According to Spanish journalist Guillem Balague, Benfica left-back Fabio Coentrao will not be joining Liverpool this summer contrary to many reports which suggest that Liverpool have already signed the Portuguese international.
Balague was speaking on talkSport and said that he believed Coentrao will be joining either Real Madrid or Bayern Munich.
Balague’s reasoning for Coentrao not joining Liverpool is that he does not believe Liverpool would spend £22million on a left-back and they would rather spend the money in other departments. Liverpool spent £17million on Glen Johnson so I do not agree with Balague that £22million is too much money for us to spend.
Do you think that £22million is too much to spend on Coentrao?
£22million is not too much money for a player like Fabio Coentrao but I doubt he wants to join Liverpool unless he is a Liverpool fan. As we do not have europe next season and nowdays players have found an excuse to say no to any club by saying they want to play CL.
I’ll be very happy if he joins Liverpool but I doubt that it will ever happen.
Johnson was Sir Rafa’s only signing that summer so LFC could afford to cough that up for an English full back. This season though there are millions more needed for strengthening. Coentra is better attacking than defending so it will depend totally on who LFC intend to sign to play ahead of the left back at left wing. Ie. A great attacker would require a LB more capable of defending and an above average left wing like Downing for example would require assistance with a player like Coentrao. The signings of these 2 positions are dependent on each other.
Actually, that is not what he said. He never directly said that Liverpool weren’t going to sign him.
He said that he had spoken to a representative (or something like that) from Benfica, whom said that they had not received any bid for Coentrão as of yet (even though these things can be kept away from the press). The source continued to say that there were two clubs that followed the left wing/back.
Balague did not say anything about Real Madrid (except for that he guessed that they were one of the two clubs interested), but it is reported that they actually had backed off Coentrão quite recently, from usaually reliable sources.
The other club Balague thought were monitoring Coentrão’s situation were Bayern. But I have to stress that those clubs Balague linked to Coentrão were only proffessional guesses, and, with all due respect to Balague, it would not be the first time he would guess wrong if Coentrão were to end up in Merseyside.
BTW: The only thing Balague used as argument against Liverpool going for Coentrão, were the reported asking price, which he couldn’t “see Liverpool paying for a defender”, forgetting what we paid Pompey to get Glen Johnson, which the host reminded him of before the end of the subject.
I still see Coentrão as a likely to very likely signing for us this summer, as he have reportedly set two clubs in his sights; Real Madrid first (but they are now appearing to be backing down) and Liverpool.
If it were to be Liverpool vs. Bayern , I think he would easily go to Liverpool. Not only because he is a self-proclaimed Liverpool-fan, but because of the vast quality difference between the German Bundesliga and the Premiership.
He’s the best left back in the world. To be the best we must pay that kind of money, otherwise whats the point in the fans dreaming of being back where we should be, the top!
What a signal of intent that would be though!!
devin, you conviniently forgot “Sir Rafa” (laughable really) splashed out a number of millions on Aquilani that very summer? Nice replacement after havig forced Alonso out.
Why is everyone so anal about Rafa letting Alonso go? Are we so short of quality players that the minute one leaves we throw hissy fits? Alonso was my fav LFC player by a mile and I loved him. I met him and have a picture along with his autograph so trust me I was livid but we need to stop whining about him leavin. Great teams have great players leave all the time and remain succesful. Manure United had RVD, Stam, Becks, Keane etc leave and they still dominated. Truth be told Alonso had his best season in his last season at the club and prior to that had brought up some doubts over some performances. Rafa also had his services for 5 years and still sold him for 30 mill! Genius! Everytime Rafa spent big he delivered gems! No one has since thanked him for the 50 mill he made us on El Whineo. Aqua was a steal at 17mill just a pity about his injuries. When he played he scored more and made more assists than Alonso. Owen Hargreaves was 24 million and plague by injury sadly but Manure kept winning. Stop blaming the manager! The club is to blame at the end of the day. They can’t keep expecting the manager to walk on water…
Coentrao could play as a winger too. 22m to add depth in two positions for a good few years, that’s a steal if you ask me. With Robinson, Aurelio and Johnson all able to play at left back this makes very good business sense.
Spot on Devin. I like your analysis on the left back and Left wing equation , its my opinion too . Therearereinforcement required in other positions too .
I also agree that the Rafa bashing should stop. LFC fan have more class than to bash the man for one awful season despite him suffering couple of years of power struggle with dreadful ex-owners.