Reports today suggest that Liverpool are on the verge of signing Dutch winger Eljero Elia for £13million. Previously I had called for the board not to give Hodgson funds to spend in this transfer window as I was almost certain that he would not be the manager for much longer. But if this transfer does go through, it will show that the board still back Hodgson and they may just be willing to give him the chance to shape his own team.
Elia has been compared to another current Liverpool Dutch player, Ryan Babel. Elia is only 23 years old which fits well in the new owners policy of buying young players. But I have my doubts about Elia. He had a fantastic season the last campaign but this season he has not lived up to expectations with his team Hamburg.
Elia has won the Johan Cruijff Award for “Young Player of the Year” in the Netherlands – an award that has previously been won by Arsenal legends Dennis Bergkamp and Marc Overmars as well as Robin van Persie, Arjen Robben and Rafael van der Vaart.
To me it seems like signing Elia would just be like signing another Ryan Babel, a player with so much promise with bags of pace but just simply never lived up to expectations. I hope I am proved wrong if Elia signs for Liverpool and he comes into the team and is a success.
There is no doubt that we need some pace in our current team and if Elia can provide the pace to unlock the oppositions defence then we will be better off. Let us just hope Hodgson will play him in his right position and not stick him in central midfield!
for me mutch rather buy ashley young for many reasons, (should i need to list the reasons as to why we should spend nearly 13 mill on this guy) when we could spend another 2-3 mill, and grab ashley young.
For me its what liverpool do and it has to stop, yes buying potential is great, but really is he the proven player that we know ahsley young is in the league over here.
For me untill we stop ducking out of paying maybe 2-3 mill more per player and going for the cheaper option just because of their ” potential” thats going to lead to alot of deadwood and its a scatter gun recruitment model that just doesnt work.
Liverpool need investment this is clear, but for me the club just doesnt seem to want to even be proactive and try to at least get some of these better proven player to the club.
cissokho at left back, failing that coentrao.
young at right wing, failing that hazard.
mata or turan at left side, failing that navas.
aguero or suarez up top, failing that lllorente.
its these type of players that we can not keep duckig out on, i am not syaing that its as easy as that, but come on when have we really gone for it and spent on 3- 4 players?
its time to invest or watch the club sink…. suarez and cissokho are fair enough to try for, as is young and if the owners had any balls are starting showing that they care to lift the club and the whole place they would bring aguero here with no questions asked…
but as with liverpool we have the same type owners with the same shite to look to in yet another shite market.
we haev to spend on better quality and that is enough is enough……
and roy is still here,,,,, great new owners are these????
er NOT
I think the new owners need to be given time we all know they are not oil rich owners but lets see.
I am in agreement with Sam i do not think Elia is a very good buy Marveaux from France sounds like value but i am not sure if he is good enough.
I disagree that Elia is another Babel as 1 is a winger and Babel prefers to play up front and is no true wide player.
It wouldn’t be a bad thing to buy “another Babel”. It would be a bad thing to treat another “inconsistent player” in the same manner as we ahve treated Babel.
If we had given Babel the opportunity to play his way into form as we give the likes of Maxi and Kuyt (who REGULARLY offer nothing to the team) then we’d have an extremely valuable asset to the club, instead of the shell of former young talent.
Btw, for all those going on about age – Babel is in the very same age group as Elia and Affelay, and remained ahead of both of them in the pecking order for Holland even while being used as a bit part player by Benitez (he only lost his spot just before the world cup when he picked up an injury and didn’t recover until 2 games in)
The biggest problem is that yet again, Liverpool are buying a right footed left winger. We looked our most balanced when Riera was in the and granted, he was a d1ck, but its because with a natural winger in the team, it instils instant width – something Cole, Babel, Jovanovic or Kujt cannot provide. Good potential, but this should spell the end for Babel – ship him out to Birmingham, perhaps even on loan, just so we can see if he is actually as good as he thinks he is. And we either play Jovanovic up front, or we sell him – he is not a left winger
doesn’t seem like a babel at all. the guy is a natural winger, something we never saw in babel despite the highlight videos every watched and was in awe of.
the video linked in the other page showed several examples of elia hugging the sideline and getting by his man. doesn’t matter if he’s right footed as long as he can drag defenders all the way to the side and whip in crosses.
hell, ashley young played LW for Aston Villa and he’s right footed. nobody was complaining about his ability to put in crosses.
Eljero Elia may look like another Babel but he is wayyyyyyyy better than Babel. Elia is like the ultimate winger. If there were three wingers in the world, then its Ronaldo, Robben and Elia. Have you guys seen is videos or games, he is incredibly fast, pacy, and great at giving passes. He is not coming to score 20 goals per season but at least there will be some to provide on the wings. He is a definite purchase.