by Bad Bob » Mon Jul 21, 2008 7:39 pm
Liverpool FC in for French teenager David Ngog
Jul 21 2008 by Tony Barrett, Liverpool Echo
LIVERPOOL are set to sign teenage French forward David Ngog from Paris Saint Germain in a proposed £1.5m deal.
Rafa Benitez is ready to make the 19-year-old his fourth signing of the summer, coming hot on the heels of the acquisitions of Philipp Degen, Andrea Dossena and Diego Cavalieri, as he re-shapes his squad for the coming season.
A fee has been agreed with PSG who have accepted defeat in their battle to keep the player as he enters the final year of his contract and terms have also been agreed with Ngog.
The cousin of former Newcastle United defender Jean-Alain Boumsong, Ngog has developed a reputation as one of the most promising young strikers in French football and despite only scoring a single goal for PSG last season he did enough to impress Liverpool’s scouts who had no hesitation in recommending him to Benitez.
Born in the Parisian suburb of Gennevilliers, Ngog has come through the ranks at PSG and made his debut last season.
Should the proposed deal go through later this week as expected Ngog will join up with his new team-mates after they have returned to Melwood from their Swiss training camp on Wednesday.
Liverpool also snapped up teenagers Vincent Lucas Weijl and Nikola Saric recently but while they will go into Gary Ablett’s reserve squad, Ngog has been earmarked for the first team.
Benitez is looking for more pace, movement and variety from his side in attack in the forthcoming season and the impending capture of Ngog fits into that strategy.
The move for the striker has no bearing on Liverpool’s bid to sign Robbie Keane and though the move for the Irishman is taking longer to be completed than first expected, senior Anfield figures remain confident a deal will be struck this week.
The transfer market is expected to hot up in the coming days and Liverpool will be busier than most with at least two potential signings in the pipeline and a number of Reds players up for grabs.
Jermaine Pennant has reiterated his desire to remain at Anfield but should Liverpool receive an offer which matches Benitez’s valuation he will be sold.
Similarly, Andriy Voronin continues to attract interest from German clubs and the Ukrainian’s Liverpool career looks to be drawing to a close despite getting his name on the scoresheet for the second game running in the 1-1 draw with Wisla Krakow.
Steven Gerrard and Degen missed that fixture as both are suffering from minor groin injuries. Degen should recover in time for tomorrow’s meeting with Hertha Berlin but Gerrard will again miss out.
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Not heard a thing about this Ngog lad but it's interesting that Rafa's gone for another pacey striker to bolster the first team. So, if the Keane deal comes off as planned and if Voronin does return to Germany (how good would that be from a footballing and business perspective?) our striker force pecking order might look something like this:
Torres
Keane
Babel
Ngog
I say this assuming that Rafa now sees Kuyt primarily as a wide player (no guarantees on that, though) and that he sees Babel as a striker rather than a winger in the long term. We won't suffer for pace with that foursome, by all accounts--I just hope that we have enough guile and finishing there.
on your bonfire, but optimism was never my strongest suit.
