The summer transfer window is fast approaching and anyone that’s been following football for a significant amount of time will know only too well what the holiday months bring with them.
SEE MORE:
Best available free transfer XI: including Fiorentina goalkeeper and Manchester City man
Philippe Coutinho ranked 9th best young attacking midfielder in Europe, according to study
Liverpool transfer news
Get ready for the press to link every player under the sun to your club and vice-versa. Unfortunately, Liverpool’s stars are no exception and we’ve already spotted a few hilarious anomalies cropping up.
In the list below we count down six ridiculous rumours involving Liverpool players. Needless to say, if any of these actually come off, I’ll eat my metaphorical hat!
6) Mario Balotelli to Orlando City (Daily Express)
We all know that Mario has struggled this season but to suggest that he could be heading for the glorified footballing retirement home that is the MLS might be pushing it a touch. The Italian might have only scored four goals since his £16m move to Anfield last summer but his overall record is still more than respectable – 58 goals in five seasons in Serie A, 34 goals in four seasons in England and 13 goals for his country – all by the age of 24.
5) Lucas Leiva to Inter Milan (ESPN)
This one had been thrown around a lot in recent months. According to ESPN, Lucas feels undervalued at Liverpool and we simply cannot believe that to be true. The Brazilian has been – when fit – an integral member of our side this year. The 28-year-old is one of our longest serving players and is surely well settled with his family on Merseyside. He might not be a regular moving forward but he definitely still has a role to play at Anfield.
4) Joe Allen to Everton (Daily Mirror)
This is a bit of an oldie – February 2014 to be precise – but we couldn’t not include it. Abel Xavier was the last player to move between the two Merseyside clubs back in 2002 and we don’t see that 13 year record being troubled any time soon. Allen might have made a slow start to life at Anfield but he’s valued highly by Brendan Rodgers, who brought the midfielder with him from Swansea City back in 2012. He’s not going anywhere right now.
3) Raheem Sterling to Manchester City (Daily Mirror)
We all know that Raheem Sterling is a wonderful young player with a bright future ahead of him. The vast majority of Liverpool fans will also be well aware of our ongoing contract stand-off with the player, something which as the Mirror rightly explains has attracted interest from elsewhere.
To suggest that the 20-year-old could be valued as highly as £55m – fairly standard for a young, English player – is one thing, but to claim that he’d be on £200,000-per-week at the Etihad is simply barbaric. City are already under pressure from FFP (via The Guardian) and simply couldn’t do it.
2) Rickie Lambert to Chelsea (The Guardian)
This one certainly raised some eyebrows earlier this week. Lambert’s definitely a good player, he certainly proved as much during his time with Southampton. It’s not quite happened for him at Anfield, although he did impress against Queens Park Rangers last weekend, setting up the opening goal for Philippe Coutinho. In truth, he’s been a back-up player for Rodgers, with his three goals unlikely to catch the attentions of the Premier League champions.
1) Manchester City triple swoop (Daily Express)
We mentioned earlier that the outgoing Premier League champions were under a little bit of pressure financially. However, the Daily Express doesn’t expect to deter their interest in a £90m swoop for Raheem Sterling, Jordan Henderson and Philippe Coutinho, despite the two latter players in that list having only recently signed new contracts. With that in mind, they’re more likely to be looking at £190m if they have serious aspirations of making this happen. Complete rubbish.
