Getting the best….for free!

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Rumours abound that Damien Comolli has practically made the first two signings for the forthcoming summer transfer window. Should these rumours materialize, they would carry three excellent ingredients that give added value to the deals: age, quality and……. they’re free! The players in question are soon-to-be 25 year old Rennes’ dynamic midfielder Sylvain Marveau, and soon-to-be 26 year old left fullback Taye Ismaila Taiwo.

Marveaux was a Man Utd and Chelsea target in the 2010 summer window but Rennes decided to hold on to the player, even thought it was the final year of his contract. The left sided attacking midfielder has been mostly out of action since November 2010 and it is reported he underwent surgery to his groin this February. He was spotted watching the Liverpool vs. Wolves game where he was hosted in the directors’ box. It is being said that the Frenchman has signed a pre-contract with the Reds.

Taye Taiwo is a robust and powerful left fullback with a powerful strike and particularly effective in set plays. The Nigerian international is being chased by many top European clubs, especially AC Milan and Juventus in Italy, but the Italian media is saying that the player has already made up his mind to join the Reds. Taiwo is also being chased by Spurs and Newcastle but it’s possible that the prospect of playing for Liverpool and being practically guaranteed a starting berth in each game due to the Reds’ current left back woes will lure the Nigerian to Anfield.

Would these players fit the bill at Anfield? Do you feel managing to get quality players on a free is an advantage to free funds for other player purchases?

24 Comments

  1. sounds great!:) i dont know much about taiwo except that he’s quick and good on fm.. but how is his defensive qualities? that has really been lfc’s back problems, that the right and left backs lack defensive qualities (except kelly)..

    1. Hey Red Viking! The main thing I feel is that he is a natural left back very much on the John Arne Riise mould with explosive forays forward and a venomous left foot. LFC’s problem has been the lack of a real left back, period! :-)

  2. taiwo’s not bad but i’m not wetting myself with excitement; i’d have them for the squad but there are better players out there for the 1st team berths that will cost considerable sums of money. i’m bored of us shopping around for bargains now, it hasnt got us anywhere. coentrao, turan, honda, gago, and a really good centre back.

  3. Great news…I hope the speculation is correct. If we are able to fill in these “gaps” in our squad with quality and for free well then that is fantastic. I don’t know much of them other than what I have read over the months and if other big teams are after them then they must bring something to the table. Perhaps more importantly, they can see what is happening at LFC and where we are headed and want to be a part of it…they know what a great club we are. I gotta say it is getting exciting again after a couple years of worry and fear for the future. The future is here and looking very bright!

  4. Good this way we could put considerable transfer funds in other areas also in need. I think we need a total of at least five new players, getting some for free puts us in considerable position to spend on one or two big names.

  5. Great news!!Taye Taiwo on a free is defo a no-brainer for me..he is strong,with power on his shots,good crosses..what he lacks is that the premierleague is the hardest league in the world,but i was also saying that about Luis Suarez!!!i dunno much about Sylvain Marveaux but i would take ANYONE ahead of J.Cole,Maxi,Jovanovic on the wings!!think that he is actually bought as a squad player for next season..they know that to create a top squad you’ve got to spend money and especially wingers dont come that cheap these days..so 12mil for Ashley Young is another BARGAIN(the price is low cauz coming summer will be his last year on his contract with Aston Villa)..SO what we need is a left back,a defensive midfielder(i like Lucas but i’d love to him as a squad player,not a starter)a winger and cover on the bench.
    Reina
    Johnson Carragher Agger Taiwo
    Gerrard M’Vila Meireles
    Young Carroll Suarez
    Bench:Gulacsi,Mexes,Skrtel,Kelly,Wendt,Lucas,Eriksen,J.Cole,Marveaux,Elia,Pavlyuchenko,Kuyt…YNWA

  6. Steve – Kelly on the bench? For me, either Johnson plays on the right wing or he sits on the bench. If you’re honest with yourself you have to way that Kelly has been the better player all season.

  7. As I have been saying this many times and for the good sake of this beloved club

    Kenny or who the full time manager will be next summer, has to do this before start rebuilding the squad

    Sell these players for the sake of the club: Reina, Darby, Kyrgiakos, Insua, Aurelio, Konchesky, Poulsen, Spearing, Jovanovic, Maxi, Aquilani, Degen, El-Zhar, Mavinga and N’Gog (Gather at least 70m from these sales plus another 30m from NESV will gather a 100m funds available for the summer rebuilding task)

    Must Buys: Taiwo (LB – FREE), Wendt (LB – FREE), Gary Cahill (CB – 10M), Sylvain Marveaux (LB/LW/LM – FREE), Charlie Adam (DM/CM – 8M), Moussa Sissoko (DM – 12M), Arda Turan (RM/LM – 14M), Pablo Hernandez (RM/AM/LM – 17M), Ezequiel Lavezzi (ST/FW – 15M), Stekelenburg (GK – 20m)

    Full Squad:

    Stekelenburg, Gulacsi

    Kelly, Johnson, Carragher, Agger, Skrtel, Cahill, Taiwo, Wendt

    Arda, Kuyt, Hernandez, Marveaux, Gerrard, Meireles, Lucas, Adam, Sissoko

    Lavezzi, Carroll, Suarez

  8. If these two ARE free than fantastic, sign them up, they can’t be worse than Jova, Maxi, Cole, or Kuyt–Yes I said kuyt(3 tap ins against United aside) for me he is a squad player.

    Pacheco deserves a chance next season-a REAL chance. I have heard people saying he should be loaned out because he is not proven or too weak for the premier league. blah blah blah, heard it all before, negative nineties football mindset. If that happens to him, than it will be like with Nemeth, talented striker, who becomes a hero at another club and doesn’t want to come back to Liverpool where he knows he won’t get a chance. What you are missing out on is the next Gerrard, and we will forever be one of those clubs that only play 25+ year olds we have bought or brainwashed large English 21 year olds who finally get a chance (because they are English and big) and when the team fails to create decent chances with them, everyone decides we need to BUY more talent.

    Kenny seems to know what he is doing, and I know that this season is now damage control, so I really hope that next year Kenny makes a statement and starts playing Pacheco, Suso, and Sterling. I know that Suso and Sterling are about sixteen, but so what? 2-0 up bring them on for ten. They have ball control and awareness of the game, which I’d pick any day over Large players that control the ball with their shins. Heres to next season YNWA

  9. it wil be gr8 if we get these players. Gr8 work there Commoli.
    To those projecting future squads, where are u putting Honda?
    Honda is a gr8 player plus he can flood millions of pounds to Anfield due to shirt sales. In 2 week the 15 million we pay 4 him will be back, then Cole, Maxi and Jova can go.
    Those that at least play Master league on PES or football manager understand that some players are bot 4 both football ability and commercial potential.
    Think business.
    YNWA

  10. Two excellent players but they are yet to sign deals, If it happens it would be fantastic business, Taye Taiwo is as strong as an ox and Marveaux is a real talent!!!!!

  11. Sylvain Marveaux has confirmed to the ‘Sunday People’ he is close to signing for Liverpool, for the first time he has spoken about this deal, It will happen now!!!!!

  12. There is no doubt about it. After 3 years of selling our best players and not replacing them with the same ilk in order to pay interest on loans, it is now desperate that we rebuild fast. Good will and reputation do not last forever! Torres, and maybe now Reina, show this – footbal careers are short and top players cannot afford to wait around, especially when teams at the top already are willing to take them.

    Top teams need a squad with two very good players for every position to give competition for places and cover for injury. To be competing at the top of the premiership, the cost of doing this is tremendous. However, Chelsea, Man City and Tottenham have shown that buying top players is the way to get to the top of a division!

    Therefore, we must make a start by getting some good young players for free if possible so that whatever money is available can be spent on other problem positions. There are no guarantees of any player fitting in and working out, but at least such young players that cost nothing can be sold to cover the wages they have consumed! It is a no brainer.

    It is also important that we clear out as much as possible, not only to raise money to buy better players. but also make room for these better players and for younsters to move up.

    In addition to all this, it is also important that we stop buying “squad members” just so that we can fill positions, but bring in some good AND YOUNG “frees” to do this and concentrate all freed funds on bringing in some TRUE TOP QUALITY PLAYERS.

  13. Old Timer!, Agree totally with you, even Jovanovic and Cole will go for £5m so they were financially low risk. Marveaux and Taiwo are a different class of player though, they are much younger. Marveaux came through the Rennes academy and has been loyal to them, they would be a real boost to our left-side. It seems as though Kenny’s deal is nearly done on a 2 year deal with Clarke on a 3 and a half year deal, a transfer kitty is ready to be spent, so if we can pick up quality for nothing, let it be!!!!!!!

  14. LEFT SIDE PROBLEM SOLUTION ??

    IF we get Taiwo for free, why not get Wendt for free also, or buy Coentrao – we need 2 left backs!

    IF we get Marveaux for free, why not also get Nolito for free or buy Young – we need two left wingers!

    We could solve our entire left side problem with 4 QUALITY “frees” or 2 QUALITY frees and buy 2 QUALITY.

    IT IS A NO BRAINER!

    If we are not as rich as Man City or Chelsea, TO COMPETE we have to trust and expect KK and Comolli to use their skill and wits to achieve building a top team with less resources.

    1. @ Old Timer. If you have been reading my articles I have written a couple last week asking readers to vote two players per position. There is no doubt we need double quality in each position, with the possibility of quality inserts coming up through the ranks from Academy to reserves. The point of THIS article though is, if they are good and they are ‘free’, why not go for them. Agreed?

  15. @Tonio Bone. Agreed. However I go further than “why not go for them”. I am saying we will not have enough money to go out and buy all the quality players we need this year, so we must actively seek to obtain as many young quality players for free as we can get in order to save the available funds to buy quality yoiung players in other positions.

    We need to get as far as we can with the rebuilding this year, and we cannot do that without agressively pursuing all good young players that are available for free plus selling as many of the players we dont want for the future as possible.(I have mentioned 4 left side players, but how about K.P.Boateng in central midfield, and are there any others???)

    Of course, everyone we get, whether free or bought, may not turn out as well as expected. That always happens (witness Babel), so our first year rebuild will probably have to be adjusted next year. But it is a massive task and we cannot expect to chuck £250M at it like Real Madrid or Man City. It is get “frees” or have the rebuild take longer.

  16. Think the main thing everybody’s got to realise is that the squad has just got a hell of a lot better!

    Taiwo will not be the only left back through the door! He’s a replacement for the soon to be gone Aurelio we still require another left back.

    Sylvain Marveaux is a quality player that’ll compete for a starting spot on the left hand side of midfield. Think about it, were going to have a major cull this year the squad is simply not good enough. Here’s the player I think will leave in the summer.

    Brad Jones
    Insua
    Konchesky
    Aurelio
    Mavinga
    Degan
    Kyrgiakos
    El Zhar
    Aquilani
    Pouslon
    Ince
    Cole
    Ngog
    Javanovic

    That’s 13 players in total.

    I fully expect us to at least purchase

    1 x Goalkeeper
    2 x left backs (Taiwo + Emilio Izaguirre)
    2 x wingers (Sylvain Marveaux + Aiden McGeady)
    2 x central mid-fielder’s (Charlie Adam + 1)
    1 x Centre Forward

    Add to this some of our wonderful reserve team and U18 player’s and the squad will be on its way to being rebuilt.

  17. I am from India from a small town called Rajkot in a state called Gujarat. I am an ardent Liverpool supporter and have supported the club since 2005 because that is when I started to take real interest in football and after watching and gathering some information about different EPL clubs, my natural choice became Liverpool, unlike some of my other mates who jumped the bandwagon of Manchester United just because they were the most publicised club at that time.

    Anyways, the point of my elaboration is that for approximately 6 years, I have watched the club’s fortunes rise and fall with time. Everytime a top class player was sold, the money filled the coffers of former Liverpool owners Gillett and Hicks or would go out to narrow the debts. Result? Liverpool became a Great Club with Great History but no quality players. Torres was right in stating that Liverpool was ‘selling club’.

    What I don’t understand is that why would it fall to such a low? Had the previous owners forgotten how to manage or simply how to do business? Forgive me for sidetracking, but I feel the time is ripe to set up an academy on the Indian soil. Take for example Arsenal. This club has organised a talent search in the form of competitions across the country. Their intention is to find out raw talent and develop them in their academy. This shows they have intent and will to find out such players in a hitherto unknown and unchartered lands. India has a vast potential, and the billion strong population have ‘Diamonds that are yet to be polished’. It lacks the initiative from the country itself that cares about just cricket and nothing else.

    Find these players and I daresay that they will be likened to the likes of Lionel Messi and Zinedine Zidane!!

    YNWA

  18. redmist,seems your not up to date reguarding the club majority of the players youve mentioned have been sold or left club already usual part time fan cluless

    1. Hey Wallasey. Which players from Redmist’s list are no longer Liverpool players? Just curious!

  19. also another note
    we neeed to get rid of at least 15 players

    Brad Jones
    Insua
    Konchesky
    Aurelio
    Mavinga
    Degan
    Kyrgiakos
    El Zhar
    Aquilani
    Pouslon
    Ince
    Cole
    Ngog
    Javanovic
    MAXI

    i am debating on ngog though considering he is a excellent player as evident on the first day of the season and i feel that if we give him time he can develop into something of a worldclass striker

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