Liverpool FC Forum

by **Forever_Red** » Tue Jan 08, 2008 4:14 pm

Just stumbled along this one:

Liverpool are poised to complete a £6m deal for Zenit St Petersburg's Slovakian defender Martin Skrtel.
The 23-year-old, capped 15 times by his country, is on Merseyside and has passed a routine medical.

Liverpool boss Rafael Benitez wants Skrtel to strengthen central defence, where 34-year-old Sami Hyypia has been deputising for injured Daniel Agger.

If the move is completed, Skrtel will become the most expensive defender in Liverpool's history.

He joined Zenit in 2004 and has made more than 100 appearances in the Russian league.

A record buy for a defender eh. Never really heard of this guy myself, does anyone know more about him?

by **Reinas No.1 Fan** » Tue Jan 08, 2008 4:15 pm

Thats good news

by **JoeTerp** » Tue Jan 08, 2008 4:22 pm

seems strange that this would be the guy that would be the new record defensive signing, but I guess we found Agger and Arbeloa when they were relatively unknown, Carra was free and all other defenders were bought at a lower stage of inflation in football transfer prices. Not sure what this dudes strengths are but I would hope to see him against Luton. This might make 3 at the back a possibility when Agger returns

by **The_Rock** » Tue Jan 08, 2008 4:27 pm

Yeah...heard about this....apparently parry went to russia to finalise this deal.

Hope rafa shuts his mouth up when this deal is done....and stops playing mindgames with the owners (by using the press)....

The owners are coughing up the dosh.....

by **Leonmc0708** » Tue Jan 08, 2008 4:31 pm

In here until its confirmed please.

by **mart** » Tue Jan 08, 2008 4:49 pm

Well he was first choice CB for Zenith and they won the russian league. You can argue about how good the russian league is, but there is a lot of money in that league now and its improving fast.

by **paulrobbo** » Tue Jan 08, 2008 4:54 pm

I've heard he's a really tough lad, very strong, powerful and good in the air.

by **europian-kings** » Tue Jan 08, 2008 4:57 pm

Forever_Red wrote:Just stumbled along this one:

Liverpool are poised to complete a £6m deal for Zenit St Petersburg's Slovakian defender Martin Skrtel.
The 23-year-old, capped 15 times by his country, is on Merseyside and has passed a routine medical.

Liverpool boss Rafael Benitez wants Skrtel to strengthen central defence, where 34-year-old Sami Hyypia has been deputising for injured Daniel Agger.

If the move is completed, Skrtel will become the most expensive defender in Liverpool's history.

He joined Zenit in 2004 and has made more than 100 appearances in the Russian league.

A record buy for a defender eh. Never really heard of this guy myself, does anyone know more about him?

watched him a couple of times as i heard alot about him a year or so ago so i had a look myself....he has strength and is a no nonsence defender. He does a similar job to sammi (heading clear wise) but is stronger, rarly misses a tackle and brings alot more pace....

i think he and agger will be a very interesting battle to partner carra.

by **VeDrIx** » Tue Jan 08, 2008 4:58 pm

Hello ! My first post here... : :blush:

I don't know this player but, as it has been said, Agger and Arbeloa where also unknown when they came to L'pool.

Btw, here in Portugal there were news, on today's newspapers, that Liverpool where interested on buying Bruno Alves, from Porto, for a fee of 13.5M€, about £9.3M, I guess.

by **KOPMATT** » Tue Jan 08, 2008 5:02 pm

From what I've heard about Skrtel is that he's 6.4" and relishes the physical side of the game with not alot getting past him. I do really rate Agger think he's the bollox but injuries to him have really not helped us in the fact that we appear to have to sit deeper in games due to Sami's lack of pace.
Could be a very good buy for us and agree an interesting bit of competition for CB place.

by **LFC2007** » Tue Jan 08, 2008 5:49 pm

He sounds slightly Agger-esque - relatively unknown, athletic, young - both are 23, and rangy. He sounds as if he might be slightly stronger than Agger, and he's slightly taller.

It would seem we have the blueprint for a very, very good young centre-half. Has he the quality and abilities required?, we'll see.

by **metalhead** » Tue Jan 08, 2008 5:53 pm

Liverpool Echo says its a done deal

---------

Martin Skrtel to sign for Liverpool after passing medicalJan 8 2008

by Tony Barrett, Liverpool Echo

MARTIN SKRTEL has moved a step closer to becoming the most expensive defender in Liverpool history after passing his medical.

A club record £6.5m fee has been agreed with Skrtel’s club, Zenit St Petersburg, and personal terms have been agreed with the player.

Skrtel is now waiting for the deal to be rubber stamped by Liverpool’s owners.

The Slovakia international centre back is Rafa Benitez's top target for the January transfer window and the Reds boss is looking to get the transfer wrapped up as quickly as possible so he can incorporate Skrtel into the Liverpool squad.

With Daniel Agger still continuing his rehabilitation from a broken metatarsal, Benitez has been short of cover at centre back for several months and was keen to add competition for places to such a crucial position.

If the 23-year-old completes his move today he is likely to go straight into the squad for Liverpool's trip to Middlesbrough on Saturday.

Fabio Aurelio has been ruled out of that fixture with a minor hamstring injury and the Brazilian today admitted he is becoming increasingly frustrated with the succession of injuries which have blighted his Anfield career.

“It’s a pity I’ve had to stop again because I was feeling good,” he said. “It’s normal after a long injury to pick up little problems when you come back but, hopefully, I will only miss one league game and be back for the Aston Villa game the following week.

“I’ve spent a long time out and it’s very difficult to explain how frustrating it's been.”

As one player is about to arrive at Anfield another could be about to depart.

Juventus are the latest club to register an interest in out of favour Liverpool midfielder Momo Sissoko, with coach Claudio Ranieri hinting the Mali international is a player he would be keen to snap up.

“He is a player that I like a lot and I know well,” he said. “I had the pleasure of coaching him at Valencia.”

Inter Milan are also interested in signing Sissoko but as yet neither Serie A club has turned their interest into a concrete offer.

Meanwhile, chief executive Rick Parry was today meeting Tom Hicks and George Gillett in New York in a bid to bring Liverpool's long running new stadium saga to a positive conclusion.

After plans for a 76,000 capacity ground on Stanley Park were abandoned last month, Hicks and Gillett instructed two leading firms of architects to come up with new designs.

Dallas-based HKS and Manchester firm AFL have both produced their proposals and it is now up to the owners to decide which one they wish to pursue.

SOURCE

by **LittleHobo** » Tue Jan 08, 2008 6:03 pm

will check how good he is on footie manager

footie manager knows all about the quality of players

by **Ade** » Tue Jan 08, 2008 6:12 pm

Just wonder how bad Agger's injury is. If he's due back soon, with Carra and Arbeloa on good form, Hyypia proving a fine deputy and general depth across the back line, do we need to be spending £6m on a bit of a gamble of a defender?

Especially if Juve are in for Momo, that should command at least a £7m fee. That would be £13m to play with if we hadn't gone in for this Slovak, which would go a long way to signing a top winger, or signing Masch.

Don't see our problems being at the back but in goalscoring midfielders/wingers

by **zarababe** » Tue Jan 08, 2008 6:44 pm

The_Rock wrote:Hope rafa shuts his mouth up when this deal is done....and stops playing mindgames with the owners (by using the press)....

The owners are coughing up the dosh.....

Strange thing to say Rock - highlighting the need to act quickly in order to secure signings - when the likes of Fergie are already talking about securing Tevez for longer and Rafa can't even give Masch any gaurantees with the vultures circling because of such a precarious timescale says a lot about the gulf between us and the Mancs on and of the field !

Our manager should be able to talk with confidence of potential siginings / targets without necessairly dropping names - but he needs to know the score, where is he shopping Harrods or Tesco !

There has never been a day at this club when the owners never coughed-up the money and Liverpool managers have been able to state their intentions confidentaly!

Things are changing and not for the better I fear !

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