Agreed. Walcott's is the most poorly labelled player in the EPL? What do I mean by that? Well I think him being deemed as being "overrated" is absurd. The guy scores plenty of goals for a winger, and links well with his strikers...oh, and he can also play striker if need be. He'd be perfect on the right side of Suarez.
The forward version of Glen Johnson, then? You know the oft-repeated "good going forward but suspect defensively"? Walcott is derided as having no-end product to his game and yet he score all those goals. Having said that, Walcott has for whatever reason seems to have stagnated at Arsenal. Maybe a fresh challenge (hello, Fernando Torres!) will do him good.
I doubt that rumour has got any legs- most likely Blackpool trying to get excite a bidding war. Remember he's been linked with a move to United, Arsenal and the usual suspects. He is doing fine at Blackpool which for the time being is his level. You only need to see for the U21 to realise that.
I think Walcott is a great player, but he has two major problems in his game. He is a liability defensively and very inconsistent. I'm under no ilusion that Sterling is better than Walcott going forward yet, but his tracking back is what makes the diference for me. I would love to have Walcott at the club, but to form a partnership with Sterling and Suarez and no way use the kid as a "squad player". Take the load off him a bit and replace sterling with suso once in a while is great. Plus, i have great faith in Assaidi but he needs time to work in his physical condition if he really wants to make an impact at anfield. Signing Walcott and a Striker (a proper Nº 9) and i would be very happy in Jan.
FWIW, macca, the ITK, writes that the interest in huntelaar is real. After many, many years hunting for tranger gossip, id have to say that, at this point, Macca is the only "ITK" that i think has any inside knowledge for Liverpool. That said, even a good ITK's hit rate isn't that high. Carry on.
Hmm .... I worry that we're about to spunk money on a past reputation. , once again. Is this Huntelaar fellow really good?
"He scores wherever he goes...." I admit i haven't seen him play too many times, just some sub appearances for madrid. The positives are that he's played with Suarez before to great success. Also, I remember many Dutch fans were livid he didn't play ahead of van persie at the euros. That has to account for something. What I don't understand is this: Carroll was shipped out as rodgers wants interchangeable front men. Huntelaar is the classic in the box poacher/finisher. Not really what Rodgers seems to prescribe to. Maybe he's being looked at as his undiscoverable "plan b," who knows? What is also strange is that Dempsey was labelled as a "stop gap" at 30-ish, whom we couldn't justify spending £6m on. Huntelaar will cost more than that, also at 30-ish. Which is why I was hesitant to believe this rumor until now.
I'd also add that its not in Rodgers, and while he's at the helm, the clubs best interests to go after such a big name player in his late prime as it takes away that cushion of building for the future. From a PR perspective its relativity OK to finish below 6th if we are a work in progress start spending big on established players and the hatchets come out. If this move does transpire I'd imagine that either Suarez has hinted or Rodgers has realized that he may not hang around forever waiting for us to get back into the Champions League/football elite.
That is how I've seen it as well. Taking the Dempsey saga further, despite his being a year older, he had have several upsides such being Premier League-proven, lower fee and wages and able to play across the front three.
The Boss on January: http://www.liverpoolfc.com/news/latest-news/rodgers-on-january-transfer-strategy
Werner says Suarez is here to stay... http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/fo...d-deliver-in-the-January-transfer-window.html
http://soccernet.espn.go.com/news/s...orentina-win-5th-straight;-inter-held?cc=5901 I read about this Aquilani kid from Italy that seems to be doing well. Just scored two goal and had an assist as well. Maybe we should look into picking him up, I'm sure 20mil would do it.
The same Aquilani who only made his second start of the season as he's been injured? I'm sure the nurses at Melwood miss his company.
Rumors that we're monitoring Giuseppe Rossi's situations at Villareal. He's on a big contract and has had two major ligament injuries, so they're hoping to clear him off their bill. I don't like it and I doubt the rumors are true because this would be a Joe Cole type of signing. Two ligament injuries means he's lost a lot of pace that he'll never gain back. You can't just miss out on extended periods of training in your 20's and hope to ever fulfill potential. It will also take him a long time to get his touch back. And just because he's on big wages now doesn't mean he'll sign for a team for far less wages. There will always be some stupid wealthy team who will bid for him just to add him to their collection. He's not at all what we'd need in a January transfer window that must produce goals. This would be similar to signing Aquilani when he's injured just because Alonso is gone and hoping he'd become Alonso as soon as he's healthy.
Arsene Whinger insists Walcott won't be sold in January regardless of Theo's contract: http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/20394509 He can sign a pre-contract agreement with a new team in January. He did turn down 75 grand/week though so he might be out of the FSG picture already. Who knows. He's Le Arse's leading scorer this season.
Its quite strange that we went all out on Carroll, Henderson, and Downing. And then refused the purchases of Dempsey and Siggurdson. The owners want to be much more careful and cautious but at some point they will have to allow one or two massive signings even though we are building for the future.
Yes, no more massive signings of injured players (Aquilani, and Carroll fell into this boat as well).
I might be wrong (about the wages) but I think the reason why Arsenal hasn't sealed the deal has to do with the fact that he wants to play in the middle and not the wings. By the way, did FSG set a wage ceiling? If so, what is it?
A friend who supports Middlesbrough claims Downing will return to the North-East. Loan, perhaps, and then permanent if Middlesbrough gets promoted.
I think we'll pay a portion of his wages as we did with Cole, Konchesky, Poulsen and Aquilani before him.