Anfield clearout gathers pace

[Benitez]

linkagees

 

Anfield clearout gathers pace

Jul 12 2006

 

By David Prentice, Liverpool Echo

 

RAFA BENITEZ was hoping to wrap up his fourth Anfield exit of the week today - to free up funds to continue his summer spending.

 

Dietmar Hamann is finally expected to complete his convoluted move to Manchester City, goalkeeper Chris Kirkland has joined Wigan on loan for six months with a view to a permanent £1m switch, Djibril Cisse was set to be unveiled at a press conference in Marseille today, while homesick youngster Antonio Barragan is poised to join Deportivo La Coruna for £1.7m.

 

The exits will give Benitez greater flexibility in the transfer market as he chases a right-sided midfielder and another striker.

 

The departures of Cisse and Hamann alone will free up around £5m a year in wages.

 

Cisse will join Marseille on loan, with a view to completing an eventual £8m switch, while Hamann will complete his move to Stuart Pearce's Manchester City after originally signing a contract at Bolton.

 

A Reebok statement said: "We wish to clarify that although Didi Hamann signed a contract with the club, he has since had a change of heart and will sign for another football club in the next 24 hours."

 

Chris Kirkland, who spent last season on loan at West Brom and suffered another injury-hit campaign, has joined Wigan on a six-month loan.

 

If he can convince boss Paul Jewell of his long-term fitness a permanent deal will be agreed.

 

Barragan, meanwhile, is set to leave after just one first team appearance - as a late substitute in the Champions League qualifier against CSKA Sofia.

 

The young Spaniard was signed from Seville last summer, but is set to return to Spain with Deportivo La Coruna.

 

"There is a verbal agreement between the three parties," Depor president Augusto Cesar Lendoiro said, while Barragan's representative, Fermin Gutierrez, added: "There are still important details to solve.

 

"They have to do with the negotiation between us and Depor, and both clubs. Even so, they are not questions that can bring the operation down."

 

A fee of 2.5m euros has been agreed.

 

The departures will give Benitez the opportunity to finally try to bring his long-winded pursuit of Seville's Daniel Alves to a successful conclusion.

 

 

Talks stalled last week over Liverpool's unwillingness to meet a £12million asking price, with Birmingham's Jer-maine Pennant lined up as a replacement target.

 

Benitez also admires Feyenoord's Dirk Kuyt - and is closely monitoring the volatile situation in Italy where the expected imminent relegations of Juventus, Milan, Fiorentina and Lazio could spark a fire-sale.

[IgPig]

£8M for Cisse. Nice one.

[CarraLegend]

Cant wait till Bascombe is back, Prentices articles are just a load of stuff put together from the Nationals and football websites.

[Herbie von Smalls]

i bet we're still gonna be paying a significant proportion of cisse's wages

[beejay]

The presumption is that we are clearing the decks for a big summer spend but 2 of the main money-spinners are dependant on fitness & form in 6 months ie £10m or so from Cisse & Kirkland will only be available for sure by December.

 

Could well mean that we will be cautious now with c. £10m for alves or bent and look to strengthen again in the January transfer window?

[Nebbers]

Get rid of them now before the market is flooded with Italians.

 

Buy one FSP and get a freee Traore...

[Cooldude]

8 mil for Cisse, god I hope he bangs them in for them and Marseille pays up...

[Gomez]

It's negotiable - usually between 50% and sod all, depending on who, what, where, when and all that jazz. You would think knowing what we know about targets and OM's desire to have him there that it will be a lot closer to 'sod all' than 50%.

Considering he's broken his leg, if we get away with paying anything less than his full wages between now and January, it is good business.

[Guest Wilko]

£8M for Cisse. Nice one.

A £6 million loss in two years,a great bit of business that!

[vish]

A £6 million loss in two years,a great bit of business that!

 

apart from the fact he helped us win the Super Cup & the FA Cup

[Bigal]

apart from the fact he helped us win the Super Cup & the FA Cup

 

You forgot about the season before there lad.

 

I think he may have contributed in our champions league thingy

[Hassony]

apart from the fact he helped us win the Super Cup & the FA Cup

who cares about meaningless trophies, we should be making profit on players

[Gravy]

Yeah, Gerrard had a 'mare there last season didn't he ?

 

You know what I meant - so we can put him back in rightful position of marauding midfielder.

Edited July 12, 2006 by Gravy

[Benitez]

You know what I meant - so we can put him back in rightful position of marauding midfielder.

 

 

which is what he was doing anyway.

 

Last season was his best season for us, don't think I want to change that much about the way he'll play this season!

[SkippyjonJones]

A £6 million loss in two years,a great bit of business that!

 

 

So if he cost 14mill and was on 5 year contract wouldn?t the value of that contract diminish each year? Roughly by 2.8 million a year? (as a nice easy figure)

 

I know it isn?t as straight forward as that but its not a bad indicator of depreciation.

[McBain]

who cares about meaningless trophies, we should be making profit on players

 

We're liverpool not Charlton. We're in the business of winning trophies not buying cheap and selling high

[Kopfaithful]

A £6 million loss in two years,a great bit of business that!

 

his value depreciates over his 5 years of his contract. So on July 1 2005 he was worth 10.5m. July 1 2006 he's worth 7m and so on till in July 2009 he's worth zero. So with that in mind, you could say we've made a profit.

[RafaShanks]

A £6 million loss in two years,a great bit of business that!

 

£8m more than I expected though.

[IgPig]

So if he cost 14mill and was on 5 year contract wouldn?t the value of that contract diminish each year? Roughly by 2.8 million a year? (as a nice easy figure)

 

I know it isn?t as straight forward as that but its not a bad indicator of depreciation.

 

 

Plus we overpaid in the 1st place IMO, so to get £8M for him now is decent business

[Guest Les Howard]

who cares about meaningless trophies, we should be making profit on players

 

 

Wash your mouth out with soap sonny!!!

 

Making money on players. That's an outrageous slur on our buying/selling policy!

[Hassony]

Wash your mouth out with soap sonny!!!

 

Making money on players. That's an outrageous slur on our buying/selling policy!

we need to sack rafa and replace him with harry redknapp

[Ronnie Whelan]

I assume Barragans apparant departure has been discussed at length elsewhere. Im off to find that thread.

[Kopfaithful]

Except he signed a 5 year contract!

 

ooops!! so we've made a 400k loss then!