Liverpool Bid Just £12.7 million for Suarez as Babel leaves

Not only has Blackpool's Ian Holloway voiced his displeasure of a lowly transfer fee offered for Charlie Adam received from Liverpool, but now Ajax have asked for a more "respectful" bid to be made for their star striker, Luis Suarez.

Ian Holloway was recently angered by a £4 million bid for his captain Charlie Adam, and subsequently went on a little rant in his usual passionate fashion at a press conference in which the Blackpool manager also confirmed that Adam had submitted a formal transfer request.

Now, Luis Suarez, who has been subject of much speculation as to where his future lies, has been bid for by Liverpool in what Ajax believe is another unsubstantial offer.
An Ajax spokesperson said:

We'll have to wait for them to come back with something more respectful. We want to keep him - at least until the end of the season and preferably for the rest of his contract."

"If you compare the 15 million euros [£12.7 million] Liverpool want to pay for Suarez with other transfers you can imagine that it's far too low for us. Luis is our top goalscorer for the last three years and also the man with by far the most assists as well.

"He was one of the big guys for Uruguay in helping them come third in the World Cup in the summer and he still has a contract with us for two-and-a-half years."

These comments are completely understandable. Luis Suarez is obviously an integral part of the Ajax side, someone who scores a lot of goals and wins a lot of matches for both his club and country. The fact is, £12.7 million really isn't enough to persuade a side to let their star striker go anymore, especially one of Suarez's calibre.

Darren Bent was only recently bought by Aston Villa for around £24 million - a figure which I believe is quite overpriced, and I question the ability of certain Aston Villa negotiators in coming to such a price. However, this is the climate of the market at the moment, and even small teams like Blackpool are able to ask for decent money and get away with it.
The fact is, if Liverpool want to sign a top quality striker, they have to pay the full price, especially now that they have left it so late in the window. Ajax need time to buy a replacement, and need the money to do that, so Liverpool must get a move on to pick up Fernando Torres' partner who can drive both Torres and Liverpool to success in the Premier League table.

In other news, Ryan Babel has accepted personal terms and agreed to move to German club 1899 Hoffenheim (as I reported on on January 18th). A brief statement on the Premier League club's official website read:

"Ryan Babel has agreed a move to TSG 1899 Hoffenheim. The Dutch international will fly to Germany tomorrow to finalise the deal.

Bye Bye Babel - Liverpool Accept Bid

Ryan Babel looks like he will be leaving Liverpool, as the Liverpool offcial website said that the Merseyside club have accepted a bid from German side 1899 Hoffenheim for the Dutch winger, and that Babel has travelled to Germany to discuss personal terms:

"Liverpool FC this afternoon announced they had accepted a bid from TSG 1899 Hoffenheim for the transfer of Dutch international Ryan Babel."

"The Bundesliga Club have now been given permission to discuss personal terms with the player, who has travelled to Germany."

The Hoffenheim owner, Dietmar Hopp said:

"Following the departure of (Demba) Ba and the injury to (Chinedu) Obasi, we were in an emergency situation. Babel was one of the prime candidates who our general manager Ernst Tanner was most convinced about."

The player, who was bought for a fee in excess of £10 million in 2007, will reportedly cost Hoffenheim 7 million euros, which is around £5.8 million - a financial loss of roughly £4.2 million. The Dutchman dissappointed at Anfield, scoring 22 goals in 146 appearances and not fulfilling the massive potential that it was thought the 24 year-old had.
Babel had spoken to some media sources which quote him as saying he would be willing to be involved in a swap deal that could bring Liverpool target Luis Suarez from Ajax to Anfield:

"The transfer of Suarez to Liverpool opens the door for me to go to Ajax. If Liverpool and Ajax - whether in combination with Luis - can reach an agreement over me I will surely come to the club.

"For the chance to play I am willing to settle for far less pay. For a player of my age it is important to be playing week in week out."

Playing "week in week out" was something that Babel was unable to do in his time at Liverpool, as he struggled with inconsistencies and was unable to create an opening in the Liverpool team for a regular first team spot.

Liverpool To Sign £13 million Eljero Elia

Liverpool's search for new players who will help to keep Roy Hodgson's job safe has begun, as the Reds have reportedly agreed terms with Dutch winger Eljero Elia.

Elia has been linked with Liverpool for a while, but up until now it has only been rumours. Now, it looks as if the rumours are finally coming true, as sources in Germany- home of his current club Hamburg, suggest that the pacey winger has been subject to a £13 million bid from the Merseyside club and have agreed personal terms with the 23 year-old.

Elia would be a ideal addition to the Liverpool side who massively lack natural wingers and players who are actually willing to play on the wing. Joe Cole has again expressed his desire to hold a central attacking role in the Liverpool side, and with Babel also preferring a central role, Hodgson knew he needed a natural wide man. The team have also lacked creativity and pace and after seeing Elia in the World Cup for Holland, he certainly has pace in abundance and the ability create chances for his team mates.

Elia has scored a career total of 27 goals while mounting a good assist total of 22, and in 2009 was awarded the Johan Cruijff Award for "Young Player of the Year" in the Netherlands - an award that has previously been won by Arsenal legends Dennis Bergkamp and Marc Overmars as well as Robin van Persie, Arjen Robben and Rafael van der Vaart.

Liverpool 3 - 0 Aston Villa - Video Goals

Liverpool moved up to 8th in the League with a 3 - 0 win over Aston Villa and their former Liverpool manager, Gerard Houllier. Liverpool didn't play brilliantly, but Aston Villa were very poor; offering nothing in the attack, and switching off at the back for the three goals.

Jamie Carragher, Steven Gerrard and Fernando Torres were all missing for Liverpool, something that fans may have worried about, as they haven't been in the best form when those key players were in the team. The losses however did not have a bad effect on the team at Anfield, and the two strikers, David Ngog and Ryan Babel stepped up to score the opening two goals and setting up the win for Liverpool.

Watch the goals below:
David Ngog Goal


Ryan Babel Goal


Maxi Rodriguez Goal

Transfer Deadline day Summary

"Deadline Day". Here, I found a definition for you all:

Designates the approximate point in time at which work begins in earnest; employee motivation is frequently observed to be "dead" before the deadline draws near.


"Christ, it's the nearly deadline already?! Hey Pete, put down the controller my friend - it's time that we looked at these shuttle schematics."

 

Football managers may not be studying the ways in human beings can safely be transported to the moon in a space shuttle, but they are spending millions on young men who kick a ball around for ninety minutes every week. To many, like me, it is extremely important. Yes, today is "Deadline Day" and that means SkySports reporters getting extremely excited about exclusive reports and proceeding in giving us all a headaches as they scream down the expensive camera lenses to us at our homes.

 

I'm going to then start with a transfer which surprised me somewhat. Alexander Hleb has joined Birmingham City on a season long loan. The former Arsenal man who is currently owned by Barcelona, has been described by Alex McLeish, City's manager as "top quality" and a player whom he thought he would only realistically get in his dreams (or on the FIFA football games maybe?). Birmingham's spending doesn't stop there though! No, because Hleb joins fellow new signing Jiranek (Centre Back) who came from Russian club Spartak Moscow for an undisclosed fee, while the Chilean winger Jean Beausejour is expected to complete his transfer to St Andrew's later today. The arrivals take Birmingham's summer signings to six in total, as McLeish has already added Nikola Zigic, Ben Foster, Enric Valles and Matt Derbyshire to his squad. With all those signings strengthening their squad, I am tipping Birmingham to finish in the top half of the table, creeping into the Europa League spots. This Carson Yeung fellow who has pumped millions in for new signings is sure to get his reward! Isn't he?

Next, and we are with Liverpool. They have completed the signing of Paul Konchesky on a four year deal. Some are surprised by the signing of the former Charlton, West Ham and Fulham left-back who has never really attracted interest from the top clubs, but Hodgson obviously got along well with his former player and believes he can fill the somewhat problematic postition (one of many at Liverpool) of left-back.

In addition, with only Fernando Torres and David N'gog as their star strikers - and I use "star striker" loosley with N'gog, Hodgson is trying to hammer out a deal for Carlton Cole - West Ham's "star striker". With reports that Ryan Babel had been in a helicopter over London today, you could be forgiven if you thought that maybe Hodgson was trying to use Babel as a makeweight for the deal, with Babel heading to Upton Park. However Babel dashed Liverpool's fans hopes that they will be getting rid of the dissapointing, un prolific and waster-of-the-ball-almost-every-time-he-gets-it, by telling his followers on Twitter that he is "going nowhere".

Owen Coyle supported claim's saying that he like to play "good football" by buying a young Brazilian. Rodrigo Moreno came from Benfica and will bolster Bolton's side with his ermm.... quickness. He can also play in the wide positions as well as up-front.

Moving from one Brazilian to another, and Manchester City uber-flop Robinho has joined AC Milan for around £12 million. The figure will increse, not that City need the money, to £18 million depending on how well he does etc.

With Wigan losing 4 - 0 to Blackpool and 6 - 0 to Chelsea on their opening to games, you would think they would improve their defence. Instead, Martinez has opted for better attacking options. He has signed Manchester United 21 year old promising center midfielder, Tom Cleverley on a season long loan as well as Chelsea striker Franco Di Santo.

Sunderland have smashed their transfer record fee with the signing of Ghana international, Asamoah Gyan for £13 million. It breaks their former record of £10 million which they paid Tottenham for Darren Bent.
Finally, speaking of Tottenham, they have signed a new goalkeeper in Stipe Pletikosa from Spartak Moscow on a season long loan.
AND BREATHE!