Tags
Adam Lallana, Andres Iniesta, Daniel Sturridge, Dejan Lovren, England National Team, Fernando Torres, Gary Cahill, Glen Johnson, International Friendlies, Javi Martinez, Joe Hart, John Stones, Leighton Baines, liverpool, Luke Shaw, Phil Jagielka, Rickie Lambert, southampton, Spanish National Team, Steven Gerrard, World Cup
Morning all. Apologies for the lack of blog yesterday, but I got up late and had some things to do, and by the time I was ready to crack on it was perhaps a bit late.
Straight down to business, then. The big news is that Rickie Lambert will have a medical at Liverpool today ahead of a £4m switch from Southampton, and terms are expected to be agreed before Lambert jets off to the USA with the rest of the England squad for the pre-World Cup friendlies against Ecuador and Honduras. It is believed that he will sign a two-year deal with the Merseyside club.
Some eyebrows might be raised at the signing of a 32-year old who has never played in Europe or a Premier League title-challenging team, but I think Lambert’s a good signing for Liverpool. He’ll add experience to the squad (something that the more advanced areas of the pitch are lacking now that Gerrard has been Pirlo’d in defensive midfield), and he’ll also be a good plan B. I’ve often said that Liverpool lack physical presence and height up front, and even though that’s not part of their A game it’s something that Lambert provides. In particular games this season (0-2 defeat to Chelsea for example), I think height and strength in the box might have made a difference, as it gives wide players someone to target with crosses, rather than being forced to pass backwards for lack of a better option.
Lambert is also a tidy goal-scorer, too, with 14 goals in 39 games for Southampton this season, and as a boyhood Liverpool fan he’s pretty much living the dream and will work as hard as anyone. You have to admire his fairytale-like career, it has to be said. He’s worked his way up from the fourth tier of English football all the way to the Premier League, simply by continuing to do his job – scoring goals. He debuted for England at the age of 31 and scored with his first ever touch, and is now off to the World Cup. And next season he’ll probably make his Champions League debut. As close to a real-life version of New Star Soccer as you’re ever going to get.
Lambert also adds something else important that Liverpool are in dire need of – depth. Now that they’re in the Champions League, they really need to add depth to their squad or they’re going to find out the hard way that they’re asking too much of their first eleven to start potentially 50+ games (including Cup matches) over the course of the season. Liverpool really benefited from not being in Europe last season; they probably wouldn’t have done anything more than battle Everton for 4th place if they were in Europe, and they have to take advantage of the fact that not being in Europe propelled them into automatic qualification for the Champions League and a title near-miss by spending to add depth and stay there. Because the axis of Suarez/Sturridge is so effective, Liverpool were always likely to struggle to bring in another world-class forward (not that Sturridge is really world class, but whatever), so a 32-year old boyhood Liverpool fan who can and will do a decent job when required is the right fit for them.
And speaking of Southampton and Liverpool, the latter have made a £25m bid for Adam Lallana. The Saints turned down Liverpool’s previous offer of £20m, as they want £20m for the player, but under terms of Lallana’s contract Bournemouth, his former club, are entitled to 25% of any future transfer fee Southampton might receive for him, so his selling price would have to go up to around £27m (I think. My maths is terrible…) for the Saints to receive £20m for him. It remains to be seen whether they accept the £18.5m they’ll receive if they sell him for £25m. Liverpool are also interested in centre-half Dejan Lovren, seemingly looking to take full advantage of Southampton’s manager-less situation following Mauricio Pochettino’s move to Tottenham. Manchester United are also on the prowl, having apparently resumed talks with the Saints over the potential transfer of young left back Luke Shaw.
The only other news is managerial. Arsene Wenger has officially signed a three-year deal to keep him at Arsenal until 2017, and should he see it through (he probably will), he’ll have managed the club for 21 years, equalling Sir Alex Ferguson’s record of 21 years managing the same club in the Premier League (in the Premier League’s current format, i.e. since the 1992-93 season). An impressive feat. Meanwhile, Brian McDermott has left Leeds United, hardly a surprise to anyone given all the nonsense he’s had to put up with all season.
In terms of international news, England beat Peru last night. Daniel Sturridge actually scored a goal for once that wasn’t an easy tap-in or lucky deflected effort with nice curler into the top corner from outside the box. Gary Cahill and Phil Jagielka both scored from corners (the former directly with a header, the former firing home after the goalkeeper came, caught and dropped the ball) in the second half to seal the victory. Young Everton centre-half John Stones came on as a late substitute for Leighton Baines to make his debut. England will be concerned about Glen Johnson’s poor defending, though, and only kept a clean sheet through the goalkeeping heroics of Joe Hart.
Fernando Torres, meanwhile, actually managed to score a goal for Spain in their World Cup warm up friendly victory over Bolivia. Torres netted from the penalty spot after Javi Martinez was fouled in the area. Andres Iniesta rounded off the scoring with a low drive from outside the box.
Right then, that’s all for today. More tomorrow. Until then.