The Soccer Blog: Deadline Day Over; Liverpool Still Run by Liars, Inc.

Tuesday 31 August 2010

Deadline Day Over; Liverpool Still Run by Liars, Inc.

By: Ed | August 31st, 2010
insua

Plenty of names in the mill today—reports that Damien Plessis and Nabil El Zhar are in Greece to join Panathinaikos, Ryan Babel’s been linked with a move to Spurs, and the Emiliano Insua saga looks to be reaching its tragic end, as he’s set for a season-long loan to Galatasaray. Because Liverpool are quite deep at left-back and he’s clearly not serviceable as a starter or back-up with Paul Konchesky on the way.

Oh, and Liverpool could buy somebody, too.

I’ll be around to update when anything is confirmed, but for now this post will just going to sit and wait for the comments board to be filled with expletives.

**UPDATE** From Fulham’s official site:

Fulham Football Club has secured the services of promising youngsters Lauri Dalla Valle and Alex Kacaniklic from Liverpool as part of a cash plus players deal, that has seen Paul Konchesky move to Anfield.

So that’s Dalla Valle and Kacaniklic confirmed as leaving and Konchesky in. Perfect.

**UPDATE** Guardian confirms Insua exit:

5.26pm: Liverpool’s Emiliano Insúa has joined Galatasaray on loan with a view to a permanent move.

It’ll become permanent! Terrific! That’s officially become my least favorite phrase ever—”on loan with a view to a permanent move.” First Aquilani, then Insua. Still time for them to offload Pacheco?

**UPDATE** The window has officially shut—Liverpool-related news died down after Ryan Babel’s helicopter was grounded, so I’m not expecting any last-second deals to trickle out over the next while.

That means:

Confirmed IN: Paul Konchesky (Fulham—four-year contract)

Confirmed OUT: Emiliano Insua (Galatasaray—loan), Lauri Dalla Valle (Fulham—permanent), Alex Kacaniklic (Fulham—permanent)

Also worth noting that the club announced the signings of Suso and Adam Hajdu today; Suso is the one to watch—he featured against Monchengladbach in the preseason and has drawn rave reviews. The Hajdu deal is apparently temporary and ends in June of 2011.

**UPDATE** We’ve all been had. No disrespect to the new boys, and not that any of us really believed him, but the “big summer spending” promised by Tom Hicks turned out to be a complete lie. Go figure. Each of the new additions has a part to play, and that’s decent enough, but the lack of activity today was extremely disappointing and, even worse, it was sadly predictable.

But Martin Broughton’s still got time to get the club sold by the deadline he set—like five and a half hours, right?

Some Related Liverpool Posts:Two Days Left: What’s the Top Priority Before the Deadline?Monchengladbach 1, Liverpool 0: Betrayed by the InternetLiverpool v. FK Rabotnički Preview; Other Assorted MusingsMatch Preview: Liverpool v. West Bromwich Albion, 08.29.10The Squad Heads to Switzerland and News on Torres

Category: Miscellaneous, Team News, Transfer News

Tags: Damien Plessis, Emiliano Insua, Miscellaneous, Nabil El Zhar, Ryan Babel, Team News, Transfer News
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Billwould love to see suso against northampton as well as sterlingNoelPresumably Torres was told something to make him recommit. Presumably it wasn't that squad strength would, at best, be the same as it was last season with any new players who were brought in being direct replacements for those sent out.

It's not a question of whether individually Cole might be a little better or worse than Aquilani, Meireles than Mascherano, Jovanovic than Benayoun, Konchesky than Insua, and Poulsen than Riera (I guess). And it's not about wondering why, when there's a substantial profit being made on these swaps, we need to be pawning off our youngsters on the cheap--though that's a worthwhile concern for those of us emotionally invested in the long term prospects of the club.

It's that, at the very best, we are not any better overall than we were last season, while the owners have put a good £30M in their pockets since January. What happened to promises of summer signings? What happened to promises that outgoings would mean re-investment? We're where we were last season, but with a couple of aging Englishmen to replace a few younger continentals.

New owners by January or I expect Torres to be off, and you really couldn't blame him.Galahad ThreepwoodI'm starting to think we're not going to see a second striker purchased before the window closes. If we do, I think it'll probably be Carlton Cole, since (as liverpool_fan pointed out), he's the only one being mentioned at the moment. Sigh. Nothing against him, but I really would have preferred Loic Remy (even with his heart problem) or Bryan Ruiz. I know Ruiz is more of a winger than a striker, but I think we could have used him in the role. And the left back situation still seems unresolved to me. Don't see how Konchesky is any real improvement over Insua. Ah well, I guess no transfer market is ever completely satisfying.NoelOh, good, one decent but not world class left back pushed out at any cost and for no particular reason (third time's the charm) so that we can ship out LDV to bring in an older decent but not world class left back. I'm not sure how that really adds up to form a sensible picture.

And I suppose Cole is depth. Then again, Babel's depth, too, and at least provides some kind of entertainment value with his tweets and the hippity hop. Not sure I'd say either of these moves makes us worse, exactly, but it's more as though bodies are being shuffled around to little effect in an attempt to look busy.EdIf they're going have average players on the bench, they might as well be English!NoelInsua was about to become Enlgish, as far as FIFA/UEFA was concerned, and LDV would have been down the road, too... though of course you knew that and it wasn't the point. Which I get. Because it's all hand waving that doesn't make the club any better and leaves me crushingly unimpressed. But it might buy a week in the good graces of Sky.EdYeah, and that's what makes it so mind-boggling. In the neighborhood of four players could exit that would have eventually qualified--Insua, Dalla Valle, Kacaniklic, and Plessis. Would El Zhar have? Maybe no future for a couple, but still.

I'll never stop asking "why?" about Insua. Just baffling.NoelPretty sure El Zhar was too old to qualify, so I'm not sure I'd have him in the group with the others, though the overall point still stands.

I do recall reading somewhere (I wish I could remember where, especially in case it was you) the potential fear that based on his transfer habits at Fulham and complete disinterest in anything resembling a sustainable youth set up at any of his previous stops, all of our promising youngsters would get shipped out to bring in "compete now" journeymen. Only I think there was the assumption that those journeymen would at least be the sort to help us to fourth, even if it sacrificed the future at a club on weaker financial footing than its (desired, it has to be said at this point) rivals that would need a strong youth set up in order to compete long term.

I don't think the thought was that we'd go as far as to ship out as many as Insua, Dalla Valle, and Kacanicklic in one go to bring in a journeyman who might help us compete to stay in the single digits of the league table.Noelprevious thoughts = previous stops, as I still don't seem to be able to use the edit function.EdI'm magic.NoelYou're a wizard? I may have to re-evaluate things.Px54Babel seems to be being used as part-exchange in any deal at the moment, either for Cole at West Ham or for Crouch at Spurs. No Gomez deal (wage demands), no Ola deal (not what Roy's looking for).liverpool_fanIf someone is coming at anfield I believe that it is Carlton Cole because he is the only one who is being mentioned right now !!!blog comments powered by Disqus