shouldn't expect playing time, respectively.

Prediction: Arsenal 1-2 Liverpool. goals from Suarez and Carroll.
JPR

Like your first lineup a lot. Except Downing on the left, Rodriguez subbing, Kuyt on the right, Suarez up front. Carroll subbing. Let's get some use from Aquilani and see what he can do against a good (but depleted) side. This would also up his price if he still insists on going to Italy and we are to sell him.
Ryan

I agree with Suarez being up front, but this was all in response to the idea that Suarez may need a rest to prevent injury. If Suarez doesn't play, I believe Maxi's and Aquilani's inclusion and Downing's inversion would be key, especially against Arsenal. Against Manchester United though, that would be a different story altogether. Against Chelsea, this might also be ideal.
JPR

Really enjoyed your post. Creative, insightful, and humorous all at the same time and obvious you get to see your fair share of games. Didn't hear anything about Suarez needing a rest over injury concerns. Would love to see Aquaman play in a big game and also get a chance to play with Suarez, which I don't think he's had yet. And can you imagine the reaction if Suarez is healthy, doesn't play, and things go bad on Saturday at Arsenal and we tie, like we did against Sunderland last weekend? The KK backlash and "we are crap" journalistos (and some fans) will be out in full voice. The reaction to the Sunderland tie was a difficult and emotionally scarring experience for many of us. It had a few guys on this blog cancelling their twitter accounts and upchucking into their own noses. So, we must be mindful of our own health concerns. And our spaghetti-haired dutchman does his best 6 inch goalscoring pro routine with Suarez on the pitch.
But, hey let's go with your preferred lineup, assuming wee Luis does need a rest. I do like it. It would be a hell of a setup for the Arsenal to contend with. Aquaman gets a runout in a big game along with a very talented surrounding mix and Maxi I'm sure would come up big for us and put in a hell of a shift. All of your midfield and forwards surrounding Aquaman are really intelligent at creating space off the ball and can do it at speed, so Aquilani would shine and have five easily available targets just about every time he has a touch. His ability to pick out teammates for goalscoring chances would be on full display for all 75,000 to see. The match would be played mostly in the Arsenal half of the pitch, since all six of those (mid and forward) guys have tremendous ball and off-ball skills, know and read the game really well and would gel together as if on autopilot. Our beer pong champion would get to "see" some fine wine, but wine is an acquired taste that you develop over time, especially if you are a beer pong champion. But, hey, whatever. We would also get to see if our Carraback's hoofing disease has progressed to a terminal stage yet and has actually incorporated itself into his gentic makeup. (I've got some medical experience too. I dated a geneticist 10 years ago). Carroll is not available for the partially explainable hoofing syndrome and if he can't find an easy out ball to those 6 guys, he's too far gone and we may have to shoot him. But he gets till the end of the match to fix it. Don't want to have to shoot him unless I'm absolutely certain.
I do foresee sustained and constant pressure on the Arsenal defense with that lineup and hopefully we'll be able to take our chances this game. But, we should have so many of them, that we can miss a few. The defense is good and Lucas and Meireles can both put in those intelligent challenges, and Maxi, Downing and Dirki will play defense and track back so we should be able to hold them scoreless. And Pepe is always sharp. This is a lineup made in heaven for the Aquaman and I foresee him at least being in contention for man of the match along with Downing, Maxi and Dirki if he gets to convert one of those previously mentioned six inch screamers. And if things do go our way, as we would hope and expect, we get to see 75,000 Arsenal supporters progress from mild annoyance, to loud boos, to finally storming the pitch in an hysterical frenzy, and tarring and feathering the Frenchman and carrying him around the pitch tied to a long pole like a hog being made ready for the Thanksgiving dinner. The Arsenal supporters ain't too happy these days either, as I'm sure you have heard. We Liverpool boys do things around here with pitchforks as you also may have heard, but the London boys are a bit more cultured being from the big city and they are just going to do the business with some hot tar. But it should be a fun spectacle for us to see, and don't forget that Frenchmen and tar sometimes get along pretty well.
And if things do go as planned, and we get a win over the Arsenal at the Emirates, you can only imagine how happy us Liverpool boys would be with those particular 3 away points. Aquilani will get to have his first personal experience with the type of fanatical supporter appreciation that can only be had at Anfield. He might even consider Anfield a good career move past January 2012. It would certainly do more to convince him that Anfield may well be a great career move than arguments with Commolli in hotel lobbies.
Yea, that's what I'm thinking about your preferred lineup.
Ryan

Thanks, I appreciate your comments! I see what you mean about needing Suarez to suck it up and play this game. Things might not be as tense at Anfield as they are around the Emirates when it comes to management and results, but there has been a lack of incredibly-positive vibes this season as opposed to the end of last season (well, not the veerry last of the season where we last our European seats). We need a confident result here, or we'll have to wait around til' Tottenham to get this season going for the good (no one cares if we win against Bolton, with respect of course).

I just can't wait to see what drastic difference in opinion I have than the King, when there is a 4-5 player difference in his lineup. I might have enjoyed writing about my tactical ideas, but the odds are slim to none that Meireles and Aquilani will start, if not even having Kuyt start. Hopefully I just jynxed the game for the better.
JPR

Yea. I'm expecting Kenny's teamsheet to be exactly like your second lineup that you mentioned. He may start Reina over Doni, though. (lol) And Suarez will start as long as he is healthy. I would love Aquaman to get a game at Arsenal, though, and would prefer Carroll to start on the bench. Don't think we have yet figured out how to leverage his air superiority. I don't expect it or him to help us at Arsenal. Would love a full "pass and move" team.
Ryan

Apologies for posting that as a reply to you, Jonnysingapore. Originally it was a short response but then I got carried away.
Ryan

Please, no Mccourt. He's the winger I purchased in FIFA 11 when I was trying to get Sheffield United promoted. I'm sure you all know how that went.

I'm surprised about the whole Meireles To Chelsea thing, but it does kinda make sense with the Porto-manlove theme. What I'm more surprised about is that there is no news about Aquilani and Chelsea. They most definitely need an aquaman and they got the wages to make his agent shutup/I mean, happy. But maybe he really did just want to go back to Italy and England is not the problem.
DJ-Chutfield

I would be supremely pissed if we hand over, gift wrapped, our classiest midfielder to fuckin Chelski. I love Aquilani and have rated him since his amazing Carling Cup debut against Arsenal where he summarily kicked ass all over the field and was denied a goal only by a blatant handball in the area. I fear his relationship with Liverpool may be irreparable thanks to the two clowns in charge last year, but he should stay at least until January and should play in that time. Otherwise, why waste a spot on him in pre-season?
Ryan

Agreed, I think he is one the classiest acts at Anfield. I was just being negative, assuming it was inevitable that he's leaving for somewhere else. I'd love him to play against Arsenal this week, allowing Suarez to rest in the silky dribbling/passing department.
McrRed

[Sings] Are you Noel in dis-guise?

Fuckin brilliant mate...I'll have one of what you're drinking!

Ed - there seems to be a problem with the site, I can't find the Adult Classified Section you mentioned a while back...
...is it just me or are others having the same problem?
Ryan

Thanks mate. Surprisingly I'm not Noel, but like Noel, I'm still holding out for an alcohol sponsorship for the offside, then you could have what I'm drinking! Can our Australian readers give us their Foster's hookup? k thanks
Gryffin

watching Bastos in this Lyon qualifier makes me really wish we signed him. His skill on the ball is electric.
Geza

"QPR make Deggen enquiry" This made my day... Would they take El Zahr on top if we ask them really nicely?
mardia

I've come to the realization that the Raul rumors simply will not die until August 31st. (And then come January, they'll start up right again...)

Honestly, if we were unwilling to sell him to play in a different league, why on earth would we have him play for our rivals in the EPL? But there I go again, expecting logic from the Daily Mail.
paul

It's called shit stirring. We had Raul on a deal where he started to play on the cheap with a fatter pay packet if we extended. Well, we're pissing around on that deal, and he wants to earn as much as he can (which is fine). We can't compete with London or Chelsea, so his agent, and no doubt Chelsea's lapdogs, are starting to create unrest. It worked with Torres, and almost worked with Gerrard twice.