Watch Liverpool

Archive for the ‘Latest Liverpool News’ Category

• Young’s wage demands believed to be the stumbling block
• Aston Villa were keen to get the full-back off their wage bill

Luke Young’s proposed transfer to Liverpool collapsed today, leaving the full-back facing an uncertain future at Aston Villa. Liverpool had agreed a £2.5m fee with Villa on Tuesday for the former England international but there were suggestions that Young was unable to agree personal terms at Anfield as well as being reluctant to relocate to the north.

The news will come as a disappointment to Liverpool and Villa. Roy Hodgson, the Liverpool manager, was keen to bring in the experienced defender to improve his options at full-back and also increase his quota of home-grown players, while Villa were eager to move on one of their higher earners as they look to reduce their £70m annual wage bill. Young was earning more than £2m a year at Villa and has three years remaining on his contract, with further signing-on fees due over the course of that period.

Liverpool had initially indicated Young would have to lower his demands, which have deterred interest from other clubs this summer, although when Martin O’Neill, the Villa manager, reported earlier in the week that a bid had been accepted it began to look like a deal might go through. That is no longer the case, leaving Young to continue his pre-season training in Portugal with Villa and O’Neill cursing a missed opportunity to free up some money.

The Villa manager has been told he will have to operate within the constraints of a “sell-to-buy” policy this summer, accentuating the need to move on a number of players on the periphery. At the moment, however, Steve Sidwell, Nigel-Reo-Coker, Habib Beye, Curtis Davies, Nicky Shorey and Young all remain Villa players. There has also been no progress with James Milner’s situation despite ongoing negotiations between Manchester City and Villa.

Aston VillaLiverpoolTransfer windowStuart Jamesguardian.co.uk

Today’s fluff knows its way around a lentil

The Mill isn’t a regular on this website’s Making Time blog. Creating something new and exciting out of bits and bobs of past-its-best odds-and-ends, though a noble and commendable pastime, is simply beyond our skill set. We’ll probably just buy a new one, or get a man in to fix it. Roy Hodgson, though, is something of an alchemist. He’d be able to make a natty new belt out of a bike tyre. He’d probably whittle you a nest of tables out of your old washing machine.

And he’s at it again. Hodgson, the manager who made a silk purse out of Bobby Zamora, reckons he can work his magic with the unexceptional Stli … Styli … Stilia … Bulgaria and Aston Villa midfielder S Petrov as a replacement for the Inter-bound Javier Mascherano. The Reds are prepared to pay £7m for the playmaker. Liverpool’s move for another so-so Villa star is on the ropes, however. Luke Young is apparently insisting on a “golden goodbye” from the club. Don’t get the wrong idea – he means a pay-off, not something you might find in a dodgy massage parlour.

John Carew could also be joining the Villa exodus – he’s wanted by Besiktas, while following Mascherano out of the Anfield exit door could be Dirk Kuyt. Rafa Benítez seems intent on recreating his happy days in the north-west and wants Kuyt to replace Mario Balotelli.

Away from the Villa-Liverpool-Inter love triangle, Manchester United are ready to add a couple of names to their roster. According to the Sun Sir Alex Ferguson is “leading the chase” for the Ghana midfielder Anthony Annan. “We’re expecting one of the top English clubs to try to sign him,” says Annan’s agent Lars Petter Fosdahl. “That’s what Anthony wants.” Two sentences that don’t actually say the same thing.

And the latest goalkeeper to be lined up as Edwin van der Sar’s replacement is Danish stopper Anders Lindegaard. United are “monitoring” the Aalesunds No1, presumably on a black and green radar screen making an irregular blipping noise.

German defender Serdar Tasci, not to be confused with his brother Joe Le, could still be heading to Arsenal in a £10m deal. The Gunners have held talks with Stuttgart but are yet to make a bid.

Piet Velthuizen – no, us neither – has caught the eye of West Ham manager Avram Grant. Grant wants the Vitesse Arnhem keeper, “one of the best young goalies in Holland who just missed out on a place in their World Cup squad”, to act as back-up to Robert Green. How one of the best young goalies in Holland feels about it is as yet unclear.

Despite putting him behind the sofa whenever anyone walks in, Wigan fear Arsenal, Villa or Stoke will nab Hugo Rodallega. Roberto Martínez has lined up Chile’s Humberto Suazo as his replacement. They’ll have to fight of interest from Birmingham and Sunderland to land the £7m spherical striker.

Tottenham are planning to offer Manchester City £4m for Craig Bellamy, a bid described as “cheeky” by the Daily Mail and as “perfectly reasonable for a not-entirely-consistent 31-year-old” by the Mill. Ian Holloway is apparently set to smash Blackpool’s transfer record twice by offering a ridiculous £1m to Leicester for DJ Campbell and the same amount to Swansea for Angel Rangel.

And David James is to turn down Celtic – and move to Bristol City instead. “If location is more important to him than money then we are in with a chance,” said a Bristol City spokesperson. The England goalkeeper lives in Devon. Bristol is closer to Devon than Glasgow. We think.

LiverpoolInternazionaleTransfer windowJohn Ashdownguardian.co.uk

• Manager without Gerrard and Torres for Europa League game
• ‘I couldn’t have envisaged a more difficult situation’

The handful of Liverpool fans congregating at Skopje’s Alexander the Great airport yesterday wore increasingly puzzled expressions as a series of red-tracksuited figures ambled through arrivals and out into the afternoon sunshine.

With Steven Gerrard, Jamie Carragher, Glen Johnson and Joe Cole left behind in England at a time when Fernando Torres, José Reina and Dirk Kuyt have still to return to pre-season training, there are few familiar faces on Europa League qualifying duty here in Macedonia.

Roy Hodgson seems hardly to have put a foot wrong during his first month at Anfield but Liverpool’s new manager appeared slightly terse last night, his refusal to answer questions about anything other than the game against FW Rabotnicki perhaps betraying a certain tension. Deep down he must wonder whether a scratch XI comprising reserves and academy players can avoid dissipating the considerable feelgood factor engendered by Cole’s signing and the decisions of Gerrard and Torres to remain on Merseyside.

Defeating a battle-hardened Macedonian team sprinkled with gifted Brazilians in this gateway to the Europa League proper is unlikely to be straightforward. “We are obliged to put our fate in the hands of many inexperienced players,” Hodgson said.

“We can only hope they come through against a side well versed in European football. I couldn’t have envisaged a more difficult situation at the start of my Liverpool career than the one I find myself in: playing a European qualifier against a good opponent without 10 senior players. I’m hoping we’ll be able to win but I’m far from confident that will be the case.

“It’s especially hard to play qualifiers on 29 July in World Cup years. Everyone, most of all Uefa, knows you can’t bring people off the beach, give them three days’ training and throw them into a top-class match. I’m relatively confident tomorrow’s team won’t let Liverpool down but we’ll have to be very good to survive.”

If there was an ominous sense of a honeymoon about to come to an abrupt end, at least Hodgson had not entirely lost his sense of humour.

Reminded that three years ago Rabotnicki drew 1-1 here in a Uefa Cup tie against a Bolton Wanderers team then managed by Liverpool’s current assistant manager, Sammy Lee, he said: “Sammy hasn’t been able to tell me much; I think he’s erased Bolton from his mind but he does remember they got through with some difficulty.”

Liverpool’s manager had earlier said he would discuss with his board the Europa League’s position in the club’s pecking order of priorities but, asked whether that chat had happened, he merely replied: “All we ever seem to do is have discussions so I’m pretty sure they’ll have taken place. But this is a very important game.”

Whatever this season’s European policy, this game at a ground in the process of being rebuilt – both ends of the Phillip II Stadium are largely rubble and, of the two functioning stands, one was surrounded by cranes yesterday as final building blocks were lowered into place – could be the opportunity Alberto Aquilani needs finally to begin demonstrating why Rafael Benítez paid £17m for him.

Just as Skopje is a mishmash of communist-period architectural atrocities and Ottoman era gems, Hodgson’s teamsheet promises to be a mix of delicate talent – Aquilani, Daniel Agger and Milan Jovanovic, a newly arrived Serbia winger once coveted by Real Madrid – and raw youth such as David Amoo. “Most people will not have heard of the players here, they won’t recognise them,” acknowledged Hodgson who is privately well aware that Anfield’s youth production line declined on Benítez’s watch. “But if you’re going to be a top player at Liverpool you need to be able to handle a game like this. We’ll find out if they can. It’s an opportunity to swim.”

He did not contemplate throwing seniors in at the deep end here. “Gerrard and the others never came close to playing, they’ve only been training four days. It would have been complete folly to play them in difficult conditions,” said Hodgson it was also too late to parachute any new buys into a club boasting only five of the eight homegrown players aged over 21 now mandatory in all Premier League squads. Asked whether he was poised to sign Luke Young from Aston Villa, Hodgson typically straight-batted: “Well he’s not playing tomorrow.”

He must trust Liverpool’s ersatz defence proves similarly unforthcoming this evening.

FW Rabotnicki (4-3-3, prossible): Bogatinov; Dimovski, Fernando, Belica, Sevlovski; Tunevski, Grigorov, Todorovski; Ze