Now that Kolo Toure is in the bag, time for Liverpool to find a goalscorer.
Between their 76 Premier League games, Manchester United and Liverpool mustered 114 goals [just over 1.5 per game]. That might be enough to secure you fourth and sixth place, respectively, but it will not win league titles.
Neither Louis van Gaal or Brendan Rodgers are entirely foolish men so, to that end, they are on the hunt for proven goalscorers, who can operate at the top echelons of European football.
Van Gaal is getting Javier Hernandez back from Real Madrid with a ‘thanks but no thanks’. While he is in touch with the sack-happy Los Blancos, he will table a bid of €57m for their French striker Karim Benzema. This one could get complicated as Arsenal fancy Benzema too. [Guardian].
Liverpool have two striking targets and would be doing very well if they end up with either. The Times report that a bid, from Merseyside, for Aston Villa’s Christian Benteke is imminent. Utter gents that they are, the club will wait until Villa play their FA Cup final, against Arsenal, this weekend, before trying to lure away their top scorer.
Considering Mario Balotelli has forgotten what a football is, Rickie Lambert’s confidence is in a ditch, Daniel Sturridge may be back in November and Divock Origi was named in L’Equipe’s Worst Ligue 1 team of the season, Liverpool might as well splurge on a second striker.
That is why, according to The Mirror, the club will enter a bidding for for Atletico Madrid’s Mario Mandzukic. Tottenham are interested in the Croatian, too, so the price [currently €34m] may rise.
And what of Burnley’s Danny Ings? Linked with United and Liverpool before, it seems Tottenham are pushing his price up by tabling an opening bid of €16m.
Theo Walcott’s negotiations with Arsenal, we are told by The Mirror, are going well. For him, one assumes, after his hat-trick against West Brom on the final day of the season.
The same paper reports that Rafa Benitez will tell Real Madrid he wants to build his team around Gareth Bale. Someone better tell Ronaldo…
