Liverpool continue to be linked with a move for Japan star Keisuke Honda. Honda has been a target for Liverpool and Arsenal but with Arsene Wenger saying he is not going to sign a striker this January, that leaves the door open for Liverpool to sign Honda.
Honda would be a great addition to the current Liverpool side and below are 5 reasons why Liverpool should sign Honda:
1) Honda is a versatile player who is able to play as an out and out striker and also as the second striker just behind the main front man. A partnership of Honda and Torres upfront could prove to be very effective and exciting.
2) Honda would provide as with a great set piece option. Honda is known for scoring great free kicks. We have not really had a dead ball specialist at Liverpool and we have had to rely on Steven Gerrard and Fabio Aurelio (when he is fit). Now with Honda we will know that any free kick within range is a potential goal. One just has to look at his free kick exploits for Japan at the World Cup last year.
3) Honda is only 24 years old and that fits in perfectly with the new owners vision of signing young talented players.
4) Honda wants to play for Liverpool. Not too many top players out there want to play for Liverpool right now as they seek to join money rich teams Like Manchester City or trophy winners like Chelsea and Manchester United. So to see a player coming out and saying ‘buy me’ is a good sign, it means he would give us his all.
5) Honda is from Japan. This is a great marketing opportunity for Liverpool and it would help increase our presence in a country like Japan as the country would start following Liverpool as one of their players plays for us. Shirt sales would go through the roof with Honda on board.
Please NESV dont let this one slip away
Nab Turan & Ireland whilst the window is open and we an attacking force to be reckoned with. One that will fill the stadium once more.
Torres
Honda
Turan Ireland
Gerrard
Honda isn’t a striker
love the way we are linked with another two bit shite horse player like ireland,,,,
I just give up if we miss this transfer market to yet again make huge progress, there are so many good players that could be got to ans signed.
NEVS- have only just got here but all this rubbish about give them time! not having that at all,- you do no not buy a business for 300 million without having a clue with regards to the next movevments and progression?
Liverpool need investment and its now massive that we use every chance to bridge the gap, and know i am not talking spending like city, becasue we cant, but for gods sake, i know for a fact that luis suarez is ready to go, he is out there and can be got for around 18 million, thats good value for me, for a player thats still only 23 and he has got all the skills we need.
then i would add ahsly young, hes proven at this level and would right away fit in, he’s what we need and has pace and for around 14-15 million, its a win win situation and as he knows the league and has done well at a average team like villa would fit with torres and gerrard.
my team after jan window which just has be added with better quality;
REINA
JOHNSON SKRTEL AGGER CISSOKHO
YOUNG GERRARD RAUL MAXI
TORRES SUAREZ
IF WE CAN NOT GO AND GET 3 PLAYERS(THAT EVEN THEM ARE NOT SEEN AS TOP TOP BRACKET AND NOT WORLD CLASS BUT PROVEN QUALITY) THEN WE ARE FINISHED….
Maxi?
Ron (and everyone else as well),
Why is it that none of you have yet figured out why the deal is not going through? Its so obvious, and most everyone in Japan is well aware of the problem. Have you folks in the UK so blinded yourselves to the self-inflicted disadvantages of your country’s visa policy that you dont even see it when its staring you in the face???
Liverpool cant bid for Honda because they cant guarantee that he will be able to play in the EPL! Honda – like nearly every other talented Japanese player – comes nowhere close to meeting the requirement of having played in 67% of NT matches over the past two years. He isnt even close to 50%! Neither is Shinji Kagawa, or any of the other Japanese players in Europe. Because you cant play in Europe and also play all the Japan friendlies that take place during the midseason.
A guy like Yuki Abe at Leicester – who is in bad relations with his old club, eager to move to Europe, and not worried about the risk of failure – can afford to fly to England and sit around the immigration office for two weeks until (after an initial rejection, followed by threats from the Thai owners of a nasty public relations scandal), he finally gets approved for a work visa. But the number of guys willing to put up with that sort of indignity is pretty limited.
In Honda’s case, if Liverpool dont arrange the visa for him UP FRONT, Honda’s agent refuses to even talk. The deal is: Liverpool guarantees that Honda can get a visa, the agent confirms this, and then Liverpool can send an offer. But up to now, Liverpool cant get the immigration people to budge on their stupid “67% policy”.
I really dont understand why this hasnt made the news more, in Europe. It is common knowledge here in Japan. So long as the UK keeps up its work visa restrictions, theyre going to continue to lose out to teams in Germany, Italy, Spain, and even Russia.
Its a joke to think we stop high tax paying premiership footballers in but allow benifit scrounging eastern europeans. bit controversial but you all know what i mean!
Absolutely wrong i’m afraid. Transfer has nothing to with immigration
Bob,
You need a visa to play football for money, in England.
Jan 2005: Tsuneyasu Miyamoto was said to be in final negotiations with Blackburn Rovers and flew to England. There are disputes over whether or not he and the team actually signed a contract, but he was in the UK and the team had said they were signing him. Then he submidded his request for a visa, and was denied for not having the requisite number of caps. He flew home a week after arriving, and never did play in England.
From that date until the middle of last year, NO Japanese players have ever played in England, and despire repeated rumours, I have firm statements from several agents that none have even accepted approaches from EPL clubs, because the clubs will not guarantee that they can get a visa. The player who broke that string (Abe) was actually rejected at first, and had to sit out two matches after arriving in Leicester before his second submission was finally approved (rumours say, because the Thai owners played hardball and threatened to make it a front page news story, a month before FIFA voted on England’s WC2018 bid). You can verify that by a simple Google for back issues of the Leicester newspapers.
Not to be rude, Bob, but you are the one who is wrong. Immigration can and does prevent many Asian players from playing in England. That is why there are 6 Japanese players in Germany, 3 in Italy, 2 in Holland, 2 in Spain and 4 in Russia, but only Abe in England (and even HE wouldnt be there if if werent for the Thai owners of Leicester, who were willing to play political hardball to get him a visa).
PS:
It doesnt only hurt you when trying to sign Asians. Wellington Silva got turned down for a visa and thus will not play for Arsenal, who WANTED to sign him. Many Brazilians also fail to join EPL teams due to this stupid rule. Why do you think all the truly good ones end up in Spain or Italy?
Not one of the positives being his actual quality from open play, where the club is most in need of strengthening.
The guy should be a ‘no go’ as far as I’m concerned
It would be a massive marketing opportunity. You’d have millions of Japanese wanting to watch the match every week if Honda was a striker at Anfield.
The Japanese admire Japanese that excell abroad. The baseball players Ichiro and Matsui are two of the most famous Japanese, outshining anyone who plays baseball at home, because they play in the “Major League.” Honda is already pretty famous due to his performance in the world cup, but if her were in the Premier Leaugue, he would be a Japanese mega-star. That would mean that advertising revenue would flow to LFC.
While he may not be the best player in the world I think that he would be at least entertaining, and try very hard 🙂
He is the sort of guy that would take a chance of the visa.
There are already Japanese coming to look at this blog post – see the live feed on the right. This is his name in Japanese:???? (a keyword to increase hits to this blog)
Honda is a left sided attacking midfielder who can play on the wing or in the hole , he isn’t a striker but he would add some much needed creativity and a he is a good technical left footer.If as Sam said we could sign a 3 good proven players this January it would make such a diifference to our squad, if we could sell the likes of Babel and Jovanovic in January then my 3 semi realistic targets would be Keisuke Honda{would add some creativity and flair},Ashley Young{would offer pace,natural width and good delivery into the box},Emmanuel Adebayor{despite his personality he is a proven premiership goalscorer with great aerial ability and good feet, the kind of striker that could make Nando explode into life again and would also be a good lone front man when needed}, these would help us through to the summer and then we could offload some players who while some are good squad players none really have that big an impact, Maxi Rodriguez,Sotirios Krygiakos,Alberto Aquilani,Emiliano Insua and Christian Poulsen would all be deemed surplus in my opinion , then we could look at getting a good central midfieder as Poulsen can’t cut it{Martinez,M’Villa,Banega or L.Diarra are all possible targets}, a left back {Fabio Coentrao unlikely but we need a good left back and I can’t think of anyone better to sign} and a centre half as Krygiakos and Carragher are over the 30 mark and Agger seems to be constantly injured and Skrtel hasn’t looked the most assured , granted we have two fantastic young defender’s coming through in Wilson and Kelly but I would like to see another centre half{Gary Cahill a traditional all action defender who is great in the air and is always a threat from set pieces he is young, english and fits the bill perfectly} bridge the gap. If we could get these positioned filled we would be title contenders every year and I have faith that we have got some great new owners who won’t talk about splashing the cash they will just do it which would be in complete contrast to the previous regime