I guess we should have a thread for this on our boards beings as there is a miniscule hope of us landing him and he could alo be pivotal to our plans for the Summer. He's just told Liverpool he wants to quit and I suppose there are only 3clubs in it for his signature..Chelsea, Madrid and us.....cough. Best we keep all the Gerrard stuff in one place, this one is gonna be a roller coaster..
Or if we don't land him, we can at least have a laugh at the MIGHTY, MIGHTY LIVERPOOL not being able to sign their captain.
Hmm, 30-40m in their coffers is gonna be split on several top notch players. That's the downside. I've got an idea who Rafa would go for as well(Baraja)
Yeah, but its certainly not as though Rafa's signings have all been on target. Additionally, Liverpool haven't exactly been among the poorer teams in the Premiership recently. They have been spending on players for some time now.
who gives a toss about Stevie G and his boring transfer saga. not surprised he wants to move, scrapping it out for 4th placed CL football with Newcastle or Everton can't be much of a laugh. we sure as hell aren't signing Gerrard. one scouser is more than enough at united, and that's only because our one is a blue. we need a defensive midfielder if anything, not someone in the Gerrard mould.
The big picture is that if he goes to Chelsea we have a higher probability of getting Essien. Keep up
Agreed. He hasn't been signing players who are going to put Liverpool in contention. Garcia vs Ronaldo/Duff/Ljungberg? Zenden vs Robben/Giggs/Pires? Nah. They need half a defence, a proper strike force and a pair of wingers. If they lose Gerrard they need a world class centre mid too and Chelsea/United/Arsenal are all well in that market. I'm more interested in what Chelsea will eventually pull in than Liverpool.
For the life of me I can't understand what they did with all that money they got for the tin pot...the signings they've made leave a lot to be desired. But now? Surely all this money will be put back into the club on topo notch players?
I think he's a player that needs to be constantly controlling the game or he fades out of matches. This can be a problem for people like Ronaldo, Rooney etc who need to also have the ball alot to be effective. I also think that although he's good at it, he hates coming back to defend, that's why him and Lampard in the middle for England never works properly, and what we need most is a midfielder who comes back to defend often, not an attacking minded one. Long story short, I dont want him and I certainly dont want to blow over 30 mill on him. Chelsea can have him so we can creep in the transfer market and pick up our players secretly *cough*Essien*cough*
Well I reckon Mourinho wants Essien as a Makelele successor really. I'd imagine Makalele or Essien sitting with Gerrard/Lampard infront is what he wants to play. I'd much rather Gerrard went to Madrid, I suppose that is one thing worth saying about all this.
Essien can't play Makalele's role. He's very similar to Gerrard but better defensively. Certainly a CM and not a DM.
Dion Dublin was also used as a CB, it doesn't mean it is his best position If you want to optimize a player like Essien you let him do what he wants i.e roam back and forth in CM. Putting such a player at DM is a waste of half his talents and also not his best game.
i would like us to bid for gerrard, because even if we don't get him we can get chelsea to pay more, it will also show our intent and show all those puntits who say only chelsea and madrid are in for him.
Actually we should bid £50m for Gerrard just to drive the price up for Chelsea Two can play at that game.
but we need to be ruthless, like they seem to be doing to us, no matter how much they have got they won't like us making them pay more.
As much as I'd like to see Gerrard at United, I think 30m would be better spent on getting both Baptista and Ballack (with some spare change left over for a defensive prospect). It takes care of our squad for at least another three years as we'll have both Keane's and Scholes' position taken care of, as well as a backup forward in Baptista.
Manu will not win a bidding war with Chelsea so you lot might as well forget about it. Besides its painfully obvious that Gerrard made up his mind about the Blues back last Christmas when these rumors started up. Winning the Champions League and being allowed to compete next season just complicated his plan to demand a trade b/c he wanted to play CL footabll. He is trying to say its a contract issue..but Liverpool are quick to crush that lie, Gerrard wants to goto Chelsea, he has for a while and he is going to take a massive PR hit because of it.
All I care about is us capitalizing by getting in the player(s) we want with no more obstacles in our path...if Gerrard chooses Chelsea, we must surely be front runners for Essien. If he chooses Madrid...then we lose out on Essien and Baptista(as we dont bid ) leaving us with one sparse Summer...cos Ballack is not coming here..
I cant figure out why we aren't at least slightly interested in Baptista... he's a class player who can fill alot of roles and if we have the money to spend, why not spend it? like u say DS, if Gerrard goes to Chelski we might have a shot at Essien, but I don't know if I'm comfortable with us blowing 20M+ on someone who has never played in the prem and who is a fairly new player. Its not like he's Gattuso who is established himself over a longish period of time.
I think Gerrard has already made it known that he'd prefer to play for Real Madrid. So it's up to them to make an offer, and if they match or are anywhere close to Chelsea's offer, I think he'll spend the next season in Spain. That would also pretty much force Figo out, and considering Solari is close to going to Inter, I think it's the most likely scenario. Which is why I think it is essential that we go for Essien right now, not wasting any time. While Chelsea is trying to figure out what to do, just go for Essien, make an offer they can't refuse, and there is a good chance Essien will tell the club he wants to go - if Chelsea were to get both of them, Essien would surely have to spend most of time on the bench. Now is the perfect time, don't waste it.