Just Liverpool News » Babel

Benitez expects to get £20 Million to spend in January

Tue, 22 Dec 2009 14:09:42 +0000

Rafa Benitez has been assured that whatever funds he raises from transfer sales in January he can use to recruit new players.

Benitez already knows he is getting no money from the owners for new players and will have to sell to buy, something he intends to do in earnest as soon as the transfer window opens.

Players that immediately spring to mind include Ryan Babel and Andriy Voronin among others and the expected income from sales is in excess of £20 Million.

The news that Benitez has been assured that he can keep all funds raised means that he has spoken with the owners or at least their representatives and this therefore means that the owners are not considering sacking the Spaniard.

Not yet anyway.

If Liverpool could have afforded to give Benitez significant sums to spend it would also have meant that they would have been in the position to sack the manager and give him his the £20 Million in compensation.

Benitez therefore can only consider himself lucky that he has no money to spend, strange but true.

Bayern Munich deny any deal for Babel

Mon, 30 Nov 2009 09:47:17 +0000

It was reported this weekend that the Bayern Munich boss Louis Van Gaal had decided to take the out-of-favour Liverpool striker Ryan Babel to Germany this January, as the young Dutchman is desperate for first team football ahead of this summer World Cup Finals, but a Bayern Chief has denied any knowledge of the move.

Christian Nerlinger, Bayern’s Director of Sport, was asked about the rumours yesterday, and he replied simply: “I do know anything about it,”

“If I do not know anything, you can easily assume there is no truth in this link.”

But Babel is still desperate to get away, and his declarations to the press that he doesn’t understand why Benitez doesn’t pick him must surely have sealed his fate.

But, apparently, he won’t be going to Munich!

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Ryan Babel moving to Bayern Munich in January?

Sun, 29 Nov 2009 11:35:59 +0000

According to an “exclusive” report in todays News of the World, the disgruntled Liverpool striker Ryan Babel will be moving to Bayern Munich in January.

It will be a loan move until the summer, when Munich will pay a transfer fee of £9m. The NOTW quotes a “source” as saying: “Rafa has totally blanked Babel since his outburst. He understands some of his concerns but has made it clear to the player more than once he will only play who he believes to be his strongest XI and won’t budge.

“Rafa cannot give Babel the assurances he needs with the World Cup coming up so he will let him go if he’s not happy.

“The manager’s only concern with this is that he won’t be getting any money to improve the squad from the move.”

The coach at Bayern Munich, Louis Van Gaal, is a fellow countryman of Babel and has long been an admirer of the 22 year-old. This move will give Babel a real chance of beingpicked for the Holland team to go to the World Cup next summer.

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Aldridge – Big-mouth Babel has got to go!

Sat, 28 Nov 2009 10:36:59 +0000

The ex-Liverpool star John Aldridge has had enough of Ryan Babel, and thinks his last outburst is the straw that broke the camels back.

He said in the Liverpool Echo: RYAN BABEL’S latest outburst about his failure to land a regular starting spot is the final straw for me.

He has shouted his mouth off once too often and it’s time he moved on.

Rafa is going to need to wheel and deal in January and Babel is one of the few fringe players who could actually generate a decent fee.

Some people are saying that there is a witch hunt against the young Dutch international, but Babel was quoted last week as saying: “I have tried to talk to the manager but it isn’t of any use,” he said.

“I couldn’t really do anything with the feedback Benítez gave me. We have agreed to look at my situation in the winter. If there’s no improvement then, I have to be honest, I want to be somewhere else. I don’t play a lot so I can’t be happy and I can’t cheer out loud. Sometimes I wonder how long I can sustain it but I will fight for my position – what else can I do?”

“I don’t know if it has anything to do with my little trip to the Olympics. I know the manager wanted me to stay here,” he said.

“I really don’t believe [Benítez] is trying to get back at me. Every time me or my agent have a chat with him he stresses I can’t leave and he believes in me. We have to trust he is telling the truth. Saying it is different to showing it.”

But the fact is that Benitez doesn’t believe that Babel is good enough to play a full game for Liverpool, no matter how many injuries he has, and it would seem that if Babel still hopes to get into the Holland team for the World Cup next summer, he would be better of at a team that will give him first team football.

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Benitez – We got Aquilani cheap because of injury!

Admin — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 08:27:12 +0000

The Liverpool manager Rafael Benitez has been talking about his transfer business, and admits he has bought a lot of players cheaply that just haven’t worked out, and he says Liverpool could only ever afford one or two big name signings a year.

“When we have spent big, normally it’s been very good business,” he said. “Torres, Mascherano, Reina, Alonso.

“Robbie Keane is a good player but we had to sell him because he was not playing at the level we knew he could play. Ryan Babel was signed for the future and we are waiting for his improvement. He has to be more consistent. With the fringe players we needed to take a gamble on Bosmans and one-, two-million pound players. Some of these have not been good enough. It is a risk you have to accept when there is not too much money about.”

But he thinks that he got a good deal when he bought Alberto Aquilani, and is sure he would have cost a lot more if he had been fully fit.

“We can only buy one or two big, £20 million players a year,” Benítez continued. “If we want to have money available then we have to sell some players. We have to sell expensive and buy as cheaply as possible.

“Aquilani fit would be £20m to £30m. We checked with doctors and they said he would be out one, maybe two months. We have lost some time but I signed the player for five years, not five weeks.”

Some might say that the big problem with that attitude, is that Liverpool have lost a lot of points because they didn’t have an adequate replacement for Alonso from the beginning of the season. Aquilani may be the right man for the job, but his unavailability has been very costly.

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Babel – I never get a chance at Liverpool, but i will take revenge!

Admin — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 06:58:47 +0000

The Holland and Liverpool striker Ryan Babel has been interviewed in Holland while with the Dutch team, and has told them of his frustration at not being given the chance to play for Liverpool from the start of games.

He has been used as a sub nine times so far this season, and has scored three goals, but is desperate to be named in the starting line-up on a regular basis.

“To be a supersub is mentally hard,” Babel said. “It is clear I have enough qualities to be in the starting XI of Liverpool. But when you never get a real chance, it’s difficult.

“The Liverpool fans are happy with me as a substitute, but I didn’t get a chance yet as starter. I have never played three matches in a row from the start.”

“I’m not the type of player who gives up,” Babel continued. “Benitez told me he sees me as a starter in the Liverpool XI in the future. At this time I still believe him. To be underestimated is my biggest motivation. I will take revenge in different ways.”

That last statement sounds a bit strange! Let us hope that something was lost in the translation. But he doesn’t sound like he will be happy with the situation for much longer.

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Benitez desperate to sign Eljero Elia?

Admin — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 08:56:28 +0000

The big Liverpool transfer rumour in the Mirror today says that Rafael Benitez has made the Holland star Eljero Elia his top target this January, despite the fact that he only joined Hamburg this summer.

The Mirror reckons that Benitez will sell Andrea Dossena and Ryan Babel to fund the deal, and he will want a profit on the £19m he paid for the pair 18 months ago.

Hamburg paid £8m for Elia in the summer and they will need a nice profit on that if they are to be persuaded to part with the new man that earned two Man-of-the-Match awards in his first three games in the Bundesliga.

Dossena has made no secret of the fact he wants to move back to Italy, but they also say that Benitez has run out of patience with Babel, who has only be used sparingly since his arrival, but Babel himself said yesterday that he intended to stay and fight for his place in the team.

“The Holland coach van Marwijk wants players to be playing at their club to get a chance to go to the World Cup so that’s also for me what I try to reach and work every day very hard,” Babel said.

“Liverpool are a very good team, everybody knows that, and I am proud to be part of Liverpool.”

You could read into that that Babel wants regular first-team football, and if he can’t get that at Liverpool with all their current injuries then he may as well look elsewhere.

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Liverpool transfer rumours Nov 1st 2009 – David Villa, Riise, Babel and Dossena

Admin — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 09:32:56 +0000

Riise wants Anfield return?

There are some very strange transfer rumours surrounding Liverpool this morning, but that is normal when it’s the Sunday papers are about.

The strangest one is definitely that John Arne Riise is trying to persuade Rafael Benitez to bring him back to Anfield if Andrea Dossena gets his wish to return to Napoli.

Dossena has been pushing Benitez to let him go back to Italy so he can regain his place in the national team, and Riise thinks he could provide the cover at the back.

But Riise left Liverpool under a cloud a couple of years ago after he scored the famous own goal which gave Chelsea the lifeline they needed to beat Liverpool in the Champions League, so would Benitez really welcome him back?

The news that David Villa has sacked his agent, and Valencia’s declaration that need to sell Villa to balance the books has reignited the rumours that Benitez wants Villa to partner his Spanish compatriot Fernando Torres in the Liverpool attack, but unless Benitez can turn things around and promise Villa Champions League football next season, he is unlikely to consider a move to Merseyside.

Chelsea would probably be favourites for Villa if they get their transfer ban suspended.

The last rumour is that Benitez is willing to let Ryan Babel return to Holland with Ajax, if they will pay £6m for him. This is rumoured to be the amount of cash that Liverpool need to pay the new contract being offered to Pepe Reina.

But if this story is true, then how can Benitez raise the money to persuade David Villa to come to Anfield?

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