Barry's decision has nothing to with £££ at all!

[url=http://www.goal.com/en/news/10/italy/2009/06/01/1298423/ezequiel-lavezzi-i-want-to-stay-at-napoliYou sure?[/url
[url=http://www.goal.com/en/news/10/italy/2009/05/30/1294699/pierpaolo-marino-napoli-not-interested-in-liverpool-bids-forClub doesn't agree[/url

I've never really seen this Lavezzi play, people say he's a mix of Tevez, Zarate and Messi. Sounds perfect, which begs the question; why's he at Napoli?

I'm a little unsure, his scoring record isn't impressive, and if his natural and best position is striker, then I don't see why we are signing him.

I know Barry is a good player but isn't he, in some ways, a similar type player to Kompany and De Jong? I suppose he'll play Kompany at centre half but if he's going to spend on a midfielder, wouldn't a skillful, tricky type in the Arshavin mould be a better bet?

I'm sure Hughes knows what he is doing.

Benitez and his facts

Not if you're not particularly keen on either Tevez or Barry signing for us.

City are a side who lack balance IMO. They have so many forwards, but none are really top drawer.

de Jong and Ireland are good in midfield, if they're going to play a 4-4-2, would it not be better to use Robinho as a striker, like just off a proper target man, or something along those lines?

If they have aims to be in the CL, players like SWP should only be squad players. They could do with investment all over the field really.

I agree. I don't really want either of them, especially Tevez.

Just shows, clubs are always saying this - and players - but a lot of the time things still happen.

We apparently made a bid that was rejected, Lavezzi has spoken about his treatment from Napoli which he's apparently unhappy about. As I said, I don't know much about him but I'm not [ithat[/i keen on the idea.

Napoli have just signed Quagriella from Udinese as Lavezzi's replacement.

Lavezzi came out and said he wants to sty at Napoli, however that is simply just because if the deal collapsed then the fans would absolutely slate him.

Napoli fans are probably the most passionate in the world of football, they're a very poor working class area, who simply love football.

Lavezzi as left a letter to the Napoli chairman, virtually saying his goodbyes.

Not seen much of the lad but played twice for Argentina.
[urlhttp://www.sscnapoli.it/client/render_e.aspx?root=915&content=0[/url

and from Florentino Perez...

[i"As a fan, I would say that Xabi is a great player. I think he is the best passer of the ball in Europe.

"I would be happy [to have him, but I cannot talk about the player without having spoken first to Rafa Benitez, as he is the one who needs to know that we are interested in his player."[/i

Could be a strange season for us. I'm worried we'll take a step back. If we sell Alonso, then who do we get to replace him at around £20m? There have been rumours of Javi Martinez, but making the step up from mid-table la liga side to premier league challengers could be massive, and maybe too big a step to make at once. We need to hit the ground running, I feel, selling Alonso will certainly stunt this.

I like Barry, but he Alonso's form this year has shown why so many didn't want him to see. Xabi isn't irreplaceable, but I can't see us signing a midfielder of similar quality for the price who's available.

I just think it's risky business if we're going to be selling one of our best players.

Think Alonso would be a massive loss for Liverpool. Barry looks to be on his way to City and although Martinez is a great player I do think he tends to stand out in an (unfortunately

) average team.

Yeah, he will. Martinez is good, but like Llorente he isn't amazing, he just looks a lot better compared to the pretty average Athletic players.

I think he has massive potential, he's physically good, if he could develop a passing game like Xabi, he'd be a brilliant signing, but he's nowhere near Xabi yet, and if Martinez is his replacement, I think we'll struggle. One of the reasons we done better this year was due to us keeping our spine in tact. We rarely rotated the middle players when fit, Alonso has been a key part of that spine, selling him would be a massive loss.

I'm still hoping David Silva is our main target, despite the interest from Madrid.

Think we'll see one maybe two really big name sigings at Anfield this summer.

Hopefully they're in positions that need strengthening. So hopefully it's not a second striker and centre midfielder, but an attacking midfielder/winger, a right back and a back up striker.

Would a quality striker be happy sat on the bench?

more bad news... [urlhttp://www.sportinglife.com/football/news/story_get.cgi?STORY_NAME=soccer/09/06/02/manual_122858.html[/url

I doubt it, certainly not the quality some of our fans seem to think we need. A £25-£30m Carlos Tevez is too dear, as is David Villa, and Aguero, all of these names a lot of our fans seem to think are what we need for some reason.

Strangely enough, I'd be quite happy to see somebody like Llorente of Athletic, he's a big fella like Crouch but more mobile. IMO that was our biggest mistake last summer; not replacing Crouch.

Somebody in the Llorente/Negredo mould, players who can lead the line but aren't going to cost £30m.

Seems that it will be Lavezzi reading all the reports, I posted a link back in January about you being linked with him, from what I read he is not a prolific striker but can be creative, not sure if it's what you need though?

I also reckon you will get Silva, I know Real are interested but I wonder if they will have bigger targets this season, I would imagine we will cost around £20m, think Utd looked at him last summer.

From what I've read about Lavezzi, he seems to be a striker who thrives off freedom. He can play either side, but if he was to play wide, he'd be better in a 4-3-3 like Barca's. He sounds promising from what I've read, but I just want to avoid another Keane situation, with an unnecessary player sat on the bench because our forward partnership is perfect. If he can play on the wing equally well and add the creativity we lack, then I won't be too fussed, but I'd still rather see somebody like Silva being our first choice left winger/back up to Gerrard, than somebody like Lavezzi.

Plenty of that in Serie A... the Premier League is a different story.

I agree. I was watching him the other day and he picked up the ball in the middle of the field, ran directly through their side and into the box, facing a few very weak challenges, although it looked impressive; would he do that against vermin like Stoke? Would he be able to run from midfield and into the box facing a few weak challenges and hardly any traffic? I doubt it. Although we're good at shifting it about and giving players space to move, sometimes we need somebody who can produce something out of the hat when our backs are against the wall, when we're struggling like mad and facing the great wall of China. Not sure if Lavezzi does this, he's probably a better runner and dribbler than Silva, but Silva's passing is so good.

When Owen signed for Madrid he'd run around like a blue-d fly only to realise he was already in acres of space compared to the Premier League.
The Spanish league has changed a lot and there isn't half as much space.

A few of my Madrid supporting friends have said to me that although Ibrahamovic does it in Serie A, would he be as effective in La Liga.

Ibra's a bit of an enigma. It's clear to see he has bags of ability. He's pretty quick, strong, tall, creative, has brilliant control and seems to score a lot in Italy, but for some reason he always looks so average. I said years ago he's the type of player I'd like to see under a really disciplined manager, I thought he'd have been a good signing for United a few years back, I thought Fergie could have maximized his potential, but I don't think he'd do too well in England now, too lazy and not got the balls.

As for Ibra in la liga, his height could be effective, but his style of play completely contradicts his size and physical appearance. You'd expect him to be dominating defenders, but he only seems effective when dropping deep. A bit like Berba, actually.