When asked about the rumour that Liverpool had some agreement with Lille over the sale of Eden Hazard in exchange for the loan of Joe Cole, General Manager Frederic Paquet said:
“There is no link between Joe Cole and Eden. There has been no discussion. We know Eden Hazard is interesting some of the best clubs in Europe, but he is here and part of the project.”
You could look at this comment two ways: 1) you could take as face value or 2) that Lille wouldn’t discuss such matters even if any agreement was in place.
It is one of those pieces of speculation which may rumble on until the end of season when Hazard will probably decide to move on from his French club. Teams such as Real Madrid and Barcelona would still be favourites but the rumours of an agreement between the Reds and Lille over Hazard will give many Reds fans hope nonetheless.
With the departure of Raul Meireles to Chelsea, it means the Reds do not have the abundance of riches in central midfield they once had. There is still of course a good deal of creativity from the likes of Gerrard, Adam and Henderson but I feel that with the departure of the Portuguese player to the Blues, the Reds may feel they would like to strengthen this position either in January or in the summer. There is a position to be filled for an attacking young creative midfielder in my view.
The £12million for Meireles could be added to the transfer kitty to find such a player, and of course Eden Hazard would be the top of many people’s wish list, perhaps even Comolli and Dalglish’s, and there can be no surprise that the Belgian starlet has been linked to Liverpool.
Especially if Liverpool do qualify for the Champions League next summer, the Reds will be in a much stronger position to negotiate for prospective young talent and some bona fide foreign stars.
I can imagine that the likes of Hazard, Mario Gotze of Borussia Dortmund or a young Spanish star like Sergio Canales maybe talked about next summer, but alas, such talk is for next summer, rather than now. I think most fans have had enough of transfer speculation and rumours for a while, and will be glad to focus on the season ahead to see what this new Liverpool side can do with all its new signings.
Written by David Tully for Live4Liverpool.com. Follow us on twitter @live4Liverpool or like us on Facebook
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Selling Meireles for as little as £12million makes no sense. He was probably our most creative player in the midfield and will be missed. We should have sought a similar type of player if his sale was innevitable.
He’s saying he slipped down the pecking order at Liverpool, we’ve only played 4 games. Football like it or loath it is now a squad game and it’s horses for courses. He jumped ship for the money and to play in Europe, and I can fully understand that but do’t try to deny it. Contracts these days aren’t worth the paper they’re written on. He also was told by Chelsea to hand in a written transfer request in order to save them money which would go towards his wages. And if that’s not tapping up I don’t know what is.
It’s a fact of life that people change employers, every day of the week for all sorts of reasons and I think that most supporters forget that the club is an employer and players have always changed clubs.
I appreciate what each player gives to Liverpool but when they request a move for me it’s thank you and goodbye. I’m not interested in thier reasons, that’s thier business not mine. I’m interested in the players that remain at the club and the new players comming in.
12 million is way too cheap for chelsea to pay for…Good job Chelsea! Dumb business deal for Liverpool!
to philip:
u think liverpool can get 12 million if meireles leave liverpool for the next year for 29 age player?
chelsea also over paid to get meireles bcoz their cannot get the main target modric. this is a panic buying.
so this is a goog business from liverpool.